Conversion: Gant and Praetorians

No shortage of things to talk about this week; two posts in one day is madness 'round these parts. Reading my previous post, you should get an idea of what I think of the models I've purchased, so I won't go into any more of that nonsense. This post is what I've done to turn the Stalker Tank into a Gant and HTTP-01s into Praetorians. The conversions were far from difficult, not needing very many modifications since, in my humble opinion, Micro Art Studios had the Adeptus Mechanicus in mind when creating this group. Anywho, it's been a long while since I've ran through a conversion, with the fandex keeping most of my attention for the last year, but I'm back into the modeling game again. Surprise, suspense, breasts and maybe a magnet or two after the break.

First up, the Gant. First and foremost, let's get the magnets going. It has been almost a year since I've worked with magnets, so I was quite excited to keep my title going as The Magnet Pro. After taking a refresher course from the Insane Clown Posse about magnets, their functionality and how the fuck they work, it was time to get to it! One of my favorite uses for magnets isn't even for money-saving; weapon turrets. Magnetizing weapon turrets is nothing but a money loss, but being able to aim the barrel of that weapon at the enemy puts the imagination into a state of bliss on the battlefield. For the turret on the back of the Gant I started drilling 3/16" indentions for the 3/16 x 1/32 magnets we all know and love so that the magnets are more or less level with the surface they're embedded in like so:

Now, you will have some wiggle room the way that the mold for the models is set up, but not more than about 1/16" I'd estimate. With the turrets setup nicely, let's get into the problems that need to be resolved with the fandex's version of the Gant. The first thing that came to mind is the weapon on the back of the Gant is in a perfect location, but looks a lot like an Auto-Cannon or Lascannon. That would be super-neato if I hadn't created the Gant to equip a Hellgun variant or Missile Launcher only. Fortunately, Missile Launchers are one of the easiest things to mod in 40k, and the way the barrel is setup for the Stalker Tank's weapon it merely took a few clips to make this thing look like a Missile Launcher. After this I decided to magnetize the barrel as I will create the Hellgun variant option in the future and will want to have the option to switch between the two at will. To accomplish this I carefully drilled 1/8" holes for the 1/8 x 1/32 magnets on the butt of the barrel and where the barrel meets the turret like so:

As I said, I didn't create a Hellgun variant the Gant can equip just yet as I'm waiting on some casts to fulfill this, but for now the magnetic Missile Launcher looks great. The only other problem with the Stalker Tank is that it comes with an underbelly weapon. I liked the look of the controlling unit underneath, but didn't need the weapon attached to it. Rather than filling in the void with GS or something of the like, I decided to get creative. Knowing this vehicle is used on Tech Quests, since ya' know...I created it, I would think it would have some sort of extra sensory equipment for its travel; whether that be for detesting artifacts, underground catacombs, trip mines or anything of the like. So I wanted some sort of bio-mechanical tentacle appendage that would drag/feel across the ground sensing for the things listed above as Mechanicus love their flesh-machiney parts (/giggle.) Using Green Stuff, I rolled out little tentacles and wrapped them around an exacto-knife handle to solidify. Once they were dry I clipped the end of the underbelly weapon of the Gant and applied them like so:

I did apply the tentacles while they were still a bit bendy so as to make sure they are touching the ground when the model is on its feet. This turned out quite nicely and came out as the vision I had in my mind.

That's about it for the Gant. This conversion is something quick and easy I should be able to replicate on future Gant purchases. The finished models look fantastic and I can't wait to see some paint on them:

Next up is the short and sweet conversion of the HTTP-01s into Praetorians. These guys come in an almost perfect setup for Praetorians; almost exactly what I envisioned for them. The only modding I needed to accomplish was their weapon options. In a unit of Praetorians I can equip one Lascannon and two special weapons. You can pretty much gather how I turned their weapons from Lasguns into the following, so I won't go into too much description. From the weapons they come with, most of them look like Lasguns and one of them looks like a Plasmagun or Hellgun, so I didn't need to mod for that. But I did want a couple of Meltaguns and a Grenade Launcher; that was easily accomplished:

Meltagun

Lascannon

Grenade Launcher

Finally, I don't like to take a unit of Praetorians without a Centurion. I wasn't sure how to accomplish the look I wanted, fortunately my bits box helped quite a bit:

Adding a scope to his Hellgun/Plasmagun-looking weapon and a Familiar to his neck will stand him apart from the standard Praetorians perfectly. I'm pleased with how these models turned out and I'm ready to see them shine on the battlefield.

That's about it, folks. Overall a fun and quick conversion I can't wait to see finished. As promised, here's some breasts:

Blood For The Blood God?

Later days.