[Archive] Infernal Guard inspired Kitbash

laribold:

Hi all,

I’m one of the new Chaos Dwarf bandwagon jumpers who has been rather inspired by the new FW Infernal Guard.

However, not really wanting to pay FW prices I looked on his as something of a challenge and as I really enjoy kitbashing I thought I’d have a go at an Infernal Guard.

Having looked at the pics on the FW website it was clear what the requirements were:

- scale armour ‘skirt’

- plate armour torso

- scale armour upper arms

- plaste armour lower arms

- enclosed helmet

- and beard obviously…

So armed with this new found knowledge I had a think and a look through various bits sites and came up with the following:







The components used are as follows:

- High Elf Spearmen legs

Cut down to dwarf height and to fit with the torso

- Space Marine ‘plain’ torso (http://www.bitsandkits.co.uk/images/SM87.JPG)

Again cut down to make shorter and more squat and with the marine backpack join cut away

- High Elf Silver Helm arms

For the scale mail

- The axe is from the Empire militia sprue (and I’ll probably replace with a more chaotic one but I wanted to get something on there to see if the model worked or not)

- Chaos Space Marine head

The head is the one thing that I had the biggest issue with. I found the chaos warrior helmets a bit small for the torso and a bit small for a big dwarfy head! I really couldn’t find anything that resembled the FW Infernal Guard heads and wasn’t sure what to do until I saw that Chaos Marine head. To my eyes the jaw decoration made it look less like a Marine helmet and the bull horns just screamed “Hashut!” to me.

I’m still thinking that maybe I’ll need to do a bit of green stuff work to make it look less marine-like but I’d appreciate any comments on this.

The beard is made from an old wire brush, twisted and glued together.

Another thing I’m not sure on is whether the feet are a bit too dainty (well they were an elves to start with!) Any thoughts?

I was considering adding some pointed steel toe caps with green stuff as the FW ones seem to have these.

Shield-wise I’m thinking of these:

http://www.bitsandkits.co.uk/bmz_cache/6/6e44145b70763eaae22fb2a8757f1161.image.150x138.jpg

from the Empire State Troops

The one thing that my kitbash IG are missing that the FW have are shoulder pads. Ork and Chaos Knight ones are too big but I did have some Kroot ones and have blu-tacked them on.





What do people think? Is it better with or without the shoulder pads?

So that’s it. I’d really like to hear people’s feedback on this.

All suggestions, comments and improvements will be happily and gratefully received.

Cheers!

cornixt:

Works surprisingly well. Looks like the torso could be just a blob of greenstuff, and the shoulderpads could be a bit better. The only real issue is that the helmet is far too obvious as a marine, which you acknowledge already.

Thanks for sharing!

ChungEssence:

I agree the legs/feet need beefing up. Takes away from the CD’ness.

I personally prefer the shoulder pads.

vulcanologist:

I like it alot I agree maybe a little too tall and definately change the helmet but otherwise it’s great!

Grimstonefire:

Whilst I admire your scratch building skills, is this actually cheaper?

laribold:

Thanks for the comments chaps.

So the helmet as it stands is pretty much a no-no (I kind of thought that). I’ll try some basic GS work to try and make it more similar to the FW infernals.

If this doesn’t work does anyone have any suggestions for alternative helmets?

Height-wise it is only a fraction taller than a Dwarf Ironbreaker and if I rework the feet somewhat I can take a bit more of the height out as well as bulking them out.

As for the shoulder pads, I’m still undecided. As I said they are just roughly blu-taced into place so maybe some better placement would help here. I think I’ll make up a second test mini and glue the pads on and see if it works any better.

In terms of cost, I had a fair bit of this stuff knocking around in my bits box anyway, and would look at purchasing just the bits I need to make it as cheap as possible. It’s not super-cheap but it is it less than £3.60 for each model!

JMR:

I’ve found that one thing that makes a dwarf look like a dwarf, is to have his armour “skirt” reaching all the way to his feet, sometimes even almost touching the ground between his feet. This enforces the look of being armoured to the teeth. So maybe cut the feet off and re-attach them after making them a bit shorter.

Like already pointed out, I too am not sold on the helmet, nor am I too fond of the beard. Surely a chaos warrior helmet isn’t that much bigger? I have to admit that I’m not always that thrilled about conversions using chaos warrior helmets either (I’ve used 'em myself too), but maybe it’s a step in the right direction. You could also consider doing mask-helmets, using Xander’s greenstuff copying techniques.

In the end though, I think you’re always going to end up with a lean looking dwarf. To be fair, the Forge World ones seem over the top stocky/bulky, so maybe yours is actually an improvement. It’s a matter of taste I suppose. They kind of remind me of the more “realistic” dwarf models, such as those from LotR.

Keep up the good work!

P.S. Have you considered the Titan Wargames heavy infantry? They’re in the same style as the Forge World ones. Or actually… the Forge World ones are in the same style as the Titan ones :wink: They go for 2 pounds each and look great.

Thorne:

I’d personally say the Titan games ones are not only better models for starters but cheaper.

Time of Madness:

Not a big fan of the space marine heads. I think you would have been better off with some of the chaos warriors heads. There are some champion ones that are a bit bigger then the basic ones (if size is an issue).

Time of Madness

snowblizz:

As for the shoulder pads, I'm still undecided. As I said they are just roughly blu-taced into place so maybe some better placement would help here. I think I'll make up a second test mini and glue the pads on and see if it works any better.

laribold
I'd suggest Marauder shoulder pads. They are Chaotic and adds a bit of bulk but nicely hiding arm joints. I swear by these.

Smog:

I’ve used lots of marauder bits for my CD (arms, heads, shoulder pads, shields) and marauder horses for bull centaurs, so I recommend getting a box of marauder horsemen and use the bits there.

JonJon:

I like the beard not the helmet.

Taurian:

I think he looks good. My biggest takeaway from this is the beard. It does look a tad odd with those few stray strands, but the idea itself I’ll have to remember for some future customs.

Heat of Hashut:

He looks nice :3 not a fan of the csm helmet though