Imperial Navy Boarding Party WIP

Painting on the pirates is moving along slow and steady.

In the meantime, I thought I'd share with you some of the special Imperial Navy models I'm putting together for my Ian.

First is the Valedictor Imperialis's navigator, Edwina Goodwin:

 

Edwina was born out of the online Rogue Trader RPG I ran for a while and crafted and played by my buddy Chris.  Prior to joining Zed's crew, the cruiser she was stationed on suffered a Gellar Field failure.  Ed was able to bring the ship out of the warp, but being lawful good to a fault, caused the astropath choir to get eaten by daemons when she insisted on saving the rest of the crew.  She's basically been banished by her house to the Koronus Expanse, and in particular, the Valedictor Imperialis which is turning out to be the dumping grounds for the Segmentum's undesirables.

 

The base model is a Visions of Fantasy mage.  I need to add some greenstuff details to her clothes, and some more bits and details to her staff.  Basically, she'll look a little more like this image when all is said and done.

 

 

 

Next, you always hear bits about how Ratlings in the Imperial Guard served as cooks.  I never read LotR, so I'm not sure if this is Hobbit reference or what not, but I told Ian: "You need the ship's cook to go with Zed.  Like Steven Segal in Under Seige, except cooks in 40K are Ratlings."  No really, it makes sense. 

 

Anyway, I picked up this little gem from 1988 to accompany the boarding party.  He'll just be a veteran with laspistol and spatula...close combat weapon.
 



 

 

Finally this is a secret sneak peak of things to come.  Can't reveal too much other than that she was inspired by this pic and was a featured NPC in the Savage Tide Eberron RPG that Zed came from.

Head and Torso by Laughing Monk Miniatures and legs from Maximini Greatcoats.  I've got some Kreig arms on the way for her.  She'll have some greenstuff accoutrements as well to look more like the Officer of the Fleet model.  Debating whether or not I want to keep the hat or go with a bare head. 

Female Kelshan Boarding Party

So, not that this has anything to do with the Heathen Stars campaign, but I'm quite proud of my burgeoning all-female Kelshan Boarding Party.  I have to admit, it's not super original in its conversion work, but work it was.  The designs for the suits and plasma cutters come from the prolific Sebastian Stuart (aka Shas'el Tael) of Eastern Empire whilst the female heads and torsos are the Kadesh female alien heads and torsos produced by Zealot Miniatures.  You can check out my review of these awesome conversion bits on the Advanced Tau Tactica Forums. 

To be named XV-81 Commander

Twin Linked Burst Cannons and Smart Missile System.  Would twin-linked plasma been better?  Yes.  Would they have looked as cool...not quite, but still pretty sweet looking which is why on...

 

XV-88 Broadside

While the Urban Assault Suit with the PAC system was not widely adopted by Sacean commanders, it found widespread use throughout the Kelshan cadres performing interdiction missions along the Perdus Rift.  Smaller than new marks of Broadsides, and with the more compact PAC, it was able to provide support to fire warrior teams in the tight corridors of starships.  Haven't decided whether the PAC will be a counts as railgun or high yield missile pod.

 Fire Warrior Team

Same ladies as in the review, although two were pulled apart and converted to carry plasma torches.  These will be used to represent the lascutters boarding stratagem (IA9) and come from Tael's Earth Caste Engineer.  

Pathfinder Team

Okay, this multipart plastic kit is sweet and a huge improvement over the old metal pathfinders.  Doubly so because I can incorporate the Zealot conversion bits.  I selected Ion Rifles for these ladies so they can overheat and take advantage of the blast marker rules in Zone Mortalis.  I may build the rail rifle variants though if I start facing Marines.

Not pictured.  XV-15 Stealth Team and the drones.  They're straight stock models.  Nothing exciting there, but I'll include them when they get painted up.

Void Dreamer WIP

Ielenia Shadowheart, Neshani's youngest sister.  Once on the path of the spiritseer in her craftworld, Ielenia left because she felt her older sister was in trouble.  She now guides Neshani and her crew on their misadventures in the void.

The model so far uses the following components:
Island of Blood Mage lower torso
greenstuff cast of the Chapterhouse Studios Farseer Jetbike Conversion female torso
Avatars of War Wood Elf Hero bare head
Kabalite Warrirors Sybarite head bit
Reaper Fairy wings, smaller than Neshani's
FW Corsair Jetpack
Voidraven bomber pilot back
greenstuff and plasticard

Still more greenstuff work to do.

I'm open to suggestions for bits that would complete the sheath.  I'd like to keep her witchblade stowed.  She'll carry a staff in her right arm that will have ornamentation resembling the sky raiders symbol.  Her left hand will be casting.  I'll probably put a pistol on her right hip and some plasma grenades in place of the potion bottle on her left hip. 

The elemental base will probably be removed in favor of some ancient ruins. 
More to come.