Rogue Trader Mentor Legion - Back to the Grav Attack!

[Grumpy Gnome]

The bittersweet taste of nostalgia…. great work mate! 👍

[Mason]

He looks great!
Love the banner, and the orange accents work really well.
A beautiful looking force coming together nicely.
 

[majorsmith]

Very nice! Love the banner

[Daeothar]

It's been a while, but I've finally found my mojo and the time again to put some more effort into my budding Mentor Legion force.

Sometime last year I received a Rogue Trader Space Marine bike in a lot buy. Now, I was never a fan of these, and had never sought them out, but now I suddenly had one. I knew it had to be part of my Mentor Legion, but in what capacity was still unclear and I was not chomping at the bit to get enough of them to form a unit.

But then I saw the Field Police marine in Rogue Trader again whilst browsing the old book, and inspiration struck; I would do the bike as a Field Police one!

So for the better part of a year (maybe even more?) I had this idea percolating in my head. I didn't want him to just straight up ride his bike; that would be dull, so I decided to convert/repose the bike, so it looked like it was parked, with the front wheel at an angle.

At first he'd be suveying the battlefield, casually holding his powermaul/baton/cudgel. But then I bought a second Space Marine tank commander torso from Mason here on the LAF, and it morphed into the officer scanning the battlefield with his binoculars.

But in the end, I also wanted himn to hold his handlebars with one hand, like an actual biker would. And this meant a substantial conversion of a long OOP miniature. But I figured; as long as I'm cutting up this bike, what's one more (half) Space Marine, right? Right.

So I began with gathering some parts which might be useful. Such as RTB01 parts, an ample supply of paperclips, a backpack, plasticard and -rod, and plenty of greenstuff. Oh; and a base of course. I decided on a round 50mm base in the end over different types of cavalry bases, as the pose required it. ANd in the end he looks pretty balanced on it too.

The first act consisted mostly out of sawing, drilling, cutting and filing, till I had a whole pile of loose Space Marine body parts. And then I broke out the drill and the paperclips in order to pin everything together.

Here's the torso, with the right arm and hand removed and a plastic RTB01 shoulderpad temporarily attached. Some damage was inevitable, but everything would be sculpted back in due time:

.

In the end, the belt also had to go, in order for the torso to fit the pose, which would later also be resculpted.

Pre-greenstuff, you can see the lower body and the bike test-fitted together. I lived in constant fear that the left thigh and the right upper arm would end up way too long, but this proved to be not an issue at all in the end...



And these pics show the project in its current state. All the greenstuff sculpting has been done (I think ), and what remains is the possible attachment of a banner pole to the rear of the bike, with a small banner attached showing the Field Police logo.



I also still need to find a place to put his powermaul. I was thinking of an attachment ring or something like that behind the saddle on the right side, but I'm undecided yet. Here it is:



He really needs the weapon though, as I am planning on fielding him as a chaplain on bike. The powermaul can then be a Crozius and this seems to be a good fit for the Mentor Legion who seem very rational and not into the deification of the Emperor.

What do you think? Any ideas on where to put that powerweapon?

[Ragsta]

That looks really good already, I really like what you’ve done so far! Power maul wise, maybe stowed across the back of his seat, so he can reach back with one hand and whip it out and across in time to whack some fleeing varmint?

[OSHIROmodels]

Very cool pose 

[Lost Egg]

Cool conversion work.

[Mason]

Very cool pose 

^^^
What he said!
The pose looks very natural.
Top conversion.
 

As for the Power Maul: Maybe a small mag-locked attachment somewhere on the bike, keeping it within easy reach??

[Daeothar]

Thanks guys

I added the bannerpole; a simple piece of brass rod with an aluminum banner and some plastic embellishments such as the topper (a plastic GW skull) and the base of the rod (drilled out plastic tubing).

Also, the basing material is on, so after drying, he'll be ready for paint!



I decided to leave the backpack and the powermaul off for now, for ease of painting. As for the powermaul; I think I'll go with it hanging from his belt on the left side. I had already selected several pouches to go there, as it is a bit of a visual blank spot, but the weapon is just the right length to hang from the belt and simultaneuosly not scratch the ground or his armpit. He probably uses a cavalry draw when he needs it

Thanks for the suggestions though; they're appreciated

[BeneathALeadMountain]

Great stuff. That is RT for me. I can easily imagine staring in rapt awe at it in my much loved copy of RT or the pages of WD - starting years of obsession.

Looking forwards to seeing it painted,

Balm

[tomrommel1]

very nice biker 

[Daeothar]

Well, that took a while, but he's finally done.

June is traditionally a very, very busy month for me, because as fate would have it, virtually all birthdays in the family (and a fair few in my circle of friends) are in that month. This includes my own and that of my daughter, so with prepping, parties and aftermaths, there is usually very little hobby time left.

Or none, as this year would have it.

But in the last couple of weeks, I've been able to squeeze in enough time to finally get this lad off my painting table.

It's not my best paintjob ever, but I was not aiming for that; just a decent enough table top standard, and I think I succeeded there.

Obviously my (lack of) photography skills has not been kind here either. The blue highlights on the black are not at all as stark in real life, but the light does point out a whole busload of mistakes, which I'm just going to have to live with

All in all, it has become a unique miniature, and I'll be happy to field him as a Chaplain in my Mentor Legion army. In fact, there is a very small Mentor Legion badge over his Field Police badge on his right shoulderpad, but once assembled, the backpack's exhaust almost completely hides it











Onto the next unit, which is already on my desk. But first I'll be doing up my first Frostgrave warband, in a very appropriate theme...

[OSHIROmodels]

Love it! 

[Mr Tough Guy]

 :-*Love it, I've always loved that scheme and have been meaning to paint up at least a half squad myself one of these days. great conversion too.

As a side note, anyone know why none of the pics load into the page, but load fine when I right-click and open image in new tab. Anyone else have this problem? and it's only this thread, everywhere else pics seem to load just fine

[Daeothar]

It's the outdates SSL certificate of my website. I've asked the service provider to upgrade it several times already, but...

Using Firefox helps and sometimes also opening the pics in a new tab. It's really annoying and I apologize for the inconvenience, but I'm not tech savvy enough to fix this on my own...