Rogue Trader Mentor Legion - Converted Exo-Suits

[DivisMal]

What a blast! The Mentor Legion has awesome fluff but that white is so unforgiving….I really admire what you did here.

[Daeothar]

Many thanks for al the suggestions and comments guys; much appreciated! 

And so the dreadnought is becoming the next unit to be painted up... Mostly because it's just the one model, but also because I simply like these hilariously wonky models.

I previously painted (and reposed) one for my Imperial Fists, so I'm already quite familiar with just how asymmetrical these bois really are

I accidentally found a depiction of a Mentor Legion Dreadnought in the red Warhammer 40K Compendium (no; that's not the little red book ). It's in an article about, yes, dreadnoughts, and coincidentally also contains depictions of dreads belonging to Imperial Army units and even Rogue Traders!

However, I will probably not copy that particular scheme, although the colours will obviously be similar, because the chapter logo is depicted as being on a black disk as a background, while I've done all of mine on a white background.

And this means swapping some white and green panels around to maintain a good contrast with the chapter badge.



But until then, he's now drying his base-cover and after that it's off to the garage for a grey primer coat.

I will probably not be finishing him in the next couple of weeks, as we'll be off on vacation in a couple of days, but he'll be waiting for me when we return...

[OSHIROmodels]

Take him and your paints with you 

[zemjw]

I have three of those beasts (two tall, one short) to finish at some point. I've had them for decades, and dug them out last year. They were glued, but nothing more, and the glue fell apart at the lightest touch (some sort of Bostik thing from the last millenium).

I decided I didn't like the arms, especially the "plug in" weapons, so modelled some new ones in 3d. The problem now is that I can't bring myself to defile the old models with the new arms, so they're still sitting unfinished

[Daeothar]

Take him and your paints with you 

Tempting, but I don't think sweltering heat, tents and miniature painting are a great match... 

...I decided I didn't like the arms, especially the "plug in" weapons...

Yeah, I had the same sentiments on my IF one. The DCCW arms are OK, but the ranged weapons do not match anything else in the 40K ranges. Especially the 'lascannon' looks as if it originally was part of something else.

So I made an assault/autocannon and a twinlinked lascannon using Space Crusade Dreadnought and Tarantula weapons, as well as some plastic tubing, gubbinz and other bits.

This definitely made them more recognizably 40K, but I am now lamenting the loss of some critical equipment from my Space Crusade copy...

[Daeothar]

And to add some visuals to the above story, here's some pics of said Dread.

Bear with me; this was painted about 18 years ago or so...



Looking at the model again, I can tell that I used a SpaceCrusade Dreadnought Lascannon for the auto/assaultcannon, with some plastic pipe of different diameters for the barrel and some gubbins to dress the whole thing up.

For the Twinlinked Lascannon, I used the Lascanons from a Space Crusade Tarantula and some gubbins from the Tarantula Control Panel.

All bits which I need to source again, and these bits are not getting cheaper you know...

[majorsmith]

Wow!!! Fantastic stuff love the mentor legion badges too really well done !

[Mason]

I love the pose on that IF Dread, very dynamic!
 

I share your feelings on those old cans.
I have one but it is far too small to used with my Sharks, my resin ones would dwarf it.
It will be used in my Inquisition Force, probably as an exo-suit (as they were originally back in the day!) for my not-Sisters contingent.

[Grimmnar]

I have three of those beasts (two tall, one short) to finish at some point. I've had them for decades, and dug them out last year. They were glued, but nothing more, and the glue fell apart at the lightest touch (some sort of Bostik thing from the last millenium).

The problem now is that I can't bring myself to defile the old models with the new arms, so they're still sitting unfinished

You can find the old bodies online to 3d print. Problem solved.

Grimm

[zemjw]

You can find the old bodies online to 3d print. Problem solved.

Grimm

Thanks, that's good to know I was thinking about making my own and updating them a bit, but if someone has done the work for me, even better

[Daeothar]

Started just before the drought and heatwave began scouring the European mainland, today I finally managed to finish this guy (just before the heat picks up again as I understand it ).

It took a while, as I've been off on vacation and the oppressing heat basically blocked any attempt at painting when I was home. That, and this guy fought me till the end! 

It's a wonky sculpt to say the least and even though I've painted one of them up before, I can't recall the previous one (same variant) being such an absolute mule...
However; he's finished now and even though, as usual, there are some glaring mistakes here and there, I'm calling it; I'm glad he's finally off the desk to be honest.



Funny thing; I had also totally forgotten about the sculpted 'A' and 'B' on the right and left inside ankles respectively. I have no idea why those are there to be honest; the fit of the legs is pretty obvious. I filed them off on the IF dread, but decided to leave them on on this one. Hey; it's authentic at least!

During painting, I did some test fitting of the arms and I discovered that the pins I had attached were not suitable for attaching the arms, even when I would fill the holes on the torso with greenstuff. Besides that, I suddenly had this idea that I might need modularity. After all, a loadout of a DCCW and a ML is not the best of combo's, and since I do have a couple of other arms, I figured I might swap them around at some point. So halfway through painting, magnets it was!

I reamed the arm holes on the torso to fit a set of magnets and repaired the damage done on the paintjob. Then after painting of the arms was done, I varnished them thoroughly, and only then did I drill the holes (carefully!) for the matching magnets.

This worked remarkably well though, but for the potential other arms, I will do the surgery before the painting starts, obviously...



The banner is made from aluminum sheet (from a soda can), and originally was intended for the Imperial Fists dread I showed earlier. But it never actually got painted back then, and always lingered in the IF project box (yes; I'm not done with those either...).

So, as it was already made to fit an RT dread, I simply created a bannerpole from a piece of brass rod and a spare ork skull.

I used home-printed decals for the symbol and letters, and tried something new with the stipling highlight technique. It may not look like much this up close, but from a distance, it actually gives the impression of texture to the 'cloth'.



And finally, a shot of the dread next to its brethren; this is the whole Mentor Legion force as it stands today:


(I was too lazy to fetch all the marines from the cabinet for the picture, so I simply took one of them on their shelf ).

Next on the table is something completely unrelated; a Militia starter force for the skirmish game The Drowned Earth. But I am planning to return to the ML once those are done. Maybe with a squad of terminators, or a flight of jetbikes, or...

[Blackwolf]

Nicely done

[Elbows]

Superb work, as always.

[Pattus Magnus]

Very cool! I especially like the banner, but the whole model is great.

[OSHIROmodels]

He’s turned out great