Forged in The Mind

So my original post was going to cover my progress of the Black Templar army I am currently constructing. However, the pictures were not to my satisfaction, and the words have escaped me. So for now I will be putting my efforts towards something of a similar nature.

As a marine player, I feel it is important to make my army have the feel of many things. First and foremost is the daunting and intimidating feel that Marines should inspire in the enemy. Second, to allow them all to have a great sense of self; and to do this requires a lot of work to make them all stand out. Finally, I want them to have a certain feel of anonymity, and to do this, I use helmets.

However, this is where a certain conflict of interests arises in the Templar army. Many (including my army) use Neophytes, or scouts as most marines call them. These models do not wear helms... and therefore goes against my personal views that all soldiers should wear helms. So my answer is simple, and the subject of this article. Conversions!

Now, I know not everyone is comfortable with the idea of making ones own impression on already beautifully detailed models; some because they won't, and others because they feel they can't. But let's look into what makes a conversion so special. When you look at models on the tabletop, often it is to simple see what actually exists for the purposes of the game. But many times people want to see the hobby shine through to this by presenting stunning models. These often times prove to be more entertaining to play with and against than a horde of gray plastic miniatures.

Obviously we all want to be able to paint to Golden Daemon standards, but sadly this is a difficult objective for a great many players. It takes a lot of skill, and even more practice until you find a good style for yourself that really makes an army look sharp. So this is where simple or elaborate conversions come in handy.

Of course the prime example of conversions would come from the new Tyranid codex, as the new book brought with it new units. GW modeled almost all of these new guys on the carnifex so that people could easily create their own units with relative ease. And what a storm of new and interesting new creations have spawned from this. Although painting may prove to be a challenge for some, a great conversion can get the same attention as an amazing paint job.

As for myself, I know the use of the Templar conversion boxes can hardly be called conversion, but it does give the army the feel and aesthetic I want it to have. But I want more, I want it to look like I did it, and so here comes the unique conversions. For example, my Venerable Dreadnought uses a DCCW (Dread. Close Combat Weapon). For this, I wanted to model a large claymore type sword, as I feel it would bring out the Crusader-esk feel the army should have.

All of my scouts wear helms from Bretonnian Knight's Errant, and my marshal (made from the Helbrecht model) has another of the Bret. helms. I must say I enjoy these conversions as they bring a personalized feel to the army, and allow it to have a much more crusader-like feel for even the scout models.

Conversions range from very simple to extreme. It doesn't take must to give your models a personal touch that can really turn heads. Almost any model worth taking time on is worth taking a little more to really create something you love. So go out, grab your bits, you green stuff, and put some extra love into your army.