The Warforge Miniature Modelling and Conversion

41st Millenium Treasure Hunter

I think it's silly that Games Workshop hasn't produced a miniature for Vulkan He'stan. His new rules in the 5th edition Space Marine codex are fantastic, and I know a couple people who picked up Salamanders based purely on that alone. Rumors have been bouncing around that GW might release one torwards the summer of next year, but who has that sort of time?

I figured I'd go ahead and see if I could convert this character from one of the other new ones. I've decided to use Sicarius as a base for the conversion for a couple reasons. First off, Sicarius has segmented MK 8 armor, which is similar to what appears in Vulkan He'stan's art. Second, Sicarius has a pretty impressive cape/mantle going on, which I figured would be useful for using as a basis for Vulkan's special wargear cape. Third, Sicarius is slightly larger than your average marine, which means he has the sufficient stature required for a 'leader' type character.

I'll start by throwing down some photos:

 

The first thing I set about doing was hacking off the left arm entirely at the shoulder. It's a hard cut to make, even with a jeweller's saw, because of how integrated the cloak and shoulder pad are at the shoulder, but it's nothing that can't be fixed later on. Next, I grabbed my dremel and set about grinding off the ultramarine buckles on the front of his torso, as well as the roman-esque tassels that extended below the gutplate. This was covered up with greenstuff to make Vulkan's 'loincloth' and scales were then added overtop.

The cloak on the back is another matter entirely. I've come to realize that it's way, way too 'rippley' to properly sculpt scales on, so I've been working on smoothing the cloak out in larger sections.This should enable me to add scales to the back similar to like what I have on the front.

The spear is something I've been working on. I did some digging in my bitz box and came up with what looks like an old force weapon from a 2nd-ed librarian that looks rather interesting:

I'm considering using that weapon as the 'spear' part of Vulkan's weapon, because it's rather elaborate looking. The alternative would be to make and detail a styrene blade, which might be the better choice in the long run so that I can make the blade larger. Obviously the spear has a lot of work still to go, in any case.

The 'Gauntlet of the Forge' is a bit trickier. I'm looking at a couple different power fist variations that might work, but I'll come back later with more about that, because I'm not sure what I want to do yet.