Converting Blood Pact heretic militia

Introduction

In preparation for the following painting competition (painting a squad), I decided to convert up some Blood Pact heretic militia. I am a great fan of the Gaunt's Ghosts series, and I had previously bought a guardsmen kit just for this purpose.

Step 1: heresy

By which I mean: scrape off the aquilas. There is one on each chest, each lasgun, and helmet. Also from the chainsword and voxcaster.

Iron masks

Pin the heads. Cut off the chin guards.

Apply thin sheets of green stuff on the lower part of the face. Allow it to set for a bit before continuing the sculpting.

I wanted a samurai-esque snarling face. Not quite happy with the result, as the surface was way too small for the sculpting tools I used. Perhaps a tooth pick would have served better.

For some variation, this other guy got iron bars on his face. Apply one thin cylinder of green stuff first, let it set, then apply the crossguard on his chin.

I did not want to obscure the radio on the sergeant, so I decided on a different look: the man with the iron (half) mask.

Let it set, then sculpt a cross where his eye would be.

Repositioned legs

Same procedure as for the Space Marine captain, although sculpting power armor is easier then the folded cloth pants these guys wear.

Cut out portions of the knees - back or front, as the position dictates.

Cut a groove on the other side, then break it off. Apply super glue to fix in the new position, then fill out using green stuff.

The edges were a bit rough, so I used a second application of green stuff (24 hours later, so the first batch fully cured) to smooth things out.

Two finished troopers

And with that, the first two (rather unmodified) troopers are done. 

This guy holds a lasgun at the ready and wears a snarling iron mask.

The vox operator is running forward on his repositioned legs.

Repositioned right arm holding a lasgun forward

This right arm holds a lasgun in the exact same position as the two troopers above. However, the left hand is not on the gun. Perfect for repositioning!

Chop it to pieces! Cut below the shoulder pad and and the elbow.

Glue on the shoulder pad, and replace the chopped off piece with a stump of green stuff.

Affix the lower arm using superglue. Once dry, use more green stuff to create a smooth upper arm. This took several sessions. You can see that the other arm is already complete, but more on that below.

Extra care for the other side of the arm.

Left arm holding firearm

The left arm that should have went with the right arm above is also a good starting point. Cut off at the elbow.

Then simply turn, glue on, and fill out with green stuff.

It can immediately be glued on to bodies that have their right hands otherwise occupied, such as the standard bearer...

...and the grenadier.

Then glue weapons into these left hands. Shotgun for the grenadier...

... autogun for the standard bearer.

That's two more troopers done!

Aiming trooper

Inspired by the las-lock rifles wielded by the more technologically backwards chaos troopers in the books (right?), I decided to have one trooper wield a dwarven musket. First, I mounted the musket with a bit of green stuff.

After it set, a bit more was needed to smooth the transition.

A couple more sessions were needed to fill out and smooth the left arm.

Simple conversions

The same ForgeWorld kit that had the Chaos standard also had some weapon arms in the same position as the regular lasguns. I used them for variety. Only a bit of sculpting was needed, as the arms weren't a perfect fit.

Take this shotgun for instance. I glued on the right arm first. When fitting the left arm, I noticed that there's a gap no matter what. Fill it with green stuff.

Same for this lasgun.

Grenadier with cultist pistol

One grenadier holds a rifle; the other, for variety, has a pistol in his left hand. I think this is from the Chaos Cultists kit. Of course, it's not meant to fit on a flat shoulder joint, so fill out with green stuff.

On the second session, smooth out the transition to the body.

Pistol conversions

Take this left arm from the Cadian kit, which is meant to hold a heavy weapon's side grip.

Cut off the wrist. Rotate 90 degrees, glue back on.

I mounted the arm first on the sergeant and glued the hand later.

On this second dude holding a sergeant's laspistol in his right rand, I glued the hand to the arm first. No particular difference.

Then use a hobby knife to smooth the upper part of the hand, and glue on pistols from the ForgeWorld kit. The grip has to be cut off first.

One desperado finished.

Rambo inspired sergeant finished.

Doodads

I skipped the water flasks and extra helmets as they just had more aquilas to scrape off. But I did make sure everyone has spare grenades.

Smoothing the transitions

I still wasn't happy about how some areas transitioned from plastic to green stuff to plastic again. I applied copious amounts of Liquid Green Stuff; some areas required 2 layers.

Finished!

On to painting.