Violence Solves Everything - Modelling the Mordant 303rd Part 2

I arrived back from holiday late last Saturday to see an unexpected package waiting for me, then it dawned on me the Victoria Miniatures Arcadian Rifles miniatures I had pre-ordered several months ago had finally arrived. They are rather lovely resin figures with pretty reasonable prices in comparison to Games Workshops resin products (and free postage from Australia).

With some proper female miniatures in place I now have the job of converting and painting figures to represent my long term Dark Heresy character and the PCs and NPCs in the Only War prequel campaign that I am running. In the roleplaying game roughly half of the Regiment is female, I doubt I'll manage anywhere near that in the 40K army but I aim to create all of the important players from the campaign

I am planning on making two versions of my character, Veteran Sergeant Rizpah Jair.



Female Arcadian Guard from Victoria Miniatures.

Metal Cadian with head sawp for size comparison

One will be "Riz", the fresh faced hyperactive teenage punk that features as an NPC in my Only War game, featuring Tank Girl-esque bright pink hair and a slew of tattoos showing her allegiances prior to joining the Guard. Actually in my version of the Regiment all of the Mordant troopers use tattoos to show their allegiances to gangs, mining companies and fellow troopers (They also have their ranks tattooed to their arms - if your uniform is sleeveless what better place to put them).

The second version will be the hardened veteran who faces the horrors of purestrain genestealers when her company are almost entirely destroyed whilst reconnoitring a space hulk. The bright hair is long gone, now dyed black, and her face is heavily tattooed in the style of black metal makeup. In addition to her standard regimental equipment she also now carries a pair of Triplex pattern "Fury" assault laspistols and a trophy knife fashioned from the claws of a Tyranid.

In my next Mordant related post I'll introduce the other PCs and NPCs of the Only War campaign that I intend to convert for my 40K army.

Men Must Die So Man Endures: The First Squads of the Mordant 303rd

1989 Imperial Guard Commissar.

 

Over the last month or so I have been putting together some miniatures for the start of my Mordant army. I already had 2 old metal Cadian squads, however some of these are already pained in other colour schemes and I don't want to use the old flamers or heavy weapons. I also have an old Cadian Lieutenant model with shotgun, an old Cadian Comms trooper and a very old (1989) Commissar with power fist and power sword. Added to these I have a squad of old metal ratlings, who I may or may not use, a Mordian Lieutenant, who will be used as my Captain, and a Chimera.

Cadian with sleeveless arms

from Victoria Miniatures.

 

I've been lucky that one of my friends is converting a Genswick guard army and has gifted me a load of plastic Cadian parts, which I have used as the basis for my next squad. These Cadian bitz were pretty much complete models but without the arms, looking around I found that Victoria Miniatures produce sleeveless arms, and I have bought a handful of these to use. Rather than just use Cadian heads I plan to make everything a bit more varied, using Catachan heads and converting some heads from other manufacturers such as MaxMini.



One notable feature of the army will be inclusion of female guard, this is a bit of a difficulty because there is a distinct lack of suitable female miniatures. Head swaps with the old Escher miniatures would have been suitable but they are rather pricey now they are out of production. So instead I've bought some female heads from two other companies, Statuesque and Brother Vinni, and have acquired a couple from Wargames Factory via my friend. Sadly the Statuesque ones are simply far too small for use on GW minis and though the Brother Vinni ones are really awesome sculpts they are also a little on the small side. Thankfully Victoria Miniatures are currently pre-ordering for some female guard who will fit right in, so I have bought a squad of these.


Conversions for my Mordant Army. From left Brother Vinni Machine Gunner

 with Cadian Head swap, Cadians with Victoria Miniature Arms and Brother

Vinni Head, OOP Metal Cadian Head and Regular Cadian head with Victoria

Miniature Goggles.

My next move is to buy the Cadian and Catachan command squads as well as a couple of regular Cadian squads to finish the bulk of the troops before picking up some Sentinals and converting some more unusual pieces for the army, such as the sentry guns.