Tacti-cool

Well, no progress on the Dungeon Diorama, I guess that project needed a breather...

Instead I've been diving a bit deeper into the Adeptus Astartes.
I've finished assembling and personalizing my second Tactical squad (but forgot to snap pictures, silly me!).
I've also finished building and converting another Terminator for the Space Hulk/40K Howling Griffons roster. Of him I did take pictures:

And his rear:

Unlike the previous two Terminators (the already painted Lightning Claw one, and the Cyclone one in the background), there's no custom sculpted detail on him, just some press molds and converted detail. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about that yet. You see, with the Terminators I set out to make each as unique and decorated an individual as the Blood Angels Terminators from 3rd ed. Space Hulk are. I'm not entirely convinced he meets that standard yet. Then again, unlike SH3's 12 Terminators, I have roughly 30 to 35*  to do, so maybe I've set myself a rather high bar...

*: 2 regular 5-man squads, 2 assault squads, 6 extra terminators with alternate weapons for the tactical Terminators, up to 5 Librarians, at least 3 captains in various loadouts, a chaplain,  and I'm thinking about doing a Techmarine and Medic in Terminator armour as well. No kill like overkill, I guess...

I've also continued on a conversion that is a bit of a testcase for an =I=Munda warband. Even though I currently have no-one to play it with, I enjoy collecting and converting miniatures for =I=Munda/Inq28. To me it is just such a nice way to explore the odd and creepy nooks and crannies of the universe that 40K itself seems to neglegt these days.

Naturally I want to include my Howling Griffons in this setting (despite the controversy of Space Marine power levels in Inquisitor/=I=Munda, it's mostly a modelling project for me after all...).
I'd be limited to 2 maybe 3 Marines in a warband at the most anyway, so it's a nice excuse to try and portray them with all the intimidating size and grandeur the Astartes are credited with in the art and background stories. I like the idea of a Marine or two being sent as emissaries or such and getting embroiled in all sort of dubious plots and shenanigans.... Sure you're a combat powerhouse, but just try to be covert when you're 8 feet tall and painted bright red and yellow!
Anyway, here's the aforementioned testcase:

The techniques of the conversions are nothing innovative, and borrow extensively from explorers in the true-scale field like Doghouse, Migsula and Lamenter. The only thing I'm really doing differently from their examples is using the rear torso of a Grey Knight Terminator instead of regular power armour one. This is for ease of fit, but mainly because I can use the front of the Grey Knight torso, and the psychic hood I shaved off, for converting Terminator Librarians...
His pose is fairly pedestrian, just a Tactical Marine firing his bolter. He is mainly intended to try the conversion for myself and see how I like the results I can achieve for myself. Any future true-scale marines will receive a bit more attention to posing and personality. For now I just need to try and manage the basics...

As part of the current focus on the blessed Astartes, I've also cracked open my Rogue Trader stash. I was surprised to find that, over the years I've bit by bit collected more Marines and Orks than I remembered. These were squirreled away bit by bit whenever I encountered a few I could afford and lovingly stashed away. Turns out I have unknowingly collected nearly a half-company of Beaky infantry and a similar number of Orks. No vehicles or other support to speak of though. I really should do something with them someday, it'd be a shame to just hoard them...
But I can't decide what Chapter to make the Marines. I don't want to do more Howling Griffons, but I do want to choose a Chapter that really suits Rogue Trader. Plus some of the Orks are painted, and I am unsure if I want to strip them. Oh, well, no rush.

I seem to be suffering from Hobby-Butterfly-Syndrome again, so who knows what I get to show you next time...
See you then!