WIP: Officer of the Fleet

Here's a quick update on one model that I'm really liking right now. I have the Company Command Squad on the paint table and they are about halfway done. Attached to this squad is an Officer of the Fleet (OoF)and building a suitable model has been fun. It was either him or Demolitions Doctrine for the Hardened Vets at the same points. I have a Master of Ordnance and Astropath being built right now too.

I think the currently available OoF model is really awesome but I don't think he totally fits into the look of my Valhallans... plus I'm totally broke. Further, I have 2 decades worth of bitz so if I can't scratch build one for free then I may as well hang it all up.

I did an image search and saw a few people doing a conversion using the old tank commander model, one that I still have and never used. I think this bit works well because my officers all have frogging to tie them together and this tank commander does too.

Here’s the original bit over at Dakka Dakka:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/42-Commissar%20Tank%20Commander.html

The challenge would be to make him look like the off-world Naval advisor that he is, be WYSIWYG/apparent, still look "cold" and still look unique without being distracting.

He didn’t have legs so I trimmed the current standing Tank Commander plastic legs until he was in proportion and lined up well with the Valhallan models. I sawed/trimmed some pouches and original sidearm away and then added a plastic las pistol/holster. I filled a minor gap at the waist and then primed him.

Converting was easy but the color theory wasn’t so cut and dry.

I decided that I’d use a light grey so his overall tone is lighter than the Valhallans but the stain wouldn’t deviate too much from the overall feel of the models. I hoped for a monochromatic result. I trusted the stain wouldn’t make him too dark and the final appearance would be complimentary blue/grey to the powder blue of the Valhallans.  The silver with ice Blue wash took to the stain nicely too, some nice glint accent.

Here are 2 WIP of the model right before final paint

And just after stain

I’ll post up pics after he is Dullcoted and based.