LED challenge marine!

So, I was recently challenged by the local GW staffer, and some regulars, to put an LED inside a regular marine.

So I did. 

The light is orange, I would have preferred green but I only remembered to do it the night before the challenge was due!

The extra tall base (I may put some Tyranids/zombies climbing up it for that classic DOOM feel) hides the wiring, and to be fair, is a lot taller than it needs to be, mainly as I was on a time constraint, but also as my soldering skills are a little sub-par (well, and my soldering iron is pretty much broken).

I took one of those 4-for-£1 electric tea lights (poundland has them), which not only contained a power source and LED, but circuitry to make the LED flicker in a 'fiery' way, which really adds to the effect. I then snipped the LED away from its original wiring and re-soldered it to wires that passed up through the Chaos Space Marines legs. That means that there is no wiring on the outside of the model, which is excellent, the LED itself being housed in the chest/neck area, which was all hollowed out with a drill. The base has that strange gap in it to allow access for the battery cover slide.

As an aside, I would love to make the muzzle-flash bits light up, but this was the first time I'd attempted any, and I think they turned out O.K. as they are. I made them by whittling down bits of sprue, and then shaping them further with a dremel.

More light up madness to follow no doubt!

Dreadnoughts! Or Helbrutes, whatever.

Most people really, really seem to hate the chaos dreadnought. Just because he might go crazy and kill your own men! I however have a soft spot for them, and the conversion opportunities they present!

First up is my first chaos dread, he's a space crusade dreadnought (from 1989 I believe), with a good deal of cannibalised parts, mostly from other walkers.

A defiler 'mask' was a good substitute for the goofy original face he had. I have two spare cowlings from space crusade dreads (the smaller ones though, not this one), they might find their way onto a traitor sentinel squadron...

The tube things are his missile launcher, honest.

 All the arms/guns are magnetised, though I've never bothered to equip him with anything else. The beauty of the missile launcher means if he does flip out and decide to fire at his own side, I can elect to use frag and bounce it harmlessly from a nearby Rhino.

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Next up there's this amalgamation of various parts. He's got the legs of a space crusade dread (and the lower torso), the metal sarcophagi from an actual chaos dreadnought and err... well the rest is trees and dryads. I've only just made this one (just before Dark Vengeance came out), and I'm fully aware that CC dreads aren't all that fantastic in 6th due to the proliferation of krak grenades among most enemies. But it seemed like a good idea! And who knows, he's cheap enough to field without really caring if he does anything terribly effective.

I drilled out the... crotch things. Those are his two twinlinked bolters.

I'm pretty pleased how the dryads-for-arms thing worked out. Didn't end up looking like Megazord, which was my main worry. 

I think the blending on the claws came out pretty well! 

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Right, last dread. Obviously the most recent, being none other than the helbrute. Now the helbrute is a fantastic model, and probably my favourite part of the Dark Vengeance box. But even a kit that well sculpted isn't safe from tree-ification!!

Perspective!!!

 I left out the face and front plate and magnetised his weapon barrels so I can have other, more useful weapons. I've only made the multimelta he came with and the TL lascannon so far.

 Now, astute readers will notice that he has a very tall base. This isn't just to make him more impressive/imposing (he's only just taller than the other two dreads I have, the helbrute is a very short model). Nope. He's on a big base because I am a cheapskate, and that was the size of the battery pack that powers his internal lighting!!

Behold! Lighty-up chaosy death! Oh, and his multimelta back on. 

The base actually contains a solar panel, revealed when the stone slab between his legs is removed, so I didn't have to faff about changing batteries etc. The switch is concealed in the grass behind him, so he won't use up the charge unnecessarily.

Shot showing some of the 'green glow' bits I made in his back. 

Inside the hollow cavity of the upper body sits a regular, white LED, wired up through the legs into the base. Shone through some carved/melted necron rod sprue (or template sprues, I'm not sure where it came from) it gives off a nice glow! Obviously it's subtle at best in a well lit room, hence the dodgy photography.

That's all for today. Defilers can wait until I make the second one up and convert my original one to have a decent weapon loadout (a million CC arms isn't always best apparently!).