Luna Wolves - Nero Vipus conversion finished and painted!

Hi guys,

Luna Wolves will now live over at this blog with the rest of the Loyalist SM projects. One of the first impressive models to come from the project is this conversion I did of Nero Vipus, Captain Lokens trusted right-hand man from the opening HH trilogy of book. Note, as the era I am trying to depict is around the time of the Ullanor crusade, Vipus is yet to lose his right hand. 

I wanted to depict a gritty, no-nonsense Sergeant and thus used a higher resin base so that his stance would be higher, looking down upon his enemy. As I couldn't find any reference to his wargear, I went for a combi-melta and power sword as they fit his role as Tactical sergeant well enough. 

As for parts, most were standard GW plastics. I used the straight legs from the command squad set for a taller pose, the head from the Dark Vengeance DA sergeant, the sword from the FW chracter upgrade set, an old 2nd Ed backpack and the combi-melta from the Games Day boarding Captain. The loin tabard was a greenstuff sculpt from the Commander boxed set.  I also drilled in and added tiny ball-bearings to the shoulder pads so that they would mimic those seen on the cover for 'False Gods', one of the main aims for my army. I didn't want to overcrowd the model by adding a crested helmet to the belt/base but he clearly stands out as a Sergeant. 

The paint job was simply Ceramite white followed by ulthuan grey and, although delicate, was fairly straightforward. I added in some simple battle damage and weathering to break up the pale white. He took about three hours to paint in total. I'm most happy with how the face turned out but still undecided about the banner colour - I thought grey would be too dull and red too much and so that left midnight blue. Also below are some pics of other Luna Wolves on the painting desk at the moment. Cheers.