# Converting Obliterator poses and weapons help needed.



## The Wraithlord (Jan 1, 2007)

Right now I am having a great deal of difficulty with the conversions I want to do on my Obliterators. In my log I mentioned the one idea I had of having a plasma cannon forming out of ones chest and that is still going to happen, it is the others I have having a problem with. I have one guy who I converted way back to have his hand formed into a single lascannon and I like the look of it enough that I am going to keep it, making that model the closest to the original of the three. Now here is where I am more than willing to entertain ideas from you big time conversion freaks here on Heresy Online:

1) I don't want to use the original faces but rather I want them to have helmets like the rest of the legion, especially if there is some way of making them more Tson-like. What do you suggest as normal heads and term heads are actually far too big to work?

2) Anyone remember the part in the first Transformers movie where Megatron kneels in the street and forms his arms into a huge gun in front of him? I would like the third Oblit to do something similar but I am stumped right off the bat because the Oblits head is in the middle of the damn chest (this is actually a problem with the plasma cannon dude as well as there is not a lot of real estate to work with on the Oblit chest area). I am thinking of making this one kneeling as well, almost as if I were making and Obliterator homage to Megatron lol.

I did a search online for Oblit conversions but most of them involve converting termies into Oblits and that is not what I am going for. I want to convert the original Oblits into something worth looking at instead of the ugly models they are with their "OMFG I NEED TO SHIT" pose.


EDIT: Here is a link to a pic of some other Tsons Oblits that I intend to use parts of such as the helmets, loincloths, and such. Not entirely sure how to go about getting/making helmets like that however.

http://www.coolminiornot.com/236743


----------



## Kreuger (Aug 30, 2010)

How heavily are you going to repose the legs to avoid the incontinence-of-doom pose?
I haven't tried much in leg alterations myself.

I have some heavy conversions in my chaos project log. Which might give you some ideas.

I've been working on some Obliterator conversions myself. I have 2 new ones in process, but based on new obliterator bodies. I'll try to get photos in tonight.

The fused gun arms might work if the arms were lowered and brought together as though the obliterator were lifting weights.

As for heads, I'd suggest trying chaos warrior heads from this or the last edition of warriors of chaos models.

Cheers,
Kreuger


----------



## normtheunsavoury (Mar 20, 2008)

Would it be possible to leave the top of the Oblit's head? 
Depending on GS skills you could have to gun coming out from the bottom half of his face and then sculpt in the stretchy skin similar to the rest of the mini, maybe put in some teeth? 
So it looks like the gun is coming out of a massively stretched mouth is basically what I'm trying to say, poorly, but hopefully you get what I mean.


----------



## The Wraithlord (Jan 1, 2007)

> How heavily are you going to repose the legs to avoid the incontinence-of-doom pose?


I intend to cut, pin, and gs the shit out them as much as is needed to alter the leg positioning. I am willing and planning to go all out with these conversions. I did take a look at your log and you have some very cool conversion and paintwork going on but that is not quite what I am looking to do.

Norm: As cool as that idea is it is totally against what I want them to look like. I want to tie them in with the Sons and the entire Legion (at least mine) have helmets on and it has always bothered me that my Oblits had their heads bare. I want them to have enclosed helms on them for sure. Damn near everything else can be altered for these jobs but not that for me.

No more comments guys? I know there are a TON of converting mofo's on this board so let's hear some more.


----------



## normtheunsavoury (Mar 20, 2008)

No problem, I don't blame you at all, your Tsons look amazing and messing with that aesthetic would be wrong.
I'll keep racking my brains, I'll let you know if I come up with anything else.


----------



## Kreuger (Aug 30, 2010)

Sorry man, I've been really busy when I got home from work this week. I haven't had any time to take photos of the new obliterators I'm working on. Maybe over the weekend!

There is a conversion kit from maybe maxmini? that has alternate heads and marine torsos for thousand sons, and they might work for enclosed helms. Somebody in here did a test model or two after buying the pack.


----------



## Angelus Censura (Oct 11, 2010)

I know you don't want to use termies, but what I've done is just buy the Chaos Terminator Lord box, and convert that using the arms from an Oblit. I used greenstuff in areas to make it look like the armour was cracked open with skin and muscle stretched out in certain areas, etc. and then I Nurgled the FUCK out of them  - I just don't like dealing with metal models, dulls my exacto blades and shit real quick and is a pain in the ass when it comes to converting.


----------



## Dave T Hobbit (Dec 3, 2009)

To keep the ideas in the same place, I append the Megatron suggestion I placed on your main log:



Dave T Hobbit said:


> ...bring the elbows together just above the waist and have both forearms make the gun. This leaves the upper chest exposed to have some or all of the head visible.


Alternatively (or as well) you could tilt the thighs back and the main body forwards to make the "neck" angle forward, move the head to one side of the torso and make one arm extend parallel to it (barrel and targeter effect) whilst the other arm extends forward to form the third part of a tripod,

Helmet-wise, the high hunched shoulders do not (to me) work well with wide flat crests: possibly a normal SM head would work better with a serpent crest curving up from the forehead.


----------



## The Wraithlord (Jan 1, 2007)

> Helmet-wise, the high hunched shoulders do not (to me) work well with wide flat crests:


Oh yeah for sure. They will have helmets without the crests.

The biggest problem with the models is that they are so static and aside from the arms and legs they are just a big block of metal so it is hard to make them more dynamic really which is what I want to do in the main.

Not a bad idea Dave, will give that some thought. 

Angelus: also not a bad idea but I don't want to Nurgle them up at all although with the way the fluff for Oblits goes it might still look close to it because of the morphing they do.

Gotta say, this is a tough one for me. Never had to really think about my conversions this much as they usually fall into place for me right away. Must be the ass models lol.


----------



## Svartmetall (Jun 16, 2008)

I would've posted in this one sooner but life has been more than a little hectic lately  Now, I've done a lot of thinking about Obliterators and how they might work while planning out my own Obliterator conversions, so for what it's worth here are a few thoughts of mine on the matter... 

If at the time you contracted the Obliterator virus you were an erect biped, it makes most sense that you'd stick to that body plan as far as possible due to sheer force of habit as much as anything else. Yes, you could in theory - for example - re-arrange your limbs to being tripedal for extra stability while firing, but you'd either have to learn to walk all over again or take the time to make a new leg every time a fight broke out, which wouldn't be good in terms of response time as much as anything else. So, for hobby purposes, your Obliterator's going to be bipedal. 

Another thing I think often gets people hung up with Obliterators and converting/posing them is that just because they _can_ form a weapon out of any part of their body, doesn't mean they _would_; on or in an arm is the most logical and practical place to have your body weapons placed, since it allows you to rapidly re-aim the weapon and also to have the other arm morphing into whatever you may think you need next without having to majorly re-arrange your overall physical layout or interefere with whatever you're currently using. And while on the subject of weapons, I've seen far too many Obliterator conversions with that 'porcupine' look - like someone smeared a Terminator in superglue then rolled it around in the weapons section of their bits box for a while. Now if you think about it, even if you have a Swiss army knife, how many blades/attachments do you ever actually _use_ at any one time? Yup, just the one. So if I'm an Obliterator and I need a multi-melta, I'd put everything into making the best multi-melta I could manage at that moment; I wouldn't have a plasma gun sticking out of my arse just in case. 

Also, bear in mind that a lot of the weapons on the current GW Obliterator model are no longer legal in-game - they don't have access to any solid-round weapons any more (which actually makes quite a bit of sense fluff-wise - where would the solid ammo come from?). I'm going to be making 6 Obliterators in the end, and will have one to represent each of the 6 weapons choices available - the heavy ones being lascannon, plasma cannon, multi-melta, and then twin-linked meltaguns, twin-linked plasma guns, and twin-linked flamers. I kind of wish they had a heavy flamer option as well, but I guess we'll have to wait for the next Codex before that arrives... 
_*crosses fingers*_ 
...once I've got some sketches I like done for the twin-linked meltagun and plasma gun options I'll start work on those.

Yes, yes, I know I overthink things _way_ too much 

At the risk of it looking like blatant self-promotion, here are the 4 Obliterators I'm currently working on - using the plastic Minotaurs as a base - just to give you an idea of how I'm putting this design ethos into practice:









Some detail shots:


























Now, to address some of the specific questions you had...
_"I don't want to use the original faces but rather I want them to have helmets like the rest of the legion, especially if there is some way of making them more Tson-like. What do you suggest as normal heads and term heads are actually far too big to work?"_
Chaos Knight heads would probably work well; the Thousand Sons Obliterators you posted that link to are nice, although I'm not sold on the way they have the banded bits hanging down from the helms over the torso like some kind of dreadlocks (if you see what I mean). How about helms like these:
















...with the horns merging with the armour above the head, and painted in Legion colours? The Chaos Knight boxes have a lot of nice parts for use on Chaos Marines anyway - as does the Empire Flagellants box, which also has some great (although bare) heads.

_"...although with the way the fluff for Oblits goes it might still look close to it because of the morphing they do."_
Ehh...you'd be hard pressed to find a bigger Nurgle fan than me, but actually I've long thought of Obliterators as something the Changer Of The Ways would smile upon - what could be more Tzeentchian than something that constantly changes and reshapes its own form?

To be honest it sounds to me as though there are more things you don't like than that you do about the current metal GW Obliterators; maybe consider starting from scratch with models that you prefer as a base? I spent ages looking around till I saw the plastic Minotaurs in WD when they came out, and realised I'd finally found what I was looking for; and let's face it, a plastic model would be one hell of a lot easier to work with when it comes to detailed and extensive conversions, that's why I went for them after all.


Anyway, I'm probably rambling by this point, so I'm going to go grab another "thank fuck it's Friday" beer; hope this helps anyway :biggrin:


----------



## shaantitus (Aug 3, 2009)

Wraith, i am inclined to agree with svart. He has thought about this alot it seems. I think for the tsons the terminators might be the way to go for you in this case. I think it will be easier to add the features you want to a terminator body rather than remove the ones you don't like from the original oblit models.


----------



## Kreuger (Aug 30, 2010)

My hat as always is off to Svart. He has the right of it I think.

Are there any plastic models that might work as an armature and base over which to add obliteratory details - Without being too obvious?


----------



## The Wraithlord (Jan 1, 2007)

> I've seen far too many Obliterator conversions with that 'porcupine' look - like someone smeared a Terminator in superglue then rolled it around in the weapons section of their bits box for a while.


BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Omfg that was funny. Sigged!



> Another thing I think often gets people hung up with Obliterators and converting/posing them is that just because they can form a weapon out of any part of their body, doesn't mean they would; on or in an arm is the most logical and practical place to have your body weapons placed, since it allows you to rapidly re-aim the weapon and also to have the other arm morphing into whatever you may think you need next without having to majorly re-arrange your overall physical layout or interefere with whatever you're currently using.


Couldn't agree more, I was already planning on a single weapon for each: a plasma cannon, a lascannon, and one I haven't decided on but will probably be a multi-melta or a flamer guy as I do at least, or should anyway, have the bitz for those at hand.



> I'm not sold on the way they have the banded bits hanging down from the helms over the torso like some kind of dreadlocks


Agreed, that doesn't overly thrill me either. I did have an idea regarding the heads however. I have an unpainted Tson champ model sitting here that I was thinking of making a cast of the helmet, just the face part anyway, and using that to make press molded helms for the Oblits. The size is just about right as well.....

As for the models themselves you may be right. I don't have your ability with gs at all however so I am quite hesitant to use models that will require the level of work shown on your wips above (fuckin awesome looking btw). I cut of the legs from the metal models today, as well as at the knees so I will be able to reposition them fairly easy but even so I think you might be onto something there. I will continue to use these models for now but if I find something more suitable I will switch over.



> I think for the tsons the terminators might be the way to go for you in this case. I think it will be easier to add the features you want to a terminator body rather than remove the ones you don't like from the original oblit models.


Might be right as well. Although I have yet to see an Oblit conversion based on termies that I liked.



> Are there any plastic models that might work as an armature and base over which to add obliteratory details - Without being too obvious?


Can't hurt to look right?


----------



## Svartmetall (Jun 16, 2008)

The Wraithlord said:


> _...if I find something more suitable I will switch over..._


I'd suggest things in the Minotaur/River Troll size bracket. Obliterators are always described as bigger than most other individuals - the previous Chaos Marines codex describes them as 'hulking, weirdly baroque leviathans' and I always used that as a guide to how big they should be...hence me using Minotaurs as the base models.


----------



## MaidenManiac (Oct 2, 2008)

The Wraithlord said:


> The biggest problem with the models is that they are so static and aside from the arms and legs they are just a big block of metal so it is hard to make them more dynamic really which is what I want to do in the main.....


BDJV had a version of Obz looking like this:
http://www.heresy-online.net/forums/showpost.php?p=322084&postcount=84

that are standing up a lot more, maybe that is some idea?


----------



## The Wraithlord (Jan 1, 2007)

Actually yeah MM. I have already cut the legs off them for this, at the knees as well. I don't truly mind the Oblit models in and of themselves, it is the squatting down to take a shit pose that I hate and that GW seems stupidly obsessed with for some reason. Just standing them up will make them look so much more dynamic.


----------



## MaidenManiac (Oct 2, 2008)

The Wraithlord said:


> Actually yeah MM. I have already cut the legs off them for this, at the knees as well. I don't truly mind the Oblit models in and of themselves, it is the squatting down to take a shit pose that I hate and that GW seems stupidly obsessed with for some reason. Just standing them up will make them look so much more dynamic.


Agreed.

Im sad that Ive already completed 2/3 of mine since a long time and they are indeed squatting. Some day I might get back to them with my Dremel and try to make them a little bit better looking 
The heads are the other part of them that really are "meh" imo. Changing them will be a good idea almost regardless of what you change them to.

Minor conversions like that (re-posing) can bring a whole new life to boring models like the Obliterators and aint that hard to do either.
Looking forward to seeing the results.


----------

