Death Company Conversion

During my after-Christmas buying splurge, I picked up enough Space Marines models to run a 900-something point Blood Angels army. I love the fluff, and the pathos of the Death Company. However, I didn't find any good deals for death company models or accessories. However, I do have 25 Tactical Squad Marines when I am only interested in 20. The downside is, they are all from AoBR, or Assault on Black Reach for the uninitiated. While this did make them inexpensive, I was unaware that the models themselves were rather static, a single piece for the body, a piece for the weapon, a stand, and a piece for the backpack comprising each shoulder. However, I have some spare arms laying around, and I picked up some spare parts from Ebay, so I began converting!

The first step is to remove one or both arms. Death Company allows for the choice of bolt pistol OR bolter, in addition to the chainsword as basic armament. It is important to keep at least a couple bolters in the squad to prevent undesired assaults, now that 5th edition neutered the Chaplain. If the bolter was to be retained, i would only cut off one arm. Then, I would cut the hand mouldings from the bolter and repostition it, as well as the chainsword arm. If it was gonna be a bolt pistol, I cut off both. Then, because one arm is molded to the body, I would need to cut down that half of the stomach area to mimic the chest armor curve on the other side. Once this model is painted, that trimmed down area should appear to the casual observer as a natural part of the torso. Death Company has a WS of 5, as well as FNP, and Furious Charge. So, they are brutal in the assualt phase. I often run into nasty vehicles or Chaos Demon Princes, so having a power weapon in the squad is important. So, i realized that even as a troop choice the DC can get thunderhammers! Picking up a two-handed thunderhammer, I decided to go ahead and model one to carry a hammer. So both arms came off. a little bit of trimming to remove SW symbolism off the hammer and it was ready to go. I had previously converted a couple AoBR sargents to have better weapons, so I had a couple chainsword arms from them laying around, plus a chainsword arm from my Assualt Marines after I gave their sarge a power weapon. So, I used those plus the above mentions arms to do my thing.  The models currently only have one or neither shoulder pads, and no backpacks. That is because I will be ordering the DC accessories to make them look proper. More on these guys as I progress!








































"Battlesuits on Ready"

Shas'el Mike