Rescue Dogs

One thing I love about GW games is the conversion and counts-as opportunities - it's great to see the creativity and imagination of other players.  Years ago, a friend mentioned using Fire Prism turrets as Vyper stand-ins, adding Shuriken Cannons at the front to represent the turret and underslung weapon.  I've always liked this idea and kept it filed away, then noticing that other players had had the same idea and came up with some very cool results.  Blue Table Painting used them as Wave Serpent turrets in a recent army.

So when I saw these on Ebay for super cheap, I snatched them up.

A hot mess for sure, but someone put some love into these and tried to pull them off as Hornet conversions. Was obviously a learning project as the green-stuff is really sloppy and covered in finger prints.  A noble attempt for sure and I think I can salvage what's left.

First thing I did was tear off the Dark Eldar wings and clean up the bottoms.  There are star engines attached underneath that you can't see.  I was thinking of using them as Wave Serpent turrets too but the added weight made the model tilt too far back, much like the old metal Fire Prisms, and I didn't want to fuss with weighting the Serpent's body forward to compensate.  Plus, they just look so cool as Vypers.

Next was to glue on some Shuriken Cannons so they're WYSIWYG and I was surprised that I was able to keep them on straight.  A coat of white primer on top and grey underneath and I was ready to rebuild them. Unfortunately, the original paint-job was grainy and thick but I think they are good enough for government work.

Here's what I have so far.  Need to drag out my real camera next time as my phone's camera and the bright light really drowned out the painting.

Need to finish the pilot and gems and then I think it will be good for now.  Maybe I'll add a half-canopy from the Dark Eldar range but, as I tint the windshields of my other vehicles, it may look off.

Realized that I hate painting Scatter Lasers - the barrels are a pain to keep looking clean.  I'm getting old and notice that my painting is getting sloppier. Oh well, as long as it looks good enough for game night I'm happy.  Also realized that I ran out of black ink. Bought some P3 Armor Wash from Heroic Knight but the result was much duller than true GW ink.  Think I have some brush-on varnish that will help - will probably give the model a coat of varnish then a coat of dull-coat - tape off the canopy to keep it shiny?