Summary
When I opened up the newWarhammer 40KKroot Lone-Spear, I immediately thought of my brother. No, he’s not some avian cannibal creature, but he does have a cool Salamanders army. He’s converted Captains with Heavy Flamers, bikers riding Cold Ones (those fantasy dragons that Dark Elves used to ride), and put them all on bespoke resin bases depicting the magma and lava of Nocturne.
The Kroot Lone-Spear, if you haven’t seen it already, is riding an axolotl. It’s a cool model with some funky rules, but as someone who doesn’t play the game and wants to show some appreciation to their brother, it stood out to me as perfect conversion fodder. I was going to turn this Kroot into aSpace Marineif it killed me.
My rules for the conversion are simple. It has to fit in with my brother’s army – that means firstborn armour, lava base, and helmeted head (he didn’t want to highlight the jet black faces of Salamanders). Also, he can have the model when he reads this article. He doesn’t check out much of my work because he’s a pretty casual gamer (complimentary) and unsupportive moron (derogatory) (sorry, Pete).
My bet is my dad will send it to him. I’ll keep you updated.
This is starting to get a bit like one of those recipes that you have to scroll past 2,000 words of someone’s life story to get to their ‘Perfect Grilled Cheese’, but I needed to explain why I’ve not used a Primaris model, why I’ve opted for this unique basing, etc. otherwise I would have woken up on Monday morning to 1,200 emails critiquing my decisions.
Converting The Warhammer 40K Kroot Lone-Spear
Here’s a decision to critique: the only appropriate legs I had were from the Ravenwing Command Squad. I didn’t have time to buy more (and where would you buy a firstborn bike squad these days anyway?), so I painstakingly shaved all theDark Angelsiconography from the legs.
I did the same for the chest, removing the Ravenwing insignia and using Green Stuff to sculpt some more Salamandery flames in their place. It’s been a while since I freehand sculpted anything, but they’ll look alright once there’s some paint on them. The Ravenwing legs also provided an awkward flapping cloak.
This would be impossible to remove, so I instead filled the gap with various packs, pockets, and gear. This is a Salamander hunter, someone who will go it alone for months at a time in search of his prey, he needs his bits and bobs. The gap at the front of his legs was covered with a Green Stuff loincloth, which will be painted to match his robes.
I used a Hand Flamer and head from the Blood Angels Sanguinary Guard kit, which I had various parts of in my bits box, and hollowed out the banner-carrying hand from the Ravenwing Command Squad to replace it with a brass rod. Belial’s sword (which I replaced on the original model because it looked more generic than the one from theDeathwing Knights kit), and some Green Stuff purity seals finished the model. I thought he needed a spear as a nod to the original Kroot model, and it works perfectly, giving the model some much-needed height.
His legs may be a little wide, his head may be bowed a little too much, but he’s a Salamander riding an axolotl. All he needs now is a suitable base.
How To Make Lava Bases
I’d looked for appropriately-sized resin bases online but they were all either too expensive, the wrong size, didn’t look very good, or all of the above. Luckily, making the base myself was relatively simple.
I started by laying pieces of cork on the Lone-Spear’s base. I built up a few layers as naturally as I could, dry fitting the axolotl to ensure it could stand. Then I covered the cork in a thick layer of Vallejo’s Diorama FX Earth Texture, which is like theGames Workshoptechnical paint Striland Mud except better and cheaper. I painted four layers of varnish over the uncorked areas of the base to cover up the rough texture of the base. This was to be my lava, smooth and hot. Et voila.
Painting The Salamander Lone-Spear
The Salamander Lone-Spear is a veteran of the Chapter, potentially even a Captain sent on a mission to recover the lost artefacts of his Primarch, Vulkan. Mayhaps he’s Vulkan He’Stan’s right-hand marine, continuing the search for the Song of Entropy when his boss is called away on business.
I don’t know my brother’s exact recipe for Salamanders armour, but he follows the box art pretty closely. On a deadline, I opted for a ‘slap chop’ method, priming the Lone-Spear black before drybrushing white. Then, I used Contrast paints and regular paints to create a simple paintjob. I didn’t have time to freehand a Salamanders Chapter symbol on his shoulder pad, but my brother’s army has custom resin shoulder pads anyway, so I suspect he’ll want to replace it anyway.
I love converting models (check out myDark Mechanicusif you want some messed-up monstrosities), and an axolotl miniature was too good to resist. I’m pretty happy with the result, and I hope my brother is, too. Enjoy it, Pete. If you ever read this.
