I always liked the look of Games Workshop's Kasrkin Stormtrooper models, but at $50 CAN for 10 of them, it's not cheap to kit out an entire Daemonhunters army. You can see my inherent thriftiness shining through here; aside from the Deathwing this is already one of the least expensive armies in 40K thanks to its high point values per troop. Enough game though, onto the hobby! I dislike having loads of models in the same static poses, which is why I personally like plastic models because they allow you to have enough slight variations throughout an army that no model will look exactly the same.
This whole project started off when I found a leftover sprue of Cadian troopers that I was saving for a special project (read: put in a box in my closet). I was (and am still, at a minimal level) involved in a mod for Mordheim that used the 40K armies as the basis for warbands. One of the warbands I was working on was the Daemonhunters - an elite force with access to many special weapons and psyker-related special troops. I was really enjoying how they worked in playtesting, so I figured it would be cool to start playing with actual models instead of proxies. I grabbed whatever Inquisition-style bitz I had lying around and threw together five Stormtroopers to go with the limited-edition plasma pistol Inquisitor released during the 4th Edition launch of 40K. This snowballed into an infatuation with the excellent Grey Knights models, which in turn interested me in playing 40K, and before I knew it I found myself the owner of 1000 points of Daemonhunters that I never use. Ah, the vagaries of The Hobby. Anyhow, here's how I put together those Stormtroopers.
What you need:
A box of Cadian Shock Troops
Four Space Marine backpack sprues (or twenty SM backpacks)
Twenty Tomb Kings shields - any Tomb Kings player should have these in spades, since skeleton archers are terrifically useful (and don't need the shields). You'll need the skulls off the front; two or three of the shield types don't work all that great for this, so if you're trading for them make sure you get a few extra. As an added bonus, the sprue comes with some useful icons that have parchment attached to them - very handy for Daemonhunters conversions of all sorts.
Plastic-insulated copper wire - I used 24 Gauge Solid intercom wire, but if I did this again I'd use something slightly thinner. Make sure it's not thicker than the width of the lasgun power packs.
A sharp hobby knife - be careful!
A cutting board
A pin vice - also known as a welder's hand-drill. This is a very useful tool for any hobbyist, and well worth the cost.
Plastic bonding glue
Green stuff
Sculpting tools - the GW sales rep tried to talk me out of buying an official GW tool, so I bought it just to spite him. It's actually a great piece of equipment, I've found.
The first and most important step to remember is to clean the mold lines off of everything before you assemble it. An errant mold line can really spoil an otherwise great model - even I'm guilty of missing them (as you'll no doubt see). First off you need to assemble the legs and torsos of the troopers. Set these aside to cure while you do the next step.
Now take the Space Marine backpacks and chop off the vents as I've done here. I've chopped them so that the edges are vertical, but I can see where leaving the right side at an angle would also look good when it comes to affixing the wire. This will leave you with a lot of little vent bitz. My suggestion? Use them as handy headlamps on your tanks! I haven't tried it, but I would imagine it would look pretty keen if you brought the Emperor's Light in 100 Watt doses!
Now take your pin vice and drill a hole in the right-hand side of the backpack about a half-centimeter deep and wide enough to stick the wire into. It's handier to do this now rather than when the backpack is attached to the model.
Carefully slice the skull icon away from a Tomb Kings shield. Care must be taken at all points in this maneuver - you don't want to slice into your hand, and you don't want to have the skull drop and go into that big bitz pile in the sky. Trust me, it's way easier to lose these bitz than you think.
Now carefully affix the skull icon to the center of the left-hand side of the backpack. This looks particularly Inquisitorial and has the added benefit of covering up the air bubbles that are commonly found in this part of the mold, as well as any holes you might have accidentally drilled through the backpack. Don't worry about the crevice at the bottom - it'll disappear during painting, although if you are concerned about it, it's nothing a little green stuff couldn't fix.
Here's your body! You see the little tab on the back that's normally used to attach specialist backpacks? We're going to use it in the same way.
Take the assembled backpack, give it a drop of glue in the inside corner, and attach it to the body as shown. It should be a perfect fit. Make sure it's on straight!
Because the glue is not bonding flush surfaces, it will take some time to fully cure. I'd recommend leaving it overnight - you've just done twenty of these, it's about time to take a break anyways!
While you're waiting, take the opportunity to remodel the lasguns. First, cut away the power cell flush with the stock of the gun. Now take your pin vice and drill a hole directly in the center of this exposed area. Be very careful that you don't burst through the sides of the lasgun - if you do, the wire won't fit snugly and will be an absolute pain to attach. It's very important to make this hole before you attach the arms - a lesson learned through trial and error (and forgetfulness). Make sure that you keep the corresponding right and left arms of the lasguns together!
This won't work nearly as well for hellpistol conversions using the laspistol, as it is a different thickness. You can either try to customize a new pistol from the solitary lasgun or just equip your Sergeant with a hellgun.
Once the backpacks have cured, you can assemble the arms and heads. Since these are Cadians, don't worry too much about dynamic poses - their gas masks and hellguns will make them look cool. Don't be afraid to try something unconventional too - a lot of WHFB heads look great on these models, and you have the loose helmet bit to account for their helmet-less appearance. I've shaved off the icon on the front for some green stuff work I'm going to do next to add a bit of unit diversity, but you don't need to do this.
The last step in assembly is to attach the wire. I find that cutting it one-and-a-half inches is the perfect length. Make sure you dry-fit to make sure it works! If need be, use a knife to taper the plastic insulation so it fits neatly into the hole. Put a drop of glue on each end of the wire and insert one end into each hole you drilled. Wait for it to cure, and then adjust the wire so it looks as though it's hanging naturally. If you want you can attach more accessories, like canteens and grenades. I've even gone so far as to give a few of my Stormtroopers personalized knick-knacks.
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