Welcome to my step by step guide on making those Tempestus Aquilons you got in the Hivestorm box look like Kriegsman. Cause nothing says “For the Emperor!” quite like dive bombing into certain death missions like a Kriegsman with a Grav-Chute am I right?
For this guide we are kitbashing your Aquilon Tempestor using the Chainsword option so that you can still build the Aquilon Gunfighter later using both hotshot Las Pistols for that model.
That said, if you want the power sword feel free to swap in the appropriate pieces as the assembly is much the same regardless. Doing it as described in this guide should allow you to kitbash a full Kill Team using just one box of Tempestus Aquilons and one box of Veteran Guardsman.
First things first, we have the “Gather The Bits” Step. As a side note I ended up not even using the A28 bit from the Vet Guard box so you can leave that guy on the sprue where you found him. I also grabbed the Demolitionist Bits from the Veteran Guard Box because the Aquilons have better defenses than the Guard and I thought we should represent that.
Step 01: Let’s get that leg off of there:
For this step we start with cutting off the leg from just below the corner of the great coat, then carefully carve the leg from just above the knee(I made a mark on the leg in the first image). Be careful when using your hobby knife and nippers to remove the pieces, I’d really like it if you made it through this guide with all the digits you started with. The goal here is to remove enough of the leg that when adding the Aquilon Leg we can keep that really neat kneepad.
Step 02: Slabs of metal = Higher Defense stats, obviously:
This step is pretty simple, we are just going to remove the excess plastic from below the plate as shown in the images.
Step 03: The First Assembly
Assemble the pieces we’ve modified thus far and you should have something that looks like the image above.
Step 04: (Optional)
Here we take the hose piece from the front of the Aquilons, remove the tab that inserts into their chest piece and attach it below the armor plate on the Kriegsman body. This is purely optional, I only did it because I liked the aesthetic.
Step 05: Arm Yourself
For this step we are going to assemble both the Aquilon Arms as described in the instruction booklet choosing either the Boltgun/Chainsword option or the Laspistol/Power Sword option. Then add the bayonet to personal taste. After assembling you will notice a slight ridge in the shoulder joint that needs to be removed so that the arms will assemble flush with the torso.
Step 06: The Hard Part (The Legs)
This is where you are going to have to trust yourself, your eyes, and your hand. Trim the thigh of the Aquilon down to above the knee pad, then carefully, a little bit at a time, shave plastic away from the outer thigh where the great coat is going to meet the piece until it looks like it will fit nicely onto the torso. Don’t do what I did and just glue it on just yet, dry fit it, blue tack it if you want, but don’t glue it until after we repeat that process on the Left Leg.
For the Left leg, it’s the same process just mirrored, do not panic if you remove too much thigh, just make sure that when assembled the feet are placed how you want them, we will fill in the thigh with Green Stuff in a later step, this is an art, not a science. Keep calm and trust yourself, you’ve got this!
Step 07: Optional
This is another optional step, we are going to remove the hip armor from the Aquilon body(A1). Just as before, safety first these are small pieces and your fingers will be near sharp objects during the removal process. After excising the armor plates I recommend removing the pockets from the Kriegsman body before attaching the plates.
Step 08: Time To Get Ahead In Life(and recycle some dad jokes)
This is an easy one, just attach the head and hose as shown in the image, leave some gap beneath the helmet and above the collar, the demo guy is hunched down in the original model so if you make it flush the head looks odd, we’ll fill that gap in with greenstuff later.
Step 09: Prep the Grav Chute Pack
Here we are going to trim down the assembly tabs on the grav pack leaving just a small bit at the top there, reason being that the hole on the back of the Kreigsman is smaller than that of the Aquilon but we want to leave something there to make assembly easier.
Step 10: Bringing it All Together
Get those arms on that body but I do recommend leaving the Grav Chute off for painting purposes, I will have an image later with the Grav Chute attached so you can see it though.
Step 11: Adding in the Green Stuff
Now we need to get in there with the green stuff, fill in the gaps for the thighs and head, sculpt it to your satisfaction, then call it good. The good thing about what parts we need to sculpt is that they are mostly hidden or small. Once that’s done and set, you are good to run off, base coat and get that bad boy painted!
Finish!
