Everybody knows the Space Marines – Warhammer 40k‘s larger than life, power-armored super-soldiers – are simply too awesome for their models to conform to normal design rules; but fans found 2023’s Desolation Squad miniatures simply too silly. So Virginia-based hobbyist Devon Weidner took it upon themself to put these missile boys right.
Their excellent Dark Angels conversion job, shared recently on the r/Warhammer40k Reddit community, repositions the Space Marines‘ giant, ungainly missile launchers to become underslung, arm-mounted weapons – as opposed to the original sculpts, which showed the marines waving these six-foot-long rocket tubes about like they were pistols.
“The idea for my desolation squad came from my love of the Dark Angels models, specifically the old Company Veterans,” they tell Wargamer.
“I was excited about the idea of robes with rocket launchers, and so I wanted to update my battleforce,” they add.
“I couldn’t have done it without the new Inner Circle Companions models, and of course the Desolation Squad; albeit an expensive conversion.”
Like any good miniature wargame conversion, Weidner’s adventure took both time and a ready supply of additional bits.
“The additional parts were outsourced from old Deathwing Terminator assault cannons,” they explain, “of which I had several”.
“The planning and actual kitbashing took about a week, but the painting was at my leisure, and so took a bit longer.”
Weidner (a.k.a. NewVideoNerd online) unashamedly claims the Dark Angels – secretive, knightly sons of Lion El Jonson – as their number one favorite Warhammer 40k faction, and you can see a bunch of other classic Calibanite conversions on their Reddit profile.
But they’re no stranger to the 40k Chaos gods, either: “I do have a backlog of several Iron Warriors projects for the Chaos Space Marines.”
The original Desolation Squad (pictured above) caused quite a to-do in the Warhammer 40k community when it was first launched in February 2023 – partly because its long-range, high-damage, indirect fire missile launchers were, for a time, dominant in competitive games – but mostly because they simply looked too goofy to be allowed.
At Wargamer, we tend to subscribe to the belief that all Warhammer bodies are beautiful, but even we did a double take when we first saw that sergeant’s massive Vengor Launcher propped up vertically with one hand. Space Marines are super-strong, sure – but come on.
We love to see hobbyists converting regular miniatures to make them their own, and it’s even better when their ideas make us more interested in cool minis we might otherwise have overlooked – nice work, Devon!
In other grimdark news, Games Workshop this week unveiled a brand new Blood Angels Army Set featuring new Lemartes and Astaroth character models; and its recent financial results revealed a final deadline for Henry Cavill’s Warhammer 40k movie deal, as well as plans to expand production and stores worldwide.
For all the upcoming rulebook details, check out our guide to Warhammer 40k codex release dates – and to stay updated daily, bookmark our Warhammer 40k news page and follow Wargamer on Google News.
Source: Wargamer
