New arrivals: Blood and Skulls Industry conversion parts

Blood and Skulls Industry produce excellent resin conversion parts, which I’ve used previously on my Imperial Guard. Today a package arrived with most of the parts needed to build the final two models for my Ork Custodes project. For the Venerable Land Raider, there’s a Sagittarius track conversion kit (with a set of spiky “Oppressor” tracks), some Alpha-pattern dual weapon sponsons, and four light Laser Cannons. There are also some small jet fans which I’ll use on a jetbike conversion.

I’m excited about getting the tank fully assembled. The Ork Land Raider will be a huge centrepiece model for the army. Also, weighing in at a hefty 400 points it’s almost a third of my army points for Arc40k. It’s also a great opportunity to try using up as many of my remaining Ork model parts as possible. I’ve started with the mekboy welding mask, on an ‘Ardboy crewman doing his best “Drive me closer, I want to hit them with my axe” pose.

Here’s what the Blood and Skulls Industry gear looks like straight out of the box:

Quite a lot of flash on the track links, but the detail is beautiful. Very clean castings, no air bubbles, and it seems a bit tougher than Forgeworld’s resin. It does all feel quite greasy to touch, though. I anticipate having to wash off a lot of mould release before assembly can begin on these.

I like the slightly chunkier lines of the Blood and Skulls Industry weapons. The profile is still instantly recognisable to anyone familiar with Warhammer 40,000, but there’s a unique, slightly cruder aspect to the proportions.

Not shown here: the handy magnet-sized holes in the back of the sponson weapon mounts. These match the holes in each of the weapons. The Blood and Skulls kits are great on tanks like the Leman Russ, where you can easily magnetise a few different weapon options. In this case, I’ll glue them in place: a Custodes Land Raider always carries two twin-linked lascannon.

Next time, I’ll cover how those enormous tracks are actually assembled. Then, I’ll try to finish off the Land Raider assembly before turning my attention towards the Shield-Captain’s jetbike.