FREMEN ARMY PT.1

God created Arrakis to train the faithful

Welcome, this is the first segment of my Fremen army. The idea came to me while I was reading Frank Herbert's Dune, my favorite series and arguably the best science fiction series ever written.

As I poured through the works, I kept thinking how incredible the Fremen would be on the field- masters of the weirding way, hardy desert survivalists, fanatical crusaders and lethal knife fighters all rolled into one. Likewise, they rode the great Rakkian Sandworms, or Shai Halud. Instantly my conversion sense kicked in and I began to plot... What army could offer brutal close combat and large armored vehicles? Black Templar.

Here is the finished product (thus far). This article will only cover the basic Fremen soldiers, considering I have much to say and little time to say it.

Now to get those hands dirty. I wasn't sure what the best way to make Fremen would be originally. I like to think I have a good knowledge of bits and models from GW and other lines, but none really stood out as obvious. Necromundan Juves were an immediate choice, but the fact that they were metal and had additional unnecessary gear was a real turn off. I looked over many alternative model ranges as well, but I needed knife fighters... not the basic rifleman.

With all these qualities, my only option was the basic Eldar guardian. As a plastic model, they lent much more modeling and converting flexibility to me, plus they had stilsuit like armor. Settled upon this, I drew up a concept piece and ordered some bits.

For the bodies, I would need to shave off the gems, backpack, doodads and any other Eldar apparel from the model. For the heads, I ordered barbarian and knight heads from Micro Art Studios. The knives were cut from plasticard and the cloaks were sculpted with green stuff. Also, the nasal catch tubes are floral wire. Originally I was going to give my Fremen maula pistols and crysknives, but the maula pistols looked awkward and were replaced by thrown darts and shigawire.

You might also notice some strange weapons- a larger rifle and ball on cord. The 'rifle' represents a lasgun from the Dune universe, not the 40k universe. In my force, it stands in for a meltagun. The ball on cord represents a stun ball, an electromagnetic maul. It will stand in for a power fist.

Here are a couple finished conversions for reference.

And now for some painted ones! Ignore the dastardly fellow in dress uniform for now- he'll be explained later.

The Fremen were primed grey and then given a watered down black ink wash. Next, they were highlighted codex and then fortress grey. The skin was based in tanned flesh, then highlighted dwarf and elf flesh. The eyes of Ibad (eyes) were done in royal blue with enchanted blue highlights. The hair was done with black and codex grey drybrush followed by a black ink wash and another light drybrush of codex grey. The crysknives were based in ice blue, highlighted bleached bone, then highlighted a white metal paint. The leather was done in bestial brown and highlighted snakebite leather. Their jubba cloaks were based in yellow, then blocked over in khaki. highlights of bleached bone and white followed with a camo inking of watered down bestial brown.

There are now 20 Fremen in my force, enough to man two full squads of black templar initiates. I hope you all enjoyed this first article- look forward to several more, including...

-Sandworms -Sardaukar Terror Troopers -Laza Tigers -Ornithopter .... and more!

See you soon,

Klaus