Balaclava Heads - Male (7)

Welcome to another Tom Clancy's The Division 2^TM inspired Conversion Corner!

With all the Agents in the studio, we needed some bad guys to fight (as if Rogue agents weren't bad enough...), so I decided to finally start one of my long-planned projects, slowly building the enemy factions from both games, starting with the "easiest" one, the Black Tusk.

I started with looking at Black Tusk concept art to see what I would use to build models that evoke the same high-tech PMC feel as the characters in the game. All the units in the faction share some distinct elements - the high-tech body armour, form fitting undersuit, balaclavas, and lots of equipment.

I knew we had the perfect legs and torsos for the project, as I used them before for my Zone Stalkers - from the Recon Drop Trooper range. For the arms I went with Militia and Female PMC as I wanted the short / rolled sleeves present in the game. I decided to split the force up into 3 "unit types", Riflemen, Specialists and Tanks.

Riflemen

These models all wear the same Balaclava and use our HK416s as a modern assault rifle with a lot of accessories. I also added some pouches to the panels on their legs to represent extra equipment carried. To hide the sci-fi details on the back of the torso I glued some of our 3D-printed prototype Hydration Backpacks on, and I stuck some plasticard on our small radios from the Modern Equipment pack to represent the touch screen comms gear all Black Tusk operatives seem to carry.

Specialists

The specialists are 3 unique models to represent some of the enemy classes in the game. I had concept art for all of these, so I tried to get as close as possible.

• The Controller uses a Kel-tec KSG glued on a Militia arm with the stock removed, his other arm is from the Drone Controller pack with the Drop Troop Commander's arm console. His backpack is a Phase Lance powerpack with the antenna from a Field Radio. Making his head was probably the biggest challenge in the entire project, as it is a Boonie Hat spliced together with the VR goggle head from the Drone Controllers.
• The Sniper is a pretty straightforward build with a digitally kitbashed Hoodie-Baseball Cap-Sunglasses-Face covering head from the Undercover Operatives pack, and a long barrel HK416 DMR variant with a 12x Scope and a wrapped suppressor.
• The Medic required some creative use of parts! I used the largest backpack I could find (from Modern Civilians), split the bottom shell to use as the medic pouch on the leg, then grabbed a flying Drone and scaled it down to fit. Just sticking a drone on the backpack wouldn't work, and I didn't want to sculpt a drone rail, so after a lot of trial and error I ended up using a part from our poseable Light Mech legs!

 Tanks

For these, I went for a different base body, from the Corporate Security Force core pack and Booster. 

• The Minigun model uses the body from the CorpSec character with ram, and Man-Portable Heavy Weapon arms, as I wanted a heavy advancing pose. The minigun ammo feed was too short to reach the backpack with this pose, so I cut two in the middle and spliced them together.
• The Grenade launcher arms are from the Republic Commando booster pack, with digitally cut CorpSec armour plates overlaid. 

I finished both models with OpsCore helmets, and I didn't forget to add the "shoot me here for extra damage" little red box to the backs!

 Drones

The original plan was 3 unit types, but I thought something was missing - then I remembered how scary those military Big Dogs were in the game, so I had to build one!

• The Warhound is a Big Dog base model, with an Exo-Lord Security Camera head, and a Light Turret mounted on the back, and the feet on the hind legs replaced with brass rod. The MRAD attached to a turret had the magazine replaced by one from the M249, and a Sniper Rifle muzzle brake.
• The Marauder was made from a Quadcopter Drone, with a Shoulder-mounted Tricannon attached to an Exo-Lord Mechanical arm.

The bases were made using my usual method - 50mm base from Marvel Crisis Protocol, 35mm ones are printed bases designed by Nuclear Firefly. I added extra detail to them using sandpaper, Citadel Astrogranite technical paint and printed basing elements from the Modern Urban Scatter Terrain bundle, spent ammo casings and bottles.

That's all for now, hope you enjoyed this Conversion Corner, see y'all later!