Retro-Future Explorers & Hybrid Scavengers - Games Workshop®️ Imperial Navy Breachers Conversions

Staffer Adam is at the conversion desk again with some more kitbashing! This week he's turned his eyes on to the recent Navy Breacher kit, to see how well they can be converted with Anvil's resin parts.

( The plastic parts showcased below are made by Games Workshop®️ and are used for example purposes only, this post is not associated with, or endorsed by GW in any way )

For the breacher kits I wanted to really emphasise the retro-gothic, and Victorian deep-sea diver suit aesthetics, and so our own Gothic Void line seemed like a perfect place to start!

Keeping the one-piece bodies more or less intact, I chose to leave off the arms and heads entirely to create the look I had envisioned. The Spheroidal Bubble Helmets were an obvious first choice, really giving these figures more of an explorer feel. No modification was needed to have these heads fit snugly into the kits neck join, apart from one of the torso's raised collar, which just needed a minor trim.

Our Void Suit Rifle-Stock arms were also immediately appealing, as they mix the leather-punk softly padded elements with the banded vambraces, in the same kind of way as the original Breacher kit does. The aesthetics nicely match up to keep the figures looking cohesive. Naturally, I wanted to add on the Large Boarding Shield to the forearms, and chose some newly designed, 3D-printed guns from our Gothic-Tech Horror bundle. (Keep an eye out for these guns to be released in resin soon!)

Each team member was also given a Techno-Skull Familiar, hovering off of their shoulder. Breaking up the silhouette with these skulls helped to stop them from feeling too sleek and rounded, which can be a problem for the squad mates that have the large shields in particular. It also reinforced the gothic style for each figure. Nothing more gothic than a skull-familiar!

Each figure is also carrying a Void Power Plant too, that adds a little more weight to the model and changes the silhouette quite a lot. I imagine these to be the team's oxygen supply tanks for operating outside of any atmosphere. Again, the more industrial look of heavily banded metal changes the feel of the miniature to be less military, and more well armed explorer. The heavy trooper's larger physique necessitated a different loadout, and so I chose to make him the team's engineering expert, armed with a remotely detonated breaching charge!

Lastly, I gave the squad leader a more specialised helmet design from the Gothic Void Engineer modular hero kit, (who's explosives I also used for the demolitions expert, above) and utilised the Gothic Void Command pack arms along with the Melee and Pistols set to give them an axe-pistol, and an always welcome pointing hand, found in many of our arm kits. This one was a convenient spare from the Renegade arm sprues I used for my next 5-man squad!

For the second squad, I went in the opposite direction entirely. These are no well-equipped explorers; these are Alien Hybrids with brutal, scrappy weaponry!

Much like the explorer team, the core of these alien raiders remains the same; the single-piece body of the Navy Breachers, but with the minor iconoclastic action of scraping away the emblem on the front of the body armour! Once again, the simplicity of exchanging arms, heads and backpacks, has had a very noticeable effect on the feel of the squad. Where the previous squad was regimented in their equipment, this team has each member sporting completely unique gear!

Probably the first thing you'll notice for this team is their mismatched weaponry and scrap armour. Obviously scavenged and in poor repair, the raider squad has more of a melee focus, pairing Renegade Command Arms with both the Raider Scrap Melee, and Renegade Melee weapons. On closer inspection, the bony ridges of the Alien Hybrid heads becomes apparent, and the story of this group of reavers comes into focus. Each Alien Hybrid has a backpack swap too. This time it's a Magma Power plant, which accentuates the industrial, banded metal feel of the Navy Breacher's armour. The squad leader is clearly visible at all times with a makeshift banner from the Raider Upgrade pack

More heavily equipped for battle, two of the scavengers have found some obviously military grade weapons; a Fusion Cannon and what looks to be a Phase MG-42! A simple muzzle swap and a battery-cell magazine on any projectile weapon is a really easy way to customise your guns, and blend them in to a sci-fi themed squad.

The last figure has gotten his hands on a pair of over-sized Punch Fists, and then customised them with bolts and chains over the knuckles... a crude, yet effective way to both intimidate an opponent, and increase the pain this heavy trooper can dish out when violence ensues. Given the armaments the other squad mates have brought with them, we can safely assume that these raiders choose violence more often than not!

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That's all for this time!

Which squad is your favourite? And have you converted your Navy Breachers with Anvil Industry parts? Let us know in the comments below!