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If your legs go anything like mine did then you won't be finished messing with them untill their undercoated (any imperfections in your spacers come out better with a coat to paint) shaved and painted again.

Going for true/tall scaling this way can be a pain and takes a load of time but it's well worth it when you see the results.

Good luck

Yeah I anticipate this will quickly become a chore however it may be worth the effort.

 GrimDork wrote:
Lol weird. I'll change the title later as I wouldn't want anyone to get too excited in the wrong direction. To be honest though I don't put much stock in urban dictionary. Most of the crap people come up with these days is stupid from my frame of reference and I talk to so few people it doesn't come up. Good spot though, I guess the internet at large may assume my blog odd for the acronym.

...I just assumed that meaning was part of the joke. I'm glad I never made that reach-around joke I was think of...

Sheesh I guess I need to get more hip to the lingo if I'm gonna go around making acronyms...

So, "the Bottoms have invaded" wasn't intentional?


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I thought it was brilliant.

Meh I'm just making some blatantly over the top marines. They totally aren't into sex or bdsm or what have you. Just tall scaled and obnoxiously posed for maximum levels of epic. To the point of being part parody, but taking themselves seriously which I thought would make them even more obnoxious.

So far the only obnoxious part is getting this guy to look blatantly over the top.

So I think I may have figured out a good source for 1x1' pieces to use for my two intended board projects.

To show what I'm thinking here's a quick mockup of what my tank graveyard could somewhat resemble:


I was wandering through Lowes and I couldn't find anything like what I wanted in wood. I passed through the flooring/tile area and dismissed it since the linoleum/whatever tiles were too floppy, and the other would would probably break. Then I saw these and rethought. They seem like they'll be reasonably sturdy as they're pretty thick. I haven't measured but it's more than 1/4 inch, maybe upwards of a half. One did come chipped in the 10-pack I got but I figured I only *really* need 8 and it's probably possible to repair it. So for 10 bucks I got all of the basing material I'll need for both battlefields. They're gonna be heavy, the box of all 10 tiles was more than I wanted to lug around anymore than was necessary. That's kind of cool though, should be harder to slide them around on accident.

Here's why I wanted to do 2x2 1' tiles, inspired by the secret weapon boards I think:


As everything is gonna be glued down (may leave some scatter loose but only as an exception) the board would get pretty dull eventually, but by having 4 pieces, I'll be able to swap things around and create a lot more variability. The first setup is pretty random, the second lumps the majority of the vehicles with open interiors together. This will be even more useful for the desert base board as I'll be able to plan it out to have one 'default' set up with a certain disposition of alleys/open spaces, and then flip things around to shake it up and represent different portions of the outpost.

I think for the tank board I'll coat the tiles with that mix of plaster cloth and plaster stuff with which I've been experimenting. Probably pretty flat, though the area that has the 3 piled tanks will mostly be built up out of plastercloth and filler, and covered in bits of tanks, rather than precariously piled otherwise intact vehicles. I may do a compressed block of tanks too, like they do with cars some places but we'll see. The desert board may have a little more variation of height and maybe even some slopes. I think the desert board will also have a few 2-3 high buildings as well.

7 more pictures in the gallery here: http://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/images-70053-44191_Tank%20Graveyard.html , just some shots with models showing how it might play with the interiors and corners and such.

In other news, still working on my tall-scaled marine. I think I'm gonna give up on the crazy running pose, I just can't get it to look how I want and wasting that much time on the first guy will destroy my confidence and enthusiasm in one fell swoop. I'm gonna switch him to an ominous slow walk aiming the bolter with one arm while casually drawing the sword. We'll be going for a cool head and menacing affectation instead of explosive energy.

Looking good.

You may get some mileage out of this tutorial on Terragenesis for making wrecked cars out of alluminun foil.

Alluminum Foil and Plaster of Paris are a lot cheaper than Rhino Chasis.

I think I may have seen that one before. They're cheaper for sure, but I already have the Rhinos and I'm not sure I'll be doing anything else with them


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Not sure if it was the same thing or not but yeah you take the car and wrap it with foil to get a good match, then you squish it up a bit, then you brace it and fill the inside with plaster or whatever you wanna use. Boom crunched car

But this is a TANK graveyard It's got rusted out tank interiors that you can battle around!

I wouldn't necessarily go out and buy rhinos specifically to do this, but I've got them and I'm probably gonna look into the eventual warpath kickstarter for scifi tanks too.

You could use the foil and just do partial sections of the tanks to make it look like parts of the tank are destroyed or submereged.

I know you have them already, but Rhinos are just so expensive it hurts me to see them used as terrain. I was thinking of doing an Adepta Sororitas army and the cost of 9 Immolators and 3 exorcists I want for the list was staggering.

Yeah it's nuts. My rhinos all actually cost only about 16-17 dollars each from Neil at the warstore. I dunno if he still does but he used to sell them for cheap without the accessory sprue. Of course that means none of them have front hatches or guns or gunners, but those things are pretty readily replaced or replicated. Come to think of it, I believe a couple of them were actually parts I got in a large bits lot, that just happened to have enough parts to make 1.5 rhinos.

I may not use all of them in this way. I just really like the interior shape, the way the ramps and cargo portion make something like a neat paintball field or something out of a FPS game. The foil replication for corners and such is a good idea though, would be pretty smart to do that for the large junk pile I'm plotting for sure.

And for those tanks that I do use, I may consider making them removable, close all the hatches and just have junky rusty rhinos for some kind of traitor legion or what have you.

I just think I'll get more use out of them as a battlefield than I will ever get to use them in games of 40k as originally intended.

Ok guys here's my VS-method tall scaled techmarine and then another marine done with terminator legs. Which do you guys think looks cooler? I am not sure at this point. I damn well know which one is faster to do... Also not all of my terminator legs may be viable for this or at least not unmodified, the DA sprue termie legs are in an upright walking pose like some of the robed bodies, as opposed to the squatter marine stance that is so common (and that some of the other terminators have). I would be ok with buying more terminator legs or just as ok with hacking up those I already possess... if they look cooler. I'm thinking I can inject the models with a fair margin of badassery even without crazy running poses, and I'm also starting to think that such poses are going to be on the very edge of my skill set, possibly outside of it.

Terminator legs may also help to define the models as not power armor, which is fistgar, and any honorguard or so on. Devs I always thought may look cooler being stockier. Really as long as I don't bring any terminators along I think anyone *could* look ok with termalegs. Although vanguard vets would probably get running assault marine legs or potentially hacked up normal legs, it would help ID them as flighty jump packers anyway.

Not trying to see you guys, I want your opinion as I'm not sure myself. I think this makes the torso look a little long maybe, but there's just something about the terminator legs that I like, and the arms seem like the right length too, it's just the join at the middle that's potentially suspect. Also of note is that there's probably 3-5mm of space in the waist that could be cut out too, he's just sitting on top of some bluetak ontop of the termalegs.


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Oh, I think it's kind of amusing too, if I went with the termalegs they would have bigger bottoms

The terminator pants give it more a servo assisted powered armor look, which is kind of cool. My only concern is the waste line. On normal power armor the torso hangs over the belt.

In the pic, the blue tac obscures hows that join is going to look, and also gives him a bit of a marine in a girdle look. It's not a bad look, it just changes the silhouette, and I am sure it will look better without the gap from the blue tac.

The real question though is, do the terminator legs provide enough of a height boost ?

If you look they're the same height roughly and the term legs guy has a base that's at least 2-3 mm shorter than the built up techmarine base. I need to go ahead and chop the torso and put it closer to the final result for a fair analysis. And on the same base sizes.

How about now, standard cadian guardsman (ignore the head ) included for comparison.

Nice. He's a full head and shoulders over the Guardsman, and he's even taller than the marine you upscaled.

As I said in the other thread, it's still lovely, and your little edits and work make it look better than even before. Of course I am still biased to the one on the left.

The one on the left looks great as well, but at a significantly greater investment of time and work.

Terminator pants would be easier and less likely to lead to modelling fatigue ad abandoning the project before it's done.

Yeah. I was starting to get anxious just after working on this first guy... termilegs would be much quicker. And possibly more imposing.

I'd end up with over a score of mutilated terminator top halves...but might be worth it. AS much easier as it is I could eventually see doing even tactical Marines like this. Even if it meant buying loose termilegs and marine torsos.

Well anyway.. I may try a couple more tomorrow so we can see how it looks in less of a vacuum. Some of the termilegs I have are in the squatter marine pose but I think I could get them to work out.

Hmmm. I've used Terminator legs once as a truescale, it's a shame CHS doesn't have a truescale leg kit anymore...

Anyways, that seems like the way to go for painless results, I'm sure the first method would get frustrating. Can't wait to see what you post.

Yeah termie legs don't look that bad and looks much easier. I think they'd work pretty well for something like devastators like you said. Maybe do those first and you can see if you want to carry it on for the rest of your stuff.

Been trying it out with some other torsos and what not. Thoughts?

It's a servicable and relatively painfree conversion. I'm going to give it try once I get my hand on some spare Terminator legs.

Why not do termie legs for some and then proper true scale for some others depending on the poses you want. Dont have to do one or the other.

I like carlos13th's idea of doing some of both. If the other way isn't too frustrating that is...

I am also really digging your tank graveyard! I like the use of floor tiles as the base. I'm sure it will look good with the plaster cloth covering it up. I'm bummed to hear that they're heavy though. As someone who is always moving stuff around, I hate heavy.

We will see. It may or may not be visually jarring to have both kinds. I'm torn between getting running legs for the assault team or giving them both termilegs AND jump packs. I mean they're jump infantry, not flight teams. All they do is make hops. Look to things like Armored Core, I think its' a bout the same. Really light mechs could almost fly but still had to land, heavy mechs could do super jumps but not stay lofty. I'm growing fonder of the idea of having big stompy legged vanguard veterans to match everyone else. They'll need cut termilegs to have more dynamic poses though.


Game day at the library was quite fun. I got to lead both the rebel scum and imperial swine to victory during a couple runs through the same bomber escort mission. Neat little game, I'm afraid I may end up spending money on it eventually.

I also proctored 3 games of mars attacks for a couple of guys there. My grasp of the rules should be a fair bit better after seeing a few more games. With all of the zany antics, it's almost as much fun as it is to play anyway

Glad the game day at the library went well. Good to hear you actually getting to play some stuff.

Did you convince anyone to play 40k or other mini games?

For your tank graveyard and flyers, take a look at the prices for Dust tanks and flyers at FFG. You. Cannot. Resist.

I have a dumb question for you Grim.

When you are doing your works in progress, it seems that your models are attached to nails? How do you do that??

@Bob, Damn your EYES! Discontinue!!! I may have to get some dust vehicles jeebus. Maybe I put them on xmas list, and they spare some rhinos from the chopping block!

@Eyeam, I haven't convinced anyone to play 40k or anything yet, but the guy that runs the event (and the library) used to play 40k and maybe fantasy. There was also talk of mordheim so I may have found someone local to play the occasional game with, and I don't really care which one!

Yeah just flat nails, I think the nickname is ten penny nails. Get a bunch of them in a box from a hardware store for maybe 3 bucks. I just clean the foot and scratch up the nails surface, put a tiny dot of blue tack down to help with initial placement and provide a weak hold to help keep it from slipping while the glue sets up. Just plain old superglue. One of the tricks is actually getting them off, usually have use the hobby knife to pry them off, restic has a tendency to snap if you pressure it too hard, space marine legs you just get a thumb under their foot and you're usually GTG.

I use the nail method primarily for ease of painting, however it also makes an excellent dual purpose for dipping models with the drill method to clear the excess dip.


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http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/540/508854.page#6523356
And a quick tutorial/display of how I do the dipping with nails, if interested.


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Gah Bob... those Dust minis are so cheap =/ Almost a third the cost even at Miniature Market... Would really add some variety to the board too. Maybe I'll put the sale forth to the more savvy people getting me gifts this year..