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Greetings! I've been collecting IG for some time now, but my army is fairly beefed up so I've decided to begin collecting Space Wolves, because I like the look of their miniatures and their rules However, I don't want to paint them in blues and greys. I'm rather fond of a steampunk colour scheme; dark red and mahogany, with bronze and black trimmings, but I also want my marines to look the part as well. Thus I come here, asking for help from the professionals that make this modelling stuff look easy: how can I make my space pups look steampunk? Should I attach random wires everywhere? Should I position them differently? I'm going for a "Space marine wearing bulkyier than normal, primitive armour" rather than "mindless automaton", just to clarify.

You could always replace the backpacks with some kind of boiler with a smoke stack.

Add in a few pistons on the joints etc.

And I would definately look online for steampunk powered armour to give you some ideas. Don't just start hacking up the models without planning what you want, or it will be a mess

What about swapping their helmets for this?

Pistons on the legs and arms, made from thin styrene tubes.

Defo go for old-school diving helmets^^

Try and get a bunch of watch cogs from eBay or similar (check out "Klaus' Iron Hands" blog for info.

Green stuff some leather gloves / use CSM gloves for an old-school look.

Smokestacks etc is a good idea. Try and get some heads with welding goggles for sgts / scouts

SilverMK2 wrote:You could always replace the backpacks with some kind of boiler with a smoke stack.

Add in a few pistons on the joints etc.

And I would definately look online for steampunk powered armour to give you some ideas. Don't just start hacking up the models without planning what you want, or it will be a mess

I have some old SM models lying around that I'm using as trial runs, so I'm not afraid to chop and glue like a mad scientist

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. Does anyone know where to find helmets like that in the right scale for my marines? Or will I have to get some green stuff to sculpt my own?

I saw that picture in a previous "Steampunk" SM attempt. Nothing happened so I left the thread alone. Please dont dissapoint me

I think its a great idea and definatly one that should be tried out. For fluff reasons you could go with a legion of marines that have been cut off from their homeworld and almost all communication is broken. So they rebuild their armours and mechanisms with scavenged pits from the current planet and the ship they crash landed on . . . or something

I dont know where you could find scale helmets like that but if you could find some sort of smallish light plastic ball that you could add to with wire, GS and bits that look cool.

Then go with the pistons, cogs and other steampunky doohickeys

Draw up some ideas and lets see what you come up with

~Toxic

There was a nice DIY Chapter of Space Victorians called the "Sons of Empire". You can find the blog here, but you'll have to root around a bit. I seem to remember a brilliant techmarine model a while ago, but I can't find it now...

For the heads you could use these
http://www.maxmini.eu/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=12&products_id=60

As others have said add boilers onto their backs and pistons onto their arms and legs.

You could also use GS to give the armour a much more plate like feel. I think you need to make them more knight like then add the steampunk stuff.

How do you reckon the bolters should be modified? SHOULD they be modified? I think they look a bit too... plain at the moment, but I don't know how to fix them!

Check out this site.

They apparently have some steampunk bits. this thread has some upcoming "steampunk legs" that they will be adding to the site.

Add some mechanical limbs. Also, maybe simplify the armor so it doesn't look so futuristic. Make their bases look like they are inside some type of steam powered vehicle, 'cause that would be coooool!

I think a lot is about colours. Brass and polished dark wood makes most anything look steampunk. This webcomic: www.girlgeniusonline.com has a lot of nice steampunk robots and machinery to inspire you (as well as being awesome in many other ways).

I saw an awesome set of steampunk bases, all clockworks and stuff, a month ago on some small independent retailer. I'll see if I can dig it up again.

Rivets, wood effect panels, brass, springs, steam engines/chimneys.

Goggles (perhaps combine some warmachine parts to your army, I believe they have a good bits service).

try looking into more clockwork mechanisms on their back. Instead of boilers just have the backpacks with all kinds of gears and springs attached to different mechanisms on their bodies. That would look really cool.

Windup armour?
Bolt throwers?
Look at the big guy from Bioshock.

Some links for inspiration:


http://www.ramshacklegames.co.uk/nuclear/thingstocome.html



http://brassgoggles.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=13051.0

For the bolters and weapons, add gears and rivets wherever you can.

As long as you don't go overboard, Ork weapons could be a good starting point. Also, 2nd edition bolters and bolt pistols would probably be a better choice than the current edition bolter style.

tblock1984 wrote:Some links for inspiration:

http://brassgoggles.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=13051.0

Those helmets are awesome! I mean with the headlamp-face bit. Damn! Might hafta do something with that.

Vikings already IS a dominant theme, mixing medieval accessories with steam punk accessories reduces the effects of both IMHO, so I would chose only one theme.

I like those Brassgoggle-conversions. Does anybody know where to get those deep sea diver helmets?

Here are Pith helmet heads with gas mask http://shop.ramshacklegames.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=18&products_id=213 (also Sikh heads with gas masks available), here pith helmet heads without gas mask http://www.empressminiatures.com/userimages/procart5.htm . Westwind also has nice WW2 heads with http://www.westwindproductions.co.uk/catalog/index.php?cPath=126_149 or without gas masks http://www.westwindproductions.co.uk/catalog/index.php?infoBox=1&cPath=130 .

You might also want to have a look at old Warzone miniatures with British http://www.princeaugust.ie/target_games/index_imperial.html and WW1-US-style power armour (Light Infantry http://www.princeaugust.ie/target_games/index_capitol.html ).

Thanks for the tips and suggestions everyone. I'm going to sketch up something suitably steampunk-ish and we'll take it from there. I will also go trawling through all the links and find some bits that might work.

Alright I've experimented a bit with green stuff and test subject alpha, a dismembered space marine, and have succeeded in making him look like a very tall blacksmith. I think that will be one of my biggest problems, what to do with the torso, and how to position the model overall. The heads I can buy, gears and cogs I can also buy and hack up to glue on the minis, but what do I do with the torso? For reference, I've decided to go with those 'steam knight' heads ( http://www.maxmini.eu/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=12&products_id=60) that 4M2A suggested. The deep diver heads I might reserve for terminator armour. I tried to make some plate armour for him, but it turned into a smithy's apron, so yeah... The boiler backpack is another issue, though not as dire as the torso.

Any ideas?

Needs moar pics.

alexwars1 wrote:Needs moar pics.

I don't actually have anything to take pictures of. The blacksmith marine has been dismantled again, ready for another try later on.

tblock1984 wrote:Some links for inspiration:

Thanks to your links, I ended up spending money on ramshackle games, knowing nothing about the game or even knowing they exist. Now im just waiting for the models in the mail,damn you, and if they are great like I hop then I will have to thankyou as well.

dimmy52 wrote:Alright I've experimented a bit with green stuff and test subject alpha, a dismembered space marine, and have succeeded in making him look like a very tall blacksmith. I think that will be one of my biggest problems, what to do with the torso, and how to position the model overall. The heads I can buy, gears and cogs I can also buy and hack up to glue on the minis, but what do I do with the torso? For reference, I've decided to go with those 'steam knight' heads ( http://www.maxmini.eu/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=12&products_id=60) that 4M2A suggested. The deep diver heads I might reserve for terminator armour. I tried to make some plate armour for him, but it turned into a smithy's apron, so yeah... The boiler backpack is another issue, though not as dire as the torso.

Any ideas?

Perhaps use these marine torsos? They look pretty steampunk to me, especially if you do up the vent and straps in copper/brass. oh, and a boiler glow in the centerpiece. (that might be a little too over the top)

Those are btw the assault marine jumppacks. The straps are supposed to hold the jump pack in place.

nope, there mark v

anywho it love to see a big daddy(bioshock) dreadnaught!

Mellon wrote:Those are btw the assault marine jumppacks. The straps are supposed to hold the jump pack in place.

Normal marines use them too, they're Mark V as physcosamatic said.

Sweet, I'm learning something new today. Let me rephrase then: If you buy a box of assault marines, you will get plenty of those torsos. :-)

Mellon wrote:Sweet, I'm learning something new today. Let me rephrase then: If you buy a box of assault marines, you will get plenty of those torsos. :-)

The assault marine torsos look slightly different. The straps are more 'paneled' than 'ribbed' like the mark V torsos are.


Either way, I believe MrToxichazard was referring to me when he saw somebody post that steampunk iron man. I too want to see this thread go somewhere, and out of sheer desperation I might try and do some steampunk CSM myself. I'd also try and use that spider from Wild Wild West as a titan or a defiler. (would have to scale it down for defiler though ) I'm hoping that I'm not all talk and that I'm biting off more than I can chew!