Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

 Veteran Sergeant wrote:
I'd suggest checking out my way of doing it, but using Heresy models makes that a little more difficult. It does avoid all the common pitfalls of using terminator bodies though (usually weird waist proportions).

I love the rest of your project though. That quartermaster model is very inspired.

I've seen your marines before and I do think they are amazing. Your method of extending the legs fixes the problem with standard marine minis of the legs looking too short, and produces a very good and believable marine. I did consider using your method and spent a while pondering how difficult it would be to result the detail on the back of Mk II legs, if I sliced them in half.

After a lot of thought though, I decided that this method just wouldn't give me the sheer bulk I was after. I want my Astartes to look like the Giants they are described as in the Horus Heresy novels. I think using s combination of grey knight terminators and Forgeworld parts is the way to get the look I'm after.

Hmm, try to get your hands on some FW (or maybe even Iron Hands) Terminators to use as a basis for your marines. That way you can more easily recreate the older types of power armour. You might want to check out Apologist's stuff for that, he did some amazing work on his Ultramarines.

The Tartarus terminator legs look great for true-scaling, but the cataphracii pattern looks closer to the mk3, but maybe a little more difficult to pull off... Love to see what you do here

Fantastic work as always, I look forward to seeing more of your solar auxilia

A quick update for Christmas.

@Malika2 and @OneManNoodles, thanks for your advice. Cataphractii legs are indeed excellent and I've started working on an Iron Hand using a pair I just happened to have (I bought them from a bit site last year and up until now, had no idea what to do with them). This is where I'm currently at;



I've lengthened the legs a little to give him extra height. He has exactly the height and bulk I was after.

The Quartermaster is getting a bit of a make over. I've disguised his ruffled, medieval sleeves to better fit in with the dieselpunk look of the Solar Auxilia and I've replaced his sword (which I was never happy with) with an ornate laspistol. He still needs a bit of work to finish his painting.

For my Solar Auxilia, I'm going for a very dark colour scheme. There is nothing cheery about the crew of the Euripides. These are people who think they have lost everything and are determined to fight to the last man to take revenge on the traitors. Gloomy, gothic and mechanical is what I'm aiming for.

Thanks for reading and a Merry Christmas.

Interesting Project! can't wait to see the rest of your Marines. I love the Iron Hands fluff!

He looks so good (size-wise) when compared with the rest. Really well done mate.

Nice work there bro.

My first art-scale marine is now built and ready for some paint.



Since I'm trying to represent the Iron Hands after the death of their primarch, I'm going for a slightly unhinged, brooding look with these marines. This still remains something of an experiment, but if I can pull it off I'm hoping to build a few more later.



You can read more on my blog: http://deusimp.blogspot.co.uk/

Beautiful work.

 Gitsplitta wrote:
Beautiful work.

Thanks. Much appreciated

This Iron Hands marine is one of the finest conversions I've ever seen. I love the additional armor plates you've sculpted over the GK torso. The rivets and trim are absolutely perfect in my opinion. Would you mind explaining what bit you used for the back half of the torso? I can't tell if it's a shaved down back half of the GK terminator torso, a regular power armor torso or something else entirely. A picture of the side and back of the torso would be most welcome if you have one. I almost forgot to mention the extra armor plates and rivets over the Cataphractii's pturges, they perfectly tie the torso and legs together.

ephrael wrote:
This Iron Hands marine is one of the finest conversions I've ever seen. I love the additional armor plates you've sculpted over the GK torso. The rivets and trim are absolutely perfect in my opinion. Would you mind explaining what bit you used for the back half of the torso? I can't tell if it's a shaved down back half of the GK terminator torso, a regular power armor torso or something else entirely. A picture of the side and back of the torso would be most welcome if you have one. I almost forgot to mention the extra armor plates and rivets over the Cataphractii's pturges, they perfectly tie the torso and legs together.

Thanks Ephrael. I did use a complete GK terminator torso as the base. The 'hood' part was cut away from the back and I filed down the big rectangular lump at the back. There is still a big rectangular lump there, but it doesn't stick out as far and gave me a nice area to glue the backpack onto. I don't have a picture of the torso under construction, but the back now looks like this;

Woah! Love the size of your art scale miniatures, makes space marines seem like giants which makes me feel all awesome, I can picture being a screwed guardsman before a massive marine clad head to toe in thick plate armour strides over me
Subbed! Keen to see the paintjob~
LDP

Thanks for the fast and informative reply MonkeyBallistic! I tried making a true scale torso from a terminator GK and did exactly the same thing with the back of the torso. I lack the sculpting skills to modify and improve the chest like you have. It's good to know that such beautiful results can be achieved with the proper artisan and putty.

Very impressive. I'm not typically a fan of Tallscaling, but that works very well.

Great stuff. I love all the models, but the marine is especially wonderful. I really feel like GW missed the mark on the marines. I love mine, don't get me wrong, but way back in second when I pretty much switched to orks only, my marine player friend would always talk about how there should be only a handful of marines on the table compared to other armies and they should be big and very powerful(game wise).

But honestly, they wouldn't have sold as many if you couldn't field a large marine force and the game may not have taken off. That being said, I still have my RT marines and man are they small.

Your Iron Hand marine is quite imposing. Great thread.

Beautiful work. I'm adding a comment just so I can keep following this!

I know some people like to see work in progress photos, so here is the Astartes in his current form. All dark and grubby and awaiting ... well pretty much everything.



I've developed a painting style which could best be summed up as, slapping it on and hoping for the best. Like my first attempt at an Iron Hand Astartes, I'm avoiding painting him black. I'd rather suggest black using shades of slate grey. This time I've added some brown in some of the recesses to add interest and warm him up a little. This Iron Hand is going a bit rusty, I think.

A long way still to go to finish him.

He's looking very cool!

I must say that your WIP painting looks great so far. I like the way that you've painted the black armor and the weathering too.

That Iron Hand looks awesome

I'm a bit confused by how you said you painted him though; you mentioned painting him black using shades of grey? Did you start from a dark grey (Eshin grey?) and then added some black to the grey with each layer?

Gorgeous work – a new favourite, I think!

Thanks everyone.

 Ezra Tyrius wrote:
That Iron Hand looks awesome

I'm a bit confused by how you said you painted him though; you mentioned painting him black using shades of grey? Did you start from a dark grey (Eshin grey?) and then added some black to the grey with each layer?

If you take another colour, green for example. One way you can paint a mini is to use a mid tone as your base colour, then use darker shading and lighter highlights to produce a good 3D effect. The danger with black is that if you use a black base, you've nowhere to go with your shading. You can highlight black, but then missing the deep shading can make it look flat.

To get round that, I'm using a base colour of a charcoal grey. Using black ink washes for shading and lighter blue-grey highlights. The effect is more interesting than a black base coat. Iron Hands are meant to have black armour, but I prefer my charcoal grey. Once the armour is weathered it should look like it could once have been black, but is now dirty, chipped and generally battered.

Wow this is some amazing stuff. I am really liking your cairn wraith conversion.

 MonkeyBallistic wrote:
Thanks everyone.

 Ezra Tyrius wrote:
That Iron Hand looks awesome

I'm a bit confused by how you said you painted him though; you mentioned painting him black using shades of grey? Did you start from a dark grey (Eshin grey?) and then added some black to the grey with each layer?

If you take another colour, green for example. One way you can paint a mini is to use a mid tone as your base colour, then use darker shading and lighter highlights to produce a good 3D effect. The danger with black is that if you use a black base, you've nowhere to go with your shading. You can highlight black, but then missing the deep shading can make it look flat.

To get round that, I'm using a base colour of a charcoal grey. Using black ink washes for shading and lighter blue-grey highlights. The effect is more interesting than a black base coat. Iron Hands are meant to have black armour, but I prefer my charcoal grey. Once the armour is weathered it should look like it could once have been black, but is now dirty, chipped and generally battered.

So you paint all the armour charcoal grey first, and then work with dark washes for the shades and lighter greys for highlighting (but still starting from a black primer)? Or is the primer itself charcoal grey?

Sorry if these questions are a bit silly, my painting skills and knowledge are questionable at best

No, not a silly question at all Ezra. I use a black undercoat and brush the charcoal grey over that. The whole mini was then given a wash of agrax earthshade. I've worked a dark rusty brown into some if the recessed areas and joints and the next step will be to shade with black ink and highlight in lighter greys. So far, only the mini's right shin plate is close to completion, but that will give you an idea of the look I'm aiming for.

 MonkeyBallistic wrote:
No, not a silly question at all Ezra. I use a black undercoat and brush the charcoal grey over that. The whole mini was then given a wash of agrax earthshade. I've worked a dark rusty brown into some if the recessed areas and joints and the next step will be to shade with black ink and highlight in lighter greys. So far, only the mini's right shin plate is close to completion, but that will give you an idea of the look I'm aiming for.

Hm that is interesting, and kinda the same path I will be taking for my 30k dusk raiders. Glad to see that it works

Aaah, now I understand Thank you for the explanation, it's always good to gather some new painting tips!

Because as you all know.... knowledge is power.


I mean, uhm, THE FLESH IS WEAK!

*sound of several, totally-not Blood Ravens escaping the armoury with valuable Iron Hands relics*

I freely admit that I have a problem when it comes to sticking at a task. I'm just too easily distracted. So, I broke off from working on my art scale Astartes to finish painting my first Solar Auxilia.



I bought these chaps on a whim because I loved the sculpts so much, I'm not trying to build an army here, so it may take me a very long time to get round to painting all twenty of them. However, they may also turn out to be a nice change of pace whenever I want to take a short break from converting. It could be good to just have a few miniatures which I build straight out of the box, as it were.

Excellent stuff as ever! Your blacks and metallics are fantastic!