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As the title says, I'm sick of regular battlesuits and given their age the Forgeworld line has lost it's edge as well; the new Commander, Broadside, Riptide, and even the XV9s spoiled me! Rotating waists, knees and elbows that can be positioned...and proper armored bulk! My current battlesuit conversions are neat, but still not doing it for me - and my skills with plasticard and greenstuff are sorely lacking.

So, I've decided to turn to outside help! I have a friend who was originally slated to whip up a 3D model, but real life has made him too busy now; there's another potential taker lined-up, but I have yet to speak to him one-on-one. In the meantime, I figured I'd try my luck with the vast and highly skilled Dakkadakka community! This thread's open to discussions/deals/ideas for this work, as well as potentially even progress shots.

As for the build itself, I'm aiming at getting these at minimum with a $150 -absolute- spending ceiling for the time being:
-A custom torso
-A custom pelvis
-A pair of custom shins
-A pair of custom hooves/feet

Strongly desired, but not required:
-A custom jetpack
-Custom shoulders
-Custom thighs

And of least concern:
-Custom forearms
-Custom head

I'm currently participating in an art stream; if the artist is not too tired when it comes my turn, I'll have some concept artwork brought up to the thread! For now, though, all I have are my concept modifications of another 3D battlesuit, as well as inspiration work from both the 3D model's original creator as well as some of my own work. These parts/this model will be slightly taller than a normal battlesuit, clocking in at 65-80mm max height when standing straight. What I want to set it apart from other battlesuits, however, is the bulk; I want it to look like a heavily-armored, rough-n-tumble piece of futuristic military hardware. The Enclaves owners of this battlesuit variant has also gone as far as to study both destroyed and functional sets of Space Marine powered armor and even glimpses of terminator armor, and have applied lessons learned from those armors to this battlesuit. Now for the inspiration:





(Mostly the XV9 shoulders and the forearm in this shot.)

(Again, those shoulders, as well as the shin/knee armor and the bulk of the torso.)


(This one's just badass in every definition of the word. If the sculpt/3D model ends up being a remake of this then I'd have zero complaints.)

Are you me? I just started snooping around on shapeways last week for someone to design poseable legs for suits. The guy I've talked to was interested, but can't get started until next year due to prior responsibilities. Let whomever you get on board that they'll have another customer in me when they're done.

Hey Kepora,

I'd love to help you with this project but my wife is due any day now with our baby .

I've been meaning to get back into 3D modelling again. That Monstrous Farsight is really cool; I might give that a try as practice to get the rust off my 3D skills.

If I manage to make any worthwhile progress I'll let you know.

Don't hold your breath though; with my baby on the way I'm not sure how much or how long it will take to get anything done.

If i had the equipment or knew someone that did, i would make a copy of the current Riptide legs and scale them down. Unfortunately i imagine that'd be crazy expensive if you werent already into model making to make a mold for it lol.

The body of the Crisis Suits doesnt bother me, its the arms and legs. Kinda glad that the 2nd hand crisis craps i got off ebay awhile ago were so horrendously constructed, kinda forces me to kitbash them lol.

Garbled wrote:Are you me? I just started snooping around on shapeways last week for someone to design poseable legs for suits. The guy I've talked to was interested, but can't get started until next year due to prior responsibilities. Let whomever you get on board that they'll have another customer in me when they're done.

Will do!

Space Corsair wrote:Hey Kepora,

I'd love to help you with this project but my wife is due any day now with our baby .

I've been meaning to get back into 3D modelling again. That Monstrous Farsight is really cool; I might give that a try as practice to get the rust off my 3D skills.

If I manage to make any worthwhile progress I'll let you know.

Don't hold your breath though; with my baby on the way I'm not sure how much or how long it will take to get anything done.

Heh, congrats on your new Nurgling! If you get some time, though, I'd love to see what you can come up with!

Vineheart01 wrote:If i had the equipment or knew someone that did, i would make a copy of the current Riptide legs and scale them down. Unfortunately i imagine that'd be crazy expensive if you werent already into model making to make a mold for it lol.

The body of the Crisis Suits doesnt bother me, its the arms and legs. Kinda glad that the 2nd hand crisis craps i got off ebay awhile ago were so horrendously constructed, kinda forces me to kitbash them lol.

Not a bad idea, though you'd lose a lot of detail on the Riptide legs and you'd have to re-do the panel lines. The torso of standard XV8s is just too small, and a rotating waist is something I gotta have!

Well guys, for all who were interested, I may have found a MUCH cheaper solution to our woes:



http://advancedtautactica.com/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=21522

I've done very similar conversions on my suits too. the sensors you are using can be hard to come by but can be made easily enough out of plasti-card and green stuff, this would reduce the cost of the suits considerably.

Keep up the good work and I cant wait to see them painted.

Cheers
Pastel

Well, those aren't mine, sadly; but, coming up this next month, I plan to get some fresh crisis suits, bits, and finally ordering some proper plasticard...

Due to an incoming influx of new funds and the issues I've had keeping consistency with the conversion work - as well as ineptitude on the part of a certain plasticard supplier - I am re-opening this project! Spread the word to any sculptors, 3D modelers, and casters you guys can think of who might be up to the challenge!

Hey I've been having similar issues with the crisis suits - I hate how the art differs so much from the boxy model we get. I went to forgeworld too, but their XV8s are still heavily based on the crummy plastic model.

My recent "solution" has been to take the new commander farsight and cut him apart at all the joints and repose him. Then I stick on a new broadside head with the old XV8 jetpack and BAM it looks exactly like the second concept image you originally posted. This conversion gives you: extended hands, great flexibility in posing (knees, thighs, waist, shoulder, elbow, ankle, head) and it is very easy to do - the images show that there is barely any green stuff required (just the odd bit where there was a bit of a gap between cut joints).

The ankles are posable? From the images it looked like there's a piston joining it on the side. Mind giving me some detail shots?