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I'm a bit of a kitbasher, or a lot of one, not sure I've had anything that I've built straight out of the box for a long while. I've decided that I want to do a project that I can centre around kitbashing, converting and sculpting to improve my skills and build something unique and personal. However, I'm also painfully uneducated regarding the fluff, though I will be catching up on the relevant material to help me build this army. Regardless, I'm doing my own thing because it's fun. And it takes longer, which means more entertainment value for my cash.

So, I've had a fascination with True-scale for a little while, and finally got my plasti-card delivered last week. So far, with some help from other inspiring blogs on and off Dakka, I've worked out my method for scaling up...and I've knocked out the first 2 with what I had laying around and begun painting. A little light on cash after xmas, so once I'm flush a full tactical squad to follow.

I'll post pictures soon.

So I got started with the plasti-card, only spare legs I had were some running legs from the sm vanguard squad, though actually quite keen on them now. Chopped those up as you see in the pics and got those spacers in. I don't want them to be huge art-scale marines, just to look tall and closer to proportionate superhumans, rather than squat gorillas.

I first widened the torso by 1mm each side, then extended the body by adding a plastic spacer to the waist, and filled around it with gs (greenstuff). Once happy with the positions, I smoothed out the torso and picked a helmet.

The arms I originally picked just didn't work, if running your arms would theoretically move opposing your legs, not tick-tocking like in the pic with the sword arm. As such, I customised an old bolted by cutting the mag off, drilled and cut the recess for the mag housing and made 2 spare mags. Why 2? The empty mag for the floor and a fresh one for his hand.


Didn't take any pics of this, but I rotated the supporting hand on the left, and crushed it around the mag, with a dab of poly cement to hold tight.

I'll post more


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Not happy with those pics, they looked the right way up, will work on how to turn them around in future posts.

Cool cool. Always interesting to see true scale marines, especially if there's gonna be a decent amount of kitbashing/converting too.

Looking forward to more.

EDC

So, first guy built, I'll be using him as a rough guide for size, but not forgetting that his running pose will add a bit of height too.

The next model I've started on is a little different. I've got the Blood Ravens Librarian from the Deathwatch kit, and yes, I'm bashing him.
I've removed all of the deathwatch insignia from the model, some with a scalpel, other bits with GS. Since this mini comes in a different format to the squads, I had to do quite a bit of chopping. Sadly I got a bit wrapped up and forgot the photography element here, but I basically separated him into legs and torso, then added size. Because of the intricate detail on the greaves, I decided not to chop those, putting the lower leg spacer under each foot.

I then separated the feet from the legs and the legs from the groin. I put spacers in at the soft armour, and once it was all dry got to posing him with a little white tac. Once I was happy, I glued it all in place, using a little blob of gs on each foot to rejoin to the legs, to help with repositioning but also adding height.

For the torso, I cut out the abdomen completely, cleaned up the upper body and then once the legs were set, used a good ball of GS to reconstruct the abdomen and the power cables on top. Smoothed it with a little Vaseline and left to dry.

Now, for that left arm...couldn't use the one in the pack, but I have plenty of spares. I took a pistol arm and a plasma pistol, also from the vanguard squad (I figured as a command figure it should be decorative) and set that up with the marked blood ravens shoulder pad. I the. Used a little green stuff and made another decorative pad into one with the librarian ram skull, for the power sword arm.

I haven't got pics, but you'll notice the gap between his left leg and loincloth, I rebuilt that with a bit more green stuff, doing my best to recreate the detail I removed in the chopping phase.

I've done more, paintwork has begun on both, but I'll post progress on that in a future post.

Thanks for looking EDC

Painting progress so far, neither are finished, but will showcase the completed minis when I get there.

Some progress, I've done a little painting, which I haven't documented as I get far too into it to stop, and I've also begun a new marine. I've taken a pair of walking/left leg forward legs from the deathwatch kill team kit, and I'll be putting this mini in the weaver shooting stance, with a pistol, with main weapon hanging from a sling post transition. For the arms I'll be using vehicle crew arms and probably some other bits like a left hand from the tactical squad bolter arms.

This looks great so far, keep it up and take more pictures if you can.

DaemonJellybaby wrote:
This looks great so far, keep it up and take more pictures if you can.

Thanks, always good to know if I'm going in the right direction. More on the way shortly.

I've got a rough stance sorted for the pistol guy now, and I've organised his primary weapon that will dangle from a sling and a sword that I'm going to put on his back/backpack with a little green stuff for a scabbard. Took a lot of jiggery pokery to get those hands in the right spot, but once they were there straight in with the superglue for a quick fix in place.

Green stuff work on the torsos for my pistol toting marine and another from the tactical squad. I have a bit more to do with filling out the upper bodies to the widened shoulders and some filling work to do on the legs with liquid green stuff. More to follow soon.

Very nice work on those they look great.

I've moved on a little with the green stuff work, and have widened both marines bodies out by .5mm each side, filling the body out with gs to match the original curves, and a dab of Vaseline to smooth it all over. More pics of completed torsos to follow.

Looking good dude.

The blue armour on the Librarian turned out really well by the way.

EDC

Great stuff dude

Love the 2 handed pistol grip dude

Looking great. I'll be checking back in. How'd you paint the red?

evildrcheese wrote:Looking good dude.

The blue armour on the Librarian turned out really well by the way.

EDC

Thanks EDC! I was pleased too, neither are finished yet, I seem to have gotten too engrossed in the modelling side of things, new challenges and all that.

JoeRugby wrote:Great stuff dude

Love the 2 handed pistol grip dude

Thanks Joe, I've seen it possible in other projects and wondered why the kits don't supply more realistic or dynamic ranges of motion, the goal will be to do more realistic actions and stances with the whole army. Appreciate the feedback very much.

KillaCam wrote:Looking great. I'll be checking back in. How'd you paint the red?

Thanks Killa, good to hear. If I remember correctly, I start with a black undercoat, then a base layer of khorne red. Then, based on where the light falls I apply a mix of khorne and mephiston reds to the lighter areas, using the greatest ratio of mephiston at the area most exposed. So the goal is a gradient, I haven't mastered it yet but I'll get there. I usually knock it back a shade or two on the middle of the process using carroburg crimson shade, and maybe some Nuln oil. Highlights are with wild rider red.

A few more shots below of progress, also had a play about with my pistol toter, but I think I'll do the later stance on another marine and keep the weaver position.

Also, I finished my chaplain, although he's not true-scale (I made the decision after converting this one) I think I'll get away with it due to the models pose and height...for now until I get really good at this. I took the blood angels chaplain model, modified his shoulder pad, weapon and jump pack. I really like the black wings, I may do this with the assault squad, assuming I can get a good set of wings together.


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N.B sorry about the sideways pictures, I thought I'd solved that until now...

Kitting the lads up for action, and I've put together a single point sling for the pistol guy's main weapon, I guess for wysiwyg it would be a stalker pattern bolter? I wanted it to be a longer barrelled bolter, emphasising the necessity for a pistol in close quarters.

More progress, pretty much ready for an undercoat now and I'll assemble it all later on.


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This sideways photo thing is getting old now, particularly given my efforts to hold the phone upright each time... must find a way to stop it.

Here's a bit of paintwork on the latest marines, all done with an undercoat of black, then a thin layer of khorne red, followed by a mix of khorne and mephiston reds ranging from 3:1 to 0:1 at the lightest parts. Now a coat of crimson shade to darken it again and smoothen the gradient and I'll do the highlights and details after.

Still experimenting (read arguing) with the camera over rotation of pics so please excuse whatever comes out.

Shade is dry, now they're a nice dark, dusty red, and ready for highlights and details.

Looking good. That bolter with the longer barrel is pretty sweet.

EDC

Love all the effort that goes into each marine! really pays off.
It'll take an age to get a large force of these guys though (unless you get into killteam) But when you do they'll be stunning.

keep it up!

I've painted the next two to the same stage as the others. All that remains is fine details, such as text on parchment/seals and the Ravens Insignia. I better get that done before I start building and I get distracted again!

Here they are, unfinished but close...

Nice work on the red there and good poses, subscribed

evildrcheese wrote:Looking good. That bolter with the longer barrel is pretty sweet.

EDC

Thanks Doc! How would you play a long barrelled bolter?

STG wrote:Love all the effort that goes into each marine! really pays off.
It'll take an age to get a large force of these guys though (unless you get into killteam) But when you do they'll be stunning.

keep it up!

Thanks STG! I'm enjoying the process and each time it gets quicker and easier. I have at least 9 more to smash out though so I'm going to be non stop for a while. Kill team is ok, played that with my space wolves, but I've got some ideas for some speeders, aircraft and perhaps some truescale tanks. A full force will be awesome.

lindsay40k wrote:Nice work on the red there and good poses, subscribed

Thanks Lindsay! I feel the red looks better in the daylight though.

Oh, definitely, there's a world of difference between natural and artificial light. I find a satin varnish coat helps, it eliminates differences in the various paints' reflective properties.

 lindsay40k wrote:
Oh, definitely, there's a world of difference between natural and artificial light. I find a satin varnish coat helps, it eliminates differences in the various paints' reflective properties.

Thanks for the tip, I'll take a look at that. Do you get from the citadel paint collection or another brand?

I'll post photos of all in daylight once I've got a finish I'm happy with.

Great Start! Can't wait to see more of your work.

A true scale army is on my horizon, they WIPs you take, the better

 Master Azalle wrote:
Great Start! Can't wait to see more of your work.

A true scale army is on my horizon, they WIPs you take, the better

Thanks for your feedback! I intend to make a pretty detailed blog, almost a how to for those who want to, but it's also a journey of discovery, you learn tricks and ways to change or improve the process with each mini. More to come soon, I'll do it in a batch next I think.