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First off I'd like to say hello. This is my first post at dakka dakka. I'll get right down to it. I'm trying to make a true scale terminator for my Dark Angel army. It's still in the planning stage, but since I don't know yet how to shrink big pictures to fit on the post I'll just have to direct you to my blog where there are pictures and explaination. I would love any comments or advice anybody may have.

If all goes well, I'll post regularly on this thread. If I really like how it turns out, I'll try and turn the blog posts into a tutorial. Thanks ahead for any help.

True Scale Terminator Project http://barrykiker.wordpress.com/

I believe the website automatically resized images you post, so size shouldn't be an issue.

I think this is going to come out really well

Thanks for the confidence. Here are pictures I've made of what I'm planning. Hope it works.

The lines show where I'm going to cut and what direction.

These lines show where I'm going to put plasticard.
I'll put the torso pics up if these turn out correct. As I said, if all goes well, this should add about an extra 3mm to the terminator height, depending on the thickness of plasticard used.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Ok, that work, and they look good. So as promised here is the torso plan.

There isn't as much cutting done on the torso. I mainly just going to cut the breast plate in order to give him a bigger chest. Again the lines show what I'm going to cut and in what direction.

This shows where I'll attach plasticard. I'll smooth everything and fill in any gaps with putty. Just like with the legs, this will give him an extra 2-3mm increase in bulk, depended on what thickness of plasticard I use.

I was beginning work today on my terminator, and realized that I need a Dremal to make the cuts. Using an Exacto knife is not going to work. However, I did get a good start on a true scale space marine.
I'm using the terminator trick, but I haven't figured out how I'm going to do the torso. I've got a few touch ups that I'll have to do tomorrow when the putty has cured.

Be careful with the dremel. Those things have a nasty tendency of chewing off more then you planned lol. I find that regular box cutter razors work VERY nicely for chopping minis the way your wanting to. Obviously be really careful because your using a brand new razor blade, and one thats not in a box cutter lol.
Simply put the blade in the middle of what you want to cut, and apply the right amount of pressure and PRESTO it slices right through GW plastics.
Good luck, Ill keep an eye on this, simply because I like looking at people do true scaling

I would just say to go with the Exacto Knife just try to use the most sharp blades you have, or just buy new ones, A dermal night cause more harm than good, I have used dermals on plastic and resin, and it will melt the plastic in areas.

Thanks for the tips. I may retry the Exacto knife tomorrow. I'll be trying a couple of things tomorrow for my terminator. I forgot to mention that my final product will probably not be monstrously big. I got two ticknesses of plasticard. I leaning towards using the 0.5mm thickness for most of what I'll be doing to the terminator. I do have 0.3mm thickness that I may give a try on something else.

You could always use "For Sale" signs from the dollar store. They are thin for this project, durable, and very cheap. Plus, when they are layered the edges sand to a perfectly smooth surface.

This is looking really good, I want to see what the finished product will look like

Couple of updates:
First the true scale terminator. After about 15 minutes of cutting with a hobby saw this is what I get.


I'm not really happy with all the GS that's stuck to it where I anchored it. The cut came out well though; however, I have to rethink my orginal plan for cutting.

Instead of all the cuts that you see in previous posts, I'm going to make a cut at the hip and another just above the knee. This will still give me the height that I want, but also allow me to cut the shin vertically to give some extra bulk.

In the meantime, I tested some ways I'm going to be painting my Deathwing. Here are my two methods.
Method A:

Primed white
Basecoat of Gryphonne Sepia
Drybrush of Commando Kaki
Drybrush of Bleached Bone

Method B

Primed white
Basecoat Devlan Mud
Drybush of Commando Kaki
Drybrush of Bleached Bone

Opinions and suggestions are welcomed.

Final. Update on true scale marine.
I touched up and added a little more GS to what I did yesterday

Looks a lot better now. My next step is to cut just above the belt to add some plasticard. Otherwise, his chest will be at his waste. I'm still playing around with the torso, but with what I learned today on the terminator leg, I might be able to make some head way. I'll post what I learn.

method A works much better.

When making my terminators bigger, or just generally adding cardstock to my models, I like to use those throwaway credit cards that get sent to you in the mail. Beats having to shred them for security reasons AND it provides them with some usefulness I also use hotel room keycards when i need something a bit thicker.

I am also using up some old hotel key cards. Any suggestions on how to cut them and keep the edges straight and even?

Nice conversion so far. True scale are the larger models, right? I am still kind of a noob

Like a side, I spent the afternoon working on the torso of the terminator. This is what I got.


Just like the marine, I'll have to go back tomorrow to touch up some of the low areas. I think I will have to do something to the breast plate

Nifty job so far. And welcome to dakka.

Also, and this is a somewhat silly thing, but why do a true scale army? It supposed to be all proportional to a known real world object correct?

Are you doing this for the entire DW?

Cheers

Why am I doing this? I mainly want to do just Belail. I figured he is a special character and master of the DW so he should be large, but mainly I just wanted to see if I could do this.

Fair enough

Welcome to Dakka

Well, I took a break today from modeling. There was some painting I wanted to catch up on, but I did get more of the space marine done yesterday. Here are the pics.



My next challenge is to figure out what I'm going to do about the stomach and waste.

Holy cow! it's been almost forever since I posted anything on this project of mine. Anyway, here's the latest pictures on my true scale space marine. They're not the greatest pictures, but I think you get the basic idea.



It's primed in chaos black and base coated with Dark Angel green with a dry brush of Snot green. I'm still working on the shoulder pads and should be done with those in a day or so. Here's a picture to kind of give you a size comparison.



The true scale marine is just a hair taller than the regular marine, and as you can see, a bit bulkier, which is what I was going for. I think this method would be great for any special character and HQ choice. I would like to put a disclaimer that this is a prototype. A "mass produced" model is next. Basically, I know what I'm doing and not experimenting. Even this paint scheme is an experiment. Feel free to comment.