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We are the Space Marines
The Champions of Humanity
Emperor's chosen warriors
For every one of us that falls in battle one hundred enemies will die. -Anon. (3rd Ed Rulebook)

This diary is basically an attempt to build the Imperial Fist army that I wanted to build when I was 11 and starting out 3rd ed 40k but didnt have any of the modelling or painting skillz to do so.

The army will be built using all my favourite marine bits from the whole line, as well as being modeled true-scale on 40mm scenic bases. Ill also be trying my hand at casting imperial fist symbols and junk with 'blu-stuff' instant molds.

In-game the army will be represented with the Grey Knight codex 'Draigowing' list format to coincide with the giant marines on 40mm bases. Im aiming for a movie marines kind of feel, 10 dudes standing against 1000, a really fluffy army if i can pull it off (which might be a bit of a challenge after my last army )

im using this painting as my reference point for the colourscheme


im using the chapterhouse resin kits to save time which will (hopefully) allow me to focus on just blinging them up and painting them kosher

in terms of countsas:
plasma guns will be psycannons
bolters count as storm bolters
combat knives are swords
thunder hammers are thunder hammers

and chainswords count as halberds



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As the army has such a low model count im treating it more like a force composed entirely of independent characters. This means ill be spending a fair amount of time switching combinations of bits around beforehand until I get the right kind of individualism from each model.

heres some dudes ive bin playing with. Im not sure which way to go with the backpacks - the chapterhouse ones might work if i add the vents from GW ones instead...but then they might be a bit too gigantic?









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The only other models I have in this house are space crusade mans but whatever itll have to do for the scale ref

I really like the concept of your daemon cubes, don't see why people get so worked up about it. Telling others what is and isn't allowed in a fictional universe is plain stupidity, especially when it is your time and effort you are putting into the models. If they start mouthbreathing the army sucks and wouldn't play against it, it's probably because they don't have the intelligence to grasp the concepts behind the army.

It would be great to see a Lord of Change with them made from epoxy, like a swirling spherical mass, and inject some inks inside as it sets.

Those Imperial Fists will look really good painted up. I have always like the look of truescale marines towering over the standard 28mm guys. Looking forward to seeing more.

Those extra tall marines, their scale doesn't look right to me. Like, either their armor is very thin or the bodies are completely wrong proportions. I get the truescale idea, but it still has to be in proper proportion. Like, the same chunkyness of regular marines, but wider. Maybe it's just the photos ... I'm not too familiar with chapterhouse studios' truescale marines.

they look alright to me irl

im using a crappy camera while my dslr is being loaned to a friend with a new baby girl

Why plasma guns for psycannons? Heavy bolters would seem like a better fit IMO. They are pretty awesome in the fluff and totally terrible in the game, where plasma already seems to do what is adverticed in the fluff.

The marines do look really good.

Clever idea for a quick and cool army.

Werd up!

I got a set of mechanical hammers and pre-heresy terminator shoulderpads from maxmini to spice models up a bit, so ive just been playing around with them today. I wasnt sure if the shoulderpads would fit right but i think they turned out ok for making character models stand out



i should be getting my instant mold by the end of the week so ill be able to start some more interesting things besides blu tacking crap together and cleaning mold lines

I like the look of them alot. You are making me want to do true scale lol. Best of luck on this project.

That's looking pretty cool! I love all the truescaleness. People are just not used to it now but after making some TS of my own, now it's ruined me because all my normal marines just look like they have midget or dwarf proportions. And they really do because of the abnormal size of the head and hands to the body. People are just accustomed to seeing it.

I think what you want to do with those backpacks is chop off the chapterhouse nozzles, then chop off the nozzles of a normal backpack and then put them on. That way you make all the backpacks the same. That makes a great truescale backpack, I picked it up from worthypainting's true scale dark angel's vid. And if you can find the bits for extra belt-pouches and stuff those things really work great on these figures.

They look cool, but aren't they a tad big?

Squigsquasher wrote:They look cool, but aren't they a tad big?

Perfect size for movie marines

Umm...What? I have no idea what Movie Marines are. I thought that GW models were already (mostly) to scale, barring older models.

(stolen from chromedog's signature) *Insert obligatory Jes Goodwin "Marine models ARE true scale, it's just the other sculptors that can't get the sizes right" remark*

vs

I started molding some custom shoulderpads with shriney skull things and imperial fist symbols. These are test molds to see where to make the cut for the 2-parter...hence theyre a bit off. I also made a testmold for backpacks with altered vents which actually broke as i was making the mold...but i still managed to salvage the majority of it (you can see the screwup on the vent). You can also see the test cast of a helmet which kind of failed - too many nobbly bits on a little thing are hard to cast.









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Also lastly here is my updated torso mold (added aquila) test cast as well as a shield made with a 1-part mold.

clearer closeup

Good job so far. I took the easy way out and just used the terminator and regular marine kit parts to make my truescale guys. Subscribed!

I made a mold for kneeling legs last night and I glued a torso to some legs and stuck a purity seal to a shoulderpad.

This marine has been issued fancy kneepads

Epic

I stuck the arms on this guy and gave him a cool bolter so hes ready to test out the paint scheme now

Great job mate, can't wait to see em painted !

heres a wip pic of the first guy to give a sense of the colours - im trying for a fairly muted pallet, im thinking a bit more red in the mix might be good though





ill take better pics once hes done, now that i look more closely im noticing how off the colours are in the photos compared to the actual model

it looks really good!

I built a second guy to paint up to tabletop while i decide on what im gonna do for the bases.

I was kinda worried this guy looked too much like a blood angel with those youthful locks so I stuck 2 imperial fist symbols on him


hes doing the 'yeh i have 2 ungainly weapons but im still gona yell at yo FACE' pose

so I was painting this guy and I started painting the plasma coil purple but then i was like ".............hmm. this is wrong."

so yeah, is the purple wrong? thinking i might change to blue or green. bare in mind the photos make the models seem overall more orange than they are

Wow, love this

I personally have always been a fan of blue plasma, and blue works well with yellow. Green could also be interesting but I think you're right, the purple just isn't working.

Best of luck with this project

You're amazing.

The poses and detailing are coming out awesome. I think those backpacks look much better that way, it tricks the eye for a minute that your looking at a normal model. And the bulkier kneepads go great on those legs.

Blue plasma, would go best for your color scheme and be easier to fix.

From the pic the color scheme looks a bit washed out to me, but if that's what you're going for you're right on the money. I think it comes from using so much white on the highlights instead of a brighter yellow. Almost looks like it's out of the illustration. However, if you feel like giving a try a thin glaze of yellow over the whitened areas would make it brighter and more three-dimensional.

Your cubes are one of my all-time favourite armies! The painting on these Fists is awesome already!
I like purple/yellow as a combo and I think yellow body, red gun and blue plasma will be too "primary coloursy". What if you used a slightly bluer purple for the plasma coil? I'm not 100% sold on the red gun to be honest and would probably try a more neutral colour...
How many models is this army going to consist of? I'd love to make some true scale Black Templars myself but I'm put off 40k by how many models you need...

Those painted guys are looking great. I like the purple plasma glow.