Hi,
I thought to share another model with you all, not exactly
GW, but it comes close
For a competition on the
WIP forum we had to make anything that would fit on a 40
mm base or less.
Being fed up with making Games Workshop miniatures and wanting to do something different (bigger mostly) I decided to make a powered armour comparable to elementals from the battletech universe. After numerous sketches I decided on a variant and started building. Luckily I did not have to build from scratch as I had an old Starcraft 1:30 model lying about which I took as a base. I wanted to go for a more rounded look to the armour than the Starcraft marine has and modified him with plasticard accordingly, adding extra plates over legs and torso and changing the pose and weapons.
For a more boring and detailed description of how, what and why see below the picture.
If anyone can guess all the bits without reading the below you’ll get a cookie
Ares suit;
heavy powered armour:
There’s a space marine model in the picture for scale.
++boring bit starts here++
The original model had very disproportionate legs (far too tall) and I had to cut them down by almost a full
cm to look a bit more proportioned. Also, the shoulders of the original actually hang outside of the torso so I had to cut down the arms and place them more inwards towards the body to get a bit more realistic look. I say a bit more because I realise that this model is not even close to human proportions or measurements, but hey, it’s Science Fiction right? I kept the arms longer than normal as I imagine that a suit like this would sooner have robotic hands rather than gloves (see starcraft 2 teaser).
For the helmet I had several ideas, but in line with the elementals I decided against a moving helmet and went with an integrated, non-moveable helmet. As I figured that a moving helmet would seriously weaken an armour in having to be able to spare the room (ie less armour) for the movement and not making the helmet to bulky (ie less armour) to ensure movement isn’t awkward. Elementals are supposed to have 360 degrees vision supplied by sensors in multiple wavelengths and have static helmets with a small backup visor slit. This sounded much more logical than a moving helmet so I did the same.
The power plant was meant to be more like the elementals powerpack/missile launcher but searching through bitz and pieces for a nice looking vent I came across Space marine jump packs which looked like great vents when turned upside down. I bulked it out a bit with plasticard, a piece of Space marine dreadnaught powerplant (which was supposed to become the base of the powerplant at first) and cutof bits from the shoulders. I think the result is nice enough and with the time pressure for the contest I could not think of something else that would be easy and fast to make.
The shoulder pads are plasticard and again Space marine dreadnaught bits, this time the shin-guards. I liked the idea of segmented armour plates over the shoulder instead of the big round shoulderpads that Spacemarines and thought it might give a better protection when the arms are lifted.
I cut down all limbs to loose body parts so I could reposition them and added ribbing in the joints and plates to protect the ribbing during moving. The small kneepads are from the original model, glued over the extra armour. I wanted to add some extra protection for the knee ribbing and came up with this after seeing the new Starcraft 2 power armour. The feet stayed mostly the same, except for removing the square front section and replacing it with cut down space marine shoulderpads. The feet are extra protected with overlapping plates coming from the lower legs.
I enlarged the torso a bit with extra armour over the original torso and lengthened it a bit as well, adding overlapping plates over the middle to simulate a movable midsection. I kept the crotch guard as it was because I really liked the upright armour bit, protecting the belly section.
For weapons I wanted to go for a rocket launcher at first, like the elementals. But I decided against it in the end because I couldn’t fix it to the powerplant and it wouldn’t look right on the shoulder. I was toying with a moveable energy weapon like predators have and went with a crossbreed between a gatling and an energy weapon. It’s made from a Tau gatling weapon found in the steath suit box and a Space marine rocketlauncher from the vehicle extras (gee, can you guess what brand of models I have mostly…). Because of the time pressure I couldn’t build the main weapon I wanted, which would look a bit like a cross between a bolter and a Starcraft 2 gaussrifle, so for speed I adapted a Tau gausscannon from a broadside suit (the only metal item on the whole model) to become a very big handheld rifle. Using bits of plasticard and leftover sprue I changed the look a bit, also making it double barrelled. The handle is part of a Tau Firewarrior rifle. (still haven’t guessed my main modelling interest??)
I used magnets in the weapons and bodyparts to hold them together until I glued them. It really help when looking for the right pose as the magnets allow movement while working.
The colour scheme came partly from haste and partly from what I wanted. I didn’t want a brightly coloured knightly figure (like Space Marines), but rather I wanted a model looking as if it’s meant for fighting. I choose a tank-like colour for the entire model except for some areas where I figured paint wouldn’t hold so I left them metal. Also, some areas are left metal to give at least a bit of contrast as I realised the model was rapidly becoming a blur of green. My painting skills aren’t too great, as you can see. Thee metal being the worst of the whole model. Somehow I find steel colour to be more difficult than brass or gold… something to do with the lack of proper highlight colours for easy contrasting, in my eyes at least.
The visor was supposed to be like NASA helmet colour, the orange metal like stuff. But I couldn’t duplicate it so it just became orange, which does give a nice contrast with the green though. I added some damage to the paintwork where the metal shows through, mostly at areas where the wear would be greatest. Looking at it now, it could use some weathering and some more damage. Maybe I’ll do that someday.
The base was supposed to show him transferring from a base or deck to a platform or maybe guarding it. The numbers on the base are from a Zvezda tank kit and the platform I built from multiple types of plasticard. The base itself is the bottom from a 40mm culture dish.
++Boring bit ends here++
Any C&C on the model is welcome. I do not need any criticism on the paintscheme I know it’s not that good. I would like some pointers on painting better steel and weathering though as I want to weather him a bit. I’ll also transfer him to a 10
cm base and build him another gun.
By the way, I am looking for another starcraft marine model kit to build another one, anyone have one to spare? Preferably unpainted? Else I’ll have to build one from scratch, which will take me a lot longer.
Cheers,
Beork
