1st post... FW Space Marine

**rich eighty1** · 06-17-2009, 06:04 PM

Hi all,

I\'ve been a bit of a lurker for a while, but have finally decided to raise my head above the parapet and make a post. :)

First up, about me.... I\'ve kicked about the GW side of the hobby, on and off, since my early teens. I started playing epic (when it was still called \"Space Marine\") and after a long stint making scale models started knocking about with 40k stuff a year or two ago. Recently I\'ve started to put together a Bad Moons clan, which is well in progress.

About the mini... I\'ve always had mixed feelings about the FW marine. One part of me has always loved the idea of a 6\" marine. The other part of me has always looked at the FW offering and thought that it has fallen somewhat below its potential, for a number of reasons:

1) that pose! What was the sculptor thinking?

2) Scaling. There are several parts of this guy that just don\'t look right! I\'ll point these out as I go

3) Choice of character. Whilst there is no doubt that a marine is cool, a veteran sergeant marine with chainsword and plasma pistol is sooo much cooler!

So I\'d stayed clear of buying it, until I spotted a post over on another forum. Then I stumbled on giganticdarks (http://www.coolminiornot.com/forums/...d=29899&page=1) awesome rendition and I was hooked! The WIP and PIP threads of his have been an absolute inspiration. If I am able to accomplish a fraction of what was done with that figure I will be made up!

So, this will be my interpretation of the FW model. A 7 foot defender of humanity from the Black Templars Chapter standing over his slain enemy(s).

To begin, a run through of some of the parts and what I intend to be doing with them... (n.b. all \"detail\" shaded in red is either for filling in and rescribing or complete removal - a lot of these lines are of an inconsistent depth and/or width and serve no real purpose, other than to make the marine look \"Busy\")

Torso

1 & 2 This \"detail\" has to come off - if you put the helmeted head on, there is no way it could remain and let the head sit flat.

3 This length is to be extended. The torso is circa 4mm too short by my reckoning. The underside of the breast plate I will add a couple of mil to and then extend the \"six pack\" by a further 2 mil or so. This may make the eagle sit too high - not sure how to solve this yet, though it may be covered by a tabard...

^^Another problem with the kit is the waaaaay overscale head. It would seem the sculptor has seen fit to make a head that is in scale with the complete armoured figure, rather than the man inside. This is a commercially available resin head that I plan to use, or a variant of (unfortuanatly I can\'t sculpt :( ) I\'d really like thoughts on scale here.

Arms
Okay, so these are fairly limited in pose, so it\'s going to be a case of cutting along the dotted lines and re-posing.

RIGHT ARM

1 Cutting line for reposition
2 Wrist to be extended

LEFT ARM

1 Cutting line for reposition

Legs
Pretty much the biggest job with regard to reposing is to slice apart the legs, remake the lost detail (gulp!) and reposition.

1,2,3 and 4 Cutting lines for re-positioning of legs
5 another problem with the sculpt - the joint between the Greave and Cuisse on the left leg - both armour plates would have to co-exist in the same space... this has been overcome by having the plates merge...
6 a great trench of a seem - not 100% sure how I\'ll solve this..

comments as above

That\'s all for now. I\'m out \"team building\" with work tomorrow and Friday night / Saturday sees me on a 50 mile charity walk, so I\'ll start carving, milling, chopping and sawing on Sunday if I\'m up to it.

Please feel free to post comments and suggestions - I\'m open to any ideas that would improve what I intend to do.

Have a great few days...

Rich

**Cleezy** · 06-17-2009, 06:09 PM

Sounds like a great plan cant wait to see you started. I think not only did giganticdarks marine raise the bar on whats possible but also inspired people to make their own versions

**freakinacage** · 06-18-2009, 03:04 AM

Originally posted by Cleezy
Sounds like a great plan cant wait to see you started. I think not only did giganticdarks marine raise the bar on whats possible but also inspired people to make their own versions

aye he has a lot to answer for!

**Joek** · 06-18-2009, 03:56 AM

Forgeworld rubbing their hands with glee as more and more of the damn things are being bought ;)

**frenchkid** · 06-18-2009, 04:20 AM

looks like you have your work cut out for you !!
good luck, looking foward to seeing what you make of that marine !! :)

And welcome to the forum !

**Trevor** · 06-18-2009, 07:42 AM

I may not be understanding this correctly, but I\'m not sure its a good idea to cut across the knee and elbow pads, these would not change size, so it would look better to cut the jopinting and reposition.

**GoffRokka** · 06-18-2009, 07:29 PM

Indeed, that WIP raised the bar on what can be done with conversion work. I was half tempted to buy one of those beasties myself.

Trevor brings up a good point though. Wouldn\'t cutting through the pads fundamentally change their shape and structure on the finished product? If you\'re trying to avoid that it may be best to cut at both joins and separate the knee and elbow completely before repositioning. It\'d certainly give you more flexibility in the final pose.

**Meph** · 06-19-2009, 03:09 AM

Oh, another FW marine! I\'ll be sitting on the front row for this one. I didn\'t have the guts to cut up my model as it was the first thing I\'ve painted in many a year.

But If I buy another one, that one will be chopped to bits too. :D

**cassar** · 06-19-2009, 05:55 AM

rather than lengthening the chest plate and the eagle issues that raises why not remove /re sculpt the belt and add the extra few mm on the waist, any oddness in the waist lenght could be offset by the addition of the terminator style hip protector plates i think giganticdark added something like it to his conversion. as for the leg re positioning thats a tough one serious amount of re sculpting there so you can either follow gd\'s method or learn sharpish how to sculpt lol. as for meph well he needs to budge over a bit on the front seat i have a feeling its going to get crowded. good luck. heres a conversion i did to heavey bolter if you are interested. have fun
http://i660.photobucket.com/albums/u...Picture186.jpglol

**psysquig** · 06-20-2009, 03:18 AM

Its a real shame that either GW or Forgeworld acn\'t realise the modeling potential of these larger scale marine (and the other races would be kewl) and produce a \'KIT\' of all the main componants in easy to manage sections..
Still gonna be an expert kit due to the sculpting envolved but if you could effectivly buy one of those 3\'ups in plastic or resin twould be kewl!!!

Think of the space marine captain plastic sprue but large scale!

**rich eighty1** · 06-23-2009, 02:51 PM

Evening all! A bit of a \"texty\" post this tonight.

As I was grinding away the eagle from the front of the chest plate last night (pics to follow!) khorne started to whisper into my ear... \"come over, come over\", soon he was joined by Nurgle and Tzeench and before long Slaneesh was at it too!

So I was wondering, has anyone ever turned this guy over to the ruinous powers? \'Cos the ideas got right under my skin I have to admit, and I reckon there\'s some serious potential. I\'m thinking world eater or deathguard could really rock... suddenly a goody goody templar doesn\'t seem all that appealing!

Okay, some responses to your kind comments...

@ psysquig. I\'d like to see this too. Or even just the marine broken down into more components. Think it\'d have to be done in resin (due to tooling costs vs potential return), but when you look and see most people who take on this model start with a dremel in one had and a file in the other I think it\'s something we\'d all like to see. So GW will never do it!

@ cassar. I get where you\'re coming from, and to be honest I\'ll probably build the elongated body first to see if I can get away without having to extend the chest. I just didn\'t want him to look like he was wearing an armoured bra! :) Love the heavy bolter, a devastator was one early idea I explored too.

@ Meph. Didn\'t realise you were over on this board too It was your paint job that I spoted on \"Work in Progress\" that piqued my interest initially. Not sure who i\'ll blame more if the girlfriend finds the reciept tho, you or giganticdark... :)

@ GoffRokka & Trevor. Sorry was perhaps a bit lazy with the photoshop. Everrything between the calf and thigh is coming out and a new plasticard / exopy knee is being used. I\'m trying to save the original elbows tho when I grind out the resin between the upper and lower arm.

@ Frenchkid. It was a good plan, \'till I started grinding off that eagle and chaos (my true master) started to whisper at me! Might stick with it, might not... Thanks for the welcome!

@ freakinacage & Cleezy. Yes he sure has a lot to answer for! :)

@ Joek. They probably are! :)

Okay cheers guys - if anyone has any thoughts on the change of plan let us know... I just don\'t want to make \"another FW Marine\"...

**freakinacage** · 06-23-2009, 03:42 PM

i say, go for pre-heresy world eaters

**GoffRokka** · 06-23-2009, 10:30 PM

I like the idea of spiking this guy up a little as well. I\'m looking forward to seeing the progress! Just remember, when life gives you lemons, BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!

**giganticdark** · 06-24-2009, 03:09 AM

rich

Looking good so far, I\'m currently turning one of these models into a Deathguard and having a huge amount of heretical fun at it. :)

I say go for it! And good luck.

**Meph** · 06-25-2009, 02:32 AM

Yarrr, how about a Soul Drinker? I don\'t know if you\'ve read the novels or not but they\'re a Chapter that almost got corrupted by Chaos but they were tainted in any case so now they\'re a Rogue chapter that walk the moral \'grey area\' between Order and Chaos. Several of them have varying mutations.

**cassar** · 06-25-2009, 09:40 AM

totally wicked set of books well worth a read:D

**nels0nmac** · 07-10-2009, 03:37 PM

Where did you get the resin head from, as I would like one for my FW marine?

**rich eighty1** · 07-11-2009, 06:58 AM

Head is a 120mm bald head from Black Dog. They do two sets - imaginatively called \'A\' and \'B\' - each of four heads.

Available from Historex in the U.K. - here and here

Rich.

**Cleezy** · 07-11-2009, 08:30 AM

My thoughts.... pre-heresy Emperors children or alpha legion.

Or post heresy thousand son

Think next pay day i may well pick up one of these marines and start chopping it up into bits too, just their is so many damn options to choose from haha.