Some of my old Space Marines

 From my Youtube Channel another video short, this time of my Space Marines.

Enjoy....as always more to come.

Old Space Marine Conversions

 A compilation video of a number of Space Marine conversions that I have done over the years.  Granted most all of this was before you young guys had all of those fancy and cool bits by GW.  

Old Stuff Wednesday: Ultramarine Captain (Now OOP)

This is an old one, about 2002 for me.  I picked it up back then because I liked the Roman Centurion overtones.  I was probably the first time that I really tried to do some blending.

GW's spacemarines have really come a long ways since these OOP metals.

Ah the power gladius.  I believe that I converted the sword as the gladius was so short.

Old Stuff Wednesday: The Cerulean Templar

My first Cerulean Templar Emperor's Champion.  A lot of conversion work on this model dating back to around 2001.

I used a few Bretonian parts, but the bulk of the model was my green stuff sculpting in the Head, band around the head, the robe, the mail, and a bunch of other little things.

Old Stuff Wednesday: Big Screen TV 40k Templar

 Many years back I did a test sketch for one my 40k armies the Cerulean Templars.  I believe the sketch was done in pen &ink, water color, and color pencil.

 I actually built a spacemarine to look like the concept sketch

Converting the Old Space Marine Captain

I've always kind of liked this miniature.  It has a rather cool looking pose.  Having done this miniature several times I decided to convert this one and make it look a bit different.  So I added a new hair cut, a plasma pistol, an auspex and some draping to the back pack.

 I think it turned out the way I envisioned it.

And as much is the norm for my 40k modeling, someone is going to be painting it as I sold it to someone already.

Until next time.....

Space Wolf Conversions...Progress Shots, Part 2

 More conversions using the Chaos Warrior bodies.  Above and below you can see that I left the knees of the warriors in place.   The other thing you can see on these is that I used my dremel to remove the chaos warrior body elbow sockets.  Just another way of attaching the arms.

 So some progress.  As you can see on the one above I had to really blend in and smooth the GS on the leg.  The best way to blend that is by initially using a wet finger gently pulling across the GS for the general shape.  Then I use a colour shaper to finish smoothing and shaping the GS.

Never been a fan of all of the models must stand on rocks basing technique, but that is personal preference and what the client wanted.

Space Wolf Conversions using Chaos Warriors...part 1

 I've done quite a bit of converting of Chaos Warriors into Chaos Spacemarines in the past, but what a lot of people do not realize is that they make pretty cool looking Space Wolves.  Matt Gubser, who sculpts of Reaper Miniatures and a number of other manufacturers, was one of the first people that I saw do this style of conversion.

All this work is on commission, so I will not be painting any of it.  I'm instead painting Warriors of Chaos and Vikings at the moment.  The conversions require spacemarine legs and bits and Fantasy Chaos Warriors.  What I am doing is removeing the chaos warrior legs with a jewelers saw, and then adding the space marine legs in there place also cut with a jewelers saw.

Anyways, the models can be kind of stale, since they are based on the rank and file chaos of warriors.  So to make up for that lack of dynamics you need to overload them with detail.   So I've added a bunch of furs, beards, hair, claws, chain, and drapings, I recommend clicking on the collage photos to enlarge them.

The basing is something I normally do not like to do, but sometimes that is what is required, big rocks to stand on.  In this case the slate rock is faked by a large chuck of bark.  The miniatures above are just temporarily pinned to the bark at the moment.  Some of the hands are simply pinned for the addition of pistols and such later.

Above another view of the model on the right in the previous pic.  One thing I need to be a bit conscious of while doing these is to watch the knee knocking on the one on the right.

Green Stuff Cloth Tutorial - Space Marines and Norman Horses

Redmanphill over at the Subject to Stupidity blog requested that I do a tutorial of how I do cloth out of greenstuff or brownstuff.  So if you don't like this tutorial, blame him.  Anyways I'll do this with two items that I'm converting that don't have anything in common, other than being miniatures:  Norman Horses and Space Marines.  So I have you 40k and Ancients guys both covered.  This is a relatively simple method to use, yields relatively simple looking cloth, and will not give you a cloth look with a lot of bubbles or fingerprints, unless your name is Tom Schadle.

First thing I need is a relatively good piece of plastic that the green stuff or brown stuff does not stick very well to.  That is generally a higher quality zip lock bag, not your typical thin plastic sandwich bag but something more industrial, or the film that they use to ship the two part GS in.  So here I have placed some water on the plastic, get it a bit wet.  Take some GS and flatten it out in between your fingers and get the basic shape.  Place that over the wet spot on the plastic.  Now we will smooth that out and get its thickness to a relatively consistent thickness.  To smooth out the GS, I will use tool number 1, that we so back in my Armor Plate tutorial.

 
Matter of fact we'll use tools #1, 2, 3, and 6.  In reality you only need a tool like #1 or 'c' and something that looks like a toothpick (a wet toothpick will work). 

Next I cut it to the desired shape. Use the color shaper or spatula end of a metal sculpting tool to further flatten the GS.  This one will be for the Norman Horse, a bit bigger piece than would be used for the space marine tabbard. 

Let it set up and stiffen 5 minutes or so.

Now if you use a small piece of plastic film, you could pick it up by the film and apply it to the miniature or peel the film off gently and apply it to the miniature. If you peel be aware of finger prints and its important to let the GS set up for a bit and stiffen. Once on the miniature you will need to manipulate it.

For this, I'm using a very good sized zip lock bag, so I will peel it off very gently with the xacto. 

Now I place it on the horse.

Here on the horse caparison I blended the upper edge into the horse body simply with my fingers. To do the blending moisten your finger and drag it across the GS until it blends smoothly into the plastic.



The further smooth out spots where my fingers don't fit, I use the tools and press and move the GS into those areas. 

I also need a crease in the center for the seem holding the caparison together.  I do that with the knife edge of the spatula tool.

Next I use the metal toothpick like tool, the conical color shaper, metal toothpick 90 degree bend, color shaper chisel point, or a bent wire tool to add creases or folds. You can also add folds by gently bending the GS into a shape.

The Space Marine tabard is very much done the same way.  Get the general shape.

Smooth out.

 Cut to shape.

Peel it off and I apply the piece of GS to the spot where the torso is glued to. 

On the above I used the tooth pick tool to make the 'V' coming off the pelvic area.  Below I added a few more creases with the tools, and then added a torso to make sure everything blends in.

Wow.  Long post.  Next time I'll show how I do drapings off shoulder pads and legs of the spacemarine, when I begin my space marine project.

Old Stuff Wednesday - December ... Cerulean Templars vs. Nurgle

A long long time ago (circa 2004) Mike Butcher and I played this epic game of 40k in a local store, with tons of miniatures on the board, nearly every last one of them converted in some manner. I don't really remember the outcome other than I lost, but I took a number of photos.  Most all of the pics are after the unpacking.  Dig the craziness of the conversion work. Nothing like throwing down with really cool miniatures.

 He's phat.

 Help me!