Tutorial: Space Marine Holster

And they shall know no fear.

We were pretty excited about Games Workshop's first “regular” Space Marine release in years with the MKVI Space Marines for Horus Heresy. So much so that we created a tutorial for giving them a smaller, more functional looking boltgun. When building one of the Space Marines, we were dismayed by their gigantic bolt pistol holsters. Out of the box they are so large that they hardly fit on the models themselves. We decided to convert one by cutting it down, and figured it was worth writing a short tutorial on how you can do the same!

Horus Heresy: MKVI Space Marine Impressions

From left to right: Klaasje Akhmatova Bibliognost of the Church of the Red Athenæum, MKVI Space Marine, Primaris Space Marine (modified to remove some of the more glaring Primaris details).

After the advent of Primaris Space Marines, we assumed Games Workshop would never make another traditional Space Marine model. To our surprise, Games Workshop used the rerelease of a new edition of the Horus Heresy to redesign a traditional Space Marine in the wake of years of Primaris releases. We were fortunate to be able to get a set of ten of the new Space Marines, and after assembling one, and converting a smaller bolter for them, wanted to tell you our thoughts about the models.

Tutorial: Converting an Umbra Pattern boltgun

From top to bottom: Primaris Auto Bolt Rifle, Umbra Pattern Bolter (MKVI HH marines), converted Umbra Bolter.

Over the years I have converted multiple more realistically-scaled boltguns, including a SMG styled one based on a Delaque flechette pistol and one from a Primaris heavy bolt pistol. I even created a tutorial showing how to convert a boltgun scaled to suit a Sister of Battle. Despite all of these conversions, I never actually made a tutorial showing how to create a boltgun variant for Space Marines. With the recent release of the Horus Heresy MKVI Space Marines, I thought it would be a great opportunity to take one of the new beakie marines and convert their Umbra pattern bolter to be smaller and ultimately more sensible.

Conversion Corner: True-scale Space Marine two

They underestimated the force behind the hatred.

When I was converting my recent Iron Snake True-scale Space Marine, I came across an old bolter I had started converting out of a Primaris Reiver heavy bolt pistol. The half-finished conversion seemed to be a great starting point for building a second True-scale Iron Snake. The process was quite straight-forward, following the same procedure as before, removing many of the more obvious Primaris elements. Most of the effort for the conversion was in creating the bolter.

Dragged into Turbolasers Episode 10: The Deathwatch and the potential of the 13th Black Crusade!

Burn! Kill! Maim!

We begin the episode talking about Games Workshop’s new Deathwatch models, as well as discussing the strengths and shortcomings of the new codex book.  We then move into the main subject of the episode, which is discussing the ramifications of the new Traitor’s Hate supplement being labeled as a part of the 13th Black Crusade.  We talk about how they explored the crusade over ten years earlier with the Eye of Terror codex, and how this would be a way to modify that background and advance the storyline of Warhammer 40k, which has been stagnant for many years.

Leviathan Dreadnought: Impressions

Blood Runs.  War Calls.

I do not think that I am out of line by saying that we all love Space Marines.  And for the most part, Games Workshop has created a fantastic line of models to represent them on the tabletop.  There is one notable flaw with them, however, and that is that they simply are not in scale with other models in Warhammer 40k.  Instead of being mythical godlike giants, they stand as tall as Imperial Guardsmen.  Because of this, many talented people have created their own “true-scale” marines.  Just to name a few, MoneyBallistic has some seminal Iron Hands, while Kari has some terrifying Red Corsairs.  Also from Iron Sleet, Migsula is creating a whole army of properly scaled Space Wolves with his Vlka Fenryka project.  The only other thing as iconic as a Marine in power armor is the lumbering armored sarcophagus that is the Space Marine dreadnought, so it stands to reason people would want to try to create a true-scale version.  This task, however, presents a whole new range of challenges.  While not easy by any means, the task of creating true-scale marines is dramatically aided by the availability of plastic and resin terminators, whose added bulk is often a good starting point for such conversions.  But when one tries to move beyond simply creating warriors in power armor, the task becomes substantially harder, because all the Space Marine vehicles are based upon the improperly scaled power armor marines.  There is really only one other plastic kit, besides the basic dreadnought box, that might serve as a base for such a conversion, and that is the Dreadknight.  As a part of his Invitational entry, Kari did exactly this, to excellent effect.  The Dreadknight’s long limbs do not quite mirror the aesthetics of the traditional Dreadnought, so I have been looking for alternatives.  I am excited to say that the search may be over, after seeing Forge World’s newest release, the Leviathan pattern Dreadnought!

Deredeo Dreadnought: Assembled

Dreadnoughts keep getting bigger and bigger!

Forge World has a particular talent for making impressive robots, from the cyclopean Warlord titan all the way down to the more humble dreadnought.  In recent years, Forge World have done a lot with their Contemptor dreadnought, making countless variations and legion specific versions. Just when I thought they had reached a natural end, they released an even bulkier variation of the Contemptor theme, the Deredeo pattern dreadnought.  In the excitement that accompanies any FW release, we promptly purchased one. Despite our excitement, and getting an incredibly well cast version of the dreadnought, other projects pulled us away from the new dreadnought, and it did not get built.  In the last few weeks, however, something pulled me back to the armored giant, and I was able to clean and assemble the model rather quickly (and just in time for FW to release another new dreadnought, the Leviathan Dreadnought?!).  Although it was a fairly straightforward build, I thought that I would give you some of my thoughts about it, along with some pictures!