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.

Conversion Corner - Space Marine Operative

The Happenin' Habber stands next to her newest Space Marine friend.

For the second installment of Conversion Corner, I decided to focus my attention on converting a Space Marine operative. I have been exploring the design for Space Marine weapons, namely the bolter (True-Scale Marine, Elder One Othalanga; Primaris Marine) for a while now. For this marine I wanted to delve even further into creating a sub-machine gun (SMG) variant of the bolter (and challenge the commonly perceived size of such a weapon). Additionally, I wanted to experiment with equipping a marine with one of the Genestealer cultist shotguns. Since their release, I always thought they would work perfectly on Space Marines, particularly the Primaris-scaled Marines.

Between the Bolter and Me: 2017, a year in review

Onward to 2018!

It is hard to believe, but 2017 has come to a close, marking five years for Between the Bolter and Me! Just like each year before it, 2017 proved to be quite different from the previous years. While 2016 was filled with attending collaborative events (the Pilgrym and Curse of the Alabaster), 2017 was much more introspective, as we honed our image of what makes a responsible and effective model (namely by examining female representation as well as logical anatomy). We also learned a lot of new techniques, including resin casting and working with non-acrylic paints. With this post, we wanted to recap all of the projects that we have been working on over the last 12 months.

Thorn Moons Crusade: Elder One Othalanga Painted

From Throne to Thorne.

Elder One Othalanga is complete! At times it seemed like he would never be done, with all the  sculpting, casting, and experimentation on the proportion of Space Marines, but after 8 long months, he is done. He was created for Iron Sleet’s upcoming Thorn Moons Crusade, a collaborative event where the Imperium, led by a horde of Vlka Fenryka, is attempting to the expunge the Green Mechanicvm from existance. The Elder Ones are a mysterious Space Marine chapter dating back from the time of the Great Crusade, who were separated from the wider Imperium until the late 41st millennium due to warp storms. Although few in number, each Elder One is a prodigious warrior that towers above most Astartes, fitting well with the gigantic marine I sculpted. All of the other Elder Ones were created by the esteemed FPOA (who is now a member of Iron Sleet), and painted mossy greens and browns, suggesting their ancient lives amongst trees and thorns. When painting Othalanga, I wanted to achieve a similar look to FPOA, so that he would fit along side his brethren. To do this, I experimented with a few different techniques, focusing on using stippling to create variation in color rather than traditional highlighting. Below I will talk a little about the paints I used and how I went about the entire process.

Thorn Moons Crusade: Elder One Othalanga

Elder One Othalanga

Song of Othalanga, Cerberin Brier

With a Thousand Sons I walked betwixt a profusion of petals

Until lymph and serum congealed sweet and thick

Until my marrow drained and flesh transmogrified

For a thousand years I spurned the flesh change

But I had lived as half a being

Until the celestial tides wrought our metagenesis.

I am an envenomed barb, a binary poison

Cerberin brier, a wordless hex

The heart arrests and vision fades

Wreathed in white, brass, and iron

I forge adamantium and steel with branch and bough

I shape a truth that had been sleeping

As the Thousandth Son I am reborn

I am a wanderer of moons, a changer of ways.

From Throne to Thorne.

I must live, I must die, and live again

I am the memory of all that came before,

I am the worlds soil, and the world anew.

True-scale Black Templar Space Marine

No Fear! No Pity! No Remorse!

Despite the release of the new Primaris Space Marines, which we think would be an excellent foundation to create “true-scale” Space Marines, we have not given up on our efforts to create more anatomically correct Space Marines. We created silicone molds to cast our most recent attempt at a true-scale Space Marine, and as a proof of concept built a Black Templar Space Marine. I am pleased to say that this Black Templar is finally complete! With this post I want to talk a little about the painting process and show the completed model.

Primaris Space Marines: First Impressions

Hope is a mistake.

Over the years, we have become increasingly critical of the miniature design of Space Marines, and the discrepancies between them and much of the artwork. Many of the awkward elements of their anatomy, and diminutive size compared to other human models in the game, pushed us to begin converting some “true-scale” Space Marines. To our surprise, shortly after creating some of these larger marines, it was revealed that Games Workshop was releasing a line of new larger Space Marines, called Primaris Space Marines. Many were quick to claim that GW had finally made their own true-scale Space Marines with the models, and we were eager to get our hands on some to make our own judgement, and to see if they corrected some of our issues with Space Marines. Mr_Pink (from the excellent Modern Synthesist blog) generously provided us one of the new marines, and wanted to tell you some of our thoughts on the quality of them, and their place next to their “normal” brethren.

Dragged into Turbolasers Episode 22: A classic design revisited, Primaris Space Marines

Hope is a mistake.

With this episode we are joined by the extraordinarily talented Mr_Pink, from the blog Modern Synthesist, to talk about the newly revealed Primaris Space Marines. We talk at length about the models as well as the lore surrounding them.

Ways to improve resin casting: pressure and vacuum chambers

Using a pressure chamber dramatically improved my resin casting.

Getting into resin casting can be a difficult thing, with so many details to consider (what silcone and resin to use, how to create effective vents, etc.), that it is easy to get overwhelmed. I found one of the trickiest elements was determining how pressure and vacuum chambers can be used to improve the process. Both are used to reduce bubbles in the final product, but since they work in very different ways, each is suitable for a different aspect of the process. A vacuum chamber is used to physically remove bubbles from a material (and all the air from the chamber itself) by creating a vacuum, while a pressure chamber shrinks any bubbles present in the material via pressure. Because the mixing process of silicone introduces air bubbles into it, a vacuum is applied to the mixture before using it (pouring it) to create a mold. This is possible due to the slow curing time of most silicone (~5 hrs). Resin, however, solidifies much more quickly (~15 min.), making a vacuum not a viable way for removing the bubbles in resin before injecting it into the mold. Instead, the mold is placed in a pressure chamber after the resin is added, to shrink any bubble to a negligible size. Although using both strategies are not absolutely necessary for creating molds and using them for casting, from experience, it dramatically improves the final product. I currently use both, and they allowed me to nicely cast the true-scale Space Marine that I recently built. In this post, I wanted to talk about both vacuum chambers and pressure chambers, and how they were important for dramatically improving my resin casting abilities.

Building our first resin cast true-scale Space Marine

Thought begets Heresy. Heresy begets Retribution.

A large portion of my hobby time this year has been spent building a more anatomically correct true-scale marine, and then learning how to make two part silicone molds. Today I am quite pleased to reveal the fusion of both of these projects by showing you the first True-scale Space Marine that I created using silicone molds created. Not wanting the model to look too much like the original, which is still going to be turned into an Elder One for Iron Sleet’s Thorn Moon’s crusade, I decided to build an Astartes from Black Templar Chapter.

Building a True-scale Space Marine Redux

By the manner of their death we shall know them.

Space Marine anatomy is an odd thing, something that I think is often ignored due to it being behind armor. And while the plastic Space Marine models will always have a place in my heart, they have a lot of problems (leg attachment is ridiculous; they have essentially only a ribcage attached to their hips; arms are attached too high for them to attach to the scapula). The artwork of Kopinski and Dainton were some of the first examples I saw of someone eschewing these things to create something more believable. Having said this, that does not make their artwork perfect, with even the artists themselves shifting style and proportion between different pieces of artwork. The classic Crimson Fist marine Kopkinski drew is a good example, as in much of his later work (like the cover of the Uriel Ventris novel The Killing Ground) he increased the head size such that a humanoid figure could conceivably fit inside the armor. I tried my hand at creating a more anatomically reasonable Space Marine earlier this year in a collaborative progect with Mig’s from Iron Sleet, and was quite pleased with the result. No project is ever perfect, so when I started to consider creating a second Space Marine for FPOA’s Green Mechanicvm, I began thinking of what I would do differently. In this post I wanted to share some pictures of the current status of this Elder One, and talk a little about the challenges in its creation, something that I think is particularly relevant with the recent pictures of the upcoming plastic Roboute Guilliman (who is an anatomical mess).

Building a True-scale Space Marine

And they shall know no fear.

Making true-scale marines has been very popular as of late, much of it stemming from all the excellent examples Migs and many others have created over the years. With this in mind, we wanted to try our hands at creating one. We really wanted to try to address some of the questionable anatomy that Space Marines have developed over the years (incredibly wide thigh gap, lack of a proper abdomen, questionable arm attachment points), and try to create a suit of armour that a person could conceivably fit into.