The Unforgiven: painting Lunax7070 Space Marine conversion

Omniscient.

Last week we finished building a Space Marine based on a converted cast of one of Lunax7070's true-scale Space Marines. Having finished the model about a week before the second annual Smash Bash entries were due, we realized we had just enough time to paint the model for the competition! For such a short turn-around time, we decided the Dark Angel dry-brush scheme would be an ideal choice to get the model painted quickly. I am happy to say we finished the model just in time!

Building a Lunax7070 Space Marine: Dark Angel

And you scorch the land.

Over the last few months, we have been converting and building a true-scale Space Marine from a multipart resin cast from Lunax7070. After extensively modifying the basic components for the legs and body, we created a silicone mold, allowing us to cast the modified pieces multiple times. Having completed this first part, we wanted to actually build a Space Marine out of some of the cast pieces, as a proof of concept. Although the components had been modified to help with the assembly process, it still took quite a bit of effort to build a model, and I wanted to talk about the process here.

Mold making: Lunax7070 Space Marine

A completed mold and the mold release that ensured each half of the silicone molds separated when pouring the mold.

Earlier this month, I started converting the components of one of Lunax7070’s True-scale Space Marines. After adding ball-bearings to some of the components to help with posing, I decided the model would be a good candidate for creating a two part silicone mold. Years back, when I first attempted resin casting, I created a series of posts describing the process, from the initial attempt to some tips to make the process easier. It had been quite a while since I made any molds or did any casting, resulting in this attempt not going as smoothly as possible. In the end, however, I was able to create a mold that will serve my purposes!

Building a Lunax7070 Space Marine

A diorama of an Astral Claws Dreadnought and Space Marine created by the talented Lunax7070.

Despite our efforts to steer clear of building more Space Marine models, in favor of exploring more esoteric facets of the 40k setting, we often find ourselves still working on projects pertaining to them. Just last month we slightly converted one of Paul-Friedrich von Bargen’s MKV Space Marines! When we convert and paint Space Marines, we always try to use it as an opportunity to explore scale and anatomical form in some way, usually by creating True-scale Space Marines. Over the years we have done relatively simple conversions using Primaris Space Marines as a foundation, all the way up to sculpting the majority of one from an assembly of chopped up pieces. One of our favorite hobbyists, Lunax7070, has a similar style and has spent the last few years building an array of Primarch-scale Space Marines of many different Chapters, from Iron Hands to Luna Wolves. Recently, Lunax7070 surprised us with a stunning diorama of an Astral Claws’ Dreadnought alongside one of its power-armored brethren as a thank you for gifting him a few old Forge World books. Being able to see some of his creations first-hand is truly breath-taking; you can easily get lost considering what obscure pieces he spliced together or what weathering techniques he used to create such a remarkable slice of Warhammer 40,000. This reminded us that a while back, Lunax7070 sent us one of his early casts of his iconic MKII Crusade armor, which he has used to build most of his Iron Hands Space Marines. Inspired by the Astral Claw models, we decided it would be fun to finally build the resin cast he gave us!