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!

28 Presents: International Women's Day 2022

Happy International Women's Day!

 
Happy International Women’s Day! Like last year, to celebrate IWD and Women’s History month, 28 created its second special issue, 28 Presents: IWD 2022 special. At 89 pages, it is 34 pages longer than last year, featuring 27 incredibly talented women who take part in this miniature hobby! Do yourself a favor and download the new issue, along with 2021’s issue if you haven’t seen it yet.

Dragged into Turbolasers Bonus Episode: New Eldar models in 2022!

The Eldar in 2022!

In this episode we are joined with an old high school friend and Eldar fan, to talk about the newly revealed Eldar model range. We discuss the new renditions of many Eldar classics, like the Avatar of Khaine, and Phoenix Lord Maugan Ra, and speculate on what might be coming in the future.

Paul-Friedrich von Bargen's 3D printable Space Marines

MKV Heresy Armor next to a True-scale Dark Angel.

With the advent of relatively inexpensive, high quality 3d printers and 3d sculpting software, more people are experimenting with creating their own unique models. In particular, recognizing the demand for better-scaled and proportioned Space Marines, a host of people are creating “True-scale” Space Marine models. These eliminate the need for extensive Primaris conversions to create models that fit alongside the other 40k model ranges. Not all of these are created equal: some do not take the opportunity to fix the anatomical issues inherent to classic Space Marine models, and just copy the GW design, but make them bigger. Paul-Friedrich von Bargen, or bolterjugend.idstein on Instagram, recently started creating 3d printable files for different Power Armor marks, starting with MKIII Iron Armor, before creating MKIV and MKV, along with Terminator armor. Importantly, he corrected some of the more egregious anatomical issues with the classic GW Marine design, such as giving the models a proper abdomen. While you can get his 3D printable files to print them yourself, not having a printer, I contacted him directly to get some of his MKIII Iron Armor Space Marines. To my surprise, he sent a lot of additional printed models, including a single MKV Heresy Armor marine! With this post I wanted to talk a little about the quality of the models and show one I built!