Forge World Conversions?

[Jeremiah2911]

Hey All,

 

I'm planning on beginning a Black Dragons Space Marine army (Basically, I'm just doing a Salamander army, with a bit more CC stuff, and a different color/conversion scheme). As of now, I'm really digging the Salamanders Terminator shoulder pads that Forge World offers (they've got some pretty sick scaly-skin effects), but they also have a raised Salamanders emblem. Since they are resin, how difficult would it be to sand those down (well) with a fine grit Dremel head, some fine sandpaper, etc.? I don't know how their resin compares to GW's plastic in terms of workability. I've also heard their stuff tends to run small in size. Would it look bad to put FW shoulder pads on standard Assault Terminators?

 

Thanks for the help!

[Khrangar]

FW Resin is generally pretty easy to work with, so you shouldn't have any trouble filing stuff down. As for pads on 'standard' Assault Terminators, why would it look bad? Putting them on Terminators are what they're for.

 

Khrangar

[Gurth]

Working with polyurethane resin has a very similar feel to working with soft, grainless wood, if you ask me. It's easier to work than polystyrene plastic (even the soft polystyrene like GW uses) but that does mean you need to be careful a bit when you're not used to it, because it's easy to take too much off if you expect it to be like plastic.

 

It is important to stress, though, that polyurethane dust can be harmful to your long-term health. Don't saw or file it anymore than you need to, and when you sand it, always use wet sand paper so the dust is trapped by the water — and yes, that means don't use sanding discs in your Dremel. Clean up the dust when you're done. (Some people recommend wearing dust masks, goggles, etc. but IMHO that's a bit overkill if you're careful about not creating a lot of dust.)

 

Slivers of resin are not a problem, though, because you won't breathe those in, so you can cut, carve and drill it without risk.

[Jeremiah2911]

As to why that would be a problem, Khrangar, I have heard that the process which they use to make the resin models nd bits, actually makes the pieces shrink a bit, to a size slightly smaller than what they were intended to be. For example, A FW Severin Loth looks a bit gangly next to a regular Tactical Marine. Is that true? Also for my black dragons, I think bare arms would look pretty killer on the Dragon Claws unit (like the picture on Lexicanum), and the only bits that look like that that I can find are Ork arms (which have hands that are too big) or Catachan arms (which might be too small). Does anyone know which of these is a more viable options (I don't, without the models sitting here in front of me), or even better, does anyone know what's been used on the Black Dragons model shown on Lexicanum?

 

Thanks again!

[GhostLegion]

first, imo working with the resin from FW really depends on the color of the resin you get. Ive seen four different colors now, and each has different properties. The slightly yellow tends to be brittle and hard; and though it sands well, it does not trim very well under the knife. The soft grey tends to be plasticine an has a little more give to it than you would expect. This type works well under the knife, but may not sand very well. The hard grey, a darker grey, tends to feel like a hybrid of the yellow and soft grey (to me anway) and both sands well and works well under the knife. There is also a white-ish resin which I got in ordering the Hector Rex mini. This is harder than the soft grey but more giving than the hard grey...in some respects it is very comparable to the yellowish type Ive seen on the aeronautica pieces. In my experience the yellowish resin tends to be used for epic and aeronautica types, the soft grey tends to be the guard infantry and the hard grey tends to be larger models, titans and the like, with larger smooth surface areas. The white-ish may be a specific blend for higher detailing or their character models...but I may be wrong on all of this. I can say I have never seen/had shrunk pieces from FW, though bends are common. Bends can easilly be fixed with a pot of near-boiling water; just dip the piece in for a couple of seconds and bend back true. For sanding the resin, I highly recommend extra-fine grit or model grade sandpaper...the type typically found around model aircraft or car hobby shops. I know Tamiya and Testors make this (not sure what you have available local) and both variants work quite well. The reason I use these is first, the grit is very very small, and second, the paper is thin and flexible, allowing you to get it into the detail areas on small figures.

 

As to Black Dragons...I have seen them done well with Catachan arms and just a bit of green-stuff work. Ive never seen anyone try Ork arms, so I cannot speak to that. Ive also seen bonespurs made from spare sprue or tyranid bits.

 

dunno if this helps at all...

[g-unit]

I've stuck a photo on showing the Space Wolf FW resin parts in comparison to standard GW plastics. They're a fraction smaller but nothing really noticable, once they're painted can't tell the difference. Apologies for the quality but it's the iphone not the photographer :)