Forgeworld Space Marine Heavy Weapon set

[Machinepriest]

So I bought a set for my Carcharodons including a Missile Launcher I bought from Ebay thinking I would magnetize them all.

Has anyone had any luck getting these to fit?

Because I sure haven't!

I'm pretty sure that everyone who owns the Missile Launcher released earlier has noticed that you can't have your Marine aiming it anywhere except downwards if you give him a normal backpack.

I guess Forgeworld came to the same conclusion since they made new backpacks for the Heavy Weapon set.

Well, I still can't get the heavy weapons to fit straight, WITH the new backpacks...

And also, the Plasmacannon has a sort of targeting device that the Marine is supposed to aim through which is in the way for the head, even though I cut away some resin from the neck to make the head sit as far back as possible.

I've been studying the photos on Forgeworld's site trying to figure out what I'm doing wrong but I just can't see it.

It's not that they are miscasts. I just think they are very poorly designed.

Either that or I'm doing something wrong.

 

I guess I can solve this by having the Marine aiming his weapon downwards in a sort of relaxed pose, but I really wanted him to look like he's about to fire his weapon.

 

Any input?

[SCC]

It's possible to get the new FW heavy weapons lined up properly, it takes a little bit of time and a sharp scalpel blade in my experience though:

The key isn't the weapon, but the arm it's attached to:

You can see there I've cut down the shoulder area of the arm, not only have I clipped the top but the outwards facing section has been shaved down with a scalpel so the pad fits in closer to the arm so the whole weapon sits properly along the line of the shoulder. I also shaved the inside of the fist down a little to get a snug fit and some of the detail it covers up on the HB was shaved down too, again, you want everything nice and tight so you can keep the whole thing straight.

The process I used was to pin and glue the fist to the weapon then start clipping and shaving the shoulder until I could weasel a pad on there and get it tucked in under the curve of the weapon as tightly as possible. As the reverse angle shows, even that isn't that close although that'll be far less noticeable when painted. I will also set up pins for the arm and body to ensure a good secure set up, as I'll paint the arm/weapon separately to the body it won't be glued on just yet however.

With the new backpack this fits just fine. Having a Mk.IV pad with the nice thin raised section or even a nice flat Mk.VI pad helps too I find. It's pretty easy to shave down the top sections of the rim of a regular pad though, again, a sharp scalpel blade and shave in little sections 'til it fits neatly. I'm also of a mind to try a regular backpack with one of these weapons - the old ones had a hollow carved out to fit the backpack vent into, a pin vise to bore a guide hole, some scalpel and sand paper work and I reckon you can get one to fit.

The other weapons are much the same, make sure the arm is in the right place then work away at the shoulder until a pad fits properly and remember, if you go overboard it's nice and easy to fill in the missing material with some putty or green stuff inside the shoulder pad. the left arm is still an issue though, have to try extending a plastic ML arm to reach the FW weapons I think.

For magnetising I'd imagine that'd be simple enough for whole weapon/arm/pad combos, but just weapons would be a complete pain. I suppose magnetising the handhold and the backpack vents would be the best way to ensure a good hold if you just want to do weapons though.

I haven't tried the plasma cannon yet but there are a couple of things to note - the back of the Marine's helmet can be shaved down a lot before it's noticeable, especially the section that hides behind the collar. The second thing is some heads are smaller than others, try a Mk.VI helm or a variant Mk.VII, some of the command helms have really short snouts and might work nicely. The Mk.IV helm is also pretty good for this kind if thing. Finally, you can always have the Marine looking off-sight at something else rather than down the barrel if you can't get anything to work.