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How do you make your AOBR marines less...boring?


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Well I have happened upon a couple AOBR sets and wanted to paint up the marines as Ultramarines...but they're so darn BORING. A couple mixed into some normal squads aren't noticeable. But a whole army of AOBR marines tends to look like a whole lotta statues. What do YOU do to make your Black Reach marines less boring? I would sure like to see some examples to spark my creativity!

I only have personal experience with the Captain

 

Converted AoBR Captains

 

....but, (I don't remember where), I've seen people cut/dremel out the heads and replace with posable ones, and I've also seen some cut at the waist and running legs (courtesy of eBay) have been attached.

 

Cheers,

Jono

If you think AoBR tacticals are boring brother, then be thankful you weren't around for the second edition box set. The models were, if you can believe it, even more statue-esque and boring. That went for the orks and grots, too. :D

I am talking mostly about the tacticals...I've had decent success with the dreads. The termies I have no problem with, I have done some real good conversions with them. But the tactical marines...I just can't figure out what to do. They're either leaning to the right, or to the left. That's it. LOL it's hard to be creative with them!

 

Thankfully I've never seen the 2nd edition box set...my friend has told me stories about them. He said he actually has used some of the models from that set to use as statues! I thought that was pretty funny.

 

Unfortunately my exacto knife skills are a little lacking at the moment...a trip to the ER and 8 stitches later, and some lost feeling in my hand left me a little nervous to do much cutting up of my models lately. The cut is all healed up, but I'm still overly cautious. But it sounds like the only option is some repositioning and maybe some leg swaps. I think I can handle that.

 

BTW, those AOBR captain conversions are awesome!

Other than weapon swaps (melta or plasma to replace teh flamer), there's not a lot you can do with the basic Marines. Maybe drill out the heads and replace them so they're not all looking straight ahead.

Best thing I found was to just spread them around the rest of the army - they form the meatshield for my Dev squads, and are the first to die in my Tac squads. If you mix them in with a box of multipart Tacticals they're a great unit filler, as they at least look like they're moving carefully, unlike the old one-piece Marines.

I understand your reluctance after a serious injury, but without some cutting up, you won't be able to do much.

 

Cutting them at the waist and mixing up legs and torsi of normal Marines will probably give you the most variety of poses. Keep in mind that the arms and bolter cover a large area, so you don't even have to be very clean about the cutting.

 

I'd also follow Tennisballs ideas and modify some of the armor instead of the pose. Also goes a long way to differentiate similar models.

 

Not completely on topic: How did you manage to cut yourself so bad? In my experience, accidents like that only happen when I'm either tired or impatient. My advice would be (aside from the usual like cutting mat and always cut away from your body) to only do more serious hobby work when you are well rested and switching between heavier conversion work like cutting/drilling/dremeling and lighter things like dry-fitting, glueing larger parts etc.

I understand your reluctance after a serious injury, but without some cutting up, you won't be able to do much.

 

<snipped>

 

Not completely on topic: How did you manage to cut yourself so bad? In my experience, accidents like that only happen when I'm either tired or impatient. My advice would be (aside from the usual like cutting mat and always cut away from your body) to only do more serious hobby work when you are well rested and switching between heavier conversion work like cutting/drilling/dremeling and lighter things like dry-fitting, glueing larger parts etc.

 

I agree-- Safety first! But you also might consider getting a jeweler's saw and blades too. I use that more than an Xacto knife for major conversions, even on plastic. IMHO, a dremel has it's uses, but on plastic it just cuts way too fast, unless you want to just grind away stuff.

My take is thus:

1) Everyone with a bitzbox tend to have surplus torsos, arms and heads

2) The limiting factor when building marines seems to be legs. You run out of legs before any other body part.

3) AoBR marines have a few models with interesting heads

4) Use AoBR tacticals as a source of spare legs, heads and backpacks.

5) Use a razor saw to cut through the chest and shoulders to separate the head from the legs.

6) Then trim away the torso from each piece leaving a nice set of legs and heads to use with all your other spare parts from other sets.

7) Profit!

 

-T14

Unfortunately my exacto knife skills are a little lacking at the moment...a trip to the ER and 8 stitches later, and some lost feeling in my hand left me a little nervous to do much cutting up of my models lately...

Congratulations. You survived your baptism by fire! :tu:

 

 

Doghouse has done some spectacular conversions of the AoBR set - he is real master at it. You can find one of his projects here. He also did some great Mantis Warriors - but I can't find the thread right now.

 

I did some simple conversions to Dark Angels that may give you some ideas here. I know that your Marines are going to be Ultramarines, but they may give you some ideas.

Thanks for all the ideas! I have alot to go on now, doghouse's conversions were definitely an inspiration.

 

I cut my hand while using the wrong tool for the job. I was magnetizing some weapons sponsons on my land raider. The drill bit was slightly smaller than the actual magnet, so I had to really press the magnets in the hole to get them to fit. I was using the pin vice to press the magnets in so I didn't get superglue all over my fingers, but I was afraid of breaking the bit. So I looked around real quick to find something else and grabbed the exacto knife. Big mistake. It worked really good for both sponsons until it slipped. I was pressing the magnet in real hard with the knurled part of the exacto and "slip" there it went. Right into the meaty part of my palm.

 

So it was laziness, not wanting to get up and go to the garage and grab the correct drill bit for the job, and using the side of a knife to press the magnet in instead of finding something that couldn't cut me. Like perhaps a pen, or an old spoon, or any damn thing other than a knife!

 

So kids, don't be silly and use the wrong tools for the job, stay in school, etc. etc.

TennisBall - love the missile launcher guy and thesergents

Bannus - did you ever finish your AoBR project? if so i'd love to see a pick of the completed army.

this was my last play around with AoBR models - commander rather than marines and it was only ever bluetacked. i never did finish this model :S

gallery_20758_4465_33440.jpg

Lhg033

I sometimes cut an combat knife and attach the blade part below the barrel of a bolter ( after cutting away the small bit of plastic there )

to create a bayonet. Looks cool, plus you can vary more poses. I don't do all the models, but a few breaks the pattern of the squad a bit.

 

Can't remember is they are in the box.... but perhaps you have a few in your bitbox.

Like others mentioned above, I chopped the living daylights out of the whole box of AoBR marines, and many of the parts are now spread out among my army...

Head from the missle launcher guy...

gallery_37532_5399_1976830.png

Guy on the far right's legs (cut the torso at the waist)

gallery_37532_5399_348108.png

AoBR bolter, with a little greenstuff wristwork

gallery_37532_5399_187304.png

All sorts of goodies in the AoBR box, just chop off what you like, and use it!!

Simply chopping the slots off and putting them on more interesting bases makes a pretty big difference I think. Here's my utter lack of progress...I mean my completed squad of Purifiers. Their lack of color represents their purity. Yeah.

 

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d4/sidewinderl/40k/DSCN4555.jpg

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