Veteran Sergeant does True Scale + Blackstone Fortress

[Ovidius Incertus]

Maybe they have servitors or chapter serfs who run around collecting spent mags (and maybe taking a stray round while doing so)? :D I'm of the school of thought that magazines are disposable, though I absolutely love your idea of cutting up brass rod to use as spent cases. What diameter do you think one would use? I've got some 1.57mm (1/16") AL tube on hand...though I can just walk across the street and buy some brass rod. This diameter seems like it would be more visible on the base, though to the scale of a bolter, it's too large.

 

And I'm so stealing your "light" heavy bolter and your combi-melta ideas, Vet Sarge.

 

I repositioned the muzzle of a bolter so that it's actually in line with the ejection port (shocking! :lol: ) and that leaves plenty of room for the business end of a melta underneath (although I removed all the other extraneous gubbins from the front surface of the bolter and think I'll cut the muzzle of the melta off farther back than you have, before it flares out). I'm going to try and shave the fuel tank off a regular meltagun and attach it to the side of the bolter, since it's the correct scale. I hope I can cut well enough to preserve the vertical fuel hoses that come off that tank. I chose a bolter with just a simple skull decoration, and it's small enough that I think you can attach a standard melta tank below it and not have to cut any of it off. If I screw it up, I'll just go with a halved meltabomb as you've done.

 

For the "light" HB, I've taken a Dev HB and cut off the belt; I'd like to preserve some of the cables, but they all seem to run behind the part of the belt fixed to the upper arm, so I think they'll be a wash. I took one of the ammo drums/boxes from a Dev kit and am going to sling that under the ejection port. I thought off attaching the box to the gun 180* from the way you've done it, i.e. with the L-shaped notch in the box mated up under the ejection port of the HB. I'm thinking of leaving the carry hand on the box. Would the use of maglocks mean you don't need carry handles? What do you think, keep the handle or ditch it? I might pilfer the bipod from a scout HB, just to add to the effect.

 

And how are you bending the fingers of the support hands to grasp smaller things like grenades or the knife hilt? Heating, or just main force?

Edited May 27, 2012 by Ovidius Incertus

[Obscura]

Now I'm getting ideas to alter my still unpainted/WIP Marines.

 

I know this isn't exactly said in the thread at the moment, but what are your plans with vehicles?

[Rhetoricus]

Maybe they have servitors or chapter serfs who run around collecting spent mags (and maybe taking a stray round while doing so)? :P I'm of the school of thought that magazines are disposable.

 

Yeah that explanation works. If the engagement was lost then the mags are too anyway. If victorious theres all the time in the world to go tatty picking for mags.

 

Still though any marine of mine showing Ill discipline by unecessarily discarding the Emperors blessed resources and its 5 minutes in the pain glove!

Edited May 27, 2012 by Rhetoricus

[Evil eyeball]

I love the last two posts. The attention to detail is fantastic. If I may offer my humble opinion though I would have to disagree with with you on just one point Incertus. It would be better to represent the spent mag by clipping up brass rod and littering the base with spent bolt casings.

I used to be a para and we didn't just throw our magazines away! I can't imagine a space marine would. Just think about how much ammo SM go through. The Imperium would have been bankrupted eons ago.

 

As much as the bolters have an ejection port for spent casings, If you look at the second edition Codex Ultramarines they describe Bolter Rounds as being Caseless... Its kinda like how flamers have the little Ignitor bit on them yet Promethium supposedly ignites on contact with air.

[Rhetoricus]

I love the last two posts. The attention to detail is fantastic. If I may offer my humble opinion though I would have to disagree with with you on just one point Incertus. It would be better to represent the spent mag by clipping up brass rod and littering the base with spent bolt casings.

I used to be a para and we didn't just throw our magazines away! I can't imagine a space marine would. Just think about how much ammo SM go through. The Imperium would have been bankrupted eons ago.

 

As much as the bolters have an ejection port for spent casings, If you look at the second edition Codex Ultramarines they describe Bolter Rounds as being Caseless... Its kinda like how flamers have the little Ignitor bit on them yet Promethium supposedly ignites on contact with air.

 

Were not on 2nd edition anymore dude! Just look at the front cover of the current dex.

[Montuhotep]

Someone once raised this very point with one of the GW artists, namely why do all illustrations have spent shells flying out of ejection ports when Fluff claims that bolts are caseless. His reply?

 

"Because it looks cool."

 

Fair one.

[Rhetoricus]

Someone once raised this very point with one of the GW artists, namely why do all illustrations have spent shells flying out of ejection ports when Fluff claims that bolts are caseless. His reply?

 

"Because it looks cool."

 

Fair one.

 

 

Fair one indeed. I personally would apply the same principles to my models. Just because.......it looks cool.

[Rhetoricus]

A thought just occurred to me. Several years ago, for the princely sum of 75 of her majesty's finest pounds I purchased a set of brushes. The citadel masters set. In it were 4 brushes a bar of soap, a cloth with an aquila on it, and wait for it..........A bolt casing. I still have it. If you'd like to see it have a peek at my thread, I have a marine mounted on it. I think its intended purpose was as a water pot, but even a truescale bolt casing is nowhere near big enough for such a thing.

 

Anyway my point is it would be hugely hypocritical to sell me a bolt casing and tell me they didn't exist.

 

Ultimately though I think its important to realise that everyone of us carries around our own version of the game in our heads. Uniquely tailored and edited just for us its fantastic teally, we literally get to create the universe in our heads. Want your bolt rounds to have casings......no problem now they do. Want caseless bolt rounds, there yours, want your bolt pistols to actually fit in the holsters they came with? Just go see Sarge (want your fists first co wearing black cos it looks cooler......shazam)

 

It's your world make it however you want.

Edited May 27, 2012 by Rhetoricus

[Veteran Sergeant]

As promised. Sorry I was a day late. Didn't go into the office yesterday like I had planned to, and my laptop won't be back until later this week.

 

 

Here's the example of how you can file the soft armor at the joints to fix the hand positions, or as in this case, create an entirely unique pose. The arm has also been cut at the shoulder and rotated to 90 degrees horizontal to help achieve the desired look. Left wrist was sliced behind the wrist to rotate the support hand to grip the rifle.

 

http://images.dakkadakka.com/gallery/2012/5/28/371230_md-Conversion,%20Space%20Marines.jpg

 

So you can see the arm cuts, I'll show you the magnetized power fist from the most recent Sergeant. This arm was actually the "punching" power fist that was cut from it's shoulder piece and fit to a standard shoulder to achieve the hanging look. I have three of those fists, so I wanted some variation. Figured I'd test proof of concept and try to mod it. I feel it was successful. As you can see, nothing sophisticated here. Wish I'd taken process photos of it. I clipped the tubes free from the arm, then sliced them at an angle to make the arm fit flat to the body, but make it look like the cables were disappearing under the should pad when it was actually assembled.

 

http://images.dakkadakka.com/gallery/2012/5/28/371226_md-Conversion,%20Space%20Marines.jpg

 

As you can see, it looks rough as hell when by itself. I'm going to finish it with gap fill and some more clean-up, but this is what it looks like when it is on the model:

 

http://images.dakkadakka.com/gallery/2012/5/28/371227_md-Conversion,%20Space%20Marines.jpg

 

Like I said. No need to masterclass as a modeler to achieve a solid table-top appearance. The shadow hides the detail, but that was the best I could do with awkward lighting angles and no professional light box.

 

Here's a last one with the top down so you can see that with proper wrist rotation, the bolters will remain straight up and down. Wrist positioning is key, because if you just try to rotate the arms, you'll end up with odd angles. Both wrists on this model have been cut to achieve this look.

 

http://images.dakkadakka.com/gallery/2012/5/28/371229_md-Conversion,%20Space%20Marines.jpg

 

 

I won't really weigh in on the cased versus caseless debate. It's a fictional gun, so it really could be either way. Bolters have been described as both cased and caseless. The bolters from second edition didn't even have ejection ports, so the charging "handle" could have been entirely motorized rather than a manual handle like we are used to on modern weapons. 40K tech is pretty advanced compared to what we know, and there's nothing that says a weapon has to have a charging handle. Modern iterations of the model have a charging handle (ambidextrous at that), but that may be an aesthetic choice like the front sight posts or missile launcher targeting system. The barrels don't line up with the charging handles, which suggests caseless ammo (or a complex ejection system?). Again, 40K tech isn't strictly analogous to the modern world. So there could be a reasonable explanation, even if the likely scenario is that the guy who made the model didn't know how guns actually work. Most sci-fi guns follow the latter, haha. As far as the art/movies/games showing cases popping out, well the quote about it "looking cool" is really the end of it. People who don't know much about weapons other than the fact that action heroes look cool shooting them expect to see cases. So there you go.

[War Angel]

GW doesn't know it's own fluff, the marksmanship medal for spacemarines is a golden bolt casing saI'd to have been fired by the emperor himself

[Rhetoricus]

Thanks Sarge. (Apology totally uncalled for and therefore rejected) Even if I was a master modeller and could just think models into existence these are the marines I would be making. You're explanations are crisp and precise, and the photograpghy illustrates your points well.

 

Good job bro. I only wish is found this thread before I cracked out my yellow paints!

 

Oh and regarding the fluff. Amen.

 

So when you gonna crack your paints out? And what colour will they be?

[Veteran Sergeant]

Color scheme is still in debate. I've got some test models I've done. Problem is, I'm as picky about the color scheme and name as I am about the appearance, lol. Which basically translates to "I haven't decided yet". But I have a ton of modeling work to do, so Gray Marines will do for now. Since I am making them "Counts As" Blood Angles, Space Wolves and C:SM, I joked about calling them the Bloodhounds of Ultramar. But that's just a joke.

 

Anyhow, I've been industrious (for me). I finished the first Combat Squad of Assault Marines. Back on the first page was my lone Assault Marine. Well, he's got four buddies now.

 

http://images.dakkadakka.com/gallery/2012/6/1/372770_md-Assault%20Marines,%20Space%20Marines,%20Tall%20Scale,%20True%20Scale.jpg

 

http://images.dakkadakka.com/gallery/2012/6/1/372771_md-Assault%20Marines,%20Space%20Marines,%20Tall%20Scale,%20True%20Scale.jpg

 

http://images.dakkadakka.com/gallery/2012/6/1/372772_md-Assault%20Marines,%20Space%20Marines,%20Tall%20Scale,%20True%20Scale.jpg

 

 

Nothing terribly exciting about those guys, and they all need finishing touches. I was just glad to have sat down for a while and gotten some more work done. They are spaced 1.5mm at the waist and 1mm at the hips, with a krak grenade as part of their belt kit. I'd love to have krak grenades for all of the Marines in the Company, but they are a lot more rare than the frag grenades that come in every Marine sprue, so more expensive as bits. I've been salvaging them from friends who have Grey Knights and such. But I'd realistically need about 100 of them, haha. All the Marines have been clipped at various joints to create unique poses. Except the running guy. I was actually able to achieve the desired result with stock arms. If you notice the guy with the extended right arm, that's actually been done by taking an extended left arm and cutting it free and swapping the middle section to the right arm, and the reverse for the right arm, so you have a 90 degree left, and extended right, which isn't part of the normal sprue options.

 

And here is my other madness. I've been wanting to do this for a while, and had to figure out the best way. I'll show him before the commentary.

 

http://images.dakkadakka.com/gallery/2012/6/1/372767_md-Cs%20Goto,%20Multi-laser,%20Space%20Marines,%20Tall%20Scale,%20True%20Scale.jpg

http://images.dakkadakka.com/gallery/2012/6/1/372768_md-Cs%20Goto,%20Multi-laser,%20Space%20Marines,%20Tall%20Scale,%20True%20Scale.jpg

http://images.dakkadakka.com/gallery/2012/6/1/372769_md-Cs%20Goto,%20Multi-laser,%20Space%20Marines,%20Tall%20Scale,%20True%20Scale.jpg

 

That's right folks, it's a multi-laser, lol. C.S. Goto was right all along. That, and everyone knows that Marine Special Weapons troopers can have a multi-laser on a roll of 91-00. Duh.

 

Veteran Brother Anachronus has the honor of carrying the Chapter's prized relic, an ancient (Space Marine) man-portable multi-laser. A weapon no longer in common use amongst the Marines, the multi-laser has been well cared for and passed down from generation to generation of Marines. Large and unwieldy, even for Marine Heavy weapons, ever since its suspensors stopped functioning properly, Veteran Brother Anachronus stays in shape by practicing back flips during the long periods of time between battles.

 

I will probably treat this as a Counts As Heavy Bolter or Lascannon since Marine-deployable Multi-lasers are probably not coming back after 20 years MIA. But it should make for an entertaining conversation piece. It still needs some work because the right arm had to essentially be constructed from three different arms, and spacered under the shoulder in order to achieve the right angle. The multi-laser itself is from a Sentinel, with the barrel shortened, the under-rail clipped off and a bolter grip inserted, plus the power pack having been cut down and fitted onto the side to look like a removable power pack. As you can see, using .5mm card and creativity, I created a spare power pack on his hip. A third spare will go to an A-Gunner just like the Heavy Bolters have.

 

The Squat Standard Bearer is there because, well, he's awesome.

 

The Battle Company is almost halfway done now. Well, halfway minus the closet full of unassembled tanks, lol.

[Rhetoricus]

Good work Sarge keep it up. I would recommend painting em black with beige lids, who dares wins and all that. But I'm biased hehe. Don't know what colour the Seals wear.

[Veteran Sergeant]

Sorry I had to leave you guys out of the last update. I'd been playing around with an Imperial Guardsmen proof-of-concept model to add to my Imperial Guard army that isn't even 5th Edition legal and has no plans for completion. Because, you know, I have a ton of free time. And focus and efficiency has never been a problem for this project (lol only 40ish models in 6 months). :blush:

 

Anyhow, I've decided to give an accounting of the Battle Company as it stands. This isn't actually all of the (assembled) vehicles, and none of the vehicles are "complete" to my standards. A couple are only assembled because they came that way when I picked them up on EBay for a steal. You can see my 3rd Edition first run LR Crusader (I literally bought it the first month the model was originally released when its rules were only in White Dwarf and non-Black Templar Chapters were still limited to 1), which I, quite fortunately in retrospect, never painted. I apologize for the poor quality of the photos as I didn't have any better place to assemble the Marines and take pics, and had to use my phone's camera (it takes pretty good photos, but not up to such a task)

 

http://images.dakkadakka.com/gallery/2012/6/15/377565_md-Space%20Marines,%20Tall%20Scale.jpg

http://images.dakkadakka.com/gallery/2012/6/15/377566_md-Space%20Marines,%20Tall%20Scale.jpg

 

And in a squad by squad order. None of these guys are permanently assigned to these squads, it just makes it easy to keep track of the project if I keep an organized tab of how many full units I have completed. Only have two completed Sergeants right now, so the angry pointing guy is filling in as the squad leader for the Devastators. "Kill those :cusss over there!"

 

http://images.dakkadakka.com/gallery/2012/6/15/377567_md-Space%20Marines,%20Tall%20Scale.jpg

 

http://images.dakkadakka.com/gallery/2012/6/15/377568_md-Space%20Marines,%20Tall%20Scale.jpg

 

The 2nd Squad's magnetized Sergeant is probably getting reassigned to the Assault Squad as I think with some different arm poses, re-basing and a jump pack he'll look okay. I had big plans for his pose (was going to be stomping on some poor bastard's face), but I wasn't able to convey the movement and animation I was looking for, so he got re-done. The final effort isn't really working for me. His magnetized arms are second hand, so it may just be the arms aren't posed for that specific model. Or he may get taken apart and completely re-tasked. However, for now he stays.

 

http://images.dakkadakka.com/gallery/2012/6/15/377569_md-Space%20Marines,%20Tall%20Scale.jpg

 

I didn't bother to photograph the Assault Marine Combat Squad because, well, they are a few posts up.

 

Regardless, there's the total project progress. I've finally gotten around to playing Fallout: New Vegas (I've had it for months, lol). I don't play a lot of video games, but I loved the Fallout series back in the day (still have copies of the three original PC games). However, as you can imagine it chews at my hobby time. Sorry, heh.

[Veteran Sergeant]

So here's something a little different. This isn't an update since the Battle Company has made no progress, lol. Maybe a downdate? :(

 

In case you're wondering what has been keeping me from doing any work, it's the NBA Finals (Go Heat) and this:

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphoto...616627817_n.jpg

 

However, in the time I've allotted to the project, instead of being productive and completing the Assault Squad, I decided to whip up a Chaos Marine for Skalk and my other slimy traitorous bastard followers. This guy will eventually be a Night Lord, because the Night Lords are awesome. But he'll be a Night Lord without all the bat wings and such, because bat wings aren't scary, they're silly, lol. The hanging skull is from the Chaos Land Raider sprue, and the helmet had its topknot sliced off. His left hand was intended to be all half-clenched and threatening, but it hasn't turned out quite how I want it yet.

 

Here he is with my loyalist trophy taker, as they argue which side of the Long War has the rights to take skulls and whether or not the Space Marines lost their rights by not defending the IP after Rogue Trader..

http://images.dakkadakka.com/gallery/2012/6/21/379866_md-Chaos%20Space%20Marines,%20Tall%20Scale,%20True%20Scale.jpg

 

Here he is from the other side, facing off with my re-done I Guard Vet who now sports Catachan legs mated to the Cadian torso.

http://images.dakkadakka.com/gallery/2012/6/21/379867_md-Chaos%20Space%20Marines,%20Tall%20Scale,%20True%20Scale.jpg

 

And finally a straight on shot, with two refugees from the old days of Necromunda.

http://images.dakkadakka.com/gallery/2012/6/21/379865_md-Chaos%20Space%20Marines,%20Tall%20Scale,%20True%20Scale.jpg

 

Anyhow, I'm going to try to get back to my Space Marines, and stop distracting myself.

[NightHunters]

Good looking force you have there Brother, and like the Nightlord. Know what you mean about the hand though, looks a bit skinny and right angly in the wrong place, like half way down the first finger joint rather than at the top, but good luck with him, sure you will find a solution!

[Veteran Sergeant]

What I probably need to do is be less lazy about the modeling. I was trying to get the model finished, and the idea popped into my head sort of at the end. It's just extraordinarily obnoxious to cut the tiny fingers apart and glue them back together, lol. Not to mention their propensity to attempt to get lost. The tip of the thumb tried to make a mad dash for freedom at least four or five times. It may just be that the clenched fist idea just isn't very feasible in 28mm with GW's plastics. I'll look at it again. Maybe I can use one of the Grey Knight loose hands. I have a bunch of them lying around.

[Veteran Sergeant]

So, this project has evolved... again.

 

 

Originally I wanted to stay away from any "advanced" modeling techniques for the time consumption. But, apparently my ability to keep at this project has little to do with the time used rather than the time allotted. Unsurprising. :lol:

 

So, since time isn't really an issue anymore, I decided to see what can be done with the standard legs, but re-posed entirely, rather than just extended and shifted slightly. I took a set of standard, wide-stance legs, and cut the feet free. After filing the the soft armor at the hips, I came up with a taller, closer together stance. The test model happened to end up as one of the Special Weapons troopers from my Assault Squad.

 

Here you can see how he measures up next to one of the Marines with the "running" legs from the Assault Marine sprues.

 

http://images.dakkadakka.com/gallery/2012/6/27/382498_md-Space%20Marines,%20Tall%20Scale,%20True%20Scale.jpg

 

And here his is next to the classic Cadian who has served in a lot of my scale comps:

 

http://images.dakkadakka.com/gallery/2012/6/27/382497_md-Space%20Marines,%20Tall%20Scale,%20True%20Scale.jpg

 

I will probably start doing this with more of the figures, even though it will actually require some green stuff sculpting, and more than basic gap filling. The bulkier pouches for the flamer fuel tanks/plasma coils/melta canisters were made with sprue and .5mm card for the flap, and need a bit of work, but the model itself isn't really finished.

[War Angel]

Looking good, how do you have so many spare pouches?

[NightHunters]

That is a great stance, in priciple simply achieved.

 

Granted in practice it's a pain (I hate cutting the feet off and reposing) but the result sure does speak for itself!

 

Great work, any advances on the vehicles?

[Subtle Discord]

Yup, it's more work, but the change in pose is dramatic. I keep telling myself I'm not going to start doing this to add variety to my Troops, but it keeps taunting me. Each time I see someone do this well, is shows why it's worth the effort, in my opinion. Even without the styrene spacers it also shows that a Marine miniature is actually taller than you might think. Most are just in a 'dramatic' lunge/squat pose.

 

Very tight, as usual.

[EmbattledSoul]

solid gold, im curious, is it possible to get all those pouches and frags on without the leg extensions?

 

glad youre giving explanations with each unique conversion, great stuff man.

[HumanSupreme]

This Marine has dropped his rifle to transition to his sidearm for immediate threat engagement.

http://images.dakkadakka.com/gallery/2012/4/20/355970_md-Space%20Marines,%20True%20Scale.jpg

http://i901.photobucket.com/albums/ac212/cirkitt/3af82752f6304ffdda12fa02fd01e629.jpg

[Veteran Sergeant]

Looking good, how do you have so many spare pouches?

Ebay, lol. I bought them in discounted lots of 100 from an online bits seller.

Yup, it's more work, but the change in pose is dramatic. I keep telling myself I'm not going to start doing this to add variety to my Troops, but it keeps taunting me. Each time I see someone do this well, is shows why it's worth the effort, in my opinion. Even without the styrene spacers it also shows that a Marine miniature is actually taller than you might think. Most are just in a 'dramatic' lunge/squat pose.

Very tight, as usual.

Thanks. Yeah, it's a ton of work. I've got five more Marines sitting in bits on my desk since I accidentally stabbed myself on the tip of the finger the other day cutting the foot off of a leg, lol. Didn't get any blood on them this time.

solid gold, im curious, is it possible to get all those pouches and frags on without the leg extensions?

glad youre giving explanations with each unique conversion, great stuff man.

Unsure. I've never tried. I think it might be a little tighter. It is important to note, if I haven't already, that in addition to splitting them apart, I shave about 1mm off the bottom of the pouches, then file them rounded.

I'm including this WiP pic for you guys, so you can see just how uncomplicated and low tech this is, lol.

3 sizes of hobby drills, a file, and an X-Acto knife with various blades. The torsos in this picture haven't been modified yet, but you can see the legs cut apart with an un-filed plastic square glued to them.

At any rate, I appreciate all the feedback and enthusiasm this log has generated. Your comments have been a big part of why I've stuck with this incredibly labor intensive project with no real purpose (I'm never going to play the whole company because I don't play Apocalypse) other than sucking up my surfing, gym, and other free time, lol. I'm also glad to know that my work has been inspirational to some (a comment of mine on another person's project log generated a response suggesting I was something of a celebrity, not something I'd imagined gaining a reputation for when I started this ambitious, yet somewhat amateur project, haha). However, this may be the last update for this log from me. The project will continue, slowly but surely like it always has, I just haven't decided whether or not I am going to continue updating it here. Keep up the good work on your own projects, and if you'll be in the San Diego area, let me know. I'll bring some of models to one of the LGS if you want to see them.

[Veteran Sergeant]

Looking good, how do you have so many spare pouches?

Bits sellers on EBay. Found a seller who had them in batches of 100. Then supplemented by my own bits collections.

solid gold, im curious, is it possible to get all those pouches and frags on without the leg extensions?

 

glad youre giving explanations with each unique conversion, great stuff man.

Probably not as easy. The stances they are in makes the legs interfere with placement. The extra room at the waist gives them more room to hang. The fact that I trim them all by 1 mm or so helps too.

 

I didn't update this log for a while after some disagreements with the moderators. Apparently if the board censors your posts, the inference of bad language is okay. If you censor your own posts, that's against the rules. The more you know. :P Then, my original answers to the questions above were removed by another moderator for unknown reasons. So, I didn't post here for a while because I'm not the kind of person to suffer that kind of behavior. Regardless, I figured I would at least bring you guys up to date with everyone else since I've had some loyal followers here. This project has been on hold for the last couple months, as I just don't have the time anymore to work on it, an I spent most of the summer either working, surfing, or on vacation. Now school is back in session and I'm still working my big boy job full time too, as well as training for a few races/obstacle courses. Who knows at this point when I'll be able to get back to it.

 

Okay, here's my latest work, some new Sergeants.

 

First, I finished the Assault Squad by adding its Sergeant. The jump pack was an Ebay purchase that the previous owner didn't take much care in assembly and I'll have to fix later, but otherwise, he's pretty standard except for the Dark Angels power fist and the Sanguinary Guard legs. I modified the legs to lean a little less far forward by filing the base along the bottom to be a different angle. The arms are both magnetized, though the fist is the most dynamic option so I took the pictures with it.

 

http://images.dakkadakka.com/gallery/2012/7/4/385303_md-Assault%20Marines,%20Space%20Marines,%20Tall%20Scale,%20True%20Scale.jpg

http://images.dakkadakka.com/gallery/2012/7/4/385302_md-Assault%20Marines,%20Space%20Marines,%20Tall%20Scale,%20True%20Scale.jpg

 

Sorry for the poor image quality. Not sure why these two didn't turn out too well.

 

The second model is a Veteran Sergeant who will probably be part of the Command Squad, or a Sergeant for the 1st Squad (which will be Counts As Sternguard). He's a mish mash of bits like the Librarian. Wolf Pack legs, FW torso from the Red Scorpions Honor Guard, antenna head (vehicle sprue?), Commander sword arm with blade from the High Elf Archer command sprue (looks like the Roman Maintz pattern gladius/spatha).

 

Here he is with that combi-melta from the other Sergeant.

http://images.dakkadakka.com/gallery/2012/7/4/385305_md-Combimelta,%20Sergeant,%20Space%20Marines,%20Tall%20Scale,%20True%20Scale.jpg

Storm Bolter arm and standing next to the Librarian:

http://images.dakkadakka.com/gallery/2012/7/4/385304_md-Librarian,%20Sergeant,%20Space%20Marines,%20Tall%20Scale,%20True%20Scale.jpg

 

Just how tall is this beast?

http://images.dakkadakka.com/gallery/2012/7/4/385308_md-Sergeant,%20Space%20Marines,%20Tall%20Scale,%20True%20Scale.jpg

http://images.dakkadakka.com/gallery/2012/7/4/385307_md-Combimelta,%20Sergeant,%20Space%20Marines,%20Tall%20Scale,%20True%20Scale.jpg

 

Yes, they're on the same level and the sword cuts at a regular Space Marine's throat. The metal standard bearer was stripped to be used as a test model for paint schemes.

 

 

As far as the Stormbolter, that's another of my creations. I don't like the fact that all the Stormbolters are only usable with one hand. Makes sense for Terminators, but there should be models for regular power armored Marines. So I present the Cerceus Pattern Stormbolter:

 

http://images.dakkadakka.com/gallery/2012/7/4/385306_md-Stormbolter,%20Cerceus%20Pattern%20Storm%20Bolter.jpg

 

Box mag cut free and moved back. Rear of bolter extended in order to accommodate the new position for the pistol grip. Piece of sprue cut and filed to fit as a forward grip. While the model is one-handing it for dramatic effect (and because the arm is magnetized for easy swapping), this weapon can now be used with the standard left arm support hands were you to want to put one on a "regular" model.

 

The count is up to 44 assembled Space Marines (out of the 110 to 115 that will be necessary).

 

Number 44 being this guy:

http://images.dakkadakka.com/gallery/2012/7/5/385665_md-Space%20Marines,%20Standard%20Bearer,%20Tall%20Scale,%20True%20Scale.jpg

 

Obviously, he's a bit of a departure from the others who are modeled to appear to be completely functional, no nonsense Marines. However, the company needs a Standard Bearer, and I decided that I'd key in heavily on the Greco-Roman imagery of the Ultramarines, of whom this chapter will be Successors of. He's a true bits mish-mash like the Librarian. Sanguinary Guard torso front (with blood drop icons filed off. The central chest one needs a little work to round it out still). Sanguinary Guard laurel head. Space Wolf pelt torso (Roman legionary standard bearers were often draped in pelts). Standard Bearer pole arm. The chainsword arm is magnetized. The legs are standard Marine legs cut and re-posed to give him the lurching appearance.

 

The standard itself was a bit of a challenge. I knew that even with the somewhat dressed up nature of the character, that I didn't want a banner. A giant flapping flag is a hindrance and liability on the battlefield. So, again drawing inspiration from the Romans, I decided to make a Space Marine styled imitation of the classic Roman aquila/signa. The top is actually from an ancient Goblin Spearman. The "U" is the Ultramarines standard pole top with a hole drilled through it. I had to file the tip of the pole down slightly to accommodate it. The Aquila is from the Rhino sprue, with a second set of wings glued to the back to give it texture on both sides. However, I was at a loss as to how to imitate the discs. Then, inspiration struck and I turned to an old standby. Bits of sprue. Cut off carefully, they become perfect circles (well, to the limits of science obviously) and just thick enough for substance. These ones were cut from Landspeeder sprues. The original thought was for the standard to double as a weapon, and while it does to an extent, I may decide to go back and redo it a little.

 

http://images.dakkadakka.com/gallery/2012/7/5/385666_md-Space%20Marines,%20Standard%20Bearer,%20Tall%20Scale,%20True%20Scale.jpg

 

And here he is with his two Standard Bearer buddies:

 

http://images.dakkadakka.com/gallery/2012/7/5/385667_md-Space%20Marines,%20Standard%20Bearer,%20Tall%20Scale,%20True%20Scale.jpg

 

He has the wolf pelt back because of the pelts worn by the classic Roman standard bearers. I'm figuring I'll paint it up as a lion pelt or something as soon as I figure out how to do that. ;) Having the lion's head draped over the helmet seemed like it would be impossible to do right, so I abandoned it early, opting for the laurels head instead, since that's another classic Roman image/icon and it's actually associated with Standard Bearers in the universe already. I chose the torso front because it had all of that other laurel iconography too. This guy's definitely in "parade dress" but hey, these are seven and a half foot tall genetically modified psychopaths. They can do that if they want.