Centurion Model (Tutorial in post #20)

[Krikey]

My wonderful wife brought me a care package of miniatures this afternoon (I'm not allowed to drive until I can manage to get some sleep), and I spent some time trying to convert an assault centurion into something that looks more dynamic -- like something that could actually make it into close combat rather than being plinked to death as it waddles slowly across the field.

I think the attempt has been somewhat successful, but sheesh! it's been a lot of work.

Anyway, here's a pic:

I'll post step-by-step photos later if anyone is interested, but for now I think I'm going to try to sleep.

~K

[Firepower]

Wow, so they can move after all!

It's a neat attempt. There's still a whole lot of ugly there, but it's a marked improvement to give them a dynamic pose.

I'm curious to know how it was done, as well as how you managed the cross on his shin!

I'll still probably just be putting several Devastator Marines on a big base to use as a Counts As, but it doesn't hurt to consider alternatives

Edit- Please tell me that the involvement of greenstuff is for nothing beyond filling gaps. I can't sculpt!

[Inquisitor Xenthor]

This. Is. Awesome.

I love the repose of it, makes it seem more fluid than the static waddle pose. Cant wait to see more, and the step-by-step for those of us that will compliment you by copying you ;P

[Krikey]

@Firepower: The only putty I used was in modeling the cross, and it was easily done:

1) I just shaved away the laurel leaves on either side of the skull

2) Then I smooshed down three equal blobs of putty on the sides and top of it (and a smaller one beneath).

3) Flatten the blobs -- the shape doesn't matter as long as they all cover roughly the same area.

4) A very sharp blade was used to trim the putty into near-triangular shapes, forming a rough cross.

5) I smoothed those shapes with a silicone modeling tool.

6) When they were smooth, I re-trimmed the shapes and cut a notch out of the ends, making it look like a templar cross.

7) After letting it sit awhile, I used the modeling tool to gently pushed the points to give the cross a gentle curve -- this part isn't necessary.

If I was feeling really ambitious, I would repeat the process after the cross was dry to give a two-layered appearance, making the second layer slightly smaller than the first. I may do that later, in fact.

EDIT: You could probably get the same effect by trimming down pieces of styrene card into the arms of the cross, avoiding the use of putty entirely.

I actually didn't bother to fill any gaps, either, but I was pretty careful with my knife-cuts. (EDIT: I did find one small gap under the right arm that I will end up filling, but it doesn't involve any actual sculpting.) I'll post pics tomorrow if time permits.

Something else you may be interested in, though:

I'm still just not sure about the placement of the rivets, though, and I'll also likely fill the left side of the visor and give it holes as you intended in your drawing. Sorry for the blurry pic.

@Xenthor: I'll try to post those pics tomorrow. The problem with my model, though, is that it's not easily magnetized since removed the power gloves. For myself this isn't a problem, since I decided that any devastator centurions would be painted up as allied Imperial Fists. On the Fists, though, I may move the ranged weaponry to back-mounted servos or somesuch. Haven't decided yet, and I suppose it's really not relevant to this subforum.

~K

[SRSFACE]

Awesome work, man.

 

I actually really like how Centurions look. By themselves, they are kind of silly, but once you actually seem them painted up alongside other marines, they look pretty fitting.

[Firepower]

*sniffle* He's beautiful

Though I would consider making the Crosses a bit shorter, to make it more subtle and a bit less fragile. Like, down in height by one rivet?

[Krikey]

Hmmm. I think I can do that. :)

 

~K

[Marshal Ommadon]

Krikey your work never fails to amaze me, I love your Helbrecht conversion.  I just love Centurions I think they are an outstanding looking model!

[Raeven]

Where did you get the skull head drape?

 

Looks awesome so far.  Can't wait to see the rest.  I'm personally planning to completely magnetize the arms for multiple setups.

[Marshal Reinhard]

I remain unconvinced that you have rescued the designed yet, but that's a very impressive effort nonetheless. You are doing a lot of rights.

 

Unfortunately, i don't think I'll ever get past the drill arms.

[Trignama]

I like it man, I absolutely suck at converting anything, I think partly due to impatience, major due to no skill what so ever (so much for gaffing off every art class I have ever had in my life! ha ha).

 

I really like the centurion models, and can't wait to get some myself (still waiting on book to get list ideas together) so it's good to see them starting to pop up so I can get some ideas how to model em.

 

Can't wait to see it painted bro!!

[The_Chaplain]

I actually managed to look at those centurions in person yesterday, and it was (in my mind) the biggest issue of bad photgraphy and model posing I had seen in a while.  They look much better in person, when you see that one of the legs actually has some movement to it (meaning the others could be converted as much fairly easily).

 

That said, I still don't think they're very "fluffy" to a space marine army- but glad someone is taking the time to properly templarize them! Cutting the oven mitts off and replacing them with assault drills has done a lot for that model already.

 

Any chance of more pics soon? (After getting some sleep of course)

[Ace Debonair]

Oh, man.

Seeing that charge at you would seriously ruin your day.

Those assault drills don't look nearly so silly remodelled like that. Top stuff!

[Honda]

Brilliant work Krikey.

 

I was conceptualizing taking the GI Joe weapons off the arms and sticking them on the ends of the wrists as well, though I was looking at it from the Devastator perspective.

 

What you have confirmed is that if you take off the hands, could can make the weapon equipped arms much better looking. I'm also glad to see that you were able to modify the legs as I had read on another forum that this was going to be problematical.

 

Now we need to see some of that Krikey painting magic applied to them. I can hardly wait to see how they turn out.

 

Cheers,

[ShottyScotty]

On the Fists, though, I may move the ranged weaponry to back-mounted servos or somesuch. Haven't decided yet, and I suppose it's really not relevant to this subforum.

~K

Since they are fellow sons of dorn, I'd feel it would so injustice if you didnt post them here (at least a link)

Speaking of, do you have a WIP page of the Fists? Or are you just starting them up? You do immaculate work on BT, I would love to see how you do fists (hopefully with scrimshaw)

[Firepower]

If nothing else, post it in the WIP section, and for the love of all that is good in this world post tutorials :D

[Krikey]

On the Fists, though, I may move the ranged weaponry to back-mounted servos or somesuch. Haven't decided yet, and I suppose it's really not relevant to this subforum.

~K

Since they are fellow sons of dorn, I'd feel it would so injustice if you didnt post them here (at least a link)

Speaking of, do you have a WIP page of the Fists? Or are you just starting them up? You do immaculate work on BT, I would love to see how you do fists (hopefully with scrimshaw)

I've yet to even begin painting any IF model, but will likely do so when I can. I'll probably start with scrubs -- that's probably the best way for me to get my palette worked out. I'll post a link here when I get something done worth posting. It may be a while. (And by a while, I mean it could easily be this time next year.)

~K

[ShottyScotty]

On the Fists, though, I may move the ranged weaponry to back-mounted servos or somesuch. Haven't decided yet, and I suppose it's really not relevant to this subforum.

~K

Since they are fellow sons of dorn, I'd feel it would so injustice if you didnt post them here (at least a link)

Speaking of, do you have a WIP page of the Fists? Or are you just starting them up? You do immaculate work on BT, I would love to see how you do fists (hopefully with scrimshaw)

I've yet to even begin painting any IF model, but will likely do so when I can. I'll probably start with scrubs -- that's probably the best way for me to get my palette worked out. I'll post a link here when I get something done worth posting. It may be a while. (And by a while, I mean it could easily be this time next year.)

~K

Any time would be worth it. There are plenty people following your BT thread for good reason

[Firepower]

Suggestion: put off working on the Centurion in favor of working on a time machine, so we don't have to wait a year. :)

[Krikey]

For almost all of these cuts, I just used the tip of a very sharp exacto knife, scoring gently at first and going over the same line over and over and over until I had a clean cut. If you try to cut the whole thing at once, you will likely deform the plastic -- it's pretty soft -- or cause some incidental damage. Even going as slowly as I did, I still ended up with bandages on most of the fingers of my right hand. But at least I didn't mess up a piece beyond repair, and that's the important thing.

Here are all the leg pieces laid out. I started with the legs that were the most static, figuring that if I could give these legs some movement, the others should be much easier. In this image, the red lines show points that need to be cut apart. From top to bottom:

1) two cylinder cuts -- just cut around the cylinder, severing the joints so that they can be repositioned later.

2) oblique cut -- I cut along the plane of the center tasset piece so that I wouldn't have to fill it after the cut. The backside of the left leg tasset piece doesn't really matter; it won't show.

3) two cuts on the leg -- the first cut, around the hip joint, just followed one of the grooves. I didn't bother to cut all the way through, because after about 1/4 the radius, I was able to twist the leg and break it apart cleanly. The second cut was just a pain in the arse and took a lot of time. It's a deep cut, and it follows a curved line. More on that later.

4) anterior leg armor -- these cuts weren't difficult at all. Just go slowly and don't sever the downward-protruding edges at the knee. The ankle joint is a bit worse, but if you go carefully on the front side, you don't have to worry so much about the back, since won't show much if at all. And actually, you don't have to cut the ankle at all -- see #5, below.

4a) lateral leg pistons -- curved cuts again, but not deep. The only problem is that this one will show if you mess it up, so go slowly. NOTE: ignore the right leg piston's red mark -- it shouldn't be cut.

5) toes -- you only have to cut the left foot front piece. The right foot is optional. Cut it if you like the way it looks in a different position, but not if you don't.

6) not shown -- in each foot is a guide stub. trim it down as necessary to reposition the foot if you would like.

This image shows the basic angles of the left leg after repositioning. You can go straighter if you want, but if you go more bent, it could cause difficulties with armor and pistons. (Nothing you shouldn't be able to fix if you've some experience, though.)

This image just shows the other side of the leg, as well as a rough join. What you see in the join is melted plastic from the DCM. If you try to clear it away immediately, it can blob all over the surrounding area. If you wait too long, you have to cut it away. If you're like Goldilocks and wait until it's just right, you can clear it away without cutting or smearing.

Here's the anterior leg armor again. Not difficult to cut apart at all. The cross instructions are elsewhere in the thread. Looking at the pic, I see I started to make a cut on the right leg just above the ankle. I'm not sure what I was thinking there, but I hadn't slept in about three days, so it could have resulted from that.

Here is the lateral leg piston. Remember you only have to cut one of these if you're doing what I did, so ignore that extra red mark in the first image. The arrow shows that I had to move the upper piston not just clockwise, but had to twist it a bit as well, too. That's the reason I pinned this piece -- I wasn't sure exactly how it needed to end up, but with the pin I was able to turn it to fit properly.

The waist piece was done after and at the same time as the upper piston. With the piston pinned in place, I made the cuts on the waist piece, pinned it as well (not shown), and was able to move all the pieces fluidly into position.

Here's the leg after positioning, and before final setting of the piston -- you can see where it's coming apart at the joint. It did this because I was stupid and working with sharp knives on no sleep. I cut into the pad of my right middle finger to a depth of about half to 3/4 of a centimeter. (That first pic with the blood? That was from a minor cut earlier. That wasn't this cut, which was bad enough I had to wash my cutting mat and toss my jeans in the wash. Thought about posting that pic as well, but I decided against it, since this is the Black Templars forum and not the World Eaters forum.) So after I came back to my desk, I used the DCM again and held it for several seconds to get it to set properly, cleaning it up just a little afterward.

The image is actually supposed to show how I repositioned the foot. Be sure to take into account the terrain (if any) you will be using on your base.

The tasset wasn't bad to cut at all. A couple of scores along the edge and then a couple of deeper cuts, and it was free and relatively smooth.

Tasset after smoothing the piece. (I placed some Forge World brass on the blank surface, but don't believe I remembered to take a photo.)

As I said earlier, the arms were a pain to cut. For one, the elbow joints are going to show, so you have to go slowly and carefully and be ready to patch it with putty if there's an error. I got relatively lucky. Two complete cuts on the assault drill (or gun -- they have the same surfaces), and you should have it (by complete cut, I mean lots of scoring and slow progress -- this area also shows). You also will have to make a rounded cut corresponding to the joint surface of the exposed elbow of the upper arm.

You don't have to do all this, by the way. If you don't mind the look of the arms with the underslung weapons, then don't bother. Alternately, if you do mind the look but want to magnetize your options so you decide you can live with it, don't bother with most of this. You may still want to reposition the elbows, or you may not. If you do, you'll have to make the elbow cuts.

NOTE: I didn't show the cuts necessary to position the hoses properly. On each set of hoses, I did some hot water bending and had to cut away part of the torso attachment bits at an angle.

This image just shows how the assault drill body fits to the elbow. You see that extra piston hanging down that doesn't have anything to push against? More on that a few pics later.

With this pic, I actually made one of the notes on the pic itself. The scar from the glove-adjoining section had to be removed from the assault drill body. That isn't green stuff -- I just colored that section of the image to highlight the area I had to repair.

The other thing is that I'm showing roughly how I attached the arm to the drill body. You could easily put a magnet in there and then magnetize the hoses as well, but I found out yesterday I'm out of my smaller magnets or misplaced them. I think I have several remaining, so hopefully they'll show up. I didn't attach the weapons securely; I will be able to pop them free if and when I decide to magnetize them. I probably won't, though. A charging assault centurion makes more sense than a charging devastator centurion. Although I suppose there are some Black Templars that would rather charge in and use a grav cannon as a bludgeon ...

Remember that hangy-downy piston on the upper arm that didn't actually have anything to push against? That's where these bits come in. These were extra pieces from Land Speeder kits, I think.

This image shows rough placement of the above bit.

Another image showing placement of the elbow piece, but also showing the ankle armor (highlighted in blue) I had to cut away from the anterior leg armor because I changed the foot position just a smidgen.

That's pretty much it, except for going over all the rough surfaces with files and fine sandpaper and trimming away little bits and pieces I didn't notice earlier.

I got the skulls from a plastic beastman (?) kit, shaped some forgeworld brass for the tasset, and attached the parchment to the left elbow. I likely won't start painting this piece until I do the conversions on the other two in the unit. I'll post those conversions as I get them done, as well as a photo of this centurion properly based. I have an interesting idea I won't detail yet because it may not work as I imagine.

~K