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What to do with old marine sculpts?


Hollenweger

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So I find myself with 20-30 unbuilt plastic Chaos marines (the old sculpts), and I just don't know what to do with them. They are much smaller than the new sculpts, and the detail levels just don't compare.

 

So tell me B+C, what have you done with your old marines now we have shiny new sculpts?

From an economical standpoint you could just use them anyway, though I can see how it would ruin the esthetics of the army. Not sure how selling them on Ebay would go though.

Do you play any other armies than Chaos? From a modelling point of view having some extra bodies to (literally) throw around is always useful. Don't know about you, but having a Heretic or two getting the life crushed out of them adds a certain flair to Dreadnought and Wraithlord models etc.

So I find myself with 20-30 unbuilt plastic Chaos marines (the old sculpts), and I just don't know what to do with them. They are much smaller than the new sculpts, and the detail levels just don't compare.

 

So tell me B+C, what have you done with your old marines now we have shiny new sculpts?

I'd advise ditching the torsos and legs, but you can find uses for the backpacks, bolters, arms, and heads- the backpacks arguably look nicer than the new style, some of the old heads can look good with some splicing and horn replacement, the arms are now OOP and the new style is different, and the bolters are valuable for not being glued onto monopose arms. Shoulderpads are still useful.

 

The legs are a lost cause, but the torso fronts might still look okay for more "plain" CSM.

 

The thing is that the older CSM bits follow a different style from the new one- simpler, more streamlined, closer to oldmarines/loyalists/ Which is either good or bad depending on the visual style you want to go for with your force as a whole.

At the risk of tooting my own horn (Doom Siren?) a bit, I've found with minimal conversion it is possible to make old CSMs scale nicely with the new minis whilst not looking ludicrous.

The process is pretty simple, and technically doesn't require buying any other kits or bits-

1: Cut the legs at the knees, being careful not to do too much damage to the detail on the greaves.

2: Drill holes into the bottoms of the thighs, the tops of the shins and also (if you want) at the waist.

3: Using superglue and rod/wire of your choice (I used paperclips because they're cheap) rejoin the shins and thighs such that the thighs are now more proportionate. This may take some finagling depending on personal taste.

4: Once the glue is dry and you have the pose you want, use greenstuff or your preferred putty over the exposed wire "armature" to sculpt the remainder of the thigh back in. This stage is easy enough as the basic thighs are pretty minimally detailed, just be sure to take care when sculpting the joint gaskets on the back of the knees.

5: Once it's cured and cleaned up you could stop here and have a perfectly serviceable set of legs. But if you want to go the extra mile, use a tiny bit of wire to lengthen the torso with the holes you drilled into the waist connector earlier. Glue, putty and clean up as with the legs. You may want to use some bits to disguise the join a bit depending on how you sculpted it, fortunately the basic kit has quite a few parts to do just that, such as holstered pistols and the like.

Congratulations! You've turned a 3rd edition plastic Chaos Marine into a model that can stand toe to toe with modern Astartes and not feel self-conscious!

If you rebase the old 25mm on a 32 not removing the old base, but just cutting the edge and gluing it on the new base the look better, compared to the new ones and are 1 mm high. If you use warmachine 30mm bases you will gain another 0,5mm. It's a solution... maybe not the best, but a solution

I have about 50-something old marines built and painted, and 10-20 more in bits boxes and sprues here and there and I wen't all in on the new marines because they're beautiful...so I have a storage problem myself. :P

 

The ones in bits-boxes and on sprues will be used as material when I convert the three Shadowspear boxes to be a bit more...different from each other...except the legs. The old legs can go die in a fire!

 

I'm thinking of selling the painted ones cheaply...haven't decided yet though...

So if you play a faction that had a chaos marine beef (world eaters/Emperor's children, Deathguard/Ksons) or have a loyalist marine army (or guard army...), You can use them as basing materials either painted up in opposite colors as to your army.

 

I'd replaced a lot of the more chaosy parts with Betrayal at calth bits, I don't care for or like belt fed bolters before I retired/reclaimed my chaos Marines and out them all into my Warborn (World Eaters).

 

I gave most of my guys away or traded them for bits or reclaimed them for bits where I could.

 

My Nightblades live on narratively as a vanguard detachment of Alpha Legion with two units of chosen, a unit of terminators and a Terminator sorcerer and jump pack sorcerer.

 

My Warborn are as many Zerkers in as many rhinos as I can get with mauler dogs, helbrutes and a daemon prince.

Here's the thing: the new CSM sculpts look significantly different. You can use the old ones to depict a different CSM force.

 

I had about 60 NOS when the new sculpts came out, started a Red Corsairs detachment. Will eventually get around to finishing it. : )

Here's the thing: the new CSM sculpts look significantly different. You can use the old ones to depict a different CSM force.

 

I had about 60 NOS when the new sculpts came out, started a Red Corsairs detachment. Will eventually get around to finishing it. : )

 

Yeah, combining the old guys with Loyalist bits and making either Red Corsairs or Warp Ghosts would be high on my list. Any of the Renegades from Vigilus would work too. In fact, that's where my Warp Ghost army came from. Extra Old Chaos Marines mixed with Loyalist stuff from my bits bin.

I'd advise ditching the torsos and legs, but you can find uses for the backpacks, bolters, arms, and heads- the backpacks arguably look nicer than the new style, some of the old heads can look good with some splicing and horn replacement, the arms are now OOP and the new style is different, and the bolters are valuable for not being glued onto monopose arms. Shoulderpads are still useful.

 

The legs are a lost cause, but the torso fronts might still look okay for more "plain" CSM.

 

The thing is that the older CSM bits follow a different style from the new one- simpler, more streamlined, closer to oldmarines/loyalists/ Which is either good or bad depending on the visual style you want to go for with your force as a whole.

 

 

Pretty much all of this.  I have a ton of bolter arms, bolters, shoulder pads, backpacks, and heads from the old kit over the years that I plan on using with the new scuplts.  The proportions of the old arms on new bodies is actually pretty good... arm stopping about mid-thigh and all that.

 

As others have pointed out it will also allow me to tell units apart better on the field since they will different in design style.

 

If you base your old marines on 1/4" thick cork it puts them at about the same height as the new scuplts.

 

I also have a lot of the finecast sonic weapons and blastmasters for a decent unit of Noise Marines before they (hopefully) release a new boxed set for them.  That's where I found out about the proportions, the current  blastermaster fits the new Noise Marine scuplt really well.

Use the new guys as Chosen, keep the old ones as troops?

 

Chaos don't care about scale issues, they're supposed to vary in size depending on the god's favour.

I play Death Guard, and l did something like this. New models were chopped up and turned into characters, and my troopers stayed the same. If those sculpts were good enough for 3rd ed, then they are good enough for 8th, by Nurgle!

 

And if my plague doctor and chaos lord tower over the soldiers of the line, so much the better.

Use the new guys as Chosen, keep the old ones as troops?

 

Chaos don't care about scale issues, they're supposed to vary in size depending on the god's favour.

I basically do the same as i allready own like old 50 power armour csm and noise marines. I chopped the hands with the pistol off and gave them the old csm terminator combi bolters.

A Servant to the Gods, whilst outstripped by newer brethren, can still serve as gruel for the grinder.

I ended up building sooner of the older models to serve as painting test subjects. A bit wasteful, but it suits my needs. Plus, the champion bits, heads, bolters, etc. can be worked into the new models and give them an oldschool style.

Use the new guys as Chosen, keep the old ones as troops?

 

Chaos don't care about scale issues, they're supposed to vary in size depending on the god's favour.

 this is what I did with my new marines from shadowspear, just making up some magnetized devastator sgt combi-weapons to replace the pistols. 

I plan to mix them with bits from Betrayal at Calth and Warp Talons. Should make them look relatively "modern".

 

EDIT: As for the already finished models, the size difference is not really a problém. I still have them on 28 mil bases, which I plan to straight up mount on 32 mils and cover the step by the basing materials. It might seem lazy but they are already weighed so doing it aby other way would probably not be worth ther trouble.

Personally I'd probably prime them grey, ink and drybrush in a lighter grey to use as statues for terrain. Leave some parts off, damage others, add some moss and stuff.

Though 20-30 might be a few many for that approach. :D

Make them into living chess pieces as part of a Tzeentch warband.

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