Tutorial - Giving marines chaos warrior capes

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Some of my very first posts at B&C were my tutorial on how to give fantasy warrior capes to chaos space marine models.

 

Given that its been 7 years and my approach has simplified somewhat, I thought I would redo it using the new EC noise marine models.  This obviously works for loyalist marines as well.

 

 

1.  Clip out and clean up the legs and torso pieces of your marine model, as well as a fantasy warrior cape.  You'll need the other marine bits later, but we won't worry about them for now.  You'll also be needing glue to assemble the model, a hobby knife, a swaw and some hobby putty such as "greenstuff".  Clippers can be helpful as wel, and some sort of shaping tool for the greenstuff (I use my hobby knife).

 

 

2.  Using your saw, cut the back off of the torso with a cut immediately above the belt.  For some models with pouches or other equipment on their belt, you may need to cut down around that first to avoid amputating it with your main cut.

 

 

3.  Here are the seperated pieces.  You can remove or throw out the back piece - we don't need it for this build.

 

 

4.  If you haven't already, complete assemble the legs and glue them to the base.  Here's a picture showing the backless model.

 

 

5.  Cut your fantasy warrior cape just below the elbow, in to the walls of the "box" in the middle of the cape.  You can cut a bit higher though the elbow (so as to avoid clipping the skulls on the back) but it will be a bit harder and will require removing the remaining parts of the elbow afterwards with your hobby knife.

 

 

6.  Cut along the shoulder just outside the "box".  If you clip the box, that's okay, it just makes for a harder cut.  Stop when you start cutting the cape itself - a few small nicks won't be noticeable as they'll pretty much be hidden.  I suppose you could skip this step, but it makes the cut in the next step much easier and more precise.

 

 

7.  From the top of the cape, cut down along the score you made with the previous step.

 

 

8.  When your vertical cut meets your horizontal cut, you'll be able to detach the shoulder portion.  You may need to go back and cut a bit more horizontally if your cuts don't match.  Clean up the edges of the cape along the cuts with your hobby knife.

 

 

9.  Do the same thing on the other side.  Note the skulls and rope on the back - we got lucky and didn't cut either of them, so its worth putting some extra care into the cuts on the side with those details to avoid them.  Or, if you do trim them, you can patch them up or build them back later.

 

 

10.  Trim off the bottom of the "box" - this portion will be hidden so doesn't need to be particularly neat.  I like to use clippers because they are easiest and fastest, and that their cut is a bit "messier" doesn't really matter here.

 

 

11.  Using a ball of greenstuff in the middle of the "box" on the cape, attach the cape to the front of the torse.  Try to line up the two sides of the "bowl" for the head so that they are even - this may require you to clip a bit more of the sides of the "box" so that they fit.  Don't worry about the slight gap unless its particularly massive on either side of the "bowl" - they will be hidden by the head.

 

12.  Set the model aside to let the greenstuff cure.  If you are building a batch of models, this is a good time to repeat the above process for the next model.

 

 

13.  Once the greenstuff applied in the last step cures and you can handle the cape without shifting it around, greenstuff the back half of the shoulder "flats" that we removed with the back half the torso.  After to you do this, prepare the arms and head to be added to the miniature.

 

 

14.  Glue on the arms and head.

 

 

15.  Trim off any portions of the shoulder pad (less of a problem for loyalists) that would protrude through the cape.  Here, I've pointed the bits I trimmed out with the paintbrush - I trimmed off some of the rim and of the wings on the EC pad.

 

 

16.  Mix up your greenstuff.  Take about half of it, and shape it in a long triangle like the above.  Starting with the base of the hole you cut in the cape, drape it across the shoulder.

 

 

17.  Cut the applied greenstuff in a straight line from the top front edge by the head down to the edge of the cape..  Remove the greenstuff on the outside of the cut line.  The cutting may cause the greenstuff to bunch near the bottom or pull in weird ways - that's to be expected.

 

 

18.  Smooth the greenstuff so that it matches the natural shape of the cape, paying particular attention to the outside edge and where the greenstuff meets the plastic cape at the bottom.  This may require you "thinning" parts of the greenstuff by cutting it away, or adding more to fill pits or gaps.  For me, other than the cutting of the cape, this is the most time consuming portion (and fiddliest) portions of the build.

 

 

19.  Do the other side, but its best either to let the greenstuff cure first, or take extra care not to press on the first side and distort or destroy your previous work.

 

 

20.  Let the greenstuff cure, then make a small "sausage" of greenstuff along the edge of where the "fur" portion of the plastic cape ends.

 

 

21.  Using your tool, shape the "sausage" of greenstuff into a fur type pattern, trying to match (to a certain extent) the fur on the plastic cape.  It helps to start at the edges, cuting upwards to create little wedge shapes, then move on into the central portion, doing the same there.  Once done, do the same on the other side, taking care to not squash your just competed work.

 

 

22.  Put a ball of greenstuff on the back of the back pack for the model.

 

 

23.  Put the backpack in the desired position - this may require some shifting it about.  Once you are done, remove any visible greenstuff used to attach it or shape it into more fur (the latter is probably easier unless there is a lot of it).

 

24.  Glue on any grenades, pouches and other belt items last - that way they don't get in the way when doing the rest of the model.

 

And there you have it - this also works well with tormentors & infractors, as seen by the photos below.  And also loyalist marines, though I haven't done that myself.

 

 

One final note, the fantasy warrior capes may need some adapting where one leg protrudes behind the model, as is the case for two of the noise marines.  Those models will require you to a) forgo the cape, b) use a cape from a different source what flares out on the side with the problem leg, c) tilt the fantasy warrior cloak so that it clears the leg, but realising this will effect the angle of the cape around the head or d) trim the portion of the cape that interferes with the leg and rebuild it with greenstuff.

 

Hope this was helpful.

 

[Brother Sutek]

This was really cool! Solid idea.

[sbarnby71]

Great step-by-step guide.  I've done similar with those capes in the past for my Space Wolves.  One thing I did different was to use a cheap dremel tools to grind away the unwanted bits as I've cut myself so many times with those razor-saws!

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Thanks! Yeah, I bet something like this would look great on spacewolves.

 

A dremmel would certainly work as well and be faster (though I would be more inclined to use the cutting rather than the grinding tool), but for some reason I've always used a saw despite having a dremmel hidden somewhere.

 

And it really isn't a proper conversion project if you don't bleed on it. 

Edited Friday at 04:05 PM by Dr_Ruminahui

[sbarnby71]

On 5/30/2025 at 5:02 PM, Dr_Ruminahui said:

Thanks! Yeah, I bet something like this would look great on spacewolves.

 

A dremmel would certainly work as well and be faster (though I would be more inclined to use the cutting rather than the grinding tool), but for some reason I've always used a saw despite having a dremmel hidden somewhere.

 

And it really isn't a proper conversion project if you don't bleed on it. 

Always blood, sweat and tears go into the best conversions.