masteroftheforge.com » Forgeworld

Mark 4 starts to take shape…

Lamenter — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 19:50:07 +0000

Hey guys.

Small update for you all on the Mark 4 from the Alpha Legion squad. The greenstuff is largely done on the torso, just need to do another plate to go in front of the groin, but need to wait the GS underneath to firm up. The trickiest thing about this (other than the sculpting) was getting the chest to stick out far enough. I had to hack the Forgeworld torso down the middle without damaging any of the details, rather tricky but all done with a scalpel rather than sawblade.

The rest of the squad is a little begin the progress of this mini, the Mk3 helms having taken time to get right. Will have a squad update very soon, but just wanted to show the progress of my first Mk4 armour. Have to have some of these in my own collection, no doubt.

Alpha Legionnaries

Lamenter — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 22:44:12 +0000

I finally got some work done on the squad of Alpha Legionnaires I had promised I would do weeks ago. This is the second time I have started this squad (part of the reason for the wait). I had tried to pose some of the squad in a striding pose, but many of the legs just ended up looking like they belonged to ballerinas, skipping… you get the idea. I ended up swapping most of them out for a more standard marine pose, with some minor adjustments. Striding/running poses are very difficult to do without them looking weird, and with a variety of only 5 pairs of Terminator legs to use, it only makes thing tougher.

In the near future I will start removing the thighs completely and sculpting them from scratch.

The squad here will consist of 3 x Mk4, and 5 x Mk3. I’ve begun sculpting the Mk3 helmets to match the helm used by the Space Marine Master with helm in hand. I think I may try an alternative style based on some of the earlier models/drawings of Mk3 armour, just to see how they look.

The Mk4 bits are from forgeworld, and I think they are brilliant, my favourite style of power armour by far. Still a long way to go with this squad, I’ve already begun working of their weapons, a collection of power weapons and combi-bolters (client will use these as GK Terminators). I’m going away for a few days but when I get back I’ll be giving these my full attention, so hopefully most of the work will be done by this time next week.

Click for larger image in new window.

Ciaphas Cain

Lamenter — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 23:47:52 +0000

Even though I hadn’t intended to start this for a few weeks, I fancied a change and doing something not in power armour. The client requested Commissar Ciaphas Cain converted from a FW Death Korps Commissar. The replacement head came from a Master of Ordinance mini from the advisors box set. I also tried out my newly arrived ‘brown stuff’ putty as apposed to the usual greenstuff. I have to say that it’s definitely nicer to use than greenstuff. Too expensive to use on everything, but the reduced elasticity makes it ideal for small details. Still a lot to do to this mini, but the hardest part, the head swap, is done. Took a good few hours to carefully remove the original head and trim the new one to fit, but eventually the result has turned out really nice. One of the other major features of this model is the ornate double edged chainsword. I couldn’t find an existing chainsword with the right dimensions of details, so I had to make one. I basically took the teeth off of two chainswords, glued them together. I then added a trimmed down motor bit from a Space Marine chainsword. The handle is from an catachan knife and is perfectly scaled to fit this model. The outer casing for the blade was filed off and then resculpted with brownstuff to make a clean finish.

After working on this mini, I’m very tempted to buy myself some Death Korps of Krieg Grenadiers, to use as Inquisitorial Storm Troopers. It’s a very nice model and better proportioned than most other Imperial Guard models.