Master of the Forge » Mark IV

Artscale Deathwatch Devastator

Lamenter — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 13:21:03 +0000

Here is a commission for a single Deathwatch Space Marine (to be used in FFG Deathwatch RPG).

The brief was far more specific than I normally like (I like to be as free as possible in the creation process) but I really liked the concept. Sometimes having someone push for a really specific finish can be an advantage and I don’t think this would have turned out as well as it did had the client not been so pedantic (it’s a compliment, truely). This particular Space Marine is equipped with Mk IV armour and a modified heavy bolter. The helm is a stripped down FW Khorne Berserker helm which looks pretty cool I have to say. The heavy bolter is actually made from 2 heavy bolters, the devastator variant and one from a Bandblade (I believe), as I wanted to make it unique. Because I didn’t have any of the devastator back packs left in my bitz box I asked the client if I could give him a a box magazine rather than belt feed. I personally think it looks cooler and is fitting for a DW who would have the most advanced gear. I would have like to have added a bipod also but the size of the box magazine made it look redundant.

The base was done really simply using textured plasticard sheet cut to fit the base and separated to leave small gaps, like gaps between floor panels.

I took the above pics when I felt the conversion was finished but the client requested an alteration to the model’s pose so that the gun was in more of a firing position. I think I have a habit of avoiding action poses and whilst I still liked the previous posing as it made the gun look heavy, I do think this is an improvement though. Additionally a slight modifiation made to the handle of the heavy bolter (reminds me a little of the Pulse Rifle from the Aliens film).

Artscale Alpha Legionaires Squad

Lamenter — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 13:50:36 +0000

Like much of my converting work I personally wasn’t satisfied with this project until about 80% of the way in when it started to really come together properly. These follow the basic guidelines laid out in my Artscale Tutorial. Initially 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 only a small variety of Terminator legs to use, it only makes thing tougher.

The squad was commissioned to consist of 3 x Mk4, and 5 x Mk3. I began sculpting the Mk3 helmets to match style of helm used by this Space Marine Master. The Mark IIIs are considerably bulkier than the Mark IVs but that’s intentional as they are meant to look more heavily armoured. I also added rivets to the Mark IIIs that I acquired from Grandt Line.The Mk4 bits are from Forgeworld, and I think they are brilliant, my favourite style of power armour by far. The client requested that the squad be equipped with combi-bolters, so I used Chaos Terminator arms for the Mark IIIs and regular Terminator arms for the slightly more sophisticated Mark IVs. In an attempt to make them look more combi-bolter than storm bolter I’ve removed the barrels and replaced them with drilled out plasticard rods (separately barrels rather than one piece with two holes). I’m especially pleased with how the icon on the squad leader’s chest came out.

The Alpha Legionnaire Badge on the shoulder pad was first made in greenstuff and then casts were made using Blu-Stuff as a simple one piece mold. You can find a Mini-Tutorial to making an Alpha Legion icon here.

For anyone who’s interested the client plans to use these as “counts as” Grey Knight Terminators (edit:this was before the Grey Knight codex).

Click here for Work in Progress pics

Size comparison pic

Artscale Back Pack (Mark 4-6)

Lamenter — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 15:01:53 +0000

This widened back (made for a scaled up Space Marine model) was done in a simpler and cleaner way to that featured in my Artscale Tutorial. The basic approach is to cleanly chop a single back pack in half down the centreline. Glue it back together with a plasticard spacer in the middle (approximately 3mm). At the top fill in with Green Stuff and score lines to into it. Then attached layered armour plates over the remaining gap. This could be done with plasticard but on the example above I sculpted one piece in Green Stuff and made a mold using Blu-Stuff. The rivets were added later (Grandt Line premade rivets).