Here’s a quick tutorial on how I make my version of the mark V power armour helmet.

The items and tools used are a mark 7 helm (I use the one with two breather tubes on either side), greenstuff, Grandt Line plastic rivets (0.81mm), a small chisel ended clay shaper and a sharp scalpel.

Start by cleaning up the mold lines. I mounted this helm on the end of a drill bit just to make it easier to hold, but you could just as easily attach to the figure. Take a small amount of greenstuff, two to three times more yellow than blue to ensure it’s nice and soft, and roll it into a ball. Push the ball directly onto the helms forehead and flatten it a little.

Now using the wet clay shaper gently spread the greenstuff left and right around the curvature of the forehead, keeping the mass of the greenstuff symmetrical. If you have too much carefully slice away small amounts with a wet scalpel blade. Once you have a nice smooth curve going across the forehead, take your wet scalpel blade and trim away the excess greenstuff covering the eyes, leaving a square tab over the nose. Finally clean up any rough edges with the wet clay shaper.

Allow the greenstuff to cure. Because of the greater amount of yellow I usually allow at least 6 hours, but you may be ok to handle it gently before then.

Trim the rivets from their sprue using a sharp blade. You’ll need at least 12 but it’s best to cut off a few extra.

Place a drop of superglue on a piece of scrap plastic.

Now using the point of your scalpel blade (or the point of a pin will do) pick up one of the rivets and carefully dab it into the drop of superglue. Because of surface tension you’ll probably end up with too much on the underside of the rivet so carefully brush it against something to remove the excess without actually gluing the rivet down.

When ready push the rivet into place giving the glue a moment to dry before carefully pulling the scalpel blade away. Rinse and repeat until all rivets are applied. This takes a little practise, but once you get the hang of it doesn’t take long at all to do.

Taking a look at the converted model featured in the Bell of Lost Souls Badab War supplement, there’s a striking similarity to this model. This is entirely coincidental, but a coincidence I find rather pleasing none the less. I left off the feline skin trophy he has draped over his shoulder in the illustrations, because I think it’ll interfere too much with the model as it is and likely won’t look very good on the finished model. There are some minor differences between the model and the artwork but it’s a fairly close finish.

The cloak looks a lot worse than it does in the flesh. I’m fairly pleased with how the Hamadrya turned out, a little larger than I wanted but the positioning and pose are spot on how I wanted him. The plastic torso on the Hamadrya came from a Warhammer Zombie for those who are wondering. Overall I’m most pleased with Huron’s Power Fist. I sculpted it over a striped down terminator power fist, replacing each of the sections of the fingers individually. The iconography on the back of the fist was done by taking a mold from another plastic fist using Blu-Stuff.

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

]]> http://masteroftheforge.com/2009/09/17/artscale-alpha-legionaires-squad/feed/ 0 http://masteroftheforge.com/2009/07/31/artscale-mark-v-tactical-squad-2/ http://masteroftheforge.com/2009/07/31/artscale-mark-v-tactical-squad-2/#comments Fri, 31 Jul 2009 11:56:39 +0000 Lamenter http://masteroftheforge.com/?p=1999

This squad was done as part of a commission for a full army of Artscale Space Marines all in Mark V armour. You can find all posts pertaining to that army here.

The client who commissioned this squad requested that they be striding forward. On the majority of the figures I’ve tried to position the legs into striding poses, or at least a little more dynamic than the usual generic Space Marine pose. The positioning of the arms and heads also play a large part on the dynamics of each figure. Note: half the shoulder pads are missing on the main pic because the client is providing his own.

The backpacks were made using a different technique than those on the previous squad. All the helmets were converted from a specific Mark VII helm with two breather pipes either side of the respirator. The helms had a bit of Green Stuff work done on them before studs were added. You can find a Mini-Tutorial on how to make these here.

Because I had a shortage of terminator legs with knee pads (that would need trimming down anyway) I opted to use the other kneepad-less terminator legs and carve a groove into them to form an appropriately sized knee pad. As per the clients orders the sergeant model has been given magnetized swappable arms, so he can be equipped with bolter/bolt pistol and power sword/fist.

Unlike the first squad these conversions are all kitted out with terminator arms rather than power armour arms. These are a better fit for scale but the alternative is to re-model the power armour arms (Mini-Tutorial here). Of all the models in the squad I’m particularly pleased with the Marine carrying a Multi-Melta (click here for all-round view).

Sergeant with swappable arms on both sides.

Work in Progress (the halfway mark)

Various size comparisons

The Black Templar in Mark V armour was made very much like any other basic Artscale Space Marine but with lots of details added. The large rivets were made from Green Stuff, small balls pushed on approximately the right location and then trimmed and shaped into little domes. The smaller rivets were pre-made from Grandt Line rivets available from model railway suppliers. The mark V head on this model came from the missile launcher carrying Space Marine in the Assault on Black Reach box set.

Finally the Artscale Grey Knight (not quite finished in this pic) was done by converting a metal Grey Knight Terminator. The legs and forearms came from the Terminator but the rest of the body was made with plastic components (generic Space Marine) and two stripped down shoulder pads from the Plastic Terminator Box set (the ones with the =I= symbol on them.