Well you asked for it. A tutorial on how to true scale a space marine, This will be for a chaos marine mainly because they look so mich cooler! BUT the things in this tutorial can be easily applied to a normal marine, just dont add spikes or use chaos parts

First off a quick look at the tools i use to begin with:



and a close up of the sculpting tools, they are described as color shapers for painting, but they give a much better finish imo than metal dentistry tools,



To begin with the modeling I start with basic terminator legs, mainly because those are the ones i have lying around, just means more work for you when detailing the legs to be more 'chaosy' if u can use the csm termie legs u will have a much easier time



next up, remove anything terminatory, I remove the hip guards, because I don't like them, but many people keep them, your choice! and remove any things that signify the false emperor! remove these and file down until smooth, i use the plastic clippers to get the bulk away, and some scalpel work for the tricky bits, (watch those fingers! my blood is in the last one i made!) remove the mould lines also!



after this bits done, mix up your green stuff and anything the you touch the gs with, keep it wet! (The more green you have in the mix the longer it will take to dry and the more time you have to fix any mistakes, the more blue, the quicker and harder it will dry) and start filling in the gaps on the calfs and bulking out the thighs. if you have too much excess remove it with a knife, then smooth these areas out filling in the gaps trying to keep to the shapes of the legs,







(another GS tip is to keep your tools wet, this gives the smoothest finish, if you dont do this the putty can tear easily, stick to your tools pull away from the model and its a nightmare! The best method i found for smothing out is to wet your tools with saliva, disgusting i know, but again I find it best.)

Now it is important not to touch your green stuff work after it is all smooth, or you will get finger prints all over it! my tip would be to work on the lower right calf first, then move over to the left thigh, so that u minimize the chances of touching your previous work, then leave to dry(24 hours preferably for the GS to cure) before you start filling the other sides in. (unless you are feeling ambitious)

and that is the legs so far..... on to an arm



For the arms I like to use, terminator arms combined with regular marine arms, to begin with I use a power fist arm from the terminator lord sprue i think, and cut at the elbow



next I add the weapon arm I want from regular marine



And glue in place (blue tac is your friend when posing the model, i would not glue the arm in place until you have an idea of what way you want it posed.)



And go on to fill any small gaps in the join, or it will look messy.

PS any bits that u cut off, such as cables, spikes, sculls, try to keep these intact as you can use them for detailing and such!



That is all I have for you guys until my parts arrive to continue, as soon as they do I will be back on it!

happy modeling

Thats nice! Think a friend of mine has some termie legs in store - gotta try this... but I have to buy them tools also - and they seem expensive here... well, just have to work more I guess.

Thank you for the tut so far =)

Great tutorial so far. I am tempted to pull out the bits and build one right now...

Komfritten-you can sculpt without the colour shapers. They are just an extra tool that makes it a bit easier to smooth the putty. Metal tools with saliva works fine too. Anything will work, just try different things out.

Yeh you dont need the colour shapers at all. I was feeling flush one day and splashed out, the metal tools work just fine, they just need some more work, you can pick a set of them up quite cheap ebay is a good source for items like this for example:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Colour-Shaper-Five-Piece-Painting-Set-SOFT-Size-0-/290331208433?pt=UK_Crafts_DrawingSupplies_EH&hash=item439916aaf1

these colour shapers are a grand deal cheaper than the ones i bought from my art store, wish I seen these first!

Superb! Thanks... I will be enjoying this. I REALLY appreciate all the amazing pics... step-by-step for the idiots like me! I may even try this... did you hear me? Gosh... you guys! You may make a hobbyist out of me yet! HA!

Well here is the second instalment for the marine.

Pick up from yesterday, I made another arm using the same principle as before, using the upper part from a terminator, and the lower from normal marine with wepon, Modified the bolter a little with the ammo box from a storm bolter, needs some detailing, but I wanted something different, The devil is in the detail,



Moveing on to the torso, Take two regular marine torso components (front and back obv)



This is where the styrene comes in,



Trace over one of the torso parts then,



Cut out so you have a part like this.

Glue the two halfs together so you have a wider torso, for this you will have to trim the joining pins:



once joined it should look like this



then trim down the excess, and file so its flush to the body,



to join the torso to the legs, you will have to trim out the styrene from the bottom of the torso (forgot to take an image of this) and blue tac the components together so you can work out a pose, and how to best position the torso, I have found when using terminator legs, you have to position it so the torso is angled slightly, as if looking up (mainly because, the shape of the teminators) hopefully you will have something like this at this point.



Next comes some more styrene work, Cut some thin strips, as thin as you can get them! about 1mm if you can manage, if u cant cut them that thin dont worry, you can always file them down,



now at this point it helps to have an idea of how you want the torso to look, I am not going for any armour varient, I am just going for something that looks cool to me, you could have a drawing to refer to and try to build up the armour the way you want it to look,

I began by glueing the the styrene as a high collar, nice armoured neck guard style! I like this look!



It helps with this bit if you keep the styrene strips long, so you can hold them in place when the glue is setting. (I use super clue for this part as i dont want to be holding these parts for hours until it sets, the styrene is quite springy, BUT plastic glue will give a better hold, as it chemicaly welds the plastic together) this is what it looks like once set.



I then add another strip, this time i use polypropelyen insted of the styrene, it is much more flexable, you dont need this, i just find it works better, here is the difference in the two materials



Then glue this below the neck gaurd, trim and shape:



(you may have to trim some of the detailing off of the torso front at this point as when u start green stuffing the body these can start to poke through! not cool)

Next is fun sculpting time! start by trimming any areas of the terminator legs that get in the way (in this case the plug section the goes in the torso) and i start fillin in the area between the torso and neck guard.



Now I start shaping the torso, Again i am just improvising here, not working to any template.. but start making a general shape, and smooth out.



Now I am not sure if I mentioned to never throw anything away! never ever! any bits you cut off, especially skulls and powery like chords, if you are doing a chaos marine keep as many spikey bits as possible you never know what can come in usefull! this is where i added a nice skull. I just trimmed the face off of a skull from a storm bolter, and add it in and try to fill in the gaps (no glue needed here as it can be held in place by the green stuff.

(Now if I were doing this for the first time I would put the model down here and leave to dry, best to let the putty set before adding the bells and whistels, you can then glue these parts on and fill the gaps without fear of ruining your smooth green stuff work!)



and then I added a nice little power chord, Just some details to break up the plainess of the torso so far, I am not a master sculpter and do not claim to be, And i am in no way ready to sculpt chaos igonography onto the breast plate! so I try to add components where i can to try and mask my downfalls, Its all about hiding your imperfections or lack of skills in my case! :p Make a point of checking your arms still fit if you are adding parts onto the chest, you dont want to ruin your nice pose you have designed fo the model!



Next start to fill in the stomach area same principles. smooth as you can, That don't matter as much at this satge, because this area will likley have more layers on tops such as chords running up the stomach, belts etc, Focus on getting the sides as smooth as you can and getting it as flush to the crotch as you can.........Lol Crotch, ther is something wrong about smothing a green paste over the crotch of a space marine! moving on!





And that is how far along I am, not bad for two days

Too smoth out the chest some more, I am going to try and use a different puttey, Miliput, they do three varients, one for fine detail up to a thicker putty for bulk areas, the fine one is used for repairing porcelen, but if you can get the putty to a wet enough consistency, I will try to cover some of my messy areas!

And that concludes my second part, the model needs to dry now, cure for 24 hours! even then that is not enough, The areas I done yesterday on the legs were still getting my finger prints on them after 24 hours! i think it takes a good few days for the green stuff to dry properly,

Coming up next will be the belt area, detailing the torso more power cables in the stomach area, and maybe some for of trim. detailing the legs

hope you like, any questions feel free to ask!

Looks good. I'm tempted to try it myself. How do you find your plasticard glues with plastic glue? I find that plasticard doesn't glue very well to plastic with plastic glue. Seems to be a weak bond and not like a solid weld between two plastics.

I usually find it is ok when glueing to a different. Plastuc, but when its styrene on styrene its prety weak, one substance that is best for glueing plastics, not sure how to spell it, is dichlorimethane, I used to use that in my old work, if u can get a hold of that give it a try! Dont get it on your skin though! Wear gloves!

Spelled Dichloromethane... Google is a wonderful thing! FYI... I have seen this in several sites...

Quote:

Toxicity Dichloromethane is the least toxic of the simple chlorohydrocarbons, but it is not without its health risks as its high volatility makes it an acute inhalation hazard. Dichloromethane is also metabolized by the body to carbon monoxide potentially leading to carbon monoxide poisoning. Acute exposure by inhalation has resulted in optic neuropathy and hepatitis. Prolonged skin contact can result in the dichloromethane dissolving some of the fatty tissues in skin, resulting in skin irritation or chemical burns. It may be carcinogenic, as it has been linked to cancer of the lungs, liver, and pancreas in laboratory animals. Dichloromethane crosses the placenta. Fetal toxicity in women who are exposed to it during pregnancy, however, has not been proven. In animal experiments, it was fetotoxic at doses that were maternally toxic but no teratogenic effects were seen. In many countries, products containing dichloromethane must carry labels warning of its health risks. In the European Union, the European Parliament voted in 2009 to ban the use of dichloromethane in paint-strippers for consumers and many professionals. The ban took effect in December 2010. In Europe, the Scientific Committee on Occupational Exposure Limits (SCOEL) recommends for dichloromethane an occupational exposure limit (8h time-weighted average) of 100 ppm and a short-term exposure limit (15 min) of 200 ppm.

uhhh.... I don't think that ANY models are worth that risk.

Heh, personally I work around a lot worse doing stuff I don't enjoy half as much. I'm willing to bet you can find similar warnings on a ton of hobby supplies, just use something with fumes like this in a room with an open window.

That may be true, ClausLars... but those hobby supplies are still on the market. Dichloromethane was BANNED in 2009 (effectively removed by 2010) from consumer AND commercial products. It would be analogous to say that you would not mind using asbestos to insulate your chair... sure you could... but WHY risk cancer?

I was under the impression it was slightly different stuff, they banned it's use in paint strippers. I figured used in smaller amounts (gluing miniatures) it wouldn't be an issue. Course you're talking to someone who used to smoke up to 2 packs a day, so clearly at one point inhaled toxins = win to me lol.

I had no idea it was banned, it was aroound that time I was using it, bit in tiney amounts, mainly for glueing styrene for model making, along with cutting insulating foam on hot wire cutters, the fumes from that cause all sorts of problems aswell, but anyway its up to you if you take the risk, I was just saying it would give a better join! Ill stick to super glue does the trick,

next part of the tutorial will be up tonight, the green stuff should be dry enough to work on irt!

I'm really looking forward to that Stryke =)

Ace tutorial - this has given me some extra techniques to use on my own truescaling (when the bug bites me again) - thanks

Laney:D