I'm glad to be back after a long project in the field. I missed you guys in the forum and have spent the last few nights catching up. ^_^

I've finally bought my space marines from a friend who's been collecting since SM2 days, where you got the huge box sets with oodles of plastic rhinos and landraiders (drools). I can't express how happy i was to get plastic vehicles. Anyway... on to the question.

I never realized how small the space marines are (the newer IG inf are at a larger scale i believe) and i was wondering how would the experts go about modeling different arm positions and lighting claws?

I want to model Shrike, being the Supreme Commander of my Raven Guard army. The dream is to have him positioned much like the 40k model, with him and 2 members of his "wing" (lightning claw equipped assault veterans)on a rocky hill leaping down on a lone ork nob. I'll be using the 20mmX20mm base for this this unit, where as the rest of the army is using the simple 20X40 base.

Thanks in advance for the help. Later on guys.

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Repositioning the arms of tactical marines is somewhat tricky since essentially you need to remodel the entire chestplate. If possible you might want to look into other space marines for that. The chaplain model for example is very usefull.

The technique I've used when converting space marines is something like the following:

1: cut off the shoulderpads.

2: carefully cut off the bolter

3: remove the arms - these can be thrown away.

4: Cut the model in half by the torso if you want to reposition that. Otherwise you can leave it.

5: re-attach the shoulder pads in the position you'd like; some trimming on the pads as well at the back of the marine may be needed.

6: make a new pair of arms from thin plastic rod. It is easier to glue on a long piece and then trim it down to size. Depending on your craftsmanship you can carve gloves, fingers etc. into the arm.

7: glue on the weapon. IN case of lightning claws I'd start with a very thin piece of plasticard then add 3 thin strips of plasticard to represent the claws. It may be less that what's on the original model, but in 6mm the art of suggestion is sometimes much more effective than exact detail.


I got some pics of converted space marines somewhere (my Dark Angles) but I haven't got time to find them right now. Remind me after the weekend and I'll see what I can dig up

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I converted a Sicarius commander for my UMs (sorry, the pic is not good to see all details):

and I used:

- scout body
- SM last generation shoulders
- 2 terminators hands
- lighings claws come from some scout knives that have been recut (should have done these with styrene card)

For your conversion, I think you want this result:



The scout body is still a good base, you can find interesting heads on E:40K SM characters. For hands, plastic terminators power gloves are nice or you can directly get arms and hands from old SM sergeants. Jet pack could be extracted from an old IG assaut troops. It will be a hard job to create conversion and you'll have to show us the result

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Epic40k.fr Techpriest

Warmaster Nice, Scream thanks for the advice. I've been pretty busy this week, so i'll show you what i've gotten done so far...



I cut the back pack off an assault marine and cut it down to fit into the contour of the Chaplin's back (which was a little difficult). I decided that for my first modeling project with epic scale i'd take the easier way. I then carved off the old backpack, then the mace and pistol had to go. I then bent the left arm a little bit so the left lightning claw wouldn't be stick out so much from the body.

I was really stumped on how to make L-claws, but thanks to Scream it was a cinch. I haven't yet add the blade to the power fists yet.

And as an army update, here is my force so far...



4 Thunder Hawks, 4 Droppods, 3 Assault formations, 3 Devastator F., 1 Terminator F., 2 Thunderbolt Fighter F. and a Tactical formation. I have another 3 Tatical F., 4 Dreadnoughts, Battlebarge and character stands to build.

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Nice conversion, can't wait to see it complete and painted

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Epic40k.fr Techpriest

Nice conversion, looking good.

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[img]http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk120/Warhead40k/Tyranid%20Swarm/DSC02262.jpg[/img]

Looking good
And one serious drop pod army you're building there, are you going to include ground forces at all?

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Thanks for the encouragement everyone ^_^

And one serious drop pod army you're building there, are you going to include ground forces at all?

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