Tuesday, April 25, 2017

Building our first resin cast true-scale Space Marine

Thought begets Heresy. Heresy begets Retribution.

A large portion of my hobby time this year has been spent building a more anatomically correct true-scale marine, and then learning how to make two part silicone molds. Today I am quite pleased to reveal the fusion of both of these projects by showing you the first True-scale Space Marine that I created using silicone molds created. Not wanting the model to look too much like the original, which is still going to be turned into an Elder One for Iron Sleet’s Thorn Moon’s crusade, I decided to build an Astartes from Black Templar Chapter.




The marine’s size is such that it was easy to add all manner of pouches and gear.

I intentionally made the molds of the original sculpt before adding wargear and equipment (aside from the thigh mounted pistol) to make it easy modify the model’s equipment based on each marine’s role. For the Black Templar, I decided to keep this simple and practical with a collection of pouches and a combat dagger. Due to the size of the marine and all the free space on his armor, I could also imagine adding additional equipment to to his other thigh and even his breast plate. To give across a crusading knightly feeling to the marine, I sculpted a few parchments and purity seals on his armor, in addition to giving him a MKIII style helmet.

At first I thought that I would need to increase the size of the marine’s backpack, but the normal ones are so large that I think they fit quite well.

I also wanted to begin experimenting with creating a bolt pistol variant. I always felt the bolt pistol’s design was pretty weird, with the magazine situated in front of the trigger. This placement dramatically reduces the barrel length of the weapon, but despite this the firearm is still huge. As it is, half of the pistol is useless space, which from an engineering standpoint does not make too much sense. Most modern pistols address this by having the magazine feed into the pistol’s grip. For the Templar’s bolt pistol, I wanted to use a similar strategy, and modified the lower portion of the pistol’s grip to have a visible baseplate to the loaded magazine. Otherwise, the conversion was pretty simple, with me replacing the front of the barrel and creating front and rear sights for the pistol. While I am reasonably satisfied with the result, in the future I would like to do a more substantial modification where I removed a lot of the wasted space (particularly in front of the trigger where the magazine used to be seated).


When next to an assassin and an ork model, it is apparent just how large the Templar is.

Although it has been a long road up to this point, I am pretty thrilled to finally have a Space Marine completely built from my True-scale work. I hope to be able to paint him in short order so that I can move onto more pressing issues, like completing the original sculpt by turning him into an Elder One for the Thorn Moon Crusade. Some of you may be wondering about the details of how the actual casting process went for the Marine, but, worry not, there should be a post coming along shortly that details the process, as I have upgraded my casting setup since my first attempt. Let me know what you think of the marine!

- Adam Wier


14 comments:

  1. The casting looks really good for your first mold making attempt. I don't see a lot of bubbles or defects in it. The scale looks great and well proportioned. Very impressive work indeed.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for the kind works! This cast is from the second mold I made for the true-scale marine. Additionally this cast was done under 40 psi of pressure, which helped tremendously to remove air bubbles and other defects. We should have another post in the next week or so detailing the casting process. :)

      Delete
  2. Very cool man. You've certainly come a long way with it. So is the pistol holster moulded to the leg? How does that go coming out of the mould? Does it not tear the mould/snap the pistol grip off?

    I have two other questions I'd like to flag - both jumped out at me when I first saw the mini in side profile.

    The first is the purity seal on the sword hand; should it have more fall downwards, or do you envisage it being a really thick/stiff piece of parchment.

    The second point is the helmet; it appears as if its set forward compared to where the shoulders/neck would be inside the armour. Or is it that the back plate is bulkier than the front of the chest plate to accommodate a mounting point for the pack. I'm looking in particular at the right profile shot (with the pistol outstretched). It may just be a twist in the models position relative to the camera making it look more back heavy than front, which imparts a sense that the helmet is more forward jutting than it is in reality.

    Otherwise very cool. I'm not particularly fond of the pistol, but that's probably just 20 years of history seeing the standard bolt pistol in a Marines hands talking.

    Also, while the Eversor is a cool sculpt, he looks midway through a prancing jig in that last photo. My 3 year old laughed and asked why your toy was dancing which made me chuckle.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I am so glad someone else saw the dancing! This is not the first time a Bolter figure has looked to have a song in its heart. These inadvertently dancing miniatures always delight me.

      Delete
    2. The pistol is molded separately from the leg. My first version of the mold had the pistol attached, but as you alluded to, it did not work very well.

      You are right about the purity seal. I will go back and modify it further such that it is hanging downward more.

      For the head, I think you are right too. The Iron Armor heads are quite a bit bigger than the standard marine helmets. This does not give you much room to position them properly. I think I will need to reposition the neck with regards to the helmet itself.

      The Eversor does look like he is breaking into dance. Ha ha

      Delete
  3. It's beautiful, and I really like the walking pose. Great!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I am glad you like the marine and the posing! At one point I will cut apart a cast or two and repose the legs.

      Delete
  4. That's one enourmous marine!

    Bolters are actually a quite clever design. It's basically a rocket launcher: the bolt is not launched by an explosive charge, it flies under its own power. So barrel length doesn't really matter. That's why all the bolt weapons have short barrels and forward mags. Or at least that's how I've always imagined it

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The main reason longer barreled handguns are easier to shoot accurately than shorter barreled handguns is that they have a longer sight radius (sight radius being the distance between the front and rear sight on the firearm). If the sight radius is longer, it is easier to detect errors in sight alignment, which can then be corrected, improving accuracy. So, in general, longer barrel handguns are not inherently more accurate, it is just simpler to detect errors and then correct them. So, even if the bolt pistol has a short barrel, if the rear sight is seated back far enough on the pistol, it would still be fairly accurate.

      Additionally, if the barrel is rifled (has helical grooves cut into it), that helps add spin to the projectile as it travels down the barrel, which stabilizes the bullet when it leaves the barrel. This helps keep the bullet on a straight path. So, a longer barrel may help to some extent with increased stabilization, and accuracy.

      But, as you suggest, the lore behind Boltguns says that they fire small, self-propelled rockets. I am not very knowledgeable on how most rocket launchers work, and if most have rifled barrels. Though, the imagery with Bolters has changed over the years. Some images show them launching empty cases, which would not happen if they were shooting tiny rockets. Are they small rocket launchers, or now just large caliber machine guns?

      Delete
    2. Hmm, I guess that the bolts might have cases just to protect the propellant from getting wet. Of they might be hybrids, i.e. a small explosive charge to launch the bolt well clear of the weapon before igniting the engine. I would imagine that the bolt inside the case probably has deployable fins to stabilize it. Yeah, I'm not claiming that every bit makes perfect sense, but the fact that bolters have short barrels is consistent with them being rpg weaponry.

      Delete
  5. Third times a charm :D Excellent work as I have said before, really cant wait to see him painted. Also really like the more thought through bolt pistol design. I don't think any real thought went into the initial designs of most weapons in 40k in a practical sense, more of aesthetics. While I agree it isn't as classic as the standard, it is more realistic at least in my mind. With all the forgeworlds having variant patterns there really is no reason they'd all be the same.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, I like to think there are a huge number of different variant patterns of all the weapons used in the Imperium. I remember in the second Eisenhorn novel, it describes his bolt pistol as a compact one that had its magazine in the pistol grip.

      Delete
  6. Replies
    1. Thanks! I am hoping to paint the marine in the next week or two. :)

      Delete