Saturday, April 25, 2009

Deathwatch Movie Stars

Today I wanted to get a post out about my most recent endeavor. The Movie Marines. This is a completely illegal, unapproved, and probably broken army list that was published in US WD300. The idea is to make space marines as tough as they should be based on the books and movies. Now, to be fair, any space marine that is as powerful as the books make them is probably too powerful for normal games, but in Apocalypse, anything goes.

This idea is my basis for creating these super marines. I wanted something fun to have if I play in any Apocalypse games. These guys should easily fit the bill.

Now for the design. The Movie Marine list expects the following units:
1 Space Marine Sergeant (bolt pistol, chainsword, and grenades)
0-1 Space Marine Dude (bolter and grenades)
0-6 Space Marines (bolter and grenades)
0-1 Space Marine with Flamer (flamer and grenades)
0-1 Space Marine with Missile Launcher (missile launcher and grenades)
0-1 Rhino or Razorback

So basically, I need 10 Marines and their transport, but, as these are no ordinary marines, I felt it necessary to make these bigger than standard. This is where I happened upon multiple articles about making 'truescale' marines. This is a technique of using different parts, greenstuff and a lot of ingenuity to create marines that are bigger than normal.

So far I have been able to 'complete' two of my models. Here they are for your review.


The basis for my marines are terminator legs, front torsos, and arms. Added to these are standard marine backs, packs and weapons. Last there is a lot of greenstuff work to fill out the terminator legs and arms.

Additionally, I chose to be a bit more creative with my weapon selections. Since the Movie Marine weapons are much more powerful than their normal counterparts, I chose to use larger weapons to help show the stronger nature. As such, the Sergeants bolt pistol was replaced by a modified single barrel stormbolter, the chainsword switched with a chainfist, and bolters swapped with marine heavy bolters.


Here is my customized banner pole for my Sergeant. I added the Deathwatch logo to the banner using greenstuff and a skull bit.


One other cool effect I chose to use are the Cinematic Effects by Armourcast. These are cool little ways to create that extra special look for key characters. As my movie marines are all special, most will likely include these additional effects.

So the above shots show a number of angles of the Sergeant. Originally, I had edged the shoulder pads, but the plastic kept cracking, so I decided to remove this. I may go back and add greenstuff for the ridge detail, but I haven't decided if I want to take on that effort. My greenstuff skills are not the best.

Here is my first marine with bolter. I am not sure if he will be a normal guy, or my Dude, but he at least is completed. This was a lot more effort as I had to completely remake his arms with greenstuff.





Last I wanted to give a shot of these guys with a regular space marine. I have chosen an AoBR marine to help show the scale difference in my new truescale marines versus the normal marines.


So, now I am interested in every ones opinion. Do these look good? Am I going overboard with the heavy bolters in place of bolters? Should I do the heavy bolters but eliminate the backpacks and ammo feeds? Please let me know your thoughts.

4 comments:

Anton said...

Considering your stated purpose of creating "Exceptional Marines", I think they look great. The exaggerated proportions lend themselves well to a tabletop presentation. I say go for it, and definitely keep the ammo, etc.

Best,
Anton

Pict said...

I think your marines look great, my one suggestion would be to try and beef up a regular bolter with some green stuff and plasticard, just to see how it would look. You could use one of the heavy bolter cinematic effects on it as well to make it look a bit more powerful.

-Pict

jlong05 said...

Pict; thanks for the comment. I actually haven't had much more work on these, but I did get the flamer started. I will have to post up some more pictures.

The Lord of Excess said...

Really cool idea! Our gaming club in Las Vegas ran this back in the day down at the LA Gamesday ... Marines VS Unending hordes of Orks. It was really fun ... the marines always won of course. If I recall we did up some rules along the same lines for several other weapon variants that weren't listed in that WD article. We did rules for a Dred even ... lol. It actually converts 40K into like a full tabletop version of Space Hulk. It might be a fun thing to do with a non-40K fan or kids ... or someone who just reads the books (like my wife). Good call though man ... I hadn't thought about that article for a long time.