Here is another picture of the chest buck. Its worth noting the hairless My Little Pony dolls that my brother kept putting in the pictures he took today. He makes cast resin hair for these little toys and I thought I would share this as even the 405th has a forum on these little guys... Who'd a thunk it?
Thorssoli's Vacformed Warhammer 40k Space Marines
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Thorsolli, first of all, I love your work. You are truely a talented maker. I have to ask how you chose your scale for the armor however? And how tall are you? That may explain the decision to look out of the throat area...
While the novels seem to describe the heros as bigger, and bigger as new stories come out, standard size, as described by GamesWorkshop designers, of a Space Marine is about 7' out of his armor, and about 8' tall fully armored. I think too many people have blown up these modified humans in their minds and they frequently get a legendary expectaion of their size... This makes it hard to produce a "realistic" full scale suit of armor.
Many authors of the novels describe them as being almost unreal in their presence, not just because of their size, but because of how smooth, agile and graceful they are FOR their size... building a suit that you have to stand on 8" platforms and wear the helmet like a hat does not lend itself to natural, smooth movement.
I myself am 6'5" tall, so with just a few inches of sole and a few inches of helmet above my head, I should be able to pull off an "average" Space Marine, so maybe if you, or the foks you are building the armor for, are 6" or less, I can understand the approach... Again, I think you are doing a FANTASTIC job, just my opinion it's a bit over-scaled.
While the novels seem to describe the heros as bigger, and bigger as new stories come out, standard size, as described by GamesWorkshop designers, of a Space Marine is about 7' out of his armor, and about 8' tall fully armored. I think too many people have blown up these modified humans in their minds and they frequently get a legendary expectaion of their size... This makes it hard to produce a "realistic" full scale suit of armor.
Many authors of the novels describe them as being almost unreal in their presence, not just because of their size, but because of how smooth, agile and graceful they are FOR their size... building a suit that you have to stand on 8" platforms and wear the helmet like a hat does not lend itself to natural, smooth movement.
I myself am 6'5" tall, so with just a few inches of sole and a few inches of helmet above my head, I should be able to pull off an "average" Space Marine, so maybe if you, or the foks you are building the armor for, are 6" or less, I can understand the approach... Again, I think you are doing a FANTASTIC job, just my opinion it's a bit over-scaled.
I'm sure Thorssoli can speak to this much the same, but when we started this project we did not want to be "just another space marine costume". I have been working with Shawn for the last 20 years on whatever crazy project that he comes up with, and too many of them just get lost in the crowd. The best part of this project is that while it will make a fun costume to wear and draw all kinds of attention; it will also stand in the corner of my living room being everything that I wanted since I was a kid collecting the miniatures. If I don't need a ladder to dust off the top of this thing, then we will have failed.
Haha! Excellent! Then your goal justifies the approach! Nice job gentlemen, and can't wait to see the final results. As for my Space MArine project, I am focusing on detail and realism (I want it to look like it's made out of a heavy, "ceramite" material, not made out of shaped foam like so many of the "lost in the crowd" suits you mentioned. Your armor will definitely be a superior end product. I'll start posting my own project as I progress and get some pictures. Thanks for the inspiration men!
I'll second what Matt said. If you're 6'5" tall, you'll need to gain another 7" before you're the same height as an unarmored space marine. With the added height of the boots and helmet, they get bigger still. So get yourself a pair of 7" platform shoes and start getting in shape for your smooth, agile, and graceful movements.
Short of finding someone 7' tall to wear one of these things, there has to be a compromise somewhere. We set out to build something imposing and iconic. To get it to look right, we're sacrificing mobility and comfort. It would be easy enough to make a suit to fit someone my size (I'm 5'7" by the way) but it wouldn't come anywhere close to the kind of mass that I'm looking to emulate.
In the end, the whole thing will just be vacformed plastic and some cast resin pieces. The finish work will be what makes it look like it weighs a ton and stops bullets. It'll be up to those of us wearing these suits to work out a way to make them seem heavy while still giving them notably dynamic mobility.
To maintain mobility, my hips and knees will be very close to the location of the character's hips and knees. My ankles will be half a foot higher than the character's ankles, but there will still be flexibility there. My shoulders will be very close to the character's armpits, but with the suspension plan for the arms the difference won't be all that noticeable. The only thing that will be even a tiny bit awkward will be the slight immobility of the neck. Given the design of the armor, I'm pretty well convinced that these guys wouldn't be able to move their heads all that much anyway.
Photo update, here's Matt with the first assembled pull of the three torso parts:
Here's a quick doodle showing the positioning of the wings on the chest:
Here I am trying it on:
Over the weekend, we should be cutting up some of the other prototype pieces and getting them ready to serve as forming bucks. We also need to hurry up and get a pair of the boots together so we can start stomping around in them.
Stay tuned...
Short of finding someone 7' tall to wear one of these things, there has to be a compromise somewhere. We set out to build something imposing and iconic. To get it to look right, we're sacrificing mobility and comfort. It would be easy enough to make a suit to fit someone my size (I'm 5'7" by the way) but it wouldn't come anywhere close to the kind of mass that I'm looking to emulate.
In the end, the whole thing will just be vacformed plastic and some cast resin pieces. The finish work will be what makes it look like it weighs a ton and stops bullets. It'll be up to those of us wearing these suits to work out a way to make them seem heavy while still giving them notably dynamic mobility.
To maintain mobility, my hips and knees will be very close to the location of the character's hips and knees. My ankles will be half a foot higher than the character's ankles, but there will still be flexibility there. My shoulders will be very close to the character's armpits, but with the suspension plan for the arms the difference won't be all that noticeable. The only thing that will be even a tiny bit awkward will be the slight immobility of the neck. Given the design of the armor, I'm pretty well convinced that these guys wouldn't be able to move their heads all that much anyway.
Photo update, here's Matt with the first assembled pull of the three torso parts:
Here's a quick doodle showing the positioning of the wings on the chest:
Here I am trying it on:
Over the weekend, we should be cutting up some of the other prototype pieces and getting them ready to serve as forming bucks. We also need to hurry up and get a pair of the boots together so we can start stomping around in them.
Stay tuned...
Starvinartist80
Well-Known Member
Every post just keeps us more interested. Great work so far. Keep it up!
Sierra 091
New Member
It's looking realy good! I wasn't sure how well your join would go when looking at the older pics, but you seem to have made it almost flawless! well done! Keep up the good work!
captaincaliflour
Active Member
Sphess Mahreens...this heretic recreates our armor without the proper mechanicum rituals!
excellent work, it's like you guys are casting an upscale of the minis
May I suggest making it a chapter master as an excuse to add even more detail to it?
Phenominal work...and you're right. If you make it right you won't put on the armor, you'll crawl inside
excellent work, it's like you guys are casting an upscale of the minis
May I suggest making it a chapter master as an excuse to add even more detail to it? Phenominal work...and you're right. If you make it right you won't put on the armor, you'll crawl inside
Sky Walker
Member
wow that is one of the coolest build i have ever seen... and thats saying alot haveing that i havent even played warhammer!!
(and where did you get your insulation foam, i cant find any anywhere!!)
(and where did you get your insulation foam, i cant find any anywhere!!)
Sorry for the lack of posts. There's been a lot of craziness and a couple of other projects. Here's one:
I did a bit of bondo work on the shins and kneepad for the Space Marine armor yesterday, but there's not much to look at so I didn't take any pics yet.
Stay tuned...
I did a bit of bondo work on the shins and kneepad for the Space Marine armor yesterday, but there's not much to look at so I didn't take any pics yet.
Stay tuned...
BLACKULA727
Well-Known Member
Wow, my fingers hurt looking at that...lol. It looks great.
Finelargeaxe
Jr Member
My hands hurt looking at that pepped helmet...is that wrong?
That's not wrong at all.
What's wrong is that I keep looking at it and contemplating remaking it in a larger scale. I may have a serious mental disorder.
That said, I coated the helmet in resin yesterday:
This particular little side project will be the star of a how-to article I'm writing to describe the pepakura method for making a helmet.
Yesterday I also went ahead and did a bit more bondo work on the shins and thighs for the Space Marine armor. There wasn't much to look at, so I didn't get any pictures.
Stay tuned...
What's wrong is that I keep looking at it and contemplating remaking it in a larger scale. I may have a serious mental disorder.
That said, I coated the helmet in resin yesterday:
This particular little side project will be the star of a how-to article I'm writing to describe the pepakura method for making a helmet.
Yesterday I also went ahead and did a bit more bondo work on the shins and thighs for the Space Marine armor. There wasn't much to look at, so I didn't get any pictures.
Stay tuned...
Dreadnaught
Jr Member
A terminator now? Just amazing, man... You're going to have find someone 7 feet tall and put him on risers 3 or 4 feet high since termies dwarf normal space marines... I wonder if the guy that played the original Predator is in the market?
I look forward to your tutorial. I'm on my third incarnation of my first helmet... Still having issues matching things up and keeping the thing from warping. Getting better, slowly but surely, but I would like to see your take on the process.
I look forward to your tutorial. I'm on my third incarnation of my first helmet... Still having issues matching things up and keeping the thing from warping. Getting better, slowly but surely, but I would like to see your take on the process.
The guy that played the original Predator was Kevin Peter Hall. He died of AIDS in 1991.
On another note, I was contacted by a man named Jerry Reeves who was interested in modelling one of my suits. I think he'll fit the bill nicely whenever I actually finish the project.
Dreadnaught
Jr Member
Damn... Reeves is a foot taller than me, but I still outweigh him by about 10 pounds? I need to lose some weight. That's pretty sweet that you're well enough known for your suits that you're being contacted by people to model for you.
I had no clue that Hall had died.
I had no clue that Hall had died.
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