Last Resort's Space Marine Power Armour Build (V2.0)

Hey 405th!

It's been a LOOOOOOONG time since I've updated the one thread I've made, so I decided to scrap that one and start fresh. If any mod/admin can delete my old one, that would be fantastic or if there's a way that I can, I'm happy to as well. This will be rather pic-heavy as I have OCD with this project and tend to over-update. Without further ado, details and stuff, yo!

So, about a year and a half ago, a friend pointed me to Pepakura, and from there, the 405th Costuming Community. After seeing various MJOLNIR suits in various stages of completion, I thought to myself, 'This forum seems to suffer from a distinct lack of Space Marines!' and so I decided to start a Space Marine suit. Even though it's been going for technically a year and a half, it's only had about a two or three weeks or so of actual 'work time' put into it, since I'm hell lazy and generally work on it for a few weeks, then don't look at it for six months.

Now, I said this was going to be pic-heavy, but we've hit a snag: I can't remember what site I used to upload pictures. See, I use my phone to take the pictures, and it takes them at around 4000x3000 pixels, which is ridinkydonk huge. It also means some photos go up to something like 6 or 7MB, which most image-hosting sites look at and say 'Haha, yeah. No,' and don't allow uploads. So, a question:

Will I have to a) retake all the photos at a lesser quality, or b) do one of you kind lads or lasses know of an image-hosting site that allows large uploads. If I have to retake them, I will, but there'll be a lot less of them, and they won't show how I got from stage to stage, but that's no GREAT loss I suppose.

So yeah. Unfortunately my first post has zero cool pictures, but, uh, that will hopefully be rectified within less than a day, knowing you guys.

For now, that's it. Get pumped. I'm actually taking a serious tack on this now and actually doing stuff on it. The deadline is SupaNova in Brisbane in November, not sure if you've heard of it, but it's like Comic-Con. Kinda.

Cheers guys. Anyone who wants to see my old work, go right ahead, I think the thread quietly died about a year ago...

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PS: The following insert is a test. It probably won't work, but if it does, well, winning!! Otherwise, ignore it.

Have you tried tinypic? Thats the site i always use. Otherwise you need to resize the images before uploading them. And in the

Awesome! cant wait to see updates for this

You can try imgur.com for all your pic uploading needs B)

Can't wait to see updates!

Thanks for the responses, guys. It turns out I had an account on Photobucket that I forgot about, and so I shall attempt to upload to that. Apparently there are options to auto-resize the image, so I guess I'll just do that. I guess I'll just mess around until I figure out how to get the images working. Also: uploading straight from a local folder would be so much easier. Admin-technological people, get to it! These, for the most part, will be out of order, but then I started cataloging them by day, so it gets more co-ordinated as time goes on. Without further ado...


The Boltgun, standard issue weapon to the Space Marines of the Imperium of Man. Unassembled and not all complete. This was from AAAAAAAGES ago, like a year or so now. 15/01/2011 according to the time tag.


Semi-put together, but unglued. Still, looked pretty cool


This is the...second thing I ever built, the Godwyn-De'az pattern Boltgun. Actually, I don't think it's Godwyn-De'az, and some mega WH40K gamers might correct me, but it doesn't really matter, since I think it looks cool and I was pretty proud of my work.



Both of those are of the shoulder pauldron, which was the first thing I ever made. I think it ended rather ok.

I'm just going to be posting that for now, mainly as a test, but also because my browser keeps Not Responding, so I want to get SOMETHING up in case it crashes for good. It double-posting, even if it's to add more pictures, a big no-no, or just slightly frowned upon, as long as I keep it to a minimum?

Ok, it seems to work again now, so I'll keep the double-posting to a minimum from now on.

SpartanDevastator: Your build has been a massive inspiration to me, and if my suit comes out looking even half as good as yours, I'll consider it mission accomplished.

Also, for those who are interested/know stuff about 40K: The Chapter I will be going with is the Salamanders Chapter, and original First Founding Legion, based on the home world of Nocturne. Their colour scheme is green and black, with a heavy iconographic influence towards flames, dragons, scales, that sort of thing. I, personally, will not be doing the detailing work, as I suck at art in general, but I have a friend who is good at it and has volunteered her time and abilites, so thanks Kate.

At the end of this build, I'm hoping for an entire suit, head-to-toe, as well as a Boltgun (see above), and perhaps a Bolt Pistol as well. If possible, I was LED lighting coming through on small sections of the armour, but that is a long shot and will only be implemented if the rest in completed. I have many ideas running around, but I'm not sure if they're ever going to come to fruition. Wait and see, I suppose. Now, more pictures.


The first shin guard I made. It was too small, so it was a waste. This made me sad :C


Two of my helper minions. Wouldn't have got this far without them. Yay for friends, amirite?


Both pauldrons, the shin and the Bolter, all just chillin' in the shed, or as I now call it, 'The Armoury'.


The first pauldron, resin'd and awesome. At this point, I didn't have a respirator, and since dad subscribed to the 'You'll be right' philosophy, I couldn't get one for some time. Still, if worst comes to worst, I can always wheeze "I told you so," at him. Fear not, however, as I recently acquired one, and all is good in the world.


Inside of the pauldron, strengthened with cardboard because I am goddamn MacGuyver.


The first full arm piece I made. As you can see, it was excessively oversized, so that was a bit of a problem.


The SECOND arm piece. It fit better, but for reasons I wasn't entirely sure with (and I'm still not sure about), I just didn't like the look or feel of it. As of now, it has currently deformed ENTIRELY out of shape, and the resin has hardened. Not a great loss, as I think I was planning on making another one anyway. No biggie.




The combat knife I made, that will eventually be strapped to the left pauldron, similar to Emile from Halo: Reach. As of now, it's in the body filler stage, but it's been set aside in lieu of more important pieces.

I don't know how many pictures I'm allowed per post, so I probably will, unfortunately, be double-, triple-, and probably quadruple- and quintuple-posting, but every post will have nice pictures of progress, which is nice.

The main body for the hilariously oversized Bolt Pistol.



The completed Bolt Pistol. The second pictures shows just how insanely large it is, especially compared to the Boltgun, which is meant to be the actual RIFLE.





The wonderful Mk. VII helmet in various stages of completion. This was one of my most beloved pieces, and the fact that it ended out just about perfect, after I sized it purely by eyeballing it, made me believe the Emperor Himself was watching over me and guiding my hand.

The thigh guard. Also perfectly sized, and I didn't have to resize it at all. Pure luck, I suppose. Or the work of the Emperor, take your pick.


Chestpiece half-completed.


Chestpiece FULLY completed. Was really happy with this.


Helm and chest together. I think at this point I actually believed I could finish this.





The test-fit of the chest. Worked ok, but it was flimsy as hell. Hopefully liberal applications of body filler and fibreglass will fix that.


I think this is the shin piece.


Two thighs, chest and helmet in The Armoury.




The various pieces in various stages of resin shininess!



After Night 1 of the chest being resin'd, and have it deform ever so slightly, I found that I could totally hang it from the lamp, and it returned to it's regular shape, which was good.

So, I learnt I'm only allowed 15 pictures per post. So yes, there will be lots of pictures all in a row until I get up to now. I hope that's ok and that I don't get banhammered for it. That would suck.



Arm pieces. Small waste of resin, considering they're now gonna be chucked, but no biggie.



Close-ups of the bottom of the chest. The trim around the bottom of the chest piece tears REALLY easily, and did so on many, many occasions. Still, fibreglassing them closed works rather well...




Time for viewer interaction. Which one do you guys think looks best? I'm not 100% sure at the moment, but I'm leaning towards the one with the hilt pointing down, attached to the front of the pauldron.


Bird's-eye shot of everything I had done up to that point. The list is: 2x Thighs, 1x Shin, 1x Boltgun, 1x Bolt Pistol, 1x Chest (not shown), 1x Helmet, 1x Full Arm and 2x Shoulders.



Combat knife body filler'd, kinda.

Pretty cool, i dunno why anyone has said anything yet. And i think the double posting thing is really dumb i mean if you burn up all 15 images and no one comments and you want to make another update, what then? Anyways it's looking pretty good, i commend you because the scaling on these 40k builds is always absolutely ridiculous but the helm and chest look right so far

First round of body filler on the pauldron. This was also the first time I had ever used body filler in general. Still, learning experience and all that...


Much more smoother combat knife (ha, suck it, grammar!), and contrary to my dad's belief, it still fit in the sheath after I had filled it. So mner.



Round 2 of filler, and Round 1 of sanding.

At this stage, I also started doing video diaries to get my thoughts about the project out. Watching them is by no means necessary, but if you want to hear me ramble on for five or so minutes at a time, I would be very grateful and flattered.

The first video diary is at: Video Diary #1 - The Beginning


The second shoulder pauldron, which unfortunately had ripped itself apart in the interim of resin-ing it and fibreglass/body filler-ing it. Masking tape: God's Own Fixing Material.


Shin piece, body filler'd once!



The Bolter, body filled, after I forgot to resin it. Whoops. Still, it is annoying as hell to sand, and more than once I want to scream and punch it. But I don't.



Shin guard, after sanding. Looking a lot nicer, yes?


Shoulder pauldron, looking a lot better after sanding and re-fillering



The second pauldron, first round of filler. Rather blocky, but that gets fixed. It's about this time that I found someone who was, on the sly, willing to sell me bulk body filler, even though, technically, he wasn't allowed to sell privately, only to companies.

Tenebrus said:

Pretty cool, i dunno why anyone has said anything yet. And i think the double posting thing is really dumb i mean if you burn up all 15 images and no one comments and you want to make another update, what then? Anyways it's looking pretty good, i commend you because the scaling on these 40k builds is always absolutely ridiculous but the helm and chest look right so far

Click to expand...

Thanks man. I don't think people have said much because I'm just going on a massive image binge at the moment, dumping all the images I have (well, most. I'm leaving a few out), just to bring everyone up to speed to where I am now. Once I get to present-day, I'll obviously slow down and update the photos as I take them. Still, if a mod or admin gets mad at me, I'll co-operate and whatnot, I just don't know what I else I can do, other than wait for someone to post, and then post more photos. And yes, thank you on the scaling thing. It's quite strange. I eyeball a lot of it, just with a measuring tape and guesswork. Some parts I've had to scale, other parts I haven't. It's weird.

Anyway, on to pictures.


After the cardstock had deformed, this is the insane amount of filler needed to bring it back to flat. It was crazy.



Shoulder pauldron 2, after various amounts of fillering and sanding.


The, at the time, finished pauldron and semi-finished. Even back then, I was really happy with how they were looking.


Primer time! The first shoulder pauldron, which is actually the SECOND pauldron I made, got primer'd. Then I realised I should use spray putty to fix up the small holes. So a pauldron's worth of primer was wasted. This makes me sad.


Stupid Bunnings and it's stupid spray paint. The second can I bought was ungassed, or was partially jammed, and so only sprayed very sporadically. This made me sad, as well as insanely mad.


After the second coat of primer, I went around the trim with Aluminium-shiny silver. There is a method to this madness. I put the silver down, let that dry, covered areas of it in Vaseline...


...Then spray the entire trim with the green, as I'm going to be a 4th Company Tactical Marine...


...Then cover the trim, and spray the central area black, since the colour scheme is, of course, black and green...


...Then wipe away the Vaseline. Result: a battle-scarred, paint-chipped and dented piece of wargear. I can't remember who originally posted the idea of doing battle-damage this way, but it is pure genius.


So, from the towering manufactorums of the Mars forgeworld (or rather, a small shed on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, whichever), my first piece of wargear is complete. Well, my part in it is complete. As I said above, a friend of mine, Kate, will be doing the detailing, such as the tactical arrow, Chapter icon, squad markings, as well as anything else we think might make it look cool.


The sexy, sexy thigh pieces, finally fibreglassed.


Inside of the helmet, half-fibreglassed.


Exterior of the fully (I think) fibreglassed helmet.


Everything that is currently in my 'To do' pile.



And that brings us, my dear companions, to now. That was a massive amount of photos, and you could probably skip most of them, but yes. I'm about 3/4 through fibreglassing my chestpiece, and Kate has said literally three minutes ago that she might be cool to come over tomorrow and do the detailing. If so, I will attempt to get photos of that.

Peace out, guys. Links to the Video Logs will be uploaded as fast as my horrible upload speed will allow.

And now some of my pictures aren't showing. Ugh.

Ok guise, Video Diary #2 is up!

That is, Video Diary #2 - It's Still In Progress, I Swear

And now for my final update for the night, the third video, Video Diary #3 - "...One man rape machine..." is now up on YouTube. Give it a geez, if you've got a spare 7 minutes or so.

Everything is looking good Last Resort. Keep up the good work and let us know when your to the present day pics. LOL

Last Resort,
Looking good. Are you rondo-ing or glassing the insides of the pauldrons at all? I saw the glassing of the thighs, but was wondering what you are doing to strengthen the smaller parts internally to make them survivable at a CON. Also, rondoing will reduce the risk of sand-through at the seams and folds, i.e., the high spots.

Redshirt

Redshirt said:

Last Resort,
Looking good. Are you rondo-ing or glassing the insides of the pauldrons at all? I saw the glassing of the thighs, but was wondering what you are doing to strengthen the smaller parts internally to make them survivable at a CON. Also, rondoing will reduce the risk of sand-through at the seams and folds, i.e., the high spots.

Redshirt

Click to expand...

I'm fibreglassing everything, including the pauldrons. I tried rondo (well, the Australian equivalent), but, I dunno, I just like fibreglassing. I've yet to run into a problem with it, since I think I put on a ridiculous amount of body filler, so I sand through that for ages. On some areas of the shin pieces, the top of the resin'd paper shows through, but that's not really a massive deal, since I've yet to sand THROUGH the paper. Except for on the Boltgun, which I forgot to resin Q~Q.

But yes, fibreglassing everything is working ok, as some of my friends have found out when they tried to headbutt the helmet. They came off worse.

Alright guys, more update pics. Because everyone likes update pics!


This is just a sort of show as to how the lens I'm going to use will look. As you can see, there's a small amount of gap on the outer side of the lens, but that's no big deal.


A half-done chest piece. I think I left it too long and it started deforming, and now when it dries, even though I try to push it to the correct shape, it still dries hard in the wrong shape Q~Q



The madcore helmet, now definitely fully fibreglassed. One eye and all four 'hose' holes are covered, but no biggie, I guess.


Sick selfie time. Space Marines don't die from breathing in toxic gases, and now, neither will I!


This is the aforementioned Kate, the lovely girl who'll be doing all the detailing work. At this time, apart from scowling at me, she's copying down the Salamanders Chapter icon.


I really wish I was allowed to swear on this site, honestly. The chest has given me so much trouble.


Sneaky in-progress shot. Kate cutting out the icon...


Which will then be taped to the pauldron and traced...


BEFORE BEING PAINTED AND ENDING WITH SOMETHING AMAZING. All the credit of this really goes to her, since all I did was fibreglass the last eighth of the chest and get angry with it.


And the final result, the Salamanders Chapter sigil. Because Kate is a perfectionist, however, she said she'll come back and do things like run around the edge with black, making the edges crisp, as well as black out the eyes and nostril, and fixing up the teeth, all of which she wasn't happy with.


First coat of the tactical arrow on the other pauldron, marking me as a Space Marine from a Tactical Squad.


The stencil for the 'IX' (which as almost everyone here most likely knows, is the Roman numeral for 9). I forgot to take pictures after we had taken it off, but it looks really sweet now. I'll get the pictures tomorrow.

So, that's all so far. The IX, in addition to the green trim marks me as a member of 4th Company's 9th Tactical squad. FULL-STEAM AHEAD!

That's looking awesome dude, love seeing good space marine builds