Conversion Corner: True-scale Space Marine

"I, for one, was bloody glad to see the Snakes power in. Beautiful bastards, they are. I owe them my life and my soul." – after the battle of Ambold Eleven

It has been quite a while since our last conversion corner article, but with the recent announcement that a new edition of Warhammer 40k is on the horizon, complete with new Primaris Space Marines, I thought it would be fun to revisit my first primaris model. The model was actually gifted to me by Mr_Pink (from the excellent Modern Synthesist blog), and at the time, I just converted the bolter to be a little smaller and used the model to examine how it fit alongside other 40k models. To honor the new edition, I felt it was a good time to revisit the model and do some simple conversion work to make the model read as a normal, albeit better proportioned, Space Marine.

Dragged into Turbolasers Bonus Episode: #New40k, or talking about the new edition of Warhammer 40k

#New40K

In this bonus episode of the podcast, we discuss the newly revealed edition of Warhammer 40k. We talk about a variety of topics, ranging from the new cinematic trailer, to the updated logo, and new models. We consider how Games Workshop’s stance on Primaris Space Marines has changed over the years, shifting from creating truly new unit types to essentially updating all the old traditional Space Marine models. We laugh about the new Primaris bike designs, postulate on how the new Judiciar is a 40k equivalent of Severian from the Book of the New Sun, and appreciate that the Necrons are actually getting some new models. 

Oldhammer: Slambo

Procession of Ancestral Brutalism

Although I love plastic miniatures, periodically, I get the urge to revisit old metal models. There is just something so charming about Citadel’s old range of single piece metal models, from the awkward poses to the sometimes odd merger of fantasy and sci-fi. Years back I painted an old Ork Tinboy and a Imperial Guardsmen from the Rogue Trader era, and Eric painted Hess Poison Breath just last year. I recently came across my copy of the original Slambo model, one I had modified slightly with greenstuff to improve his boots, which had been set aside after I had experimented with making silicone molds with him. Seeing him again, still without paint, and after I had finally painted an old Imperial Guard model from years back, made me come to the conclusion that now was Slambo’s time to be finished.

Building a Bandai RG MS-06F Zaku II

"Victory is the greatest tribute we can pay those who sacrifice their lives for us! Rise, our people, Rise! Take your sorrow, and turn it into anger!" - Gihren Zabi

Last month, I rediscovered the world of Gunpla when I built a MS-07B Gouf model created by Bandai. It was a fun learning process, one that resulted in a nice looking model with relatively little time investment. The Gouf was one of Bandai’s cheaper models, a High Grade (HG, 1:144 scale) kit with relatively few parts. Taking what I learned, I wanted to try to build one of their more complex kits, seeing what sort of articulation and color differeationation the kits could have. This led me to their Real Grade (RG) line of models. RG models maintain the 1:144 scale of their HG counterparts, but have an increased part count and many have an internal skeleton underneath the armor plates, reminiscent of the larger Master Grade kits (1:100). I found one of the original RG models (circa 2010), a Zaku II, and wanted to let you know what I think of it.

Dragged into Turbolasers Episode 72: Chatting with therealbrokenfingers

"Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." - Robert Oppenheimer

In this episode, we were joined with the talented hobbyist and YouTube creator therealbrokenfingers! The episode begins with us talking with him about his focus on realism and atmosphere when building models and creating dioramas. We discuss his priority to convert his models to be properly scaled, particularly when creating space marines. This leads us to talk about his venture into creating tutorials on YouTube, showcasing his unique take on the miniature hobby. We also have an interesting discussion about art and how it intersects with the hobby, talking at length about Théodore Géricault’s The Raft of the Medusa.