Artscale: Moulding the prints and first casts

 So, last night (late last night) i jigged up the printed parts of the true/artscale marine and boxed them up ready for moulding. After the mould release had set i then poured the silicone so that this morning i could have some nice fully set moulds... and as if by magic that's what i got.

The cleaned up moulds ready to receive some resin.

The first cast always has that air of apprehension surrounding it. Did i get all the air bubbles out (even though I degassed the silicone), did a piece come off the sprue during the cure, did i cut the mould right, etc... However, this is the result of the first casting:

The polyurethane cast of the marine components.

Cutting And Posing

With the first cast in hand i set about clipping off the parts, drilling holes for wire and creating the initial pose. I then added some greenstuff to fill in the joints and bulk out some of the areas where i will be adding the ribbed detail that is so familiar on Space Marine Joints.

Posed and curing, ready for the next phase.

I think it works well, and once the arms, purity seals, pouches etc are added then it'll look more substantial. I may well sculpt the pouches onto the model so that it fits with the model. The more I look at the model the more it dawns on me that posing a squad of 5 bodies and then moulding them up would work so well for ease and speed. It's a little extra cost, but one that's well worth it in the long run. Though this pose is quite static, I will make sure that the other four are a bit more dynamic so that they can be used to create a varied look to the force.

Getting Ready To Paint

It now feels like it's time to plan how i will be painting the force up. I have no idea as of yet on the name for the Chapter, but i know that they will be similar to the Raven Guard... so, there will eventually be more scout and Vanguard squads. With that in mind (and though painting the miniatures is a bit of a way off) i went online to the Space Marine Painter (V9, created by David Johnston, Artwork done by Dominic Chan) over at The Bolter and Chainsword and put together these colour schemes:

Design A (an old chapter i created about 15 years ago).

Design B

Design C (possibly a Lieutenant variant of B)

Design D (possibly a Captain variant of B)

Design E

Right now i'm leaning towards Design B, though i quite like Designs A and E too. I'll probably put it into Photoshop before i actually start painting it so i can test out A, B and E. I'll put the results up in a separate post once i've done so. Feel free to let me know which one you prefer.

For now i think that's enough. I've got to a place where i'm happy with how things are progressing, and now it's all about formulating a plan as i move forward. How many squads will i make? What colour scheme do I use? Etc... and so on. For now though that's it and i'll catch you in the next update.

Cheers

John