3D Printed Thunder Hammers!

They're done and looking great!

I already wrote about how I designed these. In short, I think regular Thunder Hammers are a bit goofy. This looks hefty and fits the Black Templar theme much better.

Here's a few pics of what they might look like on a model.

As before, if you're interested in getting some of your own, you can get them on Shapeways. They're up for the same amount I paid, plus less than a cup of coffee. Hey, just above 20 bucks for a set of 12 is pretty good when it comes to bits. And if you'd like them tweaked a bit for your purpose, feel free to reach out to me on Shapeways.

And thanks for looking!

Custom Black Templar Thunder Hammer Heads!

Why did I do this? Because I don't like the look of normal thunder hammers. Their heads are way too long and too spindly. Your mileage may vary, but they really don't work for my taste.

So I designed my own! The dimensions of the block are 8mm long, 4mm wide, and 5mm tall. That makes it have very similar profile to a normal thunder hammer, but it's not as elongated. It's also not as goofy and I hope that it will communicate heft really well.

The hole in the bottom is 1.25mm wide, matching the diameter of Privateer Press brass rods I like to use for pinning. They're thin enough to drill into the haft of an existing thunder hammer.

Here's my best attempt of a true-to-scale attempt at what the hammer should look like:

As before, I ordered these from Shapeways in frosted detail plastic. A set of 12 cost me just over $20 with shipping. That's not too bad. 12 is more than I'll ever use, including putting them on Termie characters.

And of course, credit where credit is due, here's the inspiration:

So much for now, thanks for taking a look!

Truescale Termies Converted!

I've converted my Terminators a little bit!

Here's what I've done. I padded the front half of their thighs with Milliput, to make them look less like they've been missing out on leg day. Other Terminator truescale efforts did way more than this, but this seemed enough to me. Their legs, even like this, are bulkier than normal marine legs.

I extended their shins by 1mm using plasticard. I tried to do it differently this time compared to how I treated my Marine legs - I used plasticard that is wider than the outer rim of the leg, and after the plastic cement has set in, I'd cut it down to size. It didn't turn out that well because you could always tell that there was something done over there. I ended up covering those areas with milliput and sanding it down until it was smooth. I'll have to keep experimenting until I find the least painful way to do this.

Oh, and the back of their shins look completely misfigured. I did my best, but there's no easy way to reach those areas and make them look smooth. I don't have any pictures and I've already moved on as of writing this; I'll try to cover it up with paint as much as possible. Ugh.

I also extended their torsos by a whole 3mm. I used milliput to give them a stomach-area armor shape, some plasticard and guitar wire on the front to give them something that resembles abs, and finally used green stuff to cover up most of that mess with sashes.

To compensate, I lowered their shoulders by about 2mm. This means that their heads are slightly above the shoulder line. They look much more human this way, but still outsize space marines. All their hands are magnetized using a giant 6x1.5mm magnet in each arm, and an even larger 6.3mm magnet in each shoulder. This means that you can grab each model and lift it by its arm without anything moving. Pretty cool!

Some day I'll make them arms for thunder hammers and storm shields, hence the magnetization on all of them. I'm not sure what look will I prefer as of right now.

After that, I made them garments out of green stuff. I'm getting better than this, I did all of these in one short evening after work. I should take pictures next time and make that into a tutorial.

As for their heads, I experimented with various designs. Terminator heads, trimmed terminator heads that resemble Gray Knights (tutorial here), normal tactical marine helmets, my converted crusader helmets, as well as Forgeworld Templar Bretheren helmets. These looked the best to me: not medieval, but still knightly.

Anyway, here's some more pics. I'm really looking forward to painting these guys.

Thanks for looking!

Tacticals Space Marines Done!

They're done!

This was a very fast paintjob. Well, relatively speaking; about 90 minutes per guy. And it shows from up close, but not from afar. They look great as a squad on the tabletop, and that's what I wanted to see with this army: drastically less time per model compared to my Necrons.

I took these pics indoors - sunny outside wasn't working out for these guys. I wanted them to look gloomy. I used a cloth math as the background and did more editing than before. The pics look extremely good. And I took them with my phone!

Now I'll stop blabbering. Thanks for looking!