# C.Commander's Truescale Night Lords UPDATE 8/28/12 2 MORE MARINES!



## cobra.commander (May 8, 2010)

So I've been working on this project for a few weeks now. I've finished up a squad of marines, and am currently working on my chaos lord (probably a stand in for Abbadon). My approach to these guys, is since they have been fighting a continuous war for thousands of years, they don't look so great. I like the idea that these marines have to scrounge and salvage what they can between firefights. So with that being said, I purposely wanted to give these guys kind of a "ramshackle" look. I'm doing this by modeling pieces of different Armor Mks and battle damage into their armor. So without further ado...


This was the first marine I did, and I have never used greenstuff in such a quantity, so he's a little rougher than the others. Please also keep in mind that none of them have the right shoulderpad attached, as I will be buying these for them... http://www.puppetswar.com/product.php?id_product=147






















































This shoulderpad has been replaced, with a MKII


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## cobra.commander (May 8, 2010)

A heavy weapon specialist with extra optics




























Here is the sergeant. I wanted him with a "on patrol" look



























This guy will be my standard bearer should I need one with the new codex



























This guy has a "come and get it" pose


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## cobra.commander (May 8, 2010)

Here is a group shot:









and two scale shots:


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## cobra.commander (May 8, 2010)

Here is my Chaos Lord from beginning to his current stage. I'm very close to being done with him. It takes a lot more time to turn terminator legs into BIGGER terminator legs


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## cobra.commander (May 8, 2010)

So that's it to date. Any comments, questions, concerns, criticisms would be most welcome. Note: Everything is going to be cleaned up a bit before I paint it...so any rough GS or things like that will be taken care of.


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## Lethiathan (Nov 11, 2011)

Hey, Love the Tru-scale of it, the added detail makes every model unique! Good Job


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## Vereor (Mar 21, 2011)

*Very very cool looking. Love to see how you go about painting them.
*


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## LegionThree (May 1, 2012)

Looks great, the additions as stated add a huge ammount of detail and character. Im trying to make taller marines but Im not bulking them up nearly this much. How much time are you spending on each of the models?


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## cobra.commander (May 8, 2010)

Thanks for the nice compliments guys, I'm glad you like them.

LegionT: You know, I don't really time myself, but I would say it probably takes about 4-5 hrs per marine. 3 of that time is GS curing. I use Procreate now which is much easier to work with, and dries faster.

Ok, so a lot of work, and Procreate, but finally he is done! I GIVE YOU...KADOR VAKARION Chaos Lord of The VIIIth!






















































































































Here are some scale shots...he's pretty big!



























Well, what do you guys think? If you see anything that needs fixing, let me know...as I don't plan on doing any more work before painting. So if you see something let me know so I can fix it.


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## The_Werewolf_Arngeirr (Apr 3, 2012)

he looks amazing! its almost a shame that Im doing my robed CSM rather then some tru-scale night lords like this, since I had the thought to do it too after reading the ADB books.


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## Vereor (Mar 21, 2011)

I was impressed until I saw the lord up next to the IG. Then I was gobsmacked. That is one truely imposing character. Excelent work.

How long have you been sculpting for? I ask this only because your work is very very clean and the detail is fantastic and am curious to know how long it took you to get a grasp on it. This project really makes me want to try my hand at some true scale things.


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## Freakytah (Nov 20, 2009)

That is some awesome work! I love the backbone/helmet on the standard bearer.


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## cobra.commander (May 8, 2010)

Werewolf: I enjoyed the ADB novels as well. I liked his take on it, and I would be lying if I said I wasn't partially inspired by him. However, on that note, I'm going to try to avoid anything that seems too "Soul Hunter-ish." I've seen a lot of that going on and I want to create something of my own.

Vereor: Its hard to say. I've been using greenstuff in some form or another, for probably 10 years. However, this is the first time, I've done ANY kind of mass sculpting. I've done a few simple shoulderpads before, but nothing like this. The best direction I can give you is to just jump in with both feet. The learning curve is kind of steep, but its really the fastest...and only way to learn how to do it. A few tricks I've learned that will help flatten that learning curve:

1. If the tools you're using to sculpt with are plastic/metal, always keep them either wet, or use vaseline. This will stop the GS from sticking to your tool, which, if it does, has an irritating way of not doing what you want.

2. Get yourself some "color shapers." That is what they are called, and if you do a search for them on amazon or something, you will find them. They usually come in packs of 5 different shapes. I have sizes "2" and "0." You can get by with a "0" but some things (large flat surfaces) the "2's" work better. Mine are soft rubber, but I think you can get them in hard rubber too...this will probably come in handy, and will probably buy some hard ones eventually. I CAN NOT STRESS HOW USEFUL THESE THINGS ARE...as the GS does NOT stick to them...EVER!

3. You will get different effects depending on your mix of GS. Use more yellow for soft /organic looking surfaces. For cleaner edges/armor, use more blue.

4. Try using Procreate. I love this product. Its easier to sculpt with than GS. (And for the same price, you get about 3 times as much) Its dry time is much faster too (cuts the time to about 2-3hrs as opposed to 5). The trick with this though, is depending on the mix, your working time could be as little as an hour, so make sure you work (reletively) fast and mix small amounts at a time. I usually pinch off a marble sized amount of both, and just keep them separate, and mix a little from that at a time.

5. If you need really flat/hard edges, if its possible, just add a little extra GS on the area, and while soft, use a really sharp knife and cut it off. You will get a much more finished edge.

6. When applying GS, make sure to roll up the GS into a ball, to get rid of any seem lines from when you mixed it.

7. Figure out what you want to do and plan for it. Work in stages. PATIENCE IS KEY HERE. If you have a part that you are happy with, err on the side of caution. Let it dry then work on the rest, you don't want to ruin your good sculpting because you were impatient. If you notice on the termy lord, I did the legs in two stages. First the thighs, then the calves. 

8. Finally, be very picky before painting. Make sure you look at all the nooks and crannies of the model. Smooth out everything that looks suspect, with a file or the flat of a blade(like you're taking of flash lines). The last thing you want is to start painting the model and finding an imperfection. I don't know about you, but if it were me, at that stage, I'd end up just saying "fuck it" and just dealing with it. Which is a real shame for a model that took so much work.


As far as truescaling goes, I use the method used by DoghouseAppologist/Lementor and others. As you can see, I use terminator legs and widen the torso. I also use modified terminator arms and shoulderpads. A good trick is to use Grey Knight termy arms, as its kind of hard to find arms that don't have a power fist. Those ten marines were made by using 2x assault termy kits and 1 grey knight termy kit. I still have left overs so I can probably make another 2-3 marines. 

Another method is to just bulk up regular marine arms, which is essentially a modified method of the method I used to make my lord. The trick here is to use the existing model as a base, and just cover each section a piece at a time. Almost like a "sculpt by numbers" if you get what I mean. With the terminator, since I didn't have even bigger/taller legs to use. I just cut them in strategic places and added 1mm plasticard spacers to make them taller. This threw the proportions kind of out of whack, but then I bulked it out anyway, so it didn't matter, and provided a very nice skeleton to work with.

Hope all that helped....

Freakytah: Thank you! I like him too, I've added horns to the helm since, to give him a more distinctive look.


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## Vereor (Mar 21, 2011)

Awesome advice! Thanks alot. Should help a tonne when I get back to doing my CSMs. :victory:

As for the truescale, I may do a unit just for show but by the sounds of things, they arent all that cheap to produce (unless I do the bulking out normal marines method). Still, I want to at least give them a crack!

Thanks again and keep up the awesome work! :grin:


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## cobra.commander (May 8, 2010)

Vereor: Not a problem, most of the advice was just stuff I figured out over time, or was givent to me from someone else... :biggrin: I'd really like to see what you come up with, with a truescale unit. A lot of people just add platicard spacers into the legs, so that the proportions of the marine are anatomically correct. They look very nice, but not as bulky. (I just like my marines REALLY bulky) So give it a shot, all it costs is a little effort and some platicard. 

Anyway.....More marines! These two are still very WIP. But I figured I had the parts to make about 15 Marines, so might as well use them. Here is a plasma gunner. Sorry about the blurry pic, but you get the idea.




























And just a standard marine...I'm starting to really like this guy though...


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