# Chaos Space Marine Cosplay



## Horgh (May 22, 2010)

Sup, first post etc.

I've been looking around the cosplay/larp/derp section and I was somewhat unimpressed that there weren't any attempts of making Astartes power armour by any members of this forum. Shame on you, heretics!

So, I thought it'd be nice to sign up and announce:
I'm making *Chaos Space Marine* armour - _it's true!_


Here's the progress so far:









In fact I've gotten a little further than that, I've got two shoulders done, and working on the bolter.

_But it's made of paper!_ - That's right, paper. Heard of papercraft? Made my own on 3D editing software Blender and imported it into _pepakura designer_, which essentially breaks the 3D model down into 2D plains with tabs and numbers, stick tab 43 to tab 43, tab 20 to tab 20, fold this line, fold that line, and turns this:










into this:










That's my bolter so far, incomplete obviously, but coming along nicely I think.


Some of you may be wonder why paper? Well, the idea is to coat it in resin and fibreglass to make it solid, and then apply automotive body filler to the outside, smooth it off and start painting. I can tell you I'm no expert at this, I'm getting my lessons over at 405th.com, who do the same but with Halo and other costumes (including a few other Space Marine costumes).

I'm not just here to show off, I'm here to get advice, as many of you are enthusiasts and would know what looks awesome on a chaos space marine and what doesn't, so I'll be coming here every so often to update and post my pepakura files for your professional opinion. Which is a point:










Just finished this helmet, this is the version without the horns (obviously), and I'll do the horned version later, but what can you suggest? Smaller grill? Different eyes? Pipes were purposefully left out so they can be added once the fibreglass/body filler was done, but should I add them anyway? Any feedback, criticism, encouragement, discouragement, anything would be helpful.

Oh and if you want to make the armour yourself, just ask, and if the request is popular enough I might have to make another topic.


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## son of nocturne (May 23, 2009)

Absolutely awesome! To think of the shape as paper thats still to be moulded cant wait to see more!


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## ClassyRaptor (Apr 7, 2010)

lol very small hands.
Any plans for a warp blade or chainsword?


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## Horgh (May 22, 2010)

I think I'll just have a bolter and a permanently sheathed blade on the outer thigh.


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## Viscount Vash (Jan 3, 2007)

Sorry that there's not much in this forum we only just got it set up. 

I'm very glad we did because now we get to see CSM power armour from start to finish.

Oh and hey if this is the quality to show show off as much as you like!

Looks good on the scale Vs practicality front.

Which chaos Chapter or Legion are you thinking of doing?
We can defiantly bombard you with the right symbols etc. 
If you have not decided, let us know and we will try to help with that.

Excellent intro to the site I look forward to seeing more and helping in any way possible.

_Vash_


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## Horgh (May 22, 2010)

Well I'm thinking either Black Legion or Word Bearers... but I might go for Red Corsairs. I might finally decide when I've got the whole thing basically set up, then I can decide and start to customise it.


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## imm0rtal reaper (Jul 15, 2008)

This looks fantastic so far. I was going to suggest pepakura but you're one step ahead of me 

The most important advice I can give is to take your time with it. If it takes you three years to make a perfect suit of armour it's better than knocking out a cheap, shitty version in a week. The fact your using pepakura already suggests you will take your time but its worth mentioning anyway lol 

Now there are several ways you can go about an undersuit. The easiest way would just be to wear a one piece black bodysuit, much in the same way stormtroopers do. But, for a more acurate look you could try to replicate the ribbed look that the inner elbows and knees of power amrour has. 

Off the top of my head, the best way to do this would be to get a square piece of black, elastic like material, big enough to cover the gaps and also overlap into the armour. 

Once you've got a piece that covers the gap with some overlap, you'll want to add velcro strips to the inside of the armour ( A note here, use the loop velcro, not the hook velcro for this part, as it wont snap on any clothes you are wearing beneath). Use industiral velcro as it will last longer and it's self adhesive is far superior.

Next you'll want to sew the hook velcro onto the material so it wont come loose. Once this stage is done, you'll have something that closes the gap and also joins the plates, keeping them more secure. 

Now for detailing. Measure out the area of exposed material. Then take strips of leather, cut about 1cm wide and to length. Sew these to the material to give the exposeda area that ribbed look. It should look good, offer good flexability and also serve as a way to fasten your armour plates together.


Another tip I have is that the suit will get HOT!. This is a really important thing to take note of. If your out at an event all day with no way to cool down, it could end up being real nasty lol. There is an easy way out though 

First, once the helmet build is finished, you may way to carefulyl cut out sections of the gril, to allow airflow into the helmet. You can cover the holes with black screen mesh from behind. 

Next you want to get hold of some 12v computer fans to mount in the helmet. There are a couple of videos on youtube on how to mount fans in helmets that will help. I reccommend searching for costumebot for a really good one.

Once you have sorted the air con, it may be time to consider some sort of voice projection. There are countless ways of mounting speakers in the chest piece, linked to a mic in the helmet that will give your voice that voxx sound. It's best to experiment and see what suits you best.

I hope at least some of this helps, and if I think of anything else, I'll be sure to swoop in an mention it lol.

Cheers

Reaper


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## ClassyRaptor (Apr 7, 2010)

Maybe after this you could even make a Terminator suit, with twin lightning claws


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## goldsmartie (Dec 11, 2009)

I cant wait to see this finished, it will be awesome, just, whatever you do, do not make the back pack to small, seen many a good costume ruined by a under (or over) sized power pack. If you make it and its to heavy put a helium balloon in it, as it will help lighten it.

theirs my mini rant done, but seriously traitor back packs are large, and probably heavy.


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## Boc (Mar 19, 2010)

Looks badass!

Now out of morbid curiosity, as I've never really had experience with this type of thing...

Let's see if I understand the process:

You use the program to digitally design a 3D image which is then printed onto paper. Is there a certain type of paper you have to purchase (I presume so) and if so, where do you get it from?

Once you build the suit, you mentioned coating it with resin, etc. How well does the paper-material hold up to the additional weight, and do you remove it once it has dried? (Yes I know, I'm getting way ahead!)

Great work so far though, look forward to seeing more :victory:


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## reddog9287 (Jun 2, 2010)

Wow Absolutely Fantastic! I'm from 405th and I was going to do a freehand fold and fiberglass then resin since my friend introduced me to Warhammer for Gamesday 2010. I was unaware that there were actually pep files for Warhammer characters until now! Would have been much harder to make armor without them. Your suit looks great. Is there any way that you can upload the files or send them to me?


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## reddog9287 (Jun 2, 2010)

Vali ThunderAxe said:


> lol very small hands.
> Any plans for a warp blade or chainsword?


Do you guys want to see my Bolt Pistol and Chainsword plans? I will post them if you're interested.


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## Horgh (May 22, 2010)

Boc said:


> Looks badass!
> 
> Now out of morbid curiosity, as I've never really had experience with this type of thing...
> 
> ...




Fair enough, this is the process I'll be using:

So far I've started to resin my Chest, Helmet, Shoulders and part of my Bolter (started again and did it in cardboard for structural reasons), and I'll do the other parts later on. I have applied a few thin layers of resin over the top of the paper structures, once I've done this I'll be adding the extra detail, like ridges, arrows, spikes, things that are going to be a part of the armour. After this I'll then be taking some fibreglass and coating it on the outside (possibly on the inside too), this is to strengthen the structure.

After I've applied the fibreglass I'll be sanding it down, ensuring there are no enormous bumps, then after that I'll be getting body filler (Bondo if you're in America, which I'm not, so it's just automotive body filler for me) and smearing that on and sanding that down. That will make everything as smooth as possible so then I'll be able to paint it.

For obvious reasons, thick paper is much better. I'm using 150 gsm (grams per square metre) and most of the 405th guys are using 200~300 - but I'm happy with 150. You must be careful though, as some printers might be severely damaged if you try to print on paper that's too thick for it. For glue I use either PVA or my Glue Gun. The paper structure holds up fine against the resin, better than I thought, but it does depend on how strong the structure is in the first place. What I should have done and will be doing for my future pieces of armour is making a temporary drying stand (just made out of cardboard with the glue gun) so that it can hold the pieces in place, but not warp them while I work or while they dry.

You can't really take the paper out of the piece, it's basically what's holding it all together. It won't resemble paper when you're finished with it anyway (if you do it right, that is). This is the finished product of the process above, just with halo gear.










And all of that was paper (minus the soft armour underneath the plating) It's very surprising how good it can look afterwards, you just need to take your time. If you are considering doing this, then you can do worse than joining 405th and asking there.



reddog9287 said:


> Wow Absolutely Fantastic! I'm from 405th and I was going to do a freehand fold and fiberglass then resin since my friend introduced me to Warhammer for Gamesday 2010. I was unaware that there were actually pep files for Warhammer characters until now! Would have been much harder to make armor without them. Your suit looks great. Is there any way that you can upload the files or send them to me?


http://www.4shared.com/dir/-dhpIoyO/sharing.html <-- that my 4shared folder full of the stuff I made (didn't make the 'regular space marine' stuff though), there are some doubles, and I really need to organise them at some point, so I suggest just download everything and go through and use what you want.


Good god this post is long.


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## Viscount Vash (Jan 3, 2007)

Horgh said:


> Good god this post is long.


But very useful.

Thankyou for sharing and explaining. Great thread.

Have some Reppage.


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## reddog9287 (Jun 2, 2010)

Horgh said:


> http://www.4shared.com/dir/-dhpIoyO/sharing.html <-- that my 4shared folder full of the stuff I made (didn't make the 'regular space marine' stuff though), there are some doubles, and I really need to organise them at some point, so I suggest just download everything and go through and use what you want.


Nice! Thanks so much!


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## Horgh (May 22, 2010)

So here's a tiny update, I remade the arms, because the previous ones were WAY too flimsy for fibreglassing, there was no inner support or anything. Anyway, so here's what I constructed:










It's sturdy as hell, so it can take the fibreglass and some. My first criticism, however, is that I think it's a bit too big. I aught to scale it down a touch, otherwise bending my arm will be more or less impossible. While I'm making changes, I thought I'd take this opportunity to ask you guys what you think of the arm so far:










Sketch, draw, doodle anything that you think you'd change, or you'd want to see different about this arm. Come on, I need your help here.


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## imm0rtal reaper (Jul 15, 2008)

Looking good so far mate. My only suggestions are, as you've sais, scale it down a little. And I'd like to see the rim at the elbow, where the spikes come down, a little thinner, at the moment i think it's thickness takes away from the awesome spikes.

Keep up the good work.


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## Horgh (May 22, 2010)

How do you mean? If you could point it out via paint, that'd be more helpful.


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## emporershand89 (Jun 11, 2010)

very nice, use of computers will ease your way, however, make sure you focus on the joints, for if you cannot move, then you might as well be making a statue


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## Horgh (May 22, 2010)

Update with the arm and jazz.











The previous one was pretty hefty, after resizing it, it's at a good size.










Comparing the two shows just how monstrous the previous really was.










Enough of that, the one things that are missing are the legs and backpack (which I'll be doing from scratch cardboard). These are the designs for the legs so far:










Just a normal leg with a spike, and this one:










Which will have space for a skull:










Any criticisms? Changes? Etc, please let me know.

The lady friend has gone away for a week, and I've finished education until October so I'll be working on this thing a lot over the coming days. 

As always, the stuff I've posted is freely available on my 4shared library, help yourself if you want to have a go.


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## el_gringo_dado (Jun 13, 2010)

I have something that may help you in resizing parts of armor. 

I found it on 405th, it's for Corvus Armor but I believe it will help to resize parts properly to your height.

Here's the link http://www.4shared.com/file/138194408/3e02fbba/ScalingSheet.html

The only problem is that there is just scale. I think the easiest way to make it good will be to download parts of corvus armor from here http://www.405th.com/showthread.php/18092-Beaky-Space-Marine-Wip?highlight=beaky resize them with the table of scales and put the sizes into your project in mm.

Oh BTW, my friend decided to make the Deathwatch Champlain so the skull you showed will be the great front part of helmet


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## Horgh (May 22, 2010)

How are you, heretics?

Working on the suit for a few days now, first time fibreglassed in my life (fucking messy business) but I feel it's going well.This is how far I’ve managed to get so far:


















The helmet is pretty much done, just need to add a little more fibreglass to the horns and maybe the inside top. After that, I’ll take a dremmel to it and just kinda tidy it up. The little bits of fibreglass sticking out over the flaps and edges? They’ll be sawn off and ground down to make it relatively flat. After that, I’ll be able to start doing the next stage – bondo.


















The shoulders have been frustrating. It’s been difficult to keep their shape, and as a result minor depressions have occurred around the surface. I’ll have to fill it in with the bondo, or pass it off as battle damage, or just cover it in skulls. For future reference, when fibreglassing the inside of the shoulders, put it in a suitably sized bucket so it’ll keep its shape, rather than putting it on a flat surface and letting it deform slightly.


















This bad-boy’s next. I’ve got to fix a slight tear at the back (probably with duct tape) and then I’ll start fibreglassing the inside. This will probably be quite difficult, it’ll be the largest (and most unstable) thing to fibreglass yet. Not sure how I’ll manage this.


Tonight, however, I’ll finally start building the legs and see how they fit. Then I’ll fibreglass those, start building the cardboard backpack (epic project alone). Wish me luck, daemon spawns.


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## shaantitus (Aug 3, 2009)

Fine work. This is a considerable undertaking. Looking forward to seeing how it turns out.


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## el_gringo_dado (Jun 13, 2010)

My advice if you want to keep shape of thing. 

Use hot glue. Stick the second layer of paper inside the part by hot glue. I tried it, it work's.


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## ownzu (Jul 11, 2010)

holy crap geif so i can wear that playin dow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
++++++++++++repsreps!!:victory:


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## needskonstruktion (Oct 9, 2008)

This is very good work  

Any more updates :3


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## Khargoth (Aug 5, 2010)

My only suggestion would be wire armatures, something custom-made that supports your parts in all the critical spots. Even if you bought a dozen metal coathangers and bent them to shape, it would be better than hanging them on a single dowel like your torso, or in the top of a bucket.

Regarding the minor collapses in your armour, with a thick enough coat of bondo and some patient sanding, you can work those out. With enough time and patience you could smooth out the 'polygons' of the papercraft model.


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## Horgh (May 22, 2010)

No exciting updates, I'm afraid. I'm just working on the fibreglass, and smoothing shit up. I've got to complete my bolter, which shouldn't be too hard to at least complete the cardboard base. And then I've got to do the whole legs and the backpack. It's going to be a slow process from now on because I'm starting uni soon :/


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## bane-of-banes (Sep 9, 2010)

this is too legit and simply too freakin epic to describe in mere words.
that's awesome, can't wait to see it done :biggrin: keep us updated!

+rep!


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## gundamboy195 (Aug 17, 2010)

bump bump bump


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## force commander (Oct 8, 2010)

*hi there*

i need a space marine armor


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## Horgh (May 22, 2010)

lolupdate

well not much, but here goes:

Okay, so as I'm at university now obviously I can't spare that much time to work on my suit, plus the suit itself is in a garage about 20 miles away from where I currently live, so updates are going to be rare.








Here's what's going on; I've been thinking about my helmet and my horns on the helmet for a while. Because of the shape of the horns, it's extremely difficult to work on the structural integrity of them (fibreglass the inside for strength), so I remembered something a few of the 405th guys used to do. What they did in situations like this, or as a lazy/excellent alternative to fibreglass was to mix bodyfiller and resin together.








I'll be honest, I don't know the mixing parts, but I get it to a fair liquid consistency - not too runny so it won't stick to anything, and not too thick so it won't flow, but _just right_. The idea is to pour the mix (they call it Rondo) into the _thing_, be it a horn or the whole helmet, swirl it around so the Rondo covers all the walls of the shape, and leave it to dry. It solidifies pretty quickly because of the body filler mixture, which dries very quickly anyway, but the whole drying process should take about 24 hours.








Much to my delight, the result is exactly what I needed for the horns and a couple of other places on the suit that would be otherwise really difficult to get to with fibreglass, like the inside ridge of the shoulder pads.

The only things to be cautious about this process are 
A) Having enough body filler for the rondo mix _and_ the the suit exterior for smoothing. I may need to buy another tin because of this, but well worth it.
B) Small holes in the papercraft. Because the mix is obviously liquid, it'd be horrible if it started leaking everywhere, so it's good to make sure the pieces are properly constructed and stuck together with no small holes, but also going around with masking tape to just seal parts off.
C) Weight difference. There is a difference in weight if you compare this method to just fibreglass. This method does increase the weight significantly, but as long as the dried rondo mix isn't something stupid like an inch thick, and your bones aren't made of crepe paper, I'm sure you'll be fine.


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## Horgh (May 22, 2010)

olol hi guise

so I worked on the head today for a bit. You know the body-filler stuff? I slapped that onto the helmet a few days ago and left it to cure, came back to it today and fuck me that stuff is *hard*.










First, notice how it's all.... crinkly. It's messy and spikey, and I wish I had smoothed it all before I left it. Mental note to all who are thinking of doing this themselves - smooth as much as possible before leaving it to cure, it'll save so much sanding. Before you sand though, if you have left it in that god-awful state like I did (shameshameshame) you should get a stick-scrub thing and work around it. One of these:










Just get that and work it really hard around the head and break off some of the spikey crap you left behind. It saves sanding again. Anyway, once you've got rid of some of the crap, you take your mouse sander and BBBBZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZRRZZZZZRZRZRZRZRZZZZRZZZZZ for a while. That stuff is damn resilient! And lol be sure to wear long sleeves and jeans you don't like, as well as protective fashion facial accessories, this dust shit gets everywhere. 










Um, yeah, it's really not done yet as you can see, but it's a pretty good start, it's nice when you compare it to the slick low-poly mess it was a while ago. The red arrows indicate the hard 90 degree corners you won't be able to get to with a mouse sander (easily, at least), so I'll be using some fine file to get it good. 

Anyway - once you've paused sanding, it's good to get the brush thing again and just go and hard-scrum it all again to just get rid of some of the dust, especially if you intend to put in more body filler or paint it. I'll add maybe another _smooth_ coat of filler to just even it all out and then I'll start thinking about painting it. Then I've got to work on the rest of the armour.


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## Boc (Mar 19, 2010)

Once again, amazing work, keep it up! Glad to see the suit's progressing


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## Viscount Vash (Jan 3, 2007)

Great to see another update and how well the suits shaping up.

Once again many thanks for posting this thread.


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## Gluttoniser (Aug 14, 2010)

Paper Power armour converts to a 5+ Armour Save :/


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## Courage_Honour (Jan 17, 2011)

due this looks so awesome. i made a profile just so i could see this.


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## turel2 (Mar 2, 2009)

Keep up the good work, its looking all good.


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## Epidemius (Nov 15, 2010)

This is very good work. I like how the helmet turned out.


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## Doelago (Nov 29, 2009)

Impressive. Most impressive. +rep


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## Midge913 (Oct 21, 2010)

Looking good mate! Keep at it!


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## Anarkitty (Jul 29, 2008)

Un-fragging-credible. I have been insired. I need to try this once I have some space to work. It'd be difficult in a small apartment. Needs more of a garage I'm thinking.
I've always wanted to try this though, and this is the first tutorial that actually seems feasable with my limited skill and experience at working with things like this on this scale.


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## C'Tan Chimera (Aug 16, 2008)

Why do you have to go and make that all look so easy to the point where I want to try and fail catastrophically?  Amazing, man.


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## Horgh (May 22, 2010)

I owe you all an apology. The last time I posted an update was back in _November_, for Christ's sake. Needless to say, I have been extremely busy, and anyone who knows the stress of university and computer science knows, it's not a subject to take lightly.

I have been thoughtful in my decline, however, and decided that, for technical reasons, the helmet I had made will not be part of the suit. I will by all means continue to construct it, if anything as just a piece of decor to compliment my bookshelf. The reasons are as follows:

*Weight* - Fucking heavy. It's about 4kg, and will probably be worse by the time it's fully done. This is because of the car body filler, and the fact that it has horns. It's also come to my attention that because of the horns' weight, the balance is quite off.
*Size* - Actually, if I wear it and open my mouth, my jaw creeps out from, so it's a bit too short. 
*Poly* - Because I was moderately lazy with the creation of the helmet in the first place, I stole the original Dawn of War space marine helmet straight from the game and upped the size by a lot, meaning the actual number of polys (or faces) were very low, too low to smooth out without a LOT of bodyfiller.
*Piss* - This is just a side point that I could fix but has bemused me regardless - the interior smells of piss. I don't know why or how, but I think one of my cats got in there while I left it in the garage... little bastards.

I will be wearing a helmet, and will be constructing a new helmet soon, but it will be without horns mainly for ease of wearing and construction... but I think deserves some runes here and there... and teeth! Here's a screen of the thing I designed:










Quite proud of this one actually, it must be the most complex thing I've made that will be very easy to piece together (if you want to have a go yourself, link here).

Anyway, think not this project dead, I'm just a bit busy. By the looks of it, the new Necrons codex will be done and raged at before I'm finished.


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## khrone forever (Dec 13, 2010)

hi dude, amazing work here (+rep)

what program should i use to see the files you have posted?

khorne


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## Chaotic_Frontier (Jun 25, 2011)

Hey Horgh I have .obj files of a good Space Marine if you want to have a look... hmmm let me look and see if I can get a pic up here for you.

Okay this is the suit, I used it in a Programme called Daz Studio.


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## Chaotic_Frontier (Jun 25, 2011)

Okay so I downloaded that software "Pepakura" and loaded the Helm into it, couldn't save as not paid yet for the password.
but here is a pic of the .obj in there for you.


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## johnbriner (Apr 5, 2011)

I found it intensely majestic great! I was stunned! You are a breathless artist with an interesting work! Completely fine and dandy! Keep up the good work, my friend!


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## Atalon (Aug 5, 2011)

I hope you are still checking the forum Horgh cuz I had a quick technical question. When I try to print the pepakura out I keep getting a message about the scale being different than my paper size. Is the card stock a different size? or what size paper do you recommend for this?

I am trying to get the dimensions so I can convert the designs into templates for a foam medium I want to try. I am afraid the conversion of scale my printer is trying to do will make everything too small and could scale each page differently. So if you or anyone else has a suggestion or knows of something I missed reading please let me know, thanks.


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## evildarklord (Nov 5, 2011)

Is this thread still active? or is there a new thread.

Was goin through the 4shared folder and noticed there isnt a mesh for the crotch plate.


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## plugg (Dec 28, 2012)

This is very good work, I have seen a paper dreadnought figure on the internet and someone who made a marine head but not as good as this. i am building a dreadnought tech priest and 3 spacemarine costumes for the carnivals this year. Good luck with this and I know how much time and effort it takes to do something like this. Plugg


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