This is a Dark Angels assault marine. But what I want to talk about in today's post is dynamism: or making your assault marines look even better.
One of the defining features of assault marines is their bent knees. In an army that has a large number of marines with locked legs firing bolters in a pseudo-static pose, the built in dynamism of the assault marines sprue gives the modeller an unrivalled opportunity to modify and build around the movement inherent in such poses.
This assault marine has been built on top of a battle scarred rhino door (a left over from a predator build). This was done in several parts. The first was to battle damage the rhino door and glue it on to the circular base at an angle. This was tough to do, but one thing that can help is to etch a groove in to the circular base by scoring with a modelling knife in a straight line. This helps position the edge of the door and the glue largely does the rest. The key (and I mean it!) is to let the door dry on the circular base before doing anything else.
I dry-fitted the legs of the assault marine in advance to be sure that the pose would be good. Gluing them on to the door of the rhino was done without the torso or the assault pack in place on the hips (i.e. just the legs!). Whilst that was happening, I built the torso and attached the flight pack. Both were allowed to dry before connecting the torso to the legs at the waist. The final bits were the arms, shoulder pads, accessories and the helmet. The helmet in particular is important to get right. In any dynamic pose, it is critical that the marine is looking in the right direction - in this case along the direction that he's pointing with his power fist.
One of the defining features of assault marines is their bent knees. In an army that has a large number of marines with locked legs firing bolters in a pseudo-static pose, the built in dynamism of the assault marines sprue gives the modeller an unrivalled opportunity to modify and build around the movement inherent in such poses.
This assault marine has been built on top of a battle scarred rhino door (a left over from a predator build). This was done in several parts. The first was to battle damage the rhino door and glue it on to the circular base at an angle. This was tough to do, but one thing that can help is to etch a groove in to the circular base by scoring with a modelling knife in a straight line. This helps position the edge of the door and the glue largely does the rest. The key (and I mean it!) is to let the door dry on the circular base before doing anything else.
I dry-fitted the legs of the assault marine in advance to be sure that the pose would be good. Gluing them on to the door of the rhino was done without the torso or the assault pack in place on the hips (i.e. just the legs!). Whilst that was happening, I built the torso and attached the flight pack. Both were allowed to dry before connecting the torso to the legs at the waist. The final bits were the arms, shoulder pads, accessories and the helmet. The helmet in particular is important to get right. In any dynamic pose, it is critical that the marine is looking in the right direction - in this case along the direction that he's pointing with his power fist.
And for more inspiration, here's an old Wargames Gallery picture from yesteryear. Enjoy!
3 comments:
Great article. I often find giving a "prop" can really help define a dynamic pose. Still trying to figure out why the dark angel is blue though, haha.
You can still add a lot of dynamicism to your marine poses while using the static standing legs. The real key is the order you assemble the marines in.
I always start with gluing the legs to the base, that way you know what's going on in terms of any clutter/rubble/debris/etc. and how the marine is interacting with it.
Second is always gluing arms to body. You don't need the head yet or legs to easily tell if their movement looks "feasible" or not.
Third is glue the body onto the legs, this lets you sort out their hip rotation and angle to give you some movement.
Finally is the head, I've seen too many marine poses ruined by the head not looking in the right direction (there are often a couple "right" directions per pose) If you wait til the end, you'll get it right.
If you want to see my best examples, check out any of the below;
* Flesh Tearers (painted by Ric)
* Space Sharks
*
Great links Tristan -- cheers!
TheGraveMind -- yes, a prop is an excellent way of giving dynamism - great tip!
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