Here's what the impro ved shoulder forms looked like: This was accomplished by making a form for a border piece to attach along the edges. The solution was to add some thickness to give the illusion that they were actually built out of some sort of metal plate. Unfortunately, they just looked chea p and flims y. The orig inal plan was to make them quick, easy shells vacformed in ABS and trimmed to fit. Here's a shot of the reinforced vacforming buck s:

The shoulder plates had started really bothering me at this point. Then finishing with a 2-part fiberglass mothe rmold to keep everything straight : The mold was made in much the same way as the rest of my helmet molds, starting with a silicone RTV jacket mold: It just so happens that this was the same time as the sculpt for the Halo EVA helmet was ready to mold, so that's the huge helmet on the right: With the helmet smoothed out and shiny, it was time to mold. Here 's the first pull of the chest formed in black. The first few pairs didn't r eally work out.Īfter reinforcing the chest and back pieces, I mounted them to a piece of MDF and then it w as time to throw them on the vacforming table. I also tested a couple of pairs of goggle s to see if they would fit wi th the helmet: In order to maximize optio ns, I figured I might as well make the facemask too: The complete helmet model also included goggles and a facemask. Test fit with beginning of sculpted detail on helmet: Once all of the paper models were made, each of the parts was then coated with polyester resin to make them more rigid:Īfter reinforcing the inside with a cou ple of la yers of urethane casting resin, the Bondo smoothing begins: The di git al models were pulle d from the Space Marine video game.

Just l ike the Halo Marines I buil t in 2011, this project started with Pepakura build.

Here's a shot of the finis hed Guardsmen with one of my Space Marines:įor more pictuers and details of the build process, read on. The other opt ion: have each of them accompanied by a small retinue of Imperial Guardsmen from the C adian Regiments. Since I d idn't like the idea of having the finest warriors o f the Imperium of Man being shepher ded around by a hand ful of people in jeans and t-shirts, I needed another option. I also had to have people fol low them around to make sure they wouldn't trip or fall over or bump t heir heads while walking through doorways. As a result, I had to settle for making them not we igh tons. While building the Space Marine costumes, I didn't have access to any of the technology of the 41st millennium. I n the game mythology th e ir a rmor is power assisted, which allows them to move the ir se veral ton s of mass with all the gra ce and fluidity of a dancer.

Warhammer 40k imperial guard armor