Creating Pre-Heresy marines – part 2b: Mark I Power Armour – Chainmail

Mark I armour is quite an undertaking. I applaud anyone who takes on the challenge of building them, whether they use my method or not. Without pursuing means of batch producing these marines, you’re going to need the patience of a saint to amass a sizeable force!

This is the second part of the tutorial. View part 1.

Optimism aside, I present you the second installment of the Mark I tutorial. Here I show you how I’ve never sculpted chain mail before! The shoulders and fine detail will have to wait for a third installment as they layered pads have proven to be a slow process.

Moving on from where we left off, the first task is to mix up some greenstuff and fill in all the gaps that were carved out previously. These areas are:

• Above the knees
• Behind the thighs
• Behind the knees
• Under and the chest plate

Let the green stuff harden a little. 5-10 minutes wait time is best to begin shaping the greenstuff into chainmail. I can guarantee there are better guides to creating chainmail, but my process was very simple – take a pointed sculpting tool, or anything fine like a cocktail stick. Wet or grease the tool and press small holes into the armour. Complete a whole line of holes before moving onto the next so that each hole leans into the previous row a little.

Repeat this process for the entire load of greenstuff. Mark I armour literally is plate over chainmail! Take care not to touch the greenstuff with your fingers as you move onto different areas. I ended up doing most of it twice after not following this advice. It’s best to pin the model and attach it to something else that can be held while sculpting.

Once complete, leave the model so that the greenstuff can harden. You can speed this up with heat, by placing the model into a tin with a bulb if you prefer to work faster.

Ensure your holes are all roughly the same size across all areas. Place the parts of the model together to compare them. If you have trouble keeping a consistent size and spacing, practice with greenstuff off the model until you are comfortable doing so.

A quick mock up to show the progress of the model so far:

View part 3.