Creating Pre-Heresy marines – part 3b: Mark III Power Armour

This is the second part of creating pre-heresy marines: mark III power armour.

View part 1

The feet pads need to be a single plate with studs, so roll a small ball of putty and place it on top of a foot.

Press down with the flat of your sculpring tool, pushing the putty down and towards the edges, covering the whole area.

Make sure everything is covered with putty and the surface is smooth. The excess can be trimmed off the bottom edge once the putty cures.

Once it has cured, cut along the trim of the foot, giving the foot plate a straight edge on the underside.

Then repeat this process for the other foot.

While the foot or feet cure, take some thin plasticard and cut a shape like below, this will be used for the ‘loincloth’ groin plate.

Wrap the plasticard around a pen or sculpting tool so that it takes on a curved shape.

Use some more plasticard to cut a straight strip for the stomach plate. The groinplate will need some support to attach to the torso, so making this stomach plate long allows the two to be joined.

Trim the top of one end to fit the slight curve of the chest plate and then glue it down.

Then glue on the groinplate piece so that the pointed arms almost touch the bottom of the torso.

The groinplate will need bulking out, so once the glue is dry, take a ball of putty and place it on the plasticard.

Spread the putty across the whole surface of the plate, but do not worry about going over the edges. Make the surface smooth and let it set.

Once cured, cut the excess putty from the groinplate.

Compose the torso with the legs to see how the groinplate sits. It may need to be trimmed a little more to suit.

Most of this armour is covered in studs. For the quantity and areas requiring studs, those used in the first tutorial are too big, so I sourced some smaller beads to use.

Cut small holes into the plate using the tip of a scalpel or craft knife and twisting gently. You can also use a pinvice drill once a hole has been marked.

Use a cocktail stick or pin to dab some superglue into the hole and then carefully place in a bead to create the stud.

The chest plate needs to be defined, as it is a front-facing plate, rather than the usual complete unit. Make cuts down the sides of the chest plate and carve out a small depth into the side of the torso.

Repeat on the other side of the torso and then mark out some stud points on the front plate.

Add studs to both sides of the front plate.

As previously mentioned, this armour is covered in studs, so when convenient add studs to the knees and feet.

Leave the rest of the legs for now, as the plates need to be defined.

Mark vertical lines on the inside and outside of the leg plates and carve out a small depth into the back of the legs to give the impression of frontal plates.

Then scrape some horizontal lines across the backs of the legs.

The backs of the lower legs need to be filled in for this heavier armour. Take  ball of putty and place it at the back of the foot.

Spread the putty to cover the whole back of the foot, smoothing it to the back of the leg, but ensuring it does not overlap the front plate. Any excess can be cut once it has cured, so make sure you concentrate on covering all the foot area and keeping the surface smooth.

Once the putty has cured, cut a straight edge on the underside and clean up any excess.

With the leg plates now defined, studs can be added to the edges. Mark the holes evenly spread and add studs.

To finish the backs of the legs, add small strips of plasticard along the bottom of the leg.

Complete the full complement of studs for the legs.

This section is quite fiddly and time consuming due to the amount of stud work required, but the end result looks great. You can obviously vary how many studs you want and where to place them.

Depending on the chest you are using, you may need to add some along the top, but hold fire until the next tutorial where I will be covering the helmet, neck and shoulders for mark III power armour!

View part 3.