Colonial Marine conversions
May 31, 2010Since I was asked to chronicle the progression of my Aliens project, I figured I’d do a little post on a few Marine conversion I did last night. They’re not completely finished yet, lacking some smoothing over and greenstuff work, but here they are.
Marine tech is a Copplestone Castings miniature with the addition of a plastic GW radio backpack and a few extra pouches plus a grenade, all taken from the Catachan Jungle Fighters box. In Space Hulk this model will replace the terminator armed with a chainfist. The special rules for the chainfist mean that it fairly easily destroys doors in close combat, so I gave the tech marine a handheld welder. I had no idea on how to build one, so I just made it up as I went along. Here’s the reference picture I used:
I wanted to capture the general feel of the thing, not bothering too much with the actual details. The welder carried by the Marine is a GW laspistol turned 90 degrees, with the muzzle cut off and glued on top of the gun. The little screen of top of the welder is a rectangular piece cut from a Catachan combat knife holster. The model still needs a little handle on top of the hand holding the welder, but I like how it turned out.
Click for a larger version
Flamer Marine is from em4, and originally carries a scoped rifle. There’s a terminator armed with a heavy flamer in Space Hulk, and the flamethrower is an iconic weapon in the movie Aliens as well. I noticed that there’s a glaring lack of flamer armed troopers in Copplestone’s minis, so it was time for another swift conversion. Again, here’s the reference:
I snipped off the scope and replaced it with a rail/carry handle cut from a GW rocket launcher. The gas tank is a piece of an old sprue, and the lighter comes from a plastic Catachan flamer, crudely chopped down. The model needs some putty work to make it a bit more tidy and – like the welder – it isn’t a perfect replica by a long shot, but I’m happy with this one as well.
Click for a larger version
That’s two special terminators (heavy flamer and chain fist) covered. Baby, I’m on fire!
Dawn of the Lead 
Hudson is the marine with the Chain Fist I reckon. He either has the electrical expertise to override the doors mechanisms or else he simply melts it opn/shut with the welder. A pretty much perfect representation of the chainfist marine.
I put together a small flamer to hang off the Hasslefree Signee in a similar fashion. The tabletop representation of Ripley will be something that doesnt already exist in the Space Hulk 3rd ed rules I think. That said I am moslty veering towards using the Lightning Claw terminator rules to represent the Powerloader miniature that I was working on last night. Mostly.
Keep up the good work. With the Aliens fever that seems to have gripped the dork online miniature presence lately with a bit of luck we will all have our very own Colonial Marines soon 🙂
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There certainly is an Aliens heat going round. How are you thinking of representing Ripley?
We should definitely have some huge Aliens miniatures get-together 😀
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“How are you thinking of representing Ripley?”
In miniature form I plan to use the Hasslefree Signee. Its a much nicer figure that the Gripping Beast/Woodbine Ripley which have heard charitably described as “having a face like an East German shot-putter”
I did the last bit of work on my Prince August Future Shock Loader miniature last night. Although I am leaving the pilot figure as a male so it wont be perfect as a representation of Ripley, but like your Incinerator and welder above, it captures the feel.
If it is in terms of rules that you meant the question then I have some ideas. Rather than clog your comments with even more longwinded rules diatribes I will put a proper post up on my blog.
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[…] painted two more Colonial Marines, including my flamer conversion shown earlier. They’re shown below for your viewing pleasure. Click for a larger […]
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