Movie Marines for Necromunda - Yellow basecoat done (16/01)

[Daeothar]

For ages, I've had the parts lying around to make a squad of proper 'biggerized' Space Marines; a combination of Terminator and Tactical Marine bits, with plasticard and Green Stuff. To be used according to a tutorial for biggerizing Marines I found on Pinterest.

See; I've always wanted to have a Combat Squad of Imperial Fists for use in Necromunda, for higher tier encounters. Back in uni, our Necromunda campaigns often ended in wholesale carnage, with Ork invasions, Genestealer Cults going off, Arbites forces putting down the hammer or (even if it was just once), a squad of Space Marines interrupting a high gang level three-way battle.

It was brutal; the gangs all rounded on the common enemy, only to be decimated. I remember my Eshers suffered 4 deaths and a whole shedload of wounded. The other gangs were off even worse (If I recall correctly, the Spyrers were wiped out to a man).

It was brutal and awesome. It ended the best Necromunda campaign I have ever played in, and for the longest time I've wanted to recreate this experience. (Even if only the possibility to do so).

So that's what those parts were doing lying around gathering dust. Because if you're going to do Movie Marines, they should be properly big and intimidating (the one thing missing in our campaign back then).

And then came the Primaris Marines!

Those were exactly the right size, so the gathered bits were divided up and put back in the bits box, and some Primaris Marines were sourced cheaply, for this project.

But as I am (and will be) using the old metal Necromunda miniatures, the Space Marines will have to match them, in terms of aesthetics. In other words; no Primaris Marines, but old fashioned Mk6 and Mk7 Armour!

So I set to converting. Which, turns out, is not that hard at all.

Mk7 Marine with Flamer:


M7 Marine with Bolter:


Mk6 Marine with Bolter (still needs his chest cables):



The major points to change are:
- the Boltguns (replaced with standard Godwyn Pattern Bolter, supporting left hand added from standard Space Marine sprues)
- the kneepads (edge on top removed, resculpted into teardrop shape, or one-piece greave)
- the abdominal plate (removed, and cabling added)
- the gorget (removed, and replaced with the familiar smaller collar)
- the backpack (simply replaced with a standard Space Marine backpack)-
- and finally the ankle joints (Mk8-like ankle bulbs removed and the remains cut into shape. Also, the overlapping shin plate was shaved flush with the calf armour).

This was also the first time I've used Oyumaru, as sculpting those cables would have been a drag, and cutting (from Dragonforge white metal cables) and fitting them for each individual Marine would have been very time consuming as well. So that's why I made my first small pressmould with the material, and so far, I'm really chuffed with the product. I'll be using it a lot more in the future...



I've got two more Marines to go, one of which will be the sergeant. He will be modestly armed with Bolt Pistol and Chainsword, as the rules will be such that giving them anything more than bog standard Marine equipment would be total overkill (even more so... ).


Speaking of rules; does anyone know which White Dwarf had the Movie Marines rules in it? I remember it was on one of the last pages, but for the life of me, I can't remember when this was (must have been somewhere during 3rd or 4th edition 40K though)...

[Lost Egg]

I think the Movie Marines rules were only in the US WD. I think GW US may have put the rules up on their site at one time so you may well find them on the tinternet somewhere.

Great project and idea...those end of campaign games sound BRUTAL

[Ultravanillasmurf]

What a great idea.

I look forward to seeing how these turn out.

I think GW missed a trick with SW:A and not having a Womble force option.

Hopefully they will add rules and force building lists for the new Necromunda. And not just for the scouts

[Daeothar]

Thanks guys

In the meantime, I've found the Movie Marines rules (btw: they were in USWD300). but for some reason, these are not the set I had in mind.

And to be honest; I think the guy running our Necromunda campaign back then probably made up most of the rules himself.

I do know however, he showed us his inspiration (keep in mind; this was way back in '98... ) in some 'official' publication. It most likely was a White Dwarf, but it could have been a Citadel Journal too.

What remains of my memory of the article was that it suggested, more than fleshed out, how Space Marines could be incorporated into Necromunda as some sort of Imperator Ex Machina device for Game Masters.

Funny enough, when searching for the above article, I did come across a forum page (I didn't recognise the forum) with a thread from 2008, in which somebody was also searching for the same rules, and another poster related a story almost exactly the same as mine; campaign finale with several high level gangs being attacked by a combat squad of Imperial Fists, played by the GM. Oh; and utter carnage.

I can't shake the idea that this particular GM got his inspiration from the same source that mine did 10 years earlier...

And Ultravanillasmurf: I agree. I always found it strange that there were SM scouts, but no 'proper' Space Marines, even though there still were Grey Knights. Maybe this had to do with the fact that Primaris Marines were already well into development by then?

[Daeothar]

Done some work on the sergeant.

Pretty basic stuff really; switched hands and weapons, so he went from holding a Bolt Rifle and pointing, to holding a Bolt Pistol and a Chainsword.

Further work; changing out the chest skull (repurposed on his pistol holser) for an oval gem, cutting the gorget, shaving the greaves and kneepads, cutting the helmet hanging from his belt and replacing it with some more pouches and a grenade and adding a Crux Terminatus to his right kneepad.

Things still to do; resculpting the collar and kneepads, doing some repairwork (there's a particularly unsightly and unfortunately placed gap between parts on the left torso) and replacing the abdominal plate with cabling.

This is moving along just nicely...

[Lost Egg]

A nice heroic pose.

Any chance of a scale shot with a regular marine or something?

[Daeothar]

Thanks.

No problem; I will take a picture this evening with a regular (this is starting to become a relative term by now) Space Marine and a Necromunda mini for good measure.

To be honest; I'm kind of curious myself...

[Daeothar]

And here we are...

A standard Space Marine on the left (Fiery Lions chapter), the newly bluetacked ex-Primaris Marine and to the right an Esher Juve.

[Lost Egg]

He's a beefy chap! They really will dominate the board

[Corporal Chaos]

I’m not sure if this will help but in one of the Necromunda game rule books from the first publication there is a listing for Chaos Space marines in the beasturary. I think it may be the Outlanders suppliment. There are several other factions listed also. Hope this helps.

[tomrommel1]

This is really nice! The idea as well as the modeling!!!

[Ultravanillasmurf]

All three are amazing.

My vague memory was that for original Necromunda the points values were ten times the matching 40K points values.

Of course later versions had differing points values.

[Daeothar]

Cheers guys

@ Corporal Chaos: yes, I have all the original books, and those Chaos Marines are in there, but the Space Marines we encountered in that one referenced game were many times harder. the CSM stats were made to make them balanced for use in a Chaos Cultist list in campaign play; they're strong, but not nearly as much as depicted in 40K fiction.

I think the Space Marine stats were closer to what Ultravanillasmurf suggests; stats and costs from 2nd ed, muliplied by (if not ten, then at least) a lot. Also; they were intended as a one-off encounter and did not progress at all.

In the end, I will probably go that route, should I ever actually field them that is...

[Genghis]

Looking good.  I share your thinking about having true scale Marines in Mk6/7/8 Power Armour, despite now having the option of straight up Primaris Marines.  I found a tutorial that just uses the classic plastic Marines & adds plasticard 'plugs' at various points.  As I'm more comfortable with that sort of modelling than sculpting with greenstuff, I'll probably take that route - but I do like your converted Primaris.

[Suber]

This is so awesome . I think some of us (ahem) may steal be inspired by your ideas