 | The Face/Respirator Area
The pictures to the left show the face of the marine after he has had his respirator tubes and vents removed with a craft knife. This will enable a mask to be sculpted on at a later date. If you don’t want to change the helmet, ignore this part and move on. |
 | The Base of the Torso
In this picture, the base of the torso has been trimmed. The belt has been completely removed (using side clippers) but the buckle has been left in position. The back of the buckle will need to be trimmed slightly, so that there is a curve to allow the legs to fit correctly. Once it has been trimmed, tidy up the base of the torso, so that it is nice and flat. |
 | The Dome at the Top of the Legs
In this picture, the dome at the top of the legs has been removed with a razor saw and filed flat. The legs will now sit nicely against the base of the torso. You can see why it was necessary to curve the back of the belt buckle, on the torso, to allow the legs a snug fit. |
 | The Thighs and Lower Legs
In this picture, sections have been removed from the thigh and lower leg of one of the legs. A razor saw was used to remove 1mm thick segments VERY CAREFULLY. I cannot overly stress that you must TAKE CARE when doing this. It is very difficult holding the component still and there is a danger to your fingers and the component itself. Once you cut through both legs, as shown, discard the discs and file or trim the edges flat.
Now, trial fit the legs to the abdomen and glue them together as shown in the picture to the left, with polystyrene cement. |
 | The Forearms
The fore arms are shortened by removing the ‘bracelet’ piece that sticks out at the wrist of the marine arm. I use a craft knife to do this, BUT USE CAUTION, it is fiddly and you can slip. The picture shows the arm after the piece is removed. I found no reason to remove anything from the top of the arm because the proportions were alright with just the fore arms shortened. |
 | The Shoulder Pads
These pictures show the cuts made to the shoulder pads. First the base rim was removed completely, with a craft knife.
Now trim the rest of the rim FROM THE FACE OF THE PAD ONLY. If you don’t do this bit correctly, the pads will not be big enough to cover the shoulders. |
Assembly and Sculpting |
 | Now comes the fun bit. Decide on the pose of your marine and glue him together. Leave the pads and the back pack off at this stage. If you are not very confident with Green Stuff, I would also suggest leaving the arms off, until you have sculpted the belt and the legs.
The picture to the left shows a marine assembled ready for the sculpting phase. |
Adding Green Stuff |
 | First, fill in the hole in the back of the back pack as shown in the picture to the left. When using Green Stuff, make sure you mix it thoroughly and always use moistened sculpting tools (I’m sorry to say that I moisten mine by licking them!). |
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| The two pictures above show the addition of Green Stuff to the lower legs to smooth out the ridge and cover the gap. I suggest you cover the whole lower leg sections as shown because it leads to a much smoother contour to the area, than just filling the gap. A belt was added using a roll of Green stuff flattened with a sculpting tool. I suggest you do the belt FIRST and the lower legs next, that way you won’t smudge them. Now let it dry. |
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| The above pictures show the marine after his thighs have been smoothed over with Green Stuff in the same way that the lower legs were. |
 | This picture shows the addition of Green Stuff gauntlet cuffs. A small roll of Green stuff was placed around the cuff and smoothed into shape.
All that is left now is to sculpt on a mask, if you have chosen to. I will leave this entirely up to you because you obviously have some skill with Green stuff to attempt it; therefore you don’t need me to tell you how!!
Once the sculpting is complete, attach the shoulder pads and back pack as you would to a standard Space Marine, glue him to a base, and get painting! |
The Idea Behind the Mini-Marines |
In case you were wondering about the positioning of the mini-marine in this guide and his lack of a base, I will enlighten you. He is, in fact a biker. The picture below will demonstrate why he has been made as he has. There will be others made; I plan to do tactical, devastator and scout marines and maybe, in the future, terminator marines as well.
The lack of Squats has driven me to this. They will use the Salamander rules as they sum up a short race quite well.
 
Enjoy the Conversion. I look forward to seeing some of the results in the forums. |
