With the truescale series of posts I did a few weeks ago generating a huge response, I decided to follow up on that series with my own truescale attempt and then comparing it to a regular terminator. A few folks had asked to see how my version stacked up against a normal terminator and I thought that was a fair question to ask.
Looking back, my model is not so much truescale as it is just standing the model upright and getting rid of the hunched over look. That being said, take a look and judge for yourself the difference a 2mm spacer and some greenstuff can make.
What did I do to my model?
I didn't do much overall really. The two things that were "must" changes for me were the position of the arms on the torso and the height of the abdominal section.
I tried a number of ways to adjust the height of the abdomen and settled on this way since it did the job the best for me. When I was constructing the model, I placed a 2mm spacer between the legs and chest section when I glued them together (1). Then I took some greenstuff and filled in the gap all the way around the model. I tapered it down to match the angle of the chest armour (2). Once it cured, I took my X-Acto knife and cut away the greenstuff just above the belt line and then cut a small section out for the abdomen (3).
The short of it is that I "extended" the chest piece down to cover the gap I created when I added the spacer. It's actually quite easy to do. I thought it would be harder to do, but so much of that area of the model is blocked by other elements, you don't have to be perfect with your sculpting.
The second and just as important thing for me was the adjustment of the arms. They have been lowered on the torso by 1/3 of their height. All I did was cut off the top third of the arm peg on both sides of the torso so the arms attached at a lower point.
The end result is and extended torso with arms that look like they come out of a set of shoulders and his head sitting on top of that. It gets rid of the hunchback look the current termies have. The sculpted shoulderpad icon and converted storm bolter are just extra.
And some comparison shots of a regular unaltered terminator standing next to my version. They are pretty close in height when you get right down to it, it's just the look of the model that's changed considerably.
What else would I add?
I think if I were to add anything else to the model, I might do two more things. One is to add a thin spacer to the bottoms of his feet to bulk them up slightly and add a tiny bit more height. The other is a bit more involved where I would fill in the recessed areas of the upper leg armour and then resculpt new reinforcement ribs over that. That would bulk out the upper portion of the legs and give him some real mass overall I think.
I really like the version I created here as it solves the two things that bothered me most about terminators. The beauty of this conversion is that you get a huge bang for your buck too. The cost is next to nothing in terms of materials (you can make the spacer out of anything you want) and the work is not all that difficult (and mostly hidden). As an added bonus, the rest of your army doesn't suddenly look out of scale either.
I just can't see myself making the old style anymore.
UPDATED: Comparison shot of truescale termie next to power armoured marine
In one of the comments, there was a request to see the truescale model next to a regular power armoured space marine for comparison. I don't think the size is much different actually since unaltered termies are also a bit bigger than power armoured marines as well. I keep going back to the upright pose that I like more.
Make sure to check out these posts as they might help:
My thoughts on truescale models
