Hi everyone, it’s Build Monkey Roamer again, this time coming to you with a little guide to how I like to build my models. I know I'm still a relative newcomer to Warhammer, but having built everything and anything I can possibly get my hands on over the past 4 years I thought it might be fun to share the process I go through to build some of my models and why I build them in the way that I do.
Hopefully, with this short guide, I can inspire other newcomers to this wonderful hobby and help people see that it’s not as hard as it looks.
So, let's begin.
Today I have chosen to begin with a Primaris Space Marine Hellblaster.
The box itself contains 1 instruction booklet, 1 sheet of transfers, 10 bases, and 4 sprues of parts that will give you the capability to make 10 Marines, but we’re just going to build one for now.
I start with the torso and legs, picking out the pieces I need all at once and cutting them from the sprue with my clippers. Once off the sprue I then use a scalpel to cut away any excess plastic from the parts, and then I follow this up with a mouldline remover wherever it is needed.
Once the pieces are cleaned up, I break out my bottle of Citadel Plastic Glue and put all the pieces together. At this stage, I make sure to dry-fit all the parts of my model before I stick them together to ensure a good fit.
Now at this point I know it is popular to secure the model to a base, but I like to leave that till the end, and I’ll explain why later. So for now we will set the base to one side, and now that the legs and torso are in one piece, we can also put this to one side as well until we’re ready for it again.
Next, I work on the arms. Like with the legs and torso I clip all of the pieces off together and lay them out with which piece goes with what. I then go through them piece by piece with my scalpel and mouldline remover, again removing excess plastic and cleaning them up nicely.
And then again, once clean, I glue all the parts together. Now with complete arms, I glue them to the torso.
Finally, I cut out the shoulder pads, backpack, and whichever head I think will best suit the model. Personally I tend to go for the fully helmeted heads if I can, because for some reason I can’t seem to wrap my head around why a Space Marine would armour themselves so well, only to leave the most important and fragile squishy part exposed to open gunfire.
Once these parts have been clipped, had the scalpel used on them, and had their mouldlines removed I attach the shoulder pads first, then the backpack. The head is always the last piece of the model I attach if I can help it, because I like to be able to position the head facing in a direction and manner that seems logical, such as looking down a gun-sight or staring intently at its potential next victim with its head slightly cocked to add an extra level of menace.
And now with the model fully assembled I attach it to its base.
To do this, I simply glue the feet of the model and then align the upper body of the model with the center of the base. Call it OCD, but I like to make sure that the whole upper body of a model is centered when I glue a model to its base, even if it means they stand a little off-center, because, for me, it makes the model look and feel more balanced.
And there we have it, our Hellblaster is complete. All that’s left is the painting.
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