Using Greenstuff to Create Unique Space Marine Shoulder Pads

Well, at about 11:30pm last night, the boy kind of down for the night, I decided to do a little greenstuff work on my Blood Angels.  When I got done, I had some leftover greenstuff so I thought it might be cool to show how I use greenstuff to spruce up blank Space Marine shoulder pads. I warn you now that this is perhaps not the best tutorial and nowhere near the quality of Ron over at From the Warp.  So, here are three different shoulder pads that you can make: a circle with scroll work, a circle with laurel leaves, and a Blood Angel blood drop. 

So, here are your blanks. Most people have tons of these laying around making it easy to come up with fun design options. 

I first took a small ball of greenstuff and applied it to the top curve of each shoulder pad. 

Then I took a tool (or you can use your finger as long as you smooth out the prints you leave behind in the greenstuff.) and flattened each ball into a circle.  When this dries, you can add chapter specific painted icons to this section.

I then added two snakes of greenstuff, one to each shoulder pad.  For the laurel leaves, you want the "smiling" face and for the scroll, you want the "frowning" face.  I know, I know.  They look like the minions from Despicable Me.  You will flatten each one out. 

1) For the laurel leaves, make sure the snake comes to a point at each end.  Then make slices diagonal to the length of the snake to create the leaves.  Then I added a few slices in the middle to make it look like the leaves were tied together at the stems.

2) For the scroll, once flattened, I made to diagonal depressions on each end about a quarter of the way in to show where the scroll doubles back on itself.  I then cut out triangles from each end to make it look like a scroll/banner.  It is okay if these look kind of rough as they give the scroll depth. 

Here is what your shoulder pads look like when they are done, scroll on the left and leaves on the right. 

My final shoulder pad design is simply a blood drop for a Blood Angel shoulder pad.  For this I first made a circle like in the previous two shoulder pads. 

From there I cut out the design for the drop and scraped away the excess. 

The finished product looks something like this.  You can see a combination of the blood drop and the scroll on my recently finished Blood Angel Librarian.  Check him out. 

So, that's it.  It's simple and easy to make your own unique shoulder pads.  If you happen to have your own designs, please feel free to share them by linking to your site or a picture in a comment.  Thanks!

Other articles you might find interesting:

Tutorial: How-to Rock Bases on the Cheap

What a difference a base can make

______________________________________________________________

Like what you see here? Subscribe to Gone to Ground for great updates on other tutorials.