Scratch Built Space Marine Drop Pod That Looks Good

My goal for this project is to build a simple , cool looking , cheap Space Marine Drop Pod .

Forge World models are super cool , but they cost 80 bucks and I want a bunch , so I will try to make them with out spending much $.

I have decided to go with a dreadnought Drop Pod , as it has fewer doors and I think it is silly that so many troops are supposed to fit in the 5 door version , also it is slightly larger , so it will take up more space on the table to use as cover .

First is the Forge world one ......



and then the Website plan do it yourselfer....



Using 5mm foam core and 1mm card stock I traced out all the pieces and cut them all out with scissors and a craft blade.





started with glueing the wings together , and then the base .



the doors have proven to be a bit of a pain i think I will try something different here , and I am having a hard time glueing it all together , the PVA glue is taking forever.



the card stock was just not working for the doors the different layers were separating , so I went to poly styrene sheet , still pretty cheap and easy to work , I also want to glue plastic bits to it for the details , so it should work well.

here is the assembled pod with none of the detail work , next to a small Forge World 5 Door Space Marine Pod , with a miniature for scale.



you can see that the foot print of the 3 door Dred Pod is a bit bigger.





next up is the detail bits and then paint.



I added some card stock details from the recycle bin, and hand painted some primer paint to cover the foam core edges , then black spray primer , there is still lots to do , more small details , and I want to do some gap filling, but it is getting there , and all in just a few hours work , and just $12 in materials , and I have bareley used any of it yet . I will definitely be making more , but I think I will try to make one that has opening doors.



added PVA glue rivets,



Chapter icons and Dark Angels Green ( Tamiya British Green ) and testors Dullcote.




All that's left to do is the detail painting and weathering.



and we're done , or close enough for this model . The side bye side comparison;

Forge World
$110.00 + shipping ( not cheap )

Scratch built
almost free + about two days work.

I spent about $12.00 in material , (Enough to make ten more ) , and used some stuff from the recycle bin.

The Forge World kit also opens and has lots of cool details , and if I had tons of money to blow I would love to have a bunch of them, I imagine the plastic kits will be coming out soon and I would guess they would sell for about $45.00, so until then , I think I will make a few more.

Here is the link to the PDF templates.

And a fancy outside pic



DROP POD UPDATE


I got a good deal on a Forge World Dred Drop Pod , but I did discover some differences in the size, mainly the Forge World model is taller and a bit bigger over all.



Here is the side by side




and from above



so I have decided to take some measurements from the Forge world model so you can resize the patterns as needed if you like .


over all hight 7 1/2 inches, from base to top of door , 5 1/4 inches, base from flat side to side 4 inches.


It has also come to my attention that the new rules for Marine drop pods = 5 space marines per pod not the previous 10 , and Terminators do not fit in a 5 man pod , so I can only guess that they will ride 5 in a dred sized pod, I am sure the new planet fall rules will have more info. and hopefully some new plastic pod kits.

Here are some jpegs of the templates, just click to open them, save them to your computer and print them to 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper.