Mr Bibby; Legend, dead set legeeeend!!!

When I first picked up RT back in the day, there was so much to take in that I didn't really notice much detail. I was just in love with the artwork & background story. It was only until I got a little older that I actually started to "read" it. 

The section allotted to models at the start of the book was quite slim, but it did have a few pics of Marines that had had their poses repositioned. It made my teenage brain go "Wow! How'd they do that?!"

Roll said pics;

Shiny as fuck, but oh so impressive poses!

It wasn't until the "Compendium" came out that there was more information forthcoming on the creator of these custom Marines. About half way through the book, there was a fifteen page "Eavy Metal" article which covered how to go about scratch building vehicles (including Mr Rick Priestley's infamous monocoque deodorant "Grav Attack Vehicle"), colour schemes for Rhinos, painting advice and -my personal favourite- a section devoted to customising your Marines. The perpetrator of this incredibly imaginative work was Mr Nick Bibby.



Next exhibit;

Freeze!!! It's the deodorant police, come to soothe your burning armpits!

There were more close ups of his work in the article too!

Now, where did this influence leave me? You may ask. Well, I thought I'd give his conversion techniques a go. It took me a good many years to actually get around to trying it, but by Jesus H Christ I didn't give up!

I really liked the unique poses he was able to achieve, as well as the shoulder spikes, but I thought I'd try a lesser used chapter -at least in my neck of the woods- by going with the Silver Skulls.

Here is my attempt at imitating the original dismemberer of RTB01 Space Marine's;




Group shots;

Solo shots;

I cut the beak off a few of the guys and used a technical pen to make the grille helmet.

This guy was probably the hardest to reposition out of the lot

Crouching with a bent knee was a challenge.

Captain with a modern power fist & head. Had to cut his legs and boltgun/arm too.

Get over that sprue rubble god damn it!

Trying to pose these guys in "normal" postures is surprisingly difficult.
 It just made me admire the "Man" even more.

I really enjoyed doing this one the most. He has that
 "I'm relaxing as I'm shooting you to bits" look about him.

Took his weapon from an Ork...as you do.

Standard Chaplain, but with a twist.

This guys pose is quite similar  to Nick Bibby's "Inquisitor",
 I just added a silencer on his Bolt Pistol.

The standard Beaky Marine pose might be a bit old hat, but I still think it looks great. 

Good old "Brother Dixon". He's one of my favorite Bob Naismith sculpted Marines.

The last Rocket Man

To achieve all these different poses, I had to imitate them in real life,
 much to the amusement of my family at times.

Not much to say about him.........has Plasma Pistol, will travel.

I tried to find the original Silver Skulls transfers, but alas, GW never made them. So I settled on some Chaos Space Marine transfers as they were the closest. I also gave them "veteran stripes" as I thought considering these bad hombres had individualised postures that must indicate a "I've been around more than you standard type Marines" type of aura.

As I said in my original post, I like converting minis, and this was no exception. It stretched my abilities, but it was worth it. I thoroughly enjoyed it.


So until next time,


Keep smiling & bye for now.