New Zealand based special effects company Weta Workshop has revealed three replica Space Marine helmets, its latest Warhammer 40k crossover project with Games Workshop. Replica busts are available for the Ultramarines, Dark Angels, and traitor World Eaters.
Regrettably, these Space Marine helmets are much, much too small to wear. They’re palm-sized display objects, just over 5″ tall including their integral display plinths. This is Warhammer 40k home décor – the grimdark equivalent of a ‘Live, Laugh, Love’ poster. Kill, Maim, Burn, perhaps?
The three helmets are available for pre-order now from the Weta workshop website, and each cost $99 (£75.48). They’re made from polystone (a kind of hard cold-cast resin) and are hand painted. The principal sculptor was Victor Gully, whose previous work includes a deply impressive Balrog statue.
We do wish Games Workshop would credit its sculptors the same way that Weta does. It’s tough to work out which sculptors did the bulk of the work on our favorite Warhammer 40k factions without trawling Warhammer Community and White Dwarf magazine for interviews.
WETA and Games Workshop have worked closely together for some time. GW’s Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game is licensed directly from the Tolkien estate, but the designs of the vast majority of the miniatures are taken from Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies.
WETA has already released a chunky statue themed around Space Marine 2‘s Lieutenant Titus, and a truly colossal statue of the Chaos Space Marines arch heretic Abaddon the Despoiler.
We must admit to being slightly disappointed that these aren’t wearable helms. German cosplay and re-enactment clothiers Burgschneider produces a line of Warhammer Fantasy clothing: check out our interview delving into the historical research that underpins their designs. While full Space Marine outfits might be a bit of a tall order, a line of Astra Militarum flak armor, or 40k psyker robes, would be really neat.
Ah well – leave that up to the cosplay community. If you haven’t seen the truly marvellous Imperial Fists cosplay of Fightin’ Fistin’ Jonson, check them out now!
Source: Wargamer
