Foam Miniature (Catachan) Winterial 01

Hey all!

Welcome to the awesome, new foam miniature Winterial!

This is a Winterial on how to make a Warhammer 40k Imperial Gueard Catachan model out of foam paper. Though this miniature may not be as detailed as the Games Workshop ones and probably just as time consuming to assemble and paint a plastic one, this is all for the fun of it.

There are some steps that are very wordy so do post on the comments if you are unsure of any part and I would happily help you whenever I can.

So here we go!

Materials you need:

1. Foam papers:

   -Black

   -Green

   -Grey

   -Skin colour

   -Red

2. Scissors

3. Rule (15cm)

4. Compass

5. Pen and Pencil

6. Glue 

Step 1:

You need a base for your miniature. Hence we shall start with the base first. For the base, we would be using black foam paper. The base size would be 25mm in diameter. I managed to find a template which I probably got from a stationery store a few years back as shown in Pict 1. It has got a diameter of 25mm when drawn and cut out, thus it is my ideal choice. Not to worry if you do not have a template as you can always use a compass as shown in Pict 2 to draw out a 25mm circle. You will need two of this 25mm black circle to make a base.

    

Step 2:

Now glue the two black circles together as shown In Pict 3. If you are using the template, just glue the two pieces where the pen or pencil marking is shown so that it would not be seen. If you are using the compass to draw the circle, you would likely end up with one hole on one of the facing for each circle. Hence Glue the circles together such that the holes are facing each other so that the base would look much better and neater without a small hole in the middle of the base.

Step 3:

Now is to make the shoes of the legs. Use a grey foam paper for this. You must first cut out a strip of grey foam, which will have to be 3mm in thickness as shown in Pict 4. I know it is quite hard to get the actual thickness of the foam to be exactly 3mm, hence a little off 3mm is fine but don't be too off or the miniature would end up looking weird.

Using the grey strip, cut out the feets, which is two grey pieces of each length 7mm.

Using the grey strip again, cut out four grey squares of 3mm X 3mm. This few pieces would form up as the shoes of the foam miniature.

Step 4:

Cut out a strip of green foam paper but this time of thickness 4mm.

After cutting out this strip of green foam, cut it into squares of 4mm X 4mm. You should end up with ten of these squares as shown in Pict 7.

It will not be a problem if the squares are not perfect as I could not get them all perfect too but they cannot be too off the scale. Reason being the miniature would end up looking very weird.

Step 5:

Now, take four pieces of the green squares and glue them together into pairs as shown in Pict 8. 

Step 6:

Using the grey foam strip cut out earlier on, cut out a rectangle of 3mm X 4mm.

Glue the grey rectangle to the green pieces earlier in Step 5 as shown in Pict 9. Take note that the 4mm side is used to have the same length as the green pieces and the 3mm side is supposed to be the thickness of the foam strips glued together. In other words, the 3mm side is facing you in Pict 9.

Step 7:

Cut out another grey strip but this time with a thickness of 4mm. After which, cut out a piece from this grey strip of length 11mm. Glue this strip to the 4mm side of the foam made earlier on at Step 6 as shown in Pict 10. The 3mm facing of the smaller grey rectangle is still facing you, same as that in Pict 9.

This larger grey rectangle will act as the belt of the miniature.

Step 8:

Time to finish up the legs. I wanted my miniature to be firing his rifle probably at full auto of to get an accurate shot through the battlefield, hence I decided to have his legs placed in a bracing stance, legs wide apart. I slowly attached the remaining green squares onto the foam in Pict 10. There should be 3 additional green squares on each side of the legs. As I am widening the the stance, I separated the green squares for each level. Each square shifted outwards around 1mm at the very most as any further and the legs would not look very nice. let the glue set before moving on to the grey squares.

The grey squares cut out earlier on are the tricky ones. As they are 1mm smaller then the green squares, I still want it to further open the stance. Thus instead out letting it shift out 1mm towards the side, I placed it directly in line with the edge of the last green square on each leg. After which, I added another grey square 1mm out to the side from the previous grey square. 

After the glue sets, attach the feets, which are the grey pieces of cut out as seen in Pict 5. You would need to know which side is the front of your miniature or rather which side you prefer before attaching the feet. The heels are in line with the grey square while the front of it would look more realistic like a feet as it is longer.

You should end up with Pict 11.

Step 9:

When the leg is finally dry, attach it to the base. Remember to attach it to the middle of the base as it is the safest position no matter how you model the miniature as the top will not be too heavy and if it is too close to a certain edge, it may easily topple over, giving you loads of frustration. Hence glue the legs to the middle or as close to as possible to the middle of the base as shown in Pict 12.

Though this is different from plastic miniatures as I always assemble the entire body of the miniature first before determining where to glue it on the base so that it would not topple over easily. An example is a guy holding a heavy bolter, which causes the the front to be heavier, thus I glued the miniature a little bit to the back of the base.

Back to foam.

Step 10:

For the following steps, I shall highlight the fact that it would be easier for you if you let the glue set and dry after each step before going on.

Using the green strip cut out earlier on, cut out one of length 11mm. Attach it to the belt as shown in Pict 13. This should not pose as a problem as the dimensions of the green strip is the same as those of the grey belt, hence just attach it in line with the grey belt.

Step 11:

Now, cut out another green strip of thickness 5mm.

Using that strip, cut out one piece of length 11mm and attach it to the top of the previous green foam as shown in Pict 14.

You should place the strip in such a a position that that the breadth of the green strip is in line with the sides of the green foam earlier on. Do take note that the at the front and back of the legs, the new green strip must be placed in such a way that it is symmetrical to the legs on both sides as shown in Pict 14.

Step 12:

Now, cut out another strip of green of thickness 6mm.

Cut out two pieces of foam of length 11mm each. Attach both of them one by one as shown in Pict 15 and Pict 16. Off course, you must remember to glue each one after the glue sets for the previous one. 

Place the first green strip such that it is jutting out at the front with less then 1mm to the back to highlight the fact that he is extremely muscular as shown in Pict 15.

After that, glue the next one on doing the same thing as the previous one, jutting out to the front and a little to the back. The only difference for this is that it is not as jutted forward as the previous one but yet it is also not more than 1mm worth of green jutting out to the back as measured from the previous one. It should be similar to that of Pict 16.

Step 13:

Now for the collar of the shirt. Using the green strip of thickness 4mm, cut out one green strip of length 7mm.

You must attach it in such a way that it is directly in line with the legs as shown in Pict 17 and yet at the same time directly in the middle of the miniature as shown in Pict 18.

This is the end of the Foam Miniature Winterial 01. I am currently working on the second one and hopefully finish it soon. 

This Winterial finishes up the main body of the miniature. Now all it needs is the arms, head and weapons to finish it off. Hopefully it would not take long.

Winters