Trooper Model Build

The major player in my military sci-fi series was always going to be the trooper. The grunt of the Space Navy, the trooper costume was therefore one of the first things that needed to be designed. Here's how I did it.

The first stage was to doodle. From early on, the trooper had a cross-chest harness and a very simple helmet with a visor and a chin guard.

I developed the artwork in Photoshop and refined the design. I added the helmet light, neck guard and the "teeth" markings along the jaw guard. The next step was to build a physical model of the trooper, based on an action figure which was about six inches tall.

I chose a suitable action figure and began to mould the armour and webbing using Milliput modelling clay.

This was refined and sanded down. Then I began to apply black spray paint.

The grenades for the chest harness were made from aluminium tube, wrapped around with garden wire.

The helmet visor was constructed from clear plastic packaging and a couple of copper washers.

Once the figure was sprayed black, I began work on the miniature Vicar rifle, which was primarily made from thick card. The finished model was dry-brushed silver to pick up the texture. Then I photographed the model and Photoshopped the images. You may recognise some of these pictures, which were used on book covers.