Scott Schofield had already been working on his Black Templar Space Marine outfit for three months when he first posted it to a couple of (opens in new tab) forums (opens in new tab) back in December of 2016. He had a helmet—skull-shaped to mark it as the helmet of a Marine Chaplain, because you can never have too many skulls in Warhammer—and a chestpiece as well as a pair of pauldrons, all made from the downloadable papermodel-style designs called pepakura, or 'pep' for short, which can be printed on foam or cardstock. The rest he would make from scratch over the next two years.
The Black Templars are a chapter of the Space Marines famous for their crusades. Rather than having a homeworld they recruit from, they travel from system to system in a warfleet, liberating planets then leaving keeps behind to protect them before embarking on next crusade. They're particularly heavy on the religious iconography, and so Schofield's design has become more and more like a walking cathedral as it's gone on. The backpack's basically an altar, complete with candles and flamepots that light up.
The filigree details around the collar were made with a wood-burning tool, embellished with doorknockers that are actually mobile phone anti-theft clasps you can get on Amazon (opens in new tab). The statues on the stained-glass power pack were 3D-printed as was the cover for the Book of Litanies on his belt, and although he experimented with 3D-printing a boltgun he wasn't happy with the result and instead crafted that from scratch as well. A lot of the suit's made from wood and EVA foam (the stuff they make floor mats out of), given a rubber coating called plasti dip and supported with pipes. The gauntlets are apparently second-hand hockey gloves.
Schofield plans to debut the finished product at Salt Lake Comic Con in September, so you might be able to see him there, walking around with a personal cooling fan like some joggers use on the inside of his helmet to prevent overheating. If you see him, give him a well-deserved fistbump from us.
