Monday 22 December 2014

The beast is taking shape!

Thought I'd post up some more of the progress that's taken place in the past week.



Marine having a bit of a look up top, just for scale.

Front "mouth door" finished & installed. A cheap camera
aperture used for a door.

These are the two base platforms that will keep this bad boy off the deck.

As you can see, it's not a pretty sight underneath. Copious amounts
of hot glue were administered, all in the name of mad science.

Not sure if you can place this section, but it goes just behind the
conning tower. I cut out the boss in the centre of this hole,
enlarged it to take a 25mm base, installed some mesh & put a
plastic ring inbetween to fill in the gap.

Magic health drink containers installed. Their jet engines silly!

Double the yogurt power!!!!!


I'm pretty happy with how the bases turned out, their only visible if you get down low to the table, apart from that angle they cannot be seen....just what I was aiming for.

I'm kinda worried about the painting process at the moment. That mouth section really should have been painted as a subassembly & then installed after everything had been painted, but I'm too impatient to see it fully assembled. If I painted it before installing it I might have faced the chance of running into fitting issues & could have ruined the paint in the process of making it fit....thats my reason for fitting now anyway :)

Next up will be fitting a control panel to the conning tower, armaments to the various sections & then I think she'll be ready for the detailed work i.e. making the drink bottles look like engines, running cables over the exterior of the body, hiding/ including the stub axles in the design.

The beautifying proceess continues........

Bye for now.

Friday 19 December 2014

Orctober in December, yes, it does happen!

So, here's my entry for Orctober. At this rate of production I should have the rest of my horde finished right about the time we invent "faster than light" propulsion technology.


Let's get on with the show shall we;



Here he be, with with his oversized cigarette lighter.

Took ages to figure out how to do the glowing effect, I think it
turned out ok, but Christ it was a bastard to get right!!

You can see it a lot better here....as well as the beginnings of a casting
flaw on the yellow feed line.

I used my usual basing method, but just added some battlefield
debris i.e. painted up plastic sprue bits.

Overall I'm pretty happy with how he turned out. The armour colour scheme was supposed to be some sort of desert camo effect, but I think it looks ok. The skin tone was a time consuming part of this painting job. I've really only ever painted a couple of orcs in my time -and they were nothing to write home about- so I copied the recipe off of Thantsants blog. I must admit that I deviated quite a bit from his method, as I was starting from a black undercoat, but it did get me most of the way there.

The glowing effect had me stumped for a long time, must have painted that area about five times I reckon. Plasma glow is a lot easier for some reason..... maybe because we have no real world knowledge of the colour of plasma, as we do with fire?

Lastly, thought I'd ask the question, does anyone know of an easy way to removed casting marks from corrugated tubing? It's a real bugger!


Bye bye :)

Saturday 13 December 2014

Progress on the Hovertank.....

Thought I'd post some pic's of the build here for your interest/bemusement/inspiration/disappointment....either one, take your pick :)

Bandaged in sticky tape while the plumbers glue cures.

I really need to source some different sized plastic G-clamps
 one of these days, they would make this sort of job a lot easier.

Captains conning tower hotglued in place, offending "R" sanded
off all three sections & the roof left off the rear, so that I can
 fiddle around in there without ripping my fingers to shreds.

This is the front "mouth" of the tank. These cavities in the
lower section (that I've placed cables in) were originally
filled by motorised wheels. 

Rear cargo bay, detailed with Araldite tubes, cardboard,
plastic stirrers, corrugated card, wires, pipes, plastic
checker plate etc

The right side of the cargo bay. I went all out and put a control
panel up front too!

Here's a shot showing the cabling work I carried out. Not sure
why I bothered actually, as your not even going to be able to see it
once the beast is done. I just couldn't help myself, once the conversion
bug hits its a bit hard to stop :)

And here's one of the little blighters that I'll be using for the
jet engines. This idea is not mine, it's from one of the first
kitbashed models in history.... more on that later.


So, there you go, progress dear chums. It does happen on occasion :)


Wednesday 10 December 2014

Welcome, to yet another project :)

Found this big bad mofo at a local bargain/antique store a while back. It was some sort of Japanese toy that would -at one time in it's life- eject matchbox cars out of its gob when a button was pressed, but now all it did was spoke a bit of Japanese & made a few clicking sounds, but that's about it.

Obviously I didn't buy it for its mechanical serviceability, I only had eyes for it's RT vehicle potential. I'm gunna convert it into a Hovertank come heavy transport, able to roam the wasteland of some degenerate planet, providing protection to the workforce on their way to and from the mines.......Helsreach.

So, let's see what I have planned for it hey.




All the wheels will be removed & the rear most wheel wells
will be filled with rocket engines.


Control panel & bulletproof blister pack windscreen
to be fitted to the conning tower.

Both sections to be bonded together permanently & those "R" symbols
 on the rear section are to be sanded into oblivion.

I've got a WW2 bomber type in mind, but it may prove
impractical if I want to retain the ability to place a mini
inside....time will tell.

This guys going to be mounted on a hidden platform that will raise it about a centimetre off the table.

I've decided that in future I'm not going to mount this or any other large vehicle/building on an aesthetic base, as I think it detracts from the visual impact that it can have on the table. Of course I'm still going to base things that "need" it.... for stability, but for no other reason.

I've already stripped this toy of all it's bits & bobs, so all that's required before I begin the build is to wash it in soapy water & give it an alcohol wipe down.

This project should be completed relatively quickly (famous last words) as I won't have to scratch build so many component's.



And yes, I know that I've got two or three other unfinished projects on the go, but this one got me all excited! Trying to get myself motivated to paint/convert after a long hiatus away from my desk..... any way I can think of.

Congratulations ;)



Monday 1 December 2014

Slaves to Darkness - The gift that just keeps on giving!

I have a confession to make, I can't draw to save my life! Well, I tell a little lie, I can "draw"......stick men or boot-shaped car's, but that's about as far as my skills go.

What's the above statement got to do with the almighty ROC tome you ask? Stop asking impertinent question's, keep reading & you'll find out!

I would love to be able to paint artistically unique designs on shield faces "freehand". But I know it's never going to happen with my meagre skills. So, what's the next best thing I could think of? Find someone else's unique artwork & shamelessly rip it off, that's what!

And here's where Slave's to Darkness comes in;

About a year ago -while flicking through said tome for the umpteenth time- it dawned on me that in the corner of almost every page there is a small round illustration, almost begging to be used for a shield face. So, last month I nicked my wife's phone while she wasn't looking & rigged it up on a jerry-built tripod. I then began the task of photographing every corner of Slaves that had a circular image in it. The whole book isn't filled with them, some of them also repeat a few times & some of them don't look that great either, but there's still quite a lot worth using....over 35!

After that, it was just a simple case of transferring the images to a Word document, resizing it to fit my plastic shields & Bob's your uncle.


What can you notice in this photo? Apart from my poor framing ability!

I spy a round, almost "shield shaped" illustration, hiding in the corner :)

After a lot of swearing & cursing trying to
resize the images, this is what I ended up with.

Then it was a case of cutting them out.....

.....and sticking them onto my shields.

Once I've added a lick of paint/ink to him he should look like a million dollars!

So, what do you think? Not bad for an afternoon's work hey :)

Cheers big ears!

Wednesday 8 October 2014

Progress on the space orc

The conversion work is all done on this guy now. I had to change a few things along the way, but that's all part of the fun :)

I changed the bracket's on his forearm -after almost completing his mods- as I want happy with how bulky it looked. So I ripped it all back off & started again, with a more detailed bracket.

It was a real pain in the butt putting rivets that small on him, their the smallest I've ever tried. And I've yet to find a tried & true way of placing them on objects, without half of them glueing themselves to other things.....including me. But if you want things to look agricultural they are a must to finish off with.



Here's the first incarnation of the conversion;

I used a cable clip as an arm brace, but it ended up obscuring
his forearm to the point that I may as well have just cut it off!



So, here's what I ended up doing;

I think it looks much better this way.


You can see some of the bits & bobs I've used.

Once it's undercoated it should hopefully look like a coherent miniature, instead of a collection of "things", as it does now.

I'm still undecided on what colour to paint his armour in. I'm toying with the idea of using an old space marine chapter paint scheme, like he stole it from a dead marine or something. We will see.


Until next time,

Cheers.




Tuesday 7 October 2014

LE1 Space Orc



The first Space Ork miniature to be produced (in mid 1986) by Citadel wasn't even called an "Ork". They had not decided if they should differentiate the Greenskins monikers by their respective settings. So this first release was called LE1 Space Orc. After him, and from them on in, Orcs in 40k were to be referred to as Orks.

Here he is, incorrectly listed (someone at Citadel must have mashed the wrong key while typing up the catalogue);

Image courtesy of solegends


This catalogue listing was not how I first came across this miniature. My initial spying of him was in Dave Andrews iconic diorama, printed in Rogue Trader.....must have seen it around 1988.


Here he be;


Can you spot him? His the one raining hot lead onto the
unsuspecting Ultramarine's from above.


Top left of the image is where his at.




Here's a close up of him;





When I first noticed this guy I had no idea who or what he was. All I knew was that I thought he looked cool! His skin tone made me think he was some sort of ogre? But I never came across him in any of the White Dwarfs or any other publication from that time. I gave up after a short while of ever finding this mini. 

It was only years later -I'd say about fifteen years later- that I stumbled upon him while trawling Ebay. I put in a bid and won him at a pretty good price, but once I had him in my hot little hands I was somewhat disappointed. In my eyes, his weapon looked awful, like something that was hurriedly added on due to a casting deadline that had to be met. Even though the rest of the sculpt looked great (the detailed backpack especially) he was relegated to the "something to tinker with later pile", as my conversion skills back then were dismal.

Now, fast forward a few years. The other day I spotted Ernys' Orctober post and thought, what the hey, I'll dig up this little sucker & see if I can improve his mediocre death spitter.



So, after that rambling introduction, here's the meat of the post.....the conversion work on LE1 Space Orc;


Offensive weapon removed & the forearm cleaned up.


Test fit his new & improved weapon.


Bent his arm into a more upright position & then fixed the
weapon permanently.

Looks a damn sight more intimidation than the original IMO.

I decided on using this big arse flamer (I know what the donor miniature looks like, but for the life of me I just can't remember his bloody name!) after seeing his gas bottles on his backpack. I figured that if an Orc could breathe it, then it should be lethal enough to ignite.

I've still got a bit of work -conversion wise- to do on him before he'll be ready to paint. Like a propellant line to the flamer, bracketry to join his weapon to his forearm and other bits & pieces to "pimp" him up a bit.

Hopefully I'll be able to have it finished by the end of Orctober :)




Wave's goodbye with a stupid grin his face :p






Thursday 25 September 2014

Oldschool Rogue Trader Siege Dreadnought......attempt #2

Hello all,

Some of you may remember my attempt at building a Siege Dreadnought a few months back. The final creation was, to put it mildly, disappointing. It just ended up looking awkward, the body was too small, the arms made it look like a Gorilla aping across the ground (fine if that's your intended purpose, but a pain if it's not) & the siege ladder that I later removed just compounded the bodys' inadequate size issue. All in all, it was a bit of a failure.


In "Warhammer Siege" there's an illustration of a couple of Siege Dreads assaulting an imposing fortress. They look to be normally proportioned Dreadnoughts, but upon closer examination of the illo & further reading of the text, it's clear that these things were supposed to be huge, cumbersome wrecking machines, much larger than their skull smashing brethren. Here's the description;

Basically, Big Arse Robots do the siege work.



After my failed construction I was a little stuck as to how I could build a "proper" Siege Dreadnought. I still wanted to build one, but was unsure what I could use for a base model. While I was on holiday a few months back I visited a model shop & came across this Japanese robot kit. Straight away I could see the potential this puppy had to offer. It's long arms ending in over sized metal claws looked menacing. I could picture it trying to tear down a fortress gate with them or ripping a watch tower up from it's foundations while the soldier's were still trapped inside.


Tasty!


Also on display was the Japanese inclination to sexualising robots (any Astroboy fans out there will no doubt recall his arse guns of doom!). This guy was no exception....twin linked cock cannons & "high beams" for nipples! Classy stuff guys, very classy :p


Meeting your demise from it's devastating "tackle" could be quite humiliating, don't you think?


Once I got this guy home I began trying to figure out the remodelling I'd have to carry out to "siege him up". First up was removal of his head/drivers seat, to be replaced with a cockpit for a miniature to fit in. Also, remove that radiator thingy above his groin & the silly looking collar he had behind his neck.



So, on with the show!

Here's the initial work I've carried out so far;


Enlarged the cavity in the neck space to allow a suitably sized cockpit to fit.


Old Umbrella support from a picnic table used for a cockpit....the wife will never know.


Added some plastic mesh flooring & cut out a relief to uncover the hatch.


Test fit....it's a good'n.


I thought about removing his "offending members", but the comedic potential of getting
 gunned to death by them made keeping them a must :)


An almighty spiked ball & chain will go in his right arm, so one claw was removed 



The other one can be used to crush it's victims.



And here is the semi-completed beast, obligatory RBT01 for scale.



Here he is, perched atop the giant wrecking machine.



As you can see there's still a long way to go, but I'm pretty pleased with how it's coming along.

Until next time, cheers :)