Monday, March 28, 2011

Furious!

Alright so my army is getting into more modern times now. Here's my next entry. As usual, nothing is painted yet since I haven't ordered any paints yet, but I will soon.

So in the first pics you can see my dreadnought's arm flamer. It was a simple matter of starting to drill, trimming at both ends of the shroud and then where the barrel ends at the receiver. I also drilled all the heat ports. Then I took some pipe I had, which I think is actually glass with an amber hue and some weird metallic core... anyway I broke off a piece a little bigger than the size I needed, and used my diamond files to smooth out the ends.



Next up a heavy bolter, with the usual drilling involved

Then the right arm with the rubber polycap for the joint, these I found and were just the right size
Also I found the polycaps and thought it'd be a good idea to install them after I already glued the arm pieces together. This is why I don't like to glue unless it's absolutely completely necessary, and it made me have to cut into the plastic, which meant the holes lining up was more a matter of estimation by marking the center with a fine tipped marker instead of the certainty of having one behind the other.



 Power plant with the ports done. I'm still considering putting another pipe inside of these. Also, micro weld helps smooth out any flash or differences in alignment that may result from drilling, as the ports in the original mold weren't radial to the center, but instead were all arrayed perpendicular to the plain of the mold lines.


Magnetized hip. I drilled and amplified the hole for the magnet so I could reduce the distance, I also put a screw in the hip, had to cut out a bit in the inside for it to fit well, then sanded that too to also reduce distance.
The pose is held by pure friction, I did some talc and CA glue paste on top to make sure the magnet doesn't go anywhere and covered the bottom with pure CA and let that sit.




And here it is posed, no major components are glued together right now, I find the grapple mags on top can be easily held by pressure, the claws do need help, and the feet... I think I want to do something so that I can pose it in different bases.

Overall this was 2 days on and off work, but I still need to order some switches. I plan to have a battery in the power plant, that would power an LED, to which I can connect some clear colored tubing to take care of all the lights that are supposed to be around the torso and some sort of metallic structure that holds the plant in place by the same hip magnet. The magnet BTW is neodymium in a tall cylindrical shape which I got a couple years ago, so that helps in terms of multiple function modular components. I'd also need something for the flamer... maybe a contact that can sit at the center of the polycap. It already has a hole in the center so I can run some wire through that. 

Monday, March 21, 2011

Dragon's Teeth

Pretty straight forward, just get an ice cube tray, get some wire and make an appropriate shape to lay down in each mold, then pour plaster inside and wait for it to dry. Whenever you think it's ready, it will be. If it's a little moist you can pop it in a toaster oven for a little while. Sorry for one of my pics being blurry, but I was trying to see how they compare to troop height, and these are pretty decent. I'll be burying them a little bit since I didn't make the bottoms smooth enough, so that will help, and it can help you if your molds are really big.

These aren't done though, I still need to add details like chipped off corners and edges in some parts (hence the wire), and bullet holes and small blasts, and that's where the wire comes in to simulate the rebar inside. Over all, these are pretty good if you want to make terrain impassable for vehicles but usable as cover for troops.






Friday, March 18, 2011

Resources

Pics pretty much speak for themselves, I got a cool clip tree thing that I can use to work with, battle brothers got reinforcements, I dug up some trees from scenery I had around, I got that funky green thing, and a couple of money shots of some other possessions :p

The trees, each leaf is huge, but I can easily replace them with flock if need be.










Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Statue Progress

Alright, so it was dry enough today to start detailing. I was using that white air dry compound, I think it's just white glue mixed with corn syrup, yeah next time I'd make my own if it wasn't so aggravating to work with. Could work ok as a filler though aluminum is cheaper and easier to use. Also lighter. Still, I used it because I still have some left, and also because I needed to give it a concrete-like finish, and this seems like it has a smooth texture. It will probably crack a bit on the surface as it shrinks, but that's cool. Also, it should absorb paint very well. A detail I forgot to mention is that I added a layer of thinned down white glue to the bare clay so that this would adhere properly.

The good thing is that experience and patience get you through this, so here are my results. I used styrofoam as a core, it protruded a bit in some places just under the surface, and any heat will basically melt it and leave a thin enough shell that you can break through and make a hole. The cracks appeared naturally on my unevenly humidified clay. Anyway, here it goes-






Overall it's a relatively heavy piece, but that styrofoam is going to serve as a base. Just need to dig into it a bit so it looks like it dug into the ground. Also have to make an adjacent fragment for the broken off cybernetic eye, with maybe a plan growing right next to it.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Fallen Statue terrain

    Alright, so I just finished sculpting it, I used a styrofoam core and this air dry clay that I really disliked, I wasn't satisfied so I used regular water based clay on top of that, though it was an old chunk so it was pretty stiff, had to humidify it and knead it a lot.

    Got a little far, kept adding and adding even though it was hollow-ish, got pissed at the results and just squashed it back into a ball, then started working from there. I'm satisfied with the results, it's starting to crack but that's good for my ends, also added some styrofoam as rubble from where it supposedly broke off at the shoulders. I think it keeps with the Imperium's style. Will detail after it dries and I add a base to it.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Cannon Fodder!

Alright, so if you're observant then you've noticed that my Space Marines and Orks have barrels with perforated muzzles, while none of my goblins did. This is because, as far as I know, all second edition models have solid tips on the guns, and I imagine that you would have painted a black dot to signify the muzzle.

However, this isn't an option for me, thanks to my trusty friend Mr. Tamiya Fine Pin Vise and his associates.



So today we're going to be using the 1.5mm bit on these unsuspecting goblins.



First you line it up and drill-
Pretty cool, huh?
Then you're left with a hole.
Even though you've now got a hole for the bullets to come out of, you've still got solid flash hider ports, but we have a solution for these too, thanks to some dentistry tools that I got for scribing work.
Just a nice piercing on each side and there we go! Just make sure your parents don't find out ;)

If you look closely through the barrel you can see sunlight coming in.

Finally here are some shots of my results with a SM Sergeant's bolter pistol, since the effect is easier to see.