Artillery / Lifta Wagon

Ok next piece is going to be the lifta-wagon. It's an artillery piece based on the land raider chassis. Got a few ideas for this but it's essentially evolving as I build. Which is the way I prefer to work, even if it is a little scary at times!

Hopefully it'll make sense as it gets more complete. The last picture is the idea for the lifta-droppa itself. A pod from Anakin's Pod Racer :). And the top off a bottle of sealant. Again I hope it'll make sense. If not no doubt I'll shoot off in a different direction, as I tend to do.

AdMech Update

Right then, the Mechanicus force is coming along. I now have my two boyz units sorted, ten strong each armed with choppas and sluggas :)

That's 16 metal servtors, plus four plastic conversions seen before. They're all armed with half a storm bolter (erm, bolter?) from IG and SM vehicles. Then there's an SM hunter killer missile (rokkit launcha) and a shortened sentinel autocannon (big shoota) thrown in.

I still need to do the tedious job of drilling barrels, but I'm happy with the result. Will look much better painted I'm sure!

Also the Stalker is now completed, armed with a heavy plasma cannon conversion thing (kustom mega-blasta).

I'm quite happy with the look and feel of this one. I like the way he's sort of crouching, aiming with the tail gun. With a big mek in the army this deff dred will count as a troop choice, so I've now got three troop choices sorted.

Next up are the big trakks and the lifta wagon.

Adeptus Mechanicus

Right then, AdMech army is in development. I'm basing it on the Ork list, I just thought their particular brand of Mek know how seemed to fit. And the lifta-droppa wagon is definitely going in.

Here's where I am so far:

Calling this guy a stalker, since he, you know, stalks. It's a deff-dread proxy with rokkit launcha and will have a kustom mega-blasta mounted on the tail arm once I figure out what it will look like. This has been in development for years so probably has been shown before.

Servitors. These are going to serve as the Ork boyz (slugga choppa armed). I've only done four so far, I just won a lot for 17 servitors on ebay that I'll customise to fit. Based on an idea I saw on ebay btw.

The warbikes. These are going to be servitor controlled monocycles. The servitor torso will be out one side, the weapon on the other. If I get the model looking something like I want I'm going to cast it so I can reproduce ten easily. I'm also toying with the idea of enclosing some, just happens ping pong balls are the right size for the inner hole.

I'm doing hyspasists as gretchin (humans, probably cultists from the new starter set). They'll be the only really shooty squads in the army, due to the grots higher BS skill.

Going to have three big trakks which will be tracked weapon platforms. Also some robots and some praetorians (the admech kind). It should be fun. The best part is it's all small projects so I can chop and choose and keep my interest up!

Stormtalon Conversion

Heya. The titan is currently on hold for now. Stalled around the left arm and at risk of losing my mojo completely jumped project for a while.

So I thought I'd build the stormtalon I've had laying around for ages. I didn't want to do a standard build though, it looks like the designer wanted to get too much into a small space.

Here's my take:

I lengthened the tail using the top fin, then mounted the tail backwards and upside down, seemed to have better proportions that way.

The engine wings have been moved to the front, and I trimmed off a few bits to try and slim down the engines (they're still monsters though!).

Then for weaponry I used a pair of assault cannons from my ravenwing boxed set. Prefer them to the ones that come with the kit, so much leaner and better detailed. Finally dropped the rocket pods altogether and used some rockets from my bits box.

It's still a bit snug, the whole thing feels like the cockpit is too wide and the engines too large meaning it's a bit cramped. But I prefer the proportions now.

Still undecided what to use it for (my Angels of Elutriation chapter are Blood Angels successors, so no shiny flying potatoes for them). I'm currently toying with the idea of an Ad-Mech army based on the Ork Codex, so this may end up being a dakkajet. Random huh?

Powerfist!

Finally the carapace is done and I can get to the fun stuff! Started the power fist, it now has the shape of the hand and the arm. Fingers will come tomorrow, then pipe work. Detailing will probably wait until I do the whole thing.

The elbow and wrist rotate, although I'm going to lock the wrist once it's all in the correct position. I also have a fair bit of filling to do in places.

Here's a shot of the reaver as it stands:

Starting to come along I think. Head will really set it off. Left arm will have to wait until I buy some more 22mm pipe for the shoulder joint. Not to worry, plenty to do in the mean time..

Titan Carapace

I've not gone away again, still working on the titan. Things slowed a little when I took time to relearn an old lesson. That being fully extended box cutter + slicing towards own hand through foam = blood everywhere. Fortunately it was a fairly new knife, so made a clean, if deep, cut and it's healed pretty well.

Anyway I've been working on the carapace. I think this is the trickiest part, so many curves on that thing and it defines the style quite distinctively.

That's the original. So it curves in pretty much every direction, left to right and front to back on the top panel, then the four sides also curve in two dimensions. Makes it tricky.

So I jumped in with a big block of foam:

I made up some figures from looking at pictures, then tried to turn a 3d object into a 2d plan I could draw on a sheet of foam. Tricky, but the shape was about right. Then I started slicing along the top from each end to try and put the curve in.

That's when the mishap struck, so as a work around I have to chop the whole thing in half. Meant I could cut the full width with one slice and made it a lot easier to work.

Attached small pieces under each side to try and create the edges. I need to do it once more to give about another 15mm to each side.

Here's where we are now:

 Plenty of smoothing to do, then I'll fill using modelling putty. Still not sure how I'm going to get the finish on this, not sure I want to try and plate it with plasticard. We'll see, I've managed a pretty smooth finish over filler on my scale model cars so might be worth a go.

Titan Standing!

Woo, he stands up under his own power now.

I need to put a pin through each thigh, at the moment the legs rotate meaning he leans forward and backwards too easily. Might have a go at the head next..

Titan Progress

Reaver is coming along nicely. Got the other toes cast up:

Really happy with the new resin, seems to be a lot easier to work with. Literally no bubbles at all in these casts.

I've just now shaped the other greave, it needs a top part creating and I need to do the wrapper for the foot, but it's almost ready for assembly.

The body is getting there also. Figured out how to do the hips and the shoulders. Hips are just two pipe joints mounted on a piece of 22mm pipe through the middle. Pretty tight fit and should keep everything upright. If not I can pin through the side if need be.

Thighs will probably be that thin, but then I'll add other supporting struts around the side. The original reaver had really narrow thighs too as shown. Want a quick mockup? Go on then

 Cool huh? Need to figure out the knees.

Oh and the shoulders will be the following, mounted inside a 22mm pipe, then the washer and nut go above the shoulder joint. Should allow for hot swappable weapons as well as a sturdy joint. Hurray.

Titan Feets! er. foot anyway

The first foot is constructed, barring the small matter of details. But I've got the basic structure sorted and know how I'm going to join the ankle too.

The bolt will fasten through the black cup piece and into the bottom of the greaves (they grey pieces in the second photo). It'll all make sense and hopefully be sturdy enough to support the entire beast.


Also started the greave (feel guilty now, done more since I took this pic a few hours ago but can't be bothered shooting another. it now has a top piece glued on and looks quite cool if I do say so myself). Not sure if greave is the singular of greaves. Grief is perhaps more accurate ;)

Anyway, here's how it looks with a couple of guys for scale.

As you can see it's going to be rather large. Still not sure how the greaves will be covered. I'm reluctant to try plasticard, even thin stuff, as it'll be a pain to mark and cut. Possibly edge it with than then cover the rest with filler and sand smooth maybe. We'll see.

Next trick is the knee and hip joints. I've just started the pelvic area and think I know how the hip will work. The knee is proving trickier...

Titan Toes!

Awesome. Just removed my master from the mould, then cast up my first toe. I'm really happy with the result, very little cleanup needed.

Second one is in the cast now. Of course I'm nearly out of resin, typical. Will get some more ordered asap.

Also did a little work on the shin, here's where it is before shaping

 That's it just balanced in the foot so the blue circles could glue together. Going to try and shape it in a minute.

And finally in case you're curious, here's my current work station. I'm actually sat facing the other way at the moment writing on my computer, the cupboard in the distance is full of modelling stuff, there's another bigger one out of shot to the left, and a big glass display case next to that. Proper geek kingdom this :)

Titan Body

Next I started planning the body. I scoured around for something the right size, but a raid of the bitz boxes and kitchen cupboards turned up nothing. So blue foam it is (I love this stuff, never used it on a project before but it's so sturdy and workable).

To give the arms a little more support I added two layers of foamed pvc, one above and one below the shoulders. The composite effect should be rock solid.

Then I realised I'd forgotten to add a mount for the head. Oops. Chop one in and we're good to go.

 Next step is planning how the arms will join the shoulders. Then I can cut the appropriate holes in the shoulders and glue the whole torso together. I also want to get started on shaping the head, which will be blue foam, plasticard and probably lots of modelling putty over the top.