The Warforge Miniature Modelling and Conversion

This much plannin’ can’t be Orky!

See if this works any better, design-wise. Any comments are appreciated on the design! I'm still strongly considering making the bottom barrel a big shoota, though.

 

I'm not really familiar with using housing insulation foam but I wonder if this would be the best method of making the barrel 'braces' (the large things that go around both barrels and form the overall profile of the gun). I can't picture that framing shape working out with plastic, but I don't like the idea of working with foam for the cannon because I've never done something with it before and I understand it melts unless you coat it with pva glue, which would ruin the surface, no?

Really, what I'm trying to figure out is how I could get a 4" long block of that framing shape that I could drill barrel holes in.

Nothing in particular

While I was stewing the gun arm over, I decided to start making some of the stuff that goes on the back - namely, the grot bomb. I realize in the original art, it isn't one, but I also love the idea of the grot bomb launcher (courtesy of forgeworld) and will be modifying it slightly into one. I will be armor-plating this and adding a bit more detail, obviously, but you can get an idea of how it's shaping up so far from the pictures.

Also, I had a very interesting idea... With some modular magnetic action, I could remove the grot bomb and change it up for a basilisk earthshaker cannon depending upon what the game required. wink.gif I really like the way it looks up there, honestly - I think it must be done.

Lastly, look what I got my lootin' hands on!

The best hobby store manager in the world hooked me up with the perfect addition to the base/underside of the raised foot. "I was planning on getting a giant anyway, so I thought I'd give you the gobbo". <3 <3 <3 to Scott at Hi-Way Hobbies, although I know he doesn't read this. Or at least, I think he doesn't, as he acts surprised everytime I bring something in for his suggestions.

Accept no imitations

 

I gotta tell you guys, I'm not that happy with how this looks. I think I'm going to scrap this one for now and reconsider the overall kannon design. I'm not sure what it is that's bothering me in particular - working out the ammo feed at the moment is just annoying me, and attaching the machine gun below looks a little wrong. I'm not sure what exactly it is that's bothering me about this the most, honestly.

In any case, I cast a mold of the shells and they're setting up now. They're basic, but I think they'll look good when painted up with teeth and dags and such. I'll probably keep them and build a new kannon... or move on to a different part for the moment.

Down the barrel

Continuing. The machine gun underneath the kannon will be protruding forward a bit farthern than the edge of the barrel.. it will probably be belt-fed. The largr kannon is going to get a bit of boxing off towards the back end of it where the shells will be fed in.

Not much work, though - I'm waiting for the shells to dry so I can start figuring out how wide the ammo feed has to be (Forgot to find out before I set them )

 

Pistols at dawn

So, I started making the gun barrels. Nothing tremendous yet, but you should be able to get an idea of where I'm going with this. Large recoil kannon up top, big shoota down below - the Kannon will be fed enormous shells that move down a small conveyor into the chamber, loaded by a single grot at the top - this is based on an old OOP Armorcast Model design. The machine gun will be belt-fed. The kannon has three recoil springs to help reduce the kick from when the kannon fires and keep the stompa from falling.

 

There's obviously a lot more detail to go on these, I just thought I'd post things as I made them for the sake of having sequential steps. The shell is drying at the moment, and then it'll get a mold made of it just for simplicity's sake and I'll cast half a dozen or so.

Big gunz will win the fight!

I've been thinking about the weapon... I've seen a few gargants with the chain-belt fed approach, but I think I might try something different. I'm thinking of a sort of giant revolver mechanism at the moment where there's five chambers and each time it fires off a round it rotates into position for a grot to load another shell into the open space.

Of course, that idea doesn't work well with the two barrel design on the illustration.

 

I played around and came up with a mock-up of what I was thinking of for the revolver approach, but it ended up looking a lot like an imperial guard nade launcher... and I really think this thing needs more than one gun on it's arm, but I'm not sure how to revise it. The revolver design doesn't work that well with two barrels, though. Maybe I should have a large revolver barrel and a small minigun / gattling gun mounted below it? Like a big big shoota, perhaps.

Just a different concept. I'll sort this out eventually.

Makes a Mek proud!

 

I'm almost done with the engine aside from some riveting - you can see where according to the dots. I also added a removable grot for the moment - he looks good, but not quite right. I need to work on it some more. With any luck I might get to the armor plating by tonight.

VDR? More like Very Dumb Rules!

Since I have nothing better to do at work...

I'm probably going to cut it down to 1,000 points even. The front and side armors are ramped up because of the armor plating, but the back's a little weaker due to exposed engineering. I gave it souped-up engines and made it agile because it's small, and damnit, it's running. The Twin-linked Kannon represents the background arm's weapon, the zzap gun will probably be the 'Gaze of Gork' eye-laser thing, the 'Mega Blast Rokkit' is the closest I could get to having a grot bomb launcher since I don't know the rules, and the CC weapons should be evident - one underneath the gun barrel, the other is the entire claw arm. It's also come to my attention that 6 structure points is ridiculous. In my defense, I've never done anything with VDR before ever. I'm going to cut the structure points down to 3 and leave 3 force fields, I think. I don't want this thing to be too cheap, honestly, as I want to have an army fielded against just it. I'll cut the values by more if I field it included in an army, though, although I think the armor values I have will stand, as this thing is really just thick plating to the front and sides. I might weaken the back a bit more, though.

Combustion and Destruction

This is where I stopped at last night... I'm not sure, what else does this need? (aside from some rivets) I'm thinking a huge exhaust or two. Also, that white plate next to the fan will turn into a gauge thing when I get around to it.

 

I see a bare spot above the large gray wheels on either side... not sure what I can pop in there, though.

It’s beginning to look a lot like Stompmas.

Got a bit more done.

A word that I made up (but may well exist) will be the order of the day - chain differential. I was staring at that sketch thinking when it suddenly came to me - my army wears chains, why not use them in a mechanical fashion? So, here's what's going down - the engine's sole purpose, aside from powering the legs, will be to crank chains in a wheel in a very medieval fashion. On either side of the main engine, there are wheels with chains lashed around them functioning as pulleys of a sort - these chains lead up to the shoulder area, where they sit coiled around the shoulders. The idea of this is that when the chains are cranked down below, it rotates the shoulder joint, moving the arms.

 

I have more to do to the engine, of course, and gaps to fill. Still, the arms are minorly reposable. I have to add exhaust pipes and more things that project off the back a bit - it's too level.