The Warforge Miniature Modelling and Conversion

More plastic surgery

I tried to go more with the original drawing, but this was mostly me looking at how the segmented armor would look on the head.. and it's not bad. I'm leaving a gap between the front teeth on the lower jaw for the flamer template to fire through.

The head may be a little small, but I think it's alright like that.

I cut the base down about 1/4" all the way around and put a 20 degree bevel in in so it'd match the normal gaming bases.. I realize this may make a bit of a gap on the diorama base, but I don't mind so much.

I also was thinking about something for the base - I can either have the gargant stomping an imperial lascannon emplacement into the ground, with the dudes manning it running for their lives... or someone suggested that I have the turret a step or two ahead of the stompa, with one dude facing completely the wrong way firing it so intensely that he doesn't realize the stompa's coming up on him, with one of his comrades trying to get his attention pointing at it, and a third running away already.

Face only a bigger gargant could love

I'm doing some rough planning for the head.. Going to scrap the eyes that the thing has, as I don't like the 'stitching' across them, and replace them with sometihng a bit more square-ish - I think square would help me build cabling and stuff attaching to it at the sides and wrapping around to the top of the head, so the Zzap gun has some power. The teeth are going to be plated onto the outside of the jaw.. probably only 4-5 on the bottom jaw, but big ones. The teeth in the original concept art look a little unusual, in that they seem to face outwards instead of forwards.. it's like someone took the normal jaw and turned the teeth 90 degrees. Not sure I'm so fond of that, so I'll probably just bolt the teeth on the exterior of a curved jaw.

I'm not sold on the ears on the original sketch. I think I'll build the head and either make them removable or decide later.

One thing I'm noticing might be an inconsistency: The torso is armor-plated, which helps make the curve of the body more angular in nature, but the head seems to be, from what I read off the image, one big solid curved piece without plating, just riveted on as sort of a front 'plate' to cover machinery hidden behind it. I don't know if I should make the head one big curved piece and start working with it like that, or make one big curved piece and then put armor plating all over the exterior to break it up much like the torso.

This post won an Oscar for Best Visuals

I cut out a 6" circular base.. I may actually have to sand it down a touch, as I think it's closer to 6 1/4 or so. I don't know if I should trim it down to be smaller than that.. the inside black line was the minimum base size I think I could get away with, but I'm not sure if I should bother doing that or leave the base the size it is. Also, please realize the base will get a lot of dressing up when the thing is done in terms of geography - uneven terrain, probably with the front foot indented a little bit in the ground at a forward angle so the back leg lifts off the ground and doesn't look like it's dragging.

Also, I like 'summarizing' the model in a 360 degree view, so here you go...

Click the above image to view the animation.

I'm working out how the ammo belt's going to work.. cutting some circular rod and drilling a pair of holes that line up in each of them is a hassle I don't really feel up to this particular morning, so I'm either looking for a substitute or working up my willpower until later today.

The head'll have to be next, as it's placement dictates where the elements on the back will go... working on finding the proper diameter curved cardboard so that I can make the head and jaw shape similar to how I did the body (can't even tell there's carboard under all that!) I'm probably going to make the lower jaw first so I can make sure that the flamer I want to build in has room to fit.. Also, the circuits that will control the green eyes and flickering red grotpit light will need sufficient space that I need to plan for so I can put all of the electronics in the head. I'm really not fond of the eyes on this thing, though.. they need a redesign, but I don't have that many ideas for them just yet. I definitely want them to be equipped with the 'gaze of gork/mork' weapon, which is essentially an ocular zzap cannon.. so whatever I end up doing will have to look sufficiently dangerous as to be firing electric blasts from it's eyes. I'll have to think about this one for a little while.

One fancy gun

The pictures coming up don't have the shells loaded just because I couldn't be bothered.

 

There's a bare spot on the interior of the gun area (facing the torso) that needs a bit of work since I haven't figured out what'll go there yet, and I need to make the ammo feed still.. I haven't quite figured out how I'm going to do that, but I have a few ideas. Unfortunately, none of them are simple or easy.

Still, I think this arm looks powerful at the moment, and fits the overall detail of the rest of the gargant pretty well. I added in 'rungs' on the exterior of the upper arm for a grot to hang from - I have yet to make em, but I picture him hanging by one arm from one rung with one of those shells tucked in underneath his arm like he's scrabbling down the arm to place the next shell in the clip. This thing's going to have a lot of grots!

This… is… my… BOOMSTICK!

 

Things left to do to this arm:

- Add stray armor plating to the upper arm and rivets all over. - Add mechanical cabling going from the elbow area, as well as the back of the rippa (unfortunately, I'm all out of lego cabling, so I'm going to have to make a substitute from wire. ) - Add detail to the gun area where it faces the torso (inner arm). - Add a belt of ammunition that dangles for the machinegun ammunition port. I'm not sure how I'm going to make this, yet, but I'll keep thinking about it for now - I think I'll end up cutting some plastic tubing down into 'shells', greenstuffing tips onto them, and using some floss or something that I coat in glue as the binding for it so that the belt is still flexible and movable - that way I can hang it correctly.

I meshed in the sides of the ammo clip just because I didn't like having the sides completely open. The top shell is showing a little more than I'd like, but they're all still removable at the moment so I will probably shave the 3rd shell down flat a little bit on one side so that all the shells shift down a little bit. I thought about extending the clip's size, but really, it's more of a slot where ammunition gets jammed, and logistically I don't want to bother with worrying about how many shots that things gets off anyway. I also don't want it going much more vertical than it is now because any higher and it'd look awkward, in my opinion.

I haven't had as much time as I'd like to work on this recently, but with my girlfriend going to a yankee game tomorrow with her sister and me all alone at home, I'll have plenty of working time.

Perfect reload

 

It looks a little messy, but mostly it's the marker that got smudged that does it. The shells are a little crooked, too, but they're not glued in yet, though the clip itself is.

I think this works.

Slogging through it with some Dakka

I worked a little bit on the ammo feed mechanism for the large barreled gun earlier, but I'm not sure if I like it. It works, yes, and it shows the shells off, but not in a proper manner, I think - the side profile leaves something to be desired. I'm not sure what I should do with it, though. I should mention that the clip and the shells are not glued in at all at the moment and can be removed and modified without any real trouble, so any advice would be appreciated. I'm thinking to begin with I'm going to shave a little bit off the top of the clip housing so that the top shell's more exposed and the clip itself doesn't go so high...

 

Progress Quest

Coming along. I'm not sure if I like the hydraulics joint on the inner-arm towards the top barrel's loading chamber, but I'll work around it for now. I'm also deliberating the drop-down clip system - I think I'll do it, but I don't want it sticking out too much, so the magazine'll probably only hold 3-4 shells anyway.

It still needs armor-plating and riveting and a bit more detail all over, but it's shaping up, at least. Couldn't help myself, so I went ahead and attached the arm with a magnet just to see how it looked.

 

Stompin’ like it’s 39,999

Only a tiny bit done on the gun arm, but I like posting my W.I.P. pictures anyway as feedback is always useful. The rippa is lengthened to a proper bayonet-esque length on the barrels, as a few insightful individuals have been nice enough to point out to me that if the gargant swings the arm down, more likely than not with the shorter rippa they'd be hitting stuff with the gun barrels. I need to build the boxy engine part for the rippa and attach it and then start working on surface details and ammo feeds. The two wrapped metal bands around the barrels look better than I thought they would initially - better than the chains did, anyhow. I'll probably drop two small armor support plates on either side from the bands to the exterior housing of the rippa just for some extra apparent support.

Extra Rippy Goodness

While I consult the more electrically-minded people that are helping me do the LEDs, I figured I'd move along to the other arm and get it done as I haven't made much progress with this recently. I hate continually trying to redesign this thing, as it's had me in a rut for a while, but I think I finally broke out of it and came up with a decent plan. It deviates slightly from the original concept art, but I think it's suitable.

Click the one directly above to view the animation properly.

You'll notice a few things:

The circular saw was replaced with the equivalent of an enlarged ork chainsword. I like this option better - just as rippy, in my opinion, but less awkward-looking. Also, I think I'll be ditching the grot idea for the arm - just no room, really, as I'd prefer to have hydraulics there to 'support' the weight of the heavier gun arm, as it were. You'll notice this also has more hydraulics than the other arm - this was to suggest that the weight of the weapon arm is a lot heavier than the wrecka claw, and that it needed additional support. I'll be chaining the two weapon barrels together at the end, as well.

Overall, I think I'll have a good deal of success with this design, and I'm getting started on it at the moment. I may revise the chamber/ammo feed a little bit for the top Kannon, but the rest of it is good enough to start building. Off I go!