The Warforge Miniature Modelling and Conversion

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!

Ponderous planning

I'm wondering firstly about suggested LED colors and secondly about basing.

Now, let's talk about LEDs off the bat - there's going to be 3, as far as I can figure, all attached to the head. Two will be behind the eyes (one for each) and one on the underside of the jaw to light the grotpit. With that said, I'm trying to figure out what color LEDs I should use in order to come up with the appropriate voltage I'll need (certain colors require more juice than others). Keep in mind that I'll be painting the gargant a combination of faded red (red goes fasta!) and rusted metal.. so the eyes should be a suitable color. I don't think red eyes would compliment red armor well, but bright green might be an option. (As well as orange and such). I don't like the thought of blue LEDs for the eyes, though, as green seems more sinister. Yellow or orange could always be an option as the eyes are going to double as zzap cannons (Gaze of Gork) but I'm not certain.

I'm considering an LED that lights up the grotpit as well. I think I'm going to put it just underneath the head so it will illuminate properly, but I don't know if yellow is going to look silly or not. Red down in the grotpit might actually be appropriate (consider emergency lights or when they go to red alert in combat) I could always go with white, as well, but I don't know if that'd be too bright.

Secondly, I wanted to discuss the base. I'm having a few complications as I'm thinking here - I can either make the base a small size, or a larger display size. Seeing as I'd like to play with the gargant, and as the flavor of the next few months is going to be cityfighting, part of me doesn't want the base to be more than 6" wide (to fit down some city streets and alleys). The gargant looks a little tight and restricted on a 6" base, though, and I can't add some of the things I was thinking of originally, such as a footprint with the flattened grot in it and an imperial guardsman fleeing for his life. Now, I could add all those on a base, but then it would start to get to be like a diorama and impactical for gaming.. I'm not sure what to do.

Here's some pictures to show you the scale of things in base-terms.

The last option I have is to make a diorama base with a hole in it large enough to fit the 6" base of the gargant.. so that I could place the gargant in the slot and have it on a display base. I like this idea, but I don't know how to make the rubble look relatively seamless between the two pieces (gargant base and diorama base).

Still, onward!

Scale Comparisons

Just for the scale of it, as well:

Should help place the gargant's scale for anyone having difficulty with it. It's small as gargants go, but it's a stompa through and through.

Miniskirts and Hula Hoops

Well, it's a bit rough, but I think it looks good. Tricky to superheat metal hinges with a blowtorch and shove them in plastic. ; ) Took a little while, but I think the end result matches up to the picture suitably well. I haven't riveted or added glyphs to the armor plating yet - that'll probably come tomorrow. There's a little bit of cleanup on the holes that the skirt armor is hinged into that I need to do with an xacto knife, but other than that I'm pretty happy with the way it looks - now it has a more traditional gargant-esque shape to it, with only the feet visible (from the front, anyway. The back has no skirting, so the entire leg and mechanism is visible up to about halfway up the leg springs).

The grots aren't in the pictures for the moment as I forgot to put them in before the pictures. They'll still stay removable until final painting so I can get at all the cracks and crevasses.

Armored and Dead ‘Ard!

 

Armored! Pending rivets now, and the armored skirting until I figure out if I'm going to use staples as the 'joint' that they hang from or not. And the chains and such, maybe a few extra hatches, you get the idea.

Before plating it, I banded the plastic towards the bottom so that it would assume a sort of conical shape instead of cylindrical, with the plate's tops pointing in towards the grotpit a little bit to match the picture.

Then I added plating and some battle damage. Next is a rivet job once I feel that all of the surface details I want have been added.

Meet da Krew

Now, I want you guys to know that the grotpit is not near finalized yet. The grots are going to get a little more work done - these photos help point out mold lines I missed and the likes - and also, the captain's going to get a hat and maybe an eyepatch.

Also, because my roommate's a huge trekkie fan, he did actually name them. From left to right:

Cap'n 'Urk (Captain Kirk), Sprocket (Spock), and Snotty (Scotty).

I may change their names around a little and add 'snotty' in as a grot sticking up out of the hole behind them, in an adequate pose to suggest that maybe he's yelling 'We'z cannae do it, cap'n! I'z givin' 'er all she'z got!' - although it may be a bit of a tight fit. The grots are all removable at the moment so that I can adequately paint the interior unobstructed - they'll be glued in afterwards. Until then, they're free to roam around. The cap'n does also have a peg leg, but I doubt it's discernable.

Stomping by the seat of your pants

Well, I've been busy prepping presents and such for father's day tomorrow, but I did manage to do a little bit more work to this thing's control grotpit.

Just some random bitz and machinery. The hole in the middle is for me to stick a grot engineer in later, maybe. I figure it helps break up the flatness of the back, anyway. I'm not too concerned with details as it gets closer to the top, as I am increasingly sure that it'll end up being concealed once the head is on anyway. Here's what I'm thinking for the rest of the interior:

Grot 'captain' at the front center wearing one of those imperial comissar hats and 'steering' the gargant with a large boat wheel One to either side of him working the levers - and an extra one getting in the way of one of the side grots, trying to clamber around him to the controls.

Also, for reference, those circular magnets above the middle are the beginnings of the joint for the neck to attach to, so that I will eventually be able to remove the head for easy painting.

I may just change the concept's plans a little bit and remove the upper arm section of the gun arm, so I have a shoulder-joint mounted cannon. Still thinking about that a bit - I tried foam and such, but I'm not a fan of the material and the way it cuts, so I'll probably wander around the hobby store looking at tanks and stuff until I find something captivating. : ) I'm thinking I need to put a flamer in this stompa's mouth for a little extra killyness.

I keep jumping around on this thing, but at least I'm making a bit of progress here and there.

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.