200756:17
am
What a mess!
Looks like I caught one! Plow's been put on. Not quite done yet, though. The marine is made from the snap-together Beakies in the maccrage set, so posing it's a pain in the ass, but he's all I've got.
200756:13
am
Rokkit Man
Well, I managed to get the flu, so tonight's the first night I've felt good enough to get back to this. I really don't know what still needs to happen for this. The back end's really bare and I've got a creative block going on. I have been able to put a rather strong magnet inside the front cab of the battlewagon and added a pivot for the Zzap gun turret on the top so it'll hold on through me swinging the thing around or holding it upside down, but the turret is still removable in the event that I decide to use a different gun in some games. I've strapped rokkit launchas on the side of the battle wagon's cab - they seem like a nice fit, but I need to make them more Orky. They're lifted off a whirlwind a buddy of mine was getting rid of. Also, I tacked a huge exhaust on the left side of the vehicle (right side in the pictures) but it needs a lot more work. I almost don't know what to do with the back end... I'm still thinking of putting some wooden plank siding up on the bed area so that da boyz don't fall out. I need to still put some form of front guard on the Zzap gun, too, and I'd love to have a huge exhaust/engine thing going on at the back but I can't really think of anything design-wise. I'm still thinking of doing the LED thing in the two front holes, and possibly lighting the interior of the driver's compartment, but I keep hearing bad things about bulbs burning out really fast and I don't think I'd be able to replace them after I prime and paint it. I was going to put brake lights on the back until someone reminded me that I was making this for a Kult of Speed army and that brakes would be entirely ignored. I've also been trying to find a buddy with a beakie dozer blade, but nobody seems to be willing to give any up, so I guess I'll bite the bullet and make one.
200756:09
am
Carrot and Stick
A little more progress. A little messy, too, but the finished version should look bolted together a little better. Sorry for crappy pictures, I'll try and get better ones next time.
The turret isn't attached yet, just putting it there to get an idea. The driver's going to get fenced in behind some dense wire mesh and I'm going to have a gretchin hanging off the exterior with a spyglass in his hand. The fencing'll probably go on after the model's primed so I have a chance at painting the interior of the driver and all that. I did bulk him up a bit, using normal scale boy parts instead of the driver model I had from a war buggy. I also need to put pipes and all sorts of miscellaneous mechanics in there with him.
The Zzap gun, and the sides of where da boyz sit in the back of the wagon are going to be protected by wooden planking. I'm trying to figure out how I want to go about making the rokkit launchas on either side of the cab at the moment.
I plan on putting mounts for bolt-on big shootas on the tops of both of the rear fenders and most likely removable mounts on the sides for the drivers to hang off and gun from, also. There'll be a protruding engine coming out of the back, I think, as well as a pair of exhausts coming up at least as high as the rear fenders. There also needs to be a huge exhaust on the bare side, but I haven't yet figured out how I'm going to go about making it.
It's getting a plow that will slot in under the front armor plating that I've put so far that I still need to make in place of a death roller since I think a roller on the front of this thing would almost ruin the 'battering ram' appearance of the front that I'm going for.
The Zzap gun'll get a front guard since I do like that idea. I've actually been thinking of getting some LEDs and putting in working headlights and lights above the windshield on the front in those two holes on either side of the orky emblem I made. It'd be kinda cool to see. Then again, I may just stick some gun barrels out of them to make it seem like there are orks above the driver in the front section shooting out of those holes. Haven't decided yet.
200756:02
am
Don’t tread on me!
Small update. Back section's been framed and treads have been added (although I would have liked to level the treads out a bit. One of them's a smidge high.)
Driver'll be getting some work once I get around to working more on the front end.
The back tread encasement is so big because I plan on making that area able to attach bolt-on big shootas. The treads are from a Tamiya Track and Wheels set, for those of you wondering.
200755:57
am
The Devil’s in the Details
This is more like it!
I think it may be too big, but I really don't want to give up on it. I'm also not happy with the way that back section piece came out, so I'll probably work on it a little more. Added in steps on the right side of the vehicle so it'd look like there's some way for the driver to get in and out. That's what the things on the front of the right side treadbox are.
200755:48
am
Getting Started
Nothing fancy, but I started working on the front end of the battlewagon. I should have a signifigant amount of the frame done over the weekend.
The driver is a bit weedy, granted. I may have to put a normal boy torso in there. However, I'm also thinking about if it's really necessary, since I plan on putting a dense steel mesh over the holes in the cab so you won't see much or have much light going in there. It's going to be a pain to paint him once I've got him assembled in there, but for the sake of the vehicle I need to install the stuff around him, too.
200755:45
am
These boots were made for Stompin’!
Gonna work up the leg now and get one of these whole things done before working on the 2nd.
I've had a couple questions about the resin. It's Micromark stuff.
It's reasonably hard, but a little rubbery - if you squeeze it, it has a little give to it, but it's fairly solid. It pours completely like water, and it's clear until it dries, when the whole cast gets cloudy and then solid. It retains air bubbles pretty well - I have to sit next to the cast with a dremel in hand using the vibration from the unit to try and shake some of the smaller bubbles out - but after I learned to do that it was pretty easy to get a smooth cast.
200755:39
am
Brand new pair of shoes!
Okay. I cast it. I may make another, as it's fairly easy and this one has a few air bubbles in it, though thankfully not on the surface texture. Ironically, I actually completely forgot to put mold release into the mold before pouring, but it still came out fairly readily.
Not too bad, really. I'm going to start adding detail to the original now.
200755:31
am
Fancy footwork
Got a bit more of the shape done, and I think most of the curves are taken care of.
It's not exactly like the drawing. The scale's the same, but the foot narrows towards the back more than the original illustration. This was to make my life easier with these curves, mostly. I think I'm going to add that circular ankle joint, then make a mold of it before I add the extra toe bits. I don't want the feet to be completely symmetrical - that's not orky. Just similar in shape.
I'm wondering if the seams between the plastic and the putty are going to be noticeable after a coat of primer. I can't feel anything when I run my finger over it, which implies it's a fairly smooth transition, but the gray putty I used was cheaper than greenstuff, and it gets sort've translucent where it gets thin (like right where I spread it over the seam) so I can't visually tell. I may add a very thin layer of putty over the toe again just to hide that line down the middle, though I think it'd be fairly invisible with primer.
The casting material is stuff I got for my birthday out of a Micromark catalogue. I've no idea what it's actually made of, but the mold-making component seems to be like rubber when hardened and the material you cast with seems much like resin.
200755:28
am
Stompy feet for the Stompa!
I started work on the torso, but had a hard time visualizing it, so I thought I would move to working on one of the feet so I could get proper size dimensions in horizontal terms. The problem I'm encountering with this is that I'm not sure how to tackle the curves of the feet - I've looked at this stompa, which has a similar design, but it seems he used foamcore to create those curves, and I don't have that available to me. I decided to try to sculpt them from scratch, but it feels like a tremendous amount of work for something that I'm sure could be done some easier way.. it just seems too complex to bend plasticard to those shapes, with the odd curves they have on two axis.
Once again, it is actually to scale with the drawings. That ork's thrown in the pictures for scale purposes. Sorry the shots are a bit blurry! I'm going to make one foot, and using my newfound mold equipment simply cast and make another so I don't have to bother with all this curves garbage.
June 9th, 2010