Steve's open entry, a mini modelling diary Options

[korocite]

I have decided to create an individual thread for my open entry due to the size of the project. For those who want to contribute wip pics of their entry, you are welcome to do so in the "Open" thread or do as I have done.

A little while back a very generous and talent wargamerau member by the name of Mangozac created a Tau Superheavy Assault Walker, otherwise known as a SAW. He cast up a few and then got a third party (Chapterhouse Studios) to take over the casting and sale of this rather large miniature.

http://chapterhousestudios.com/index.php?r...;product_id=201

Mangozac donated one of these $285 kits in the charity auction that wargamerau ran a year or so ago. I was fortunate enough to score the winning bid. Did I mention that Mangozac is generous? and talented? I have recently been plaguing him with questions on the construction of this beast as it will form my entry in the Open round of this years competition. Zac is currently assembling his SAW. The modelling diary can be found at

http://www.wargamerau.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=133210


As luck would have it, I found a circular, laminated, chipboard base that Dad had given me years ago. It is 455mm diameter which is just about perfect.




It had a length of ribbon wrapped around the exposed edge which came away easily. I then used a band saw (which has a tiltable table) to create the bevel. The upper surface was very smooth and required a fair bit of roughing up in order to get anything to stick to it.



I managed to find a few pieces of ruined cathedral from the old third edition boxed set. Incidentally, if anyone has any more of these floating around and does not want them, I would love to acquire a few more. The pieces are not set as yet. They will probably not go into place until I have the positioning of the SAW sorted out.



Last night I started the process of smoothing back the mould lines on the resin pieces, initially using a knife.



It looks like one of the kids has been at the tyranids again.

Steve

This post has been edited by korocite: Apr 25 2012, 07:06 PM

[Mangozac]

Woohoo it begins! Always exciting to see another one of my babies getting built!

What are your plans to fill and seal the bevelled edges of the chipboard? Or is that part of the effect you're going for?

The ruined cathedral terrain pieces are really nice when compiled into a decent size ruins (otherwise they look really odd - WTF is this piece of random cathedral ruin sitting in the middle of the battlefield!). It looks like you've modified them into nice unique combinations too.

Removing the mould lines is a pain. I used a combination of filling with Tamiya putty (the grey single part stuff), scraping with a knife and sanding. And hobby chisels in a few spots

I got the assembly of my SAW kit completed yesterday - I'll post an update of it tonight. Although I do have to cast a replacement for one of the vents just in front of the top missile rack after I dropped the forward chassis piece and smashed one of them

[korocite]

@Mangozac, the mould lines were a minor annoyance. I got the deeper ones filled last night and sanded this morning. The bevelled edge of the board will end up being coated in sandy goop so I am not concerned about it at present.

Today was productive. Apart from the sanding and subsequent washing I did a few other things. I thought the cathedral ruins needed a bit of height so used some mdf to create a footprint of the building and raise it all a bit. The upper surface was heavilly scored and roughened. It was glued to the chipboard base with PVA,



and screws inserted to make sure it wouldn't go anywhere



Assembly of the SAW began with the feet. There is a fair bit of chicken/egg involved due to the infinite scope for positioning each of the four legs. I was worried about the strength of the foot attachment so decided to pin the foot to the piston to the lower leg using a single length of wire.



x4



ideas for posing





a bit of work on the chassis/turret which has a nice system for ensuring that the railguns will elevate



That will probably be it until next week.

Steve

[Mangozac]

There is a fair bit of chicken/egg involved due to the infinite scope for positioning each of the four legs.

That is so very true!

The elevated cathedral floor is a good idea. Will you tile it or something? Really the sky is the limit when doing city rubble terrain like that!

You like the locating system for the railgun rotators eh? I've just glue them into a set position on mine so I don't have to worry about them moving

Out of interest, are you doing this as a diorama/vignette or a gaming piece?

[korocite]

This will likely never see a gaming table due to the infrequency of my playing (once or twice per year). That being said, I want it to be multipurpose. I have deliberately kept it on a reasonably small base (relative to the size of this critter) so it could be used in a game. Alternatively it could be used as a terrain piece in a game - I could imagine the SAW doing its thing blasting away at distant titans while a battle of mere mortals rages at its feet. I do not have a painted tau army at present but have designed a kroot heavy but mobile list to keep up with the SAW and protect it from assault. That will be another project. I forgot to mention that those extra parts you cast up for me will not go to waste. I have a plan for them...

Steve

[korocite]

I scored an unexpected hour to myself this afternoon and made good use of it.

I played around a lot with the positioning of the legs. I had some preconceived ideas on how I wanted it to look and was not completely happy with the original pose I worked on (high pelvis).

The old pose


In my mind I wanted the SAW to be negotiating the ruins and using cover to its advantage, but this pose had it towering above it. At this point I knew I would be re-posing, but sought a second opinion from the Creator. Zac had the same thoughts as me. Some legs got broken...

The second attempt.

The legs were all combo glue/greenstuffed as per kajh's advice, though I used loctite epoxy as superglue will not be strong enough for this job. I will leave this to set for a day or two before drilling holes for pinning.










I am really happy with the lowered pose. I wanted to get the rear legs higher than the front legs and think this is evident in the models eye view photo.

Much fun has been had with this project, and there is still a lot more to go!

Steve

[Mangozac]

Mate the corrected pose looks perfect! This is going to look great!

[kajh]

Looks really good.
Cya,
Andrew.

[Plebicidal]

Looking good!

Watching with interest..

[korocite]

Another productive day, but likely to be the last for a while.

The ball and socket leg joints were double pinned with 2mm high tensile coated fencing wire. Just in case of rust. I managed to go a bit too far with the drill on one socket but then patched it up with squadron green filler.



I then pre-drilled double holes in the knee joints to accept pins.



The next step was always going to be a challenge - attaching the feet to the base. I played around with bolts into the feet as Mangozac has done with his SAW, but managed to run into the pin going through the piston. At this point I decided to trust in the 2mm wire.



Two of the four legs are pinned into piece of wood that are screwed into the base itself. This should make it a bit easier to remove the model without mucking up the pin holes too much. Once this was done the knee axles and pins were glued in and covers placed to give the final, unalterable pose.





I am waiting on a few more cathedral sections and will then play around with their placement.

The next challenge will be how, where to paint. As the SAWs feet will be partially buried in rubble I am unsure whether to paint it at this point and then build up the terrain around it (while keeping it swathed in cling wrap). Another option is to build the terrain around it now and then paint both SAW and base at the same time. Alternatively, I could go a bit each way and get 90% of the rubble done but leave off the bits around the feet, paint the SAW and then place it onto the almost complete base and finish off the rubble from there. I am uncertain and open to brilliant suggestions.

Steve

[kajh]

Alternatively, I could go a bit each way and get 90% of the rubble done but leave off the bits around the feet, paint the SAW and then place it onto the almost complete base and finish off the rubble from there. I am uncertain and open to brilliant suggestions.

Looks awesome Steve - should be a great project!

No brilliant suggestions but, after working on the vanguard, anytime you have a model with hard-to-get-to places ... paint separately.

Cya,
Andrew.

This post has been edited by kajh: May 1 2012, 03:40 PM

[Mono]

Option 3 which may be more difficult now is to mark out where each leg will end up, build up the base around all of those points so that the base and SAW are two separate pieces. At this point on the two wooden connections add in some method of locking the base and model together to make transport/repairs and possible gaming easier.

Make sure that the basing materials around the legs are different to the immediate surrounding area.

Paint separately, this is why I was suggesting the basing materials around the connection points be slightly different so that if the colours don't match perfectly, like the walls are a slightly different finish there is enough separation that it is not noticeable.

You could also use moss around the joins to mask them if the model will never be baseless again.

[Mangozac]

Is the lower half permanently connected to the base already? I've been airbrushing the base pre-shading coat tonight and it would suck if it wasn't able to be removed.

I suggest coating the bottom of the feet in vaseline, building up the groundwork around the foot and then removing it for painting. It would be great to have at least one foot on a tiled floor and have the tiles all broken up around it!

[radle]

Is the lower half permanently connected to the base already? I've been airbrushing the base pre-shading coat tonight and it would suck if it wasn't able to be removed.

I suggest coating the bottom of the feet in vaseline, building up the groundwork around the foot and then removing it for painting. It would be great to have at least one foot on a tiled floor and have the tiles all broken up around it!

Rather than vaseline, why not use proper masking fluid - it's thinner but more robust and should be easier to remove.

[kajh]

Rather than vaseline, why not use proper masking fluid - it's thinner but more robust and should be easier to remove.

I've got a bottle if you want to borrow it to try some.
Cya,
Andrew.

[korocite]

Thanks for all the suggestions.

The SAW is still removable from the base. I do like Mono's idea but am concerned that I could not pull off the precision placement/fit that it would require. Mangozac's idea is good also but I want the feet to be embedded in the rubble to emphasise the mass of the walker.

The current plan (derived from all the above ideas and my own) is to build up the base everywhere except in a small area around the feet. This will allow me to work out the whole thing from a visual perspective. The base will then get painted. The SAW will be painted and then fixed into place. I will mask off most of the lower legs and then build up the base/rubble around the feet. The new rubble areas will get painted and blended into the existing painted rubble and the mask removed. Any touch ups that are required can then be done. This might seem like a long process but it will allow the SAW and the majority of the base to be painted without the obstruction of each other. And I have time; this project not being due until the end of the year.

The next phase is to think about painting the SAW. I have been deliberating the purchase of an airbrush for almost as many years as I have been making model kits. Now may be the time to acquire one. Thanks to kajh for his advice!

Steve

[Mono]

If you air brush the base I would almost consider not masking up the legs so that you get the effect of dust and other crap being thrown up and landing on the legs as it moves

[Mangozac]

There's no reason using the technique I explained that you can't get the effect of the SAW feet sinking into the terrain. In fact that's specifically what I did with mine. I would use this procedure:

1. Build up all of the terrain, roughly up to the feet
2. Coat the feet in something to prevent them sticking to the terrain
3. Use whatever techniques are required to integrate the feet into the terrain (dirt/rubble/glue mixture) and leave to set.
4. Remove SAW from base
5. Paint base
6. Paint SAW

Doing any of the integration post painting is a bad idea IMO.

You MUST have an airbrush for this! This has been my first project using one and after even just the base I couldn't imagine doing it any other way! Just go buy a cheap and cheerful dual action (I'm using a Super Cheap Auto one) to do the job

[Sync]

Wicked Steve, just... awesome

[Firefox]

Hi Steve,

Would you please consider having this baby on display at the club open day on the 8th September when we plan to invite the interstate visitors to Golden Daemon to the club for some casual gaming?