Relocation

Hi folks. After a good while using this blog for my updates I've decided to move it all back to my website, http://gtazz.com/kataan/

Blogger has some great features, namely how easy it is to update, but I find it ultimately too limiting on what I want to do. So I've redeveloped my site, and archived all the updates here into the appropriate projects on the site.

I've also merged my two blogs together, this one and Stadtheim, my Mordheim blog. Should make my life easier maintaining one site rather than two blogs and an archive site.

I'll leave this blog online for a while until people relocate. If there are any features here that aren't available on my site let me know and I'll write them in (only thing I can think of is an RSS feed which I can look at).

Cheers,
Si

Artillery / Lifta Wagon

Ok next piece is going to be the lifta-wagon. It's an artillery piece based on the land raider chassis. Got a few ideas for this but it's essentially evolving as I build. Which is the way I prefer to work, even if it is a little scary at times!

Hopefully it'll make sense as it gets more complete. The last picture is the idea for the lifta-droppa itself. A pod from Anakin's Pod Racer :). And the top off a bottle of sealant. Again I hope it'll make sense. If not no doubt I'll shoot off in a different direction, as I tend to do.

AdMech Update

Right then, the Mechanicus force is coming along. I now have my two boyz units sorted, ten strong each armed with choppas and sluggas :)

That's 16 metal servtors, plus four plastic conversions seen before. They're all armed with half a storm bolter (erm, bolter?) from IG and SM vehicles. Then there's an SM hunter killer missile (rokkit launcha) and a shortened sentinel autocannon (big shoota) thrown in.

I still need to do the tedious job of drilling barrels, but I'm happy with the result. Will look much better painted I'm sure!

Also the Stalker is now completed, armed with a heavy plasma cannon conversion thing (kustom mega-blasta).

I'm quite happy with the look and feel of this one. I like the way he's sort of crouching, aiming with the tail gun. With a big mek in the army this deff dred will count as a troop choice, so I've now got three troop choices sorted.

Next up are the big trakks and the lifta wagon.

Adeptus Mechanicus

Right then, AdMech army is in development. I'm basing it on the Ork list, I just thought their particular brand of Mek know how seemed to fit. And the lifta-droppa wagon is definitely going in.

Here's where I am so far:

Calling this guy a stalker, since he, you know, stalks. It's a deff-dread proxy with rokkit launcha and will have a kustom mega-blasta mounted on the tail arm once I figure out what it will look like. This has been in development for years so probably has been shown before.

Servitors. These are going to serve as the Ork boyz (slugga choppa armed). I've only done four so far, I just won a lot for 17 servitors on ebay that I'll customise to fit. Based on an idea I saw on ebay btw.

The warbikes. These are going to be servitor controlled monocycles. The servitor torso will be out one side, the weapon on the other. If I get the model looking something like I want I'm going to cast it so I can reproduce ten easily. I'm also toying with the idea of enclosing some, just happens ping pong balls are the right size for the inner hole.

I'm doing hyspasists as gretchin (humans, probably cultists from the new starter set). They'll be the only really shooty squads in the army, due to the grots higher BS skill.

Going to have three big trakks which will be tracked weapon platforms. Also some robots and some praetorians (the admech kind). It should be fun. The best part is it's all small projects so I can chop and choose and keep my interest up!

Stormtalon Conversion

Heya. The titan is currently on hold for now. Stalled around the left arm and at risk of losing my mojo completely jumped project for a while.

So I thought I'd build the stormtalon I've had laying around for ages. I didn't want to do a standard build though, it looks like the designer wanted to get too much into a small space.

Here's my take:

I lengthened the tail using the top fin, then mounted the tail backwards and upside down, seemed to have better proportions that way.

The engine wings have been moved to the front, and I trimmed off a few bits to try and slim down the engines (they're still monsters though!).

Then for weaponry I used a pair of assault cannons from my ravenwing boxed set. Prefer them to the ones that come with the kit, so much leaner and better detailed. Finally dropped the rocket pods altogether and used some rockets from my bits box.

It's still a bit snug, the whole thing feels like the cockpit is too wide and the engines too large meaning it's a bit cramped. But I prefer the proportions now.

Still undecided what to use it for (my Angels of Elutriation chapter are Blood Angels successors, so no shiny flying potatoes for them). I'm currently toying with the idea of an Ad-Mech army based on the Ork Codex, so this may end up being a dakkajet. Random huh?

Powerfist!

Finally the carapace is done and I can get to the fun stuff! Started the power fist, it now has the shape of the hand and the arm. Fingers will come tomorrow, then pipe work. Detailing will probably wait until I do the whole thing.

The elbow and wrist rotate, although I'm going to lock the wrist once it's all in the correct position. I also have a fair bit of filling to do in places.

Here's a shot of the reaver as it stands:

Starting to come along I think. Head will really set it off. Left arm will have to wait until I buy some more 22mm pipe for the shoulder joint. Not to worry, plenty to do in the mean time..

Titan Carapace

I've not gone away again, still working on the titan. Things slowed a little when I took time to relearn an old lesson. That being fully extended box cutter + slicing towards own hand through foam = blood everywhere. Fortunately it was a fairly new knife, so made a clean, if deep, cut and it's healed pretty well.

Anyway I've been working on the carapace. I think this is the trickiest part, so many curves on that thing and it defines the style quite distinctively.

That's the original. So it curves in pretty much every direction, left to right and front to back on the top panel, then the four sides also curve in two dimensions. Makes it tricky.

So I jumped in with a big block of foam:

I made up some figures from looking at pictures, then tried to turn a 3d object into a 2d plan I could draw on a sheet of foam. Tricky, but the shape was about right. Then I started slicing along the top from each end to try and put the curve in.

That's when the mishap struck, so as a work around I have to chop the whole thing in half. Meant I could cut the full width with one slice and made it a lot easier to work.

Attached small pieces under each side to try and create the edges. I need to do it once more to give about another 15mm to each side.

Here's where we are now:

 Plenty of smoothing to do, then I'll fill using modelling putty. Still not sure how I'm going to get the finish on this, not sure I want to try and plate it with plasticard. We'll see, I've managed a pretty smooth finish over filler on my scale model cars so might be worth a go.