Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

 Viktor von Domm wrote:

 Gitsplitta wrote:
Like a sled maybe... with bars on the sides that can dig into the ground and create resistance that drags the tank in one direction or the other.

interesting idea Git....that could work...although of course considering grots this might be too much high tech in a way it is like steering a canoe...

ed! Almost missed that, glad Vik brought it back up . Will try it out and see how it looks.

As for:

Automatically Appended Next Post:
and...plasma in the hands of grots.... be afraid...be verrrrry afraid...

Duck and dive!

Nice work on the tanks, LT.

I can see Grots just using an anchor that they throw off one side or the other to turn; kind of like batman using a lamp-post to turn a sharp corner, but much less efficient.

Hobby time is at a premium, and unfinished projects pile up...

What would a sane hobbyist do in such a situation? (I wouldn't know, never met any ). Me, I'd start yet another one!

At least, this one was (had to be!) of the quick kind. I got some Deadzone games in during the summer (Sidenote: cant' believe it's been over half a year since that already); terrain is a must. I have painted a few minis for it, but was lacking on the scenery front. And it needs quite a bit of it.

And I haven't had much time lately...

Time ago I'd seem some great things done with plastic electrical boxes (Iron Hand's How-To Index), never seen one nor tried it before, but sounded good... Short detour on the way home on Friday, and...

"Raw" materials:



Two octagonal ones in different sizes, and a rectangular one. PVC (only fair for DZ), mould lines and flash all over, of course (This are to be embedded inside the walls, after all). Dirt cheap, too. Sand and cut easily; sadly, they do no pile up well. Can't have it all, I guess.

The small octagons showed the greatest promise:



(Tried a two-level mash with the two rectangular ones: I have not given up on it yet, but it doesn't look too good so far)

As seen, very quick, basic job cut and refitted the cut-out for a door after adding a simple frame, covered a couple holes with vent grilles (a la Red H, ), opened up a window and stuck some gubbins on the roof (both for covering holes and breaking it up a bit). Ease-of-storage was also important, so no high aerials or overhangs on the sides either.

Speed spray-painted (black inside, grey on the outside, white top dusting, stone-textured spray on the lower part of the walls. Spent more time shaking the spry cans than actually spraying. Not too efficient at this point, but great for mass-producing the dozen-or so needed for a proper board.



Next up: some heavy washes and drybrushing. Sponge-weathering and a stencilled "something" for a spot colour, maybe.

Scale shots for context:

 Dr H wrote:
Nice work on the tanks, LT.

I can see Grots just using an anchor that they throw off one side or the other to turn; kind of like batman using a lamp-post to turn a sharp corner, but much less efficient.

Thanks, Dr. Pondering about it, but yes, it'll either be some plough-like spike digging into the ground on either side, or a line&hook gig. Or on only one side, to make a right-turn only tank?

Normal (Ja!) programming will be resuming shortly.

Comments and suggestions are always welcome.

Thanks for stopping by.

Neat grot tanks in progress.

Very nice octagons. You should put a trapdoor in one and get it in the LOER contest

good to see someone use electrical boxes!!! that is a very cool material to work with! i have often contemplated to get me even more of these... i bought me a bunch of these some years ago and still never had the chance/ideas to use them...

Kinda get a Star Wars vibe to it but more techy, good idea as well and those pop out channels could come in handy as flaps for the windows opened or closed.

Nice job on the Grot tanks you can never go wrong building Grot tanks

Those octagonal ones look great as they are. Perfect additions, added you have.

@Warboss_W; Thanks! Some more, not much, got done today.

@graven: Right, no more excuses. Still 4/5 weeks left on the comp, if I'm not mistaken? Will do, then. Hardly up to the high bar of the ongoing WIPs, but 'll figure something out on theme to be there. These should be rather easy to mass-make, at least to this point. Might try to trade off quality for quantity, and take my chances at it that way

@Vik: Very nice base material/starting point. you should put them to use!

@LDD: Hi, and thanks. Agreed on the SW milieu, dessert outpost style. Strung that cord over here too. Wondering now if painting it to reinforce it, or going towards something quite opposite to disengage from the look. Probably for, IMO (yellows and tans for the dusty weathering?), but open to other ideas. No rush.

As for the tanks, loving the process! Every borderline OCDered (self diagnosed, so take that with a -big!- pinch of salt ) hobbyist should try out some asymmetrical, un-squared, un-trimmed Grot build at least once. It's almost therapeutic!

@Dr H: Thank, you, Master H!

As said, some (scant) progress on (one) of the tanks. But progress!

Steering problem on the mono-tracked tank possible solution, V 1.0:



(Also added a launching ramp and wick on the rokkit and the start of the driver's view-port)

And closer up:



(It's missing one joint to be actually functional, but I was kinda hoping to get away with it )

As always, feedback, questions, critique, and various comments are all appreciated.

Thank you and good night.

That works for me.

hehe love the wee grot tanks! So full of character!

Those Hex boxes look really cool... could be modular parts of a space station or something..... that would be a pretty cool game board.... if you could stick mini's to the surface ... could have almost a space station 3d game board..... ooooooo and have the battle raging on the outside of the space station.... anyway, reel in my imagination... cant wait to see what you do with them!

i can see where that mechanism might work...with grot grease, spit and blood and pure stubbornness...

@Gits: Glad you approve, so be it then!

@MagosB: The 3D gaming "board" would be a real sight, maybe some day... Gave it some more care, pics coming soon.

@Vik: Thanks, mate! Some more details to match the "finesse" of the steering system:



Close ups:



And a lonely Grot for scale:



Mono-track, turret and motor grill-cover are detachable for shipping, painting, and gaming (turret, that is) purposes.

Just a few more rivets to add to this one before moving on, revolving-punch-riveter died in action a short while ago and is still to be replaced...

C&C are always welcome.

Thanks for stopping by.

Those exhausts remind me of antennae.... Ant-tank. Rocket ramp looks much improved. The wick on the rocket is a nice detail.

 inmygravenimage wrote:
Very nice octagons. You should put a trapdoor in one and get it in the LOER contest

Make them stackable, and put a trapdoor in each It's a long way down....

@Red H: Stacking them would have been nice, unluckily the boxes do not pile up well (the sides are slanted inwards, if stacked, the upper one fits into the other one almost half way down).

Straight walls could be added to gain an extra level, of course, but that would beat the objective of using those right-as for a speed build.

A trapped-door raised walkway to join two modules is not out of the question though, or a roof door for top access. Maybe not the most original, but could do. The actual timeline for the comp, and recently hobby-available (un-available, actually ) time, OTHO...

Cheers.

Some sort of insert would do. Sandwiched between the two boxes. (intercalado)

I hear you about the hobby time. Things are supposed to be more settled when you get older, not less. I think I was deceived

That is looking close to paint time!

Getting older? Wouldn't know about that, I'm still waiting to grow up.

So, I just realized this will be my 1.001 post on Dakka.

Took some time, too.

Off normal programming, some side tracked ramblings are in order.

Note: By all means, free to skip, actual related progress will eventually come around.

How on earth does an argentino get into a niche, locally almost unknown hobby-game, mostly unavailable, utterly expensive (talking here about exchange rates and import policies, not getting into the actual pricing debate with this), and nigh to impossible to explain to others?

(Not that that last point is much of an issue, once cleared with my best half, the rest of the world is free to think as they like).

And that is before even mentioning it is about little plastic toy soldiers!

To make a long boring into a short boring one: As a kid, I’d tried some little modelling – a few historical, couple Tamiya and Revell tanks and planes, one or two small dios with converted infantry left-overs from those. No much. Also tried some model railroading, even built a board for it (first woodworking project, too) and my first attempts at scenerying.

Loved reading too (still do), went through the SciFi and Fantasy classics and some more (also more serious literature, but that’s not to the point at hand).

About the time I was finishing high school, I spent a term in the States as an exchange student. Awesome experience, can not recommend it enough. And among a lot of other, and probably more important and profound eye-openers and character building experiences, I met D&D.

I’d never even heard of something like that before (mind it, I’m talking about pre-Internet era here, paper mail posted letters time) and I loved it. The idea of it, at least: I didn't even get to play much back then, and left it at that once I got back home. There weren't Spanish-translated rulebooks (not there, nor here), and getting them from Spain, for example – which doesn't sound crazy today, wasn't even conceivable at the time -.

Fast forward through fifteen and some years interlude (Some things did happen during that time, mostly getting a degree, travelling, work, marrying, travelling a bit more, moving a few times, getting a house, kids. The usual growing-up-and-maturing stuff, I guess)

One day, my little brother (twelve years my younger, full next-generation type, all-round gamer, card and role player) brought up 40K. I listened. And I fell for it.

The game itself looked like a boy’s dream: I still played a Risk-like war board game, these was just that, but taken to a whole new level: actual models instead of coloured chips, but soldiers, and tanks, and real terrain in place of a board map.

And I got bitten by the building bug. Little if any real hobby resources, I turned to experiment and improvise. And I fell even deeper. Fully caught, I was. Browsed a bit, read some, found some blogs. Found Dakka.

Had followed modelling blogs and Comps for a while, I finally jumped in into one, and kept on. Didn't do too bad in some of those, and now I even have some custom commission works in progress on the workbench!

Game’s wise, I don’t think I've gotten more than a tenth games in, and haven’t won more than one or two! Short ago I picked up on DeadZone too (easier, faster, shorter), slowly painting and building my way into it now as well.

Still learning, and enjoying every (scarce) moment of it.

Hobby time is always short, and lately it’s been even shorter. Not complaining – being an independent contractor, work-crazy is actually a very good thing!

And that’s all I have to say about that.

Promise to try not to side-track ramble again for the next one thousand posts.

Cheers.

PS Regular programming will resume shortly, hopefully, even with some pics to show for it!

Edit: Corrected for some misspellings and time-line/vocabulary mistake!

so....to sum it up...usa is contagious for getting you the tabletop bug...yep...fully understandable...

and i quite enjoyed the lil rant...since the whole webway thing started to really bloom we live in truly wonderous times...so much is available, so much help...and even understanding for so many weird/cool/unique ideas can be shared...

waiting for regular programming^^

congratz for 1001 times of saying brilliant/dumb/incomprehensible/entertaining stuff (cross out inappropriate)

cheers, vik

Great read, wonderful insight. The internet makes our hobby so much more... Friendly I suppose

Well done mate! Really nice story to read! Here's to 1000 more!

@All: Thanks a lot.

@Grave: Friendly, indeed. And more

@Shaso: Close to paint, but not by me. Built by request, once the three of them get done, they'll start their long journey up north to join Gitsplitta's Grots of War.

As for actual hobby progress, finished(?) the DZ Hab Module:



Orange-furred Rebs for scale:



(One of them got some greenery on the base, contrasts nice with the skin, IMO).

I'll definitely try a last-minute-rush trapdoor version for the current LoER Comp.

Thank you for dropping by.

Nice job on the mono-track.

I think many people have a similar story to that.
I've been building models all my life (there was a brief gap at the beginning while I developed motor controls etc.), I never really met anyone else that built models so was a solitary thing, but it was only when I decided to try out 40k miniatures that I discovered DDakka and that you didn't have to build a model following the instructions... Now I'm sculpting and casting my own models and model kits to sell to people.

good looking habs LT...one minor suggestion tho... the holes originally meant for break throughs for cables and suchlike... while they make great looking windows and arches for door frames...i would add a sheet of plastic card behind it so that you cant look through...it is of course moaning at a high level here as it wouldn´t be see from human standing perspective...ut it would give you the opportunity to make light effects as if it is lit from within...

these rebs are quite good looking where are these from?

perhaps a touch more color to the pieces? A Horizontal stripe?

I'm not aware of any sci fi or fantasy books by Spanish language authors, except one, Temblor (Rosa Montero) I am curious to know of others. By serious, Borges? Puig?

Rambles are fine on these blogs of ours, y'know. it's always interesting to hear how someone fell into the hobby.

Oh, a score of years, a score=veintena. I think you've confused it with decada. Or I've misread your post.

Dr H wrote:Nice job on the mono-track.

Thanks, Dr! It's in the to-prime queue now, waiting foe it's brothers.

...and that you didn't have to build a model following the instructions...

Cheers to that

Viktor von Domm wrote:...i would add a sheet of plastic card behind it so that you cant look through...

Good call, done.

These rebs are quite good looking where are these from?

Mantic Deadzone starter, reb faction, traded in for some painting.

Red Harvest wrote:perhaps a touch more color to the pieces? A Horizontal stripe?

Agreed. Tried it with the lettering on the sides, but it is not enough. Stripe sounds good. Green, maybe? The vents need some attention too.

Oh, a score of years, a score=veintena. I think you've confused it with decada. Or I've misread your post.

My bad. Mixed it up with Spanish lustro, five years. I might feel like sometimes (or the Cubs may think so ), but I'm not that old! Corrected, thanks.

...it's always interesting to hear how someone fell into the hobby.

Indeed

I'm not aware of any sci fi or fantasy books by Spanish language authors, except one, Temblor (Rosa Montero) I am curious to know of others. By serious, Borges? Puig?

Just my personal opinions and (scant) kowledge on the topic here: Spanish writing authors probably lean more towards fantasy than proper sci fi...

With that in mind, Borges, of course (Fantasy, soft sci fi, maybe Sturgeon like?). Cortazar (surreal, especially his short stories). Science fiction: Bioy Casares', "La invención de Morel".

Spaniards Juan Miguel Aguilera and Javier Redals' collaboration in the hard sci-fi Akasa-Puspa series, and Aguilera's historical sci-fi "La Locura de Dios".

Back to argentinians, "El Eternauta", comic book by the genre's national icon Hector German Oesterheld.

More recent, Liliana Bodoc's 2002-2204 "Saga de los Confines" (The ends of the earth?), epic fantasy with strong references to the conquest of America.

I'd love to hear your thoughts if you give any of those a try.

Hobby front: Some progress in various ongoing projects: little more paint on the Delaque, started the tracks of one of the other Grot tanks, and tried V.2.0 of the two-story modular habs with at least more success than the previous attemp Nothing pict worthy yet though...

Will try to solve that tomorrow.

Cheers.

Hey LT, sorry for not commenting earlier... been away on vacation. Love the rokkit tank! I've got an idea to put a little Slim Pickin's grot rider on it (a-la Dr. Strangelove).

I will indeed seek them out. My local library has a couple of shelves of Spanish language books.

Red, orange or yellow for the hab modules, some sort of warm color to contrast with the very cold gray. And perhaps something printed and applied to the circular punch outs, or even a free-handed pattern for a company or military unit...

@Gits: Now I fell like getting myself a cowboy hat!

@Red H: Will definitively add some stripes on V.2. And let me know if you can't find the book(s) around there, sure something can be worked out.

Speaking of which, two-storied version, with added trap-door hatches on the roof, trying to get them fit into the current LoER Comp:



Some more done, and roof hatches added:



Close ups:



For scale:



If those can be made to count as trapdoors, might even get them done before the Comp's deadline.

I already have an idea for adding raised walkways...

Thoughts and comments are welcome, as always.

Thanks for stopping by.

Stuck some more bits here and there, added the walkways, primed and pre-grimed:







C&C are welcome.

Cheers.