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some time ago I decided to light up a railhead
spent time laying out the circuit buying parts but then finances being what they are was unwilling to go on the board fab.
So, A year later after running out of models to assemble I decided it was time to finish that hammerhead.

First a bit of history. I took a railhead, set various parts in a vice and milled out many slots for lights.
I then found whatever plastic I could to cover these ports and then went shopping for SMIC's to do the job.
I finally decided on some UV(405nm) diodes for their tendancy to play well with flourescent materials(Higher photon energy, go figure) and then was unwilling to drop the 50, now probably 40 to get a board fabbed after having layed out the SM schematic so tightly.

Finaly I got around to deadbuggint he electronicsc rather than populating a board and voila!



Unfortunately I assembled the hull before taking a picture of the parts. It was a wirey mess.



The railgun is set to fire a sequential set of 8 lights down the barrel. Deadbugging can be messy. This made me really wish I had that board fabbed except on second thought a flex cable would have been better, though likely more expensive.



The nacells had foil glued in place to decrease light absorption since the UV LED's arent very powerful Cylindrical lens arrays were assembled using small acrylic rod cut and bonded together. There is also a wire mesh behind the intake grill as said grill was milled out. The exhaust ports/thrust ports were also cut open and additional lens arrays were glued in place.

sound cool, hope it works out ok

Sounds awesome, i really hope it works out great
(just 1uped you Death Gear)

Really interesting. I think the nacelles are going to look the coolest. Have you given any thought to how you're going to paint it?

I just fired up the railgun circuit last night and it worked first time out of the gate! Well two lights had broken leads but that was easy to fix.

Ive given a lot of thought as to how I will paint it. And as yet have been unable to decide on a scheme that is worthy of the effort that has gone into the model.

Suggestions are very welcome.
If I did lightning I would have to do something different and new to make it stand out from the rest of my army.
If I did fire I was thinking going more violet flames or perhaps inverting the flame color so black is hottest.
I have another idea but it is so complicated I dont know If my airbrush skills are up to par, though that makes it the most enticing as it would be a severe challenge.

Im looking for sleep, some flashy, and stunning. Something that makes you think "Im #@%ed" when facing it.

I will also have to adjust highlighting to compliment the light sources. The railgun is ~405nm(deep purple/blue) the railgun power supply is ~470nm(blue) The nacelle front and side are ~405 while the exhaust is ~470. The drone lights are ~630nm(red) the target array on the nose is ~530nm(green) and I realized after closing it up the headlights are blue 470 and white(I meant to do blue and blue) so I will use some blue plastic to filter the white likely forcing an attenuation of the current driving the other blue light. And anywhere there is 405nm and possibly 470 I can use fluorescent paints to good effect. The fun part will be masking all of these lights when painting.

Suggestions on paint schemes anyone?

Any chance of a photo with its lights on so we can see what it looks like as it may make it easier for folks to offer suggestions..

Ok, Ive been lazzy and havent kept up with this.
Too buisy painting and modeling.

first off, the hammerhead.
I painted it about 2 weeks after the last post but had to stop because I was missing something I need to pull off an effect I wanted, and then I just kept changing my mind about what to do. so while I keep flipping on how to finish it Ill post a progress picture.



And im working on a Necron destroyer(I believe) to go with my monolith. Someone said in a painting competition the judges of the monolith were interested in what the rest of the army would look like. So Ill do a few necrons to figure that out for myself!


And ive finally "finished" scratching a fighter craft I designed and have slowly been working on for a few months.
This is a picture of it after I removed it from its mold and sanded it down. Eventually Ill buy some resin and make a few more.

And eventually Ill finish its larger brother. but Im looking forward to, and fearing screwing up, painting this lovely lady.

OMG! I am so jealos. The hammerhead reminds of something. These are great.

You sir are an exceptional artist. I like the mesh pattern on the hammerhead and how the model as a whole looks urban, techno, camo, awesome etc.

Don't be frightened. If it is a necron destroyer thing, then you should go all-out on it. Also, are there any pics of the monolith?

woooooah....

Thats wicked!
Do you use an airbrush?

And i need to ask.... HOW did you do the mesh!? It looks amazing!

Amazing work, love the fighter design.

thats some trippy painting

The necron destroyer is supposed to go with this monolith


better image here
http://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/46501-Awesome%20Paintjob%2C%20Freehand%2C%20Great%20Paintjob%2C%20Monolith%2C%20Necrons.html

The Hammerhead is not done as I want to add some detail to it but im still not sure what would complete the floating silver armor panels.
after that I have to add a base level of fine detail to the lights, gems, etc etc.

The necron destroyer is probably going to be called nearly done right now though i may go back and add some fine details to it. Ill post a picture of its current state soon.

And I have to wait till I can afford new paints for the fighter as I dont have the colors I need to finish it.

Ive also been adding a bit of finishing touches to the barracuda and tigershark. Still not sure how to paint the bottom of the tigershark.

For references as to what im talking about just check out my image gallery
http://www.dakkadakka.com/core/gallery-search.jsp?dq=atropos907&paintjoblow=0&paintjobhigh=10&coolnesslow=0&coolnesshigh=10&auction=0&skip=30&ll=3&s=tb&sort1=5&sort2=0&=Search

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Im also considering opening up for commissions but I will only paint to roughly the standards you see here and only vehicles or monstrous creatures. It will be a spare time thing so I want low volume and I want to put a real effort into what I paint and it will be fairly expensive. Thoughts? What do you think the monolith's or tigershark's paint job would go for. If you would PM me with suggestions so we dont clutter this blog up.

I finally got a necron destroyer nearly done. Had him for a while before finally getting down to finishing his paint job.
Next I believe I will work on finishing the manta.

Click on the image for a larger view

And Ive just opened a website offering limited Commissions. I wont do army painting and for now no troops. The idea is to provide paint jobs comparable to what you've seen here for tanks and titans.
http://sites.google.com/site/thirdfatecreations/

If you are going ot do that with the whole army then I say yes, do it! that is the most amazing lighting affects that I have ever seen! You should put in a model or two, maybe the monolith, to Golden Daemon!

Thanks Brotheralexos but I don't believe I will ever try to enter into a GD unless I end up living near one of the locations.
Id rather spend the money for travel and hotel on hobby and painting supplies.
Though im running out of room at home hence opening up to a small number of commissions.

Truly amazing work, destroyer's looking ace.

Finally finished it!
here are two picture sets of it i not sure which is better
they are pretty big so click on them for a higher detailed view.
Comments and suggestions always appreciated.
And now... To finish the manta... we shall see


edit: as there seems to be confusion. the model below is a tigershark(scratch built) I also have a scratch built manta and barracuda and the manta is in need of finishing. But because the manta is so bloody big I keep putting it off even though it only needs fine details.

Amazing stuff. It's like you're the RUSH album designer come to life!

i don't know if it is possible to offer any suggestions... it would be like trying to tell Van Gogh or Picasso how to paint! haha, well on a more serious note that manta is outstanding. i would love to know how you did that! oh, and the set with the black background is better in my opinion, the white distracts from the paint job. i can wait to what you do next!

wait, i see a link to an airbrushing guide... sweet!

ha!

I like your models very much.

I will look forward to finding how you painted them.

they are very original and I can see this becoming big!

I look forwrd to more....

DC

WOW!! I take it that's space camo on the manta, 'cos if it isn't, it sure looks like it! Outstanding airbrushing.

Vitruvian XVII wrote:WOW!! I take it that's space camo on the manta, 'cos if it isn't, it sure looks like it! Outstanding airbrushing.

Its not a Manta its a Barracuda note the twin railguns under the nose structure just thought id correct you on that.

ummmmm WOW is right.

Woops! WOW still stands though!!

Alright thats pretty freaking cool. 10/10

BOSS_PIMPALOTZ wrote:

Vitruvian XVII wrote:WOW!! I take it that's space camo on the manta, 'cos if it isn't, it sure looks like it! Outstanding airbrushing.

Its not a Manta its a Barracuda note the twin railguns under the nose structure just thought id correct you on that.

Actually it is a tiger shark, the AX-1-0 version with the heavy railguns.

Ok, I believe I will consider the top of the manta finished



Ive been making a few tutorials. eventually I will put them up.
Im not sure If Ill finish the bottom since its a scratch build and the bottom is a bit structurally ugly.
Now...what to work on next...

atropos907 wrote:Ok, I believe I will consider the top of the manta finished

Really? I mean... Really?