A while back I put together Big Mek Booma, the grand architect of the warmachines in my Waaagh!
When I did, I gave him a Kustom Force Field generator-type backpack in the expectation that I'd be using him for that more than anything else. However, times have changed, and I have come to see the error of my ways. You see, I tend to run big squads of Lootas. Lootas have an absolutely terrific range and high strength, but have a bit of a shoddy leadership, and if they take a couple casualties they have a tendency to up and run. Since they're pretty costly in terms of points, I've been experimenting recently with sticking a Big Mek with a bosspole in with them to try and prevent any early retreats.
From what I have been able to figure, giving that Big Mek a Shokk Attack Gun makes a ton of sense. The random 2d6 for strength averages around S7, which happens to be the same as the lootas, so it makes sense to turn the SAG on whatever the lootas are firing as well. Additionally, both the SAG and the deffguns share the same range, meaning it makes sense to keep them in a squad together. It's a beautiful squad for taking down those high-save units like Terminators, because the SAG will simply penetrate the armor if it hits, while the deffguns will just force piles and piles of saves.
The problem, then, is figuring out how to get Booma a Shokk Attack Gun. After a bit of head-scratching, I had what I thought was a rather clever idea: Make it the orky equivalent of the thunderfire cannon.
The way I figured it, if I'm going to be making a separate Shokk Attack Gun model, I may as well make it huge so that I can run it as the Shokk Attack Battery formation in Apocalypse. The idea's pretty simple: In regular games, I park the Shokk Attack Gun somewhere near Booma on the board to display what armament he actually has (which, of course, would be a SAG). In apocalypse games, I'd make a larger base (Maybe 3.5-4" diameter) that I could magnetize both my Big Mek and the gun to, which would have the same profile as 3 Big Meks (meaning, 6 wounds) and 'count as' the entire Shokk Attack Gun battery, by itself.
So, with the concept firmly in mind, my first problem was collecting the parts I'd need. I've been stewing this whole concept over for the past six months or so, and I think it was a foregone conclusion from the start that I would have to motorize the thing. The problem therein was motorizing it at an appropriate speed.
First, I started looking for motors small enough to fit in what I wanted.
The video above shows a stock SAG bit stuck to the front of a small helicopter motor. Now, this motor had two particular complications. First, it spun incredibly fast once it got going, which is impractical from a hobby standpoint because I don't need my models trying to get airborne from the table. Second, it didn't really have the torque to start spinning without help, even when voltage was applied; you had to give it a bit of assistance by spinning the bit first with your finger. I could have tried higher voltages, but the motor wasn't really rated for it, and would have burned out in a hurry.
The second motor I tried was from a lego kit. It was substantially slower, and a hell of a lot noisier, but due to it's 'lego' casing, it was a bit too large to be practical.
It was actually a bit slower than I wanted - I was aiming for a 'sweet spot' of sorts of about one to two revolutions per second.
I tried a whole host of other motors...
But I wasn't particularly happy with any of them. It seemed that with the low-voltage DC motors, your choices were either a small motor that spun at 30,000 RPM and didn't have enough torque to really get the SAG bit spinning, or larger, chunkier motors that had the torque but needed a hefty amount of voltage and space. I had been looking for a long time for a decent gear-motor mechanism that would take one of the speedy little motors and step it down enough to approximate 120 rpm or so, but the problem there was that most gearing mechanisms that could do that take up a relatively large amount of space. While I'm making a big SAG, I didn't want it to be too big as to not fit on a Thunderfire chassis!
This little bugger had the ideal RPM for my project, ran on anywhere between 3 and 6 volts, had a hefty amount of torque, and a very small size (only 33.1mm long to the tip of the shaft!). The only downside to the motor was the price, but consider this: By making this Mega-SAG, I'm basically obviating the need to buy 2-3 more SAG Mek models, which more than recoups the cost.
I also decided pretty early on that I was not going to be using the actual body of the Thunderfire cannon, due mostly to how incredibly bad GW's casts are and how much repairing the body of the gun would have required. Instead, I'm only going to use the tread sections and the crosspiece that serves as the base of the gun.
So, what would serve as the body of the gun, then? I could scratchbuild something, and I figured I'd have to, but then the answer arrived all on its own: The Shadowsword Cannon. Specifically, the base of its gigantic barrel!
Once assembled, the base of the shadowsword cannon serves as a giant frame for the SAG to build upon, and it fills the space left vacant on the treads by the Thunderfire Cannon perfectly.
With these parts all in hand, I've set about building.
Automatically Appended Next Post: So the Shadowsword cannon base fit together with minimal headache, and I started on the front end of the gun. Using another Shadowsword cannon part for the front end, I managed to snugly fit the motor inside and glue it in so it was centered.
Now, some of you may wonder why there's a turbine on the front - after all, the videos above pretty much demonstrate that I have a SAG spinny front bit.
However, after a bit of eyeballing, I've come to the conclusion that the SAG spinny front bit has three problems that prohibit me from using it on this project. First off, it's too small. Since I'm making a very large Shokk Attack Gun, it seems only proper that the front spinny gubbin be much larger than the standard bit.
The second problem with the bit was that it was (surprisingly enough! ) never designed to actually spin, meaning that it spins horribly off-balance due to the 'prongs' not being angled out equally.
The third, and last problem with the bit was that it was heavy. While the Thunderfire Cannon chassis is more than weighty enough to hold the gun down and in place, the weight puts more of a strain on the motor, and I need the motor to survive a good, long time.
Thus, I started on what you see above by making the 'axis' for the new SAG spinny bit. The turbine on the front is one of the bits from the underside of a beakie drop pod, with styrene tubing behind it to help bulk it out a bit. There's a smaller styrene tube in the middle of the turbine that goes back through the front of the gun casing to the motor, which spins the part wonderfully. All assembled, we have the following:
You can see the stock SAG bit for scale here.
So, if I'm making my ownSAG bit, how would I possibly make one that spins better than the existing Mega-SAG? Surely anything I make would inherently be offbalanced, due to it's hand-crafted natureWhat's worse, it could be fragile in the long run - how well does Superglue hold up to repeatedly being spun over and over and over again? I could picture one of the arms of the gun just falling off after a few years! Well, this is where the magic of casting comes in.
Here's the general idea: Make one prong out of styrene. Cast the prong three times. The resulting prongs will be extremely lightweight due to the fact that they're made out of resin, which means there's a lot less strain on the motor. They're also going to be all one solid piece, meaning that there's much less chance of any parts like rivets going flying off after years of use. Lastly, they're all exactly identical, which means that they are all the same weight, and will balance the front SAG bit perfectly as they spin!
With this in mind, I set about making the 'prong' for the SAG and came up with the following:
You may wonder what the heck's going on at the right side of the prong - it looks like two cylinders are just pointing out to nowhere. The answer to that is actually quite simple - there's going to be ribbed cabling between the two, from the base of the bit up to the spherical 'head', between the ends of the two cylinders. However, ribbed cable texture is a pain in the ass to cast, and is prone to defects that can be monstrously annoying to clean up. What I'm going to do instead is basically cast the bit as it is, and then get some very short, evenly-measured lengths of guitar wire to put in each end of the cylinders between the head and base of the prong.
So now, we cast the prong three times over!
Automatically Appended Next Post: And with a wave of my hat, some magic words ("Krump! Stomp! Smash 'em! Waaaagh!"), and my pressure pot, presto!
(I should probably mention that we are 'up to speed' now; the previous posts were me finally getting around to putting stuff up online from yesterday and the day before.)
The original prong won't be used, so I cast myself three nice, fresh copies and cleaned them up a bit. For those of you who might be curious, this is what the mold looked like:
I got these out with surprisingly few mold lines to clean up, which makes me pretty happy. What's more, I managed to cast the areas where the cabling is going as hollow, so I can just wiggle some wire in there and be done with it, rather than trying to drill them out properly.
And lastly, here's a neat little comparison:
Leftmost is obviously my Mega-SAG bit. In the middle is a SAG bit from 2nd edition, which as you may be able to tell from the pictures is even more lopsided than the one on the far right, our current edition SAG bit. I tried designing mine closer to the current edition one, since it'd be easier for most players to recognize... though truth be told, how many three-pronged, spinning ork guns are there?
Now for the harrowing task of trying to attach them to the main turbine exactly 120 degrees apart!
Thats freaking awesome. I've always loved the SAG Mek, and I remember seeing Booma on the boards before as well. Defiantly subbed, I know this is getting a little ahead of you, are you going to model grots for the thing to fire?
Breaker wrote:Thats freaking awesome. I've always loved the SAG Mek, and I remember seeing Booma on the boards before as well. Defiantly subbed, I know this is getting a little ahead of you, are you going to model grots for the thing to fire?
I have a secret weapon for this particular aspect of the model. I'm not revealing it just yet, though - you're going to have to wait!
I added a bit of ribbed cabling between the sections of the prongs, then went ahead and attached them to the turbine. I think the results are quite nice.
Of course, it's not nearly as impressive if it's not moving, so let's remedy that with a video!
Edit: I don't know how to embed this at the right aspect ratio, so you may be better off clicking through to youtube itself and viewing it there.
My next goal is to figure out how I'm going to attach the Shadowsword cannon gun housing to the treads, so that I can figure out where to work in a 6v power source and switch.
After that comes the ammo feed... but that part's a secret. I have a great idea coming up for that one.
Epic. I don't care a whole lot for the SAG model to begin with, and I had thought of mounting it on an armored chassis of some sort, but this completely trumps anything I could have thought of. I have no doubt you'll keep us up to speed on this project.
Edit: And we have achieved double postage! Always wondered how people did that.....
Anyways, to elaborate further; if I had the time and space to meddle with things like this, I´d love to. Sadly I have a little of the first and none of the latter, so I´ll do my small scale stuff and clap my hands when others do it as well as you do.
Ahh, if only I had access to something that could help me with space/time.....
Nice work mate!
For your battery problem, have you considered a LiPo battery? - there would have been one in the helicopter that you got the tiny motor from...
Could always do the good old fashion saturday morning cartoon villain lever and stuff the Battery on a grot (maybe the ammo runts model or something similar) and disguise the battery pack as a... well a spare battery pack. Granted, I'm always for punting grots... and thats why I fully support this conversion!
Breaker wrote:Could always do the good old fashion saturday morning cartoon villain lever and stuff the Battery on a grot (maybe the ammo runts model or something similar) and disguise the battery pack as a... well a spare battery pack. Granted, I'm always for punting grots... and thats why I fully support this conversion!
I rather like this idea! Shouldn't be too hard to make a battery tube just big enough to fit a real battery inside, with some sort of simple twist thingy on the end for when the battery needs to be replaced.
Oh dear god...that's what a Shokk Attack Gun is supposed to be! Amazing stuff, needs some more orky glyphs and a bunch of unlucky grots ready to get sucked into the vortex. I'd disguise the battery pack as an ammo crate...not very original, but it'd get the job done. Nice job!
The battery pack's likely going to be fitted to the underside of the Thunderfire Cannon chassis. I have a feeling I can dremel out the extra space inside the Shadowsword cannon bit, and extend a column downward where I can fit the battery in.
The switch being a literal pull lever on the model may come about, though.
As I mentioned, I have what I think is a brilliant idea for the ammunition feed, but you're all going to have to wait and see. I'll say this much: It's not going to be your standard 'grot in a vacuum' setup.
Personally, i have never much approved of ork modelers because they most often just buy some IG armor, glue it together backwards, paint it black, put some rivets on it and call it a conversion.
BUT HOLY S**T! You really went balls to the wall with this job! The closest thing i've ever seen to applications of simple machinery to GW models was the working lever on the basilisk, and you've gone and upped the ante tenfold!
You deserve some sort of medal for this. Seriously.
Automatically Appended Next Post: And i can't wait to see what you've schemed up for the ammo feed system!
Dakka_Dok wrote:How about feeding the wires into a box-like contraption looking like a copperwire dynamo(that houses the battery) powered by a squig chasing a grot in a thread mill.
Just gotta be patient; I'm working on this when I have the time and am able, but that's not often.
I sat down and scratched my head for a minute while I tried to figure out where I was going to end up hiding the power source on this model. The battery pack that was pictured in my last video for this project was my original plan, but it just seemed impractical due to its size; I couldn't figure out how I was going to hide the dang thing.
After pondering it over a while longer, I remembered that I had coin cell battery holders that might work better: BAT1013 from B.G. Micro. I've used these on a couple other projects, but it never occurred to me to try and fit them in on this one for some reason. As luck would have it, these battery holders are the exact same diameter as the hole in the middle of the Thunderfire Cannon chassis. The only problem is that they have a bit of a square 'tab' on one side that houses the clip that holds the batteries in. I grabbed my jeweller's saw and went at the Thunderfire chassis and removed a section of the back so that the battery holder would fit properly. The results?
A perfect fit! This holder can comfortably seat two 3v coin cell batteries back to back, giving me the desired 6 volts to power the motor with. Even better, it should be very simple to actually change the batteries if they ever die.
My next challenge is probably going to be figuring out how to mount the cannon itself onto the treads.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Also, an additional note that I need to follow up with:
There's been a really, really strange demand for the bitz I used to make the spinny bit on this Shokk Attack Gun. I would have figured 'slightly larger than normal Shokk Attack Gun' was a bit of a niche product, but judging just from the number of people who have e-mailed me and PM'ed me since I first showed the mold off, I guess some of you want it. With that said, I've shipped the parts off to the folks at D6 Hobbies for proper casting, sale, and distribution, because I don't have the time or resources available to be selling stuff out of my basement right now. Expect it to be up under the Warforged Miniatures listing shortly.
So I had a couple hours yesterday, and I'm sad to say they weren't very productive ones. I intended on mounting the cannon down onto the treads, but I realized very early on that without a finished back end to the cannon I didn't quite know how it would sit on the treads. This led me around to trying to work on the back end of the gun, which proved largely unproductive for lack of creative ideas. So, I am looking for help.
I figure that first and foremost, I should unveil my until-now secret 'ammunition' for the Shokk Attack Gun.
Yes, these are snotlings in small, metal, bullet-shaped cages. Or, well, at least they look like it. They are from a now-OOP model from Rackham's Confrontation line called "Master Sulfur". Basically, these cages hang off a large minotaur-looking dude on their source model. The moment I saw them, though, I knew they had to be Shokk Attack Gun ammunition.
You can get a look at a model that has these added to it on CMON here - it's the only decent, painted picture I've been able to find of the blighters.
As far as I'm concerned, they're perfect for the job. They're projectile-shaped to begin with, which lends to clear interpretation as to their purpose. It saves the Big Mek from the trouble of trying to wrangle up a horde of snotlings into your typical SAG-vacuum, so from an orky standpoint it's convenient. Plus, think of how satisfying it would be to take a screaming, thrashing snotling in a cage and slam it into the breech of a gun to fire off!
Here's a shot of the 'ammunition' with the gun for scale:
Now, here's where my problem comes up. Let me throw these in here just for reference; they're pictures of the back end of the gun and a side profile.
The shadowsword cannon has to sit a little forward on the thunderfire treads so that the spinny bit on the front of the SAG has a comfortable amount of clearance to actually, well, spin. Because of that, any additions I make to the SAG have to extend it backwards a bit.
Now, I'm trying to figure out what it is that I could do as far as a loading mechanism for the Shokk Attack Gun goes. My primary goal is to have the ammunition [caged snotling shells] be visible and obvious, so that any observer who picks the model up could spot it and decipher what's going on. This basically means that I don't want to cover the shells up too much in whatever ammo feed I decide to go with. I dug through some Forgeworld and Armorcast artillery pictures for ideas, and three jumped out at me.
Idea 1 is probably the most straightforward. Similar to what you might see on the back of an Earthshaker cannon, there'd be a single hatch door and a sort of tray that slides out. The loader places the snotling shell onto the slide, pushes it up into the breach of the gun, closes the back hatch, and pulls the lever, and off the screaming blighter goes through the warp. While this has the added benefit of allowing me to pretty much show the snot-in-a-cage on the loading tray, from a design standpoint it seems pretty flawed in that it'd limit the gun's perceived rate of fire quite a bit; you'd be firing one snotling at a time, and each shot would require you to close the back of the gun up again. That hardly seems impressive for a gun this size, since it's not really artillery in the strictest sense.
Idea 2 came from an Armorcast Cannon. Basically I'd try and work in some sort of 'clip' that fed the snotling shells around into the chamber. The particular example illustrated in the picture has the advantage of showing the snotlings off, but covers the shell design up a bit, and could prove to be a bit difficult to incorporate into the Mega-SAG since it'd basically need to be off on one side of the weapon.
Idea 3 borrows from the Thudd Gun concept. I'd basically have 4 breaches on the back of the cannon, instead of just the one in Idea 1. Three could probably be sealed up and closed, and one of them could have it's hatch swung open with a loader (possibly a grot or lesser mek) about to insert the snotling shells into the chamber.
I'm giving a bit of thought to having a separate loading platform behind the shadowsword cannon, similar to what a Basilisk has, so that the loaders would move with the gun. It'd give me a chance to put a couple of the extra shells propped up against a railing or what have you, too. That sort of detail depends on what I end up doing with the back end of the Mega SAG, though.
Normally I'd just break out my tablet and start sketching ideas out on the reference images, but I'm finding myself at a bit of a creative impasse and my tablet is unavailable in any case. I'm hoping to get some ideas and input as to what might work well for the back end of the cannon and it's loading mechanism for the snotling shells... after that, the rest of the model may well sort itself out.
Hmmmm I like the idea of the krew carrying the ammunition while following the vehicle... Maybe get a grot that pulling a cart around with the ammunition?
Only picture I could find. But second picture on the link, those two grots might be good for pulling that cart? Just my own personal thought. I do I like the third idea best though. http://www.the-waaagh.com/forums/?showtopic=42285
You could then set up the gun to eject spent 'shells' from the rear, which would further reinforce the uniqueness of the ammunition.
As far as extending it to the rear goes: just add some mechanical components alongside the breech/ejection port. Capacitors, rudimentary targeting systems, empty cages in case of an ammunition shortage, or an auxiliary vacuum for the same reason.
Edit: You could also model a couple gretchin chasing snotlings with open, empty cages that had just been 'fired'.
It just popped into my head but as a fourth approach to the ammo feed. This also keeps that feel of the original SAG, but you could put a giant sucker thing on the back sort of like this picture (except it wouldnt blow them out ) Just a thought.
I couldn't find a picture of what I was imagining so I'll try and explain it as best I can.
I like the idea of the breech loading cannon, but you could have a clanky automated loading mechanism so that it looks like it can fire fairly rapidly. It would be a rotating wheel with 3 or 4 grabbers that could be simulataneously grabbing a grot-cage, has one ready grabbed, is loading one into the chamber, and an empty claw ready to grab the next grot.
That way you could get the breech-loading coolness aspect with a little bit of automation to make it less slow and cumbersome.
I leave the details to Orkier minds than mine!
If that doesn't sound good, I like the top loading clip that Dogma suggests, I think that would also work very well.
It's basically a tray with a spring that would push a few grots up towards a rotating piece (doesn't need to rotate, obviously...) that would re-orient them for being loaded into a breach-loading style cannon.
Just a random thought here, but this is amazing (so up to your usual standards of making others look bad )
the electro generators on the spinny bitz (the orbs)
Is there any chance of finding a thin plastic version or a clear one?
Just thinking that a green LED in each one would make it even better as you then have the movement and lights
JD21290 wrote:Just a random thought here, but this is amazing (so up to your usual standards of making others look bad )
the electro generators on the spinny bitz (the orbs)
Is there any chance of finding a thin plastic version or a clear one?
Just thinking that a green LED in each one would make it even better as you then have the movement and lights
I gave lights some thought when I first started the project, but I don't think it would have worked for the simple fact that I would need wires going to each LED in each prong, and those wires would need to be connected to the power source located in the gun itself. No matter how I would hide the wires, when the gun spins, the wires would end up getting all twisted up inside the model and eventually breaking.
Anyway, I'm content with what I have for now.
I gave it some more thought during the week, while I was at school, and I had a bit of an idea.
The main reason I didn't like the back-loading, artillery-esque concept for the Mega-SAG was that it seemed to suggest a tremendously low rate of fire in my mind; you'd have to put a shell in, close the hatch, fire, open the hatch, and repeat. Not very effective for a model that's supposed to stand in for three Big Meks with SAGs, but then again I'm probably the only one who'd ever really worry about the logistics of the model's fictional firing speed like that in the first place.
However, I was playing Left 4 Dead the other day, and while I had the Automatic Shotgun I remembered something. Combat shotguns can chamber multiple shells while being loaded, and then fire them off in series.
Basically, each shot ejects the spent shell and chambers the next one from the internal magazine. I figure, why can't the same mechanism apply to the Mega-SAG? The rear hatch is opened, and multiple snotling shells are loaded into the machine. Hatch is closed, and then the weapon is fired in rapid succession, ejecting spent 'cages' and chambering new ones until the internal magazine's depleted.
I did have time to make one quick conceptual doodle, which I figure I'll share:
I've been seriously considering the alternative design of having a top-loading ammo rail system for the shells to slide into the gun on, as was suggested here a few times. I have yet to draw that concept out, and it's definitely a good one, but truthfully I think having some sort of ammo-rail projection out the top rear of the gun ruins it's lines. Silly to be concerned with aesthetics on an orky warmachine, I know, but right now I'm sort've digging on the straight cannon-esque form in the above concept. I'll doodle up the alternative top-loading design when I have the time tomorrow. In the mean time, I feel slightly more comfortable knowing that I've come up with an overly elaborate, shotgun-magazine based explaination for the above design's rate of fire. I think I have some sort of mental disorder, because I am spending so much time thinking about the gun's method of firing, something most players would never consider in the first place.
Edit: You know what? Before I go to sleep, I may as well do this, quick and dirty.
This way I have something to work from for comparison. It's not terrible, certainly, but I'm not sure how to design rails for the shells to slide in on that won't obscure at least something. The back-loading artillery design would let me have a whole shell visible being loaded into the gun, and a pile of the remaining shells waiting to be lifted up and chambered somewhere on the base nearby... However, this one could be interesting as well. Maybe if I looted the shell-loading winch off a Vindicator I could add in a way of getting the snotling cages from the ground up to the loading grot on top...
One thought... If you really wanted it to be LED lit, you could redo the twirly bit and make it bigger. The wiring and power source for the LED's could all be housed within it so that, when it twirls, the WHOLE THING twirls.
MagickalMemories wrote:One thought... If you really wanted it to be LED lit, you could redo the twirly bit and make it bigger. The wiring and power source for the LED's could all be housed within it so that, when it twirls, the WHOLE THING twirls.
No twisted, broken wires!
Eric
It's doable, buuuut... I think I'll save that for a rainy never.
I can certainly see the charm in it, trust me. I of all people can appreciate unnecessary lights in miniatures. That said, it's just such a monstrous pain that I'm not really feeling it. Plus, there's the issue of maintenance to consider. Motors are hardy, from what I've seen, so I'm not concerned with the one I have inside here burning out. If the battery goes out on the main gun, I've made it easily replaceable. A self-contained spinning apparatus with 3 LEDS has plenty of opportunities to fail that I couldn't easily fix: an LED could go out, the battery could die, and so on... plus, I'd have to have the lights on some sort of separate switch if I did that, which isn't nearly as impressive.
All you need to do to power rotating LEDs is to get 2 metal rings and a couple of small motor brushes. Connect the rings to + and - and fit the brushes. Sorted.
High power white LEDs apparently have an average lifetime of about 50,000 hours. Are you planning on gaming for 2 years solid?
The second design is better in terms of 'showing off' the ammunition. The rails can be on the front and back (not the sides) of the ammo hopper, so long as the ammo cages have some rail connextors on their tops and bottoms.
But the first version will be easier to build, and will show off the cages just as well if there's a small crew of grots carrying cages around.
If you do use the vertical feed concept I would suggest pushing the rails forward on the gun, so that the rear rail clears the back of the breech by a decent amount. I think it will help preserve the line of the weapon itself.
I'd go with the second version you drew. It just looks cooler, although I'd have five or so of them in the loader. Surely simple thin wires on the sides of the bullets to hold them in the loader would be enough, along with a thick 'bottom' and 'top' part of the loader.
MagickalMemories wrote:One thought... If you really wanted it to be LED lit, you could redo the twirly bit and make it bigger. The wiring and power source for the LED's could all be housed within it so that, when it twirls, the WHOLE THING twirls.
No twisted, broken wires!
Eric
It's doable, buuuut... I think I'll save that for a rainy never.
I can certainly see the charm in it, trust me. I of all people can appreciate unnecessary lights in miniatures. That said, it's just such a monstrous pain that I'm not really feeling it. Plus, there's the issue of maintenance to consider. Motors are hardy, from what I've seen, so I'm not concerned with the one I have inside here burning out. If the battery goes out on the main gun, I've made it easily replaceable. A self-contained spinning apparatus with 3 LEDS has plenty of opportunities to fail that I couldn't easily fix: an LED could go out, the battery could die, and so on... plus, I'd have to have the lights on some sort of separate switch if I did that, which isn't nearly as impressive.
Well, I wasn't trying to say you SHOULD do it... just giving you a method on HOW you COULD.
LOL
It's nothing I'd ever actually suggest ANYONE try. Then again, MUCH of the stuff you decide to do is stuff I'd never suggest to anyone (sane). LOL
Those ideas are looking great so far. I like both ideas.
#1 is more a funny/comical look to me. Its very cool and deffinetly Orky.
#2 seems more what I would go for. I like the fact that you can see a couple of the grot rounds, which is nice. AND with that one, you could convert one or two into "spent" shells.
"Spent" shells are an interesting point - are the cages fired along with the snotlings, or not? If not, some ejected empty cages (possibly twisted and broken, if the firing process is a bit destructive) would look good (and add to the terror of the waiting snotlings! )
im i the only one here that notices that for the shock attack gun to be effective the warp crazed snotling has to flip out and in its frenzied rage rip out your brains how can it do that if its in a cage
Well, that was part of my question - is the cage itself actually fired, or is it just the equivalent of a shell casing and stays with the gun to then be ejected?
pandaman wrote:im i the only one here that notices that for the shock attack gun to be effective the warp crazed snotling has to flip out and in its frenzied rage rip out your brains how can it do that if its in a cage
Even if it doesn't flip out, its still inside your body. Imagine eating a live squirrel. Probably doesn't feel good even its complacent about the whole thing.
JD21290 wrote:
the electro generators on the spinny bitz (the orbs)
Is there any chance of finding a thin plastic version or a clear one?
Just thinking that a green LED in each one would make it even better as you then have the movement and lights
I gave lights some thought when I first started the project, but I don't think it would have worked for the simple fact that I would need wires going to each LED in each prong, and those wires would need to be connected to the power source located in the gun itself. No matter how I would hide the wires, when the gun spins, the wires would end up getting all twisted up inside the model and eventually breaking.
I have an idea that you are more than free to use .. why not create a "hopper" feeder ? you can hide the battery in a base for the hopper feed, maybe make a small platform of steps and have a orc tossing grots into the hopped
pandaman wrote:im i the only one here that notices that for the shock attack gun to be effective the warp crazed snotling has to flip out and in its frenzied rage rip out your brains how can it do that if its in a cage
Even if it doesn't flip out, its still inside your body. Imagine eating a live squirrel. Probably doesn't feel good even its complacent about the whole thing.
I think the idea is that it materializes the ammunition out of the cage; sends the organic material through, and leaves the inorganic behind. I was going to put a shell ejection port with a pile of wrecked, twisted, warped and empty cages nearby on the base.
Sorry about the lack of updates recently, but I had a pretty sizable paper to work on in one of my classes and I've been neck-deep in research.
I went with the vertical drop-feed design after enough people convinced me. I'm using some chain mesh on the sides to hold the shells in, since I figured It'd match what I did on my Stompa's kannon arm. It visibly houses three snotling ammunition shells, and I'll be able to use the rest around the model. I seem to have lost one, but hopefully it'll resurface!
The orange bit is a shell from this dart gun, which I bought because it was awesome and promptly broke by accident. The only reason I really used it was because I couldn't find PVC pipe the right diameter, and it's too big for most of my styrene tubing... it was the first thing I found that was roughly the right size, so I went with it.
I've got a fair bit of sprucing up to do to that back end, don't worry - it's just a chassis for me to add armor plating and worky gubbinz over.
I've been giving some thought to flipping the tread assembly over and mounting the gun down like that, as you can see below:
I think it gives the gun a better profile. The effect of it is that it angles the gun up and away from the ground, but nothing necessarily says SAG shots don't arc. I'm probably going to go with this, but I haven't made my mind up yet. If I do I have to remove the battery holder and flip it upside-down, but that shouldn't be a big deal.
Yeah, the caged grots will need a nice bright paint job to remain visible behind the mesh. Otherwise looking good.
Personally I prefer the original track orientation, in particular because it keeps the heavy wheels touching the ground and the lighter idler wheels on top where they belong. But admittedly if it's looted imperial gear then the orks may not care
You sir are absolutely insane in the orkiest ways imaginable this is great stuff very thingummajiggy and da whachamacallit and the dohickery go's boom!
MeanGreenStompa wrote:The tracks do verymuch look upside down to me, due to the arrangements of wheels inside.
Ditto, I'm afraid. The two big wheels look like they are supposed to be on the ground and it looks a little odd otherwise.
Nothing stopping you from having the tracks the normal way up and still angling the SAG in the same way, however, since I like the more arcing profile anyway.
One thing I might suggest for the loader (a little late, I know) would be a 3 round sliding breach. Basically that first example of a breach loader but with three grot cages sort of in a 1 over 2 formation like a nurgle icon. Showing it in mid closure would show off the grots, demonstrate that they are being loaded in, and a few spares and empty cages would cement the idea.
The short coming might be that the three cages would be too big compared to the rear of the weapon.
pandaman wrote:well this is over from here on it's threadcromancy
Technically it hasnt been 30 days between posts so its not... but not sure if commenting 3 times keeping the thread going (not being the OP either..) works for it... also I dont theres theres threadromancy in P&M stuff right?
you need to have a side platform sticking out that you can put the mek onto (magnets or summit) AND a little lever which he can pull. it would be cool if you could stand him on top of the gun in place of the grot workers, then reposition his arm so he is hammering the grot cages down the hatch with his big mallety thing, and maybe have a few grot cages next to him (with at least one on his actual base) just ideas though
I managed to save a bunch of parts from the new plastic Kan kit, and I thought they might fit nicely on the body of my neglected Mega Shokk Attack Gun. I extended the back of the gun just a tiny bit and stuck a half of the Kan engine on either side. I'm going to be filling in the area underneath them a little later on.
I think I'm actually going to flip the treads back over for the direct fire version, simply because the larger wheels inside the tracks really should be along the bottom. I'm probably going to beef it up with track guards so that it looks larger and more capable ot hauling such a large piece of artillery.
Unfortunately I think by extending the length, the spinny bit now looks to small? Would it be worth casting it again, but larger? (And would the motor take it?)
With the new flat firing angle I can't help but feel it seems a little close to the ground - I wonder if it needs some kind of orky lift mechanism underneath to look like it can be raised and lowered as appropriate.
Still, just an idea, this really does look fab so far.
This is probably necronsising or whatever (And im VERY sorry ) but have you just finished it and left us all out in the cold or have you just been busy and forgot about this old thread because this is VERY Interesting to read about D: And I demand moar
) never designed to actually spin, meaning that it spins horribly off-balance due to the 'prongs' not being angled out equally.
Would it be worth casting it again, but larger? (And would the motor take it?)