Hey guys. I want to start this off with an apology - up till now I haven't been keeping a W.I.P. blog on these forums about this project because I was a little embarassed about how my last one, the warboss on warbike, went. I've put that aside for the time being, though, and started making something entirely different that I think you might enjoy.

I have a bunch of pictures in the stages of W.I.P. that I am about to present that will culminate in where I am at presently.

To begin with, some of you may recognize this sketch:



This is art by Mark Gibbons, a fellow who works for GW and does illustrations for their books. There's been a lot of rumors and whispers going around on Warseer that GW might actually make a small stompa gargant for release - so I decided I'd beat them to it! The gargant is very much based in scale from that picture - I am working on this project by inflating that picture to 200% times it's original size and starting from there. My final product will be about 7-8 inches tall. If your monitor is calibrated correctly (running at it's native resolution) then this picture should be to scale:

http://www.fusedcreations.com/adam/largegargantsketch.jpg

Just linked for size, since it'd probably break the forums.

Edit/Update, June 16, 2008: The model's now completely painted and finished. You can see the final work at this thread here - the rest of this thread is just the W.I.P. that got there.

Anyway. Having set myself to this new task, I began by building the best defined part on the beast - an arm.





With the arm done, I decided I'd move to the feet next, as they were also well-defined. Due to the dificulty of making the curves portrayed in the picture, I came up with an interesting method of making them - I framed it out with plasticard, and used a modeling putty to create the smooth curves. Then, I created a rubber mold and poured myself a resin duplicate, saving myself a lot of time and energy!

With that done I then proceeded to build upwards from those feet until I reached a point where the legs would no longer be visible inside the torso and underneath the skirting.

The next step, since I wanted to start getting everything consolidated into one piece, was to build the 'hips' and upwards into the torso.

Then I attached the torso and began work on the engine, which is where I'm at currently in the building process. The arm is attachable through magnets at the moment, and the overall function of the engine should be fairly apparent - to power the legs and drive the shoulders. There are still some details I need to fill in here and there, though, like a huge exhaust. Anyway, the point of the chains on the wheels is to make the shoulder joint mobile - when the arm needs to be raised, the wheel on that side of the body gets cranked down and the chains torque the wheel that they are wrapped around at the top.

I'm trying to be faithful to the sketch while still incorporating some of my own ideas, such as the pulley wires that control the arm's operation and the way the engine is designed. I do think I'll signifigantly be redesigning the head, though, as I'm not too fond of it.

Some of you may be wondering what I am doing with the front of the torso.. Allow me to explain:



I am sticking a crew of probably 3-4 grots in underneath the head as the main control center! They'll be working levers and wheels and such and controlling the gargant's motion and guns.

The cylindrical nature of the torso will be remedied (or at least broken up a bit) fairly soon when I take very thick plasticard and smack it on the outside as armor plating, and the legs should be better concealed when I add the armored skirt.

Lastly, I'm also thinking I am going to light this model, as I tend to do with a lot of my other models. Two lit eyes and a lit cockpit sounds reasonably good for this project - I'm just waiting to see where I'm going to fit a 9v in.

Sorry for not including you all in this process earlier, I was just a little embarassed by how my last project went. However, I'm confident in this one and I hope you guys'll enjoy seeing it come together.

WOW! Great job. Thats really cool.

That ork in the picture of the feet is also cool lookin.

Wow, that's some inspiration work (and it's not even half done yet).  Your attention to the smallest detail is amazing, keep up the good work.

That, my friend, is excellent work - great stuff!

That's incredible.  It really is an impressive replication of some very inspiring concept art.  Outstanding...

 

RZ

You are a *fudge*ing genius !

The players of Adepticon Team Bloid bow to your genius and wish to thank for you for the motivation

::Thankful this guy isn't going to Adepticon::

I hate you! You make my Ork stuff look pathetic. My Mekboy is just going to have to build another Stompa Gargant to DESTROY yours!

(Keep up the good work! LOL)

This is VERY impressive. I will be eagerly awaiting the next installment. Puts my own mini-stompa to shame.

Now, a word of caution - PLEASE DO NOT add the grots as you've noted. Grots would never be given the chance to control something so killy. The mek would be inside the head, ordering grots around to make sure things are working. This is the only non-orky thing going on with this project, and is excellent in every other way than this.

The mek that designed and built this would be too proud to let anyone else pilot the stompa. I could see a hint of the mek's face visible behind one of the eyes, but other than grots running around at the meks command, don't have the grots controlling anything! It wouldn't feel right.

I see the need for grots, but please, no control levers for them.

would you please stop creating things that are just so unbelivable AWSOME!
it's absolutly fantastic, I can't stand it. my Gargbot looks very dumb compared to THIS.

and don't let Grotz pilot it

That's so cool I just wet my pants and the pants of everyone around me! That's rad to the max, no fakin'. I mean, man that's some good stuf there. Awesome work on a VERY orky looking device. Hopefully, a new ork dex will bring this option into popularity. Until then though, you've got an awesome and unique model that would make any ork player jealous. I'm always so impressed with how much talent is on these boards!

[edit] and I like the idea of grot piloting it.  The gatekeeper and the tunnel cleaner machines from Labrynth are usually how I picture most orky things.  Full of tight places and crammed with levers and pulleys that only a tiny creature like a grot could operate.

A few things:

I don't mean to dissapoint, but I do intend to have grots piloting for a few reasons.

1) It makes an interesting focal point, as grots instantly bestow character to something. I'm picturing four grots sharing the space, with one to each arm and one controlling the legs in the middle with the last one harassing him - he'll have a lever in each hand, and a grot behind him with his hands over the driver's eyes as he tries to shove him out of the way and get at the controls.

2) I plan on having a fun rule that I want to use with the gargant - due to the grots piloting, at the beginning of every turn I have to roll a die. If I roll a 1, the stompa goes berserk - the grots start havin' at eachother and fighting inside the cockpit and the gargant starts gyrating wildly and moving entirely counter to the drivers' intent. This would mean I roll a scatter die and move six inches in whatever direction it dictates. I realize it's a stupid handicap, but it seems perfectly in the flavor of orks and would be fun to play.

Also, GrimTeef, consider that this stompa is relatively small in the world of gargants - if a mek built this one, you can count on the fact that somewhere, there's one about four times this size and eight times as killy with the mek's name on it, and this one gets relegated to the grots instead.

I'm almost done with the engine aside from some riveting - you can see where according to the dots. I also added a removable grot for the moment - he looks good, but not quite right. I need to work on it some more.

With any luck I might get to the armor plating by tonight.

the chains on the shoulders are amazing

Firstly, Dont worry about the Bike WIP, reguardless of what happened, it was pretty cool while it lasted. that being said this is pretty amazing as well.

Anyone know how wide the standard cityfight street is? Like, perhaps how wide they are on that battlemat released with the new imperial city? When I base this thing I'd like for it to be able to fit down most streets. ;P

The terrain placement rules in CoD have a central hub of buildings no more than 6" apart, with buildings placed wherever you like around the rest of the board. So if you want it to get right into the centre of town, it needs to be less than 6" wide, or be able to remove buildings from its path (which can be done with Strategems).

Terrific work, by the way

I am completely blown away by this conversion.

Massive props to you. Please keep giving us updates!

Dude... you make me sick.





But in a good way.

Well, with one arm on it's just 5 inches wide, so I think if I base it carefully I could fit it down 6" streets.

Here's a question for you guys: I've been thinking about making the other arm, and looking at it, I'm presented with two things I'd like your help with.

First off, that buzzsaw. I've actually tried a time or two to make it already, but I find the teeth are very difficult and I'm wondering what suggestions you guys might have. I'm afraid I don't have any bitz that cover buzzsaw teeth.

Second is what the arm's weaponry should actually be. Looking at the drawing, I see one main kannon with a secondary, slightly smaller barrel underneath it. Judging from that, I'd say the overall thing would play as a twin-linked Kannon... Still, though, I'm not sure quite how I should make the loading mechanism look - really, I need to figure out what I'm going to do with all of the unseen mechanics of that arm. Emulating the first arm's mechanical function in pulleys and hydraulics isn't hard, but the actual gun itself needs some thought and I'm wondering if you guys have any ideas.

Beware da kraw!

Chainsaw ideas?


Take apart some salad shooter you find cheap at a pawn shop/second hand store?

Jams...

Goto the local Home Depot or Lowes, and look at the fine toothed 2" round blades for Dewalt or Makita. Plenty of Orky bitz there for Mekboyz.

Where did you get the hoses for the arm? The detail on this model is amazing.

Mac

A lot of the hoses on the thing are either simply rubber tubing with some fine gauge wire wrapped around, or tubing from lego.

I hate to quote Mr. Slave, but... Jesus Christ

Awesome job so far. You better paint that thing when it's done

I've been thinking about the weapon... I've seen a few gargants with the chain-belt fed approach, but I think I might try something different. I'm thinking of a sort of giant revolver mechanism at the moment where there's five chambers and each time it fires off a round it rotates into position for a grot to load another shell into the open space.

Of course, that idea doesn't work well with the two barrel design on the illustration.





I played around and came up with a mock-up of what I was thinking of for the revolver approach, but it ended up looking a lot like an imperial guard nade launcher... and I really think this thing needs more than one gun on it's arm, but I'm not sure how to revise it. The revolver design doesn't work that well with two barrels, though. Maybe I should have a large revolver barrel and a small minigun / gattling gun mounted below it? Like a big big shoota?

First off, this is the greatest conversion I have ever seen, major props.

Now to your question, to make it more Orky, I would add an exposed coil around the barrel for recoil. And maybe turn it upside down or something to distingush it.

Do you plan on playing this model as a "counts as" anything. I am not familiar to much with the Ork codex, so any weapons that can be taken should give you inpiration to your second weapon system.

First off, this is quite possibly the finest Ork vehicular conversion I've seen in my 13 years of playing GW games.

As for the gun, I really like the revolver idea.

Notice how the sketch appears to have two barrells on the gun arm. Perhaps attach a Battlecannon size gun underneath and surround them with a housing.

Maybe surround the barrell with a variety of cobbled on autocannon Cannon/Bigshoota size guns.

Or perhaps a oversized flamethrower attached to the bottom of the revolver barrel with Hellhound gas tanks for fuel. This allows for some interesting grot placement like a grot holding as lighter up to the flamer barrell as the pilot light, or maybe a grot smoking a cig poking his finger to stop a leak.

With all the plasticard work you've done, I half expected you to have knicked, cut, and scarred hands in the pics where you're holding the parts.

ah, gotta love sketchup

altough I'm an Ork player myself I think this second gun is too much. but the first version looks cool. like a giant grenade launcher

I also prefer the first version posted. and if you made it shoot oil barrels with a grot lighting fuses and a grot oiler filling the barrels in the chambers that would be cool

re the mekboy/grot crew argument, I'd suggest something inbetween- a mekboy commander with the main controls, plus lots of grotz crawling around adjusting steam pressure, tightening engine bitz etc

re the Big Gun, you could go lo-tech with a gun turret which (when seen closer up) is revealed as a conventional gun like a cut-down Earthshaker cannon or whatever, with grots struggling to load the next shell. Or go hi-tech and have a huge Zzap gun of some sort - that would work in well with all your cabling. A giant gatling gun would also be cool, if you could do a matching ammo feed belt.

Cities of Death got a mention earlier - if you don't already, you should definitely consider getting the factory kit - it includes numerous bits which would be great for a mekboy to scavenge when building a stompa. I'll definitely be using them for my stompa (when I get around to making one, just after i finish another five projects...)

Rather good.

The quantity of expletives I would prefer to use in that assessment is limited, one could say, by the requirements of a family board.

If you're worried that weapon one looks too Imperial, consider that an assault cannon looks much more imperial and your second sketchup kind of looks like an assault cannon with an auxiliary grenade launcher. A giant grenade launcher is way Orkier than anything involving an assault cannon.

So, I started making the gun barrels. Nothing tremendous yet, but you should be able to get an idea of where I'm going with this. Large recoil kannon up top, big shoota down below - the Kannon will be fed enormous shells that move down a small conveyor into the chamber, loaded by a single grot at the top - this is based on an old OOP Armorcast Model design.. The machine gun will be belt-fed. The kannon has three recoil springs to help reduce the kick from when the kannon fires and keep the stompa from falling.





There's obviously a lot more detail to go on these, I just thought I'd post things as I made them for the sake of having sequential steps.

The shell is drying at the moment, and then it'll get a mold made of it just for simplicity's sake and I'll cast half a dozen or so.

Continuing. The machine gun underneath the kannon will be protruding forward a bit farthern than the edge of the barrel.. it will probably be belt-fed. The largr kannon is going to get a bit of boxing off towards the back end of it where the shells will be fed in.

Not much work, though - I'm waiting for the shells to dry so I can start figuring out how wide the ammo feed has to be (Forgot to find out before I set them )

Vaguely reminds me of a UT flack cannon for an unknown reason. Extremely nice!

You know, I was thinking that while I was making it. The UT Flak cannon thing, that is. It's the side-supports that do it. Still, I love that gun from the game anyway

kannon3.jpg Does. Also now I want to go out and get some plasticard for the first time in YEARS

Jamsessionein, you're giving me a plasticard-on!

I gotta tell you guys, I'm not that happy with how this looks. I think I'm going to scrap this one for now and reconsider the overall kannon design. I'm not sure what it is that's bothering me in particular - working out the ammo feed at the moment is just annoying me, and attaching the machine gun below looks a little wrong. I'm not sure what exactly it is that's bothering me about this the most, honestly.

In any case, I cast a mold of the shells and they're setting up now. They're basic, but I think they'll look good when painted up with teeth and dags and such. I'll probably keep them and build a new kannon... or move on to a different part for the moment.

If I were to take a rough guess, I'd say what's bothering you is that the machine gun on the bottom looks FAR too much like a flamer of some sort... as well as being so large that it takes away from the rotary cannon (which is supposed to be it's main weapon, from the sound of it).

I'd say just make the darned thing smaller, and the proportions will look MUCH better.


Something else that might help, if you really don't feel like scrapping the machine gun... just increase the space between the barrels of the 2 weapons.  As is, they are FAR too close together, and being similar in size, take away from the visual balance.

That conversion is looking totally awesome!

I still like the Flak cannon, but the double-deuce gatling would be a lot of fun.

How about having the recoiil braces detached from the barrel of the kannon? (a bit like the ones above the Tau ion cannon) They'd have to be coming out to the side, away from the main body of the Stompa - with Grot riggas hanging off, or maybe bannas dangling from them. As far as a loading mechanism goes, how about grots passing shells out of the body of the gargant to the poor chap doing the breach loading?

The gun looks very 'clean' to me. Perhaps if you ork it up a bit with some rivits and armor patches it will look a bit better. I personally still like the large chamber fed gun. And you can still turn the underslung gun into a flamer with just a bit of a change and that would definetly wotk for a City stomping Stompa.

No, no, no - all wrong.

The "machine gun" DOES look like a Flamer because you put the holed muzzle way out front. The entire "barrel" should be holed along it's length. If you need an example, get the Ork BS bit from the KK/Dreadnaught or look at the BS Boy. Once the entire length is holed, I'd glue a smaller tube (unholed) in front to represent the muzzle. Or glue a smaller tube (a bit longer than your holed barrel) and insert it inside the holed "barrel". This would be a little more realistic as those "holed barrels" aren't truly barrels, they are cowlings to disperse heat.

The Kannon should have a longer barrel out front, followed by your recoil springs, and a short (preferably wider) tube/square to serve as the breech. If you are looking for an example of a top-loading "clip"-style magazine to load the Kannon, try the M1 Garand.


Image showing receiver, clip is loaded from the top and shells are ejected from the bottom


8 rounds are staggered in the clip, once the clip is empty, it is ejected (with an audible PING, you'll notice this in movies like Saving Pvt. Ryan)

Good luck!!!!

While I was stewing the gun arm over, I decided to start making some of the stuff that goes on the back - namely, the grot bomb. I realize in the original art, it isn't one, but I also love the idea of the grot bomb launcher (courtesy of forgeworld) and will be modifying it slightly into one. I will be armor-plating this and adding a bit more detail, obviously, but you can get an idea of how it's shaping up so far from the pictures.



I managed to get two urban basing kits from my local hobby store today, as well, which should help a good deal for basing this beast!



Also, I had a very interesting idea...



With some modular magnetic action, I could remove the grot bomb and change it up for a basilisk earthshaker cannon depending upon what the game required. I really like the way it looks up there, honestly - I think it must be done.

Lastly, look what I got my lootin' hands on!



The best hobby store manager in the world hooked me up with the perfect addition to the base/underside of the raised foot. "I was planning on getting a giant anyway, so I thought I'd give you the gobbo". <3 <3 <3 to Scott at Hi-Way Hobbies, although I know he doesn't read this. Or at least, I think he doesn't, as he acts surprised everytime I bring something in for his suggestions.

Yeah, I like the magnetic detachable Earthshaker cannon idea - in fact I'd make the head and both arms also detachable coz you just know you're going to change your mind on the weapons at some point. And of course Stompas will hopefully be a standard part of the next Ork Codex and it would be a crime if you had to rip this model apart just to make it game-legal.

Good call on using the squashed gobbo model - I must steal the idea for mine.

See if this works any better, design-wise. Any comments are appreciated on the design! I'm still strongly considering making the bottom barrel a big shoota, though.







Also, another question - for anyone familiar with using housing insulation foam, would this be the best method of making the barrel 'braces' (the large things that go around both barrels and form the overall profile of the gun). I can't picture that framing shape working out with plastic, but I don't like the idea of working with foam for the cannon because I've never done something with it before and I understand it melts unless you coat it with pva glue, which would ruin the surface, no?

Really, what I'm trying to figure out is how I could get a 4" long block of that framing shape that I could drill barrel holes in.

The new design looks better... but now it looks really "clean" looking. Not the ad hoc industrial look usually associated with Ork Designs.

How about a big pump shotgun loaded and cocked by grots for the bottom part of the gun?

I've used foam a whole bunch for terrain, but I've never had much luck cutting it to be finely detailed ot to any exact specifications.

Posted By jamsessionein on 06/16/2006 3:02 PM
 The best hobby store manager in the world hooked me up with the perfect addition to the base/underside of the raised foot. "I was planning on getting a giant anyway, so I thought I'd give you the gobbo". <3 <3 <3 to Scott at Hi-Way Hobbies, although I know he doesn't read this. Or at least, I think he doesn't, as he acts surprised everytime I bring something in for his suggestions.

 

 

 

Hi - Way Hobbies? You are talking about the one in Ramsey, NJ, correct?

 

Where do you live jamesessionein?

i'd stick to the gatling,it just screams ork.
much less than the new one you're making.Try removing the 'flamer'-like part and replacing it with something else,
maybe you'll find out whats wrong

sossorck: Yes, that's the one in Ramsey. I'm over in Ringwood, just off 287.

jamsessionein, this is amazing. Awesome work.

With regards to working with Foam.  Lowe's has a small spray on coating that you can use to coat the foam.   It protects it from spray paint and regular paints.  I have used it many times on all kinds of terrain and display boards.  The can has pictures of foam shapes such as rings and cones on it.  It is located in the spray paint section and is specifically made for this material.

Talk to ya' later,

Greg 

 

have you seen the old Armorcast Mega Cannon. It kept the drum idea, but it was more like a wire rack that just held the ammo. I like that idea for orks. A grot would just role a shell into a big wire hamper and each progressive shell would just fall into the breach after the previous shell was ejected. ( think about a paintball gun if you get what I mean.)

Cuda: Seen it, and been considering.

Well, I've been busy prepping presents and such for father's day tomorrow, but I did manage to do a little bit more work to this thing's control grotpit.





Just some random bitz and machinery. The hole in the middle is for me to stick a grot engineer in later, maybe. I figure it helps break up the flatness of the back, anyway. I'm not too concerned with details as it gets closer to the top, as I am increasingly sure that it'll end up being concealed once the head is on anyway.

Here's what I'm thinking for the rest of the interior:

Grot 'captain' at the front center wearing one of those imperial comissar hats and 'steering' the gargant with a large boat wheel



One to either side of him working the levers - and an extra one getting in the way of one of the side grots, trying to clamber around him to the controls.

Also, for reference, those circular magnets above the middle are the beginnings of the joint for the neck to attach to, so that I will eventually be able to remove the head for easy painting.

I may just change the concept's plans a little bit and remove the upper arm section of the gun arm, so I have a shoulder-joint mounted cannon. Still thinking about that a bit - I tried foam and such, but I'm not a fan of the material and the way it cuts, so I'll probably wander around the hobby store looking at tanks and stuff until I find something captivating. ;P
I'm thinking I need to put a flamer in this stompa's mouth for a little extra killyness. ;P

I keep jumping around on this thing, but at least I'm making a bit of progress here and there.

AAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGHHHH!!!!!!

Now, I want you guys to know that the grotpit is not near finalized yet. The grots are going to get a little more work done - these photos help point out mold lines I missed and the likes - and also, the captain's going to get a hat and maybe an eyepatch.

Also, because my mother's a huge trekkie fan, she did actually name them. From left to right:



Cap'n 'Urk (Captain Kirk), Sprocket (Spock), and Snotty (Scotty).

I may change their names around a little and add 'snotty' in as a grot sticking up out of the hole behind them, in an adequate pose to suggest that maybe he's yelling 'We'z cannae do it, cap'n! I'z givin' 'er all shez got!' - although it may be a bit of a tight fit. The grots are all removable at the moment so that I can adequately paint the interior unobstructed - they'll be glued in afterwards. Until then, they're free to roam around. The cap'n does also have a peg leg, but I doubt it's discernable.

Screw the haters - those grots look perfect in there.

could you please stop being so fraggin' good. that's really depressing.
and don't forget to model "snotty" a larger belly.

Armored! Pending rivets now, and the armored skirting until I figure out if I'm going to use staples as the 'joint' that they hang from or not. And the chains and such, maybe a few extra hatches, you get the idea.

Before plating it, I banded the plastic towards the bottom so that it would assume a sort of conical shape instead of cylindrical, with the plate's tops pointing in towards the grotpit a little bit to match the picture.



And then added plating and some battle damage








Next is a rivet job once I feel that all of the surface details I want have been added.

Nice progress ! I'm looking forward when you doing the head.

The modell looks amazing, great attention to detail and very close to the original.You've done a good job representing the "feel" of the miniature even in those parts not shown on the original art.

I've seen your many different designs for the right arm, and I think any of them would look great. But I do hope you are gonna add the saw to it also, it's just so orky, and would make it stay tro to the original art. Have you tried looking for real saw blades or gearwheels/sprockets? Motorcykle front sprockets would fit very well, though try to get a hold on some aluminum ones or it's gonna be front heavy. Maybe even bicycle rear sprockets would work?
Also, I don't think you shold go with a "shoulder mounted" gun, that's for dreadnouhgts... give the beast a right arm!

I like the work with the "grotpit", those little critters are always fun.

All in all, great looking model. I'm looking forward to the updates.

Ar, I thinks you be needin' a Ork Slaver Capt'n to show dem Grotz whos da Boss!

Looks good all of it!

Check out the

http://www.the-waaagh.com/

See what the Ladz gotta say!

If you finish this thing, you're a shoe-in for a Golden Daemon.

Well, it's a bit rough, but I think it looks good. Tricky to superheat metal hinges with a blowtorch and shove them in plastic. Took a little while, but I think the end result matches up to the picture suitably well. I haven't riveted or added glyphs to the armor plating yet - that'll probably come tomorrow. There's a little bit of cleanup on the holes that the skirt armor is hinged into that I need to do with an xacto knife, but other than that I'm pretty happy with the way it looks - now it has a more traditional gargant-esque shape to it, with only the feet visible (from the front, anyway. The back has no skirting, so the entire leg and mechanism is visible up to about halfway up the leg springs).









The grots aren't in the pictures for the moment as I forgot to put them in before the pictures. They'll still stay removable until final painting so I can get at all the cracks and crevasses.

What do you guys think?

Just for the scale of it, as well:





Should help place the gargant's scale for anyone having difficulty with it. It's small as gargants go, but it's a stompa through and through.

What do you guys think?
I haven't been this impressed since Barph made his warhound titan.

You've really captured the GW art. Probably better than they could (Though they'd be limited by having to make molds for the thing...).
I wish I could use plastic card like you...

Dude your bits box must be the shiznit. This is so far past rediculous I need a new phrase to describe this. Here is a start:

You have a conversion Yahtzee!
The THAC0 of this in neg infinity.
Chicks will dig you because of your converting skills...there probably the best I know.

I am amazed by the sheer awsomeness of this conversion!

all hail the doG of conversions!

Very suite stompa... i particularly like the little guys in the "cockpit" - and the idea of having an imp standing buy to reload the "big shoota" is also very cool.

One Q though, what is that white stuff you did it all with? and how did you cut it? - tell me you have a laser prototyping machine and i will cry.

It's plasticard, a.k.a. sheet styrene cut to size. Just thin sheets of plastic that I cut with an xacto knife and glue into place.

A laser prototyping machine would be fun, though.

A few opinion questions for you guys that I'm interested in. I'm wondering firstly about suggested LED colors and secondly about basing.

Now, let's talk about LEDs off the bat - there's going to be 3, as far as I can figure, all attached to the head. Two will be behind the eyes (one for each) and one on the underside of the jaw to light the grotpit. With that said, I'm trying to figure out what color LEDs I should use in order to come up with the appropriate voltage I'll need (certain colors require more juice than others). Keep in mind that I'll be painting the gargant a combination of faded red (red goes fasta!) and rusted metal.. so the eyes should be a suitable color. I don't think red eyes would compliment red armor well, but bright green might be an option. (As well as orange and such). I don't like the thought of blue LEDs for the eyes, though, as green seems more sinister. Yellow or orange could always be an option as the eyes are going to double as zzap cannons (Gaze of Gork) but I'm not certain.

Also, what color should the LED be that lights the grotpit? I'm going to put it just underneath the head so it will illuminate properly, but I don't know if yellow is going to look silly or not. Red down in the grotpit might actually be appropriate (consider emergency lights or when they go to red alert in combat) I could always go with white, as well, but I don't know if that'd be too bright.

Secondly, I wanted to discuss the base. I'm having a few complications as I'm thinking here - I can either make the base a small size, or a larger display size. Seeing as I'd like to play with the gargant, and as the flavor of the next few months is going to be cityfighting, part of me doesn't want the base to be more than 6" wide (to fit down some city streets and alleys). The gargant looks a little tight and restricted on a 6" base, though, and I can't add some of the things I was thinking of originally, such as a footprint with the flattened grot in it and an imperial guardsman fleeing for his life. Now, I could add all those on a base, but then it would start to get to be like a diorama and impactical for gaming.. I'm not sure what to do.

Here's some pictures to show you the scale of things in base-terms.





The last option I have is to make a diorama base with a hole in it large enough to fit the 6" base of the gargant.. so that I could place the gargant in the slot and have it on a display base. I like this idea, but I don't know how to make the rubble look relatively seamless between the two pieces (gargant base and diorama base).

It would be something like this:



Note how you can see the mini on it's base slotted into the diorama base.. the only complication is that it's one thing to do it on snow or grass or regular flock, but I don't know how well rubble and urban mess will translate.

Anyway, I'd like help with any of these above mentioned things.

I think you're asking in the wrong league, considering that people like me are even allowed to view and reply to this amazing thread.

Well, first of all, I would definitely keep the base to 6" or less. If you've made something this phenomemally cool, you simply MUST be able to play with it on the table. That being said, I like the diorama base w/ hole option. As far as breaking up the base/diorama transition, I would think with all the "noise" created by the rubble on an urban-ruin style of base, that it would actually blend better than with something smooth and consistent, like snow.

Also, since you asked, I like the idea of green eyes and a red light for the cockpit, just as long as you don't get any red-green christmas kind of feeling from it. It's kinda hard to know if that'll happen without seeing it though. I imagine it will depend mostly on the shades of the reds and green.

I'm a huge fan of this project BTW. I loved the concept art when I saw it, and you've done a great job bringing it to life. Can't wait to see it finished!

Okay...I could use wiring help from any of you that are knowledgable. There are two LEDs that need to be bright green (the eyes), and one of them needs to be red (grotpit). As I understand, the green LEDs require ~3.3v (I think it's 3.3 for true green, and 2.2 for yellow-green.. so I might go with the 2.2v ones), while red are around 2v to power, so I think a conventional 9v battery would work fine for this project, and would actually prefer to use a 9v battery for the convenience of being able to easily change the battery (I have one of those top-clip things for it).

I want one switch to turn everything on - I flip it on, and it turns on the two green LEDs until I flip the switch back off. In addition, I also want the red LED to turn on, but I want it to flicker, erratically if possible - much like those busted out streetlights that flicker on and off at random intervals. Random intervals would be desirable, that is, although I don't know if that's possible. I'd prefer if the LEDs were around the 5mm size I'm used to (I think it's 5mm.. whatever your average LED is).

I have very little wiring experience, and in the past I've been very fortunate when my wiring projects actually turn on. With that said, I would really love to get some help with this - I have no idea how, or even if, the flickering of the red light is possible. What I do know, or rather, what I've heard, is that LEDs require resistors to keep themselves from burning out, but I have no idea what kind I need to get.

I would really love any help you guys could give me, as I'd ideally want to swing by radio shack tomorrow to pick all the stuff I need up. I can buy the LEDs themselves without a problem, and probably find a suitable switch, but I have no idea what kind of resistors I need or how to set everything up.

Don't know if the color LED is available... but PURPLE eyes might look cool. Failing that... I'd say Yellow.


Grotpit light. Red.

I also vote for the diorama base with 6" removable portion so you can play with him.

RE: LEDs
If you want to run all of your LEDs off of a 9V battery, you'll probably want to have some resistors set up to have less voltage across the LEDs to limit the current going through them.  To get only ~2V from the battery would require you to get two resistors and put them in a "voltage divider" arrangement, with one resistor connected to the positive terminal of the battery and the second tied on one end to the free end of the first resistor and its second end connected to "ground", in this case, the negative terminal of the battery.  You'd connect another lead from the where the two resistors join to be the voltage lead to the LEDs.  You'd need about a 2kOhm and a 7kOhm resistor to get about 2 V from the battery (the 2kOhm would be the one connected to the negative lead...look up Voltage Divider on Wikipedia if you need a visual diagram).  If you go this route, try to get the fattest (you should be able to notice that some resistors are thicker than others) resistors you can as they can handle more current through them.  It'd probably be easier just to use 2 AA or AAA batteries, though (and less soldering).  I believe RadioShack sells some battery holders.  Not positive on that though. 

I'd go with red inside the grotpit as well. As for the eyes, I'd go with green or orange.

For the base, it seems to me that even if you went with a 6" base, all those extra details would be somewhat smooshed in there (technical term). The display base insert would definitely be the way to go. There still ought to be a fun thing or two on the actual base, though... perhaps the Mekboy in charge of maintaining it accidentally got snagged on one of the chains when the grots eagerly jumped in and took off, and now he's being dragged along behind..?

The only reason the base insert would detract from the diorama feel is because the base is tapered to a larger diameter on the bottom. This, of course, leaves an indented ring around the mini which kind of ruins the look.  So, as I see it there are two options:

1. Use a straight cylinder base with no taper that can fit snugly into your diorama base (good)
2. Use broken up pieces of the street to overhang slightly off of the base. Then, have a hole in the diorama base that conforms to the shape of the overhnging street section. Use Rubble, manholes, or craters to hide the seam lines between the stompa base and the diorama base. (Better)

I wouldn't suggest that much work but you definitely have the skill to pull it off.

my goodness my goodness...... there are no words just words for my disbeleif

BASE:
Does it say anywhere that the base has to be circular??? could you not just have an odd shaped base - ie. a circle with an extension on the back for the foot print?

Otherwise - i would imagine this walker is a damned heavy piece of machinery that would leave huge cracks and maybe light craters and whatnot in the street - make the edges all cracked and raised - that explains/hides it when you put it back in the diorama

LED:
personally i think green might like cool inside the grotpit - and make that one the one that flickers - for flickering you get something called a "555 timer" as far as i can remember from elec. shop 12 years ago. Although that might only give regular timed pulses as opposed to flickering - i have a friend who does electronics - will ask him to draw a diagram for you and post it asap. yellow eyes - i like that

While I consult the more electrically-minded people that are helping me do the LEDs, I figured I'd move along to the other arm and get it done as I haven't made much progress with this recently. I hate continually trying to redesign this thing, as it's had me in a rut for a while, but I think I finally broke out of it and came up with a decent plan. It deviates slightly from the original concept art, but I think it's suitable.





You'll notice a few things:

The circular saw was replaced with the equivalent of an enlarged ork chainsword. I like this option better - just as rippy, in my opinion, but less awkward-looking. Also, I think I'll be ditching the grot idea for the arm - just no room, really, as I'd prefer to have hydraulics there to 'support' the weight of the heavier gun arm, as it were. You'll notice this also has more hydraulics than the other arm - this was to suggest that the weight of the weapon arm is a lot heavier than the wrecka claw, and that it needed additional support.

I'll be chaining the two weapon barrels together at the end, as well.

Overall, I think I'll have a good deal of success with this design, and I'm getting started on it at the moment. I may revise the chamber/ammo feed a little bit for the top Kannon, but the rest of it is good enough to start building. Off I go!

nice, i think it would look cool if you had a huge shell housing box on the back of the arm - counter weights it, and you could have the top shell exposed - even show the hydraulic loading arm pushing a shell forward...

about the flickering light - my electronics supa whizz buddy says that its not at all easy to get it to flicker like a busted light - you will need a micro-controller and set it to turn on and off at intervals like 1ms, .75ms etc etc - but that after a couple of flickers you will see the pattern - unless you add in a few MC's on your board all to go on at different times - but once again eventually a pattern will emerge.

Not quite random but have you considered the following for lighting:

ebay link Kite Lights

I think they would work quite well, they have single colour flashing types and two colour types.

They have the advantage of being magnetic and changeable...and cheap...

 

.. Wow. Those are really great, actually. I think I'm going to buy a few of those. Great find!

Only a tiny bit done on the gun arm, but I like posting my W.I.P. pictures anyway as feedback is always useful. The rippa is lengthened to a proper bayonet-esque length on the barrels, as a few insightful individuals have been nice enough to point out to me that if the gargant swings the arm down, more likely than not with the shorter rippa they'd be hitting stuff with the gun barrels. I need to build the boxy engine part for the rippa and attach it and then start working on surface details and ammo feeds. The two wrapped metal bands around the barrels look better than I thought they would initially - better than the chains did, anyhow. I'll probably drop two small armor support plates on either side from the bands to the exterior housing of the rippa just for some extra apparent support.

On the squashed grot note, why not just have him squished on the bottom of the raised foot? Then you can have a gameable base and there'll be some more interest on the foot. Not that it isn't chuffing amazing already, mind you!

Posted By SuperJohn on 06/23/2006 4:09 PM
On the squashed grot note, why not just have him squished on the bottom of the raised foot? Then you can have a gameable base and there'll be some more interest on the foot. Not that it isn't chuffing amazing already, mind you!

Brilliant!

The reason I was thinking of putting the flattened grot in the footprint is a two-parter - I was going to get some triangular rods of plastic and cut them to add a 'tread' in the form of lines to the bottom of the feet... but because of the surface that would create I couldn't really put a corpse on the bottom (especially not the grot, who has a flat back). Instead what I was thinking of doing was on the diorama base getting some greenstuff, pressing the foot in so it makes a footprint and tread impression, and then pushing the grot into that so that it would form around his body and he'd look like he had been flattened - I hope that makes sense.

Firstly, I am in awe of this project, it is wonderfully done! I haven't commented until now, because I didn't have anythin to say of than a fanboy-ish 'drool'

About the LEDs, I see you got leads for the LED kits, for colours, I'd suggest a dull orange background in the eyes, and bright yellow approximately nnehind where pupils could be.

For the grot-pit, my suggestion is
1 red and one white light, flashing, at alternating intervals, to look like red alert, but notgo pitch-black when the red flashes off.

-=Gaaargh=-

WOW.........I am speechless.......Amazing Work!!!

These might help

http://www.timpdon.co.uk/weldarc.htm
http://www.timpdon.co.uk/fireglow.htm

if you try these let me know if they're cool

by the way this thing is so inspiring, I'm gonna get my Scratch Warboss out and finish him.

Coming along. I'm not sure if I like the hydraulics joint on the inner-arm towards the top barrel's loading chamber, but I'll work around it for now. I'm also deliberating the drop-down clip system - I think I'll do it, but I don't want it sticking out too much, so the magazine'll probably only hold 3-4 shells anyway.

It still needs armor-plating and riveting and a bit more detail all over, but it's shaping up, at least.

I dont want to sound like a jerk...but I hope you can paint this as well as it deserves. If not I bet someone would probably volunteer to paint it just for the notariety and to show "off". This is easily a G Demon large Model "winner" if done right.

I'm not going to let anyone else paint it, as to be a competetive model to begin with all the work has to be done by one individual. I'll just take my time with it.

Couldn't help myself, so I went ahead and attached the arm with a magnet just to see how it looked.

Really cool!! So suitably orky!

As usual, I'm having some summer related reasons for not being active on the hobby front, but this might be the needed inspiration to get the armies geared up for Medusa.

That looks trick as *@#$

Can I have it?

love the use of legos man! you have inspired me to order some plasticard off ebay. now i just need to sit up and stop drooling so i can ou tit to good use!

"put it" i ment

I worked a little bit on the ammo feed mechanism for the large barreled gun earlier, but I'm not sure if I like it. It works, yes, and it shows the shells off, but not in a proper manner, I think - the side profile leaves something to be desired. I'm not sure what I should do with it, though. I should mention that the clip and the shells are not glued in at all at the moment and can be removed and modified without any real trouble, so any advice would be appreciated. I'm thinking to begin with I'm going to shave a little bit off the top of the clip housing so that the top shell's more exposed and the clip itself doesn't go so high...

Well the most obvious fix for the clip would be to cut out portions of the sides, making it more like the shells run down on guide rails. Then you could see the sides of the shells along with the fronts.

If you felt really ambitious, you could try to cut an "x" pattern into the sides of the ammo feed. Then just add a bunch of rivets for the proper orky feel.  To do this, just cut 4 small triangles out of each side, if you're catching my drift.

I agree with KiMonarrez; some sort of open-sided ammo feed will show off the shells better, even if it does make less sense militarily - but hey, when could an ork ever resist the urge to show off his shiny mek stuff to impress all da boyz?

It looks a little messy, but mostly it's the marker that got smudged that does it The shells are a little crooked, too, but they're not glued in yet, though the clip itself is.

I think this works.

yay.ammo feeds

i think the gun should be made a tad wider to 'balance' the whole thing out.Or a large underslung spinning ammo chain (like on the ogryns),fed into the gun.But whatever,it looks great like it is.

Just wondering,but are you going to add extra clips that weakling grots carry along the ground for the arm?
Cause that would look great on a base.(make the squished grot have a flattened flip next to him )

Wow, thats quite incrediable. Not only a cool gargant but one in a dynamic pose.  I like everything you've done with it so far.. What else is there to say other then keep up the awesome work.

It looks excellent.  Simply fantastic work through and through.

 

As for the cannon, I'd agree that the second version of the ammo clip is much better.  Don't forget an ejection port for the shell casings!

Good work. Very good work. I agree w/ bob, the second version w/ the cutout looks awesome.

Things left to do to this arm:

- Add stray armor plating to the upper arm and rivets all over.
- Add mechanical cabling going from the elbow area, as well as the back of the rippa (unfortunately, I'm all out of lego cabling, so I'm going to have to make a substitute from wire. )
- Add detail to the gun area where it faces the torso (inner arm).
- Add a belt of ammunition that dangles for the machinegun ammunition port. I'm not sure how I'm going to make this, yet, but I'll keep thinking about it for now - I think I'll end up cutting some plastic tubing down into 'shells', greenstuffing tips onto them, and using some floss or something that I coat in glue as the binding for it so that the belt is still flexible and movable - that way I can hang it correctly.

I meshed in the sides of the ammo clip just because I didn't like having the sides completely open. The top shell is showing a little more than I'd like, but they're all still removable at the moment so I will probably shave the 3rd shell down flat a little bit on one side so that all the shells shift down a little bit. I thought about extending the clip's size, but really, it's more of a slot where ammunition gets jammed, and logistically I don't want to bother with worrying about how many shots that things gets off anyway. I also don't want it going much more vertical than it is now because any higher and it'd look awkward, in my opinion.

I haven't had as much time as I'd like to work on this recently, but with my girlfriend going to a yankee game tomorrow with her sister and me all alone at home, I'll have plenty of working time.

Is it wrong to be aroused by this miniature?

not at all!

I meshed in the sides of the ammo clip just because I didn't like having the sides completely open.

It looks perfectly good that way, too. It may make it hard to paint the shells, though, unless you do them seperately.

Outstanding work. The new cannon is much better, although the ejection port looks considerably smaller than the shells, which could be a small problem

that slit on the outside is for the big shoota chain if I am not mistaken....

Yes, that slit on the exterior is the place where the ammo chain will feed in for the big shoota, once I figure out how to make it.

The shells are also removable for easy painting for the moment. The pictures coming up don't have the shells loaded just because I couldn't be bothered.







There's a bare spot on the interior of the gun area (facing the torso) that needs a bit of work, and I need to make the ammo feed still.. I haven't quite figured out how I'm going to do that, but I have a few ideas. Unfortunately, none of them are simple or easy. -_-

Still, I think this arm looks powerful at the moment, and fits the overall detail of the rest of the gargant pretty well. I added in 'rungs' on the exterior of the upper arm for a grot to hang from - I have yet to make em, but I picture him hanging by one arm from one rung with one of those shells tucked in underneath his arm like he's scrabbling down the arm to place the next shell in the clip. This thing's going to have a lot of grots!

amazing, as always, haha

One tiny niggle about the rungs... and I hasten to add I'm only mentioning this because of your attention to relative realism and detail in the rest of the model. The first thing I thought when I saw the rungs was "hmm... a ladder, where is it going to and from".

With that in mind, could I humbly suggest that the lightning flash weld-on armour plate would make a good hatch (the ammo grot has to come from somewhere) ...or... perhaps put a little cupola for him on that shoulder?

Mobile: The rungs are more intended as just a place for the grot to 'ride' on the arm until he has to load the next cylinder in. I don't think there'd be enough room in the arm, mechanically, to fit him in, so a hatch doesn't seem practical as well. I picture the little bugger scrabbling over the exterior of the arm and loading shells. If he falls off and survives, he grabs the ammo belt and when they fire the big shootas it hauls him back up to the arm where he hopefully doesn't get caught in the ammo feed himself and makes it back to his post.

I cut out a 6" circular base.. I may actually have to sand it down a touch, as I think it's closer to 6 1/4 or so.  I don't know if I should trim it down to be smaller than that.. the inside  black line was the minimum base size I think I could get away with, but I'm not sure if I should bother doing that or leave the base the size it is. Also, please realize the base will get a lot of dressing up when the thing is done in terms of geography - uneven terrain, probably with the front foot indented a little bit in the ground at a forward angle so the back leg lifts off the ground and doesn't look like it's dragging.

Also, I like 'summarizing' the model in a 360 degree view, so here you go.



I'm working out how the ammo belt's going to work.. cutting some circular rod and drilling a pair of holes that line up in each of them is a hassle I don't really feel up to this particular morning, so I'm either looking for a substitute or working up my willpower until later today.

The head'll have to be next, as it's placement dictates where the elements on the back will go... working on finding the proper diameter curved cardboard so that I can make the head and jaw shape similar to how I did the body (can't even tell there's carboard under all that! ) I'm probably going to make the lower jaw first so I can make sure that the flamer I want to build in has room to fit.. Also, the circuits that will control the green eyes and flickering red grotpit light will need sufficient space that I need to plan for so I can put all of the electronics in the head. I'm really not fond of the eyes on this thing, though.. they need a redesign, but I don't have that many ideas for them just yet. I definitely want them to be equipped with the 'gaze of gork/mork' weapon, which is essentially an ocular zzap cannon.. so whatever I end up doing will have to look sufficiently dangerous as to be firing electric blasts from it's eyes. I'll have to think about this one for a little while.

very nice he's doing a fun little happy dance. I'd leave the base the size it is, maybe bevel it some but definitely keep the same size. I don't like the fact that SM's toes stick over the edge of the their bases.

He looks like he is ice skating. Surreal for sure.

360 rotating view? Now you're just showing off. ;-)

Amazing work. . . thanks for taking the time to share it.

For the ammo belt........get peices of elastic and sew them together, leaving enough room between stiches to slide the bullets inbetween (look at the ork shoota for reference where the bullet is sticking out at each end)........or you could use plasticard and make stitch-like markings
()
()
()
()<----bullet in between each

it'd be funny if after all of this he sucked really bad at painting

AMP, check out some of the orks that accompany this best on earlier pages.... I'd say he's a good painter.

Okay, here's my dillemma.



I went out and found magnetic beads in the thought that they would make good shells for the big shoota. They're just the right size, but they need to have a rounded-off end for the shell, so I figure I was going to do that with greenstuff. Unfortunately, they are not as strong as I had hoped for, and will not stay together in a 'chain' just due to magnetism. I'm not sure how to best join them together so that I could drape the bullets feeding into the side port for the big shoota, though. I keep thinking to maybe wipe down two thin wires with superglue and press them against the shells until they stick in a 'band' but I don't know if that'd work or not.

Any suggestions or ideas? I need to be able to bend this into a proper curved-hanging-shape by the time it's attached.

Assuming I were to cap each round off (at the front end) with a 'shell' tip.. would this work? What do you guys think of how it looks?

I think it looks great.

I think you should do something like this
( )
X
( )

with three strips of plasticard

hopefully it would turn out like this

I'm doing some rough planning for the head.. Going to scrap the eyes that the thing has, as I don't like the 'stitching' across them, and replace them with sometihng a bit more square-ish - I think square would help me build cabling and stuff attaching to it at the sides and wrapping around to the top of the head, so the Zzap gun has some power. The teeth are going to be plated onto the outside of the jaw.. probably only 4-5 on the bottom jaw, but big ones. The teeth in the original concept art look a little unusual, in that they seem to face outwards instead of forwards.. it's like someone took the normal jaw and turned the teeth 90 degrees. Not sure I'm so fond of that, so I'll probably just bolt the teeth on the exterior of a curved jaw.



I'm not sold on the ears. I think I'll build the head and either make them removable or decide later.

One thing I'm noticing might be an inconsistency: The torso is armor-plated, which helps make the curve of the body more angular in nature, but the head seems to be, from what I read off the image, one big solid curved piece without plating, just riveted on as sort of a front 'plate' to cover machinery hidden behind it. I don't know if I should make the head one big curved piece and start working with it like that, or make one big curved piece and then put armor plating all over the exterior to break it up much like the torso.

your pilots are in the stompa's 'belly', not the head, so you don't have the "do the pilots need to be able to see out the 'eye' holes?" issue. But does the head have any combat purpose?

Purely as an example, both 'eyes' could be zzap guns? I'd like that.

Or is the whole head merely decorative (other than improving morale by looking impressively fearsome, and containing mysterious mek bitz)? I can't see the jaw, regardless of which way the teeth point, actually having any combat purpose (although a stompa which bent down and bit its opponents would certainly be amusing), so I'd just go for a symbolic giant metallic ork head, with teeth sticking up and down rather than out.

Posted By Clang on 06/28/2006 3:32 PM
your pilots are in the stompa's 'belly', not the head, so you don't have the" do="" pilots="" need="" be="" able="" to="" see="" out="" eye="" holes="" issue="" but="" does="" the="" head="" have="" any="" combat="" purpose="">

Purely as an example, both 'eyes' could be zzap guns? I'd like that.

Or is the whole head merely decorative (other than improving morale by looking impressively fearsome, and containing mysterious mek bitz)? I can't see the jaw, regardless of which way the teeth point, actually having any combat purpose (although a stompa which bent down and bit its opponents would certainly be amusing), so I'd just go for a symbolic giant metallic ork head, with teeth sticking up and down rather than out.

What I've been planning during the course of the thread is to have twin Zzap cannons in the eyes (a.k.a. 'Gaze of Gork' and 'Gaze of Mork' in epic 40k, as far as I know). In addition to this, I'm also planning on including a flamer in the mouth, tucked just behind the lower jaw - theoretically, it opens it's mouth and breathes a template onto whatever's in front of it.

Your idea looks pretty good. Of course, having laser eyes only increases the cool factor of the model. There are only a few things I wonder about, which you've likely already considered, given your superb planning so far.

For one, is the head going to rotate, and if so, how much would the jaw get in the way when it's open? It'd be a shame if the mouth had to be closed in order to clear the chest and shoulder properly. To fix that, the chest would need to have an adequate slope and the head would have to be mounted far enough forward to give it at least a 90 degree (45 left and 45 right of center) range of motion.

I also wonder if you're planning on mounting a rocket (Grot Bomb?) on the back, like the one in the picture. If so, the design of the head would be an important consideration in how the rocket is mounted. You wouldn't want it to be sitting up on top of some spindly tower jutting out of the back. That would just look un-Orky.

Posted By Davian on 06/28/2006 4:04 PM
Your idea looks pretty good. Of course, having laser eyes only increases the cool factor of the model. There are only a few things I wonder about, which you've likely already considered, given your superb planning so far.

For one, is the head going to rotate, and if so, how much would the jaw get in the way when it's open? It'd be a shame if the mouth had to be closed in order to clear the chest and shoulder properly. To fix that, the chest would need to have an adequate slope and the head would have to be mounted far enough forward to give it at least a 90 degree (45 left and 45 right of center) range of motion.

I also wonder if you're planning on mounting a rocket (Grot Bomb?) on the back, like the one in the picture. If so, the design of the head would be an important consideration in how the rocket is mounted. You wouldn't want it to be sitting up on top of some spindly tower jutting out of the back. That would just look un-Orky.

On the concept of the head...

Looking at your drawings, it seems to me that your head is going to be too small. Much too small. In the original artwork, it seems as though the head / cockpit leave a gap really only big enough for the pilot to see through...which both serves to protect the pilot from getting shot, and make people think the cockpit is inside the head. I.e. protect the pilot by having the enemy shoot at the wrong location. For this to work, the head has to be pretty big.

On the matter of the teeth...I'm reminded of a passage from Douglas Adam's Life, the Universe, and Everything, describing Aragjag and his kill-Arthur-Dent reincarnation.

"Agrajag was black, bloated, wrinkled and leathery. He had the most astounding collection of teeth, and they were arranged around his mouth in such bizarre angles that it seemed that if he ever tried to chew anything he'd lacerate half his own face, and maybe put out an eye as well."

I think this is the kind of thing the orks would really go for. I wouldn't at all worry about angles or anything else on the teeth. You might also consider some of them to resemble real horns/teeth of large animals - seems the kind of trophy that would be appropriate.

Lastly, on the subject of the single plate vs segmented head. It seems to me that it could be the case that the head in the illustration is segmented, just in not very many segements. With two sides and front, the segements would be on the same order of size as the segments that make up the body itself. I think you'd be just fine makign a segmented head.

Oh, and the ears - to me large ears make it look more gretchiny than orky. I'm not sure if that's what you want or not. But to be the orkiest, I'd lose the ears altogether.

While we're at it, here's another fun quote from The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, which ought to apply to making Orky contraptions...

"The designer of the gun had clearly not been instructed to beat about the bush. 'Make it evil,' he'd been told. 'Make it totally clear that this gun has a right end and a wrong end. Make it totally clear to anyone standing at the wrong end that things are going badly for them. If that means sticking all sort of spikes and prongs and blackened bits all over it then so be it. This is not a gun for hanging over the fireplace or sticking in the umbrella stand, it is a gun for going out and making people miserable with.'"

So, first of all, your Stompa is amazing.  I am totally jealous that you have buckets full of talent, and I have none.

Anyway, about the head, I have to agree with Bob.  It does seem like it needs to be bigger.  Also, I think it needs to be lower on the body a little.  So that the top of the head is just slightly higher than the shoulders.  That would close up some of that cockpit space and not leave it so wide open looking. 

Again, it looks great.  I can't wait to see it all painted up and ready to destroy.

Looks absolutely awesome!!! Good job man. That's a lot of work and talent. I love the use of grots.

After having spent some time looking at the original concept sketch this is based upon... how about the various sections of the head are made out of a "few" curved segments.

-2 curved segments for the forhead area, meeting in the middle of the head (as the "join" would also break up the big open space in the middle of the head (as well as giving you an obvious place to put more rivets).

-3 curved segments for the lower jaw with the HUGE fricken fangs at the 2 respective "corners". This would also allow you to have the lower jaw be a bit wider (so as to cover more of the grot pit) without making the head super fricken out of proportion to the body.

A bit on the artistic side, I would also have the head fixed in position... but not facing straight forward. This would give the artistic impression that the head CAN turn (which would look super cool), but not make it super difficult to design/execute on the actual model. I would also make the head not be turned TOO far. Just make it like the rest of the model. Like it's in mid stride while charging forward.

That's my $0.02 for now.

From your head mock-up I have to point out that it seems to be quite a bit higher than the original drawing. In the concept sketch the top of the head is barely above the shoulders of the Stompa.

Your head also seems to "rounded" compared to the rest of your Stompa. I'm assuming (and hoping) you'll still make the head out of segmented plates instead of a smooth round face.

I eagerly await more updates. . .

why not leave the shells empty - one would assume that what is coming out on that side are just shell casings - the FMJ feed would come from the 'body' side of the arm- or the feed would come from within the arm itself...

think microsoft - if its too much hassle... just declare a new standard

I tried to go more with the original drawing, but this was mostly me looking at how the segmented armor would look on the head.. and it's not bad. I'm leaving a gap between the front teeth on the lower jaw for the flamer template to fire through.

The head may be a little small, but I think it's alright like that.

I cut the base down about 1/4" all the way around and put a 20 degree bevel in in so it'd match the normal gaming bases.. I realize this may make a bit of a gap on the diorama base, but I don't mind so much.

I also was thinking about something for the base - I can either have the gargant stomping an imperial lascannon emplacement into the ground, with the dudes manning it running for their lives... or someone suggested that I have the turret a step or two ahead of the stompa, with one dude facing completely the wrong way firing it so intensely that he doesn't realize the stompa's coming up on him, with one of his comrades trying to get his attention pointing at it, and a third running away already.

Which do you guys think is better? Each has it's benefits - the first way, the gargant gets to stomp on something, but the second way might have a bit more character.

Just roughing it out. The lower jaw's good, I think, though I'm probably going to redo the top because the armor plating warped a little bit while I was trying to bend it to the curve.

rawr...ahahhaah
me likes it alot.I hope your painting will give it even more justice.

This has got to be one of the (if not the) best scratchbuild. It's coming along nicely.

The head looks pretty good. I think its slightly smaller then the one in the sketch but that isn't necessairly a bad thing.

I do think you should add the ears though. You have a gargant piloted by grots. It needs big pointy ears to match.

yeah! flame breathing Dreadnoughts!

Am I the only one who gets a mental picture of that thing being painted blue, with a pair of googly eyes, charging an Imperial camp while yelling "COOOOOOOOOKIIIEEEES!"?

In all seriousness, though, looking good.

Arrrrrrrrr!?!

Hurry up and get more pictures up!!!

ARRRRRRR

With respect to following the original's jaw design..

Which would you guys say looks best? I placed the teeth in a front-facing fashion to try and portray the typical ork gob.. but the illustration has the teeth turned out, like such:



The right one follows the illustration's design for the jaw, but I don't know if it looks as orky as the teeth-facing-front one on the left.

I don't know if this sort of design would match the top teeth, as well, as they look like they face in the 'forwards' kind of way that the picture on the left portrays.

definitly the left one.

I'd say mix the two styles: Keep the smaller teeth as is and turn the big bulldog teeth out like in the sketch. Maybe thicken those big ones up a bit too.  I'd also make the front teeth the bigger ones like in the sketch or put the bigger ones closer together and make the two front teeth smaller. It seems like in both pics above, the big teeth are more toward the side then those in the sketch.

I still say you'd be well served with cylindrical teeth - kind of like they used the tusks of slain Squiggoths.

 

But if one has to choose from the options presented, I'd go with the left hand picture.

left hand,right one seems too imperial titan-esque than orky.
Side tusks à la right pic could be good but i'd keep it like they are now

My humble suggestions. something looks a little flat with either of the teeth designs pight now, I love how far the bottom jaw jutts out.

I like the bolted-on plate design, tommy. I'll give that a go.

Let's talk about the top jaw. The illustration has a row of smaller, sharp teeth spaced close together, as far as I can see. I pinned the jaw for the teeth should I decide to do them that way.. but which do you guys prefer? Row of small sharp teeth, or larger ones?

I think the larger teeth fit complement the teeth in the jaw better.

The big teeth look more orkish. The smaller teeth look more evil.



For this project, I'd go with the more orkish.

I gave the larger teeth a shot.. they're just pinned in, not glued, so they can come out if I decide to change them. I'm left with a gap between the front two top teeth that I was going to fill in before I started thinking.. If I put a flamer in the mouth behind the teeth, should I.. leave the gap there? So the flamer has some clearance to shoot through the mouth? I don't know if I should remake the top's teeth.

I threw a half-as-long tooth in there for the flames to shoot around.



Anyway, by tomorrow afternoon I hope to have a circuit in hand that I can wire into the head to power the LEDs and flickering light. I'm actually thinking that I should revise the flickering red light from a grotpit light to a 'flamer' light, if it's suitable.. providing a bit of a glowing flicker from inside the jaws where the flamer is tucked away to indicate the 'pilot light' on the thing burning.

I also plan on putting small panes of clear plasticard in the eyes so that I can sand the surface of them a bit and get them to diffuse the light form the LEDs behind it. I think I'm going to hinge the jaw, as well, as it just looks cool to play around with opening and closing it. It'd be cool to open the jaws up when I'm using the flamer anyway. I made the eyes the same square shape.. I considered mismatching them, but it just looked silly and trivialized the face's meanness. The rest of the model's comedy, and the head draws a lot of attention, so I want it to read as ferocious.

Personally I'm very sad you're not going with the "blade" teeth from the original concept sketch.

The look you have now is defnitely more cartoony and less mean because of it. If you dig that look than stick with it, but I think losing the bladed look of the teeth really takes some of the deadliness out of the design.

by Mork!
It keeps getting better doesnt it?
Are you going to mount a flicker light in the flamer barrel by any chance,cause that would be ace

I am just thrown by this model, and if My army every met it on the table it would throw them too. Great job and keep it up. Incredible work

In the interest of fairness, I gave the alternate jaw a try. No huge loss if I don't use it, as it only took about ten minutes to manufacture if I don't use it.. I angled the other teeth forward for the sake of it and left the tusks pointing out. The test jaw is rougher than the other one, so please keep that in mind when choosing between the two of them (It probably needs a tooth on the outsides of the tusks, too, now that I look at it.)

In any event, maybe these comparisons will sway some opinions, as I keep getting mixed results.

Hmm.  You know, now that i see it, I think I like the one on the right with the blade-like tusks.  It looks meaner I think.

yea strangely im gonna have to say the one with tusks perpendicular to the jaw looks better...

Yah, the perpendicular tusks add a lot to it, it fits more with what you would see tusks look like in nature and looks more dangerous

I'm waiting for a few more responses from people regarding the jaw.. It seems that everyone I'm showing it to has their opinions split right down the middle, with some groups liking the traditional warboss look, and others liking the tusks. I may just cointoss it







Shot of the gaming base and the diorama base. I hope to add terrain to them both simultaneously so they match.

I think if you want to do the concept sketcy justice, you shouldn't make the teeth parallel or perpendicular to the jaw. You should make teeth that actually have their own dimensions. Make them look like actual teeth. When I look closely at the concept sketch, I see 3D teeth. The tops are somewhat flat and parrallel to the jaw line and then flare out (4 sided of course) to join to the jaw. Kinda like the teeth for a ripper on a dozer (Like the one on the right).

But if I have to choose between the 2 teeth styles represented... I'd go with the first one (the one parallel to the jaw line). The perpendicular ones just look... wrong.

Doesn't hurt to experiment, so I made the tusks a 3-dimensional blade. It probably needs a bit more 'sharpening', but here's the gist:







Just puttied on, so nothing permanent.. but does this look any better? Figured I'd modify it until I'm happy, since the head is a very prominent and defining feature of the gant anyway.

I think I prefer the other way with the Blade-like tusks.  This one doesn't look orky enough.  I could see an Ork making a tooth out of a sheet of metal and bolting it on.  This one looks too much like a real tooth or a pointy rock.  to me, it doesn't look like the sort of thing an Ork would make.  Just my $.02.

I've been lurking and watching this build in awe, I thought I would finally chip in .02 on the teeth. Of the 3 choices (paralell to jaw, perpendicular to jaw, perpendicular to jaw sharpened) I think the perpendicular to jaw sharpened version looks the worst. The perpendicualr to jaw from the front and side view look good but not so much in the isometric view. If I were you I would extend the jaw out just a bit further and build the tusks like a "T" with the perpendicular portion projecting back IN towards the "throat". The perpendicular sections projecting outwards looks too awkward IMO.

Keep up the good work.

I sharpened them up a bit.. and put a notch in the back so it seats on the top of the jaw a bit more to look more solidly connected. I don't think it looks bad, and with L-brackets on either side of the tusks I picture it working..







Edit: The more I look at this, the more I think this is going to be the final jaw. The tusks fit well when I hold them up to the model itself.

oohhh yeaah.. I like that latest look a lot

You truly are an Ork among Grots. Looks Great

The latest mock-up looks pretty good, but I'm afraid I still must stick to my guns with regards to the tusks. I really think you should make them look like someone (such as the Mek that built this thing) had slain a Gargantuan Squiggoth and used its tusks. See below for Forgeworld's model.

http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/snapdragon.htm

At the very least, I'd say you should make your "sharpened tusks" thinner and not so stubby looking.

Now that they're thinner, they definitely look better. I like it.

Good 'n propa!!!!!!!!

WWWWWWAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

I think once you add the little strips that 'bolt-on' the tusks to the jaw (like in the concept sketch) this current design will look absolutely wicked.

I'm glad that you tried out the bladed look. It looks so much meaner and matches the original concept better.

Just noticed the gun arm in the background of the head pics (I think they look good too).


I must say, I think it's a nice orky touch to have the round "bullseye" sight on the top of the cannon. "Good 'n proppa" indeed.

the tusks look like they are angled too far out. In the concept sketch they appear to still be facing forward.

This is really amazing. I am stunned of the talent, that makes the making of this model possible. I even registered at the forum, with the purpose of replying at this thread.
As said i think it is marvelous. The head with the tusk facing diagonally to the jaw looks, in my opinion, by far the best. So keep to the head as it is now. The only complain that I got to this model, is that you have decided not to use the circular saw on the gun weapon. I really think that is a shame. I see the circular saw as one of the most important features on the model, as is break the monotomy of an otherwise bulky and quite square model. But is it a small complaint. Overall, this model is the best scrathbuilt I have ever seen. Really good work, keep it up. It is an inspiration.

So... I... went back to the original jaw, and added bolts in to the teeth.

Don't judge me!



The biggest reason for it is that I think it'd be a better surface to paint than the tusks (chipped bare metal edges, etc), plus the tusks looked awkward from certain angles. I slept on it and I think this is the best choice. In any case, I need to move on to something else, as I think I could waffle back and forth on this all day. Let's never speak of this again.

I was thinking about the base.. I'm going to use the urban basing kits from GW for this, as they fit the bill nicely, but I'm wondering how I should set this all up exactly. I've been thinking that the entire diorama needs a sort of avenue for running up and down the middle - like some sort of path that the gargant follows. I'm considering having him walking down the middle of the road or something to that extent, but I'm not sure.. whatever it is, I'm thinking there needs to be a dip in the rubble running down the middle for a bit of a running path. Not a big one, just a small worn-down trail or something..





I put an ork in where I plan on having the running guardsman at just for conceptual purposes. Right now the chainsaw arm is holding it up, as well - the arms aren't posed as they will be in the final version, I just attached them for scale. I'm thinking of putting some street signs sticking out of the ground here and there.. and there's going to have to be a footprint (as shown in the pictures) where the gargant just lifted it's foot from. I'm also thinking I'm going to have it stomping down on the turret.. but the turret's going to be behind a small wall of sandbags, so the heel of the foot's going to be sticking through the wall. Probably have a few strewn sandbags here and there around the foot where it stomped down, and some torn and leaking bags spilling piles of sand around the turret...



I also managed to get some cheap pillars from a craft store. These are usually used on cakes and stuff, but I figure it'd make good debris if I chopped the tops off and left them sticking out of the rubble.

On the manner of tusks, I always thought that the tusks were like this:
Top view of jaw:

Bent, cut, and sanded some clear plastic down to fit into the eyes.. the sanding was done over the front face of the eyes to make the surface foggy and diffuse the light from behind the eyes. The light I used for this test picture is one small red LED, but the final version will have two green ones located directly behind the eyes to provide a nice sinister glow. Sorry that it's slightly out of focus - setting the timer on my camera so I can hold two things removes my ability to manually focus on objects.

Still, you get the idea of what I'm aiming for. I need to putty around the edges of the eye lenses to make sure there's no gaps.

That looks absolutely awesome...and vaguely like something I saw at a GWAR concert.

Feed them to the maggot!

you went to see GWAR?
lucky...
i love the new mouth though,its the best one you made so far.
Its getting more and more interesting to see him go up from nothing too.Good luck on your next step

So a few people joined me on IRC and we brainstormed a bit about the model. I planned out the base, and hope to have an illustration of the overall plan online by tomorrow. It'll be urban, and hopefully pretty interesting.



I added a bit of armor trim around the eyes.. eyebrows will be attached once the greenstuff dries to break up some of the symmetry of the eyes. I try to avoid using greenstuff where possible as I'm really bad with it. Still waiting for the things I need in the mail to be delivered, but I don't expect them to arrive tomorrow as it's Sunday, so I'll be working primarily on the base then.

A rough base diorama plan:



The wall behind the gargant will be majorly busted down - like the gargant just walked through what was left of the already ruined building. The street in the back corner's just for a little bit of interest, and there'll be rubble scattered ahead of the gargant here and there. I'm shifting the whole thing to an angle.. (gargant walking from corner to corner) because I think it'll be more interesting on the whole than a simple profile diorama.

If you guys had a choice between the flattened grot being stuck on the bottom of the foot or in the diorama base's footprint, which would you go for? I've decided to greenstuff the bottom of the thing's foot anyway to get a proper tread, so I can include it on there if I want to.

you know,you should make it as if the gargant was running straight but then turned to the right after noticing the guardsman.
So thats->straight down the road->guardsman->turns to face him and stomps a grot in the process.
Grot should stay in the print cause i dont expect him to be seen under the foot.
As of rubble,you can even make some paint chips left on the structure and a few rocks or tiles still stuck on the gargant.
That would r0xx0r

I'd go for the grot in the in the diorama base's footprint. Would really add something to the diorama. The gargant is already way beyond cool.

Grot in the foot print with a sign stating "ouch" a la Wilie Coyote "super genius"

This project is f'ing amazing.

I've been considering how this works.. for the standing foot (the front one) I'm not adding tread as I'm going to pin the gargant to the base through that foot anyway, and tread wouldn't be noticed as it's going to be against the ground. So, I'm only adding tread to one foot.. but the diorama base may require more than one footprint. The best way to do the footprint is to press the treaded foot into putty.. but if I had the grot on the bottom of the treaded foot, there would be a grot imprint in every step - and since I'm using the same foot and tread for all of the steps (both left and right feet) a grot imprint on each wouldn't make sense.

So, I'm putting him in a single footprint behind where the back foot is lifting out of.

I gotta tell you guys, working with this foamboard stuff to make ruins is harder than I would have thought. I'd appreciate any suggestions or advice on this sort of thing!







There's two footprints - one with the grot, and the other on the very top edge of the base. That 'low!' comment written on the board is so that I remember to keep the wall section at that height basically knocked-in - some rubble and bits of wall will be strewn towards the center, where the gargant is, but mostly it'll just be knee-high wall left. I need to make 4 more sections of gothic-esque wall, then buttress and detail them.. I've no idea how the detailing's going to work. Also, I assume I have to seal the foam with some sort of watered down elmer's glue..? I'm not really interested in melting the thing when I spray prime it I got a street-paving 'kit' thing from my local hobby store meant for dioramas - it's a brush-on asphault texture sort've thing.. I think I'm going to lay the street down, then the curb, then build the rest of the diorama's base up to match the curb's level.

Any general construction tips would be appreciated, in any case.

what kind of foam do you use?
i would recommend insulation foam (blue or pink colour,its the same but just to let you know) since its easy to use and seals easilly when painting.Oh and there's no bubbly things left,unlike your typical TV packaging stuff

A foam cutter would help avoid the bubbly leftover bits in cutting up the foam. You could probably quickly put together one with a Jeweler's Saw frame, some thin wire, and a battery. Of course, this is only applicable for external cuts to the foam (would be hard to cut out windows with it)

You can buy a foam cutter in most hobby/crafts stores.

So this has been an interesting experiment. I've never done any large-scale basing, so of course jumping in with both feet for a diorama is leaving me a bit surprised with every attempt, but I'm not dissapointed in it yet.











I found some putty-esque substance in my garage, as I was looking for interesting material to do the base over with.. I put the curb and sidewalk, and proceeded to heap some of this stuff on and then start shaping it with a sponge brush and my hands into some rough geography. The pictures don't quite show off any tremendous contours, but I didn't want to get too adventurous seeing as I don't have the walls that'll be going in yet. I'll hopefully be going out to try and get one of the new imperial cities of death buildings tomorrow to turn into rubble and wrecked building walls, as my attempts with foamboard have proven frustrating and unfruitful throughout the course of the day. I'm about to go down into the garage and try and drill a hole in the circular base where the main front foot is going to be standing - I'll probably 'pin' it with a thick nail or something of that nature. I'm also hoping to put a slight elevation on that foot - it'll dip into the ground at the toe, to show that it's 'digging in' to take it's next step as it moves forward, and will elevate the back foot up a bit to prevent it from 'dragging' as the gargant walks. I'm hoping all the extra rubble and walls and stuff I want to add in won't be too challenging - I figure worst comes to worst I can dremel myself an adequate space in the putty once it hardens, add extra rubble in (or the walls, if I didn't leave enough room), and re-putty around it.

Interesting so far.

To seal your foam try some textured paint from your local hardware store/warehouse...basically latex paint with sand in it. It wont mess up the foam plus it adds texture. It the propellant that eats the foam not the paint so no worries.

As a side I cant believe you do your modeling an that expensive marble counter top. Holy crap. You must have SERIOUS $$$...

I only take pictures there. Most of the time, anyway. I do the modelling in the garage, although the paste I'm using required a sink handy so I just threw down some garbage bags and had at it.

There's something really more important than my countertops that I noticed that I need to share with all of you. I found one major problem with Imperial Guard.



Deys too easy ta crush!!

I did the gargant's gaming base up. Hopefully they'll be rock-hard when they dry by tomorrow, but I have a sneaking suspicion they'll be a bit crumbly around the edges and need some sort of reinforcing coat of.. something. Maybe watered down elmer's. I tried to match the contours of the diorama base's geography on the gaming base.

Please also note that since these pictures went up, I noticed mold lines I missed and cleaned them up.





The rubble per square inch factor is about the same as I hope to have on the final diorama base, once I get walls set up and figure out how they'll crumble (and make suitable plasticard tiles). The guardsman's reaching out to his running buddy(s) for help, as his lower half is pinned beneath the gargant. One can only assume he's having a bad day.

You can see the stepped spot in the footprint - this is to angle the gargant forward about 10 degrees, and lift the back leg up into the air a touch so it's not dragging. It's also a good effect for the gargant walking anyway, as I imagine the foot digs in at the toe to lever the whole monster forward.

There'll be some spilling sand around the sandbags to suggest they've been knocked over - I didn't want to do that on the base at the moment, as only the bottom layer would stick to the paste I'm using. I drilled a hole through the gargant's foot and the base - when I'm ready to attach the gargant down to the gaming base for good, a screw'll do the job nicely and thread into the foot to hold it securely down to the gaming base. A screw covered in glue, most likely. But I think I'm going to paint the base first before I make any final attachments like that, as reaching underneath the gargant to drybrush terrain isn't my idea of fun. For now, I'll use a nail to pin the gargant - that is, when everything's had a chance to dry overnight.



I think this has been a successful first go at something bigger than an infantry base. Or, will be, when I get some imperial building walls to stake in there. And the thousand other things I want to do. >_>

Comments, advice, crits, whatever welcome.

Re where to put the squished grot, I think it should go on the base rather than stuck to the foot underside, simply to make it easier to see - unless of course you just love the idea of having a subtle detail which most viewers won't see at first.

And the presence of the grot (on the foot or on the base) means you shouldn't have treadmarks on the foot's underside, otherwise logically the grot itself would also be pressed into the tread pattern, if you see wot I mean? That wouldn't be impossible to model, but sounds like a lot of work to me. Instead of tread, I'd suggest the feet should have a row of small downward-pointing spikes along their outer edge (sort of like the lower jaw but upside down) for general road-holding and Toes Of Death squishyness.

He's got a point actually.
This would include hacking up the whole grot just to fit him in the tread.

But yeah,so far,the base looks like its coming along great.May i suggest a few small holes in the sand bags to make sand spill out of?

So, it's dried.. it doesn't look bad, but I need to figure out some way to seal all of this material down - the putty is hard, but a little brittle and crumbly and I don't want it continually falling apart on me. I'm thinking maybe watered down elmer's glue would help.. I'd prefer to not brush too much on the base as it'd end up brushing some of the extra material off. Any ideas would be appreciated - I sadly may have to elmers + retexture everything in an additional layer for the sake of strength. The gun arm is supporting the gargant in this picture because I haven't finished pinning it yet (nor will I until after painting) so don't consider the arms to be in a truly proper position for these pictures.

you know what you could try to seal with?
I remember using a spray in my art room that was basically glue in spray form.Its like spraypaint but glue.
If you can find that (craft,art supply stores?),maybe it'll work.And after you prime the whole ting,it should reinforce it.I used the same product to cover my terrain pieces and it didnt melt or anything.

On a bit of an artistic note. As it looks like the IG just got stepped on... maybe put a few little green stuff stringers around where the foot squished him. That would be his entrails squishing out.

That's not a bad idea. Obviously, there's a lot more to be done yet - lots of rubble and 3-dimensional upward-projecting pieces like the walls.. I might do some minor squishing to the guardsman - nothing too extreme, because it's really only his lower half that's been crushed underneath the foot, though.

I think I figured out a way to seal it, so I went ahead and tried it, and it looks like it worked.

Instead of brushing, I took a sponge to some watered-down elmers and just dabbed it around the base to let it flow into the cracks. It looks like it got down in there pretty good, so I imagine it'll be holding the terrain down well - it's going to take a test priming to see how the surface texture really came out, though, as elmers dries transparent to begin with.

Anyway, it's drying right now, and I'm not dissapointed with the results.

I noticed that the foot is ridged with green stuff, but the footprint has no ridges..... normally when I step in the mud, you can tell what kind of shoe I'm wearing.....just a suggestion. Besides that, it looks great. I wouldn't overdo the ridges in the footprint.... just make them subtle

Haha. Guardsmen are so easy to convert!







This dude's pinned in, but not attached yet as I figure he'll be easier to paint if I can get at all his angles. I'm thinking I'm going to put one more standing near him turned sideways and pointing at the gargant in a "Death approaches!" pose.

I got myself a Sanctum Imperialis box from a place about an hour away.. but I think it was worth it. I'm setting the ruins up presently - pictures will be up when I get it all done.

Still waiting on the circuit for the head.. but I'm going to have to start building around it for now.

Angron: the hole is just the place in which I was going to put putty for the footprint, as it's far too indented to begin with. Thanks for the suggestion, though.

So I have some interesting pictures and a whole lot of text. I'm sorry for any of you 56k users, there's a lot of images to suffer through below.

Firstly, while I wanted to add one guardsman being defiant and brandishing dual pistols at the gargant, I didn't have the necessary parts. However, I did manage to make a commander/commissar type dude with a large hat - he is standing there defiantly, chainsword in hand and pointing at the gargant as if to say, "Come get some!"





Of course, pesky comissars armed with chainswords are nothing to really be concerned with. It's reasonably safe to assume he was soon incinerated by a blast from the gargant's head-flamethrower (which I have yet to make! >_<.

I strapped a few extra bitz onto these guardsmen just to make them look more detailed, and tried cleaning up my greenstuff on their joints a bit. I basically sculpt like a monkey, I'm not going to lie. They're removable for painting and won't be glued down till I'm good and ready.

Now, this is something of a before-and-after of the ruins I added in. The base is now 90% done, pending a bit of work on the road and sidewalk area and a bit of sealing with the new putty.


Before the putty was added onto the new ruins:















After the ruins were.. well, ruined.

















And a grot footprint before and after:






Overall, I consider this to be a very successful attempt at a large-scale base and I think the things I've learned are pretty valuable. I unfortunately am now all out of putty, so touchups will have to be with elmers glue if any are necessary.. I'm letting it sit overnight and I'll be sealing the whole putty base up with glue tomorrow. I think the base does the model justice, in any case.

I don't recall if I have posted about this or not, but....

SNAP!  This gets better and better with each update!  I'm impatent and cannot wait for it to be finished.  FINISH IT NOW!!!  Forget the fire works and such!  No cook-outs!  You can have a cook-out any old day!

Sorry.  I'm done now.

With putting that commisar/officer standing there and pointing, I wish there was some way to put a speach bubble or something there so he can be saying, "GODZILLA!"

Oh my God.. that base is super cool. I love the running and squashed guardsmen. Nearly everyone in 40k is heroic its nice to see some cowards.

Fear for the win..

Just entertaining myself while I think about what I'm going to do for the rest of today regarding this. I've decided to wait on making the head until I get the circuit for the eyes and flickering red led.. just trying to figure out what else I can work on until it arrives.

Maybe the grot bomb.

Also, as I've been told, the catachan legs have a belt, as do the cadian torsos.. so I dissembled the two guardsmen, chopped the belts off, and repaired them again.

I put the gargant on it's base just to see how it's all shaping up. I added the ammo belt in just a few minutes ago - I know it needs to be shortened and hang better, I'm about to go do that with some bent paperclip cuttings to make it hang closer to the weapon. Also, the gun arm is holding it up, again. The blue thing that was supporting it from underneath kept falling out now with the new terrain, and as I haven't screwed the gargant to it's base yet it'll have to just hold itself up like that for now.









And just for fun.



I think I can add in some cabling to the top of the head, and some orky eyebrows.

Just entertaining myself while I think about what I'm going to do for the rest of today regarding this. I've decided to wait on making the head until I get the circuit for the eyes and flickering red led.. just trying to figure out what else I can work on until it arrives.

Maybe the grot bomb.

Also, as I've been told, the catachan legs have a belt, as do the cadian torsos.. so I dissembled the two guardsmen, chopped the belts off, and repaired them again.

I put the gargant on it's base just to see how it's all shaping up. I added the ammo belt in just a few minutes ago - I know it needs to be shortened and hang better, I'm about to go do that with some bent paperclip cuttings to make it hang closer to the weapon. Also, the gun arm is holding it up, again. The blue thing that was supporting it from underneath kept falling out now with the new terrain, and as I haven't screwed the gargant to it's base yet it'll have to just hold itself up like that for now.









And just for fun.



I think I can add in some cabling to the top of the head, and some orky eyebrows.


Edit: Holy crap, that movie is funny. Heh. I'm going to have to spend a few minutes making a trailer of my own once I'm done with the head.

Those .... eyebrows ...

wow, that is simply amazing! would you mind taking an areal shot next time your taking pictures? Keep on keepin on

It gets better every time I look! I better get to see this thing up close at Games Day!

So.. nothing really new for the head. Same old same old.



Or is it?

What's that on the back there?



Hm..

Flipping it over we can get a look at some of Ein's super-barbaric wiring.



Results?



Now to build a flamer and disguise that toggle switch a bit.

Dude, your kung-fu is outrageous. Kudos.

Here is the movie that Ein was referring to.  I thought it'd be amusing to just do a showcase of the models' expressions, and threw this together.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEW7vEE9CfA&search=stompa

Oh, sweet Lord.  That clip was LOL.

HAHAHAHA loved the youtube clip.

The Stompa is just gorgeous. Been doing this very long?

Would you believe him if he said, "No?"

Hey Ein, you got into 40k when? Around Christmas time or so?

Late Jan/Early February, actually.

Got the basic head frame attached. It's going to get a lot more cabling/wires/detailing in the next few hours. Also, please remember that there's a grot bomb going on the thing's back - it looks hunched over right now and a bit odd, but aesthetically I think the extra weapon on the back will help balance it out.

The jaw's also fixed in place. I wanted to make a hinged one, but it just proved too awkward - occasionally opening too much and covering the grots completely, which looked silly. I just stuck it in a halfway pose, so that when I make the flamer and put it in the head it'll look alright. Battery's still removable - I cut the toggle switch down a bit as well, and I'll be concealing it somehow once I figure out what's going on the back of the head. Probably make it look like a valve or something. The lights are on and off in the pictures just because I would walk away in the middle of taking photos to take care of something around the house and turn the eyes off so the batteries didn't die, but forget to turn them back on when I come back to finish picture-taking.

















The head's a bit of a mess - the new glue I got, since I ran out of my old kind, seems to give off odd vapors that harden and make the surrounding area crusty. -_- I'll clean it up with the dremel and an xacto later. I actually had the suggestion to give it lightning-bolt shaped eyebrows to give it a bit more character and imply that the eyes are, in fact, zzap guns (aside from the extensive cabling). I might give that a go.

Russ: Can you please remove the filtering on this one thread? I just can't seem to express myself fully without being able to swear. I mean, gosh darnit! That's awesome! It's rad to the max to the flippin' extreme. See what I mean? It just loses something.

jamsessionein: Dude, this just rocks. I know I'm not saying anything I haven't said before here, but this is totally awesome! The sweet thing is that this is the type of model that makes people want to play against your army. I've never seen rules for a 40K scale stompa, so I'm assuming the rules you will use are VDR or your own. But, that's cool because whoever your opponent is he's going to want to see that thing on the table! ...Well, unless he's a total dipwad. (man, I need to swear!)

He could always play it as a "counts as"

okay, that's my Gargant I put weeks and weeks of work in...that's a nice Lascannon you got there...okay, penetrated....that looks like a six what you got there...

I guess some structure points would be nice for this thing

This is just geeeeeeeenius!!!

ur my hero

The head looks awesome. The body looks awesome. The head's size, relative to the body, looks... like it doesn't fit :-( I really hope the future additions to the back and etc. remedy this appearance. Maybe if you had the head up and back a little bit? Anyway, love the green eyes and the glow distortion affect within them, very nicely done.

You definately need a label next to the toggle switch that reads "Sleep//Stomp" :-D

Well, aside from actually attaching the head this morning I've had a surprisingly unproductive day as I've been tied up in family matters for most of the afternoon and evening. I did get a chance to add that dangly-chain-glyph thing from the illustration - the chain is reinforced by superglue.



I'm having trouble with two parts in particular - the flamethrower in the mouth and the back of the head.







The flamethrower is proving to be a problem as I need to find a spot to fix it inside the head where it does not obstruct the batteries, as I've designed them to be removable when they die out.. I could put the flamer in the way if I made that removable as well with magnets or some such, but I'm just having trouble picturing a good burna design in my head. Obviously, I'd like for there to be some 'pilot light' sort of thing at the top of it, so that a flame is visible behind the teeth and inside the mouth..

As for the back of the head, I just don't know what to fill that area in with. Maybe cabling of some sort, but remember, the head has to be detachable for painting and grotpit display purposes (and the battery changes), which prevents me from just running cables into the torso. Whatever I add needs to be capable of having a sort of U-shaped scaffolding built on it for the grot bomb / earthshaker cannon concept I have for the back.. just can't visualize anything right now.

I'm also considering adding some sort of shoulder armor (picture a super-enlarged ork shoulder armor bit) to flesh the arm joints out a little bit, as they look a bit fragile right now. Or at least, vulnerable to attack. Then again, it's not all that vital.

I'm honestly thinking of leaving the eyebrows off this thing. They make it look silly in the same way the 'ears' on the original did.

In any case, I'd love some suggestions.

I'm honestly thinking of leaving the eyebrows off this thing. They make it look silly in the same way the 'ears' on the original did.

Lol, i was about to suggest you add ears to the head, like in the concept sketch.
And you could also add those 2 pikes on each side of the head like in the drawing, trophies are always cool.

Anyway, keep up the good work, and Bravo !

if you got legos or something close to it.you could put in a few bricks here and there.
You could then be able to switch batteries and cover the back.Maybe even build onto the brick the grot launcha

I like the whole Eyebrows idea. it's just so damn Orky to put Eyebrows on a Bot.
hey, make them extra big, moveable and add a metal mustache, then you have a Dr. Wiley Bot

and it's nice to see bunny again, azhagmorglum

why not use a magnetic switch instead of the toggle switch? then all you have to do is place a small strong magnet on the switch and it will activate.  i was able to use one with my dreadnought.  the switch was under the base, the magnet on top, and it still worked just fine.  i don't think it would go through TOO much plastic, but easily an 1/8" or so.  the stronger the magnet the thicker the plastic.

you can get them at any train store, they're fairly cheap. 

What if you attached the Flamer to the jaw? Have it pinned to the insides of the jaw with cables and such running along the insides?

First off, you need to put some sort of bottom onto the jaw. That would do 3 things for you.

1) It would give you someplace to show off more crude panelling and rivets (both top AND bottom).
2) It would give you someplace to mount the flamer.
3) If you mount the flamer where I suggest, it won't look NEAR as dorky as if it were poking out between the top front 2 teeth.

Again, if you mount the flamer on the jaw/deck area, the flame nozzle should poke out just forward of the top teeth, but not actually be too visible from the sides of the head. Angle the flamer nozzle just "slightly" up, so the flame stream will clear the bottom teeth (and on an artistic note, it points straight out as it's lumbering forward in it's current pose.)


As for the back of the head... just finish off the short squat cylinder you've already started with the front of the head. It would then look more like some Dok Mek found an imperial fuel tank, and decided to use it as the head for the stopma he was building. You could then make more panel lines on the back of the head (with rivets, of course), maybe a ladder to the top of the head which also leads to an access/inspection hatch of some sort. Maybe, for just a bit of "color" have a pipe or 2 sticking out the side, leading to a valve with a flange end which leads to absolutely nothing. It's just the leftovers of it's prior life as a storage tank of some sort.

That should also leave you PLENTY of open space for an earthshaker and grot launcher mount on the back.

Posted By KiMonarrez on 07/06/2006 6:42 PM
First off, you need to put some sort of bottom onto the jaw. That would do 3 things for you.

1) It would give you someplace to show off more crude panelling and rivets (both top AND bottom).
2) It would give you someplace to mount the flamer.
3) If you mount the flamer where I suggest, it won't look NEAR as dorky as if it were poking out between the top front 2 teeth.

Again, if you mount the flamer on the jaw/deck area, the flame nozzle should poke out just forward of the top teeth, but not actually be too visible from the sides of the head. Angle the flamer nozzle just "slightly" up, so the flame stream will clear the bottom teeth (and on an artistic note, it points straight out as it's lumbering forward in it's current pose.)


As for the back of the head... just finish off the short squat cylinder you've already started with the front of the head. It would then look more like some Dok Mek found an imperial fuel tank, and decided to use it as the head for the stopma he was building. You could then make more weld lines on the back of the head (with rivets, of course), maybe a ladder to the top of the head which also leads to an access/imspection hatch of some sort. Maybe, for just a bit of "color" have a pipe or 2 sticking out the side, leading to a valve with a flange end which leads to absolutely nothing. It's just the leftovers of it's prior life as a storage tank of some sort.

That should also leave you PLENTY of open space for an earthshaker and grot launcher mount.

In your suggestions, you seem to be forgetting that there is, in fact, a grotpit located below the bottom jaw with the pilots in the belly of the beast. Let me go by the points:

1) Crude panelling and rivets would be okay, but right now the jaw doubles as a bullet shield for the grots - when they're under heavy fire, the mouth opens (presumably breathes fire, as it might as well) and absorbs some of the incoming fire aiming at them. A 'bottom' to the jaw would probably crush the grots in the grotpit.

2) If I mounted the flamer there, the captain would be very toasted. Also, it would eliminate the 'fire-breathing' appearance that I wanted to give it if it just shoots out of the neck.

3) It won't be poking out between teeth - just slightly behind the smaller one on the top jaw. The paint should hopefully reflect the fact that the center area there is where the flame spits out of (I'll be adding a burned effect around there). The flamer will actually be slightly behind the teeth, in any case, so as not to ruin the actual face's appearance.

I like the ladder on the back of the head idea, though. I'm not sure if I'm going to push an imperial fuel tank look, but I'll probably round the back off and close it, and then add the scaffolding for the grot bomb and a ladder going up so the grots can fix the wiring up top if it's needed.

The Jaw can still be a bullet shield... now it has a bottom. Then any rounds coming in via the mouth area aren't going to ping around and ricochette into the pilots. I'm not saying you need to bulk it up a bunch. Just put it straight across the bottom of the jaw. Think of it as adding a ceiling for the grot pilots.

If you still don't like that idea... that's cool. You're the actual artist here. The rest of us are just spectators/the sounding board for ideas.

I did finally get the flamethrower part done.. things have been crazy around here recently.



The flamer actually attaches to the torso instead of the head so that I can still easily get at the batteries inside the head for when they need changing.



Looks a bit silly like that, but let's fit the head in over it..



There. Not bad?

I was tempted to add more cabling/wires, and I still might, but I think it works pretty well right now as well - any extra cabling would become complicated in the interest of removing it. I could fix it in place, too, but I may as well make it removable as it's got the magnets there already.. it gets to a point where I think any additional detail will be missed anyway, so now I move on to closing off the back of the head.

I'm probably going to carry the cylindrical look around to the back of the head, close it off with some extra armor plating, then add scaffolding atop the shoulders that buttresses up against the back of the head for the grot bomb/earthshaker mount.

I was thinking about rules for this thing, aside from VDR.. There's one or two particularly fun special rules that I'd love to play with this thing, assuming my opponent would be open to it. For example, the following special rule actually cuts 50 points off the final VDR'd cost of the gargant:

Dis way! No, da uvva way!
The gargant is piloted by a team of grots usually work together to keep the stompa moving, shooting, and generally on a rampage. However, the grots will occasionally have a disagreement about what levers to pull or buttons to push, and occasionally begin fighting in the grotpit due to lack of slaver supervision. At the beginning of gargant's moving phase, roll a D6 - on a roll of one, the grots erupt in grotpit brawl, sending the gargant spiraling out of control as levers are hit inadvertently. Roll a scatter die until a directional arrow is apparent - the gargant wildly lumbers 6" in that direction. Any units in it's path, both friendly and hostile, take a wound with a 4+ save. Any units that fail can be assumed to be crushed beneath the unexpected heavings of the war machine. (Additional cityfight rule: As I'll be giving the gargant the 'wrecker' upgrade from the VDR rules - if the gargant's 6" random movement causes it to walk into a building, the gargant takes a strength 10 front armor hit and that building is removed from the terrain).

That seem fair?

i would pay to see 3 grots fight over a red button or a lever.Keep that rule for sure
I love the simple way you added the flamer AND it doesnt stick out too much either.Great work

I have been reading posts on dakka for quite some years, and post quite seldom. However, this is one of those times I feel absolutely compelled to write.

I have followed your building of the Stompa with great interest and awe. I have had vague ideas of building a Stompa myself in some unforseeable future, albeit a much less intricate and much less amazing one. I find words to be lacking, and I hail your innovativeness and skill. My one gripe with your project - work faster goddammit! ;-)

Okay. I closed the back of the head off with a bit of plating - three, to be precise. The head's still removable - all that's left to be done up there is to build two 'U' shaped 'clamps' for the grot bomb or earthshaker cannon to rest in.







The eyes need some new batteries, I think. Watch batteries run down fast, and I've had it on a lot the past few days just to enjoy. Thankfully, I've made them removable and easy to replace.

The grot bomb needs some work. I made one a while back but I don't think I like it, as my sculpting is generally garbage and it's a little.. rough. It's an impossible shape to plasticard, though. >_>

It is no nice!!! Im in love with a Stompa. It definately looks better than my girlfriend, but don't tell her. She is the jealous kind of type.

I would suggest that you add another grot or two, maybe an ork, on the display base - in nonsquashed condition. As it is right now, I find it a little odd that the squashed one is there all by himself. It would be really cool to have a little gang following this monster of a machine. if i was an ork (im not, though the quality of my tries at converting might suggest it), I would be following in the wake of this machine, screaming WAAAARGH!!! A few greenskins would add a lot in my opinon, and make a displays allready more than amazing, more than amazing.

Maybe a nosecone from a model rocket or plane?

Also I don't know what your plans are for the earthshaker but the imperial model from the basilisk is too slender and "elegant" for orks IMO.

Oh, I'm sure if he uses the IG model, it'll be suitably "orkified" before it gets mounted on.

I started messing around with the old Grot Bomb, trying to add detail.. The chain'll link around to the other side as 'reins' for the grot to ride it with. I'm not entirely sure how to make it look better, though.



It's obviously getting fins and a booster on the back.

Well, you COULD try to make the flying tigers trademark grinning face on the bomb out of Green Stuff and/or plastic strips.

Again, I want to say how fabulous this project is (for like the fifth time).

With that said, I can't post without mentioning that your final(ish) product definitely looks more "cartoony" IMO than the original concept sketch. I get this feeling based almost solely on the head design.

In the original sketch, the lower jaw is more extended, and the bladed tusks give it a look of menace. The slanted eyes make it look more angry and the entire head is set much deeper into the body.

Now, obviously your entire design is fantastic and at this point you're not likely to go back and change anything as major as what I've pointed out. More importantly, you're likely very happy with the way you've made it. . .that's why you made it that way!

But I just had to say it, because up until the head I felt that you had captured the essense of that drawing perfectly with your design, and I'm obviously a huge fan of the concept sketch.

Now that I've said my 2 cents, I'll get on to the real reason I'm replying: RULES! Something I'm okay at.

Dis way! No, da uvva way!
The gargant is piloted by a team of grots usually work together to keep the stompa moving, shooting, and generally on a rampage. However, the grots will occasionally have a disagreement about what levers to pull or buttons to push, and occasionally begin fighting in the grotpit due to lack of slaver supervision. At the beginning of gargant's moving phase, roll a D6 - on a roll of one, the grots erupt in grotpit brawl, sending the gargant spiraling out of control as levers are hit inadvertently. Roll a scatter die until a directional arrow is apparent - the gargant wildly lumbers 6" in that direction. Any units in it's path, both friendly and hostile, take a wound with a 4+ save. Any units that fail can be assumed to be crushed beneath the unexpected heavings of the war machine. (Additional cityfight rule: As I'll be giving the gargant the 'wrecker' upgrade from the VDR rules - if the gargant's 6" random movement causes it to walk into a building, the gargant takes a strength 10 front armor hit and that building is removed from the terrain).

That seem fair?

I like the concept of the rule but there are a few problems with it.

If this thing is a War Machine (which I'd assume), then it's likely "lumbering", which means it can only move 6" a turn and can only turn 90 degrees at the end of its move.

Stylistically, It seems really odd to me that, even if the Grots are fighting each other, a lumbering machine would be able to turn on a dime and move back towards the direction it just came.

Although the rule would be more complicated, I really think the Stompa should only be able to move either straight ahead or 45 degress to the left or right (perhaps split on a D6 roll of 1-2, 3-4, 5-6). Also, if the direction is randomized why isn't the movement distance? I think 2D6" isn't inappropriate at all (as the grots could force the Stompa to move faster than is safe).

Even wackier would be to have the out-of-control Stompa move straight ahead, but then roll the scatter die to see which direction it ends up facing. Although this may seem similar to your rule, since a lumbering vehicle has to move in a straight line, this would seriously affect it's move next turn too!


As for straight-up rules issues, here goes:

1) You don't explain what happens to models that it moves over, are they pushed out of the way? Tank Shocked? What about vehicle models?

2) You say that any units in it's path take a wound with a 4+ save. Were you trying to say "models" not "units"? If "units" is correct, are you saying that the unit only takes a single wound no matter what? If so, you should probably specify "single wound" to make it more clear. Also (and most importantly), what about vehicle units?

3) Lastly, it is odd for the Stompa to take real damage from a ruin/building since War machines only get slowed down by terrain, never immoblized. Are you not making the Stompa a Warmachine? Per the VDR it really should be.


Anyway, get back to me on these points and I'll help you hammer out a super-awesome funny rule (if you want my help, of course!).

I suggest that you make the jaw plate slightly melted near the flamer to represent regular heating from the weapon.

Speaking from a mechanical point of view... if the metal doesn't get heated PAST it's melting point, it won't melt or show any signs (aside from charing, and maybe some cracking from repeated heating and cooling) of being heated. So I'd vote "no" to melting the teeth a bit.

It looks a bit.. silly. I think I'm going to put the eye-stitching on afterall, as I can actually picture them as an electrified component of the eye-zzap cannons, but the ears and those head-pole things make it look a little more comical.

When I first drew that, and looked at it, I basically wrote it off. But looking at it sort've grows on me, too, and now I'm stuck in my typical creative ambivalence. Give it a second to just sit there and evaluate it. I can't seem to make up my mind. I've been saying from the outset that I was going to redesign the head a little bit, anyway... but I don't know how faithful I should be to the original over something like this.

Anyway, the head'll be getting more detail in the back - my main priority in armoring it up was to protect the wiring that I've done, both from primer and external sources, but I'll put some holes in it with cables running through into the head.. Just need to figure out where they'll go on the torso that I can still remove them. Making a sort of 'plug-in' cable that attaches to the torso in that manner sounds good, but it's more work than I think I want to bother going through every time I remove or add the head on. Also, charring around the teeth will be a painting consideration, not a modelling one. I don't want to melt anything

As for the grot bomb - once I get the shape right and attach fins, I'm going to use a goblin wolfrider as the base for a conversion for a grot straddling the top of the bomb with a cowboy hat in hand waving it in the air. I think the way I'm going to be making the rest of this is to add the launch ramp for it onto the back to fill in the 'hunch' and go back to the head to add detail wherever visible after that.

Posted By jamsessionein on 07/08/2006 8:24 AM
As for the grot bomb - once I get the shape right and attach fins, I'm going to use a goblin wolfrider as the base for a conversion for a grot straddling the top of the bomb with a cowboy hat in hand waving it in the air. I think the way I'm going to be making the rest of this is to add the launch ramp for it onto the back to fill in the 'hunch' and go back to the head to add detail wherever visible after that.

Ooooooo.  The Dr. Strangelove reference would be a REALLY nice touch.

*grumblegrumble*Stupid HTML editor won't work*grumblegrumble*

Try this link to Dr. Strangelove.

I am SO glad I am not the only one who got the Dr. Strangelove reference...

The worst part of knowing the reference, is when talking to people of the younger generation who think the reference is to the movie "Armaggedon". *shudder*ugh!!!*shudder*

i dont get it...sry
but no,loose the ears.Orky or not,its too much even on a thing like that.
Where's the bullet holes?
make a few in the face so the light shines through the holes....it could look good.

i vote yes to ears and eye stitches

My votes:

Ears: "NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Eye Stitches: Not sure. Leaning towards "No".



Bit more on the ears. Just because they look "ok" in a 2D drawing... does NOT mean it will translate well to a 3D model.

I think you should add something to look like eyebrows, to make the thing look more beastly and mean.

The stompa definitely needs some shoulder pads, preferably big spiky ones with bombs coming off of them.   Maybe you could even mount a grot on the head with some sort of shoota weapon?  I don't know, but big horns or tusks would look better than ears in my opinion.

Just a few ideas.  This whole project is awesome, keep it up and you'll definitely get a Golden Demon.

 

The stompa definitely needs some shoulder pads, preferably big spiky ones with bombs coming off of them.   Maybe you could even mount a grot on the head with some sort of shoota weapon?  I don't know, but big horns or tusks would look better than ears in my opinion.

Just a few ideas.  This whole project is awesome, keep it up and you'll definitely get a Golden Demon.

 

I don't really care for the eye stitches or the ears either. I think it might look good with Tesla coil type antennae sticking horizontally out of either side of the head, though.

Oh, and I got the Dr. Strangelove reference too. I think a lot of people have seen the clip somewhere, but just don't know the name of the movie it's from. They just know it as "the movie with the guy who rides on the nuclear bomb"

I tried making a new bomb.. it lacks wings, but I think I ended up making it too big. I'm not going to lie to you guys, I think from the shoulders up I'm not entirely happy with the way this is looking right now. Something about the head (especially towards the back) is bothering me, and the rocket's proving to be a pain to make.. bleh.

Well, from the latest pic, there's just too much open space on those panels on the back of the head.

Add in that scaffolding/ladder (not sure if you decided yet or not) and it might look better to you.




Or... as it litterally just popped into my head... put those ears on, and give one of them a big dangling ear ring that has a few trophy heads/helmets on it. Maybe a big ork glyph on the very end. Just a thought.


Oh, and if you look at the original concept sketch... the grot bomb was up MUCH further on the shoulders than what you are holding it in the last pic. Putting that up further might break up that open space some, and alleviate whatever is bothering you.

I like the new grot bomb, a little big sure, but on the other hand for an ork bigger is better in explosions.

I would say that you should consider extending the back of the head a bit could help

have you tried looking for stuff that looks like a small cone shape? maybe if you found something hollow and plastic like a funnel you could either use that or mold something from it. If you can find one of those small rockets you blast into the air, the ones with the parachutes on them, you can use the head of that for the bomb. Also I think alot of the problem is the green stuff makes the details looks weirdly bulky. I'd stick mostly to plasticard details and find a peice that stays pretty pure to a rocket look (not having to attach alot of stuff to make it look that way).

Also for the head, I think if you start adding little things to it, it might start to look better. I.E. adding little fuel tanks to the sides (maybe to replace the ears) or the back and maybe even little smoke stack. The trophies and grots would always be cool but those can be added later.

I agree with the rocket carriage though. if you build the back up past the shoulders more it might look alittle bit better. Maybe even borrow a platform from the basilisk to add back there.

i like the new bomb mucho, my advice would be add the ears to help add more substance to the head, currently it looks too small with too much open space on the shoulders. also, if you look at the sketch closely,  you can kinda see that the shoulders have a bit of armor plating on the front thats like frontal shoulder pads. coming together really good, best scratch build i ever did see

Gotta say its looking mint.

All this from a picture!!!!!

But in my view, the head is set to far forward. and the bottom jaw isn't big enough. On the picture, you can't really see the back of the head and the jaw is more forward.

I the ears would look cool with trophies hanging from them.

Shoulder pads - spiky - with some form of infantry speared on some how.

Back of the head - hows about, errm, ah, a platform with a mekboy on it, controlling.

Just some ideas.

add shoulder plates and think it over again.I think thats why it looks off.No ork is complete without plates.
If you make nice,chunky pads,it will beef 'im up and close the empty spaces you got so far.

and can i say 'Someone set up us the bomb'?

I think I figured out the best way of doing it, actually, after a lot of staring at it and thinking.

The head's too big in comparison to the body. The easiest way that I can see to fix this is to scale the body up - literally, vertically. I've been trying to build the head back so far, which just keeps putting it more and more out of proportion.. so, if I build the engine up a bit higher over that rounded shoulder crossbar I can work it gradually forward until it gets closer to the back of the head. I'll leave two pegs for whatever back weapon I decide to use to be pinned into, but the best way I can see this working is to build the engine up and over the shoulders a bit more to add to the 'hunch' and put the proportions back in line.

I just gotta get my mind back into a 'worky gubbinz' sort of stage like I was in for making the engine to begin with. Trying to figure out what sort of addition can sit atop the shoulder crossbar without causing any interference in the design.. Maybe a large air intake, or one of those circular fluted things you see ontop of car engines.. I'm having trouble picturing anything specific in my mind right now for it, but I know that that's the best way to fix the problems I'm having. I could even leave the flat back of the gargant's head as it is, drill some holes, and use some stiff plasticard tubing that's anchored into the body to feed through that into the head's holes - they don't have to be attached, just poking through the armor into the head.

So, with that said, I'd like to solicit some ideas for sacling the engine from the back over the shoulders, as I don't have a clear picture in my head of what mechanics I should insert in that spot. Here's what I'm up against right now...





I hate to be continually asking for help and ideas like this, but I am starting to burn out on it - but I refuse to stop so close to completion.

you could consider adding the orkish equivilent to one of those pads the american football defensive lineman put to keep their neck from getting jammed (I know I'm making no sense now) kinda like a big hunchback that is used to protect the vulnerable back of the head and maybe slightly cover over the gears on the shoulder..

ok, not enough sleep last night, off to take a nap.

 it could look good if you put kinda a metallic plate collar behind his neck kinda like the chaos/normal space marines have behind their heads, it'd make sense in practical use and flesh out the head to body connection more.

*points to AMP187's post* Yah, that's what I was trying to get at with my sleep deprived rambling

Well, I note that you have 2 exhausts on the right side of the stompa. Howsabout you salvage the top portion off some sort of v-8 engine from a model car, and have the exhaust headers point to the left, then I'm pretty sure you have the mad skillz to connect the exhausts together and exit out the rear left side.

That should bump the height up a bit and give you some more "engiee" lookin' stuff.




Edit:  I just had a REAALLY bad pun idea to go with this.  Salvage the engine out of some old Countache or Diablo model... and then you can orkify the engine up enough that you can then say the Stompa is a.....


wait for it....


LambORKini.

Or if you salvage the parts from a Testarossa or F355... and call it a FerrORKi.








I know.


I need medication.

I would add big exhaust pipes and maybe some shoulder armor.

btw, I like the big head

I worked the engine up a little bit.. I have some more bitz to add, but I have to go out to a dinner for the moment, so I figured I'd throw this up here. The back of the head's going to be re-armored slightly more angularly, and holes are going to be drilled in the plates for the 'pipes' to poke through into the back of the head. I'm also going to drill a hole for a place to pin whatever back attachment I desire to go on, and I need to fix the gears a little bit as I ended up cutting them down more than I wanted to so that they'd fit. Again, lego are phenomenal as little detail adders.







I also started working on a stormboy for the base. I was originally going to have him going over the ruined wall, but he looks like he might be in a good attack position to be swooping in from the side to drop that commissar on the base. We'll see! I have to do a little additional greenstuffing around his waist and add backpack-esque straps over the shoulders for the rocket to hang on by. The head's a burna boy head I had just laying around.

Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan.


And here I was hoping for a LambORKini. Ah well.

Well, I'll tell you guys what. I've spent the day thinking about this, and got pretty much nothing to show for it - I ended up trying to close the back of the head off and running the piping into it, but the dremel work I did basically wrecked it.. I tried closing the back of the head up again and it just turned into a mess and I had to pull the whole back section I just added on off again. And the head still looks too big.







Shoulder pads are okay, but I am not relying on them to help fill this 'hunch' in.

I'm just completely depressed about the way it looks right now, and the fact that despite sitting at it and trying different things all day I'm right back where I started. I think I've burned out, but I'm trying my damndest to have this whole thing made and painted by next Monday at the moment.

Any additional ideas would be appreciated. I'm stuck in a very definite and solid rut, and remaking the head isn't exactly an option because of the time constraint. I don't want to reposition it that much from where it is, either, as I intend on keeping the grotpit and other details intact.


Anung: Adding in exhaust pipes sounds fine in theory, but where and how? It's hard to picture exhaust pipes sticking out of the shoulder pivots, as there's no possible mechanical purpose they'd serve other than to make the arms actually stop working.

KiMonarrez: I don't mean to dissapoint, but I'm not going to be 'salvaging' an engine from a model car. It wouldn't fit there, really. Whatever it is needs to look like it's part of the enclosure for the shoulder joint and mild mechanics for the back of the head..

Deathwing and AMP: That 'neck guard' idea you guys suggested.. would just end up making the head look bigger, wouldn't it?

Is there any way to move the magnet on the head UP just a smidge? That would drop the head just a smidge, reduce the amount of the back of the head that's showing and might take away from your feeling that the head is too big (as it won't stick so far UP anymore).

You might also try moving the jaw up just a smidge on the head, but open the mouth more (for clearance to flamer)  to make the head look a little smaller.

If I can, I'd suggest a kind of over-cowling, running across the shoulders. It would give a sense of looming bulk, the Orkish hunched posture, and, fluff-wise, provide protection for the engine against airborne attacks and artillery fire raining down on it from above. Not so much as to obscure the excellent work you've done with the shoulders so far, of course. That way, the emphasis moves away from the head, and more to the torso.

Shoulder Pads FTW, and eyebrows to make it look angry.
I also like your use of legos, especially those 2 gears in the back.

Shoulderpads are a significant departure from the concept sketch though.

I agree with KiMonarrez on moving the head and raising the jaw. I do however like what you did with those lego gears.

 

Some other options I can think of to bulk-out the shoulds would be to have a "role bar". Basically a skelital frame, like sprint cars, or some pick-up trucks. make it look like tubular steel. I would use a wire mesh to cover it. it would look like orks are using chain link fence. this could work for mounting your grot bomb to.

You could add an obsevation area or throne chair for a Big mek.

possibly a plaform with a small crane for loading and unloading munitions?

 

Why don?t you chuck a veranda across the shoulders and have a couple of grots atop the shoulders with some pintle mounted shooters?

Maybe put up a short 'cover' wall or just a railing to put the shooters on, also you could put a crate of ammo up there for the arm gun grots? shells?

You could also extend the back out a bit for the back mounted weapon to be manned and operated / or for the grot bomb pilot to mount the weapon?

Hope there is a little insparation there for you

B.t.w: WAAAAAGHHH!!!!

Usiel ? mauled friend to squigs?

depressed? hey, the rest of us are depressed that we'll never model a tenth as well as you can.

I agree it looks out of proportion, but it's nothing that raising the head and moving it back won't cure - you'll then have a taller and deeper stompa and the head will look great. Sure, that means rearranging and extending the torso, which will take some serious work, but we know you can do it!

you know what?
Just leave it for a week or so.try something different.paint something.
You've been zugging on this for over a month already and posting almost daily updates,thats why you're out of ideas.
leave it,pack it,fire it up (come along....take a hit from the...wait.no) and see how it looks in a week or so.
If you're still stuck...then meeh...ask your wife or store mates what's it missing

I agree with Clayman. Take a break. I know you want it done by Monday, but a rushed, uninspired job would ruin the work already done.
Also, I dont think the head looks too big at all. Its not worth fussing over.

shoulder pads would be good, moving the head back and up would be good. it looks like in the picture the upper part of the head (the part with the eyes and stuff, not the jaw) does not extend past the "belly" or torso. that could be what is throwing off the proportion