Writing has slowed down significantly over the last few days as I got distracted by a nasty infected root canal. Yay. I can barely get a thousand words down a night at this point, but I'm still on track to finish before the end of November.
I've fiddled with the Gundam a bit as well, putting together a few optional weapon kits I bought a while back. I have a giant chain gun that has a little wind up motor to spin the barrels. I may have squeed when I built that.
Finally got the juices flowing again. I went and made a "creativity playlist" with a bunch of Bryan Tyler, Abney Park and Hans Zimmer tracks and played that while chugging pre-workout supplements. You want something to get your brain working? Try L-arginine, it also makes video games waaaaaaaaay more intense. Seriously. Go chug a serving of NO-Xplode and play some Halo, you'll see what I mean. And then you may need to go out and run some sprints or whatever to cool off, but trust me, it's hella cool.
Tonight I managed to get past a pivotal hump that started the novel's climax and kicked off the final action sequence, which from here I can pretty much pound out. If I'm not done with the book by the end of the week I'll be pretty surprised.
bossfearless wrote: Finally got the juices flowing again. I went and made a "creativity playlist" with a bunch of Bryan Tyler, Abney Park and Hans Zimmer tracks and played that while chugging pre-workout supplements. You want something to get your brain working? Try L-arginine, it also makes video games waaaaaaaaay more intense. Seriously. Go chug a serving of NO-Xplode and play some Halo, you'll see what I mean. And then you may need to go out and run some sprints or whatever to cool off, but trust me, it's hella cool.
Tonight I managed to get past a pivotal hump that started the novel's climax and kicked off the final action sequence, which from here I can pretty much pound out. If I'm not done with the book by the end of the week I'll be pretty surprised.
Had a buddy of mine take a full dose of "C-4 Extreme" not 10 minutes before a rugby match. Lol, he turned pale, was sweating bullets and was like "guys, I can feel my heart.... in my chest.... seriously, we NEEEEED to get this game kicked off!"
Heh, yeah it totally fills you with the need to headbutt something. If you channel that into gaming, though, you get this super intense immersion and you may or may not let out a gut searing war cry, or celebrate your kills with IRL pelvic thrusting.
Have you ever used your staff to bean somebody upside their iron helmet, then used a haste enchantment to speed up the vibration until it turned their brains into pudding? Merrick can now check that one off the bucket list. Writing continues. Two more chapters left, Batch 43 and A Pig's Fate, and then I'm just down to editing.
Trying to figure out how I would light a really big lightsaber that goes with the Gundam model. Maybe a series of LEDs down the inside of the "blade"? No idea. I really should start building on this thing some more.
Trying to figure out how I would light a really big lightsaber that goes with the Gundam model. Maybe a series of LEDs down the inside of the "blade"? No idea. I really should start building on this thing some more.
Wouldn't it be better, or easier... or something.... to have a single LED lighting up the bottom of a colored plastic rod...fiber optic style?
The problem is that a single LED only gives off so much light. The light you see going up the length of that rod is actually light escaping from the system, so that the further up the rod you go the weaker the light gets. On a 40k sized model, a single LED works well enough. If you look at the light-up plasma cannon I posted a while back you get the example of a short, vibrant lit rod. But then if you look at Upgrayedd's pimp staff, you'll see that the light from a single LED has all but dissipated by the time it gets to the end of that clear acrylic flight stand. Now imagine you were trying to light something ten times that size.
Gundam models are generally on a whole different scale to 40k, and the smallest analog is a Knight or Riptide sized unit. So, it's just a great big question of scale.
Problem with that design is that it does more of a projected blade thing- which, while how they're described, isn't actually how they look or act at all. They're more a chainsaw of plasma vortices trapped in a coil of magnetic feedback.
Anvildude wrote: Problem with that design is that it does more of a projected blade thing- which, while how they're described, isn't actually how they look or act at all. They're more a chainsaw of plasma vortices trapped in a coil of magnetic feedback.
Yeah, what he said. But, short of actually putting together some kind of pressurized gas emitter, we're stuck trying to light it up as a lightsaber instead.
bossfearless wrote: The problem is that a single LED only gives off so much light. The light you see going up the length of that rod is actually light escaping from the system, so that the further up the rod you go the weaker the light gets. On a 40k sized model, a single LED works well enough. If you look at the light-up plasma cannon I posted a while back you get the example of a short, vibrant lit rod. But then if you look at Upgrayedd's pimp staff, you'll see that the light from a single LED has all but dissipated by the time it gets to the end of that clear acrylic flight stand. Now imagine you were trying to light something ten times that size.
Gundam models are generally on a whole different scale to 40k, and the smallest analog is a Knight or Riptide sized unit. So, it's just a great big question of scale.
I get what you're saying, but I suppose it will come down to how the sword itself is built, whether you're cool with an "exposed" light source, or if there will be "gaps" between the lit part.
Looking around a tiny bit online, if you're going for a full on lightsaber design, perhaps using Fiberoptic cabling would be the way to go? Obviously there are pros and cons to that as a whole.... But depending on the time table you're setting for yourself, you should have time to research and get the materials you want
Actually the material I'd probably want is electroluminescent wire. I found a supplier once upon a time that sold it by the inch in various thickness and color options, but then my computer died on me and I lost the bookmark. Fiber optic wire would have the same limitations as an acrylic rod, losing light along the length of the blade. EL wire might have the right properties but that's for another time, I think.
bossfearless wrote: Actually the material I'd probably want is electroluminescent wire. I found a supplier once upon a time that sold it by the inch in various thickness and color options, but then my computer died on me and I lost the bookmark. Fiber optic wire would have the same limitations as an acrylic rod, losing light along the length of the blade. EL wire might have the right properties but that's for another time, I think.
Ahh... yea, the google search I did, I came across a fiber optic wire company that sold stuff that, in the pictures looked almost exactly like how I'd imagine you'd want your lightsaber look to have and it could just have been the lengths used on the site, but they didn't appear to dissipate light at all along the length.
Do you have access to chemistry equipment or a supplier of various gasses? What about glassblowing equipment? You could potentially make a Neon miniature sword!
Dude, anvil, anvildude, dude. Negative on the chemistry set dude. Desert, dude.
Also Enris, I looked on that link and it's the same basic thing as the fiber optic I use now. It states on the site that it won't light up on the sides, only at the tips. EL wire is the closest thing I can think of.
Honestly, making a super-tiny lightsaber would probably be worlds easier than making a 'full size' one. Power consumption and field densities and atmospheric scattering and the square-cbe-law and all that.
Lightsaber log, Day 2: Burnt the house down, but succeeded in making toast with lightsaber.
Worked on the Gundam a bit. This thing, goddamn man. The head? 13 pieces. Added another 20 or so pieces to the torso, still not finished with that yet. These Japanese master grade kits are over the top complicated.
bossfearless wrote: Heh, yeah it totally fills you with the need to headbutt something. If you channel that into gaming, though, you get this super intense immersion and you may or may not let out a gut searing war cry, or celebrate your kills with IRL pelvic thrusting.
This post is so full of win and overpowered awesome, my computer shuddered and then sprouted limbs, battle music began to play -- and a mini boss fight ensued.
I am SO going to try this.
Also, this book, we gonna get a chance to read it?
Okay, the last chapter of the story itself is done. The big climactic boss fight has ended, Fat Suzy and Uncle Randall are no more, and batch 43 was an absolute failure. Brains leaked, heads exploded, characters died, and the truth wore purple. One more chapter to write, the epilogue, and then it's finally written after ten goddamn years of saying I'd write it.
Sweet zombie Space Jesus, I finally finished my first novel. This is kind of freaky. This project has existed in a perpetual twilight for more than ten years, always lurking in the back of my brain. Feels crazy to actually have it down on paper.
Lighsaber log, Day 23: Scrawled obscene graffiti on the wall with the power of a thousand suns.
Wrote an epilogue about an infantry regiment pooping out harpies, and used that as a parable to tie the whole novel together. Part of me really hopes this gets made into a movie someday just so I can see that on the big screen.
Lightsaber log, Day 30: With great power comes great responsibility, but with a lightsaber comes the ability to slice bread and turn it into toast at the same time. Also, speaking of lightsabers, I adamantly defend the validity of the cross-guard lightsaber from the new Star Wars trailer. There's already a plot device in place to make that cross guard a functional thing, "cortosis weave" I believe it's called, the extra layer that made your regular melee weapons immune to lightsabers in the KOTOR games. Yeah, nerd cred right there.
Oddly enough, "Cortosis weave" is actually supposed to completely disrupt the magnetic containment field of the sabers, shorting them out entirely. One wonders why the Sith didn't just armour everyone with that stuff.
It's supposed to be pretty rare. I played a couple of the Jedi Knight games for Xbox back in the day (JK2 had the BEST lightsaber fighting system, we'd duel for hours on end!), and there was a late-game enemy type that actually did wear the stuff as armor. But it was this big operation to produce enough armor for just a small number of guys. Logistically you can get more use out of cortosis in smaller applications like a badass cross-guard.
I finally finished something worth posting, so it's time for a little thread necromancy.
I finally completed my Wing Zero Endless Waltz Custom Master Grade kit from Japan, with a modified weapon loadout since I hate the way the Gundam beam sabers look in model form. Tactical marine on the base for size comparison so that you can see just how large this bad boy actually is. It goes without saying that it needs paint. Badly. Because the cutesy Gundam cartoon palette just isn't right for my taste.I may mount it on an oval base so that it can count as a vastly oversized Knight titan or something down the line. It's so much bigger than the Metal Gear walker lol. More pics to come later on when I have the time to go through and do different poses with it (like a hundred points of articulation!)
So what have I been doing over the past few months? Well, it's been insane. A couple of my coworkers got shot up, so I was on lock-down for a while. And there were a couple weeks in Thailand, then moving to the new compound in the middle of nowhere with no internet, and most recently I've been investing in real estate. It's a hell of a project that's giving me a gamer-high like you wouldn't believe. It's like breaking the game in 40k, except that when I break the game it generates income. Very exciting stuff.
But, now that we're finally moved in and I'm settled and I got the internet working again, I can start working on little projects here and there again.
Thanks. My next project is probably going to be resurrecting Melvin from his ignominious fate in the bottom of a bin in my closet. We had this nebulous move date so we had to pack up our rooms and be ready to move at the drop of a hat, which meant I couldn't start any kind of really involved projects. Now that I'm settled in place I can start repairing and re-working that build into something different using a variety of special parts I picked up while in Japan. I've got this giant Knight-scale chain gun (it would look big and clunky on the Wing Zero) and a huge shield, plus articulating robot hands that all need to find homes on that build. Melvin will live again.
When you said "A coworker got shot up" I was all, "OMG, a workplace shooting somewhere?" before I remembered you were a merc and that was part of the job description.
You know, now that you mention it, I think maybe the cartoony palette is one of the biggest reasons I dislike most Gundam series, while loving G-Gundam. That's about the only one where the super-bright, never-dirty colors actually fit the tone of the rest of the cartoon. I'm looking forwards to seeing this guy grunged up.
Oddly enough, Melvin fared worse in the move than when my table got smashed. The model is in pieces right now and I'm not sure how I'm going to proceed exactly, but the unfortunate circumstance has given me the gumption to rework the pose and the build in general. I may never get the eye LED to light up at this point, so what I may do is pull the head and find a different bit to fit. This one my simply not light up at all, but I do plan on going with a dead sexy re-pose and adding the wings from Strike Freedom Gundam, maybe a buster sword and a techno kite shield. In other news, do you see the size of that gatling gun off to the side there? Best part is that it has a little wind up motor in it that spins the barrels.
Wow, what an awesome thread. Just went through it and am still processing how rich the content is. Awesome miniatures, lots of ideas, and that lit up heavy plasma gunner literally made me laugh out loud with delight. Now, I know that you are on a break from 40k, but unless I missed it, it do not think this gal was mentioned http://wargameexclusive.com/shop/aliens/female-naked-resting-tau-sniper-warrior/
Spoiler:
You do not seem to need anyone sculpting Xenos boobs for you, but that might be of interest.
Anyway, I will be following this blog with interest, wherever you decide to take it.
Wow, that's actually a really cute Tau girl. I might end up getting one of those. Haven't gotten the chance to make any real progress on anything lately. Work has been stupid and I'm embroiled in a ton of real estate investments. Maybe after this month I'll have the itch again. I'll be coming back to the states for a couple weeks, and hopefully that will jump start my interest in the hobby again.
Glad you like her ! Good luck with the work and real estate then, make the best of it. Enjoy your stay back home; updates here will always be appreciated.
I know it's shocking, but this update will include actual progress!
Freaky, huh?
Anyway, I had to stay awake for four extra hours last night to get to the bank when it opened (night shift sucks no matter the country). To aid in not passing out, I went and worked on rebuilding and revamping Melvin's battle armor using some pieces from Kotobukiya and Bandai kits. There's a fair bit of Strike Freedom Gundam in this build now.
You can see a little bit of an update to the legs. There's some excess putty that needs cleaning out of the ankle joints. The biggest addition is obviously the wings from Strike Freedom, along with the new thigh plates and the hip joints, all from the same model. I'll probably add some kind of armor or tabard to cover that joint, because it's pretty rough. Most of the joints are looking pretty nasty, actually. But that's what happens when you have to rebuild the model over and over.
That chain gun features a wind up motor and spinning barrels, and the hand? That hand is fully articulated right now. Every knuckle joint. It's almost a shame to glue it in place, but I really need to add stability to that gun. I'm not sure if I want to keep that shoulder armor or go back to using the rounded tau Riptide plates that were on there before. I don't think I really liked the look, honestly, so I'm probably going with these white ones for both shoulders. I'm probably going with a great big shield in the other arm, or I might try and put in a hand that will accept either one. Either way, I'm going to try and get the build finished to some extent before I leave for the US tomorrow night. Really hoping that I have a decent time this time around, and maybe it'll jump start my hobbies again.
Hrm. I wonder if there's anything you could use that would increase the friction in the joints of the hand without completely binding them. Or you could use Elmer's glue (white glue) in them, that way it'll be washable if you really want.
Nicely done, you made those kits work together real well.
Yeah that would be brilliant to keep these fingers movable. If the weapon is not too heavy using a magnet in the palm could be a solution. Or metal wiring in the fingers ? if there is free space inside them. I am thinking soft metal, like tin wires you use for welding...
KernelTerror wrote: Nicely done, you made those kits work together real well.
Yeah that would be brilliant to keep these fingers movable. If the weapon is not too heavy using a magnet in the palm could be a solution. Or metal wiring in the fingers ? if there is free space inside them. I am thinking soft metal, like tin wires you use for welding...
Good job anyway, and have a pleasant travel.
The gun/arm connection is very unsuitable for magnets. Two rounded surfaces, basically. So it's putty and glue and a lot of hope that's going to keep these things together, and gluing the finger joints will not only provide stability to the hand, but also prevent a knuckle from popping off and getting lost later (they're snap-fit joints, like 30 of them in that tiny hand). If I want to bring the hand action back for another model in the future, I can just order another sprue of hands from Kotobukiya. Seriously, they have sprues of everything.
Other projects have caught my eye, and I have a few kits on order. None of it is directly related to 40k, but it will all be touched by my years of wargaming hobbies. Kotobukiya puts out these model kits called Frame Arms. I'll give you a minute to Google it.
All Googled up? Awesome.
What sets these kits apart, as a whole range, is that the entire series is intended to be interchangeable. Every part will fit with every other model, and all the parts fit around a universal Frame Arms skeleton, which is pretty cool looking in itself, and features an amazing degree of articulation. I have 3 different kits coming, and I want to build something badass. Currently wondering if these kits are interchangeable with the parts from their Armored Core line, because if so I am definitely going to get some kind of sweet heavyweight AC kit to bastardize.
Damn, they indeed have a lot of brilliant stuff ! Now I feel silly for building a walker almost entirely out of plasticard ^^. Well, might be useful in the future...
And now that I think of it, gluing the hand is also a good excuse to get more hands...and the rest of the kits as well ^^.
You know, the only down side to the Japanese kits is that they tend to all be roughly the same size, give or take. Everything runs about the same size as a Dreadknight or a Riptide, which makes them a great source for Knight-class models, but anything smaller than that and you're looking at bits that are too big to really work. The other down side is that most of the guns have really small barrels. They more or less make sense for an anime aesthetic, but for us 40k fans who have grown up expecting these frakking huge barrels on our guns, it can be a bit of a pain. That's where the kitbashing comes into play.
On the plus side, you should see some of the swords!
Automatically Appended Next Post: Alright, I'm out. USA, here I come.
You make a good point, and I happen to be in need of a sword for the aforementioned walker... Googled it, bought it, hope it will arrive soon and will fit the model ^^. Thank you for the intel.
I wonder- Are there any ChromeHounds model kits out there? I'm Beta-ing a game called M.A.V. that's based on a similar aesthetic, and I feel like the modularity of the parts would be fantastic for model systems.
KernelTerror wrote: You make a good point, and I happen to be in need of a sword for the aforementioned walker...
Googled it, bought it, hope it will arrive soon and will fit the model ^^.
Thank you for the intel.
Which sword kit fid you pick up? Beast sword? Unite blade? There's so freaking many. They even have FF7 Buster Swords available.
@Anvildude: There are no Chromehounds kits that I'm aware of. However, all of the Frame Arms models feature that idea of modularity. They just only vome in humanoid shapes so far. Now, *if* the Armored Core kits are compatible, that's another story. There are a few reverse legged, quad legged and tank legged kits. The spacer bits that were available in Chromehounds, which really let you redesign the chassis shape, are available through Kotobukiya in their option kits range. True custom mech building is possible if you're willing to work at it.
Automatically Appended Next Post: On a side note, it's hard not to just drop $500 on totally random kits and go all mad scientist on them.
Boss, I remember first seeing your stuff on that, other forum. I was blown away at the converting and the complete disregard for what anyone else thought about it. I loved them both. Heck, seeing you back inspired me to go start up on my Tau again. So thanks, and keep up the good work on the big guy. I know I want to see spinning barrels.
KernelTerror wrote: You make a good point, and I happen to be in need of a sword for the aforementioned walker...
Googled it, bought it, hope it will arrive soon and will fit the model ^^.
Thank you for the intel.
Which sword kit fid you pick up? Beast sword? Unite blade? There's so freaking many. They even have FF7 Buster Swords available.
Well in a pretty silly way I went for "bigger weapon means better weapon" and bought that heavy weapon kit by MSG. It arrived this morning, and is a really nice kit, with which you can do a lot of different weapons. And that is a good thing because the main design was clearly too big for my dreadnought. I ended up with a minimal design that, in my opinion, still retains the personality of the original weapon. And that way I get to keep a lot of very interesting bits for the next one ^^ !
Just to say, I've shown a bunch of people your stuff and everyone's been very impressed, some equally mortified. The sonic hammerhead gets them every time.
Oh I see, you went with the Unite Sword. I've got that same option kit. I have it built as a big sword like yours, minus the knives on the back. Then I took the various leftover pieces and built a big halberd for the Wing Zero Gundam. That took some cutting and gluing of course.
I did, and completely without noticing it was already on page 32 ^^. Might be a good think though, the scale might have made me reluctant. I definitely plan on using the second big blade on an incoming model, integrated to an halberd or standalone, kind of like a tekko.
Not sure what these knives are for, maybe in order to use the back of the blade against an enemy mech and get better chances of piercing a critical component ?
But anyway, usable or not I like them, so they go on the sword.
bossfearless wrote: Other projects have caught my eye, and I have a few kits on order. None of it is directly related to 40k, but it will all be touched by my years of wargaming hobbies. Kotobukiya puts out these model kits called Frame Arms. I'll give you a minute to Google it.
All Googled up? Awesome.
What sets these kits apart, as a whole range, is that the entire series is intended to be interchangeable. Every part will fit with every other model, and all the parts fit around a universal Frame Arms skeleton, which is pretty cool looking in itself, and features an amazing degree of articulation. I have 3 different kits coming, and I want to build something badass. Currently wondering if these kits are interchangeable with the parts from their Armored Core line, because if so I am definitely going to get some kind of sweet heavyweight AC kit to bastardize.
Dammit man! The last thing I need right now is more shiny toys demanding that I buy them!
KernelTerror wrote: I did, and completely without noticing it was already on page 32 ^^. Might be a good think though, the scale might have made me reluctant. I definitely plan on using the second big blade on an incoming model, integrated to an halberd or standalone, kind of like a tekko.
Not sure what these knives are for, maybe in order to use the back of the blade against an enemy mech and get better chances of piercing a critical component ?
But anyway, usable or not I like them, so they go on the sword.
I think the knives are there because Anime Logic, that's why. If it was a cartoon they would fly off on their own and chop off everyone's faces.
You know, I've heard that "Chop of faces" line all over the place, but I don't think I've ever actually seen it done (in animation or effects or whatever). Especially with a knife.
USA vacation is behind me and it went much, much better than last year. Still no 40k, but my spirit is far from crushed like before. I think I got this.
On a hobby note, one of my Frame Arms kits is coming home in my suitcase, the Kobold. It's a neat kit, though I feel it needs some heavy weapons to really shine. If anyone is familiar with Armored Core, this robot might get the Karasawa cannon. Now if only there was a Moonlight Saber kit out there...
This post is being typed up with in-flight wifi. Pretty cool.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Okay so unlimited booze and in flight Internet might be a bad combo. I may or may not have ordered one of the badass armored core kits while over the Atlantic.
I repossessed the axe I made for Wing Zero and rigged it up for Melvin instead. Wing was compensated with a fancy buster sword for now, but I really wanted this kind of halberdier look to balance out the enormous cannon on the other arm.
He lives again! Even more absurd than before!
One big murderous family:
So that's a thing now. Melvin rebuilt is a big step on the way to actually enjoying the hobby again. Just to have it out of the way is a relief. So now that that's done, I cracked open the first of my Frame Arms kits to fiddle with it a bit. I was half relieved and half disappointed to see that the basic FA skeleton comes pre-assembled. It saves me from fiddling with a million tiny joints, sure, but that's part of the challenge!
Despite being prebuilt, some of the joints weren't all the way together and I had to tighten them up to get it to articulate properly. Once I did get it fixed, the articulation was really impressive. This thing balances on its own in a lot of different positions.
Hell, that murderous family is a really nice sight ! And that frame arm is clearly going to be a nice addition. Do you plan to make it more tau like, or are you going for an anime mech look ? (not that there is such a big difference ^^)
Could you turn Melvin into 're-castable', 're-posable' model, if you wanted to? Like, find a good posture, make a mold out of it... Do another one, cast it, etc.etc.
And then just build from there, adding war-gear, armor plates and so on..?
@kepora: REX came from Kotobukiya and costs about $80. There's a much larger version that has lights and is made of metal (I believe), but that costs $500.
@Stardrop: Thanks for the high praise. Melvin is a really, really complicated build born of lots and lots and lots of different kits. It would be difficult to replicate, but I suppose if it were broken down into enough pieces it could be re-cast. Only problem is the gatling gun, that's got moving parts and such.
@KernelTerror: Well, I've never entirely been sold on the anime mech aesthetic that you see most of the time, especially in the case of Gundams. For the most part, the designs have stayed pretty static since the 80's besides the occasional "freak Gundam" that usually just represents a mid-tier boss battle in whatever series. The Frame Arms kits have a wildly varied aesthetic. Seriously, go to Amazon and look through all the kits available. There are some really cool concepts (there's this one guy whose legs have another set of arms built in and they unfold from the front like a freaky mantis thing). And then on top of that, each kit contains instructions for using the parts to build multiple versions of the model using the same bits, and some of these are very different from one another. The kit I've got now is the Kobold, which has a sort of apelike aesthetic in its default build that is not far removed from 40k. I think that what I'm going to go for with the Frame Arms is somewhere between Imperial and Tau, sort of like one-off prototypes cooked up by the multi-racial research collective at the heart of my sprawling, nonsensical headcanon.
Speaking of my headcanon, I got the first few pieces from Raging Heroes kickstarter, so eventually the Rynnish 41st infantry (see: Powerlifting and Plasma, which I really should write some more on) will make an appearance. And I also have a few space marines laying about here and there, so I really should get around to building some of those, maybe even finally build the Lord Commander after who knows how many years wondering if I can pull it off.
Arms coming out of the legs ? Sounds brilliant I'll need to look that one up. You know, it is probably a good thing that I am not in a plane with unlimited wifi and booze right now ^^ !
So did anyone else see the teaser pic for the Forgeworld superheavy Tau walker? Damn thing is Warhound Titan sized most likely. Not sure I really like the look of it though. I'll have to see it for myself, probably build my own bizarre counts-as at some point. Of course, this is assuming I ever actually play another game of 40k, ever. This desert freaking sucks like that.
Alrighty! I finally go the chance to crack into the Frame Arms kit, and so far it's proven very, very interesting. There's a design philosophy in the building of the kits that takes the basic skeleton, separates it, and then starts rearranging all the pieces and joints to alter the posture and proportions before you even start putting on the outer layers. For example, the first step in assembling the Kobold was to pull off all the arms and legs, part of the chest, and the head. A few of those parts won't even be used in the build, so you wind up with chunks of skeleton laying around for your future mad science needs. Step two is attaching the robot's dick.
Has anyone else noticed that most anime robots tend to have some kind of penis-protrusion? I get it, it's a codpiece, it's sort of a thing that happens in a lot of artistic and fashion styles, but sometimes it's a bit excessive. As I recall, Zone of the Enders featured absolutely enormous robo-dongs, which was actually where the pilot sat, inside this huge metal dildo. There is so much symbolism there it's not even funny. Okay, so, aside from the penis, take a look at the pelvis on this skeleton. See how many different points of attachment there are? It's ready-made for you to change the legs to something that suits you. Don't like humanoid robots? Go reverse-joint or quad-legged if you prefer. The holes are there, just waiting for you to stick things in them. Rawr.
So then, following the instructions I attached the chest and a couple more pieces, and I noticed something really cool about the way they designed this thing.
For one second, forget that I am holding the robot by its giant red penis, and look at the hole in the bottom of the chest. With these components attached, the whole thing hinghes downward at what used to be its waist and attaches like so:
Now the whole aesthetic of the torso is changed. The Kobold kit is intended to create kind of a hunched-over, brutish looking robot that would look very at-home in 40k (making it a $30 option for a Knight stand-in). The next bit I got to was the head, and again there's some creative options available. First you have kind of an Appleseed head:
But all you have to do is turn it around backwards and you have a boxier head that looks like something the Tau would build:
I think I'm going to turn those antennae around and roll with an in-betweener. Of course, the yellow bits of the visor still show on the back of the head, but you're eventually gonna put paint over the whole model anyway. So, you know, you can paint over the giant red robot cock.
Automatically Appended Next Post: I have like three more Frame Arms kits coming in the next month or so, one of which is just a spare skeleton (they sell them on their own so you can just build up from nothing). So over the next few weeks I expect to be fully entertained in my off-hours.
Also, as a side project, I'm closing on a pair of rental properties in Philadelphia really soon. Let it never be said that I remain idle for long.
Nice detailed photo shoot, not the type of kit I am used to see around here, to this is valuable information, thanks.
Not sure where I read it, but I seem to recall these come with sprues of different colors so they can also be usedwith no or very minimal painting. So why have the codpiece part of a red sprue ? Anyway, bonus points for talks of robot dongs.
That will be interesting to see what happens to these three next kits, you should soon have enough firepower to instantly shoot that forgeworld megawalker back where it came from (Wait...You already do ^^ !).
The sprue are different colors, so each kit winds up with a color scheme, though it doesn't look as good as a quality paint job. There are also different materials on different sprues. The pieces inside of each joint tend to be a softer rubber material that gives the joint a bit of flexibility.
Speaking of which, I've discovered that some joint sections stick together well on their own, but some parts will definitely need glue. Probably gonna need to stick some tack in the hip joints so they have more tension.
Nevelon wrote: That kit looks like a lot of fun to play with. Can you magnetize it?
That's the beauty of these kits. Magnets are mostly not needed. The pieces all fit together on pegs and ball/socket joints, and with only a few exceptions they have just the right amount of tension to make them poseable and interchangeable. More likely I would want to build some "modules" of my own that would let me pop new custom bits on and off of the frame.
As for lights, since that's where this should logically go to, I think lights are possible. But you have to get your build to a rather complete stage before you consider lighting, because you want to know where to feed the wires and such through.
I got the Kobold built the rest of the way today. Sort of. There are a few issues with the kit that are going to require me to strip it back down and glue parts of the skeleton together, so this is only temporary:
Now, as I said, there are some problems. First, the kit loses all that beautiful balance that the armature originally had, because the foot gets swapped out to a much less stable shape. I had to remedy that to keep the thing upright and allow me to pose it. So I went back to the original foot piece and I figured that what made it so damn stable was the rear-forking "toes" that braced against the ground from lots of angles. I then cut the foot at the halfway point, pulled the heel off the Kobold foot, and then grafted the two together using some putty as a gap filler.
The difference looks small, but it changes the whole balance of the model. Next I went and scored the hip joint pegs with my hobby knife and crammed some tack into the hip sockets. The extra tension resulted in the hips being able to take the weight of the torso, where before the whole thing would just sag.
The last problem is guns. Or lack thereof. Yes, the kit is currently built with giant arm cannons. The problem is, those are the only weapons included in this kit. They're cool, but it also has mounts on its backpack-section for two additional weapons. Also, if I pull the gun barrels off the wrists and pop the hands into place instead, those gun barrels have absolutely no gun to go with them, just disembodied barrels, leaving the suit totally unarmed (pun intended). Of course, being the ordnance lover that I am, I happen to have a few appropriately sized bits laying around that I could put in the suit's hands, but then those gun barrels seem to go to waste. I may end up converting mounts for them out of some old Gundam parts so that they can be shoulder mounted and I can put something absurd like the Karasawa cannon in its hands.
I've done anumber of very small alterations to various joints, shaving a few millimeters here and there, gluing something that should be free-swinging for stability purposes, etc. But I think that now I can really start going a bit crazy once I start breaking it down again.
The reason for the seeming incompleteness is because there's a second kit that goes with it. Once you combine the bits, you get a much nicer and fuller looking mech.
They also make the Frame Architect as a buildable "Modeler's Edition."
Yeah, I saw that "expansion" kit for this and didn't realize that it was in some ways necessary to fully complete the model. I think I'll pick it up just 'cuz. The Architect is one of the other kits coming my way (and I think I need more, just because).
Hey, it's better to be too into your hobby than not at all, right?
So, some readers might be wondering, 'just what the hell is the Karasawa cannon that he keeps rambling about?' That would be THIS gorgeous laser-enema waiting to happen:
In case you missed out, the Kobold is roughly the size of a Knight, making that one really, REALLY big gun. It's one of the iconic weapons of Armored Core, and much like the Hollander from Battletech, you really have to build your mech up around the giant cannon. It is also rather difficult to mount on a model, because look at the damn thing. But hey, never let it be said that I allow my builds to remain under-gunned.
This sucks. There are SO many good kits that I want to buy now. These Japanese models are addictive like that, especially when you realize that they can mostly be interchanged with one another.
BLLAAARGGHHH. Those stupid giant hand-guns from AC bother me so much. I mean, yeah, gyroscopes and weight balancer parts and everything's hovering anyways, but still. Why not just put the giant cannon on a shoulder mount, or have it stuck to the hip like Megatron's gun? Heck, even a no-arm direct-to-the-shoulder mount would make more sense than having this GIANT FRIKKIN CANNON mounted via 3 joints and meters out from the body proper.
Well that's simple: because the direct to the shoulder mounted guns were always terrible. You'd see them a bunch at the lower levels, but later on there was never a decent one that was worth a damn. And despite freeing up all the weight of the arms and such for extra magazine space, they never had very much ammo. And the same was true for the back-mounted weapons. By the later levels, the only decent thing to put on the back was missiles. The chaingun and such became irrelevant by that point. There was always the one big back-cannon in every game, but it never had much ammo so it became dead weight pretty quickly.
In the end, it just came down to the fact that the dev team really liked giant hand cannons. And laser swords.
Well, the other one isn't really necessary to complete it. It's just that they went with a combiner concept of them. The combined robot looks like something out of Super Robot Wars.
Holy gak, yeah, that is one big ass gun. But on another hand if you compare it to the size of the weapons used in devastator squads, it ends up on scale...
Plus, it draws the attention away from that one red part ^^ !
I'm not talking about why people didn't use, say, the Grenade Launcher arms- I'm talking about why the Devs didn't make frakkin' huge weapons like that a little more physically possible.
Heck, even if you just had it being held like a rifle or long-gun instead of a pistol (that is, two hands instead of one) it would be better, in my mind.
To be fair, the Karasawa and weapons in general weren't always so huge in the AC games. That didn't really happen until the Ps3/360 era games came around. The PS1era games had very reasonably sized weapons.
Anvildude wrote: I'm not talking about why people didn't use, say, the Grenade Launcher arms- I'm talking about why the Devs didn't make frakkin' huge weapons like that a little more physically possible.
Heck, even if you just had it being held like a rifle or long-gun instead of a pistol (that is, two hands instead of one) it would be better, in my mind.
This pose was more of an experiment to see if it would balance at all with that huge thing on there (for science!!!) I wanted to use a two handed rifle grip on it but the arms on the Kobold are all out of proportion (thing is like Mighty Joe Young up in here). I'm gonna mothball the Karasawa for now, but pull it out later when I have a more reasonable, humanoid and stable kit to work with. Just like in the games, trying to fit the gun on a model precludes you from using certain parts combinations. Score one for realism, I guess?
There are so many freaking kits that I want to order. These things are like crack to a builder. There's even one with a freaking cape and a cross-shaped rifle. Giant robot paladin, yo. So not fair!
Anvildude wrote: I, for one, would be perfectly happy if your thread turned into experimentations with all of these kits.
I think that's how it's going to be for a while. But, there's a slight hiccup in that shipping from Japan takes forever to get to Saudi, since it has to go the long way around. I won't get more kits for a while. So in the short term, I think I might experiment a bit with some Marines. I have a tactical squad that's been sitting around not doing anything, and I'm getting a bit curious at what I would do if I really dug into a one-off super-squad. So between that and fabricating some additional gun mounts for the Kobold I think I'll be set for a little bit. Now I just need to not be stuck at work all day long while inspiration is striking.
Anvildude wrote: I, for one, would be perfectly happy if your thread turned into experimentations with all of these kits.
I think that's how it's going to be for a while. But, there's a slight hiccup in that shipping from Japan takes forever to get to Saudi, since it has to go the long way around. I won't get more kits for a while. So in the short term, I think I might experiment a bit with some Marines. I have a tactical squad that's been sitting around not doing anything, and I'm getting a bit curious at what I would do if I really dug into a one-off super-squad. So between that and fabricating some additional gun mounts for the Kobold I think I'll be set for a little bit. Now I just need to not be stuck at work all day long while inspiration is striking.
Could always make some Renegade marines that decided to join up with your Tau...
Actually Kepora, in my fluff it's the Tau that joined the Marines, who joined Melvin in going renegade. There's also a Guard regiment that came with the marines, a fair number of Eldar pirates, and just about everything under the sun in some number or another--everyone who heeded the call to euthanize the Emperor. Basically it was a vague idea that gave me license to tie together all my various armies over the years, and it ended up sounding a lot like the Cabal from the HH novels that eventually came out, only it was Crimson Fists instead of Alpha Legion who were trying to kill the Emperor. Eh. It's headcanon, that stuff's gonna be weird every time.
Okay, back on track with some modeling goodness. The Kobold still needed more guns, but I decided not to go full Karasawa (you never go full Karasawa). Instead, I modded up another legendary beam weapon, this time pulling leftover bits from Wing Zero and putting its twin beam cannons to good use.
Credit to my incense burners for the smoke effect. I had to patch over a few gaps where the guns originally had pistol grips and such, and I added the big blocky bits toward the rear as counterweights a well as ammo hoppers or power cells, depending on what I ever decide to count them as (probably chem-throwers full of brothel runoff). Shoulders are from Gundam Nataku, which has been sitting around getting carved up for bits for a while now. A while back I bought a couple of the lower grade kits just to use for building materials, so this is about what I was hoping for. Both the shoulders and the guns are removable so that I can swap them with other bits or kits.
Now I think I just need to add some extra armor plating here and there. While I like the general shape of the model I'm not a fan of the way some of the armor plates look. Too many pointy protrusions.
Oh, and I finally succumbed and ordered another kit. Or two. I cant recall. But I definitely ordered that one with the extra hidden arms because it was totally gangster.
@Stardrop- heh, like, the Mech's not even paying attention, and the leg-arm just came out and face-slammed a goon into the pavement on its own.
Lovin' the quad-gun look- how articulated can you get those shoulder mounts? Because it would be kinda keen if you were able to have all 4 guns (in a dynamic! pose) trained on the same target precisely, instead of all over the place- though I suppose a sort of 'bullet hell' look could be cool, too, with them all pointed at different enemies.
Anvildude wrote: @Stardrop- heh, like, the Mech's not even paying attention, and the leg-arm just came out and face-slammed a goon into the pavement on its own.
Lovin' the quad-gun look- how articulated can you get those shoulder mounts? Because it would be kinda keen if you were able to have all 4 guns (in a dynamic! pose) trained on the same target precisely, instead of all over the place- though I suppose a sort of 'bullet hell' look could be cool, too, with them all pointed at different enemies.
Unfortunately right now the shoulder guns only rotate on the vertical axis. I can adjust their height and tilt (on 3 separate angles lol) but they only wiggle a tiny bit to either side, not enough to really "aim" them. Now, I could go in if I had the right pieces and add another joint to the mount. That's the nice thing about these peg/socket pieces, once you get the right bits you can totally remake the build. But I'm not sure if I have the right pieces at this particular moment. Now that you have me thinking about it, I might look for a Kotobukiya or Bandai builder's kit that's nothing but joint pieces. There are plenty around, and I could probably use them at some point.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Oh and hey, check this thing out:
This is coming out in September. Unlike my wind-up gatling gun, this is a battery powered motor that will spin whatever part you require. Kinda badass, no?
Automatically Appended Next Post: Also, they make a spinning chainsaw! It has a wind-up motor like the chain gun, but I bet I could easily replace the wind-up motor with the battery powered one.
bossfearless wrote: But I definitely ordered that one with the extra hidden arms because it was totally gangster.
If you can position one of the arms so that it chokes some random enemy of the Greater Good.
I really want to mess around with that thing. It's not just the kit itself that I want. I want to examine the parts themselves, the arrangement of the joints in the legs and these extra arm modules so that I can replicate them from raw bits. I'm not a huge fan of humanoid legs on giant robots. I prefer the reverse-legged or dog-legged style like the IG Sentinel, but it's always a challenge to alter existing pieces to fit that shape. So with the Frame Arms kits, I want to figure out how to consistently and reliably change them to a leg style that I like, and then perhaps transfer some of that over to 40k modeling when I get back to it.
Speaking of 40k, now that I'm through with the Kobold, I guess I need to do some big, angry, bulked-out Spess Mahreens with this tactical kit I have laying around. Not gonna truescale them, though I've considered that for a few models here and there. Just gonna add some putty to space out a few of the joints, and build each individual as a character rather than rank and file.
Without any new and exciting kits to fiddle with, I naturally defaulted back to a bit of 40k, in this case the bog standard Space Marine tactical box. I've had a kit laying around for a while on sprue, and I gotta say, it's been forever since I got the chance to assemble a decent SM kit from the actual sprue, not second-hand, glue-bathed paint-crusted remnants from Ebay or a trade. So it was nice having the base parts to work with, and the new Tacticals box is a massive improvement in quality (if only they'd do the same service to Fire Warriors and Crisis suits). So here's the sarge for a new random squad.
I have no clue where or in what list this would ever be useful, maybe as an RPG mini or just a part of the vast army display that I'll eventually have when I have a home of my own. On a side note, I long for the day I can actually have a big fancy display cabinet and put all my crap up like you see in a lot of gamers' places. Three more years and then maybe, *maybe* I can consider having an actual home. Ugh. Freaking Saudi Arabia can eat a dick. On the bright side, I came up with a few fun ideas while piecing this guy together. So now I've got ideas for a knife fighter, a demolitons guy, etc. There can be some fun times.
Also, there's a Defiler in my closet and I had completely forgotten about it. I think there are some parts missing from the torso...box...thing. Hideous thing to begin with. So really I just have crab legs and not much else lol! I'm sure I'll figure something out. Later today I'm going to go out and get some kind of folding table, anything to give me a little more work space so I'm not trying to build on this tiny TV-tray.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Wow. When you blow it up really big, the bullet hanging off his pauldron really looks like some kind of dildo.
bossfearless wrote: and the new Tacticals box is a massive improvement in quality (if only they'd do the same service to Fire Warriors and Crisis suits).
Well, if the rumors are true, you and I will be very happy men this October.
I think the cape is from the cadre fireblade but don't hold me to that. I just picked that one because it matched the sense of motion that I was going for.
@Kepora: I am ignorant of these rumors. What's going on in October?
@Anvildude: Don't make me come through the internet and shank you with a broken KFC drumstick.
bossfearless wrote: I think the cape is from the cadre fireblade but don't hold me to that. I just picked that one because it matched the sense of motion that I was going for.
@Kepora: I am ignorant of these rumors. What's going on in October?
@Anvildude: Don't make me come through the internet and shank you with a broken KFC drumstick.
The Tau codex is supposed to get an update this Fall, according to the more reliable rumormongers. More talk of re-designed battlesuits, new Firewarrior sculpts, and a possible new Riptide variant.
Anvildude wrote: I mean, I figured with your whole "Order of the Plume" that you were bound to have some badass pretty-boys in your army, you know?
I don't think I've ever outright mentioned it, but the Order of the Plume is everyone who's banged Shas'O Darkblade. Shagnasty issues them a special pimp-feather to commemorate the conquest.
bossfearless wrote: I think the cape is from the cadre fireblade but don't hold me to that. I just picked that one because it matched the sense of motion that I was going for.
@Kepora: I am ignorant of these rumors. What's going on in October?
@Anvildude: Don't make me come through the internet and shank you with a broken KFC drumstick.
The Tau codex is supposed to get an update this Fall, according to the more reliable rumormongers. More talk of re-designed battlesuits, new Firewarrior sculpts, and a possible new Riptide variant.
If they still don't give any heavy weapon or new equipment options for Fire Warriors imma be pissed off. And you just know that the Nerf is gonna fly hard after all the whining that was done about the last codex. Nerf everywhere.
Automatically Appended Next Post:
I built a second smurf for the random doods squad, just to pass the time. Kinda thought CQC or charge-denial when I was putting this one together, so he's got a bunch of grenades and a defensive posture, ready to hack down the first few guys that close in.
And then this happened:
Or at least it started to happen. I need to de-chaos the Defiler legs and start adding some bits that will make it more Tau-ish. That Riptide torso is a hot mess. I remember now that I had started carving it out, thinking that it would be the basis for the hot tub, but now I don't know if that's gonna work. The torso just isn't all that big, and certainly not enough size or the right angle to build a pool deck out of it. So I think I'm gonna set the hot tub idea aside and focus this build on constructing a really heavy Riptide variant. I got a Skyspear launcher and some other big guns to help with that goal, and I'll rebuild and bulk out the torso to make something unique out of this.
The hot tub will eventually roll out, just not as a part of this particular build. I mean, I've got a Rhino I could use, I think, but honestly there's gotta be some way to turn it into a walker. It just seems much cooler that way. If anyone can find a good model kit that could be turned into a hot tub robot, I'll give you 5 internets.
bossfearless wrote: I think the cape is from the cadre fireblade but don't hold me to that. I just picked that one because it matched the sense of motion that I was going for.
@Kepora: I am ignorant of these rumors. What's going on in October?
@Anvildude: Don't make me come through the internet and shank you with a broken KFC drumstick.
The Tau codex is supposed to get an update this Fall, according to the more reliable rumormongers. More talk of re-designed battlesuits, new Firewarrior sculpts, and a possible new Riptide variant.
Maybe we'll see some actually posable Crisis Suits... In fact, back in 2011, after money (or the lack thereof), whiny opponents, and absolutely no sign of a Codex update, those Crisis Suit sculpts were the biggest reason that I dropped playing Tau. Some updated miniatures might just turn me around, though, and Boss here has given me more than a few ideas for conversions.
Or maybe, maybe I can separate the Riptide from the Defiler legs and focus on finding something that will go on top of the Defiler's quad legs and work as a hot tub. SOmething boxy, on which I can build a pool deck. Helpful ideas are always welcome.
bossfearless wrote: If they still don't give any heavy weapon or new equipment options for Fire Warriors imma be pissed off. And you just know that the Nerf is gonna fly hard after all the whining that was done about the last codex. Nerf everywhere.
Well, it doesn't really fit their current way of doing war - but Rail Rifles or Ion Rifles would definitely be welcome! Either way, it SI something that helps set them apart from many other armies. And boohoo, it's a non-Imperial codex that can actually be good if built right; screw them! The Imperials get all the love, it's time for Xenos to be good!
Exactly. A few extra rifles in the squad, or maybe a heavy weapon on a gun drone. A weapon team somewhere in between the Craftworld Eldar weapon platforms and the IG large-based weapon teams.
I can really see the FW being a combined-arms kind of a squad and really kicking ass. They just need some equipment options from GW.
Oooh, that defiler project should be interesting to watch, but yeah, place might be limited depending on the amount of naked alien chicks you intent to put in that hot tub. If you were able to build that tub towards the rear of the robot, like the abdomen of an actual spider might you not get more room and still be able to put a weapon system in front ?
On another hand, if you decide to move the tub to another mech, the dust tactics ones could be of interest. Although I did not get my hands on one myself, they look more bulky and large than the 40k walkers, thus be more appropriate for a hot tub.
Some size comparison I could find, obviously if someone can take actual measurements...
Spoiler:
That was my two cents, thanks for the update, and nice to see you go into marines too.
Ooooh...you pointed me in the right direction with Dust Tactics, and I think I have found the perfect hot tub base:
The Axis transport walker. It's roughly Defiler-sized. A little short compared to a Riptide, especially so compared to a Knight, but it has a big footprint that should at least partly make up for that. I think I'd try carving off most of the roof, depending on how the interior is set up. And then it obviously needs some really big guns. On the bright side, if I order it now, it won't get here for at least a month. So I should wind up getting the kit around the time this rumored Tau update is coming out. So once again this idea is back-burnered for a bit, but I'll be coming back to it later on. And this time, I have the perfect candidate.
On a side note, I really love the way a lot of the Dust walkers look. Such a crying shame that I can't actually play the game. Like, ever.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Maybe where that ball turret is mounted, I could add the torso of another robot lol. So it would be a centaur with a hot tub in its ass. Totally legit.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Size comparison of the Axis heavy walker chassis (if I got the link right...)
Automatically Appended Next Post: So that's the heavy assault walker, which is a separate kit. But the leg assembly is the same as the transport, just with a different top. It definitely needs to be taller to avoid people crying and whining that it's "modeling for advantage" for being so short. The nice thing is that the back of the hull is pretty much flat, which means I can add an "expansion" to the back that rears up like a scorpion. That'll make a great place to mount heavy guns, and the whole kit looks pretty simple to light up.
I still haven't unpacked my soldering gear, probably won't until I have an adequate work space. I should actually have a whole apartment to myself for the next few months, which is a big improvement over the usual crappy accommodations. Unfortunately, I still have a bunch of my former roommate's crap in my way until he moves it. So I've got a bunch of stuff staged and ready to go once my space is clear, then I'm totally claiming the living room as my space. Imma piss on it to mark my territory and everything.
You know, every time I click on this thread I see the Metal Gear at the very top of the front page sitting there without any paint. It's bugging me. I don't have a space on which to paint, and that also bugs me. I really need to at least get the thing glued together in one static pose, and then dust it and prime it black. I think I'm gonna go with the black/orange color scheme that's seen on Silvertongue and Darkblade. On something that's as big as the Rex, that will look fierce as hell. And I might as well get the Kobold primed so that it can join my overall force and not just be some oddball outlier. There's really not a lot of space in that one to put any lights in it, but that's cool.
I need to order some new electromagnet wire, something in a heavier gauge so it won't be so damn fragile. That could help with the breakage I've been experiencing when the models travel.
Hell yeah, that Axis transport walker definitely has party pickup hot tub of doom written on it. This thread has a dangerous habit of making me want stuff, as if I did not do that well enough on my own...
"Modeling for advantage" ? Yeah that must be a hateful thing to hear after spending hours on building something awesome. Good luck setting up the painting station then, it will be nice to see your war machines with an unified color scheme.
KernelTerror wrote: Hell yeah, that Axis transport walker definitely has party pickup hot tub of doom written on it. This thread has a dangerous habit of making me want stuff, as if I did not do that well enough on my own...
"Modeling for advantage" ? Yeah that must be a hateful thing to hear after spending hours on building something awesome. Good luck setting up the painting station then, it will be nice to see your war machines with an unified color scheme.
You wouldn't believe the crap I've had people cry about. I built a dorsal mount on a Rhino for the Volcano Cannon from the Shadowsword kit to run as a Vindicator; I called it the "compensation cannon". Totally baller. BUT when I ran it in a tournament, some jackass pitched a humongous fit about it and demanded that I knock several inches off the weapon's range at first and then later insisted that I should be disqualified after beating him, screamed at the judges, and eventually turned the whole incident into a massive feud that lasted several months. In other words, creativity is rarely greeted with open arms in the tournament scene. You leave a part off, it's modeling for advantage. Put more parts on, modeling for advantage. The whining is so constant. And that's before you get to the final tables where the top-tier players vie to see who can "forget" the most rules, like the jerk IG player (back when they were the top of the food chain) who kept "forgetting" what types of officers could issue which orders despite having played the same codex for years.
Sometimes this hobby would be great if it wasn't for the other people in it.
Hokay, so with that little rant out of the way, I pulled the legs off the Rex (ball and sockets, meant to be moved) and put some glue into all the articulation points so that the pose of the legs will be largely set in stone. I'm going to leave the legs off while I paint the model, and probably do the same to the (arms? wings? what the hell do I even call the gun mounts?). I should be ready to prime later today.
If you haven't gotten the DUST walkers yet check out miniaturemarket.com, they've still got bunches at really cheap. The thing to watch out for is there are regular and premium kits. The premiums are just prepainted models, not worth double the price in my opinion. Also if you have lots of extra cash laying around there's always the chalterhousestudios.com super heavy Tau walker $310, but it's where your headed with that defiler conversion. I had one at one point, but sold it a year or two back. The missile pod behind the main body is removable, but you could carve it out to make a sweet hot tub in there. Just thinking how the temperature of the tub could be relegated by firing the main guns .
Pic of it assembled with a space hulk terminator on top for scale reference.
I've seen that tau walker around here and there and I've sometimes salivated over it, but at this point I have no idea if it's even worth it. I've never been completely sold on the design, but these things can be modified. They have that super walker coming out soon, and there's a question of what the price will be and what the options are, so there's a bunch of stuff to think about within the superheavy niche.
Also Paulson Games makes some very nice not-tau weapons. He is also talking about releasing a not-battlesuit. I liked the look of it, but the shear weight as most of the parts are solid resin in that chapterhouse walker made it difficult to come up with a good plan.
Honestly now that I think about it, the only reason I would buy that Chapterhouse walker is that the pieces are so simple and plain that I could make a mold and re-cast it with no problem. So one big purchase would equal three or four titans. But why the hell would I ever need that many?
Automatically Appended Next Post: Unfortunately, miniaturemarket.com did not have the transport walker in stock. I'll have to look on ebay or something.
Got the Rex primed today when the wind wasn't too bad, and cleared out my former roommate's stuff so that I have a place to set up a proper work area in the living room. Well, once I get a chance to go out and buy a cheap desk, something I won't mind ruining with paint and various sharp tools.
In other news, it takes a REALLY long time to ship anything here from Japan. I'm still waiting on Frame Arms kits that I ordered at the very beginning of July. Also, if you want to watch something odd, I recommend Kantai Collection. It's an anime about schoolgirls who are also famous Japanese naval warships. You'll find yourself on Wikipedia looking up the various girls' names to try and understand what the hell their deal is. There are some girls who say everyone's names backwards, for example, because they're a trio of ships built by the British and so they read the wrong way compared to the Japanese. It's a weird show, but it's cute.
Can you imagine if they pulled the same crap using 40k stuff? "I hope Baneblade-senpai notices me~~!"
So, uh, how long until we see shiptau? I have no idea how it would happen, but if anyone can make it so, it's Boss.
First and foremost, let me just say that Shimakaze-chan is my new waifu. Second, I should probably direct you to Google the Frame Arms Girl models. One of those is already on the way, so yes, there will probably be ship-tau in some sense or another. Actually, I may need to do a set of actual ship-tau girls at an infantry scale, which would be kind of adorable if I could pull it off. I suppose the problem lies in the lack of schoolgirl outfits. Dammit...now I might have to sculpt a tau schoolgirl and then give her a battleship rig or something. And Baneblade-chan might have to become a thing as well.
bossfearless wrote:Got the Rex primed today when the wind wasn't too bad, and cleared out my former roommate's stuff so that I have a place to set up a proper work area in the living room. Well, once I get a chance to go out and buy a cheap desk, something I won't mind ruining with paint and various sharp tools.
In other news, it takes a REALLY long time to ship anything here from Japan. I'm still waiting on Frame Arms kits that I ordered at the very beginning of July. Also, if you want to watch something odd, I recommend Kantai Collection. It's an anime about schoolgirls who are also famous Japanese naval warships. You'll find yourself on Wikipedia looking up the various girls' names to try and understand what the hell their deal is. There are some girls who say everyone's names backwards, for example, because they're a trio of ships built by the British and so they read the wrong way compared to the Japanese. It's a weird show, but it's cute.
Can you imagine if they pulled the same crap using 40k stuff? "I hope Baneblade-senpai notices me~~!"
... Do you know about the Anime thread? KanColle was all over that a bit ago. Also, if those are the Cruisers I'm thinking about, it's a really interesting way that they got there- via the Ottoman Empire, in fact, and some saboteurs.
liquidjoshi wrote:Dammit Boss, bringing Kantai Collection into this.
Spoiler:
Maya is best shipgirl
So, uh, how long until we see shiptau? I have no idea how it would happen, but if anyone can make it so, it's Boss.
I'd love to see more ships in tabletop gaming scale. That seems like a sadly poorly represented form of vehicle, considering how simple it is to model on the tabletop, compared to flyers. You've got things like Dystopian Wars and the various historical ones, and there's the GW fantasy one, but so few sci-fi variants.
Well, ships aren't forgot (at least no by Dark Eldar), but I understand the heading. And it is true, more fractions should have ships available.
However, Tau already have anti-grav engines that could skim your tanks and vehicles across water.
Imagine one of those failing his anti-grav drive.
Automatically Appended Next Post:
bossfearless wrote: Ooooh...you pointed me in the right direction with Dust Tactics, and I think I have found the perfect hot tub base:
Also, I think this one will work better for a 'battlefield commander H/Tub'.
The other model is just too big. It looks more like a DJ stage, stomping thru the pit filled with Gue'la'erlo.
lol I love how if you stick one decorative bit on something and put it next to a space marine, it suddenly becomes a "40k" thing. Neat flying train thing though. No idea where it comes from.
bossfearless wrote: lol I love how if you stick one decorative bit on something and put it next to a space marine, it suddenly becomes a "40k" thing. Neat flying train thing though. No idea where it comes from.
Finally got one of my japanese orders finally came in. Unfortunately, it's just a single weapon bit. Nice grenade launcher slash cannon of some kind, but still not much of a diversion. I also had a chance to go out and get a desk that will make a great modeling workstation, so pretty soon I can have that set up and start getting my whole area ready to go again. There's enough space and dividers and drawers and such that I can actually stage my paints and put up a lamp to give me light to work with. Kind of a big deal.
Remember how when I built the Kobold, I remarked about how anime robots always had to have some kind of robot penis? Well, when I was priming the Rex, I noticed that it not only had a robo-dick, but that it was also prehensile and had multiple points of articulation. I think in the video game it was a little machinegun? I don't know. I'll probably replace it with a chainsaw for some Strength D action. Also, when priming, the pilot fell out of the mouth-cockpit. I don't know if I ever even glued her in there, but upon closer inspection I decided she wasn't up to snuff. So instead of a pilot in there, I think I'm going to add some kind of cannon in the mouth so that I can open it up for some laser breath action. No idea how to do that in any practical sense, I just know that I feel like it. Maybe the Rex can count for whatever that new super-suit is. I'll tack a few extra small-arms weapons on if I feel it's necessary, so I'll probably refrain from actually painting it for a little while until the rules for that suit are released.
Update: I started trying to build my new desk with my tiny, dinky little screwdriver, and then immediately realized that I should just pay some of the Bengali maintenance guys to come build it for me. At least they have proper tools, if not necessarily proper brains.
Got another Frame Arms kit, but unfortunately this isn't a full model, just an extra set of bits. They sell "extend arms" for the Frame Arms line, which are sort of like expansion packs, additional weapons and alternative limbs and armor. I got the Graifen (the crazy extra arms guy) expansion pack, which is all the missiles in the world and some autocannon-like weapons, as well as different shoulders, legs and head options and some armor plates. Very cool stuff to play with, but I don't know what to do with it until I get my hands on another actual kit. I kinda wish they sold expansion packs that were just a bunch of the arms and legs skeleton parts. Those would be super helpful for doing crazy mods.
I think, when the Architect kit gets here (just a base skeleton), I am going to break it down and turn the arms into another set of legs. Build a quad-bot of some kind. Alternatively, I could break the whole skeleton down, bypassing their snap-fit concept with a little judicious use of knives and glue, and build a four-armed monster out of one of the later kits.
Ugh. Dammit Japan, why you gotta take so long to ship stuff? Now that I think of it, I ordered the Architect at the same time as the Kobold, at the end of June. It's overdue, like so many other packages.
bossfearless wrote: Ugh. Dammit Japan, why you gotta take so long to ship stuff? Now that I think of it, I ordered the Architect at the same time as the Kobold, at the end of June. It's overdue, like so many other packages.
How many kits did you actually ordered and still waiting on them?
bossfearless wrote: Ugh. Dammit Japan, why you gotta take so long to ship stuff? Now that I think of it, I ordered the Architect at the same time as the Kobold, at the end of June. It's overdue, like so many other packages.
How many kits did you actually ordered and still waiting on them?
Let's see, I have four Frame Arms kits that haven't arrived yet (Ryurai, Graifen, Architect, and Gourai Girl), plus an Armored Core kit that also hasn't arrived. All have been over a month in transit. I've managed to get refunds for a couple of them, and I'm fighting with the seller of the AC kit because he's pretending that it's no big deal. Meanwhile I've gotten lots of bits and extras and such, which is like a giant tease since I don't have any of the kits I actually need to use them.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Okay, so literally like an hour after I posted about how my packages haven't gotten here yet, some packages arrived. Supply drop inbound!
Graifen and my Armored Core are here, and after two years of waiting my Toughest Girls of the Galaxy kickstarter swag arrived. Now I have an all-female IG infantry regiment to put together and convert. You better believe that's gonna be extra slutty.
But this still only brings me to less than half of my recent model kit purchases. I'm still missing three Frame Arms kits. Maybe next week or something, I don't know.
The AC kit is at 1/72 scale compared to the 1/100 scale of the Frame Arms series. It's really hard to say what that means since they're different series, but by the same company. I believe that the AC might end up being the biggest model I have, maybe even larger than the Rex but there's no way to know until I see it assembled. And once I get it more or less assembled, I'm definitely going to brainstorm how to light it up. I can't have too many models without LEDs going off, now can I?
Brilliant, so with this drop you get Over-sized badass mech, weird leg arm badass mech and properly boobed badass ladies.
Have fun and let us know what happens !
Okay, I'm a little upset with Japan about something. Look at the box art for the green leg-arm mech. Those big black boxy things mounted on its arms. I wondered to myself, what the hell are those? What do they do? Certainly they must deploy into some kind of multiple rocket launcher or something, right? Nope. In fact, those are just great big blocks. They're only a couple of pieces, so basically they're pointless filler. Thankfully, I have a bunch of giant mech guns laying around now to compensate for this under-gunning of the Frame Arms mechs that now seems to be a running trend. I'm very pro-active like that. Now, one really nice thing about this kit is that the head has lots of clear green plastic pieces on its head, so that's an obvious spot for LED action.
The big blocks on the Griffen actually are supposed to be disposable rocket launchers. They're a bit out of place on the Griffen though since it's actually supposed to be an underwater mech. But if you want to really increase its armament, you should track down its upgrade set. Dual machine guns on both arms and multiple missile launchers.
First off, where did you locate English language description of these mechs' battlefield roles? Now that you say it, it really does look like an underwater specialist. Second, I already have the upgrade pack. But that's just too many missiles for one mech, it looks like it can't move lol. So I've got some good cannons and I'll add *some* of those missiles in a way I deem aesthetically pleasing. And then maybe boob guns because I just realized it's got these two holes over the nipples instead of the usual robot dick that Japanese mechs tend to have.
I wish I could remember where exactly I found that info in English. I think it may have been in a Kotobukiya US promo when they released it on their webshop. It is classed in some of their supplemental material as being an underwater unit though.
Well, it's not a huge deal. Anyway, this particular suit could do a lot better than those big bricks. I've got all those rocket pods and cannons all over the place. Just got back from a much-needed weekend in Bahrain, so as of right now the suit is just a very complicated torso on my desk.
I'm working on putting together some type of universal swappable base for these frame arms kits. I want to be able to field them in a game someday, if that ever happens again, and to do that I need bases. I'm looking at a very simple peg and socket system, and that means installing a uniform size of socket in one foot of every frame arms kit. However, if I go that route with removable bases, that would make it very difficult to add power to these kits. The fix would be ordering a lot of smaller coin cell holders and going all 12mm (space marine infantry size) with my batteries so that I could hide them in the suits easier. I suppose I should probably look into some switches or something too. Ugh, more random tiny components. Alternatively, I still have those horrible little reed switches that use magnetic sorcery powers to activate.
Lastly, there's another crisis suit build happening, and I'm pulling some of my Tau projects out of storage. I've completely forgotten how I did certain things like the legs on the Disorder suit, but I'll figure it out again.
Anvildude wrote: Could you make interchangeable bases with batteries in them, and have it so that the 'peg' you use to attach the model is a power plug?
That would definitely be a very comfortable way to go, no hassle hiding the batteries in the model. Although It would be better to avoid having the model weigh on the electrical circuit. Maybe a tough structural peg strongly attached to the base, and the power connectors inside it ?
Small update in the wake of a Facebook post that made me pretty happy:
EDITED BY MANCHU: Please do not post pics that contain words that would be caught by the word filter.
Well, it just so happens that I have large chunks of Riptide and such just laying around, as well as some missile racks from the Frame Arms kit that had, until now, been entirely too large to represent anything. But the tau have once again provided an excessive firepower platform for me to build on. Of course, it would help if work gave me any time to work on anything. As soon as I got my hobby desk set up and ready to go, they switched us to some new messed up shift where we just sit in a box all day and don't get to do anything for ourselves.
I went from having lots of free time and nothing to build to having no free time and a ton of models laying around.
Automatically Appended Next Post: And just after posting this I see the pics of the new heavy stealth, new fire warriors and, if you look closely in that pic above right behind the knee on the right, new crisis suits with better articulation. So now I may put a slight delay on that crisis build and, if I ever get any freaking time for my hobbies again, just keep going with the riptide defiler mash up.
Gun's big enough- might be able to get a good watt laser mounted up there- Never have 'line of sight' disputes again, and if they still argue, just melt their models a little!
Anvildude wrote: Gun's big enough- might be able to get a good watt laser mounted up there- Never have 'line of sight' disputes again, and if they still argue, just melt their models a little!
I think the wall is blocking LOS <fires up laser, melts wall>
Looks clear to me
Well, I don't have this particular kit but I think the heavy quad builds will be intended for this one and the r'varna. I think that once I know the rules for the heavy stealth variant then I can use the Griffin from Frame Arms as a stealth chassis. It has a sort of sneaky wet work look to it. And I also figured out, in theory, a quick way to convert frame arms humanoid legs to the reverse joints that I prefer. Now if only I could actually build something.
I suppose I'll need to build another fire warrior unit somewhere along the line. Screw it, tonight I'm using my break to build more on the Griffin.
Holy crap I did something! Or at least a big part of something:
As you can see, far from finished. But I'm happy to see that it balances on one foot, which means that two feet will make it extremely stable and increase posability. No LEDs in yet, and I'm thinking just one for the head and maybe another for a weapon somewhere. But I'm also thinking about another option for power, based on the idea of a power-conducting peg and socket setup. These frame arms kits all seem to have at least some kind of "backpack" portion. It's different for each one, but there seems to be some universalism to the design. So I'm thinking of powered backpacks, which would also serve as weapon mounts. This could be a pretty big deal for my overall modus operandi. Maybe.
Oh, and I'd also like to apologize to the mods for the picture I posted. It was literally the only one I was able to find at the time that featured the new suit.
No I think this one will get the black scheme like Darkblade. But because it has the green acrylic panels Im not sure that the red lines will work. I might have to switch to something in a green hue. Or maybe even experiment with purple lines? Not sure how that would work out, since purple paint tends to come off flat.
Finally got the chance to finish the main build on the Griffin suit. This guy is surprisingly big!
One thing to note is there's a ton of spots where I can mount weapons on this sucker. The folding claws are neat and really expand the silhouette of the mech. I'm not sure if I want actual hands on this suit or if I want to replace the hands with guns mounted on the wrists. After all, this suit's arms are not easy to pose, so it seems like actual hands won't do much good.
There was no "backpack" section to this mech so I haven't decided where to mount a battery yet. I might mount a 12mm battery on the underside of a drone and pop it onto the spot where the backpack unit would normally mount.
Haha what a mechanical monstrosity, well done. I agree, you definitely have room to put even more guns. I did not know it also had extra arms on the arms.
Just not sure about the inferior part of the claws
Spoiler:
I acknowledge the need for the round hole in order for the claw to be able to close, but I mind that the rest of the part is shallow, like an internal part of a model. Would it not look better if covered with plasticard ? Of course, this is not relevant if you plan to put something in these claws.
Yeah, the claws have a look that I don't really like. But I was thinking about just filling in the shallow areas with green stuff. The other thing I was considering is replacing the pincers on the arm mounts with blades or something, so that they turn into kind of a switchblade system. Also thinking of putting a matching gun on the other arm. Swapped the head out for a different version that came in the expansion kit.
And eventually when my new spools of magnet wire arrive, I'll wire up an LED in the head.
When I looked at the new Stormsurge suit, I noticed something a bit distressing about the big gun on its shoulder. I don't think it's a railgun. It's got two smaller barrels instead of one big one, so I'm thinking it's some kind of pulse-submunitions thing.
In other news, a couple of the Frame Arms kits I ordered were definitely lost in the mail. It's lame as all hell, but I had to re-order some new stuff.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Other options: I can disconnect those arms at the elbows, then attach some different arms from another kit, then put the freaky bendy arms on something else. That would allow me to get some arm-mounted cannons into play here. I think I might switch out some parts from the Kobold and see what I get for my efforts.
Automatically Appended Next Post:
Switched the arms with Kobold and both suits look better for it.
Ooh, you know what you could do? Use the 'freaky bendy arms' as the 'arms proper' to have a mech that's all noodle-armed. You could potentially make something like the, what was it, Shenron Gundam? From G-Gundam, with the extendo-dragon arms.
Alternatively, how hollowable are the secondary limbs? Could you potentially fit a rotating weapons system in them, like a pocket knife or spin-out small gun? 'cause you could then potentially make it all 'Oh look, an unassuming, unarmed Mech. *Schwing-clickety-ratchet-chuckt*- Guns Everywhere!'
The secondary arms can't be hollowed out unfortunately. They're already completely hollow and that's how they fold up. I could, if I found the right bits, attach a weapon in place of the pincer hand. The problem is picking the right type of weapon.
How is that one forge world battlesuit that's like a close quarters riptide with the big flamers? Are those any good? Because crazy noodle arm flamers would be kinda neat.
Edit: Currently experimenting with some leftover bits from the Griffin expansion kit, some of which were an alternate set of armor for the legs. However, it spoiled the whole aesthetic that the Griffen's original legs had and ended up looking stupid. I think, however, that I can use the parts to build an additional leg joint into the Kobold's legs, vastly changing and hopefully improving the look of the suit.
Anvildude wrote: Ooh, you know what you could do? Use the 'freaky bendy arms' as the 'arms proper' to have a mech that's all noodle-armed. You could potentially make something like the, what was it, Shenron Gundam? From G-Gundam, with the extendo-dragon arms.
Alternatively, how hollowable are the secondary limbs? Could you potentially fit a rotating weapons system in them, like a pocket knife or spin-out small gun? 'cause you could then potentially make it all 'Oh look, an unassuming, unarmed Mech. *Schwing-clickety-ratchet-chuckt*- Guns Everywhere!'
You know, I actually have that Gundam kit for Shenlong Gundam. I've been using it for bits mostly, still have the extendo dragon arms.
bossfearless wrote: When I looked at the new Stormsurge suit, I noticed something a bit distressing about the big gun on its shoulder. I don't think it's a railgun. It's got two smaller barrels instead of one big one, so I'm thinking it's some kind of pulse-submunitions thing.
There is nothing wrong with the RailGuns, having the recoing guide attached to the bottom of the main barrel.
Okay, so the rules dropped for that unholy abomination with all the missiles, and I immediately kinda want one. Gargantuan creature with six separate weapons systems, so it's gonna light up the whole board at once. It can be fielded in squads of three. And then it gets to fire all of its weapons twice, just for good measure. It's expensive, but it gets the job done.
My only gripe is that the ultra super missile pods are only S5 AP5. There is no reason that the tau need more S5 AP5 in their ranks. If it were AP4 or something I'd be perfectly happy with it. Or even AP6, or S4, or whatever. Just not the exact same stat that we've been seeing forever in this army. Well, I guess I should wait for the codex and see all the rules before making any final calls.
The more I look at it the more I start to think the Stormsurge is a disappointment. Yes, it has all those weapons. But they could have been better. The giant shotgun is really disappointing with its pitiful range.
Reminds me of a low level enemy from Xenogears on PS1. It was actually a boat with legs and I think every few turns some sand people guys would jump out and attack.
Barzam wrote: The Griffen is looking good. It almost looks like it could assume a quadrapedal form. How hard do you think it would be to make it a quadraped?
I suppose it's not impossible. But at the same time, I don't think it would look right. I could disassemble the claws on the auxiliary limbs and turn them into skids like a snowmobile's, and that would give it more of a "bracing" look. What I really wish is that I could figure out how to make guns look right in the claws' positions. Flamers would be awesome on those things.
Anvildude wrote: Though it would probably be prohibitively expensive, now I want to see you make a centipede-style mecha from those kits.
And that would probably also mean Boss going to war against the Japanese postal service ^^ !
Now since we are discussing the StormSurge, I am pretty sure that the hate its design is receiving is just caused by the fact that GW did not assemble it properly. If you look at is from that angle :
Spoiler:
This is not a cockpit, this is a bloody bathtub ! Do not wear an armor in a bathtub you drunkard Xenos !
and it could just have been the lengths used on the site, but they didn't appear to dissipate light at all along the length.
