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@ Dave - I used mine for 3 months, painting for about 3 hours once or twice a week, and got about 1/2 way through. I don't know how long it would have lasted if I didn't have to keep taking the main valve off all the time for transportation. They last a good long time.

I'm wondering if I can use my little, noisy compressor to just fill a 20 lb tank?

dsteingass wrote:I'm wondering if I can use my little, noisy compressor to just fill a 20 lb tank?

Hopping in here out of turn. (I normally just post when I'm updating.)

You can't fill a CO2 tank with a compressor, the CO2 tank is actually a liquid. you could get a small five or ten gallon spare tank for the compressor, fill that and use it, though I would imagine you would only get a few hours. experiment before buying! CO2 and nitros tanks are different though, again they are not compressed air, they are compressed liquid.

A 20lb tank of CO2 will last you forever. not really, but its fifteen bucks to fill, and I heard about it from a prop guy who uses it for three hours a DAY. (at least!) He fills his every six months. The only thing is they can be dangerous, you need to store it in a chained place, preferably with a heavy rubber band. There are two dangers with a CO2 tank. The first is an actual breech in the valve. rare, but the thing turns into a missile, hence the friction chaining to a wall. The second is more common and serious, a slow leak that can displace all the oxygen in a room, potentially killing stuff.

Are there any issues with the temperature of the CO2 coming out of the tank?
Back in my paintball days before I upgraded to compressed air, my 20oz CO2 tank would start to gather ice... in the middle of july.
Or is this negated by the small volume of airflow for airbrushing? Cause the temperature issue only occurred when the CO2 was converting from liquid to gas at a rapid rate.

It's mostly negated by the small amount of air coming out, and the length of the airbrush tube. Most are long to let the air cool that comes out of a compressor. I get a lot of moisture forming around the gauges and the brass can get quite cold after about an hour of continuous use. I just wipe it down and keep going.

I've also never had any problems with the temperature interacting with any kind of paints, inks, or alcohol used in the airbrush either.

I second Pox's assesment and warnings. But it takes alot to turn it into a missile. It would have to fall over and the valve would actually have to hit something hard. Mine fell over while I was doing airbrush tattoos at a park. I had to clean my underwear out after that, but nothing happend. *whew*. So yeah, it might take a lot to break the valve, but why take chances. And as for a small leak. I wouldn't keep next your bed at night, and keep a window open when it's in the house...just to be safe.

Unless it was leaking enough to force all the natural air out of the room, the CO2 from the tank is harmless.

And you'd pretty much have to hit the valve with a sledge hammer to turn it into a projectile. The most likely case for a blowout is the tank overheating (tank in too much sunlight), and all that'll happen there is that the burst disk in the valve will trigger when the pressure gets too high, and it'll safely empty the tank (with a lot of wind and loud noise). I just woudn't touch the tank with bare skin directly after, it'll be cold enough to freeze your skin to it.

For sure, the only danger is displaced oxygen, not the CO2 tank. They are built fairly sturdy, absolutely. Maybe I did go overboard with the caution, so I'll briefly talk about the pros to using a CO2 tank for an air supply.

It is the greatest modeling toy I've ever owned. nothing has made my happier to work with then using the tank. It gives a constant steady stream of clean air, is utterly silent, and is the same price as a mid-grade compressor. to get the kind of hours and hours of use I use I need from my air supply, I would have to buy one of the pro compressors with a overflow tank, priced at around 600 bucks. (I was going to get one, when I heard about using the CO2.)

I love it so much I plan on getting a five gallon tank for doing make-up, by summer I hope to be selling my other compressors (except one for emergencies) and only using CO2.

Arn't you a little bit concerned about applying spray make up to peoples faces with CO2? isn't there a larger chance of them inhaling a large dose and passing out.

mullet_steve wrote:Arn't you a little bit concerned about applying spray make up to peoples faces with CO2? isn't there a larger chance of them inhaling a large dose and passing out.

So long as his workspace is ventilated it shouldn't be an issue. Plus, CO2 is denser than air and sinks to ground level.

According to what I've read, dizziness, drowsiness and confusion all occur from prolonged exposure well before anything seriously harmful, so as long as the model knows of this and speaks up if they experience any of those symptoms they should be fine.

Pox, since you're in the industry, have you watched the SciFi show Face Off? (the special effects makeup competition)
Also, I'm looking forward to seeing the gun arm painted.

Nowlan wrote:

mullet_steve wrote:Arn't you a little bit concerned about applying spray make up to peoples faces with CO2? isn't there a larger chance of them inhaling a large dose and passing out.

So long as his workspace is ventilated it shouldn't be an issue. Plus, CO2 is denser than air and sinks to ground level.

According to what I've read, dizziness, drowsiness and confusion all occur from prolonged exposure well before anything seriously harmful, so as long as the model knows of this and speaks up if they experience any of those symptoms they should be fine.

Pox, since you're in the industry, have you watched the SciFi show Face Off? (the special effects makeup competition)
Also, I'm looking forward to seeing the gun arm painted.

Also why Ill hold onto one of my Smartjet pro compressors, haha. Some people are skittish around airbrushes anyway. I had to learn to start the airflow away from their face, the airbrush can cause people to flinch when it first kicks on. In addition to what Nowlan said, When you airbrush faces (especially around the nose, ears, and eyes) you cant use a lot of pressure, I usually set the outflow to five PSI, no more then ten under any circumstances. In most uses I paint everything by hand and use the airbrush to seal and blend. the only time I use it fully is for a full body shot.

Really though the CO2 is the least of my subjects' problems, I'm usually using Pros-aide to apply appliances (It was developed to help hold on prosthetic limbs,) liquid latex to smooth or build wounds from scratch and spirit gum to quick-patch anything I missed. add a layer of blood gel and fake blood and you have a total mess to clean up. Plus you have to deal with me in your face for like two hours on average, can you imagine the horror!?! I can never work as an extra, I would pay all my bad Karma at once, and probably have to sit in a vat of goo for six hours or something.

I oddly enough have not actually seen face/off, I only have a TV for video games. I have applied for it, but don't like my chances of winning. I have no formal training, just tons of tricks picked up from anyone and everyone who can teach me. My expertise is no budget, no time, no problem. I can make a full corpse from stuff you buy at Walmart for under a hundred bucks, blood an all. I'm not knocking my skill BTW, just assessing it fairly. I'm slowly moving towards greener pastures, but as my career advances I'm moving a lot more into script writing, production design, and prop building.

One last thing on this massive de-rail, if you want to see my handiwork, "Jules Vernes' the Mysterious Island" premiers on SYFY February 11th, a Saturday night. My assistant and I did all of the gore/blood effects, the moss creatures, and I designed the Nautilus. It's worth checking out because I'm awesome, although I have not seen even a rough cut. It should be good though, got some decent actors in it and it's directed by Mark Sheppard. (I think it's his movie directing debut.)

Seriously I wont derail anymore! I have been working on the Great Gargant, I should have pics either late tonight or early tomorrow. I got the gun arm mostly painted, the base coat done for the shoulders and deck guns, and have started the last builds needed for the shoulder undercarriage and the Lifta-Droppa.

WOW! The Mysterious Island is my favorite Jules Verne book! And you had a part! Man that is absolutely awesome! I will set my DVR immediately!

My gawd, I think we worry about safety to a stupid degree sometimes. It's like saying that an x-acto knife could POSSIBLY cut you, so never use one. If you are an idiot, you WILL hurt yourself with a butter-knife somehow.

Pox! That's awesome! I will definately try to watch that! If I miss it, hopefully it will be on HULU soon.

I do airbrush tattoos for kids during the summer, and yeah, they don't like anything blowing on thier face, no matter what. Some complain that the air is cold, but they complain about it being cold when I use a compressor too. I moslty do arm tattoos, but some kids like them on the face. Sometime I have to use a brush because they freak out. It's fun, but at the end on 2 hours, I am exhausted! I can't imagine the endurance to do it all day like you! Awesome though!

@ Dave, well, if we didn't give the warnings and someone let a tank fall down thier stars and the tank shot through a wall and killed thier neighbor, they might blame us!

Well, if that happened, then we can blame the house builder for being cheap and using 24" center studs in the wall!

PROPER 16" centers would not allow the tank to go through the wall at all! lol

Rogue Wolves wrote:the thing looks great! the colors arnt cartoonish, the freehand glyph looks convincing, you didnt over do the checkers, and most importantly it looks 100% orky!

I'm glad you like it! I was worried about going a little off the rails with the cross-hatch style, its a very fast and loose way to paint, wasn't sure if it would translate to a miniature. I'm glad it seemed to work!

CommissarKhaine wrote:Great work, you really captured that old-skool 'gargant' feeling, and the paintjob is lovely!

I had to make it match both my army and my terrain! Luckily, my army is pretty old school, so it should fit right in. (except size, the thing is stupid-big.)

mullet_steve wrote:oh my great garganty mork did you paint this with win and awesome sauce or something? I'm not normaly a fan of old school checks and stuff but that's awesome.

I use an older eighties recipe, it's made of "radical" and "bitchin'" sauce. close to taste, same effect! Again, it had to match my army. (My army is really, really old. It's been repainted more times then Tammy Faye Baker.)

IPS wrote:Great progress so far!
Keep it up!

I will, my goal is to have it done by the end of next weekend.

SelvaggioSaky wrote:Amazing, great work with the skull, love It!

Again, thank you!

dsteingass wrote:Man, that is awesome! The glyphs are phenomenal!

Working with stencils is the key. they're really easy to make, I just keep the kit by my work station. if I dont have one, I make one.

Gitsplitta wrote:That's phenomenal work pox.... just amazing. The work you did on the interior detail as well as the fantastic painting on the outside is just so impressive!

Thanks! it's got to do double duty and be terrain, it got out of hand.

Sigmundr wrote:

Screw Thraka, you must be the true Prophet of the WAAAGHH!

This is, without a doubt, the coolest thing i've ever seen. It edges out the BolS Warlord titan simply cause I'm an ork at heart. It's that level of awesome however.

Can't wait till you try and figure out rules for this thing

I have not seen this Warlord titan, I'll have to go check it out! and yeah, Pox the Primogenitor is way cooler than thrakka.

As for rules, thats pretty simple. Nine structure points, a lifta droppa, an anti-troop many shot gun, an anti tank gun, two AA guns, an evil eye, two rokkits and a big shoota. (thats in order the right arm, the left arm, the belly gun, the shoulder guns, the head, the little shoulder platform and of course all Ork walkers bigger then a Dred should have a big shoota to the rear.)

I figure Armor 13/12/10 nine shields, holds ninety boys, and is a walking Idol of Gork. (or possibly Mork.) whole thing should run about 2,500 points.

Really though, I'll use it exactly like my Blasta-Bomma, basically it has whatever rules fit the game of Apocalypse I'm currently playing.

dsteingass wrote:WOW! The Mysterious Island is my favorite Jules Verne book! And you had a part! Man that is absolutely awesome! I will set my DVR immediately!

My gawd, I think we worry about safety to a stupid degree sometimes. It's like saying that an x-acto knife could POSSIBLY cut you, so never use one. If you are an idiot, you WILL hurt yourself with a butter-knife somehow.

It's not a bad movie, all in all. I haven't actually seen it since seeing a rough a few months ago, but a lot of hard work went into it. I'm gonna have a little party for it's premiere, it's the first movie I've done that's been on TV!

RSJake wrote:Pox! That's awesome! I will definately try to watch that! If I miss it, hopefully it will be on HULU soon.

I do airbrush tattoos for kids during the summer, and yeah, they don't like anything blowing on thier face, no matter what. Some complain that the air is cold, but they complain about it being cold when I use a compressor too. I moslty do arm tattoos, but some kids like them on the face. Sometime I have to use a brush because they freak out. It's fun, but at the end on 2 hours, I am exhausted! I can't imagine the endurance to do it all day like you! Awesome though!

@ Dave, well, if we didn't give the warnings and someone let a tank fall down thier stars and the tank shot through a wall and killed thier neighbor, they might blame us!

Thats very impressive. I love working with kids, I have had quite a few successes even with brutal make-up. I don't know what you use for make-up, but if you ever wanted to shine on a kid and/parent that was rotten, you should keep some TEMPTU dura-ink on hand. the good stuff stays on for ten days! (the Make-up artist on Sons of Anarchy uses it for all the biker tats, says it lasts all week of shooting.)

dsteingass wrote:Well, if that happened, then we can blame the house builder for being cheap and using 24" center studs in the wall!

PROPER 16" centers would not allow the tank to go through the wall at all! lol

Damn, we got all kinda building Meks up in here!

Alrighty, all discussion of airbrushing and movies aside, I got an actual update!


I got the front shoulder plates and the deck guns finished.

Right plate



Left plate



Deck gun one





Deck gun two



Even the deck guns are too big, heres them next to a Rhino.



I have gotten a lot more done, I just keep losing focus this close to the end so I'm jumping from piece to piece. I have a lot of the Lifta-Droppa built, I fixed the inside of the shoulders, primed the head and got it salted, and lastly have most of the big gun painted. I'll be knocking out a lot of it over the next few days.

My goal is officially to have it done by next Sunday.

Looking great, good luck on getting it done by Sunday!

Those deck gunz.... those [every part of this thing] are huge!! It's all looking amazing, too. The addition of all those classic orks and grots is kind of overwhelming in an awesome way. It makes every view so much like the 80's dioramas that got me into this hobby. Way to go and an over the top awesome project! You can do it- get it done, that is.

BIG! no duh.

I'm so jealous of you. My Orks deserve a Great gargant, but all they have it a lousy battlefortress made from a G. I. Joe toy. I will endeavor to summon my inner Mek Boss.

The weathering is just brilliant. Wow. So believable.

I should really sweep the floor, my jaw keeps hitting it!

CommissarKhaine wrote:Looking great, good luck on getting it done by Sunday!

I had originally meant NEXT sunday, but I'm rolling along pretty good! I should have most of the big stuff done by tonight!

The Good Green wrote: Those deck gunz.... those [every part of this thing] are huge!! It's all looking amazing, too. The addition of all those classic orks and grots is kind of overwhelming in an awesome way. It makes every view so much like the 80's dioramas that got me into this hobby. Way to go and an over the top awesome project! You can do it- get it done, that is.

Thanks a lot man. It really means a lot to hear from players that are from the same era, I really miss those old dioramas. the early winners of the Golden Daemon are my favorite pictures ever. (Remember the weird flying Battlewagon, with wings no less, and the strange face on the front that made a different face upside down?)

DreadlordME! wrote:BIG! no duh.

Yup. big.

warpcrafter wrote:I'm so jealous of you. My Orks deserve a Great gargant, but all they have it a lousy battlefortress made from a G. I. Joe toy. I will endeavor to summon my inner Mek Boss.

Get to work! Doing stuff like this is like eating a whale. you just do it a bite at a time. You've already had a few other large meals, and you already have a fork and knife. Start eating a whale!

Gitsplitta wrote:The weathering is just brilliant. Wow. So believable.

Thanks! I'm really getting the hand of the salt resist stuff, I'm so glad I heard about that. I was taught it from another poster in my terrain thread, I'll look up who it was for proper credit.

dsteingass wrote:I should really sweep the floor, my jaw keeps hitting it!

Lol, I saved the best stuff for last.

Here's the finished shoulders.









I also got the DakkaDakka gun finished.







Bonus scale shot!



The glyphplates along the side are for the different races, I'll put killmarks under them for significant kills. (I even got a squat "stunty" plate, in case I encounter another graybeard on the table.)

Alrighty, I'll be painting and modelling for the next fourteen hours. I'll have another update toinght for sure, and probably one mid-day.

Holy smokes man! *applause*

See. Now that's a gun. You know you're getting close to enough dakka when you can park vehicles on top of the dakka

monkey I thought there was never enough dakka? I though this was a site rule or summink?

You can never have too much dakka, but you can get close to enough dakka, just never actually reach it.

LOL I see, my confusion was enough vs to much,,, I think my thinking went something along the lines of to much is not enough... and since you can never have to much you could never reach enough....

Yep, unobtainable goal

Can still get close if you try hard enough though.

And being able to park a vehicle (which itself has dakka) on top of the dakka means you're trying pretty hard

It'z like a limmit. Da closer you get, da harder it iz ta get closer.

Those deck guns are truly impressive. They really drive home that this thing is a walking battleship.

I'm also truly impressed by your ability to look at an old project, and completely rebuild it from the ground up. I just don't have the heart to look at my old stuff, half out of shame, and half out of nostalgia, haha.