Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Welcome back Dakka News & Rumors, as you may know I'm the purveyor of Grim Dark Bits, a Shapeways 3D Printing store that normally sells pieces for Battlefleet Gothic. I have one new set of 28mm game bits I've been working on that some of you may find useful.

New Item!

10x Combination Weapons (5x flame thrower, 5x microwave gun) - $27.50

These are underslung combination weapons similar to the US military's single shot M203 grenade launcher. It always bothered me that most of the official combi-weapons looked like a melta first and a bolter second, so I fixed that with my own designs here.





----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Older models:

Two different Anti-Aircraft installations: an Air Defense Array of missile batteries, and a Quad 40mm turret reminiscent of the US Navy's old Bofors shipboard turrets during WWII:






The next few items are defenses that are best suited for scenario games. Here's a 28mm Guard Tower standing a little under 6 inches tall:



And finally a series of gun turrets, sporting battle cannons, laser cannons, and very heavy machine guns:







Hope these pique someone's interest! I'll be putting up pictures of painted models as soon as I get them shipped from Shapeways myself.

Do you have any "after" pictures of how these turn out? The missile batteries appeal to me, but I hesitate to buy stuff from these guys without seeing how they will turn out.

Is it cost competitive to get these vs, say, FW AA turrets?

 RiTides wrote:
Is it cost competitive to get these vs, say, FW AA turrets?

Agreed some of those look nice but I would one have to see the actual models and two see the price.

I actually do have a set of AA missile turrets painted up. I will try to post pictures tonight. The material is very strong and lightweight, but it has some texture to it. This makes a pro-quality paint job difficult, but they look great on the table. So long as you aren't trying to win a Golden Demon with your missile battery, I think they work pretty well. And compared to Forgeworld's AA set, they're something like 1/4 the price.

Edit: The prices are on the Shapeways pages, just click through the links if you're interested.

 Empchild wrote:

 RiTides wrote:
Is it cost competitive to get these vs, say, FW AA turrets?

Agreed some of those look nice but I would one have to see the actual models and two see the price.

Yes, some real life models would be appreciated

But price is already up in the links

$37.95 for air defense array (so I think less than $10 for each thing)

$18.95 for quad gun

They look good and the price would be right but my issue is the following:

I've purchased custom Terminator shoulder pads from shapeways and the material seemed fine until I primed it. Then it started to pit and streak (long shallow pitting). Meaning that the shoulder pads didn't even have close to a smooth texture and were in fact, unusable.

Could you get us some very up close photos of the painted batteries and detail the product you used to prime them. That might help. Granted, for $40 I might consider them anyway since I'd only be using them in silly games....

Here's a picture I have of some pieces from the Air Defense Array:



My paintjob is basic, but you can see the parts are designed with the material in mind - there's enough detail for tabletop quality and no detail is lost due to the printing process. As I said, the only real downside is the surface roughness, but unless you want a showcase or display model, the parts are great for game pieces or terrain pieces.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I primed them with a can of 99 cent flat black spray paint from Home Depot. This is the White, Strong, and Flexible material. It's slightly porous and takes paint readily, in fact it seems to soak it up like crazy at first, so priming is good to seal it. To get a good surface finish, you either have to glob on a thick coat of paint, which is fine for small areas, or paint on multiple very thinned out coats, which works best for larger areas.

For things like the Quad Gun and Guard Tower, I plan on priming black and drybrushing grey to white, or just silver, then adding rust and such. The parts take drybrushing just fine, and I have plenty of experience doing that with my Battlefleet Gothic markers to good effect.

@Kenshin I did not see that thank you, the detail is not lost on the minis which is great.

Question:
In the picture for 37.50, it's 3 of the "missile" guns and 1 satellite. Does it come with all 4 for 37.50?

Yes, the Missile Array comes with all 4 pieces shown: three missile turrets and one radar turret.

Also shipping for any amount of stuff from Shapeways is a flat rate (prices are in US Dollars):

$6.50 to the US Canada, The Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg

$9.50 to the EU, Switzerland, Norway, San Marino, Vatican, Andorra, Liechenstein

and $19.99 to the rest of the world

So if you do want to buy something, I recommend poking around the rest of the site for anything else that interests you. May as well get your money's worth!

<3. This just made my day better and my wallet horrified.

Awesome, thanks for the new models and the pics!!!

The air defense platforms are awesome. The Red/Blue ones are for my Crimson Fists. pew pew

For those who are interested, I have some new combi-weapons up for sale.

I also have a new painted image of the Air Defense Array here:

Quick question. Have you actually printed the tower? If so, can I see a pic of that. It looks awesome. Like the missile launchers, look like the would look good on the shoulders of some tau broadsides.

About the combi-weapons. I think you should slide the combi bits back some, they just look too far forward. And do you plan to offer some with "plasma"?

 Salacious Greed wrote:
Quick question. Have you actually printed the tower? If so, can I see a pic of that. It looks awesome. Like the missile launchers, look like the would look good on the shoulders of some tau broadsides.

About the combi-weapons. I think you should slide the combi bits back some, they just look too far forward. And do you plan to offer some with "plasma"?

I have printed the tower, I have one painted up all rusty-looking, but it's at home. I'll post a picture after work.

I do plan on making a plasma version of the combi weapons - I just haven't found the need for one myself yet, but it shouldn't take long to do.

And as for moving the combi weapon attachment back, I can try that. The placement is intended to let the model hold the weapon as normal, like in the picture below, but there might be space to move it a little for aesthetics.



Edit: Here's an image of the updated model, with the combi-weapon moved back slightly to improve balance. There should still be room for a hand on the front grip. I've updated the model on Shapeways too, so it's ready for printing. Thoughts?

This one looks good. Looking forward to seeing the tower.

Thank you for doing underslung combination guns!!! I have always found the GW combi weapons to be utterly ridiculous.

Upon SG's request, here's a picture of a printed and painted Guard Tower, with our friendly combi-flamer standard bearer standing proudly atop:



The tower holds around 5-7 25mm bases depending on how spindly the models' arms are. I've comfortably fit a 5-man scout sniper squad up there in games before with room to spare.

Can you mmake some combis without the scopes?

I quite like the tower, could get alot of use out of that. Out of question how strong is the tower, can it take a hit? it looks a little fragile.

And.. how do the guys get UP the tower? I would imagine they need a ladder and/or a trap door?

-P

SlaveToDorkness wrote:Can you mmake some combis without the scopes?

Yes, that's a good idea. These are the "spec ops" version (I figure people would use them for Sternguard). I can do a standard version as well, available in groups of 5 of the same weapon.

Rolt wrote:I quite like the tower, could get alot of use out of that. Out of question how strong is the tower, can it take a hit? it looks a little fragile.

The material is actually fairly strong plastic. The way the tower is designed, it has some flex and it's super light weight. I've dropped this one a few times with no issues. If you glued it to a base, it would actually be very rigid.

porkuslime wrote:And.. how do the guys get UP the tower? I would imagine they need a ladder and/or a trap door?

Ha yeah, barring jump packs there's no good way up there. I had a ladder in the design, but I axed it in the interest of reducing cost. The model does have an opening in the floor where you could install one though (Plastruct makes great plastic ladders).