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Due to a casual suggestion from one of my readers I have been side tracked making the damned head movable. Until that time I was blissfully unaware the the head had the capacity for movement.

Given that the compartments are essentially rectangular I saw little cause to make the neck tubular as was my first inclination. It was so much easier to adapt the double axle premise I used on the hip joints. The images below demonstrate the mobility of the neck in the up and down movement while the truncated triangle will mount the axle for the side to side movement.

http://i.imgur.com/WChOr.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/qUZZb.jpg


The whole Head/Neck module will be removable on the finished product and is mounted on three slides per side to insert it into the torso with a very close tolerance fit in point of fact I may have to sand it down before it is painted.

http://i.imgur.com/P51lX.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/82SpI.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/tNEEm.jpg


This little side project was very time consuming but the psychological effect is overwhelming. Imagine the last thing the target sees before being blasted into oblivion as that great head slews around servo motors humming malevolently to transfix the hapless victim with a steely heartless crimson stare even as the plasma weapons begin to glow in prelude to firing.

you know you really shouldn't listen to me

But I must admit it is an astounding piece of brilliance you have there, you should be proud of yourself my friend!!!

Actually it should read "some of my readers as the movability of the head was addressed on other fora; but when the xeno spawned Dakka² denizen speaks one had better hearken............BTW what has happened to Jabba k Hutt?

The_Blackadder wrote:Actually it should read "some of my readers as the movability of the head was addressed on other fora; but when the xeno spawned Dakka² denizen speaks one had better hearken............BTW what has happened to Jabba k Hutt?

Ok I am officially lost without a map/compass

Fora plural of Forum

Dakka² = Dakka times Dakka = Dakka Dakka

Xeno spawned i.e. xeno ancient Greek =stranger/ alien i.e. unearthly; spawned = offspring/childe as in childe[variant of child]/babe.

Jabba K Hutt = Friend, mentor, confidant and benefactor sorely missed.

EB :(

lols I'm slightly following you now

wow I need me some sleep

The_Blackadder wrote:Fora plural of Forum

Dakka² = Dakka times Dakka = Dakka Dakka

Xeno spawned i.e. xeno ancient Greek =stranger/ alien i.e. unearthly; spawned = offspring/childe as in childe[variant of child]/babe.

Jabba K Hutt = Friend, mentor, confidant and benefactor sorely missed.

EB :(

would that be the Jabba who got choked out by a hot chick and then blew up?

No jabbakahut who has posted regularly on this forum and who's last post was 3 months ago.

Not much point in my assembling the whole thing for such a minuscule amount of work but I must say I am gratified at the speed the carapace is coming together. Although I have procrastinated a bit since Monday I still managed to affix the neck shield and arm shield face plates.

http://i.imgur.com/xzWZH.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/3Cwyd.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/cRtc7.jpg

Wonderful work as ever Black.

I especially like the little hinges! Such attention to detail make watching the project unfold a real joy.

D

Thanks, I really envy fiorehellheart with his ability to navigate the Blender program. It would probably save me a lot of time if I had the wherewithal to learn it but I can rationalize the employment of such programs as the use of calculators and GPS's. Once you get use using them they become a crutch that eclipses your cerebral precesses and make you dependent on them. While the slow trial and error processes take longer it hones your brain to tackle the complexities of artistic endeavor

Or I might be full of sh-t in that regard!

Meanwhile:

Purists might question the employment of windows to view the weapons and leg components but being old school theres nothing beats viewing things first hand instead of on a monitor. Therefore I have included viewing ports on the sides of the engineering and command deck under the carapace. There will also be a maintenance catwalk to service the weapons when in use and will be stow-able when not in use. Access to the catwalk will be from the Command deck which will also include fire control.


http://i.imgur.com/7H3rq.jpg


The Command deck will be modular for removal and the gaping hole in the floor will be plugged wit the Engineering recessed ceiling lights access to change the batteries.

http://i.imgur.com/DhSng.jpg


The Command deck slides into the forward armour face plate as seen in the next image.

http://i.imgur.com/foCe9.jpg


Please don't ask for plans as I am winging this as I proceed. I tried the Blender program but I would have a long white beard before I could utilize it's benefits. I prefer to holistically design my projects keeping the design in my head until it can reproduced in fine styrene.

Wow black, just wow, this is coming on leaps and bounds and a rate of knots. Stunning is an understatement!!!

This construct is falling together like a house of cards. Had I not important engagements this day I believe I would have finished the carapace this evening; the basic structure at the very least.

When things go this easily it can mean one of two things; there is either a grievous mistake I am not aware of or I have hit the sweet note of the construct and am in tune with the author.

I beg the latter but will not rue the former as any mistake can be remedied with facile at this point.

I gotta stop reading Sherlock Holmes, the lingo wears off on me.

Quick Watson the needle!

http://i.imgur.com/svvV6.jpg



http://i.imgur.com/NE084.jpg

A little Item before the daily toil, I have always wanted to include a curved girder in one of my constructs ever since I saw some in Mxwllmdr's Reaver titan model but finding a logical place in a Lucius pattern war machine is difficult. I finally hit on the idea of including it in the ceiling/void generator flooring where strength is needed to support the void generators but lightness is also necessary due to the height above ground of the vehicle at this point. I incorporated stress/lightening cutouts to cut down on the weight of the structure of the real life biped.

http://i.imgur.com/ATwDa.jpg


It's an interesting point at least I am given to understand that cutting holes in a girder actually increase its load bearing strength per mass. Are there any structural engineers in the audience that can confirm or refute this? I am also in the understanding that a hollow cylinder is stronger that a solid shaft of the same diameter. again clarification would be appreciated.

Just a point of conversation to clear up some of my ignorance on the subject.

Not an Engineer at all, but that is what I have been told by some of my military engineer officer friends. Don't understand it either personally. I believe it has something to do with surface tension much like the strength of an unbroken eggshell....

The_Blackadder wrote:It's an interesting point at least I am given to understand that cutting holes in a girder actually increase its load bearing strength per mass. Are there any structural engineers in the audience that can confirm or refute this? I am also in the understanding that a hollow cylinder is stronger that a solid shaft of the same diameter. again clarification would be appreciated.

Just a point of conversation to clear up some of my ignorance on the subject.

Far from an engineer here lols, but my understanding on the cut outs are for lightness and when the welded/moulded support plate that runs in the holes add to the structural integrity. The image I have included below is of Ironbridge in Shropshire Uk, it is te first bridge of its kind to be done in cast iron, and the way it works iirc is that the tension on the bridge pulls at each point equally, which ballances the load out evenly to lessen any strain on the rivets/joints. I think the same principal applies to girders with the holes in like the ones your using.

God bless the industrial revolution!!!

Yes its a pity that beauty and design aesthetics have given away to modernest functionality. Built in 1779 and as beautiful today as the day it was completed Abraham Darby III's iron bridge became the world's first iron structure. How much of todays engineering marvels will be extant 250 years hence?

If you want to be floored by Engineering masterpieces Google Isambard Kingdom Brunel a giant of a genius in the age of engineering geniuses.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isambard_Kingdom_Brunel

BTW note the lack of graffiti defacing the structure. It must be a pleasure to live in a country where there is still respect for public property.

Yeah Brunel is someone who I wish I had a tenth of his genius!

I think since re-looking into the Ironbridge I'll be basing the roof vaultings for my SoB Church that I'm planing on doing on that very bridge. Plasticard is my friend

(I hope)

Your skill, my friend, is simply marvellous

The_Blackadder wrote:Thanks, I really envy fiorehellheart with his ability to navigate the Blender program. It would probably save me a lot of time if I had the wherewithal to learn it but I can rationalize the employment of such programs as the use of calculators and GPS's. Once you get use using them they become a crutch that eclipses your cerebral precesses and make you dependent on them. While the slow trial and error processes take longer it hones your brain to tackle the complexities of artistic endeavor

Or I might be full of sh-t in that regard!

Haha, I scanned and didn't notice this before, I fear you're quite correct though. I'm better now but before I've felt a strong leaning on the cad design process instead of trial and intuition. That's changed a little now though as I'm finding learning from other parts of my build changes how I'd planned a part, for example the sizes of every cylinder on my model has changed because the process I had in mind isn't suitable. I'm also steering away from too many non right angles as they're much more prone to mistakes and a lot more difficult to do accurately. If I hadnt spent the last 4 years learning to use blender and instead used them to hone plasticard skills I think I might be a bit better off, although I'm happy now that I can use both, sort of.

Anyway, stunning work as usual. I'm really liking the inclusion of the windows. It's nice after seeing you manage an almost perfect copy of the warhound to do things a little different on the warlord and break away from the model you're basing it on. Those small changes are some great personal touches, such as the interior, something I wish I felt I had time to do on mine.

Also, with the holes thing, you said that it increases the strength per mass, rather than the strength of the part. So your piece may have the same or slightly less strength than the one without holes, but as it's got much less material the strength per mass increases. It seems to be counter intuitive as I think it's dodging what we interpret the value of the strength as, bit like a lateral thinking question. Hopefully that makes sense, and justifies it, but I'm not an engineer either, only a soon to be physics student.

I know I am wasting a lot of time on the interior but there is an interesting aspect of making a workable environment for the crew. If you don't allow for the crew there is no concept of scale. Yes you can plunk a 2/3 meters tall entity on a battle board and all the tiny 28 mm tall denizens look minuscule but the titan just looks like a scaled up human in armour. But give the titan an interior with decks and work stations seats and monitors and suddenly the scale of the thing grips you. FW models are well designed giant vehicles (at least the ones I'm interested in) but when in a setting other than a battle board there has to be something to convey the size it is supposed to represent.

http://i.imgur.com/SVZqP.jpg


In keeping with scale this construct needs heavy internal bracing to be believable. I may have to rework the girders in the Eng. compartment.

http://i.imgur.com/TeFZ3.jpg

You have done a pile of work since I last checked in!

Very nice to see this behemoth growing taller and no longer as just a pair of legs

The_Blackadder wrote:It's an interesting point at least I am given to understand that cutting holes in a girder actually increase its load bearing strength per mass. Are there any structural engineers in the audience that can confirm or refute this? I am also in the understanding that a hollow cylinder is stronger that a solid shaft of the same diameter. again clarification would be appreciated.

I studied Civil Engineering in university, though my focus was Transportation Engineering and not structures. I had my fair share of structures classes though, as they were required coursework (btw, if you ever have the chance to take a class on Reinforced Concrete Structural Design, politely decline. Trust me ). On to your actual questions: Cutting holes (or building a structure out of individual members) reduces the load of the member on itself (as well as cost). The full capacity of a solid piece of steel (of whatever grimdark building material we're talking about) is rarely needed, which is why you see your standard design of truss bridges (built of individual members), or (less frequently) holed girders. However, the statement "increase its load bearing strength per mass" is incorrect, as the design of the structure does not change the actual material properties (such as tensile or compression strength) of the members. Now, some designs are more efficient (like I-beams), but that is just good engineering, not modifying the material properties.

Your idea about the cylinder is also incorrect, as a main variable in calculating basic capacity is the cross sectional area of the member. The larger the cross sectional area, the larger the capacity.

Now, if you are talking in "bang for your buck" terms, a holed girder and a hollow cylinder opposed to a solid girder and solid cylinder are better choices as removing half of the material (assuming it's well engineer removal) does not usually decrease the capacity by half. Perhaps it is this concept that you were thinking of

Hopefully that answers your questions. I could be wrong about my comments (as I said, structures was not my focus, and university was some years ago now) but I think the priciples are sound.

Good luck!
Rawson


Automatically Appended Next Post:

The_Blackadder wrote:

BTW, this looks awesome!

Love the vaulted ceiling is bloody spectacular my friend!!!

Very cool stuff so far, I'm rather impressed with the interior structure particularly

Excellent work, Blackadder.

That interior looks like it's going to be a bitch to paint, very detailed though. Keep it up, I can't wait to see how this turns out.

Yeah painting will be a problem but the modular construction will allow me to paint pretty much as any of the FW models plus if I give the interior a basic coat of light gray and then paint the detai;l consoles, furniture, ducts, etc. and install them separately after painting I think a good effect will be achieved. Time will tell.

Do you plan to use any GW or FW bits to setup the interior? Consoles, chairs, etc. or are you planning to craft you're own?

Yes I definitely have to rework the Engineering interior.

http://i.imgur.com/YAJgk.jpg


The Command deck knees and hanging knees installed I don't know what the modern term for them is but in 18th century shipbuilding they were called knees. Surveyors would go out into forests looking for Oak trees with the desired angled branches called 'compass timber' and mark them for the cutters fell the trees and they were brought to the shipyard sometimes years before the ship was built. There they were seasoned and cut down to the proper size and installed in the hull to support the deck. Trees selected for the Navy were marked with the Admiralty broad arrow mark



signifying the tree was the property of the Navy and no one else could fell it.

http://i.imgur.com/NwtJQ.jpg


I probably will use some of the bitz I have accumulated definitely figures and the like but I won't be purchasing any kits other that the scrap I have.

i gotta keep my costs down somehow.