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Great progress on this lately, Vik!

 Viktor von Domm wrote:

well i have around eight of these so i could add two to each sponson bubble... what do you think? would that be a good way to do a viewpoint for the gunners inside?

here is only one "viewpoint" shown to each sponson...

I Think the idea of adding viewports is great, but I'm not such a fan of those shields: partially the style, but mostly the placement. I can imagine trying to shoot a gun having to aim down the side of it. What about more of a view slit right above the gattlings.

your point is most valid... damn... also i did a quick mockup with two shields side by side the guns... and it looks like a nose with too round eyes...not what you would want to be having with when you want to install the fear into the hearts of the enemy... argh... back to the drawing board^^

Vik, that is a steampunk after all, maybe you can try a more ornate approach?

Like the submarine view illuminators here

http://img695.imageshack.us/img695/2551/submarine2.png

Or like turrets here

http://www.imperialholocron.com/images/background_gunship.jpg" target="_new" rel="nofollow"> http://www.imperialholocron.com/images/background_gunship.jpg

Generally the idea is to embrace the spherical shape by making the whole surface sorta view port, reinforced by some overlaying metal stripes, with rivets, of cause

i see your point storag... i need to be able to cut the PC in such small stripes for this tho... cross fingers for my prowess to grow^^

Not necessary, I believe I've seen some brass etchings for ship models that can be ripped for that...
And I'm sure Dave can come up with some useful advice on pc

Tinfoil strips?

tin foil strips? oh.... i would have never come to that idea... i need to see if i can cut that without ripping it tho...

and storag... well if everything (material will included) yields to my will, then i want this tank as ornate and frilly as can be

Alternatively the metal tubing from tomato paste or toothpaste tubes? Also, btw, looking good there chief, and remember, Oskar has already proven nimble-fingered if yours are a bit too chunky!

Okay, I'm going to throw my two-pence in the mix...

As much as I like the idea of these sponsons being simialr in style of the Millenium Falcons quad laser view ports, the design element just doesn't ring true for me on this beast... This is a tank, it's made of thick, heavy metal and is meant to be impenetrable. I just don't see a glass dome (even if it's bullet proof glass / plastic) design working - I think it would look odd and tbh out of place... Also, doesn't bullet proof glass craze when hit, and the plastic would get pitted to the point of no longer being clear - and that's just from small arms fire?


I'd scratch the shield idea as well - looks too much like a crazy Muppet...

(That was a fun image search with SafeSearch turned off - Gonzo !!)

How about designing the gun view similar to this image? That is, build the view port around the guns and the actual view point would be the flat just above the gun, I imagine it would have some sort of flap to close when the vehicle isin motion and not firing...

Just don't use a circular design, otherwise we're back to a Muppet !

That CAD bit looks good!

Yeah, I agree with Ruglud. There is no point in a tank having glass domes, it defeats the purpose of the armor plating.

Very epic Vik! your son has alot of talent. Harness it for your own deeds muhahaha... that might just be alittle evil however.

also.. i thing camera is a easy fix to your glass dome here.

I do agree that a tank with glass or whatsoever is nonsense and has no purpose on the field, but since when 40kish design became of purpose and sense? those concepts worth only as much as the ideas behind fit the frame of the verse.
Not that I insist on anything here

I was thinking Woodstock on wheels sorry tracks

I like the idea of the view point but not sure on the position maybe if you can explain why you have chosen that spot I can make more sense of it.

The choice of weapon is rather nice and pulls in the steam punk feel again

If your still thinking glass dome the other way to achieve it is by using another ping pong ball, by this I mean draw the basic design on to another half ball (the frame design) then carefully cut it out and stick that over the top of the previous one

Also have you not heard of self healing glass, the new thing in 40k

Nah, most proper thing is a vision block or camera like lens

I just realized that this gun reminds me the ion planetary cannon from SW ep 5. The one rebels used to breech the blockade...
And there comes the question I should have asked at the first place; how out supposed to work in your design? I mean is it a spherical turret fully and freely rotating in the socket or is the hemisphere just a bumped outer shell? The answer will determine everything else...

whoa... now my thread is again full of life!!!

i like these discussions!
first let me cover one question... OF COURSE the dome of the sponson will not contain ANY glass... never really thought in that direction at all... the mere look...the webbed look of the strings of metal bands holding it together appealed to me... BUT...

it is a spherical turret fully and freely rotating in the socket

!!!! that!!! i imagine it to be fully rotating...the viewpoints will make this even more clear for the audience later on... as i have added now four of these hemispherical sponsons, each gun is pointing in a very different position... and the viewpoints will show so even more... i was rather referring to the seat where han solo or luke might be sitting in the falcons turrets... these "balls" are meant to be fully movable like an eyeball in its socket... one of the guns is even attacking supposedly an aircraft in my imagination... the the gunner thus being tilted in a more than average position...

at shaso:
i have thought that a camera would easily solve the whole issue...BUT... i don´t do easy... and i want a fully functioning turning and tilting and whatnot turret for that sponson...so the view issue has to be self reliant... beside... camera technology is so NOT- steampunky in my opinion...

at LDD... nice one here :

Also have you not heard of self healing glass, the new thing in 40k

but no cheating in my imagination is allowed

and

If your still thinking glass dome the other way to achieve it is by using another ping pong ball, by this I mean draw the basic design on to another half ball (the frame design) then carefully cut it out and stick that over the top of the previous one

now that is a slick idea mister... why didn´t i think of that one on my own??? darn... but alas too late...
as i atm imagine the ball to be fully metal... a sort of casted sphere that gets installed in the socket... glistening with oil on the sides and all that...

at graven...

Alternatively the metal tubing from tomato paste or toothpaste tubes? Also, btw, looking good there chief, and remember, Oskar has already proven nimble-fingered if yours are a bit too chunky!

lol...eventually all my kids will join their dads empire^^ that is the master plan
and nice idea for future materials... i still choke on the idea storag gave me for magnetizing the arena earlier... choped up tin cans and hammered flat... there is so many stuff i need to try out...

so thanks for that idea... i think i also will try this material for banners soon... someone mentioned that in that context to me earlier too...


at ruglud...:
you definatly understood my ideas and concerns to the very point... gonzo...(also see? i gave you a nice, probably earlobe warming ten minutes ) actually i more thought of mickey mouse... but that´s all the same...^^ i wont venture that direction any more... it felt wrong the second i made these pics...
and as mentioned above... the glass for a bigger surface than an actual viewpoint is totally out of the question... it would be a joke tank if i would make it this way...^^ and the british army sure has no humor it´s aware of

your CAD picture is something most helpful for me... i think i have to figure out a way to make this paneled look for my sponsons...many thanks for that...

by the way.... many thanks (belated at that) for your many referrence pics to the tank tracks of different designs... you are turning out as a major helpful thinktank member...and that is no sweet talk from my part here!!! as i do lots of research for my projekts but lack often the technological terms my searches are often fruitless... so i am very thankful and dependent of my nongerman and english native friends!


on a related note... no updates for now... i am a bit in a critical idealess phase... i am eager to attach the tracks to the body of the tracks systems... but atm i have not enough surfaces to stick the tracks on... and i fear i might loose or breack something .... at first i have to kinda fill an empty space to have room/space to stick the tracks on... how i should get to this... i am at a loss for ideas...

see this:



the gap between the two "walls" of the tracksystem is what is too thin for a glueing connection atm... so i am now thinking about how to change that... L-shaped rods to build up a resting place are hard to cut atm , because... i have no miter master like dave... i need to fix that^^ but for now... i am constantly scratching my head for ideas....


so much for now...cheers, vik

Thanks VIk, I'm happy to help. But what with 'gonzo' and 'glistening with oil on the sides', I think this discussion is heading to 50 Shades of Grey territory... I don't think we want to go there lol...

On a serious point - for the tracks to sit properly, what about getting some plastic plumbing pipe - easy to cut if you have a hacksaw and just use masking tape to make sure you have a straight line to guide you around... alternatively, if you have thin enough styrene sheets, say 0.25mm, then you can fabricate a tube - similar to my attempts at a t-hawk engine - cut two similar sized pieces of styrene (one a few mm longer), then stick together so they overlap, carry on gluing so that there is an inner and outer layer of plasticard forming a tube - hope that makes sense, if not maybe the images below will help? I wrapped mine around a cardboard tube to get the right size (cardboard tube was from the middle of a tinfoil / aluminium roll)



Let me know if this is all just gibberish, maybe I can mock some proper tutorial some photos up in the morning?

I like the progress vik, L rods sound like a good fix.

L-rod would be the easiest way... but cutting it atm is giving me a hell of problems atm...

ruglud...

do you mean to use the plastic pipe as a sort of train rail? hopefully that is the right mental image... i just had a quick look at your gallery... dunno why i didn´t yet followed one of your threads regularly??? i think i know most of your stuff already tho from the gallery? your buzz and your hellboy for instance...

i will try to get this idea of yours working... i planned a visit to my local hardware store anyways today... we´ll see what suplies might i can get a hold of that might hopefully be helpful for this project...! thanks a heap!

oh... and well... a dirrrrty mind like mine... tends to go down the gutter once or twice a second


Automatically Appended Next Post:
by the way... all interestested and the league members in particular should pay an educational visit to rugluds threads:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/90/328071.page#5053554


he is by the way using filter beads for adding rivets... credit where credit is due... any other league members see a need like me to add ruglud to the fold?

I'm thinking more that you use the pipe similar to the tanks road wheels, i.e the length of the pipe goes between the walls.

That way you have something to attach the tracks to and will keep the it all taught - you may not need the glue the tracks either as the linkages of the Heng Long tracks have removable pins...

and thanks for the publicity

I have done that myself with the Zinge tracks on my next project

Just throwing in my two cents, and maybe too late, but concerning the gun ports/balls...
Why not periscopes? Its steampunk after all... Just little tubes jutting out above the guns, with clear crystal lenses?

 MauS wrote:
Just throwing in my two cents, and maybe too late, but concerning the gun ports/balls...
Why not periscopes? Its steampunk after all... Just little tubes jutting out above the guns, with clear crystal lenses?

Instead of cameras, I should have said scopes

Saw these and thought of you: http://www.lead-adventure.com/

But notice they are true 28mm and not heroic so they will be on the small side.
Still cool looking minis.

Gerner wrote:Saw these and thought of you: http://www.lead-adventure.com/

But notice they are true 28mm and not heroic so they will be on the small side.
Still cool looking minis.

oh yeah... very good looking minis of that company... never saw a scale comparrision shot tho... hmmm *trods off to do some research...*

shasolenzabi wrote:

 MauS wrote:
Just throwing in my two cents, and maybe too late, but concerning the gun ports/balls...
Why not periscopes? Its steampunk after all... Just little tubes jutting out above the guns, with clear crystal lenses?

Instead of cameras, I should have said scopes

MauS wrote:Just throwing in my two cents, and maybe too late, but concerning the gun ports/balls...
Why not periscopes? Its steampunk after all... Just little tubes jutting out above the guns, with clear crystal lenses?

well you see my next try in a minute if you scroll down further... it´s a promising new take on the matter...

Ruglud wrote:I'm thinking more that you use the pipe similar to the tanks road wheels, i.e the length of the pipe goes between the walls.

That way you have something to attach the tracks to and will keep the it all taught - you may not need the glue the tracks either as the linkages of the Heng Long tracks have removable pins...

and thanks for the publicity

as i said... credit where credit is due... shame your diorama thread is not commentable in... as it is a bit on the dusty side (nudge, nudge, nudge )

as for the tracks... and the wheels... well i tried my best to get the wheeled look right...and failed miserably... so i thought differently again... so i went to the hardware store and got me a nice suply of thin and smaller wooden rods... angular ones... now i have a nice resting surface for the tracks... and after mounting the first track on a finisched tracksystem... i see this was worth it... later on i show you how i did it...you have to take into account that i am a really miserable guy with a saw... no even cuts... naaaawww.... i am completly untrained... but i got the job done eventually^^... now the second tracksystem is in the making... almost finshed too...

also i took a new step into the viowpoint issue... i recently got me some glassbeads... half relief ones... which have a crystal/diamond shaped look...i think if i paint some metal bands on these then i am set....your thoughts?

by the way... ruglud... the tracks are not glued down... just closed very thightly... but they are unable to "turn" as it is strechted tight... we´ll see if this works as planned...

here are the pics...:







and this is how i created this "sub-structure" ...





cheap and effective...


cheers, vik


Automatically Appended Next Post:
oh... by the way.... is there a mini out there that looks like "V" for vendetta? just curious if this would be available...

An improvement on the old design is this I see. Good it is. Damned good

ah.... i like a woman swearing^^...thanks for the compliment!

Great look Vik! Angle it some more. The lens should always be pointing down the barrel(s) of the gatling no? It looks like it's pointing up at the sky a bit.

er... you are of course right... damn... i am not getting away with say they used those fisheye lenses ?