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You have failed me yet again, Starscream.

...How do you envision antigrav hovertanks to be held up? Jet exhaust channeled downwards? Magnetic waves?

Because you could probably do some sort of half-opaque (or full opaque and well painted) 'effect stand' for it. Make a plasticine mold with the right shape over it, and fill it with tinted 'Water effect' stuff (or clear epoxy resin, whatever) and then use that as the stand/base.

Would be over-the-top, for sure. Also, could even be washing down over the Rhino, precluding the need for some of the extra junk you would otherwise need.

bossfearless wrote:Now that the whole thing is assembled, I'm suddenly not sure about the hot tub turret, at least not the current piece. It seems...I don't know. When the build is done completely, I'll take video of it so that you can hear the speakers and see the flickering effect of the engine lights.

I agree about the hot tub- it looks out of place, imo. Maybe make a lower profile turret, at least so you'll have the option to swap it out if you want to?

Can't wait for a video to hear the speakers in action

Hehe ^^
This made me chuckle

I'm running into the problem of knowing that I really want a hot tub full of naked women in this army, but not knowing where I ought to put them. First world gamer problems, lol. At this point, with the profile of the tank all messed up by the hot tub on top, I'm reconsidering it.

The only other place I can think of where I could put the hot tub right now is on the base of the Abyss battlesuit that I already have built. The base is bare, there's enough room, but then I worry it spoils the scariness of that particular build. I still have two other Riptide builds on the bench, though. One of them is being held in reserve to see if I want to make it into a quad-legged build (I'll figure that out later after the smaller prototypes), but the other one is just kind of insane and kitbashed. I might build up the kitbash one with a really elaborate base and see if I can create a ruined pool deck with the suit standing on a big chunk of debris off to one side.

@Anvildude: I envision 40k skimmers being held aloft by waves of pure, undiluted energy drawn from the bottomless plot holes of Matt Ward's 40k lore. An effect flight stand would be pretty sweet, and I have some clear resin effects that would be great for it but...I really wish I had a time machine to go back to before a bunch of fragile stuff got soldered and glued into place. I would have loved to do light-up thruster effects coming down off the hull. It would obfuscate the flight stand and speaker cord, but it would also be a nightmare for storage and transport. Unless I magnetized the various effects. I might give it a bit of thought as I work on it tonight. For now I'm going to focus on getting the thing upright and balanced. Because of the two speakers and all the guts inside it, this thing is much heavier than the average 40k vehicle.

Hmm...I just had a thought. Not really related to modeling itself, but to actually playing the game. I'm going to Japan and the US next year, and the plan had been to inter the army in a storage unit when I went back to the states. But now I'm considering hanging onto it out here for when I eventually go to Europe and Australia, and maybe actually have a game or three on vacation.

Ah well. Hey, there's always the next Hammerhead, right?

Hot tub- Do you have an Ethereal in your army? Because an Ethereal pimping it up in a hot tub sounds kinda perfect.

yeah, could be a fine Aun-va counts-as.

"the greater good demands I have my share of naked women"

Why does that seem to fit?

Eh. I don't actually plan to have a dedicated Ethereal model for the army. I've never been a fan of using them, to be honest. They're great for pulse weapon heavy armies, but mine is mostly missiles and plasma and such and so no benefit to their super pulse weapon boosting ability. When I decided to do the hot tub idea, I wanted it to be attached to a model that would always see the tabletop. So not an Ethereal or a second hammerhead, which I might not use, but something like a Riptide that's an auto-include in most lists. When I get a chance to really sit down at my work table I'm gonna take a long look at different bases and such, see where some of my builds could accommodate it.

The other option is to deck out one of the crisis suits as a giant robot pimp with hoes fawning all over him, on some kind of a harem base. There would need to be a *very* jaunty robot pimp hat involved, and I might upsize the base in order to fit more naked girl flesh. This has the added bonus of not having to muck about with water effects that I don't know how to use. Do they make pimp canes in Crisis suit size?


I found appropriate pieces to use as anchor points on both the tank hull and the hammerhead. Once the glue for those is totally dried, I'll go in and drill out the first couple holes.

Kinda surprised you're not going with Pulse Weapons for a Dubstep army, honestly.

I see what you did there lol. Honestly it's more to do with the fact that I wanted a suit-heavy army more than anything.

Couldn't you do your hot tub on top of that potential quad legged Riptide? The top could be a sort of pool deck with guns. Unless you already have a plan for that Riptide.

Agreed, Doctarro- I think it would fit in better somewhere like that. Does take away from the intimidation factor but hey. Them's the breaks!

Hmm...pool deck with guns, you say? Well, the Riptide torso is pretty flat on top...and maybe I could bulk it out a bit with plasticard and make it sit level on the legs. Hmm...I will have to keep that in mind for the future.

Okay, so, I'm going to Bahrain for the weekend after tonight's shift. I need to drown my sorrows in booze, hookers and chicken wings. I'm going to excuse myself later on, ostensibly to pack my bag, and see if I can't get that hammerhead flying.

So... kinda like Megas XLR, only with a hot tub instead of a hot rod for a head?

No, more like...damn, this is going to be a stretch. If anyone ever played Xenogears, there were these enemies that were giant robots, but the body of the robot was almost like a boat with a flat upper deck, and arms and legs were bolted to that. Keep in mind that this is, if the concept pans out, a four legged "crawler" type of a robot. It wouldn't have arms, I don't think. More like there would be some kind of artillery setup at the rear of the torso that fired over the pool area. Still technically a heat sink.


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WIP of the flight stand:


Nothing fancy, as you can see. Just nice and functional, two points so the model won't spin around, and the holes on each side go deep enough to keep it secure-ish. It might come off its base a bit during a game, but I can burn that bridge when I come to it.


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This is extremely annoying. After all the hassle of building this thing, I am stopped from uploading video of the WIP build because Youube and Saudi interwebs don't play nicely together. Screw it, I'll take my laptop or phone or whatever with me and upload it from the hotel in Bahrain while I'm enjoying a nice piece of Thai takeout. Or maybe Russian or Moroccan takeout this time. Whatever. The guy should be here in like 4 hours to pick me up for the border run. Get this, the driver who always takes me to Bahrain is named Knife Turkey. Not the correct spelling (because in Arab culture there is no standardized spelling of anything, names or otherwise, fyi), but phonetically correct.

First time we drove out to Bahrain together, we're trying to make small talk through the language barrier, which is a bit thick. Anyway, we get to the subject of movies and we kind of pantomime our way through various genres and I try to see if he likes Fantasy movies. He can't understand a damn thing I'm saying, so I try listing a few titles, trying to mime the general concepts, and we can't connect. Finally, I just put my fingers up in a little circle and say "One Ring to Rule Them All."

Dude spoke zero English, but he understood that perfectly. Knife Turkey is freaking awesome like that. Last time, he comes to pick me up at the hotel at like 8 in the morning so we can drive back. I look for him in the lobby, the restaurant, outside, reception, everywhere. Finally, I locate the dude at the bar, pounding back shots of whiskey at 8 in the freaking morning, minutes before he had to drive. Saudis, man. Saudis have their own brand of logic.

Moroccan or Russian this time. I had enough Thai while I was in Thailand.

Because in SA, it's party time all the time

As for a Crisis pimp cane... could try a banner or similar stick, maybe pop a skull on top to finish it. Open power fist fingers work nicely as an extended crisis hand.

 liquidjoshi wrote:
Because in SA, it's party time all the time

Actually, it's the reverse. There's no party in KSA. Women, alcohol, music, and absolutely anything fun is illegal. There are a few things like music and non-religious television that are only technically illegal and not really enforced, but they still get shut down from time to time. The point is, when you get a Saudi outside of their repressive mess of a country, they suddenly can't control themselves and they start power-drinking like there's no tomorrow and banging every hooker and/or camel (not a racist exaggeration, Saudis are quite infamous for their camel buggery throughout the region) within a ten mile radius. It's a backlash that's proportional to the degree with which they're repressed at home. Of course, none of it counts as a sin against their Islamic faith because, as the Saudis themselves put it, "God can only see you if you are in the Kingdom (KSA)." I'll let you mull that statement over for a while.

But hey, this has turned into a crazy saudi story thread all of a sudden, so let's get back to brass rivets. Let's talk pimp hats. So, the attire of the pimp is part of the iconic imagery. So if I were doing a Crisis suit pimp, how would that be represented? The hat is normally depicted as wide brimmed and floppy, which is hard to do with a metal robot aesthetic. Maybe start with one of the smaller flying bases and go from there? Either that, or say screw it and actually just try to sculpt a big floppy pimp hat. Or forget the hat altogether and go with a particularly jaunty feather on th side where an antenna would normally go. The pimp cane would be pretty simple as liquidjoshi suggested, either just a brass rod or perhaps some kind of staff bit with a plasma gun nozzle at the end to keep it wysiwyg compliant. Then add a couple of girls in the crook of each arm, or perhaps use a couple of the sitting models I have to have the girls actually perched up on his outstretched arms?

The cloak might end up being the really hard part. I would need to either adorn the suit with some kind of dangly bits, not unlike the necron tabards that I've been adding to them already, or perhaps go through the whole process of sculpting a giant fur coat for a crisis suit. That...that would be an epic undertaking. If I went that route, I would have to mostly remove the jetpack just to keep the thing looking right. Maybe just have an exhaust port sticking out at the shoulders or something. Hmm...yeah, this has potential.

Oh. Right. Now I see. It turns out that the reason I was havng trouble uploading the video to Photobucket (aside from crappy saudi internet) was because the file recorded at a crazy high resolution. 200MB for 1:30 of video. Yup, let me change those settings and try that again. Here's a pic of the thing mounted on the flight stand while I try to sort this out.

EDIT: Nope, not gonna work just now. I'll get the video sorted out when I get back from Bahrain on sunday.


Looks much better without the hot tub on top. I may do the main gun nose-mounted, mostly because this thing needs to have some weight shifted forward. it wants to tip back right now, and I can't have that. Might even weight the nose with some of these worthless local coins.

Underslung nose gun would be cool- never really see those on Hammerheads. Could possibly let you put a really sleek smooth profile on the top as well, if you're not using the hot tub.

You going to mount a Railgun or a... PPC. (can't think of the actual name).

I've actually made some unfortunate mistakes but also gone and become a bit inspired in the course of working on the main weapons. I won't be mounting the PPC (Ion Cannon), rather I'm opting for the FW double fusion cannons. A little low in range, but there's so much stuff that tries to close in against Tau that I feel they're worth it. I'm actually modelling them out of the Broadside seeker missiles and slotting them into the front drone mounts with magnets. Of course, that means I need to figure out a good looking attachment for the Ion cannon as well, in case I want to run that. Missile pods are also now mounted under the wings, partly because it seemed like a good idea at the time, and also to represent the double missile pod option or the SMS, or seekers, or what the hell ever. Missiles for everyone.

bossfearless wrote:No, more like...damn, this is going to be a stretch. If anyone ever played Xenogears, there were these enemies that were giant robots, but the body of the robot was almost like a boat with a flat upper deck, and arms and legs were bolted to that. Keep in mind that this is, if the concept pans out, a four legged "crawler" type of a robot. It wouldn't have arms, I don't think. More like there would be some kind of artillery setup at the rear of the torso that fired over the pool area. Still technically a heat sink.

That actually sounds amazing. Totally insane, but amazing. I can see it before me. A four-legged giant robot bathtub and the water is heated by the destruction they rain down upon their enemies.

Wouldn't the water be radioactive then though?

bossfearless wrote:Let's talk pimp hats.

I don't know if this helps, but there's an anime called Saber Rider and the Star Sherrifs (at least that's what it was called in Germany) and they had a giant cowboy robot with a metal hat. It could work.

The coat sounds like a great idea as well. But I would actually leave holes in the backside for the jetpack to go through.

Perhaps instead of the hottub sticking out and ruining the profile of the vehicle, you can sink it into the top? If I were an artist I could do something artist-y and show you, but I'm not.

Saber Rider and the Star Sherifs was one of my favorites as a kid.

 Lordhat wrote:
Perhaps instead of the hottub sticking out and ruining the profile of the vehicle, you can sink it into the top? If I were an artist I could do something artist-y and show you, but I'm not.

Believe me, this was the first thing I wanted to do. But with the amount of guts inside that tank from all the various electronics, there's just no room to sink anything in.


Now, I did go ahead and attache the little tank commander cupola thing. Not the whole turret mount, but the little spot where your Longstrike or whoever would sit. As for what I'm doing with that, and the open cockpit, well, anyone ever see a convertible full of over-stimulated drunk chicks? There tends to be a lot of flashing going on in these situations, and not the kind that you'd scratch with a hobby knife. Unless you swing that way, at which point I guess you're a sadist but if she's into it then who am I to judge. The point is, nipples. Or spotty fish breasts, in this case. Actually, no, there's gonna be a few girls on this thing showing off the goods, so probably at least one human. So yeah. Nipples.


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So there are still gonna be plenty of boobs here.

So you went from an XV8 pimp to a tank commander with his groupies?

That escalated quickly...

I never said there would be no pimp. I already started on the pimp cane arm.

Edit: Oh, also (and this is priceless) my driver, Knife Turkey, has demanded that I use the less restricted internet in Bahrain to find him some mother-daughter lesbian porn. But he only likes fat girls. So yeah. That's been a thing since I got here lol.

 bossfearless wrote:

 Lordhat wrote:
Perhaps instead of the hottub sticking out and ruining the profile of the vehicle, you can sink it into the top? If I were an artist I could do something artist-y and show you, but I'm not.

Believe me, this was the first thing I wanted to do. But with the amount of guts inside that tank from all the various electronics, there's just no room to sink anything in.

just don't build an actual tub, place a some plastic card over where the turret goes and paint it with really watered down paint and/or water effects. I say watered down coz I recon it'd look cool to have some of the LED light from inside the hull showing through

Also for the pimp suit, I recon sculpt the fur coat if you think you're up for the challenge but leave the jet pack sticking out the back (sort of like the way SM commanders wear their cloaks under their packs)


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 bossfearless wrote:

 liquidjoshi wrote:
Because in SA, it's party time all the time

Also can you stick a pilot dude in the rectangle cut out of the hull and the make a plastic card view port coz that'd look sick!
Maybe one of the guys from the piranha kit?

Actually Brother Payne, when I get back to Saudi and start working on the pilots, the rectangular area is going to be more of a drop top cockpit with a couple girls flashing their goods to passersby. And maybe the Doctor if I can find a way to work with these incredibly unposeable minis from Heresy. I might be able to just chop his arms off and find replacements down the line. Honestly, who sculpts a miniature with both hands in his pockets?

I'm getting the feeling the girls will be doing more flashing than the LED's at this rate

Set the wub to maximum.