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Parapet is looking great. You could always make some small turrets underneath it with twin linked heavy bolters to provide ground clearance and low level anti aircraft support. Even just using the razorback hatches from a rhino kit mounted to the underside and possibly magnets to switch out the weapons.

Also the two sticks sticking out of the top of it look like he is the ultimate football goal post for playing paper football.

Nice work, Blacky.

Interesting that you are building the "roof" of the body before the "walls". I'm assuming for ease of measurements later?

I want to comment more but I'm speechless (comment less?) at the awe inspiring behemoth developing on these pages. I will say though, an inspired use of the ceiling / lighting grid...

HOLY gak....just like all of your work all I can say is holy gak, you have a gift and I am glad for the internet because I get to see your gift in action. Please keep this bad boy up.

What Titan Legio are you going to paint this guy btw? I am doing Xana II (pre and during Heresy so im going to stick to the Bone and Black Grey trim like FW paints them) it's a nice colour and it's easy and quick to paint.

FabricatorGeneralMike wrote:

HOLY gak....just like all of your work all I can say is holy gak, you have a gift and I am glad for the internet because I get to see your gift in action. Please keep this bad boy up.

What Titan Legio are you going to paint this guy btw? I am doing Xana II (pre and during Heresy so im going to stick to the Bone and Black Grey trim like FW paints them) it's a nice colour and it's easy and quick to paint.

Interesting you picked a colour scheme (Xana II) very much in keeping with my other Main Battle Titan. I had thought to try a more garish paint up as well with reds and gold as the Emperor genera seems to cry out for gaudy colours. I really have to embellish my work but I hesitate to commit to a scheme.

Ruglud wrote:I want to comment more but I'm speechless (comment less?) at the awe inspiring behemoth developing on these pages. I will say though, an inspired use of the ceiling / lighting grid...

While building these huge models I have very little time left to explore other facets of the hobby. Comments are always welcome and as I try to cover all aspects of the build but not belabor that which is readily apparent I have a difficult time trying to figure out what needs explaining. Therefore any and all questions are answered with patience and as thoroughly as I can.

Dr H wrote:Nice work, Blacky.

Interesting that you are building the "roof" of the body before the "walls". I'm assuming for ease of measurements later?

Everything on this model is suspended from the deck and my main consideration is the massive shoulder weapons mounts. All else has to come secondary to those huge arms so until those are produced I cannot do the interior decks. I do know that the area behind the chest will be open and airy for the most part as further accommodations will be in the cathedral-like superstructure.

Thanks for all the replies.

 The_Blackadder wrote:

FabricatorGeneralMike wrote:

HOLY gak....just like all of your work all I can say is holy gak, you have a gift and I am glad for the internet because I get to see your gift in action. Please keep this bad boy up.

What Titan Legio are you going to paint this guy btw? I am doing Xana II (pre and during Heresy so im going to stick to the Bone and Black Grey trim like FW paints them) it's a nice colour and it's easy and quick to paint.

Interesting you picked a colour scheme (Xana II) very much in keeping with my other Main Battle Titan. I had thought to try a more garish paint up as well with reds and gold as the Emperor genera seems to cry out for gaudy colours. I really have to embellish my work but I hesitate to commit to a scheme.

While it does look nice the black,gold and red I feel like it's so over done. Basically its Legio Metalica without the Hazard Stripes. I think the Xana II scheme of Bone,Black-Grey and a nice Bronze either really gaudy shiney almost gold or a more subdued Bronze would really pop. I did a bronze trim on my Kiros Venator's from shield and it really made the model pop..... just some food for thought.

No matter what you choose, I know you will second guess yourself, you will change your mind, you will rack your brain....then while doing something totally different or something else "it" will just come to you and you will knock it out of the park like you always do BlackAdder I can't wait to see it.

Trammel Point Tool

One of these days I have to invest in a trammel point tool and today was today. Sometimes you need to draw an arc such as today where I needed a 8.1 inch radius arc. You can make an impromptu tool with a strip of styrene and two sharp pencils but the tool is so much quicker.

anyway:

https://i.imgur.com/rwNd7eY.jpg


I need two truncated cones of the bottom of my turrets and the mouth wash cups are ideal for a 3D template to manufacture these.

https://i.imgur.com/kyWN68d.jpg


I'm using 0.020 (thousands) inch styrene so its a bit stiff to form into a cone shape so its best to draw the arc segment over the sharp edge of a table applying pressure with your palm to impart a curve to the arc sheet.

https://i.imgur.com/6f1nBOy.jpg


Alternately you can wrap the arced pieces tightly and leave for a while secured wit rubber bands to impart an curve.

Don't forget that styrene is a thermoplastic. Try using boiling water or a heat gun to soften it up enough to shape.

Using the bottle lid as a former is great, and agree heat is your friend, but with the thin stuff, maybe just a blast with a hairdryer. I would wrap it around the former, hold it in place with bands and then heat it up, once cool release and should hold shape pretty well.

Fantastic work as always sir, inspiring and educational.

You may have noticed I stay away from sheet plastic over 0.040 inch, (1MM). It's much too difficult to work with and the dubious benefit of economy is offset by the extra time spent cutting and sanding it to fit. Likewise I find the 'model' level sheet styrene is a tad harder and it doesn't lend itself to warping as well as the industrial quality stuff I use. The wholesale styrene is half the price and takes a curve with more facile than does the Plastruct, Midway, or Evergreen. It can be cold moulded by just the pressure of your palm generating the heat of friction as you draw it against the sharp edge of the desk. But of course you can use a heat gun, your choice. I only present what works for me with the added benefit of expediency. I'm hoping to have this done within the current decade.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Just an interim update of the weekend progress. I've decided to detail the corner turrets to practice the viability of my ambitious project.

https://i.imgur.com/dBjttUB.jpg


I was of two minds in how to finish the turret rooves, layered shingle vs the ubiquitous skulls and eagle and banners or CoD bitz. I opted for a layered plate armour effect you see; why, because it's cheaper, cooler and harder to do and I'm batsh!t crazy.

Glad you went the non skull approach , the mechanicus doesn't drape skulls everywhere, just their symbol in a prominent place.

I'd hate to be the roofer called out to fix a broken shingle on one of those , think of the OSHA regulations there.

Oh My God

Machine, I've not much to say about this

https://i.imgur.com/RKeABLR.jpg


https://i.imgur.com/NgLplqC.jpg


https://i.imgur.com/TV9EGqk.jpg


https://i.imgur.com/xQJa0Jc.jpg


but the square recesses have proven their worth in that I can position the corbels anywhere I like (Within reason...) and the deck looks very promising regarding size and massiveness.

I can't wait to start detailing this sucker.

The roofs turned out really awesome , and I like how you can adjust the corbels.

 The_Blackadder wrote:


I can't wait to start detailing this sucker.

You can only imagine how the rest of us feel!


Lookin' forward to the progress!

A New Way To Do It:

This puts me in mind of a poem from my youth:

There was a young lady from Norway
Who hung by her heels in a doorway
She call to her lover
Come quickly my dear
I think I've discovered one more way.

https://i.imgur.com/q0VYaqg.jpg


These lighting panels will revolutionize build large scale models. Right now I am building the gate house structure bastions of which there will be two with the Gate/Portcullis between.

https://i.imgur.com/WoLboWy.jpg


To think these ready made panels have been available for decades and I've only just discovered them now.

 The_Blackadder wrote:


To think these ready made panels have been available for decades and I've only just discovered them now.

I think the only thing to do now is send me all your other finished projects and start over using them. Think of how much more you can do with the grids!

Garderobe:

It took the better part of a week to build these turrets. I must be slowing down in my dotage.

https://i.imgur.com/2OV212R.jpg


The shingles, try as I might ,still look too crude and the turrets look for all the world like two privy chambers on the corners of the bastion.

https://i.imgur.com/DKHRWFT.jpg

Have your you tried using a 3d printer? There are some good ones under $400 like the monoprice select plus that give some pretty good results.

Ha! well you have to have some kind of plan or in this case a constructed component to feed into the printer program. Unless I'm way off base on how a 3D printer works.............

Yeah just use something like thingiverse you can find a crap ton of wargammer stuff turrets, anything at all. Plus it's not that hard to CAD some simple parts and transition into gcode. That way you can get custom stuff for your titan!

You say that... But honestly, coding is basically wizardry to a lot of people (myself included.)

Now, if you have someone else who has a 3D printer...

But yeah, modeling in 3D and modeling in REAL 3D are very different.

I think part of your problem, Blackadder, is Thickness. The platform above is just sort of weedy without the understructure, and so it looks like the turrets are just hanging on the corners. that, and the lack of weapons on the turrets.

You gotta have 2 more for the back as well. This is an all-around model, not just a front-side one.

Responding to the two replies above I googled thingiverse and opened 'images'. Basically what I found is people replicating everyday objects that, while amazing, these objects can be reproduced by a 3D printer I see little practical value in the effort. Since this construct is a one shot deal and I need only duplicate a few items plus the 3D items are bound to have the fuzzy appearance I equate with the 3D state of the art as it is now especially with a machine I could afford. Then we have the jealously guarded artistic property right FW/GW maintains on commercial purveying and dissemination of their material and ideas.

Regarding the deck, it will be thick enough when finished; trust me.

You really do run out of superlatives for a Blackadder thread

Great stuff as usual, those grid pieces look extremely handy. Can I ask, when you talk about wholesale/industrial styrene, how would Joe Pleb go about buying that as opposed to the usual A4-size modelling styrene sheets?

 Yodhrin wrote:
You really do run out of superlatives for a Blackadder thread

Great stuff as usual, those grid pieces look extremely handy. Can I ask, when you talk about wholesale/industrial styrene, how would Joe Pleb go about buying that as opposed to the usual A4-size modelling styrene sheets?

I've used these guys before. Recommended by Dsteingass here on Dakkadakka. Looking for HIPS, they have many sizes. I think I ordered 3 bundles of roughly 1'x1' plastic about 7 years ago and made a ton of terrain from it. I'm still using stuff from that batch, but I'm almost out.

A few years ago I looked at local plastic supply houses online and there was a local shop that sold 4'x8' sheets for commercial use, but they were also open to the public and sold off falls or damaged pieces cheap. I never got back around to them. I think I was considering having some stuff produced through them which is how I found out about the rest.

Quick question: Though it may be partially due to the camera angle, is that thing going to be as close to the size of a full-grown adult as I think it is?

 Yodhrin wrote:
You really do run out of superlatives for a Blackadder thread

Great stuff as usual, those grid pieces look extremely handy. Can I ask, when you talk about wholesale/industrial styrene, how would Joe Pleb go about buying that as opposed to the usual A4-size modelling styrene sheets?

Ebay? https://www.google.com/search?q=usual+A4-size+modelling+styrene+sheets&rlz=1C1PRFI_enUS728US728&oq=usual+A4-size+modelling+styrene+sheets&aqs=chrome..69i57&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

In the various places I've lived there has always been an industrial park fairly close by. Almost all of them have a Wholesale plastic supply house on the east coast of the US within easy driving distance.

I can give you my current local supplier 1 800 342 2602 JMS Plastic Supply Inc. although shipping I fear would be prohibitive.

Your best bet would be to google a local "Plastic Supply Inc." in your zip code area.

Quick question: Though it may be partially due to the camera angle, is that thing going to be as close to the size of a full-grown adult as I think it is?

As for the size I am hoping to bring it in no taller than 39.38 inches i.e. a meter tall.


Just out of curiosity I googled "Polystyrene" for Theophany's area and in seconds came up with

https://www.seilerpc.com/extruded-plastic-sheet.html

in his zip code They sell 4 foot by 8 foot sheets wholesale

A lifetime supply for me. I built my Warlord with far less.

Man i love industrial plastic suppliers

i got one in my area near work, they sell off cuts and scrap for suuuuuuuper cheap.

most of the time its acrylic and ABS though which sucks but occasionally you get that styrine nugget.

 The_Blackadder wrote:

Just out of curiosity I googled "Polystyrene" for Theophany's area and in seconds came up with

https://www.seilerpc.com/extruded-plastic-sheet.html

in his zip code They sell 4 foot by 8 foot sheets wholesale

A lifetime supply for me. I built my Warlord with far less.

Stalker

Main Armament Support Arms:

Everything about this model is outsized. I am not use to working with such huge dimensions. My work area is too small. It gobbles up material at a tremendous rate. Tubes of glue are expended at an alarming rate. I remember when Testors glue was a dime a tube. Now it is $2.50 and these laminate panels take a lot of gluing even though I am saving money using the honeycomb material.


https://i.imgur.com/aFn2m35.jpg


The two rounded ends are the main gun mounts. The cross arm is crudely shaped at present until the front skin is applied.

Everything will be laminated to save weight or the model would be incredibly top-heavy. This arm when completed will be about two inches thick (52 MM). so we're talking five layers of these. I'll need to make another plastic run for 0.040 inch (1,0 MM) sheeting.

Each one of the squares is a half an inch (13 MM)so you can get an idea of the dimensions I'm working with.

It's ne of the reasons I cannot begin a project like this, the materials costs alone would kill me. Plus space may not be an issue, but the size of the project would draw attention from the wife