Walls...

To paraphrase my favorite comedy collaboration....

OK so what am I rambling on about?? well this is an attempt to create an interior setting for 40K battles... i.e. Walls, and lots of them

My good buddy and regular 40K opponent; who goes by 'Biel Tan' asked me earlier this year what my next big project was going to be... he'd had the idea of making some terrain for us to play some alternate games on. He liked the idea of fighting inside a spaceship or bunker complex so we started with that.
There are some 'commercially available' wall sections... but you need the GDP of a small country to realistically afford a 6x4 tables worth of them... so we set about attempting to construct our own.

After a lot of discussion, we both thought that we should use the Hirst Arts block moulds to make the detail for the wall sections... if you've not seen Hirst Arts then I seriously suggest you check them out

 http://www.hirstarts.com/ 




We opted to use some of the gothic and scifi molds in an attempt to get the right mix of futuristic with gothic...

Gothic Molds - http://www.hirstarts.com/molds/moldsgoth.html
SciFi Molds - http://www.hirstarts.com/molds/moldssci.html

So... without going into the full details, you can see that this project is going to involve an epic amount of block casting even with 2 people and 4 molds... suffice to say we've been doing it for a while but i only got around to posting about this now!

this gives you a flavour of what we have to do (from Hirst Arts)

We decided not to use plaster of paris... as it can be quite brittle and we wanted some longevity in the wall sections... after much research I found that Dental Stone is just as easy to use, but much more hard wearing.  It's the stuff that your dentist uses to make a cast of your teeth... 

We were casting for what seemed like months!... enough said on that!

The Interesting bit... actual walls

These are the initial wall sections that we put together to see what they'd look like... we rather like them

We're using 1" thick polystyrene as the base wall section with the cast blocks stuck onto that...  

Gothic theme

SciFi cargo theme

Gothic promenade with statues

First Test Game

Here you can see our first batch of walls in various stages of finish that we used for a 4x4 40K game using the Zone Mortalis rule set.

You get an idea of what the final walls will look like... we're going for a grey/stone finish that will be detailed using the features on the walls themselves.  We also have some special wall sections which will have extra details lavished on them

You get a sense of just how congested it is in the corridors... MC's move slowly, and things die QUICK!

LOTS More to come on this... 

Emperor Mk.II - Legs

I started this project with much gusto... figuring i'd get to the end of it in better shape than I did the last time..

I think this image sums up where I am at, at the moment

Anyway.... Legs

I have the main body chassis constructed but need to get the legs and pelvis sections put together so that a free-standing body can be visualized.  

I want to keep with the Epic theme... but realize that making rounded legs is going to 

1. be a pain

2. be painful to add details to - because of the rounded surface

3. not be particularly strong - i'm obsessing about this element!

Paul commented on the last blog about some really nice conversions of the old Epic Imperator model... I wasn't particularly using any of these.... however, one of these has box like legs that I rather like.

But they are a little too boxy for me... so i'm working on combining the rounded aspect of the original and a box like construction so that I can get some strength in there (hopefully).  I also rather like the back of the original legs, with it's stepped design 

Current Leg design

This is what I currently have designed... attempting to bring the square and rounded versions I mentioned previously. 

I quite like the design, as it gives me a solid foundation and flat surfaces to add more detail to but also has a rounded element that pays homage to the original version

I need to add more parts to the top so that I can tie in where the actual leg (40mm pipe) will join the base part... I have some ideas but am still mulling them over.

These are a work in progress... obviously, as with the torso there is a LOT of details to add - there will be windows similar to the original design with gun ports etc.  I have some mad conversion ideas for these

Front View

Side View

After some considerable time... i got this far

Front/inside side view

Side View

Back View

Direct Front View

Loads more to do... i now need to work on the other leg and then the pelvis section so I can get a standing torso/chassis

Emperor Mk.II... Construction begins

Hmm... Blogging isn't that easy...  I need to actually implement the good advice my friend Fez suggested

Construction... 

I figure I start with the chassis... and then work around from there.

The last scratch build Titan I attempted was a hollow body with a plastic pipe skeleton... and not a particularly robust one at that.  Suffice to say, some of the joints didn't last that long (which is why i'm doing this again).

As a result... I am going to deliberately over-engineer this one.. I'd like it to be all but indestructible on the gaming table (and going to and from it)... I decided that the chassis needed to be part of the load bearing structure of the model... not just to rely on the skeleton to take the weight. Also... the skeleton pipework needs to be significantly more robust... 

Interference fitting

To make the chassis load-bearing for the castle section that goes above it... It needs a lot of solid joints.  I figure this is the best way to go about doing that.  I'm using the chassis design of the Epic Scale model (as best as I can work it out - I don't own one) as the basis for the model... obviously a lot of detail needs to be added

8 foam board pieces are cut - all the same size - which then are able to slide together to make a single interlocking design.  Once glued with supporting [90 degree] braces it makes a very solid, robust design

You can also see the large black [40mm] pipe that forms the skeleton structure.  This is solvent weld plumbing pipe and once glued together will be more that sufficient for the job.

**edit**  grammar corrected for the Fez-Man!

40K scale Emperor Battle Titan.... again

Yes i know... i thought i'd get this out of the way first!

Version 1 started out as a warlord that I then converted.  However, i didn't build it all that well and as a result the hips broke transporting it to a game.
Also the scale was a bit wrong... I'm all for massive models, but it was big (too big)

So... version 2 is needed.

Scale is important now!

I'm going to basing the scale of the Emperor on the GW Emperor Titan Rules PDF
(https://www.games-workshop.com/MEDIA_CustomProductCatalog/m2440056_Imperial_Datasheet_-_Emperor_Battle_Titan.pdf)

This clearly shows that a warhound titan comes up to it's knees... approximately...

You can also see that this scale was honored at Epic Scale 

This is also a nice scale reference for a lot of superheavy walkers

Therefore... we need to use the current ForgeWorld Warhound Titan as a reference point

Direct from the FW site

By my reckoning... an Emperor is about 3.5 times the height of a warhound

Therefore... my new Emperor should stand 10.5x3" = 31.5" (250mmx3=750mm)

Well to make things easy.. i'm aiming for 36" give or take a bit..

More to come on this

Chaos Divided

Leviathan Crusader.... just not chaosy enough for me

I have a big 40K Apocalypse Chaos Army... when i saw the Dreamforge Games Leviathan Crusader at Salute last year (2013) i just had to have one... but it needed 'corrupting'

Sorry... i finished this so there are no 'in progress' images

So take one awesome model like this.... 

And then start to add a lot of greenstuff, kitbash bits from other GW stuff.... you end up with this

I got tired of seeing chaos dedications where the 'undivided' status meant that there were no dominant patronage to any of the chaos gods... think the Black Legion... imho very boring

So... imagine the gods of Chaos fighting over this particular pool soul... and each of them get a bit

Tzeentch gets this arm

Khorne gets this arm

Slaanesh gets this leg

Nurgle gets this leg

The Daemon needs power... so we burn the souls of the innocent in the reactor (/evilgrin)

There you go... Chaos Divided