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Blackadder's Landkreuzer P500; Die Wühlmaus

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#1 · (Edited)
The Black Library of Caltroon:

The Black Library of Caltroon mentions the 'Armories' carved out of the living rock in the mountains of Cardiff boarding the Tyne estuary. What little is known of the 'Armories' is there are numerous galleries that go on for miles on each level and and it has never been established how many levels there are.

All that is know is all the exploratory parties no matter how well armed and provisioned never return from the depths and sometimes eerie howls reverberate from below............

So they are described in the Novel, 'The Lords of the Starship'

The Blackadder has exhumed from the safer levels a forgotten behemoth he calls the Landkreuzer P500; Der Wühlmaus.

http://i.imgur.com/gCCG15S.jpg


More than half again the size of the 300 tonne Baneblade the P500 weighs in at 500 metric tons and was the creation of the Blackadder when he tried to scratch build a Baneblade from images he found on the internet more than six years ago.

Not being as practice as he is now about all he got right was the width of the hull and tracks from the front, 8.4 meters. I guess that excludes the sponsons.

Seen here compared in size to his favorite tank Arethusa

http://i.imgur.com/MF75gyP.jpg


Once again Blackadder has taken up the cudgel and will attempt to complete this monster as a noble companion to his titan squad.

http://i.imgur.com/8keowq4.jpg


Of course this will be in the Lucius pattern and I may revamp the asymmetrical superstructure and center the turret.

It will have dual Main cannons, outsized sponsons dual Lasers surmounting the sponsons that will house 90° arc rotating bolters.

http://i.imgur.com/5JS6Q1o.jpg


So aside from everything else I intend to do this shall also be on my plate.

After all I have 38,000 years before these have to be ready.........
 
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#3 ·
[quote name='Dono1979' post='2730032' date='Jan 9 2015, 07:12 AM']
This could be the perfect candidate for the new Super Heavy available to the Solar Auxilia in the latest Horus Heresy rulebook (Book IV); the Stormhammer.
[/quote]

It pays to share your work on the internet. You literally have a world of input to draw on. Thanks very much for this information; you have given me an edge on replicating in hardware the image offered in the rules with virtually no regression The machine imaged and mine are virtually identical with very few amendments.



Now it just remains to be seen if I alter my intended trajectory to this new information????????????
 
#4 ·
Unilateral Development;

One thing that has alway bothered me about this tank was the unilateral asymmetry of the superstructure of the Armorcast model. Since I am redesigning this tank I decided to make the casement symmetrical (and center the turret) which regretfully eliminates the character of the original, superfluous as that may have been. Other than causing angle incident headaches it served no discernible purpose; nevertheless I am sorry to see it go.

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


So after producing a paper template I transferred the coordinates to styrene and rough cut the piece with scissors. (Yes I know the lines are not symmetrical but I know what they mean.........)

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


Once the top is glued in place I can sand the bevel and add the sloping casement.
 
#5 ·
Turret Toolboxes:

One thing I do know, the toolboxes on the back of the turret have to be executed with a fine degree of tolerance. It is very easy to make them lopsided and then they just look like hell; it would be better just to leave them off.

When I refurbished my Armourcast Baneblade I just cast them out of resin and sanded them into shape easy peasy

http://i.imgur.com/p0GJbDu.jpg


but today I am going to build them from scratch as I don't want to play with all that messy resin.

http://i.imgur.com/6MAWrez.jpg


So we start with the false bottom plate and I don't know how big/deep I want the boxes so I made the plate a tad extra long. When it's finished the end plate should be relatively square i.e.equal on all four sides but I won't know the dimensions until I get the angled side on.

http://i.imgur.com/pUvzaqE.jpg
 
#6 ·
The Sounds Of Sanding:

One of the questions I most get is how do I manage to get my edges and corners so crisp and smooth and without using fillers. Well I've attempted to answer this on many occasions recommending the tools shown here but it was only this morning that it came to me that I sand by sound...........

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


The big problem with sanding anything especially soft material is maintaining a level stroke with the sanding block or file. Most people when they sand have a tendency to rock the tool especially at the end of the stroke where they reverse the sanding direction. This causes two problems; one, by necessity the edges become more sanded as the pressure at the point of contact increases at the fine edge causing more material to be abraided and two, the double stroke of the reverse of the direction.

There are two ways to eliminate this. The first is easy just sand in one direction but the problem there is you still have the extra pressure at the end of the stroke. The second is to sand in a circular or figure '8' motion which I learned when honing chisels on a stone and carried over into sanding just about anything.

So check your sanding progress often and if possible reverse the piece so the edge surfaces gets equal work and try to decrease the pressure when you get to the end of the stroke so the edges don't get over-sanded.

So where does the 'sound' come in?

This morning I was absently sanding the small turrets seen above and I noticed that the sound of the sanding dropped in pitch as I made flush contact with the entire surface of the work. I probably do this subliminally so I know precisely when the surface is flush and smooth. You'll have to practice with this technique but it's better than filling with greenstuff which you have to sand again anyway.

HTH

Oh, and the scissors.......... On thin styrene up to a millimeter I use a good pair of scissors to rough cut the excess close to the edge of the work. they are much easier to control than the knife and you are less likely to cut too close and damage the corners.
 
#7 ·
Black Styrene:

So why hasn't someone asked, "Where did you get the Black Styrene?"

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


Well people who have been following my threads for years know but to newcomers and new forums that I am posting on will be surprised to learn that the black plastic comes from IBM printer cartridges. My company use to throw them out by the hundreds each year.

I've got enough to last me a few decades............



They're thick plastic over 2,00 MM so you need a saw to cut them, a hacksaw will do and the plastic is compatible with with standard styrene plastic cement.

And they're free........

Plus you're recycling.
 
#9 ·
I use standard off the shelf aerosol primer and flat black.

The Fearful Symmetry:

Even with her plasticard only half installed and none of the detail accomplished The 'Kreuzer' is an exercise in brute force.

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


Almost a third again larger than the standard Baneblade she already weighs over half a kilo, one and an eighth pounds. That's a lot of styrene.

http://i.imgur.com/8j5K4wz.jpg


The faceted superstructure is a marked departure from the Classic Baneblade and will mount a centerline main turret.

http://i.imgur.com/YBuh9Lz.jpg


The top view alongside the Baneblade shows that for aesthetic value I shall have to widen the track covers I'm guessing 5 MM each and build out the sponsons correspondingly. This is one of the reasons I scrapped the project years ago because the complexity of the modification was beyond my then abilities.

Hopefully I'll be up to the challenge now................
 
#10 ·
You're Not Going to Believe This But:

Just an FYI before enclosing the bottom of this model. The problem is I rarely take the time to document the internal structure of these smaller models so the infrastructure is lost until someone takes a hacksaw to see what's inside.

This way no one will be tempted.........

http://i.imgur.com/heuyf6S.jpg


From the bottom view to the superstructure before the final sanding of the facet work which I am rather pleased with.

http://i.imgur.com/XBP3x6Q.jpg


Faceting rarely comes out this well as the angles especially towards the end usually tend to go awry with a lot of fudging to make the last pieces fit.

These came out pretty much perfect. Whew!
 
#11 ·
If the Wine is Sour, Throw It Out:

If the wine is sour, throw it out has ever been my maxim. One of my favorite movies is 'The Agony and the Ecstasy' where Michelangelo dissatisfied with his work scraped it off and started over. The lesson I learned from that was never be satisfied with 'Good enough' so when I saw five years ago that this tank was not going to come out the way I envisioned it I put it aside for better days.

http://i.imgur.com/IyflQu4.jpg


Well better days are here and still I am dissatisfied. First my behemoth has too small a track width as was my initial thoughts half a decade ago so I set out to remedy this.

Note in the image above the Baneblade on the left tracks equal about a third of the overall width of the tank excluding sponsons where as the tank on the right about a quarter including the new added on centimeter of width. So now not only do I need to widen the track housings but I also have to widen the tracks as well which will necessitate making new tracks. This is a daunting project as I do want to make tracks with precisely the same design as the gorgeous original Baneblade skull track segments. So the first order of business will be to make two track links; one with the skull and one with the standard track design but a quarter again larger overall. Then I have to explore the possibility of casting them them.

The second problem with the tank in the image above is the front deck is sloped side to side which was not apparent in the then original black plastic model but is painfully obvious in the white styrene sheathed present. That shall have to be rebuilt.

http://i.imgur.com/o9Ifcus.jpg


In the above image we see the added on strips I will use as a basis for the widened track housing. The lower stringer will define the upper edge of the bogie access panels. The sponsons will be positioned maybe a quarter inch more forward.

http://i.imgur.com/l5ZrKOE.jpg


This rear image shows where I am dissatisfied with the engine housing, the angled panels on either side were not large enough top to bottom so I am redoing them as well the left side panel already chopped away.

http://i.imgur.com/scJGi2N.jpg


This top view demonstrating perhaps more clearly the object of my discontent.

As I said, the wine was sour............
 
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#13 ·
No, Not Spaced Armour:

But rather my strategy for making the tread well wider without rebuilding the whole model. Although it might have been easier to rebuild the whole model.

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


Once I get the exterior sides on and remove the inner track race things should move a lot quicker.

I doubled the thickness of the track housing and fenders because 2,6 MM armour might look sufficient for a Baneblade but on this model it looks too thin. This armour will be 5,0 MM thick.

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


The new engine compartment looks much better with the diagonal side panels rebuilt.

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


The inner track well wall shows with the black and white sandwich running fore to aft the 5,0 MM thickness of the armour. Once completed the exterior plating of the well will be just as thick.

Finally, the front bottom view. with all the work clean and tidy for a change this finally looks like it will come together.
 
#14 ·
Come On Blackadder, It's a Toy Tank:

I have to regain my perspective. I sometimes get the impression I am too carried away by what is ostensibly a toy plastic tank but it is what it supposedly represents.

We have the Baneblade , a 300 tonne monster tank as big as a two story house literally (scale-wise) and now we have something half again larger. A 500 tonne construction that makes the Baneblade appear as insignificant.

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


I purposely took this photo with both tanks positioned with the rear bulkheads even so the front ends represent the overall length of each vehicle. The Baneblade is clearly outclassed.

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


Note the Landkreuzer has no treads as yet.

Blackadder you clearly need to get some professional help :D
 
#15 ·
Dammit Jim I'm a Doctor Not a Sculptor:

Well er not a doctor either but a mechanic and the bottom line is, 'Don't quit yer day job Blackadder.

Below is my attempt last night to try my hand at making the treads I so much covet; not so easy as it would seem............

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


Funny how a photo solidifies imperfections your eye compensates for or ameliorates, this skull looked pretty close to my 3D perception...... Not!

http://i.imgur.com/D4Q3xcB.jpg


However the generic tread seems satisfactory.

The new treads are 3,0 CM as opposed to the FW cast originals which are 2,5 CM wide.

Now that I have a prototype I figure it will take me about 15 minutes per tread to manufacture the generic treads if I make cutting jigs and start an assembly line.

I figure I will require 12 skull treads and 36 generic not counting the 32+ blank treads I shall need for the bottom run.
 
#16 ·
How the Skull Was Made:

No one asked (which is surprising) but I'll give the procedure anyway.

I started with a strip of styrene 6,3 MM X 2,0 MM which would give me a skull about a millimeter larger than the original; that would be about a fifth again larger.

I then used my #11 Xacto tip to auger out two small holes where I estimated the eyes would be. The holes were much smaller than the finished eye sockets.

Then I augered the hole between the eyes for the nose(again much smaller than when finished).

I could see then that I had to add some small pieces of styrene to the strip for the cheek bones which I cemented on and allowed to dry.

Once dried I began to shape the dome of the skull. Since I already had the size estimated it was a simple matter to scrape away the surface copying the contours of the dome and face until I had a rough facsimile of the skull shape.

I then set about carving the eye sockets using the edge of the skull for a guide the outer rim of the eye socket would be paper thin.

delicately cutting away the excess enlarging the socket ever so slightly until again I had rough sockets cut, I did the same for the nose recess,

Again with the #11 knife I scraped the character contours in the forehead and cheeks and incised deep creases on either side of the nose to create the muzzle.

I pared down the styrene on either side for the jaw recesses. This where I stopped:

http://i.imgur.com/D4Q3xcB.jpg


I brushed the entire surface with styrene cement to smooth the rough knife scratches, the thin cement not the glue, and allowed to dry over night.

This morning I cut the final detail and undercut the jaw for where it would be separated from the stock strip.
 
#17 ·
Only 78 More To Go:

Well it seemed like a plan making these treads the hardest part being carving the skull. The tracks themselves are easy albeit tedious but I see no way of casting them without compromising the detail.

http://i.imgur.com/rMmTfg2.jpg


The two that are done didn't take all that long perhaps a half hour tops.

http://i.imgur.com/uGPWti7.jpg
 
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#18 ·
Very impressive, but that looks like you are going to be spending hours and hours doing tracks over the next few days...
 
#19 ·
Yankee Ingenuity:

Yessir thanks to Henry Ford and his assembly line idea I'm moving great guns on fabricating these treads.

I have all the skulls made and partially sanded down to the right thickness and I have a good start on the skull tread. I've got enough segments for 26 skull treads which is a lot more than I need but there are always a few crips so its better to make spares plus I can always hang the surplus on the turret for spares.

http://i.imgur.com/D8F547E.jpg


I made 16 skulls last night which should suffice for the time being no point in wasting greenstuff although each skull requires about a BB sized bit of greenstuff.

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


You can see I have to trim down the skull thickness as it protrudes too high above the tread.

I thought the skull segments would be the hard ones to reproduce but it appears the generic treads are/will be the labor intense ones.
 
#20 ·
One Down 79 To Go:

Well the first track link is completed. Start to finish I'm guessing it took a half hour to build from scratch including glue drying time. Once I get jigs built and get an assembly line going I'm sure I can finish the next 79 in about eight man hours but of course I don't have that time to devote consecutively so over the course of a few days give or take should see them assembled.

The first image shows the back of the link; strangely I only took the one and no close up.

http://i.imgur.com/b0xUsuC.jpg


This next image shows all the skull treads ready for the final assembly and a segment of a Baneblade track for a size comparison.

http://i.imgur.com/xFU3uLk.jpg


The image below shows a closeup of the thickness of the link. The standard Baneblade link is 4,25 MM and my link is just about 6,0 MM.

http://i.imgur.com/20C9ghv.jpg


A close up of the tread detail, each tread has 27 individual pieces of plastic including the skull. It's a very labor intense construct.

http://i.imgur.com/rQi5MiQ.jpg


And finally the bogie wheel compared to a Baneblade bogie.........

http://i.imgur.com/2m8BKsq.jpg


God what a monster this tank will be.
 
#21 ·
68 To Go:

Well the ones I deemed the hardest to do because of the sculpting and number of pieces are ostensibly complete in their basic assembly. There are some that think I should have cast the prototype and be done with it but my way proved best albeit much more labor intense because although the components remained more or less locked in stone size-wise subtle shifting of the components position-wise was and still is necessary for the best artistic appeal.

http://i.imgur.com/bIB8Dux.jpg


Case in point, originally I cast two different sized skulls and eventually went with the smaller which was about 1,5 MM shorter in breadth.

Here you see the skulls glued in place and on the individual frets they look adequate and I was satisfied but seeing them all together as shown here they are wrong; especially when paired up with the generic tread links, lower right in the above photo, where it will be subsequently revealed that the skulls need to be re-positioned.

http://i.imgur.com/GdB8tMM.jpg


And so it turns out lunacy does have it's purpose.
 
#22 ·
Tread Factory:

After a few failed attempts at making a decent mould/casting I decided to go back to my original plan of making treads by hand. there is just too many problems with casting at least in the way I am geared up to do it. Were I into the manufacture of these for profit I would engage a qualified mould maker but since it is a one shot deal I decided to tough it out.

Below is my tread assembly line in various stages of production so you can see the progression.

http://i.imgur.com/aRx4q2Q.jpg


And I couldn't decide which image I liked best so here it is again......

http://i.imgur.com/5dXu9eI.jpg
 
#23 ·
Hitting My Stride;

Well the first ones were tedious because I didn't know where I was going with these.

After I finished the skull treads I knew what the basic tread thickness and the overall size would be and I did have the prototype for the generic tread pretty much nailed.

Yesterday I played around with speeding up the production process and it was kind of a down day production wise but this morning I hit my stride and accomplished quite a bit in the hour I devoted to production.

I glued the strips together the six long strips to the right. That represents the amount of track necessary to do each strip being cut into 11 segments 3,0 CM long 66 in all; probably a few more than I need.

http://i.imgur.com/kes7Wb7.jpg


The five generic to the left are completed track faces and still need the back side of the track installed and the 3 center rows are pretty much what I accomplished in the hour this morning..... easy peasy :p

http://i.imgur.com/8AWq65s.jpg


I hope to be half done today with the track faces.

Then I can start on the blanks for the bottom run of the tracks.
 
#24 ·
And You Guys Thought I Was Crazy:

Well I figured out a way that I do not have to make 80 individual treads, I probably don't need any more than the 44 presented here.

Of course I have to make the bottom run but that can be all one piece except for the inner track segments which is really quite simple

http://i.imgur.com/pbJ9a0g.jpg


So now I can go back to twiddling my thumbs and toes Ha, Ha!
 
#25 ·
How It's Done:

Or how I do it anyway; I'm sure there's a better way but I don't know of it.

I'm about ten minutes away from finishing up what I hope is sufficient number of tread links so it's a good time to take a break and show my production line; this time for installing rivets:

First you have to cut the rough cut rivets and for that I use the half inch Xacto chisel (Center right on the board) and I cut about twenty at a time from the 1/16th inch diameter rod center board just below the cement bottle.

I have two tread links just below that; the upper one is a completed link that I use as a guide to maintain the correct spacing and the one below that is the uncompleted work piece with one rivet already installed.

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


The pieces to the right are the tracks that are yet to have rivets installed; only eight left.....

and to the left twenty four links I just completed this hour.

In the close up image below i'm trying to demonstrate how I pick up the rivets because no one can pick up the individual rivets by hand and install them with their fingers without going bats**t crazy or with tweezers either for that matter.

No , what I do is just touch lightly the individual rivets with the sharp point of my NEW #11 Xacto blade and brush a drop of glue onto the area of the tread link where I want the rivet to be and lightly press the rivet on the Xacto point into the glue drop and hold slight pressure for a few seconds....

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


Withdraw the knife and the rivet stays glued to the tread..........

Do that operation 128 times and you're done.

Easy, Right?
 
#26 · (Edited)
Tread Links 1.02

Okay so the tread links are cleaned and the excess bits of plastic sanded and cut away; the rivets filed down to a uniform height, we're ready to install the front end link plate. I glued all the link to continuous strips of styrene leaving a slight gap between so I can cut them separate once the glue dries. this is so much easier than cutting each individual piece plus all the front strips are of a uniform height.

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


A closeup of the rivet rows and the tread pattern reveals slight anomalies in the spacing and placement but the casual observer will not notice, "Hey that rivet is half a millimeter too close to the other."

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


Government Work.
 
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