[Blackadder]

Considering that this forum was down for the better part of the month and all the while I was doggedly forging ahead; I had on my other frequented forums posted a great deal of updates.

I could repost those here if there is an interest.

 

[DecrepitDragon]

I'm ashamed to admit that your genius with this project has quite royally trumped my desire to begin anything similar.

Terrain? Sure, no problem.

Painting? Easy.

Gargantuan projects of infinitely minute detail? . . . .

Nah. Maybe when everybody has forgotten yours (which seems unlikely!) and mine wont look so juvenile. :grin:

I know my limits, so I'll just watch and respect from afar. So please, repost a summary of the intervening steps for clarity maybe, but frankly, for me at least, just seeing the progress is enough.:victory:

 

[Blackadder]

The point of this thread is to demonstrate what can be done not stifle creativity. All that I have done is by trial and error not at all a tour de force of building. I am a mere tyro (so saith a disgruntled individual on another forum) in building technique and admittedly so as I make too many mistakes. The fun is overcoming my lack of skill and enjoying the learning process after all this is only my second full scratch (if you discount the 'bitz') attempt.

I still have a lot to learn.

 

[DecrepitDragon]

I still have a lot to learn.

Ah modesty. A trait that serves you well, yet skill is a relative ability - that is to say, in comparison with me, you are a master scratch builder. I'm sure you'll agree though, that in principle at least, there's always "someone better" out there somewhere.

In all honesty, I wouldn't attempt something of this scale, nor would I take to it so well, without a horrendous amount of prep. Which is something I feel I dont need to do overmuch when it comes to terrain or painting, for example.

To put it bluntly mate, you're a natural, no matter how modest you may also be. Thanks for sharing the learning process. :victory:

 

[Blackadder]

Well self-effacement is not a strong point with me and I see by your signature that you have a paint/terrain site an area I am found wanting in; count me as a subscriber

And thanks for the considered reply.

 

[Blackadder]

This mechanical beast that is so loveingly being build by Blackadder weighs in at 2500 points and has 9 structure points (Note that these are structure points not hull points). The full rules are in Apocalypse (which was released prior to 6th Ed, hence no reference to hull points, not sure if there is an errata to update the super heavy rules) so it is fully usable in an Apocalypse game of 40k.

I guess I should know this but it's a toss up of studying quantum physics and WH40k and fool that I am I opted for QP. Now that you are appreciably dazzled let me state that I am a mere tyro at QP as well of having none of the math credentials to even basically appreciate the subtleties of the Quantum theory but I have spent an inordinate amount of time trying to comprehend recent developments. Fortunately reading these events doesn't preclude my working contiguously on the detail of my project to duplicate the hood bling imaged below:

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

so here is the days run of labor namely the aquila insignia on the hood, I started with a google search for an apropos image

http://i.imgur.com/pwcW2.jpg

and edited it on my editor to fit the model. Tracing the result onto 0.010" styrene

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

I cut out the extremely tiny components and glued them to a 0.010" substrate which is where I am at the moment

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

taking a Martini break and tracking 'Sandy'.

 

[Blackadder]

Okay boys and girls I'm about to impart the secret of Blackadder's millions. There's gold in them thar pieces of trash! It's commonly known that Blackadder is heavily into recycling. My old microwave has run its course to the extent that the floor of the chamber has rusted out and when I turn it on the under cabinet fluorescent lights glow so time to replace the old GE with a new one but wait. The door has this fantastic perforated shield panel! I don't know if you have priced this material in the hobby stores but it runs about $6 to 8 bucks for a few square inches and here's about a square foot about to be relegated to the curb......

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

Well I'm not about to toss $30 to 40 bucks down the crapper so I whips off the door and have enough vents to furnish a lifetime of 'scratching'.

Another helpful hint from EB AKA Heloise

 

[gearhart]

Haha! great use out of that! as for interest im sure there are im personally interested and love your work but i usually just watch yours on warseer, great work as always might i add. Your work is always inspirational....is there any chance of having everything pictured that would be a sight to see....and whats next in your mind of wonders?

 

[Blackadder]

Sorry for the delay in posting but the hurricane has taken up all my time for the past few days. By "everything pictured" I take it to mean all the basically completed components for the warlord? I'll have that posted later on today.

Thanks for the reply.

 

[Blackadder]

A bit of an update on my recycling foray; there are some concerns as to the advisability of employing a microwave door for scratch bitz namely concerns about residual radiation lurking in the door!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I never stand near an operating microwave considering the average microwave oven is manufactured in the same country that is putting lead and mercury in our children's toys and asbestos and formaldehyde in our sheetrock not to mention they cannot seem to manufacture a decent paper clip or a pencil with an eraser that doesn't leave a trail of dirty rubber when rubbing out the graphite line but I digress;

A standard microwave door window has a millimeter thick steel perforated grill heavily enameled with black paint (radiation absorbing, I wonder?) sandwiched between two sheets of clear plastic about 0.25 mm thick each. Microwaves themselves are energetic photons that are non-ionizing.

Non-ionizing radiation is very different than the dangerous ionizing radiation and are in the same family of EM waves as television and radio broadcasting. Because of the lower frequencies and reduced energy, it does not have the same damaging and cumulative properties as ionizing radiation. Microwave radiation (at 2450 MHz) is non-ionizing, and in sufficient intensity simply cause the molecules of water in the food to flip polarity rapidly, thereby causing friction, which produces the heat that cooks the food. you stand in much more danger using your cell phone than any residual radiation from handling that panel.

 

[Djinn24]

What ever cunt nugget called you out on this calling you a tryo can honestly be fucked. Almost everything is built on trial and error, for every one working product we had in the Army there were a dozen trashed concepts.

I am a fairly decent painter, but guess how I got there, by trying new things. When I was 17 and just started I discovered wet blending through trial and error, keep in mind that was when this technique was not used by a lot of people in miniatures and i had no idea it even had a real name.

Your work makes my jaw drop, which IMHO makes it fucking awesome, anyone who thinks otherwise can get bent.

 

[KjellThorngaard]

+1000 to djinn's comments.

If you would post some updated pics here, that would be friggin' cool. I don't hang on other forums so I haven't seen your progress. This amazing piece of work just needs to be seen!

 

[Blackadder]

I always post the same reply on all the forums I frequent unless someone asks a technical question and then I depart from my blanket post. If the question is pertinent to the general topic such as the radiation issue I append it to the rest of the forums. Don't worry this forum won't be forgotten unless 'Heresy' goes belly up again.

I know there is a lot of anticipation regarding the manufacture of the head but I really need to finish the surrounding detail to get a good handle on relative size. You see I only want to do the helmet/cowl once and I want it perfect so there is no substitute for patience. Meanwhile the top of the hood is progressing nicely. Were it not for Hurricane Sandy I would have been well into the production of the forehead armor.

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

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

 

[Blackadder]

Pretty pitiful update this week but my excuse is that I had to gut the ground floor kitchen, bath and family room after Sandy saw fit to deluge my wife's abode with 2/3 meter of storm surge seawater.

Fortunately all my precious worldly goods were ensconced safely twenty miles inland including the subject of this thread.

You will note that after I have successful refurbished my ex's domicile I shall have no more excuses to put off building the head/cockpit.

http://i.imgur.com/D0wW4.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/Ur4MJ.jpg

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

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

 

[Blackadder]

Have you given any thoughts regarding power plant and the possibility to open up to look at that. Possibly some interior "real" lighting effects. Malignant red lights pouring out from the eyes, combat lights glowing red in the engineering.

I have some plans for the fusion reactor which will be mounted in the chamber above the command deck. The soccer ball style is the one I am leaning towards. And I have already purchased the fiber optic LEDS for the lighting but those go in last as I have to make the consoles first.

This one is a kind of a joke but the lighting is interesting

 

[Blackadder]

Whew, I just spent two hours updating all the forums I subscribe to and taking pictures of the recent build below plus now hopefully rendering a bit of interesting rapartee to keep my noble readers stimulated.

There is a lot of concern that I shall be neglecting the Warlord now that the Blackadder has a new bauble to attract his fickle attention but the Warlord is the real apple of my eye and the latest update follows:

Modular construction is the best way to go on a model this big as it affords you a reasonable size to work on rather than taking up the whole of the workspace with extraneous equipage.

Below are the floor and keel of the cockpit and the movable neck plug in module shown in the head down and head up position.

The tab on the floor and the triangular tabs on the neck will be the base for the side to side neck movement and the rectangular plug-in will house the egress corridor to the main command deck hopefully with apropos detail should I live long enough to complete this project. Whew again!


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

http://i.imgur.com/sXm2K.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/YRWx7.jpg

 

[gearhart]

I just can believe how much detail you put into each of your models you have such a fantastic eye for detail.....honestly you should consider working with forge world. I think you could teach them a few things, especially with movement of the product. Looking for your chaos warhound build as well! Btw i was curious what are all the projects youve done over the years? have you done smaller scale projects to build up to this? Is it also possible to have a group shot of the projects youve done?


Please keep up the marvelous work Blackadder,

sincerely Gearhart

 

[Blackadder]

Wow I appreciate the accolade but I'm sure FW is looking for original artists more so than copyists.

I have a rule that I never build anything that I can reasonable afford to buy. I set my limit of about 100 to 150 dollars and bid on literally crap on ebay to restore. Only recently have I purchased a product from FW the current Chaos Warhound

I haven't done all that many scratch models my first attempt was casting a lascannon turret for a decrepit Mars Baneblade out of resin previous to that I restored a poorly assembled Lucius Baneblade I bought on ebay. After those I rebuilt an Armorcast Baneblade to look like a FW Lucius pattern while still keeping the AC treads and interior hull ID plate.

From there I attempted my first ground up scratchbuilt based on Mr De Silva's Titan Hunter but where his was a Mars mine was a Lucius. My son and I toyed with a Thunderhawk but he lost interest and I turned to the Lucius Warhound. By that time my son went to college and I took up the Thunderhawk again but found Mr Dave Smith's magnificent Warlord and resolved to make one.

I see my other thread images have been deleted, I think my old image host went belly up.

Heres a group shot of my constructs and refurbishings.

By the numbers in red

#1 is the Lucius Baneblade that was very poorly assembled that I won on ebay and prised apart repaired and reassembled It cost a total of about 150 total.

#2 was touted on ebay as from a nonsmoking home. It was in pitiful shape and was missing the lascannon turret adjacent to the #2. I cast a new turret and prised apart all the glue seams and reassembled. All totaled about 180 bucks as I had to learn casting of resin.

#3 is the armorcast Baneblade which we had but was too primitive to field with the FW B'blades, I practiced casting and scratching on it and came up with a reasonable facsimile of a FW model. My son when he was younger got a big kick out of popping the upper hull off and revealing the Armorcast production plate That cost 50 bucks plus the left over resin and molding latex.

#4 was my first excursion into a total scratch build. It's a copy of Marco De Silva's Jaeger Hunter with my own alterations. I cast a lot of Baneblade parts to make it including treads bogies and lascannon turrets and I cannibalized a Landraider kit for the sponsons

#5 is of course Lucie

Not numbered are the Stormblade that was so heavily warped as to be deemed unsalvageable by the ebay seller but was sold for parts. I heated the hull and chassis in the dishwasher until soft and remoulded the warped parts between clamps. It's one of my favs because of the boss plasma cannon.

the Shadowsword I picked up for 80 bucks because the seller misspelled Shadowsword and I was the only one who bid on it.

http://i.imgur.com/IU4rD.jpg

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

I can post images of my previous work on a separate thread if you like.

 

[Hellados]

I honestly thought that the Titans (even the smallest ones) were taller then that.

I do the same with my Lemons and Baneblade variants, get them second hand and rebuild them, makes me feel better about cutting them to bits (as well as saving money)

 

[Blackadder]

I honestly thought that the Titans (even the smallest ones) were taller then that.

I do the same with my Lemons and Baneblade variants, get them second hand and rebuild them, makes me feel better about cutting them to bits (as well as saving money)

Warhounds are as stated by Forge World are on average 10.5 inches 26.7 cm tall. they are the shortest and nimblest of the Titans.