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Post by padre on Jan 17, 2021 20:53:12 GMT
I am currently working on a guard company for a kitbashed Skaven 'Uber Weapon' (see below). I already have a handful of attendants, but I want a regiment of gas-masked guys who can defend it in battle, without dying from the poisons it leaks. The existing possibilities for Skaven gas-mask heads I found in the interweb were VERY expensive, so I started experimenting with the following bits ... The front of the mask will be a bit cut off from an ogre banner pole (of which I have a lot of spares, having built an ogre army some time ago), and a bit cut off a brush protector sleeve (many of which kick about with my old brushes) will be where the air tube plugs in. The mask is here glued, with brass tacs used for the front and for a lens over the eye. Stuck together with some milliput form the bottom part of the muzzle. The wool for the tube is coated with PVA, which I am hoping will look ok when painted. I messed about with thread for a harness ... ... but was not convinced, so I messed about some more and actually gave some thought this time ... A head with the milliput on ... You can see I have some way to go. I want 20-25 of these! ... What follows is my modelling and painting on the completed uber engine (super-mortar) and close-attendants (crew?) I stupidly deleted most of the photos of the earliest stages when I was trying to create space on my phone (for the later pictures ... doh!) but two survived. Here you can see an early test to see how it might fit together ... The doomwheel was given to me already glued together, and would have been impossible to paint what with all the inaccessible innards. So I hacked it apart and began a-bashing. Here are the pieces undercoated ... There is a standard doomwheel, a toy cannon (Playmobile?) and various other bits, including wheels. Here are the pics of the completed model from various angles ... As for rules for the machine, the general idea is that this is Clan Skryre's attempt to create an army or city-destroyer. Inside the huge iron barrel is a warpstone grenado far bigger and far more potent than the bombs thrown by poisoned wind globadiers. The engine is mechanised (a converted doom wheel) to ensure it moves at speed, as it has to get within range of its target to lob the warpstone bomb, without being destroyed by enemy artillery or troops. Being a skaven engine it is unreliable, so it could blow up, centering it's table-sized blast radius on itself! If it succeeds in lobbing it's bomb, then a city could die! No damage to the buildings, but all life (give or take a few very lucky survivors) perishes. The globe is fused to blow in the air above the city. I might make that fact one of things that could go wrong, as if it hits the ground it will have a much, much lesser effect. I reckon we can have a brilliant scenario game in which the skaven player has to get this intact from one side of the board to the other. If he does so, then we roll for it firing. If that goes wrong, everything on the table could die! The engine's 6 attendants ... Here they are not yet based, but otherwise finished. Kit-bashed using bit of plastic and cord, to make filter tanks, and masks (so they don't breath in too much warpstone vapour). This is the first time (in 40 years) I've worked solely in acrylics rather than enamels or a combination of both, and one of the very few times I used a white undercoat for the majority of the model. I like the guy with the shovel best - such a practical tool for a war machine attendant. The campaign story which features the machine can be seen here: bigsmallworlds.com/2020/05/27/with-great-power-comes-great-destruction/ (Scroll to the last story) I will post again as I progress with the engine's guard regiment. Also, I will put up some of my other skaven kit-bashes and scratch-builds in this thread, if there is interest!
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Post by Naitsabes on Jan 18, 2021 2:01:39 GMT
I for one am interested!
Really like the gas masks. lots of thought and effort went into those! The uber-death machine is cool too. I think you could consider putting some rust on there (can be as simple as an Agrax Earthshade wash, now that you're allowing yourself modern tools). Currently it looks a bit too well oiled and cared for considering the owners.
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Post by strutsagget on Jan 18, 2021 7:13:18 GMT
Nice! I like the gas masks a lot.
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Post by mottdon on Jan 18, 2021 13:47:25 GMT
First..... awesome!!!
Secondly, I love the kit-bashed gas masks! Great idea using the tacks for the goggles! They're perfect!
Third, super&fun scenario with that Gas-in-ator. Lots of work put into all that, but well worth it! Thanks!
Lastly, YES-YES! MORE CONTENT PLEASE! š (Seriously... who's gonna turn down Skaven-goodness like this?!?)
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Post by padre on Jan 18, 2021 23:00:08 GMT
Thank you Naitsabes, strutsagget and mottdon. No more work on the regiment as yet, but I thought I should now to Mottdon's request and put up more content. Skaven Doom Wheel Part ākit-bashā / part scratch build[/b] I loved the idea of a doom wheel, but I wanted to build my own version, and so I began the enjoyable odyssey that making such a mechanical model involves. I wanted a machine with steam powered locomotion, not scuttling rats like the official model, using (of course) warpstone to heat the steam. I liked the idea that the turning wheel itself would then generate the power that sparked other warpstone shards to generate lightning. I also wanted a kind of āsteam-punkā look. I needed some bits for the big wheel, so I started with three plastic Pringles' tops. Having hoarded a ridiculous amount of ārubbishā (mostly plastic) in many a bits-box, I found a circular thing which fitted neatly inside the lids, which had kind of gear wheel teeth all around it - once part of a VHS video tape. As the Pringle lids are waxy and averse to glue of any almost kind, I had to sew the new component in. I used masking tape (the paper kind) around the edge of the lids, so that there would be a paper surface to glue wood bits onto and not a waxy plastic āunstickableā surface. Now I hunted in bits boxes for anything like wheels, gears and any sort of appropriate looking component parts. I cut four sections out of one of the lids, taped up the four rungs thus created, and glued lollipop sticks on. I also began making a boiler type affair out of old lids from water bottles (milliputting the holes) and a funnel out of a GW cannon barrel. I used some wheels to make the main driving wheels that would carry a chain to make the doom wheel trundle round. I fashioned a rear-platform for the operator to stand on, with the boiler and some control levers. For 45p I bought a thin strip of wood to cut to make the wheel rim, and I got extravagant and bought brass pins from the same modellers shop - that way they could be glued and pinned to the rim (the latter more for appearanceās sake). (And yes, the pins left over are now being used for the gas mask lenses in my current project!) I made some kind of inner workings by cutting bits of plastic tube and stick, this being the machinery that turns motion into a generating spark for the warpstone to crackle its lightning. Wood stain seemed fine for lolly sticks and bits of wood, so I didnāt have to paint these sections. It also works well enough on the brass pin heads. One warpstone shard was mounted on a rod extending out from between the two wheel sections, with a tube going to it to carry whatever it is skaven send down such tubes to light their warpstone (i.e. havenāt worked out the fluff for this part yet - just like the look of it). Then I began the mounting for the blades that will stick out in front of the wheel, a frame which will attach to the axle and have two more pieces of warpstone at the sides. (Old skaven sprues provided this - a kind of claw and stone thing that was really to go on the top of standards). I undercoated the workings and added inner (wood-stained) spokes. Wood-stained cardboard had to do for the outer rim of the non-gear-riddled wheel, as I could not be bothered carving wood to the same effect. Nor have I the skill. ( Iād already cut myself once with a scalpel on this project - thereās a limit to how far I am prepared to suffer for my toy soldiersā hobby!) Here it is almost completed ā I intended to ātune it upā later. This is a side view showing the flank with the drive chain. There is a wheel on the engine housing behind the boiler, and from this a chain runs to the gear wheel on the axis of the big doom-wheel wheel. (Iām writing a bit like a skaven too, and it is not even deliberate.) My Warpstone shards were not to everyoneās liking, nor my general approach to painting, but Iād been doing ācartoonā-style for so long I didnāt want to stop now. Besides it would fit in with my army better if it was painted like them. From the front you can see itās an unforgiving war machine. This should account for the impact hits. As for the S2 attacks, as this is not from giant rat driven but steam powered, bit instead when the lightning is not flaring out there is still a relatively weak warp-static dancing and flickering around between the three shards (thus in the forward arc) ā shocks strong enough to deliver these weak-ish attacks. Here is the other flank. Like I said before, steam (heated by warpstone dust) generates motive power via a boiler and an engine, but then internal gears inside the large wheel generate enough energy to spark the three shards of warpstone to life. The driver stands (as expected) on the steerage deck. This rear(ish) view shows the two controls. A wheel allows the engineer to alter the steam power, and thus the speed. Well, itās supposed to, but itās all a bit random in truth (as per the rules). He can at least frantically try to reduce it by spinning it when it is going a bit too fast, and then when it is going too slow, he can spin wildly in the other direction. The lever at the side jolts the rear wheel and thus changes the engineās direction. (When I took the above photos I noticed I had forgotten to paint some bits, like the wheels on the end of the arms. But here they are painted.)Finally, here are a couple of shots of it in battle from an old bat rep of skaven vs. ogres ā¦
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Post by markdienekes on Jan 19, 2021 0:15:40 GMT
Great modelling chap! I love your diagrams and just the thought and skill required to make this stuff is great to see!
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Post by mottdon on Jan 19, 2021 4:27:00 GMT
Well, Pimp My Ride! That's quite the creativity output there my friend! You're like the mad scientist of kit-bashing! Well done, good sir! Well done!
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Post by padre on Jan 19, 2021 12:04:04 GMT
Thanks markdienekes and mottdon. I have quite a bit more Skaven oddities to put up yet, as I mine my pc for the pictures, but considering the mentions above concerning the gas mask looking ok, I thought I would put an old pic up here for a laugh. 20+ years ago I thought I could save money by kitbashing and milliputting up my own unit of Skaven globadiers. This was my test model ... I quickly realised all I could think about when I looked at it was wombles! Perhaps needless to say, I relented and spent the money on the official metal models for the rest of the unit. I did, again as an attempt to save money, slightly more successfully kit-bash some plastic sprue skaven into ratling gun and warpfire thrower teams ... I'll be back with some bigger skaven conversions and kitbashes soon.
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Post by markdienekes on Jan 19, 2021 13:21:37 GMT
Hmm, I actually really like your globadier!
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Post by padre on Jan 20, 2021 9:52:25 GMT
Kit-Bash Warp Lightning CannonThis kit-bash project utilises an Airfix historical kit. I wanted a Skaven Warp-Lightning cannon that was able to move under its own power, with a steam-punk sort of look, to go with my Doom-wheel. So, in a spirit of taking the direct approach, I got myself a kit of an early engine: Trevithick's 1804 steam loco. First I built the kit, which was a blast from the past considering I spent (mispent?) nearly my entire youth making Airfix kits, some many times over, and then I spent my teenage years making more, but with a 'sci-fi' twist (T34's became grav tanks, WW2 trucks became Mad Max vehicles, etc). As I had to paint the bits while they were still disassembled, this meant I could use them for a story piece in an old campaign, telling of when a skaven engineer found an abandoned war engine, in pieces, in a disused mine tunnel. Oh boy, he was so excited I can tell you. When I later put it together, I shortened the funnel - don't ask me why, I've long since forgotten - and painted the whole thing metallic. I liked it already, although there was nothing 'Skaven-ey' about it yet, and no weapon. Then I set about working on the warp-lightning cannon to mount on it, and the necessary crew platforms. I decided on a platform on the back, plus another long one along the side for the crew to perform 'maintenance' and access various vital bits. There's no way of feeding coal in or such like, but I had already decided there was a super-hot chunk of warpstone inside heating the water to create the steam. No need for coal, so good for the environment!?! There was also a huge chunk powering the cannon (an ancient, chipped and sanded D8, no less). I painted the warpstone chunk and added a chain-ladder at the back for the crew to scramble up. Then someone said my warpstone looked like a strawberry! And someone else pointed out that I had forgotten to rust up the gun. So I added yellow lines between speckles ... ... and rusted up the gun. I was going to make special crewmen on wooden bases to match the platform, but I never got around to it. I have made some crewmen since. I was proud of this new behemoth. Wondering if it would sit nicely alongside my existing warp lightning cannons, I sat it next to them ... I was suddenly thinking about Goldilocks for some reason! Here you can see it trundling about in the rear of my skaven army ā¦
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Post by mottdon on Jan 20, 2021 12:28:12 GMT
Wow! So very detailed! Great work!
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Post by padre on Jan 21, 2021 11:10:27 GMT
Warplightning Cannon(s) kit-bashHere I kit-bashed together the stuff the big company produces, when I jammed an old metal warplightning cannon barrel into the more modern plastic Warplightning carriage/frame. The end result should look familiar to warhammerers, yet strange at the same time. Gotta love chains, eh? If you look behind the rear wheel, at the top, you can just glimpse the geared wheels I fiddled about with for ages to make sure it had the appearance of a proper locomotive device. And I mean ages. Pointlessly. Here it is in a campaign story pic being hauled by slaves (assisted by a rat ogre) down a giant underpass ... Another angle ... I borrowed a crewman from the wheel for this scene! I did a little bit more than just jam them together. There's a sort of 'engine' and (presumably warpstone heated) steam device I fiddled about with for ages hidden beneath the crew-platform. As so often though with my projects you can't really see it in the end product. Oops! You can see partsof it in these two pics ...
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Post by padre on Jan 22, 2021 10:37:12 GMT
Being half Yorkshire, half Scottish, I am very careful with money. I want to get the most from of every kit. So I bought one Skaven war machine ( which could be made into either a plague claw catapult or a warplightning cannon) and I kit-wangled both machines out of that one box, with the judicious use of lollipop sticks, spare wheels in my bits box and bits of chain, etc. For the catapult, having used what should be its warpstone counterweight in the cannon, I had to use a little pebble I picked up from a coastal walk instead! It was fun getting the chains to hold the pebble. I built this in a different orientation to the suggested model, for example can you see the addition of handy platforms on the sides? I don't like to put my models to too much trouble, and the engine is far more easily 'attended' with these platforms in place. Also I have added some sort of extra winching wheel mechanism. Hopefully that also helps save the big rats' arms? The warplightning cannon got off to a false start, when I thought I could simply wood stain the balsa and lolly sticks (which had kinda worked on my doomwheel) ... I did not like this at all, so I painted it to match the rest of my stuff a bit better ... The official model looks quite a bit different. I have reversed the barrel (although don't ask me why as I now don't know) and added what I consider to be vital copper boiler type-things underneath. Vital, I tell you, otherwise there would be insufficient aqueous coolant for the warpsteam regulator. Or something. Before I repainted it, I remembered I had scratch-built a warp lightning cannon a LONG time ago (25+ years possibly), so I dug that first one out of it's box ... And yes, that is a toothpaste top, and yes, that does seem to be some sort of gas mask wearing Clanger crewing the machine. I was a poor student who scrabbled together whatever I could. Just before I repainted it, I lined up my three warplightning cannons to see what they would look like side by side .. Apparently scale creep has occurred in my personal life too! I made two new ones (see above) since which means my Skaven player could field all three of his listed ones in his campaign army at the same time, if he wished. I am fond of the original, little one, however, and so am I am toying with the idea of making house-rules for a smaller, weaker, less effective version, as a bazooka is to an 88 anti-tank gun.
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Post by padre on Jan 22, 2021 18:52:36 GMT
Progress on current WIP. 4 modeled (see below) and 3 more part done. I am going to shift to a different design for the rest, as I think the long tube from the bottom of the tank to the mask muzzle is very impractical. Gonna change the tank and have a tube that is much shorter. Already started churning out new tanks! But ... the whole project is on hold as campaign events mean I need to model 24 heavy armoured, sword and shield dudes for a player's garrison force. I'll put pictures of progress on them elsewhere in this thread, if you wish. The skaven project I'll return to in a couple of weeks.
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Post by mottdon on Jan 23, 2021 2:51:21 GMT
Hey, your thread, your rules. We'll be good with whatever you choose.
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