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Jimbo's 1/12th ABC Warriors (and friends)

Started by Dark Jimbo, 18 January, 2016, 10:42:39 PM

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Dark Jimbo

Well, after a gratfying response I'm going to keep this ball rolling and plough straight into the next update.

Mek Quake 2: Larger, longer, stronger

Next thing I did was to start building up the inside of the chassis to the same level as the top of the (former) battery compartment, correcting the 45 degree level as I did. I started with a base of polystyrene blocks to add bulk without adding to Mek-Quake's overall weight, topped with milliput (epoxy putty) for solidity and strength, and finally plasticard for a level finish. You can also see a couple of steps that I started building into one side of the chassis (in a fairly ugly unfinished state here!)



You can see that I built into this a small inner lip to give the lid I'd make something to rest on. The lid itself was simply made out of two layers of plasticard, cut to fit – and voila, the former battery compartment had become an under-floor weapons locker!

At one end I sculpted a little square bit recessed from the floor level – this is where you can stick a finger or thumb to easily lift the lid of the locker.



Before I could finish the floor any further there was one more thing to do (and quite frankly, I should have done these two stages the other way around). I knew that the business end of Mek-Quake – the chompy-shooty front bit – would probably eat quite a bit into the available space within. He was approx. 35cm long at this point, and I estimated that the front 'torso' would steal about 10-15cm of that*. I wanted to extend the chassis by at least 10cm, so that I'd still have a decent amount of space for the other Warriors to fit in the back.

*In the event it actually measured 19cm deep!

I essentially extended the existing surfaces with plasticard additions and re-fitted the original backplate of the tank kit, re-jigged to sit vertically instead of at a slant (another space-gaining effort.) An elaborate jury-rig took place to gain maximum tension and make this DIY rear as sturdy as possible – I didn't want any risk of the whole back end breaking clean off if I ever dropped him.




You'll see that around this stage I started work on the inner floor – online I found some plasticard with pre-moulded industrial diamond pattern, perfect for the job!

When this was done I added a rear inner wall to the original Panther backplate, with a slanted top and two slots cunningly cut into the top...



The tank kit was one of those with 'realistic smoke effect!', and the backplate had been designed so that two small rubber pipes could be run from the inside of the tank and into the two exhausts. It had seemed a shame to just fill these holes in and not make use of them somehow, and that's what the slots were for.

I bent two bendy drinking straws to fit through the slots – they passed through the backplate to fit into the Panther's exhaust ports. Filled with epoxy, these soon set rock hard – when they were set I sculpted some little extra details, and repaired the remaining holes left by the slots I'd had to cut to fit the straws in.




So here's how the former Jagdpanther was looking by this point in the build. What with having to learn so much as I went, progress had been pretty slow. After months of work he was still a bit of a raggedy Frankenstein's monster – but an awful lot of necessary groundwork had now been gotten out of the way...

@jamesfeistdraws

Colin YNWA


Dark Jimbo

@jamesfeistdraws

Judge Nutmeg

Excellent stuff ,Mek-Quake is a 2000ad icon

Hawkmumbler

This is looking to be the biggest of jobs and and by jove it looks zarjaz!

teckno viking


gurnard

That already looks fantastic, I am in awe of the skill, nice one.

Dark Jimbo

Mek Quake 3: Floored Genius

Just a mini update this time out to keep momentum up.

Work on the floor needed to progress before I could go much further - I wouldn't normally start painting anything at this stage, but I wanted the fiddliest bits of the inner floor to be done while relatively easy to reach (i.e before I started building up the sides of the chassis). So after a few coats of grey spray-undercoat, I used a couple of doll's house hinges to fix the lid of the storage locker into place.




I painted the floor in a few successive coats of silver acrylic, gradually building up different dark/light variations by dabbing it on with bits of sponge for a random, mottled effect. Then weathered it a bit in places with black ink for that spilt-oil look.



Used a lot of black ink to weather the inside of the underfloor locker...



...and decorated the inside of the lid with a wee bit of graffiti (hard to get a decent picture of it, but that's what I get for not painting and photographing it before I screwed it in place! You live and learn).


@jamesfeistdraws

Colin YNWA


Dark Jimbo

Aren't they just? Barely 1cm wide - the real challenge was trying to find a screwdriver small enough to fit the screws!
@jamesfeistdraws

Hawkmumbler


Colin YNWA

Quote from: Dark Jimbo on 07 February, 2016, 10:00:19 PM
Aren't they just? Barely 1cm wide - the real challenge was trying to find a screwdriver small enough to fit the screws!

Ha that I could well imagine. But its that dediction that makes this so great, as Hawkmonger says the details like ther graffiti are just brilliant.

Geoff

This is just brilliant - can't wait to see more!

Mikey

 :o Shit The Bed! You, sir, are my favourite type of mad genius. That is just brilliant and I can't wait to see more!
To tell the truth, you can all get screwed.

Dark Jimbo

Cheers Mikey - just wish I had more time to work on this!
@jamesfeistdraws