BCK's Thread of Stuff: Big Lelith

[Quixus]

Why is the Fire Raptor not plastic? It looks cool. It has good rules. It can be used in 30K and 40K. Even 30K is now plastic. Come on GW! it's not like the Fire Raptor is sooo detailed that it cannot be made in plastic.

[Augustus b'Raass]

A tub of boiling water and LOTS of pinning - everything- in place is required. A fire raptor is like training a dog. Be strict and consistent, and you'll have no troubles at all.

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

Milliput is GREAT for gap filling. I'm not sold on sculpting with it, personally, but it excels at gap filling.

 

Ditto. I hate it for sculpting but it's good at gap filling, though it's very messy and I prefer other putties.

 

I salute you for building a Fire Raptor. I have been wanting one but after building a Storm Eagle to the best of my abilities (fueled by tears) I am hesitant to do so. However, seeing all of you other work I think you will bang out this puppy without a hitch.

 

I also need to find some of this Tamiya Filler putty as I had tried to do some gap filling on my flyer with GS but I didn't like it.

 

Thanks for the vote of confidence. By the way, I got my Tamiya filler putty at Hobby Lobby. ;)

 

Sweet!

If anyone can build something worthwhile out of the mini-trainwreck those Raptor kits are, its you Kage.

 

Is he going to end up a Dusk Raider vehicle? 

 

I'll do my best, ol. And yes, it will be a Dusk Raider vehicle.

 

Why is the Fire Raptor not plastic? It looks cool. It has good rules. It can be used in 30K and 40K. Even 30K is now plastic. Come on GW! it's not like the Fire Raptor is sooo detailed that it cannot be made in plastic.

 

I could not agree with this statement more.

 

A tub of boiling water and LOTS of pinning - everything- in place is required. A fire raptor is like training a dog. Be strict and consistent, and you'll have no troubles at all.

 

The water wasn't even boiling, and that's what got me in trouble. I very lightly glued the sides onto the bottom fuselage, inserted the upper cockpit fuselage part, and then used rubber bands to hold everything together and dunked it in the very hot water to try and pull everything together, and it severely warped the cockpit part. If you go back and look at the photo, you can see how bad it is.

[Dantay VI]

It can be a bit of a pain to work on. My main issue was the top fuselage section with the cockpit, which kept popping out at one side, otherwise mine was not too bad.

Especially as it was my first large scale FW model.

 

I sometimes find using a hairdryer is pretty good as you can keep the heat on a more local area rather than bathing the whole model.

 

I do not have the tools for drilling out the engines as they are hefty blocks of resin. If you have the means, then it might be a good idea to help cut down weight. I ended up running rods through the fuselage and into the engines to secure them.

 

Good luck!! And as Flint says, if anyone can pull this off it is you!!

Edited January 14, 2016 by dantay_xv

[Daemon2027]

Hmmmm shame it's such a butch to put together because it looks fantastic. I'm looking forward to seeing it together. Will you be adding anything to the model, a gs dusk raider embalm or the raptor?

[Noctus Cornix]

Managed to get a little work done the last few days.

 

http://i.imgur.com/LxDKueh.png

 

I didn't realize until I put the shield back on him to take this picture that the raptor icon on his left shin probably won't be all that visible. D'oh!

Its a pretty nice concept, but the belt is just killing it. He looks like he has absolutely no abdomen and the belt is so thick I don't think the poor sod can even bend.

Edited January 14, 2016 by Noctus Cornix

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

Really? Doesn't look like that thought occurred to me or anyone else that commented on it.

[Athrawes]

I feel like from s practical and aesthetic perspective, the chest should be overlapping the belt, , as it is now, the belt looks too massive and the upper body would have next to no range of motion.

 

Edit: the only other option, I think would be would make the belt even wider, allowing the chest plate to rotate underneath it, but as it is now, the chest plate and belt are at the same level, meaning the chest cannot tilt. 

Edited January 15, 2016 by Athrawes

[Noctus Cornix]

I'll refrain from making the very easy and clear witty comeback that has presented itself.

 

Regardless of the fact that Athrawes has shared a similar opinion, I fail to see what other people have commented on has to do with my own criticism. It is a genuine analysis that I feel is an issue for the model and I felt it necessary to point it out in hopes that it might come to your attention. 

Edited January 15, 2016 by Noctus Cornix

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

My point was, which you admitted to failing to see, is that you were the first one that commented on that, and it had not occurred to me before. Now that it has come to my attention, I do not share the same opinion you have on it, and I will not be changing it.

[Black Cohort]

He is epic, I see no reason to change anything.

[depthcharge12]

It does look like a giant WWE title belt :D

 

"ENTER THE UNDERTAKER!!!!"

 

I'm sure with your GS skills you can make a smaller one :)

[Dantay VI]

I dunno. Almost makes me think along the lines of Conan the Barbarian or somesuch.

Where the overwide belt also acted as abdominal armour.

Could be a similar csse here where the belt protects the cabling underneath.

Another example would be something like the stormtroopers stomach plate which slots under the chest plate in Star Wars.

I quit like it. Gives him a very muscular looking upper body.

[Dagoth Ur]

Beautiful work on the TDA Praetor :)

 

Something that occured to me while looking at it; I think the main problem with the pransition from actual chest to belt/Abdomen is a bit "sudden". It seems a bit to narrow to me. What could help, and look suitably badass, is an Extension of the chest plate sideways from the circular ornament. It would cover the transition between the two pieces of armour, while also helping with the 0-abdomen problem.

 

Just my two Cents :)

 

Don't give up on the Raptor! Can't wait to see that baddie finished. 

[GhostMalone]

I like the praetor as it is

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

Maybe widening the torso armor a bit, but really, I'm happy with it as it is.

[DuskRaider]

Paint it.

 

 

That is all.

[Rift Blade]

Gotta agree. It LOOKS awesome even if the belt issue may have some truth. It still LOOKS great & if you're happy with it, then paint it. OK, I'm done now. Did I say just paint it????? Seriously, I'm envious of your skill & looking forward to what ever happens. Keep it up.

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

He's on the back burner for right now because I couldn't get the shield looking how I wanted, and I'm getting something designed custom and 3D printed.

Edited January 16, 2016 by Brother Chaplain Kage

[DeathbyWes]

Great thread BCK, so much cool stuff in here - gonna echo the others above, just paint that bad boy he looks great.

Looking forward to seein more!

 

-W

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

A few days ago I mentioned not using greenstuff for gap filling because it's not good for it, but I've found that most people in the 40k hobby have tunnel vision when it comes to this, and they fall back on that awful substance as the be-all and end-all choice of putty. The problem with using it as a gap filler is that GS doesn't sand worth a crap because it has a spongy texture that tears and is extremely difficult to get a good feathered edge with.

 

But BCK, you can just mix it with something else, right?

 

You can, but why bother when there are much better options out there than mixing two different two-part putties together. For very small gaps, superglue works wonders and most people will have it on hand anyway. One big problem with superglue, though, is that it usually cures harder than the plastic or resin around it, and it's easy to sand down the surrounding area faster than you do the superglue. I prefer something like Tamiya White Putty, because the smell isn't too bad, it cures quickly, sands like a dream, and doesn't suffer the same hardness issue superglue does. Plus, a $4.50 tube will last me a while, and I can even get it at my local Hobby Lobby store. Squadron Green Putty is another popular one, but the smell and fumes are pretty harsh so I avoid it. Milliput is a popular choice as well, but personally, I hate the stuff. It's extremely messy and you have to be very attentive to clean up because if that stuff cures on anything - your tools in particular - it's as hard as a rock and you're not going to have an easy time removing it.

 

For filling very large areas, I use an automotive filler putty, which I generally just refer to as Bondo. I used to buy these cans of the stuff, but since I use it infrequently, I've had two of them go bad on me. Sometime last year I was in an Auto Zone and noticed they had a small tube of filler putty for about 10 bucks, and it's perfect for my needs. Strangely enough, it's actually Bondo brand. This is exactly the thing I bought:

 

http://i.imgur.com/IWFXHU4.jpg

 

A few warnings: You should probably wear gloves, and I would suggest that you always wet sand the bondo, not only to make the sanding easier, but to keep the amount of dust down. You should wear some kind of mask when sanding anything, but especially this stuff. The fumes are pretty harsh so I always mix the stuff up and apply it outside or in the garage with a fan on, and it's got a bit of a learning curve. Once you get the hang of it, it's a great tool. For what sorts of things you might ask? Well, as it happens, I have an example.

 

The Sicaran Venator I purchased on eBay a while back that turned out to be a recast with some issues has been gathering dust on my desk for a long time, but in the back of my head an idea was slowly gathering momentum for a radical conversion. As usual, the basis for this idea was some practical stuff that didn't seem to make sense to me "realistically" about the vehicle.

 

Anyway, the first step was to begin filling in the big armor cutout on the front of the track unit.

 

http://i.imgur.com/I0hOuL7.png

 

This picture illustrates some of the problems you might run into using Bondo for something other than smoothing out a wide, flat car panel. When you first mix it up, it's kinda like a thick cake batter. Within a couple of minutes, it's more like toothpaste, and another few minutes later it starts to get firmer, drier, and a bit spongy, and you have to be careful not to touch it in that state because it can tear. However, if you have a hobby knife handy, when it gets to that point, you can easily slice off excess material to save you sanding time later. The gaps you see in the picture are from trying to get this goopy mix to fit into the space you need in a short working time. This was also the last time I used the can of my Evercoat brand of filler putty because it was going bad and I switched to the Bondo stuff from Auto Zone, which you can see filling in those low spots here:

 

http://i.imgur.com/08BwpxW.png

 

Getting those beveled edges took some doing, lemme tell ya. Sanding blocks are your friend for this sort of thing.

 

I knew I didn't want to put the sponsons on this thing for that classic tank killer look, so...

 

http://i.imgur.com/lKH0izR.png

 

To save having to use a crapload of bondo to fill on those spaces, I used a couple of spare bases that I had to sand down a bit to get them below the level of the armor, covered the slotta tab holes with some strips of paper, and then filled in the remaining space with bondo.

 

Why did I put so much bondo on that side armor plate? Because you can't really tell in the photos, but that armor plate is slightly concave and I wanted to completely level it out.

 

After a bunch of sanding and filling in low spots with the white Tamiya putty...

 

http://i.imgur.com/WhmUYMz.png

 

 

Those white clouds of Tamiya putty orbiting that circle of bondo demonstrate how the surface was concave and uneven. Now, an important thing to do when trying to fill in a gap or do something like leveling out a surface like this is to occasionally check your progress by holding up the piece to a light source at a sharp angle and moving it around a little to spot any blemishes or low spots. There's a great deal of satisfaction when you finally see something like this:

 

http://i.imgur.com/qmuYQxU.png

 

Ah, flat as west Texas and smooth as glass.

 

But the insanity doesn't stop there! No, moar bondo!

 

http://i.imgur.com/MFMGbFm.png

 

I didn't want the tracks exposed as much because it seems like a smart enemy would just try to blow a track instead of getting through the much more durable armor plating. The front sort of looks like neapolitan ice cream, eh?

 

Again, using this stuff is usually a multi-part process.

 

http://i.imgur.com/sHlrE1w.png

 

And covering up the rear part of the tracks, both for protection and so they're not kicking up a geyser of mud all over the back and top of the tank.

 

http://i.imgur.com/SLIXxQY.png

 

There's still a few little holes to fill here and there and make some plastic track guards for the front, but this is pretty darn close to what I was picturing in my head: a slab-armored tank and titan killer for my Dusk Raider force.

Edited August 9, 2016 by Brother Chaplain Kage

[Quixus]

That Venator looks sleek.

[Legionary Pallas]

Can't wait to see some paint on it! Looks beastly!

[Augustus b'Raass]

That... That's amazing. It's going to look so sleek and predator-like! Are you oing to get some of the detailing back, like those square crevices and rivets?

 

Can't wait to see more progress and the finished thing. Consider me intrigued.

[sheep]

Looking good mate, the mud/track guard date a vast improvement. Not a massive fan of completely removing all traces of the SM vehicle recesses from the front, they are very iconic.

I am prepared to be proven wrong, and I love the future stug silhouette.