BCK's Thread of Stuff: Super Heavy

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

Any of you that have read much of my thread here know that I hate mold lines and gaps, and will go to great lengths to get rid of them. There's some bad gaps on this Macharius where the track sections attach to the body, and I've been kicking around various ideas of how to get rid of it for a few days now. Here's a pic to show the yawning gap I'm talking about:

 

http://i.imgur.com/lcM94Ao.png

 

Holy crap, right? It's a fething chasm! But BCK, some of you might say, it's a recast... what do you expect? To that, I say as much as we all love Forge World, they're a bit notorious for some heinous fit and engineering problems on some of their vehicles. I'm looking at you, Spartan, Fire Raptor, Thunderhawk, etc, etc. You can even see a gap about this bad on the models posted on their website!

 

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

 

Even the finished ones aren't much better.

 

http://i.imgur.com/S8jBaPO.png

 

So, how to fix it? Well, I'm going to leave the track sections separate from the main body for painting and weathering, and even if I wasn't, trying to do filling and sanding in that space would be extremely difficult to do without obliterating all the detail around it (and even then, it would still be a giant PITA).

 

Normally, I would never use greenstuff as a gap filler because of reasons I've mentioned several times before, but this is going to be a little different. What I did is attach GS to the edges of the big "tab" on the main body, then slathered the cooking oil I normally use as a sculpting tool lubricant on the inside of the track section to make sure the GS wouldn't stick to it, and then put the pieces together. A locking clamp was used to hold them together and I scraped away any excess GS that was squeezed out of the gap. After an hour or so to let the GS start to firm up, I removed the clamp, took the pieces apart, and let the GS cure completely.

 

http://i.imgur.com/W2VVCAa.png

 

The next step will be another round of GS like this to make sure all the gap is completely filled (after curing, some of it might have contracted or expanded as you can see here), then go over it with my Tamiya putty and sand it to a perfectly smooth finish. There will still be a thin line that I won't be able to get rid of completely, but it will be a lot better than how it was.

 

[CaptainHelion]

That's a gap big enough to drive the entire IVth right through! Keen to see how the GS works for you.

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

I think the GS worked out well, Cap.

 

I took some step-by-step pics for the other side.

 

http://i.imgur.com/T8mPmKk.png

 

Again:

1) Attach GS. For stuff like this, I always score a crosshatch pattern into the area where I want the GS to anchor.

 

2) Add track section and clean off excess that gets squeezed out and let cure for about an hour - long enough to remove track section and not disturb the GS, but not so long as to risk it sticking to the track section even with the oil there.

 

3) Let it cure completely.

 

4) Cover in filler putty and sand smooth.

 

End result?

 

http://dothehotpants.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/2zxtvs4.gif

[CaptainHelion]

Like a glove. That's just perfect. Sends a shiver right down my spine, that does.

[Flint13]

Looking great so far man.

 

Super cool seeing this giant bastard come together :D

[Hrolf the Cunning]

Superb, an inspiration as always.

[Augustus b'Raass]

That GIF at the end made me laugh out load. Hilarious! :D :D

 

Also, great work on the gap filling. :tu:

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

Thanks everyone. :)

 

Super cool seeing this giant bastard come together

 

Aye, it's a beast. Makes me wonder how many crewmen would be needed for a tank that large. Does it say anywhere? I figure a commander, at least one driver, a gunner and a loader for each sponson, a gunner and probably two loaders for the main weapon, a gunner for the weapon on the main body (who could probably load that weapon himself), and enginseer or some other representative of the Mechanicum for repairs and upkeep. So, eleven at least?

 

Also, great work on the gap filling.

 

Knowing how bad some of these kits can be, I hope I can help other people with similar issues get them fixed.

 

And here's a shot of the other track gap all taken care of.

 

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

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

Rolling right along to the next nightmare I have to fix on this thing, which is the exhaust stacks on the back of the tank. The red line shows where it's supposed to connect to the body. 

 

http://i.imgur.com/XdhJW7Y.png

 

Yeah, hot water ain't fixing that. Instead of trying to make a new lower pipe section, I just cut it off and went with something a bit like the exhaust system on the WWII Tiger tank.

 

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

 

http://i.imgur.com/YUdn0vx.png

 

I also got the new treads on the right track section, drilled out the Vulcan mega-bolter barrels, and mounted an autocannon in place of the TL heavy stubber on the body mount because the stubber barrels were badly warped and far too fragile for me to attempt heating and bending them back into true.

 

http://i.imgur.com/Ye45PIS.png

 

I'm working on adding some details, like spare tracks and road wheels, then I'll do some stowage, and try to get the modeling part of this beast done because I know I'm gonna need as much time as I can get for painting and weathering to finish this for the ETL.

 

As always, thanks for looking.

Edited July 3, 2016 by Brother Chaplain Kage

[WarriorFish]

BCK... showing you all the FW mistakes you missed since 2013 The model is really coming well, your attention to detail is excellent as always

[Flint13]

Thanks everyone. :)

 

 

Super cool seeing this giant bastard come together :D

 

Aye, it's a beast. Makes me wonder how many crewmen would be needed for a tank that large. Does it say anywhere? I figure a commander, at least one driver, a gunner and a loader for each sponson, a gunner and probably two loaders for the main weapon, a gunner for the weapon on the main body (who could probably load that weapon himself), and enginseer or some other representative of the Mechanicum for repairs and upkeep. So, eleven at least?

Imperial Armo(u)r 1, 2nd Edition maintains that there are eight crewmen, "comprising the commander, gunner and two loaders in the turret, with the driver, vox-operator (who doubles as the heavy stubber gunner) and two sponson gunners in the hull."

 

Mods are looking good so far! Replacing that heavy stubber barrel was a good choice. It looked way too small for such a massive tank.

Edited July 3, 2016 by Flint13

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

The Siege of Vraks pt 2 says the Vulcan only has 6 crewmen because the mega-bolter uses an autoloader and doesn't require the 2 loaders as the normal one does. That sounds way too low for a tank that big, imho.

[KBA]

Excellent refit on those treads :)

 

Tank WIPS are quickly becoming my favourite part of this end of the forum. Eager to see where else you go with this beast.

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

Got half the tread racks completed and was curious what you guys and gal(s) thought about it.

 

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

 

I know it's not terribly detailed, but neither were the real things I drew inspiration from. I was concerned that they might block the line of sight of the sponson gun, but the second pic shows that the gun can't traverse far enough.

 

Also, working on making my own tow cable for this beast.

 

http://i.imgur.com/e5vqwhB.png

 

I tried a couple of things like thin wire, greenstuff, real thread like a lot of the 1/35 scale modelers do, and nothing seemed to work quite right. Then I remembered I had bought some solder a long time ago to use for large wiring (and then never really had a use for it), and I was concerned it might not be durable enough to twist into the cable, but there's a three wire twist looking pretty good. Now I just need to make the loop ends for it and find a place to put it on the tank.

Edited October 16, 2016 by Brother Chaplain Kage

[lionofjudah]

Tell me moar of these tracks you have? Are they rubber or resin?

You're doing a much better reclamation and restoration on your recast than i did on my Praetor.

You have a hammer punch for styrene rivets or a locking plate for the track holders?

I used the loop ends from the Russ tow cables And then used braided gardening wire for the filler.

Fantastic job

Edited July 4, 2016 by lionofjudah

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

The tracks are rubber. I had several spare sets of rubber tracks laying around from a big box of various tank parts that a friend gave me a while back, but most of them were either too narrow, or in the case of Tiger tracks, too wide. The Panther tracks though, were pretty much perfect. I'll need to find another pair for my second Macharius as its tracks are even worse than these were.

 

I do have a punch and die set as well as plastic rivets, but I've never cared for the crazy boatloads of rivets on 40k vehicles. I mean, interstellar travel, super space fantasy metals,  and energy weapons are possible, but we assemble tanks like pre-World War I tech? I was happy to remove a LOT of the rivets from this thing, as the tech should be even more advanced in 30k.

[Daemon2027]

I really like the work your doing on the tank. I've alway promised myself that I wouldndonsomething similar one day, using the FW craft book as a guide to add these details, so following this with much interest.

 

I'm glad your posting again although I do appreciate its been a hard time for you recently.

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

Tomorrow I take my mother to what we hope will be her last time to see a doctor for some months, so that should free up a lot of time for me to get back into building stuff. 

 

I have a few updates on the tank.

 

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

 

I added lifting rings on either side of the turret, which would be used to... lift... the turret off of the body in the event of refit, repairs, etc. I also added some rungs to the side of the turret to give the crewmen a little more help getting to the top hatch. Just below that, you an see another rung I added to the body which used to be one of the ones sculpted on, but since it was badly warped I went ahead and replaced it.

 

I had a go at sculpting some stowage, but I'm not sure how well it worked out. This is just the first go and I plan on adding more, but opinions?

 

http://i.imgur.com/as28WRO.png

[WarriorFish]

The stowage looks good, I think maybe just some embellishment to finish it off - maybe some ties or buckles etc?

[Flint13]

Nice! 

 

You're way better at mini-details than I am :D

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

The stowage looks good, I think maybe just some embellishment to finish it off - maybe some ties or buckles etc?

 

Once I get the look nailed down, the ties/straps/buckles/etc will be added.

 

Nice! 

 

You're way better at mini-details than I am

 

Tanks were what got me into building models at a young age and were definitely my first love, so I feel like I need to try to raise the bar on this Macharius. I've always found that the more realistic and grounded a fantastical thing is in the details, be it a monster, a mutant with super powers, or a super-heavy tank that probably couldn't realistically work even with super space fantasy materials, the easier it is to believe it and that's what I'm wanting to do with adding all these details.

 

So, I've got a small update that took me all day long to get right. First, a little knowledge bomb. See the horseshoe-shaped things on the front of this King Tiger?

 

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

 

These are tow cable shackles, and it's what a tow cable will be attached to when in use. On some tanks, the tow cable will be hooked up to a front and rear shackle at all times, and on others (like this King Tiger) there are special locking clamps to hold the tow cable where it's stored elsewhere on the tank. This shackle is what I was trying to make today, and I went through a lot of trial and error.

 

http://i.imgur.com/yCa42ph.png

 

 

Normally I would have thrown this stuff away, but after I was finally successful I still had a lot of the rejects laying around.

 

http://i.imgur.com/N6tSmEH.png

 

#1 is a bit of the tow cable I made and I thought I'd see if I could bend into the shackle shape... and no, it looks like crap.

 

#2 is my first and only attempt with brass rod. Yeah... no. WAY too hard to bend into the shape I needed.

 

#3 & 4 are my attempts at making the shackle from the same solder I used to make the tow cable itself. There was promise, but it was far too small in diameter in comparison to the the tow cable that would be hooked up to it. Since that was the only solder I had, I went to get some larger stuff, but had a hell of a time finding some; the Radio Shack in my area closed without me knowing, and two other stores I went to that said they stocked solder products on their website didn't actually carry any. Hobby Lobby had some, but it was even bigger than what I ended up getting and only came in huge spools that were about $30 each. I passed a Lowes on the way home and ducked in there to find exactly what I was looking for and in a smaller spool. Woot!

 

#5 & 6 are my first attempts with the new solder, and there's at least two missing from the photo. To get the shape I was wanting, I would bend the solder around the handle of one of my metal files and then use some needle-nosed pliers to crimp the ends together and flatten them. The problem was that the fine teeth on the blade of the pliers was destroying the solder, or in the case of one of the missing ones from the photo, it basically fused the pieces together. Back to Lowes to see if I could find some needle-nosed pliers without teeth, and thankfully, they had some!

 

#7 Is the first attempt with the new pliers and it worked much better, but I quickly realized I need to put something between the two ends of the solder when I was trying to flatten them out. On this one, I tried a thick piece of sheet plastic, but the plastic came apart as soon as I started applying pressure and the broken end of the solder went flying off like it was shot out of a cannon. Wear safety glasses, kids!

 

#8 I stuck one of my metal hobby files between the two ends and then flattened them. It worked! Problem was, the handle of the file I was bending the solder around was too small and I was having a hard time getting it to take the round shape I wanted.

 

#9 I used a thicker paint brush handle and it worked like a dream. After flattening the ends, I cut them to shape and very carefully drilled holes in them for a shackle pin. Success!

 

And on the tank:

 

http://i.imgur.com/3isaTIn.png

 

After looking at the photos for a little while I now realize I need to increase the size of the shackle pin, but not a bad start, eh?

Edited July 9, 2016 by Brother Chaplain Kage

[BrotherCaptainArkhan]

Next level attention to detail there mate. Can't wait to see the whole thing finished.

[Augustus b'Raass]

Stunning work. You're an inspiration to us all. 

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

You know what really sucks, though? I don't know that I can find a place to put the tow cable on this monster.

[Hrolf the Cunning]

Looks awesome mate. Regarding the tow cable, how much space is there behind the turret?