Inqu][sitor

[Pearson73]

Fantastic conversions, all really thematic and detailed.

[lamby]

Oh no! Not the witch hunter! Damn you chaos spawn!! *shake your fist at your cat.

 

Well, the new character looks off to a sweet start!

Thanks hushrong!

- My cat eats iPhone cables too... and Mac power leads... and earphone cables... and once a 30cm length of Christmas ribbon; she pooped glitter and threw up bile for 3 days until she pooped the de-glittered ribbon out...

 

Fantastic conversions, all really thematic and detailed.

Thanks Pearson73!

 

 

 

 

 

K][LL YOUR DARLINGS...

 

To move ahead, sometimes you have to kill your darlings...

 

Suffering from some major hobby mojo for some time now - it's been well over a year since I last put paint-to-model, for instance - I decided that while the idea of building the Captain's 'raptor-like' dropship  was (and remains) a goal, the execution of the Hemlock conversion had gone awry; meaning, I had the top, the tail, and the VTOL thrusters, but couldn't come up with a decent hull and flightpod design that took the fighter and made it a dropship - which after all, was the initial intention. So - typically me - I started on a new ride for the Rogue Trader crew and the Inquisitor Kallatar's retinue.

 

Recently inspired of the brilliant techno airships of the artist Ian McQue

 

 

... and discovering the more retro look of the Kharandon airships - vs the ultra-sleek Eldar Hemlock - work commenced on converting an Arkanaut frigate into a 40k-esque Inquis][tor/steampunk transport... Though I quickly discovered that scale-wise, there was no way the frigate could conceivably carry enough people to function as a troop-transport; so another quick change of tack (haha - see what I did there?) and the frigate-into-transport plan morphed into the frigate-into-Gun Skiff plan.

 

So first up - what else? - guns!!!

 

Upper turret with twin-linked rotating 100mm cannon - made from some Imperial Guard tank bits and strips of styrene:

 

 

Of course, then I realised those midget rounds in the mag-trays are just too small calibre for the barrels size, so covered them up with some styrene sheet and milliput/greenstuff:

 

 

With the upper deck cannon fleshed out, time to build the lower turret that will replace the mouth/beard of the Arkanaut frigate - so took this old Tau turret shell:

 

 

Added a styrene rim to this plumbing tubing:

 

 

Detailed up the mini-gun barrel from the Nemesis Dreadknight:

 

 

and look at that - a Minion gun!

 

 

Made some additions to the frigate's turret bed:

 

 

Then used some superglue dots and a handy clip-thingy to tack the hull halves together...

 

 

Then took a hacksaw and carefully... 

OMG what have I done!!!

 

 

Oh well, too late to back out now!!! 

So I just kept cutting and sanding...

 

 

Until we ended up with this:

 

 

Aaaaaand... 

 

 

Unfortunately, the lower turret support pylon doesn't quite fit in the hole yet, so no pic today of the weaponry in place.

 

 

 

Tune in soon for more mad modelling adventures!

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Impressive work on the gun turret.

[hushrong]

Your cat sounds crazy yet determined.

 

AND DAAAMMMN! I love this ride! Definitely want to see this puppy updated!

[lamby]

Impressive work on the gun turret.

Thanks Bjorn!

 

Your cat sounds crazy yet determined.

 

AND DAAAMMMN! I love this ride! Definitely want to see this puppy updated!

Thanks hushrong!

 

 

And so on with the WIP.

 

Here's where we left off the build last time:

 

 

Kharadron Beardy-Face now Mini-Gun Angry Face!

 

 

Deciding to leave the guns alone for a bit, it was time for some work on the stern of the ship.

 

Took some 1/35th tank parts, part of a Space Marine Centurion power-pack, and lengths of old wire - mostly DC power leads and bits of Iphone cable my daemon-cat has chewed off electronic devices around the house - and threw it all together into some tech detail that nobody will ever see again after this.

 

Next - the McQue-esque engine cut-out.

 

Eyeballed the curve on the hull halves, drew a reference line, took one of those "O frack what am I about to do?" breaths, and let rip with the Dremel...

 

Leaving this:

 

 

Then took some engine parts from the Space Marine vehicle range, added some caps of those squeezy mini-bladders and sketched  out some thrusters:

 

 

Might have to trim a fraction more out of the hull where the nozzles are just touching, but I like it so far:

 

 

Remember, this is upside down for construction purposes - the skiff flies the right way up!

 

Then it was back to the guns.

 

Added some detail to the back of the twin-linked cannon using a part from a Hemlock Wraithfighter, a random plastic ring from something cut in two, and another 1/35th tank part cut in half to get the two yellow bits:

 

 

And then finally got both upper and lower weapons in place for a pic:

 

 

Still lots to do but I'm feeling the vibe with this one!

 

Thanks for looking!

[hushrong]

This is seriously a mouth-watering vehicle build. I can just see a Bespin cloud city a'la 40k with this thing floating about and meaning business. Like when it flies toward skiff traffic all the other vehicles move out of its way like a shark through a school of fish.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

This is seriously a mouth-watering vehicle build.

I second that.

I can just see a Bespin cloud city a'la 40k with this thing floating about and meaning business.

Or a rainy Los Angeles (see 'Blade Runner') where the police decide they are DONE fething around with nonsense about "civil rights," and determined to END all threats to the Emperor's realm.

[Calyptra]

It's all wonderful work, but now I really want to see a picture of the cat.

[lamby]

 

This is seriously a mouth-watering vehicle build.

I second that.

I can just see a Bespin cloud city a'la 40k with this thing floating about and meaning business.

Or a rainy Los Angeles (see 'Blade Runner') where the police decide they are DONE fething around with nonsense about "civil rights," and determined to END all threats to the Emperor's realm.

 

 

It's all wonderful work, but now I really want to see a picture of the cat.

 

Thanks guys!

 

Back again with more Gun Skiff gun stuff - a curved barrel shroud for the upper mini-gun.

 

Xbox grill looked perfect for what I had in mind, except there's no way to bend it into the shape I needed - so did some prep work on it prior to vacuforming:

 

 

Used the home-made vacuformer to make a thinner and therefore flexible copy:

 

 

 

Sanded it until the bumps became holes, cleaned the holes up with a sharp blade:

 

 

Cut it in half through the middle and glued up this structure:

 

 

Undercoated the inside with Krylon black, then used boiling water to bend it into shape...

 

 

And glue and aggressive clamping did the rest:

 

 

Hopefully I'm done with the gun detailing, so next time it will be back to the engines!

 

Thanks for looking!

[hushrong]

That's a thing of beauty! That vacuformer thing is awesome as hell too!

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Impressive work.

[lamby]

That's a thing of beauty! That vacuformer thing is awesome as hell too!

Thanks hushrong!

 

Impressive work.

Thanks Bjorn!

 

A few people elsewhere were asking about the vacuformer, so here's a pictorial explanation:

 

- The vacuum chamber is an MDF craft box.

- I drilled an admittedly quite haphazard series of holes in the lid, and drilled out a hole in the side slightly larger than the hose on my vacuum cleaner

- To get a seal I used strapping tape, it has a rough external texture that grips around the vacuum cleaner nozzle.

 

 

To do the actual vacuforming, you need:

- A vacuum cleaner

- A heat source - I just use the griller in my oven

- A buck - the thing you want to make a copy of - in the case above it was that piece of Xbox grill

- Some sheet styrene 

 

You clamp the styrene between a metal frame of sorts:

 

Turn the vacuum cleaner on with your buck on the top of the vacuum box.

Allow the styrene sheet to deform under your heat source until it's sagging about the same height as your buck.

Whip the hot styrene out and quickly drop it over the buck - the vacuum cleaner sucks the hot styrene sheet down over your buck and hopefully makes a good copy (otherwise known as a pull)

 

Points:

- Use a pair of BBQ tongs not your fingers to hold the frame under the griller heating element - things get hot fast!

- Your buck has to be able to take the heat of melting styrene

- To get a good pull, raise your buck slightly above the actual vacuum chamber top - for the Xbox grill I glued some sprue to get a little height

 

This mini vacuformer was my test build - I plan to make a bigger one.

 

As usual, this was not my idea originally - watch this video from Fon Davis:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXhJHArFsrM

And this one from Bill Doran at Punished Props:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gx66mS7U2vY&t=1s

 

 

Thanks!!!

[hushrong]

Holy! I am a bit tempted to try this out! That is a very cool set up you have for producing parts!

[ElDuderino]

Your attention to detail is something to aspire to, that grill looks amazing!

[lamby]

Holy! I am a bit tempted to try this out! That is a very cool set up you have for producing parts!

 

 

Your attention to detail is something to aspire to, that grill looks amazing!

Thanks guys for your kind comments.

 

I blame Star Wars.

Well, Star Wars modellers to be correct - and mostly this guy

Tagamo Modelworx

I learned more about lighting models in one night binge-watching his videos than any amount of reading Instructables and the like.

But as I was watching, this thought snuck into my brain: Lighting models - mmmm...

So of course, not content with my usual OCD-style modelling, now I'm adding LEDs to the engines - cos why make it simple when you can make it insanely detailed, right?

 

Not wanting to spend too much money on all this, found a LED bike light in the junk pile, and harvested the twin watch-battery power supply and the LEDs from it.

Of course, had to mod the power supply a bit by adding the leads - which meant I had to learn to solder, cos up till now my electronics experience comes from making circuits in simple IED training aids (real life job) where we twist and tape, as the training aids invariably get blown apart... anyway:

 

And here's the harvested LEDs with resistors added:

 

Took a switch from an old Nerf gun - yes, you read that correctly :

 

Made a hole in the side of the decking to take the switch:

 

And added some detail to hide the fact it is indeed, a switch:

 

Then, in the interest of keeping up the momentum of the actual design and building of this thing, I left off the electronics there til another day.

 

Looking at the main engines I thought they looked a bit plain, so made these pipes:

 

And added them to the inner cylinders:

 

Then I mixed up a batch of epoxy and glued both engines together, and completely failed to take a pic when they were done, whoops.

 

 

More to follow!

[hushrong]

IED training aids? That is interesting.

 

Well, I went through a few of those videos of that modeler and wow! That is some awesome stuff! Hats off to you my friend because I just do not have the skill or patience to give much of that a go but I do love seeing it. Especially how you learned soldering, using bits from whatever can work like the nerf gun for a switch, and even disguising it.

 

I am looking forward to seeing this built and having working lights!

[Dantay VI]

Looks great... Are you going to give the LEDs a wash of blue or orange for the heat source on the engines or do you plan to leave it white?

[lamby]

IED training aids? That is interesting.

 

Well, I went through a few of those videos of that modeler and wow! That is some awesome stuff! Hats off to you my friend because I just do not have the skill or patience to give much of that a go but I do love seeing it. Especially how you learned soldering, using bits from whatever can work like the nerf gun for a switch, and even disguising it.

 

I am looking forward to seeing this built and having working lights!

Thanks Hushrong!

- Soldering is still a bit of a magical art to me but I'm no longer taking 20 minutes to solder 1 wire to another...

- ex-EOD tech - hence the training aids 

 

Looks great... Are you going to give the LEDs a wash of blue or orange for the heat source on the engines or do you plan to leave it white?

Thanks Dantay!

- Actually, yes - Blue Tamiya Clear for the engines, and if I get really adventurous, Green and Red on some 3mm LEDs for nav lights...

[hushrong]

Nice! EOD always sounded interesting as a kid. That must have been one heck of a career field.

 

Soldering and your vacuforming are like magic in my eyes among some of the other awesome things you've done to your minis. I can barely used green stuff. Heck, the most advanced thing I have ever done was trying to make a mould with green stuff in a Lego made box.

[lamby]

Nice! EOD always sounded interesting as a kid. That must have been one heck of a career field.

 

Soldering and your vacuforming are like magic in my eyes among some of the other awesome things you've done to your minis. I can barely used green stuff. Heck, the most advanced thing I have ever done was trying to make a mould with green stuff in a Lego made box.

Thanks Hushrong!

 

Real life pause over - time to get these fething engine lights done!

 

Engine detailing:

 

 

And covered with Krylon Fusion primer:

 

 

Added supporting braces internally to the top deck cavity:

 

 

Note the magnets to take this removable though as yet un-detailed decking plate:

 

 

Finished soldering (and re-soldering... and re-re-soldering...) the wiring harness and tinted the bright white LEDs with Tamiya Clear Blue - which worked surprisingly well:

 

 

Seriously underestimated the size of the wiring harness vs the cavity, and spent a lot longer than it should have taken to get it all to fit:

 

 

You might notice the switch has been changed out - the Nerf gun switch decided to cease working about after I'd soldered everything up the first (two) times, so I caved in and bought a good solid switch - which is why the top decking is now removable:

 

 

Finally though - we have engine lights!

 

 

Things I have learned during this process:

 

1. Good soldering is a lot harder than it looks

 

2. Test, test and re-test your circuit after every step!

 

3. Harvesting LEDs and battery mounts and switches for free is good in theory but in practice, not so much

 

Now I can (hopefully) speed up the rest of this build!

 

Thanks for looking!

Edited July 21, 2018 by lamby

[hushrong]

Nice update! Getting it all together and looking darn good!

The wiring is above and beyond my understanding but I love how it’s looking.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Impressive work on the engines.

[rednekkboss]

Some fabulous modelmaking/engineering here. Bravo! 

[lamby]

Nice update! Getting it all together and looking darn good!

The wiring is above and beyond my understanding but I love how it’s looking.

 

 

Impressive work on the engines.

 

 

Some fabulous modelmaking/engineering here. Bravo! 

 

Thanks guys!

 

 

With the thrusters completed (for the moment anyway) moved on to detailing the removable top deck plate.

 

Found some 1/35th tank drive wheels, a Landraider turret ring, and a Space Marine bike wheel, glued them together to make a bit of an engine, then cut them in half - you'll see why shortly:

 

 

As there's a switch and battery pod under the deck plate, I'm going to have to fake the look of the supposedly cylindrical upper engine section, so built the small edge around the inner rectangular shape of the deck plate:

 

 

Here's the engine sections fitted into the cutout - the main intakes are two Space Marine backpacks with a small turbine fan from one of the Space Marine flyers added:

 

 

And here's how it sits with the main turret in place:

 

 

Thanks for looking!

[hushrong]

This keeps getting better and better! That upper deck bit is a sweet conversion!