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Repositioning dreadnought shoulders (the hard way)


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I could use some advice, peeps. I've always been bothered by the static pose of dreads. On regular dreads I kind of get it, but I think it's a shame with Ironclads (some goes for Furioso or Space Wolf) dreads that should be charging into the fray.

Now, the legs are a whole different topic (I'll get to that later), but the shoulder bits really are bugging me. I want them to have a bit of tilt and shift, as the rings of the shoulder joints appear to make this possible.

gallery_74115_9011_1217050.jpg

Of course, that's all modeled as one piece and they're so thin, I think it would be pretty tough to cut them and reposition. I've thought about a couple methods for reproducing it, but here's my current thought:

gallery_74115_9011_755789.jpg

What about doing something like this? There would be three pieces: One outer ring that's just a strip of plasticard, curled into a ring shape. The next layer in would be another ring of slightly thicker card, with strips cut out of it to get the look of several curved plates. The back of this ring would be covered up, so only the cut tips would peek out. Then, inside, would be the original plastic bit with the stalk, shaved down so the other rings would wrap around it. The whole thing could then be shifted vertically or horizontally to give the arm a bit of play, while still being armored.

Does this make sense at all? Seems like a lot of work. The alternative I usually see is to just mount the arm at an angle and fill in the gap with armored cables and wires. Fine, I guess, but to me it looks like the whole thing can shift.

The other thought I had would be to create three discs, just a cut-out circle, in thick card, and then shave one side down to get the angle. I think that would work, but it would be really hard to cut the circles well enough that they don't look goofy next to the other ones. Any little variation would stick out.

Both methods would be a lot of work. What are your thoughts? Have any of you tried to replicate this armored joint or did you opt for the easier "exposed cables" look? I've also seen some that had thick tubing like the Imperial Knight's thigh joint, but again that's altering the basic design of the model and I'd prefer not to do that.

I'm down with that, but how would you do the armor plates, in that case? If you're thinking of doing both, the paint would surely scrape off the plasticcard if you move it around much, right? Besides that, I don't really care about repositioning it past the first time. 

I'm not sure, it's just an idea that popped into my head :P Giving the arms a little more space from the hull would help and I'm sure the inside surface can afford a bit of shaving down to make more room for movement? If you're not bothered about anything more than a different pose to the norm then maybe the ball joint is OTT...

Yeah, really it's more about just getting the right pose, without doing the exposed cable effect, and sticking to something that looks like it would actually work within the existing design of the model. I think a ball joint could be cool, but I also want to be able to magnetize the arms to swap out the options. 

My idea was to have the ball joint replace the hull's bit, that way you could swap them as if it were a normal Dread. That way you'd only have to modify the hull, and with how it assembles it shouldn't be too hard to get full access to play either. Hang on let me see if I can quickly visually represent my idea, would be a lot easier...

gallery_30308_3239_154.jpg

With the right sized bit the arms will attach on without any modification, then it'd just be a matter of making sure it has decent enough movement. Could probably chop the existing connection and use that if you wanted? I think it's viable, the question is if it is worth the effort. I'm thinking that without the time to experiment a bit it might not be the case?

I've done a quick and dirty version of what you're talking about, I think.  I cut about halfway through the joint with a razor saw and then shimmed it with some plasticard before reforming up the "soft armor" with green stuff.

 

Here's one picture that is not particularly informative.  I'll try to find another one of the joint itself.

 

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f32/Oat_Action_Man/Dread5_zps27f31a77.jpg

 

Edit:

 

Slightly better closeup, but not a process photo to show the shims or detail of the green stuffing.  It was a pretty easy fix, if not the prettiest thing ever.  (The white speck showing through is some plasticard that didn't get covered.)

 

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f32/Oat_Action_Man/Dread%20Shoulder%20Closeup_zpsdrfeyntu.jpg

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