NiftyVT's Xana II Mechanicum

[NiftyVT]

Making  a little progress on the big robot. But decided to make my life a little more difficult when I was mocking up the arm extensions.

 

Biggest thing is that it stands on its own! Raised leg is just blue tacked and the torso isnt glued down. Torso has a giant snug pin in it (1/2 pvc pipe pin) and I might not even need to magnetize it but I want to keep it separate for painting and then maybe permanently separate for transport purposes. 

 

I have just been mocking up the arms (sizing and general look for now). The 'life more difficult' part is that I think I need some extra pistons. I have made my own before out of plastic/brass tubes and rods but I want them to match the rest of the ones on the model. So, I put in an order for some mold making and casting stuff. I will see how this goes 

 

I did a bunch of different layouts and this is kind of close. Shows some thickness attempts.

 

I tried with a cross piece thing, didnt really like this one.

 

Settled on something like this. It has 3 pistons: front, back, side (maybe just front/back pistons, not sure yet). The idea is that the main shaft is a big piston that the titan can use to lengthen/shorten its arm as a type of stabilization. I will probably have the larger part of the little pistons at the top. For the mock ups I only separated a couple pistons set from the pour gates because I am the king of loosing little bits and wanted to minimize my chances of loosing something!

 

If the molding/casting goes well for the little pistons I might just tidy up the mock up and then cast it (without the front/back/side pistons). That way I only need to make one and then I can make more if I . . .you know. . .get another one. . .or something (ie if GW makes a plastic one?).  I got some heavy weight, sandable primer from the local commercial paint store so I should be able to make the wooden bits perfectly smooth. Slowly getting there.

 

Note: Super cool base is by TaroModelMaker.

[NiftyVT]

Legs are on!

 

[Magos Takatus]

That's a wonderful pose, that almost looks more like an Adeptus Titanicus model due to being more dynamic but unless you have lots of tiny props to throw off guessing the scale that is the real deal. 

[Pearson73]

Aye, the pose is great, as is the piston design.

[NiftyVT]

Getting close to doing silicon pours for some molds.
 

The custom arm still has a bit to go before it’s mold ready. Need to fill gaps, glue on some tiny rivets, do some little detailing and attach the ball joints for the pistons. I decided to try and cast up the little ball joints that the pistons connect to because it’s really difficult to get tiny stainless ball bearings to stick securely. I tried a few times and they came off fairly easily even after scuffing them up. So I made 1 little stand of 5  ball joints for each size I need to use as masters. It doesn’t matter if they break apart when I mold them as long as I get a decent mold out of them. I reused some pour gates I had lying around. You never know when you can reuse trash! 

 

Mold support wise I started making a box but then I remembered over a year ago my wife decided that she didnt want any plastic containers (for leftovers and such) and asked me to clean out the cabinets and toss them. Well I didnt toss them, I actually squirreled them away in my hobby area  and now they finally have a use! I rummaged through them and found one that is perfect for the arm and another for some other bits I am going to mold up. Much easier than making a box and leak proof!

 

Of course I have never done this before so everything I do could end up being a huge mistake!  Well, not huge but a waste of silicone as I learn. 

 

Plan for this is to pour once and then cut it in half so I can then split mold each one individually. Or maybe I will get lucky and the cast will just pop out without needing to split the mold. I am going to give that a try just to see if I can get away with it. The gates are a little close to the edges so I will have to see how it goes. My other containers were way to large so I decided to go with this cut down plastic cup.

 

But first step is to test a little bit of silicone on all my parts to make sure it doesnt inhibit curing. 

Edited April 16, 2023 by NiftyVT

[NiftyVT]

So I ended up yoloing the ball bearing mold because I miss poured the amount for the material testing. My scale stuck (new one on order) and the rubber came out of the bottle way faster than I thought it would. So instead of getting 1 gram of part A I ended up with about 12 which after adding an equal amount of part B it was the perfect amount to do the material test and fill the one mold. Now to wait 24 hours to see if it’s a disaster or not. 

[NiftyVT]

Success! Well, not 100%. My scale, the one that got stuck, isnt accurate enough (just a kitchen scale that does whole grams) so my mold is just slightly sticky. But I decided to try a casting anyways and it worked great! I did grab a new scale and its a 0.01 gram scale so my next rubber pour should be much better. I hope to do the big mold for the pistons this weekend and maybe get the arm finished up as well. I think I am going to cast the arm without the little ball joints just to make it a bit simpler to make the cut mold.

 

[NiftyVT]

Finished up my piston mold last night. Should be able to take the mold out of the box and de mold the masters tonight or tomorrow.  Looks like it cured perfectly. 

[NiftyVT]

It took some trial and error but I got a ton of pistons cast. I am also just about ready to mold the arm!

 

The main challenge with the pistons was to get the resin to flow down the small skinny shafts. My first 2 pulls of the mold I was missing the socket on the skinny piston parts. how I fixed it was to pour directly into that piston while holding the split mold open and then message the mold as I was pouring for the rest of the fill in order to get the big bubbles out. Yes, pouring with the mold split open made a little bit of a mess but not to bad. 

 

Casts are very clean with basically no micro bubbles. No pressure pot used.

 

One more step closer to completing the build!

[NiftyVT]

Pile of bits and the custom arm almost ready to mold. I just need to put some rivets on the side face (black part made out of the 25mm base). The little green stuff arm sticking out of the ball on the arm is a vent/ 2nd pour spot.

 

By the way, I am just making up this whole casting stuff as I go along.  

 

 

[NiftyVT]

I am still hanging in there on the Warhound build. I put the arm extension into silicone during nap time today! Once that’s cured I am going to cast up a few and then I will be ready to do final posing. 

[Pearson73]

Glad to hear that progress is ongoing!

[NiftyVT]

Ended up needing to do 3 casts of the arms. First one I went all in on the rubber bands because I really did not want it to leak. . .but to many bands made the cast wonky  

 I reduced the rubber band count to only 2 and then they cast up perfectly and didnt leak. Top one is the wonky out of round one because there was to much pressure on the mold!

Last week I got in some SWEET transfers from "Scumb4g Kustoms" (find them on Facebook). I have been looking for these since Titanicus was released! And now I have full 40k sized ones! I cant wait to paint up the couple Chaos Knights I have sitting in my cabinet so I can get these transfers on some of them too!

Edited November 4, 2023 by NiftyVT

[Magos Takatus]

Great work as always. Nice to see Scumb4g Kustoms's handiwork again. Really nice person and helped me with my marine and knight decals.

[Shovellovin]

On 4/8/2023 at 6:22 PM, NiftyVT said:

Legs are on!

 

Excellent running pose on your Warhound. I'm looking forward to seeing this thing completely assembled and painted.

[NiftyVT]

Slow going but things are happening with the knights! Mr running knight is currently getting decals. Then its final details and the base. This was my first time really looking through the standard chaos knight decal sheet and it really is a fantastic sheet! Tons of cool stuff on there. Lots of decals left to put on.

 

The one with the big shield is in the airbrush booth for priming.

 

And if you look closely at the background you can see the very first painted part of the Warhound. Its the bit that goes under the top metal grill on the main carapace. Its almost done then I need to glue it in and do a lot of gap filling all around it.

 

Edited May 20 by NiftyVT

[NiftyVT]

No new pictures but I finished up some paint chipping and all of the decals. I sponged the chips then did some connect the dots followed by a lighter color underline of some of the larger chips to give them depth. This is the first time I have gone this in depth with the chipping. In the past I have just sponged 1 or 2 colors on and called it done.

 

Today I also painted gloss varnish over the decals to seal them in. Next up I think is a matte coat, then its time to do some metallics work and other details like the skull head and eyes. I am changing up my order of operations here. Usually I do everything before the matte coat. This time I am doing the finishing touches after the matte. This should make the metallics look more like metal and help add some additional contrast to the mini. Then I have some base work to do. I think I need to bring out the milliput and blend the pillars, foot and cork into the base and each other a little better before I put the Huge Miniatures Martian paste on.

[Magos Takatus]

Good to hear that your style is evolving, I look forward to seeing the pictures in the end. :)

[NiftyVT]

On 6/13/2024 at 8:02 AM, Magos Takatus said:

Good to hear that your style is evolving, I look forward to seeing the pictures in the end. :)

 

I am using my next couple Knights to practice and try out things for the Warhound. 

[NiftyVT]

The matte coat really made the chipping work I did pop, I can already see where I can improve it next time. . .which is not be lazy and actually do the connect the dots brush work after the sponging.  Decals came out fantastic as well. Now to finish it up with some more brush work, dirty down rust, and the base. Video below for where I learned the sponge plus connect the dots, just need to practice up!

 

 

[SWORD BROTHER RYAN]

Just looked through this thread, and WOW! Looking forward to seeing what you do to/with the Warhound!

[NiftyVT]

On 6/30/2024 at 4:54 AM, SWORD BROTHER RYAN said:

Just looked through this thread, and WOW! Looking forward to seeing what you do to/with the Warhound!

 

Thanks! Warhound is coming along slowly. Mainly because I decided to get some (yep there's multiple lol ) Knights off the back log. And they are going slow too because of my toddler.  I will get there.