Gun Emplacement Mk.II 8 & Scatter Terrain 10

A brief hiatus from the Karrier to work on a couple of my own ongoing projects.

Gun Emplacement Mk. II 8

After many hours sanding, filling, spraying, filling, sanding etc the modified gun mounting plate was ready for casting.

I removed the plate I had previously added to the gun mounting plate so that the area where the crew raise and lower the gun was free of trip hazards (health & safety...), the hole underneath along with the circular hole at the rear had then to be filled and sanded flat (too ages and many goings over). The modified Basilisk plate was then added before going round filling in, sanding and so on...

Anyway. I did a mould and knocked out some casts...

The first perfect cast.

As you can see two of the three had an imperfection on the edge.
Bloody annoying.

I drilled out the two holes where the Earthshaker pieces fit into and assembled the Earthshaker. Blu-tac only for now:

And then in the fully raised position...

'Bang Bang' said Militiaman Bob as he smugly looked over the wall.

Sort of tempted to actually paint it...long shot but it may happen.


Next up...

Scatter Terrain 10

The Dragons Toof got a mould done and I knocked a few casts out.

I did a few in plaster and a few in resin to see the difference in them.

Rather than just take some pictures of some casts I based four of them (two plaster and two resin) and added some sand. Keep in mind this was a very quick and rough basing job, just wanted to see how the parts looked in context.

Militiaman Bob gets around.

Undercoated you can't tell the difference between the two materials.

Shock, horror I actually painted them - again just a quick and rough job.

I went with a brass top plate just to highlight them, I doubt I would go with brass eventually.

The plan is to do a few casts in resin incorporating rebar, i'll carve them up and add damage etc before using them as master for a set of moulds.

Quite pleased how they turned out, was a bit worried if the skulls would show up well enough originally but they show up easily without being too in your face.

Gun Emplacement MK. II - 7

Though I have cast a number of sets recently for people (nine so far) I haven't touched my own gun emplacements since I first assembled them.

So while I await the Baneblade I have on order for the Kopta Karrier I decided to get back to them and start the Earthshaker gun mounting.

I took a new base plate from a Bassie kit and started cutting it up. I decided in the end to alter the base with two aims in mind, one minimising it giving more room on the mounting plate for the crew and two to increase the possible elevation of the gun (as suggested by Gonzo some time back).

The bulk of the work is now done, it needs to be added to the mounting plate and the details finished off. I will then cast up extra ones for a battery of guns, however I won't be selling these as it will be using GW parts.

As you can see much of the rear of the piece has been removed and replaced with styrene lowering the top surface which the gun sits over. The piece is also slightly shorter at the rear. More detail will be added to that plain face though.

You can clearly see just how much more the gun can now elevate.

Detail shots above show how the gun fits up against the curved surface carved out of the top face. On the one side a notch out gives room for the hinge to move down.

Final shot showing how the part fits on the mounting plate.

I am going to modify it slightly more before adding new details and attached the piece to the original master for the gun mounting plate so I can do the mould. I will take the opportunity I think to modify the mounting plate as well, such as filling in the small round recess bottom right.

Next update will either be on this or on the Deff Dreads, depending on if the magnets turn up tomorrow (fingers crossed).

My aim is to get a couple of smaller projects finished before the Baneblade arrives and I start on that.

Gun Emplacement Mk II - 7

Emplacement Kits for Sale...

Good morning.

After showing the emplacement in a few places I had enough people ask me if I was selling kits to actually offer it for sale.

By doing extra moulds I can knock out a full set of casts in an evening in plaster for the walls and resin for the base, steps and gun mounting plate...

So we have eight curved wall pieces, two end wall pieces, 12 base pieces, 3 step pieces and the gun mounting plate. I will cast into one wall piece some rebar in case people want to add damage and have it showing.

I am going to offer the kits for £25 plus postage (at cost) for one or £45 plus postage for two kits.

As before if you are interested drop me an email... rictusrd-blog at yahoo dot co dot uk

EDIT: Got email address wrong....cheers Oink.


Using the pieces shown above, which I cast to determine how quick I could knock out a set, I was able to put together the second gun emplacement

The plan was to add some more details to the gun emplacements. First up I knocked up a shell case. I did the master, the mould and the first casts before I realised I actually had an Earthshaker shell with the Militia artillery crew set. Thankfully the sizes match up ok.

I then looked at the crank handle mechanism to turn the gun mounting plate.

I realised I had made  a mistake on the gun mounting plate by putting the recess - which I intended to use to locate the mechanism, was on the wrong wise. On the right it would block access to the gun raising handle. As such it will have to go on the right.

Due to this I will modify the gun mounting plate master to get rid of the recess and do a new mould.

Gun Emplacement Mk. II - 6

A quick addition to last nights update.

Basically it has been too hot this evening to do anything but after The Grim Darkness asked about Deathstrikes I thought i would get the Manticore kit out and do a quick mock up or two.

Deathstrike:

It could be made to work I think, it would mean modifying the mounting plate, either incorporating the part from the GW kit or converting a cast piece. It still won't look 'right' to me. I just don't think a weapon like this would be mounted on a gun platform.

Manticore:

Again it is doable with some changes to the base, but personally I think the FW Manticore turret would be much better.

I am thinking of magnetising Hydra turrets so they can either take the Autocannon or brackets holding Manticore rockets.


In other news I ordered some Earthshaker bits so that I can rebuild the one I have and put together two new ones, giving me a nice battery of three guns...

Gun Emplacement Mk. II - 5

It may have been a month since I last posted regarding the Gun Emplacement but that doesn't mean it hasn't been on the workbench...


To recap I originally built a gun emplacement four or five years ago and recently decided to replicate the design using 3D modelling and printing to create masters which I could cast.

The Original Model I built many years ago...

And the 3D Model of the Mk. II design

In the last post I showed the 3D prints of the base pieces and the gun mounting plate. The two base pieces had gone wrong somehow in the printing process and on th egun plate some detail hadn't come out great. So moving on a month Shapeways has replaced the two prints...

While I have removed the crappy detail on the gun mounting plate and added some new details:

I then did the moulds and started casting.

First up the gun mounting plate, here shown with the master:

Master on the left,
Cast on the right (after a coat of grey primer)

After much casting (I need to do a second mould for the base pieces) I was able to assemble the pieces using some Finnboard as a base. I jumped the gun and sanded the base before I got pics of the assembled pieces.

A quick coat of grey primer later it looked like this...

I had a Hydra kit arrive from Forgeworld and I was delighted to find it did fit. The plan originally was to wait for the kit to arrive before doing any moulds and casting to ensure the turret fitted between the detail I had added, however I got impatient and did it anyway. Thankfully I hadn't made a terrible mistake.

And using the crappy second hand Earthshaker:

And a final shot showing Militiaman Bob behind the wall.

Say hello to Bob.

Next up I need to make the crank handle (which will turn the gun mounting plate) which will fit into the round depression in the mounting plate rear and also a cover plate for said depression for the plate which will mount the FW turret.

I also need to add the small lifting eye plates on the top of the walls.

After that it'll be more casting till I have a full battery of three. I will cast six mounting plates - three for Earthshakers and three Hydras, they can then be dropped into the bases as and when required.

Gun Emplacement Mk. II - 4

The latest prints for the gun emplacement arrived a week or so ago, but I’ve just not had time to do anything with them till now.

I tried the White Detail material to see if the surface texture was good enough for project such as the emplacement.

The result is mixed. The surface texture is good enough, especially after a light sanding with wet and dry paper in some place but the detail on the hatches on the gun mounting plate was just too fine for the resolution available, also some of the rivets didn’t come out well. I gave it a coat of grey spray as in its natural colour it isn't very clear.

The mounting plate is salvageable as I can fill in/cover or replace the hatches and replace the poor quality rivets as required.

So far I have started looking at the hatches and redoing those: One is going to be filled and have some plating over it (perhaps) while the other I am doing a new recessed hatch.

While I have the pieces to hand this is how the gun base fits onto the mounting plate:

Moving onto the two other pieces the news is again mixed. The texture on the top surface including the treadplate and rivets is spot on. No problem with that at all. The problem is on both pieces they is a ‘drop’ in the material around the edge, almost like a thumb has been pressed into soft plastic. It is hard to know why this has happened.

The pieces before
getting a coat of spray paint.

The tinted areas highlight the edging which is the problem.

 

I will be dropping Shapeways an email to see what has caused this in the hope of avoiding the issue in future. Looking into the hollow pieces it doesn’t look like the upper surface has ‘fallen’ into the hollow mould. The picture below isn't that clear but you can just about see that internally the piece is as it should be.

I am going to try and repair the damage, not sure if I will have any luck but it is worth trying to save them.

Defensive Walls 11 and more on Moulds for Sale

Moulds On Sale

 

I modified the defensive wall masters to remove the mounting plates so people won't have to spend hours removing them from the casts (as I had to do...). I did the new mould...

 

Modified masters on the left, casts from them on the right.

However after using the new mould and comparing it to my original moulds I think I will actually be selling the separate moulds as shown below. They just seem easier to handle and use. It also means if people only want to use the walls without the plinths then I can sort them out with what they want easier.

 

So the prices as previously shown will be...

 

Mould Set 1 – two moulds covering the straight wall, corner wall, straight plinth and corner plinth. £22 + postage

Mould Set 2 – Two of Set 1. £40 + postage

Mould Set 3 – As Set 1 + mounting plate mould & 4 pieces of rebar (each just shy of 100mm long). £25 + postage.

Mould Set 4 – Two of Set 3. £45 + postage.

 

If people are after some drop me an email... rictusrd-blog at yahoo dot co dot uk

 

The weight of the box for Set 1 will be in the region of 450-550g. As such keep this in mind when deciding what you want. As before I do reccommend you get more than one set as with the amount of casting you will need to do having more than one mould of each piece will make life a lot more easier.

 

I have ordered a second print of the straight and corner wall pieces which should be here in a couple of weeks. This will allow me to do more moulds quicker and also larger moulds for those who may want a mould for say two straight wall pieces and one corner wall piece.

 

I have had a couple of people asking about the Gun Emplacement curved walls (see below) and I will be offering the mould for these for sale as well. However I have just placed an order to get some prints for the base parts which I hope will turn out well so I am going to hold off making it 'official' till I got hold of these.

 

 

But for those who are only interested in buying the emplacement wall mould rather than a complete gun emplacement set please drop me an email and i'll let you know a price.

 

 

Defensive Walls.

 

Sunday I was able to get all the wall pieces so far cast and along with a few bastions I did a set up...

 

 

I think now I have enough cast, I will continue to do the odd few as I do test casts for any moulds I sell but otherwise I will stop the bulk casting I have been doing (bit of a relief, I need a break from casting).

 

I did get some pics regarding the Planetstrike guns as well:

 

 

As you can see only with the box base can the guns fire over the walls with the plinths, however the other base isn't far off. I think I will be doing a new base from scratch, similar to the small base (as shown on the left) but tall enough to be used behind the taller wall set up.

 

Along with building some sub assemblies I'll be casting some mounting plates and adding them to the walls - I need a shed load of these so i'm not really looking forward to it.