Launch Bay: Upper Gantries (Increased support)

As expected my continued building has begun to overbalance the structure. I am good with that because the design of the building is becoming more interesting to look at and there are other supporting structures for the building anyway.

This is just a quick update to allow people to see how I resolved the support issue for this lengthy walkway. I needed a way that would further glue the walkway to the central structure as only the diagonal support line going to the end of the walkway was the only thing providing any support. I could see that a full squad of pewter would cause issues so I started designing this structure.

It was originally going to be a single sheet of foamcore but I decided to bulk it out to allow a stronger attachment to the central structure. As soon as I decided to make a double-walled structure I had alignment issues and support issues between the two pieces. My solution is below. It may not be the best but again, I go with what works.

Launch Bay Ship Elevators: How to hold a flexible yet removable lighting strip...not a euphemism.

This is probably not the best solution but it is the one I focused on for whatever reason. I would like to add a few more restraining posts that will hold the lighting strip more flush with the back wall just to hide the natural bends in the lighting strip.

This was a package of flexible lighting from Christmas several years back. The strip had an adhesive strip but since I did not want to permanently attach the lighting strip I covered the adhesive surface with masking tape.

I essentially created a series of small card shelves and then closed off the front of the shelves to add more support for these pieces. I had to leave at least 0.6 mm below the shelves to accommodate the closed launch bay doors piece as it will slide underneath these.

An additional minor complication is that the one mostly-completed closed bay doors piece that I have is warped due to the gluing and I was planning on adding foamcore strips to try to straighten them out. These will also add height so I now have a very narrow margin in which to work. Still at least this piece is in about the 90%-done range. I have also included some test shots of the piece lit up. I have a lot to do on the central building but this piece will see primer by this Spring.

Launch Bay: Details, details...

Been spending a lot of time sealing up the exposed styrofoam parts of the foam core with card strips. I also decided to add an extended platform to the control building that will be between the launch rail sections. I have shown some of the WIP shots of this walkway as it requires a significant amount of support considering how far it protrudes from the building. There are a few more supports that will be added. The neat part of all of this is work is that the table is now playable.

I have included another set of assembled shots to show the collection so far. It still is not busy enough for my liking and would benefit from having a lot of hoses or piping hanging here and there. These are details that I will have time to add later as I will not be able to prime this beast until the Spring at the earliest. I need a decent outdoor temperatures to prime this project.

I am wanting to shelve this beast for the next while. I need to get back to the Warhound as I have just received notice that another model that I swore I would not buy is now on it's way to me to become part of the the "to be done" pile of large scale model.

Launch Bay: Detailing begins

So having made the mistake of moving these pieces around led to a full blown work session this past weekend that made my basement look like a cardboard and foamcore factory exploded.

I spent a fair bit of time detailing the elevator. One flight elevator is being modeled with the elevator raised while the other is being done with the main bay door closed. The elevator itself is in two levels as I wanted some slightly mechanical items to be visible through the mesh portions of the elevator platform. I then realized that when the lighting system is put in, some of the light should hit these mechanical parts so I added some lifts in the form of foam core strips. I am hoping that their arrangement will allow a bit of light from the light strip to shine from below the elevator. For all of the effort in designing and detailing, I have yet to test if this idea will actually work.

The main structure at the center of the first board section received some bulk and some detail. I added a second level and started adding some reinforcement to the outside braces of the structure. I do not have a clear picture of this piece yet so progress is necessarily slow but like the rest, I am going to keep adding bits until I am satisfied with it's appearance and bulk. I am trying to keep the center of gravity towards the end of the table but by necessity the structure will ultimately be supported by the gantries.

I have been trying to devise a structure or structures to surround the teleporter that would add a sense of walls without interfering too much with larger vehicles but I can not come up with one that would not be purely decorative as opposed to decorative and functional. So instead I decided to add some random mechanical detail to the floor surrounding the teleport pad. Most are pieces of plastic from other model kits, with a lot from the Millennium Falcon kit. Some structures are made using card and foam core to bulk them out. In truth I would prefer the board is busier (and it still may be). Because of the raised platform in the center of the board section there is already plenty of cover on the board. It just is not busy enough. I did avoid adding any detail that would interfere with stacking the board section.

The Warhound is still on the table. But the desire to build is currently winning right now as I take advantage of the holidays to reorganize the house and move things around/throw stuff out. I even spent some time assembling a couple of Eldar superheavy tanks but I am avoiding photos of them until some vague future date when they may get introduced to paint.

Warhound Titan (Legio Gryphonicus) Carapace Base Tones

Since we are so near the holidays, progress has been slowed down by real world responsibilities. But some small progress is still being made.

These are the base tone greys for the carapace. Like the yellows the plan is to highlight the solid colours, then spray fix the paint job so hopefully I can wipe away mistakes while painting the final layers. 

Again the plan is to reproduce the mottled look of the War Griffons as shown in the original colour plates in the Adeptus Titanicus game. I have an idea of how to approach that scheme but I have no idea yet how it will work. I will have to practice on some primed card to see just how viable my ideas are. I really do not want to use an airbrush on this model. I'm saving that for the Eldar superheavies.

Below is a rough mock-up of the of the carapace with the weapons and head. And yes, I will have to re-do the yellow on the head to match my current scheme for the model. 

P.S.

One of the reasons I am feeling compelled to work on these large models is because I have opened all of the packaging and mocked up at least some of the assembly on them (the Phantom is going to be huge). But this means that bits get loose and I have managed to misplace numerous parts. So when I started seriously assembling this model I could not locate the brass etch grating for the carapace. So I scratch built these stand ins to take their place until I accidentally turn over the rock I left the brass etch under. 

Space Wolves Thunder Wolves: Two Squads

Storm Shields for everybody and a single Thunder Hammer to round it out. I have the last two models assembled but have yet to settle on their weaponry.

So oddly I went from hating the concept to owning about 11 of these models. Marines should not ride dogs.