After market and conversion bits on Ebay

Searching for an easy means to finish some of the models I'm currently making I've started to compile a list of people selling items.

After Market

• http://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/onemannoodles
• http://stores.ebay.com/Blood-and-Skulls-Industry
• http://www.ebay.es/sch/henrich5/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=25
• http://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/horizoncreation3d?rt=nc
• http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/luckypunk-uk/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_ipg=&_from=

Official Bits

• http://bitzbox.co.uk/
• http://www.bitsandkits.co.uk/

Not on eBay

• http://thedarkworks.bigcartel.com/products
• http://www.blightwheelminiatures.com/
• http://madrobotminiatures.com/
• http://svarogminiatures.com/

Gorgon Armoured Transport Tracks

Well this ones sat there for some time without the tracks being added. I've has at least three attempts to create some tracks for it. Every time I've been unhappy with the end result and shelved it. I've also ended up putting the project on hold and sticking it away on a shelf to gather dust....

The picture above is the state it was left in February 2015.

So while browsing for bitz to detail some other models I'm busy with I found some really nice items on eBay.

onemannoodles is the supplier and his shop can be found here. While browsing through his items I noticed some tracks on a scratch built tank and they looked pretty much what I needed for my Gorgon Transport. After a few messages via eBay discussing the size and the length of total track I needed, he offered to cast the required amount for £12. Also as part of the discussion I asked if some of the vents he has produced were available with a diameter of 6mm. He didn't have any that small but would put some on his shapeways shop TheUncannyAutomaton. Within an hour he'd messaged me back with a link to the item in his shop.

Hopefully these and the Tank / machine detail parts should save me some time with detailing. Not sure how long shapeways take to deliver, i hope not too long.

So on Friday there was a nice parcel pushed through my letterbox containing the following.

He actually sent about three times the amount in the picture. With every dad favourite day fast approaching they sat on my cutting mat until Sunday.

So now it's Sunday and I get an hour to myself and start to dry fit the tracks. The width is spot on as he said it would be. So with a 27cm strip of plasticard I start to fix the tracks in place with a spot of ca. As you can see the end result is a really good fit.

I'll be able to finish the other side in the next few days and possibly start to paint the full model in the coming weeks.

There's a few other items I'm after from his shapeways shop which I'll post once I order them. I would really recommend looking.

3D printing and scratch building

Getting bogged down with trying to create some fine detail parts for all the scratch building I've got going at the moment, I've been putting together a couple of 3d printers.

Firstly there's the one that I can justify to my wife! It's a learning tool for the kids honest..

http://www.3dprinter-collection.com/default.aspx

At about £7 a week it's sort of affordable but at 90 issues it's going to be while before it's finished. The specs are ok, so should be a good general purpose printer and it has a decent size print area.

Next up indestructibles.com 

The first one is a nice design by a 13 year old in Canada! I've most of this built barring a couple of 3d printed parts that I need to order. Again it has a decent print area so it should be a good general purpose printer.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Edge-3D-Printer-V20/?ALLSTEPS

To print the required catch22 parts for these and anything else where you don't have a 3d printer I've used https://www.3dprint-uk.co.uk/. I would recommend them as they are pretty cheap and the quality is really good.

Lastly a 3d SLA printer. I really wish I hadn't seen this one since I haven't finished the other two yet. I've already purchased the DLP projector. £9 with some minor display spots. Seeing the quality of the pieces the creator has printed, I need to get this working soon. Having the ability to quickly create control panels, tank tracks, hatches and engines will be a huge bonus. I'll be able to spend even more time with the kids looking an the unfinished commercial 3d printer. 

http://www.instructables.com/id/Chimera-60-DLP-resin-3d-printer/?ALLSTEPS

If you have been using a 3d printer in your scratch building I'd really like to hear your experiences good or bad.

DKOK transfer sheet

Continuing a trend of starting another project before finishing the last I've decided I need some transfers to use with my DKOK stuff. Although I like the FW stuff I think the price is pretty excessive.

A quick scout around the internet came back with a low quality picture and a YouTube video which i can use as reference for mine.

Here's my work so far. Not too bad for a couple of hours

Imperial Guard damaged Chimera / Bunker HQ

Digging through some boxes of 40K stuff, I discovered some impulse buys from eBay ( hand's up if you done it?) Theses were some badly put together and painted Chimera's. As usual I managed to have to many projects on the go so never go around to stripping them and making them look decent.

So... while trawling the internet I discovered some pictures of some scenery both FW and GW did with a damaged Chimera. I want one!!!!

As usual the price and rarity on eBay are like winning the lottery twice in a week! So I decided to create something similar.

Out came the mini drill and assorted tools. A quick trip to the local art store for some sculpey and then start marking out the layout on a bit of foam card.

Luckily I made a mould of some sandbags a few years ago so save a load of time and effort having to create more. I was just able to press some sculpey into the open mould and create loads of sections to form the outer wall.

Digging through the bits box gave me some nice items add to the scene. Some extra plasticard was used to make some floor panels and the scene was taking shape.

Next was to start texturing the ground. Fine grit, wall filler and pva created a nice sticky gunk that was easy to spread out and give the effect of a muddy wasteland. A couple of applications seemed to be enough.

Next up the last of my precious rtv supply. Oh boy did I get through some! I think this was a full 2L tub but as you will see I think it was worth it. I haven any pictures of the de moulding of the master as it pretty much disintegrated during the process. 

Next I realised I had very little resin left and this was going to take a fair amount unless I could find some filler. Packing foam seemed to do an ok job (pink bits in the first picture), The remaining pictures are the de-moulding of the first cast.

Moulding and Casting DKOK casualties

I've finally got my self into gear and made some one piece mould of my DKOK casualties. The results are not bad.

Hopefully now I should be able to populate the battle field in front of my trench system with a few bodied.

I'll get some pictures up at the weekend if i get them painted.

On a roll... more moulds

Ok this just wont do. I managed to get a few hours to myself (ok so I stayed up way past my usual limit) and cast some more open moulds. This time it was the turn of some of my trench pieces.

Most of it has been successful... but and there is always a but. One mould had a small bit of RTV that hadn't been mixed and was still liquid when I prised the mast out of it.

You can see the offending area circled in red.

The rest of the moulds are producing some decent pieces.

There is only one more piece to cast but this is going to be a two piece mould. Hopefully the 3kg tub of RTV should arrive this Wednesday. Once it does I'll recast the wall section that failed.

One other issue I need to resolve is the floor section. For some reason I've made it about 4mm to long. This obviously means that all the wall sections don't line up. Pretty easy to correct but this also will need to be remoulded.

I can easily cut the the old mould into strips and reuse them in future moulds as packing material.

If anyone finds themselves in the same situation as I did and can't be bothered with the hassle of creating one from scratch or the astronomical costs on ebay. I would be happy to cast some up for you for cost of materials and postage,

Imperial Gorgon Troop Transporter

Not managed to finish my trench yet but I've been busy creating a Gorgon transporter for my DKOK army. This was started about the same time as the defence turret. The design is based on a paper craft template which I've been adapting as I make it.

You can find the template at the following site zealot.com

There's no real order to the pictures as most of the time I forgot to photograph the parts I was doing as they were made.

You can see from the last three pictures that it's not far from finished. Just need to create the tracks ( I'm currently on version 4 of these) and then add the rams on the front. After that it's minor detailing inside to finish. 

I intend to make a mould for the sides as they are identical to the ones required for the next project. Another cool DKOK monster. The Crassus. Again another paper model that deserves to be plastic.

www.papercraftsquare.com