Dreadtober: Dreadnought Servo Arms

Hi folks,

Arguably the most iconic wargear of the Techmarine is his servo arms. This poses a challenge to people trying to kit bash a Techmarine from other parts and an even greater one for those attempting to construct a Techmarine Dreadnought. I would like to propose a solution.

Step one: get yourself a Killer Kan...

Killer Kan arms are fantastic material for making large servo arms. The pincers and saw can both be used with little modification, specifically the removal of everything remotely spiky or orky. Unfortunately, the one I had in my bitz box was missing these parts, so I had to improvise even further.

First I sawed off the arms leaving both the ball joint and a flat, smooth piece of plastic for attaching to the Dreadnought sarcophagus.

I removed the flamer to be replaced with a plasma weapon, as well as the gas tanks. This took some careful razor saw work. I also removed all of the spikes and filed them carefully. The twin plasma gun is from Victoria Miniatures though you could just as easily use another weapon from the GW range, or re-position the flamer nozzle that was just removed.

Before you ask, that was a Tamiya Clear Red spill form a while back, not Marc Clear Red.

I also added a Landraider sponson targetter for good measure. It makes it look more Imperial (Orks have no use for targetters). Voila, one Dreadnought-sized plasma cutter:

The claw posed a bigger problem. I took a close look at the rest of the Killer Kan and switched on my converter eyes, the ones that see what things could be, instead of what they are. I saw this:

I sawed carefully away at both legs to produce two parts for the claw of the servo arm. One facing of the claw had plenty of detail, which I would have facing forward on the Dreadnought. The other facing would require some more parts harvested from the rest of the legs.

I glued the two parts of the claw together then pinned the whole assembly to the servo arm to produce this:

So that was the two servo arms done! My last job for the night was to convert a conversion beamer. I used a 2nd Edition Dark Angels dreadnought twin-linked lascannon and a Space Crusade heavy conversion beamer. The targetter on the lascannons was making it hard to saw through the barrels, so I intentionally removed it to be replaced at the end. Here is the final product:

Phew! Kitbashing done, all I need to do now is bring all of the pieces together and give it a spray undercoat. Let's hope it isn't so windy tomorrow ;-)

See you across the table,

M4cr0

Dreadtober: Construction Begins

Hi folks,

After staring at my acquired Ironclad Dreadnought in consternation for a while, turning it over in my hands, I decided that the weird wall-thing on its back would be the first to go. Not knowing how it was glued, I jammed a metal file under there and started levering.

The back end popped off pretty easy but the rest of it was quite obviously glued using polystyrene cement; the plastic of the wall was bonded strongly to the Dreadnought. Not strong enough though:

What a mess!

Now that I knew polystyrene cement had been used, I was a bit grumpy (...just a bit). Super-glue, in most cases, I find much easier to remove and clean up. I decided to use my wire cutters on the sarcophagus guff, with the intention of cutting/filing down to the original detail.

Again, it became very obvious that this part had been super-glued on! What in the why for? Anyway, it popped off in two pieces pretty easily, revealing a mess of super-glue underneath.

"Let's use all the super-glue!"

The Imperial Laurel on the left side came off very easily with a hobby blade. I then started working with the blade to scrape away excess plastic and super glue, which left me with this:

Not perfect by a long shot, but ready for the next step.

After a quick bath in Simple Green, the addition of a potential coil and a Dark Angels symbol, as well as a black undercoat, I have the body of my Dark Angels Deathwatch Techmarine Dreadnought ready to paint!

For my next trick, I will be constructing some servo arms and converting a conversion beamer using some seriously old school bitz.

See you across the table,

M4cr0

X-wing: The Defense of Bespin

Hi folks,

This week I discovered a new FLGS, though I use the term lightly. Not that the place wasn't friendly, you just couldn't play any games there. Combat Company is an online store here in Sydney, with its headquarters a short drive from my place. Whilst most of their sales are online, you can buy directly from the warehouse, which is a surreal experience. Sgt Waz and I made the road trip and parked in the middle of this industrial/commercial estate; all of the roller doors were closed and only one door was open. The whiteboard on the wall as we walked in said something like "help yourself to a basket" and I was all like, "I won't need a basket"...

They had everything. EVERYTHING. I needed a basket.

All of the best miniatures games were there, as well as extra stuff by other companies that support the same games. There was also an aisle of bases. I bought myself some Infinity miniatures and a terrain pack, then spied on a top shelf above the register this gorgeous playing mat for X-wing:

We broke it in with a quick game between my Bespin Defense Fleet and some random Rebel ships that Sgt Waz chose on the fly, including two A-wings, an X-wing and Lando in the Falcon. With my heavy laser toting Heavy Scyk Interceptors, I knew I could deal damage at range, but up close the StarViper (Guri) would need to punch way above its weight, even with an advanced proton torpedo kicker.

The Bespin Defense Fleet steams towards the Rebels at full speed.

Early on I put as many shots on the Falcon as possible, stripping its shields with an advanced proton torpedo volley and nearly destroying it with heavy lasers. The return fire heavily damaged my StarViper.

Advanced proton torp to the face in 3... 2... 1...

As I came around for another pass the Falcon's turret destroyed my StarViper, but an M3-A Interceptor returned the favour the next turn. The limitations of the heavy lasers were starting to gnaw at me. I couldn't shoot at all at range one, so I was now maneuvering carefully to set up range 2 shots. Edit: I forgot that I could still use my primary weapon! Gahhh! I may have been at home playing X-wing, but my brain was obviously still at Combat Company, pouring over shelves and shelves of shiny cool stuff.

The Falcon is taken out from range 3, after a previous critical hit reduced its agility and Sgt Waz rolled a blank.

I started to whittle down the shields and hull on the X-wing, as the A-wings were proving too nimble and weren't doing much damage with their flashlights. Then they teamed up to take down an Interceptor and it was a 1 vs 3 battle!

Maneuvering to shoot an A-wing at range 2 whilst staying out of range 1 of the other A-wing and arc-dodging the X-wing. My best move of the game.

My plucky little Interceptor managed to take the X-wing down to the brink of destruction before running out of luck.

The return fire was deleterious.

Sgt Waz can chalk this one up as a win for the Rebels, though I'm sure Lando will be unimpressed by the dings in the Falcon.

See you across the table,

M4cr0

Iron Snakes: Master of the Forge Progress Part 3

Hi folks,

Decisions, decisions. Odyssean's shield has a lot of fiddly detail on it, which made it hard to maintain a limited pallet. The other shields that I have done were all quite plain, so it was simple to just spray them white and free-hand the animal designs in blue. With this shield, the space that I needed to paint white was actually the Imperial Eagle, with the addition of a Lambda symbol! I needed that Eagle to have depth but also be quite clean white to contrast with the blue; two conflicting effects. As such I undercoated it white, added a heavy Nuln Oil wash, then highlighted with white glazes, which took an age to complete.

The lambda symbol was an obvious candidate for the Warplock Bronze/verdigris scheme, which left the Imperial Laurel hanging, paint scheme wise. Usually I would like to paint it bronze with weathering, but I figured that would be too much. To contrast with the dark of the bronze I used Gehenna's Gold instead. To match the other shields in my Iron Snakes collection I painted the skull Enchanted Blue, then tied it all together with a Leadbelchers rim. Ironically, this side of the shield is the one you cannot see from the front, so I would have to spend considerable time on the underside of the shield. I free-handed a Leadbelchers rim in, then painted the handle gold with Runefang Steel wiring. I then added some blue OSL to represent the energised state of the shield; it be stormin'.

With the shield arm done I only have the servo-harness to do. I'll be taking that job one arm at a time, as each has its own important details that are deserving of time.

See you across the table,

M4cr0