Small Scale Military Headquarters

Hey guys. I know it's not 1/18. But it's close...
Started this about four weeks ago.
Basically it's an upscaling project of a forgeworld resin kit called the "Arvus Lighter".
It's a little dropship from the Warhammer Imperial Navy. I don't game at all, but i am a big fan of the design. I started off with "found items" for the engines(Plumbing parts), but realised there were truly a compromise, so i scratched my own engines from plumbing tubing. Intakes are altered cast copies of the ARC-170 engine intakes from Hasbro.
Exhaust parts are the bottom end of the Pegasus Apollo 27 rocket suitably altered and cast.
Lighting is an R/C setup with ten LEDs for the cockpit, wing headlamps and bay lighting, a bespoke nav light system(Top and bottom flashing red, two strobes on the wing traling edges, red/green for position indicators), and two 6-LED torches for the exhaust lighting.
I am posting these in large volume because i started it four weeks ago and so i have a lot of WIP images.
If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask.
And enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCrQyf6o0J8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDyHVc9t0EU

WOW!

Thanks.
Incidentally, the guns in one of the last images are getting molded for the weapons locker in the back.
Enough to fully arm ten men.

Serious wow there. I know you're oriented to SF stuff but, man, you'd be a real addition to the 1/18 "garage builder" world ...

gburch wrote:Serious wow there. I know you're oriented to SF stuff but, man, you'd be a real addition to the 1/18 "garage builder" world ...

Well, i can build anything i can imagine...
I am actually just oriented toward flying craft. I love the flying stuff.
But it's true i prefer the "what if" and scifi stuff to the craft that actually fly in our own skies.

Wow!!! I'm not worthy of even looking at this build!! Amazing work!!!!

Great project! I'm the fan of KOW YOKOYAMA as well, really impressive!!

Man a lot of work went into this with a fantastic result.

Next time you make your moulds think about using Legos to make your box. Also you can stick your parts to masking tape and build your Lego box around the parts sticking the box to the tape.

CW4USARMY wrote:Wow!!! I'm not worthy of even looking at this build!! Amazing work!!!!

Thanks a lot. I am not doing anything you couldn't do if you tried really hard!

This build has been SO much fun. That's why i have built it so fast. It's been like a race. I want to see the final item finished!

plasticboy wrote:Great project! I'm the fan of KOW YOKOYAMA as well, really impressive!!

Thanks a lot. although i am using Ma.K figures, this cannot be said to be a Ma.K craft, unfortunately. But i will be using it forever in my dioramas!!!

pickelhaube wrote:Man a lot of work went into this with a fantastic result.

Next time you make your moulds think about using Legos to make your box. Also you can stick your parts to masking tape and build your Lego box around the parts sticking the box to the tape.

Thanks. I don't have any lego!

But i have a mountain of wood and MDF, and all the right woodcutting equipment. It's a breeze to work up the mould boxes in wood when you have a compound mitre saw, sanding deck and several hand drills!
Here's today's update.
Okey cokey.
Time for a reasonable update. I hope everyone reading this is as impressed with the work here as i was when i flipped the switches to turn on the lighting systems today when i was finished.
First of all a list of what i got done.
I got the upper wing support butresses finished finally. With them sanded into shape, i added the rest of the upper wing details.
I got the rest of the parts primed as i intend to show this off tomorrow to a few people i know. I decided i needed to do a full lighting test just to make sure there was room for everything, and that none of the lights needed extra cabling.
It turns out the cockpit dashboard light could do with being maybe 6cm longer. I'll get that done on wednesday at work.
But for now, everything seems to fit and, except for the undersides of the wings(Which i have yet to do), the craft is pretty much finished except for painting.
I have a few pics of the ship during the WIP stuff today, several of the lights all on, and three Youtube vids of the lights working.
I'd REALLY appreciate comments guys if you like the work.
Thanks for looking and enjoy today's update.
More soon, i promise.
























































And now the vids.

Enjoy!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVlNwJE8tlA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zemu5cKicJg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FqKI25sXfI

where did you get all of the 1/20 figures?

ignorant_blanket wrote:where did you get all of the 1/20 figures?

They are Brickworks figures from Japan. You can do a search. Or search Ebay for "SF3D figure", "Ma.K resin" or "1/20 resin figure".

i thought thats what they were. thanks for the info.

ignorant_blanket wrote:i thought thats what they were. thanks for the info.

No worries. It's no problem.
I tend to use Ma.K figures for most builds, and as i tend to always build flying craft, i use the Falke pilot as the pilot in everything.
Still a WIP, but here's my Anti Grav Jetbike with a Falke pilot(Made from a shampoo bottle...):

Wow Bar, seriously. For scratch builders in Sci-Fi like myself, this is really inspiring work.

I really don't know much about those Ma.K things. I've seen them, and I'm tempted to buy some, but just never pull the trigger. I wish I knew more about them... Some of them look like they maybe even have articulation in the suits and stuff. Which would be all kinds of awesome.

Scales seem all over the place though too... 1/35, 1/20, 1/16, and larger... weird.

Saw a cool looking speeder tank thing. 1/20 scale... would be an insanely awesome Star Wars conversion.

Jesse James wrote: Wow Bar, seriously. For scratch builders in Sci-Fi like myself, this is really inspiring work.

Thanks. I always just build what i enjoy building. That's how i keep my enthusiasm in it!

Jesse James wrote:I really don't know much about those Ma.K things. I've seen them, and I'm tempted to buy some, but just never pull the trigger. I wish I knew more about them... Some of them look like they maybe even have articulation in the suits and stuff. Which would be all kinds of awesome.

Yeah. Most of the suits are articulated. It's primarily meant to be so you can find a cool pose and then glue the figure into the pose, but you can leave it articulated if you like.
The very short basic version of the story is backworld colonists wanting to be free of a slightly oppressive government, and paying mercenaries to fight the government's "police"(Or military) and win back independence for Earth. There's no real bad guys as such. It's all just an excuse for cool models and kick ass dioramas.
For the back story, click here.

Jesse James wrote:Scales seem all over the place though too... 1/35, 1/20, 1/16, and larger... weird.

The majority of the items are 1/20. But the really large stuff gets done in 1/35 or 1/76. Ultimately, the scale of a scratchbuild is up to the builder. I stick with 1/20 because i have all those figures and the suits already in that scale.

Jesse James wrote:Saw a cool looking speeder tank thing. 1/20 scale... would be an insanely awesome Star Wars conversion.

Got pics?
I recently made a craft bassed on another guy's design in the Ma.K world(It's a fan design but still cool).

Here is my take on his craft:

Okay guys. Got a bit done today. I stripped the Arvus again, and removed the lighting circuits. I needed to add about 12cm of cable to the dashboard light(It was a bit of a tight fit, which was one of the reasons for the test fitting. To make sure it all fit in).
With that done, i dremelled out a couple of holes in the rear VTOL shoulders and added in the switches for the lighting(Shouldn't be all that conspicuous when they are painted, but it will make it simple to turn on and off the seperate lighting systems. I don't actually care if people can see them, lol.
Then i scribed the rear hatch topside(I was going to add the ridged effect like the original, but i think the scribed lines look better. Lower key. Not too large.
Anyway, i gave the ship two coats of black paint all over and then the interior green colour.
The exterior is mostly done. Just a few details to be finished off then i can get that basecoated too.
I think the interior colour looks good. Hats off to Chris for telling me about the colour. Thanks Chris!
Shouldn't be too long till it's all done.
Here is today's progress: