Friday 3 June 2011

266 Assault Craft Progress

Well, it's coming on a treat. This post is mostly just photos - you can make your own minds up, but thanks for the support you gave me following my last post! In case you're wondering, this is about £1.50's worth of plasticard. Yes there are some frills to add, but this is the barebones, simple and cheap effect I was going for.

NB: I'm having a lot of trouble commenting on your posts at the moment: sorry. Some great stuff to read though, thanks!










C&C appreciated, cheers,



- Drax.

14 comments:

  1. That's outstanding mate.

    Out of interest, how thick is your plasticard? How do you work with it?

    I'm interested in giving something like this ago. Hope my efforts turn out as well as yours.

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  2. Awesome stuff. The real scary item is red with wheels in your photos ...
    A Cadian Horse ?

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  3. Good on ya, Drax. I haven't seen that kind of creativity in a while. Very nice indeed.

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  4. I think it looks pretty freaking sweet! Will the ramp eventually go up and down? Might add complexity, but it would be pretty cool. Keep the updates coming!

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  5. Love it man. Like the Idea and concept. It would be really cool if the landing door went up and down which was connected by chain, like the landing craft out of Saving Private Ryan. Can't wait to see the finished product. Keep it up mate.

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  6. Love it mate! Reminds me of one of the boats in saving private Ryan. Will be looking forward to see more of this beauty! Even adapting the chimera like sides ha ha.

    Keeping it in the empire style(always amazed at how many tanks use the same components)!

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  7. Very Nice! It's better than what I first imagined. Looks very similar to one of those D-Day landing craft - is that the look you were going for?

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  8. Hi, All, and thank you very very much for the props!

    To answer some questions:

    >Corbane: The hull and track fairings are 2mm; the cabin is 1mm. All the detailing will be 1mm too. It was sold as 'PVC' rather than plasticard - all I know is it takes to superglue like a 'DUKW' to water. [pun definitely intended]

    >jmezz: That, my friend, is 'Spot' the wheeled-dinosaur-on-a-string. We bought him in a Chicago South Side dime store years before we had the baby, but she absolutely loves dinosaurs, so he's a star attraction.

    >Geek, Dave and everyone else: Thanks! The idea of this exercise is pure bloody simplicity - an STC, if you like, that anyone with minimal tools can make dirt cheap. To that end, no the ramp doesn't go down. I might try it with a future version, but the trouble is two-fold:

    1) The hinge mechanism: I have actually modelled plastic tube hinges at the base of the ramp (beneath), and the principle could easily be extended to make a real hinge...OR piece of cloth/tape could act as the hinge, cunningly concealed...but all that (plus latches to keep it in place) adds to the complexity, which is contrary to the spirit of this project, and

    2) Fixing the ramp in place really adds rigidity to a model that is essentially just glued together at right angles with no support.

    Truth be told, I'm not overly happy with the angle of the ramp, but it's like that for a reason, I guess - simplicity again (no fancy tools needed to measure 45 degrees!).

    Frilly bits are on their way - I've been sketching out more ideas for the detatiling - but essentially, that's the nuts and bolts of the model, for a couple of quid plus spare tracks. All else is cosmetic.

    And when I post the plans you'll see just how simple this is.

    By the way, does anyone know of a free program I could use to draw the plans digitally?

    Oh, and why don't keyboards have a 'degree' symbol any more?

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  9. Sorry - yes I was going for a WW2-style look.

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  10. Nice.
    There might be one of these in my future.
    and some water terrain boards... ooh and a patrol boat.

    dammit!

    oh, yeah, anyway, free software to make plans.. well you could 3D model it on google sketchup and print elevations.

    or you could use G.I.M.P. if you are used to bitmap packages like photoshop.

    don't know of a free vector package(like illustrator) but I'm sure there is one.

    of course, theres always "paint" :)

    or you could scan paper plans, send em to me and i'll do pdf vector versions :)

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  11. Google Sketchup is free and relatively simple to learn. Something more complex, but still free, would be Blender.

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  12. There's an inland sea in the centre of Benq.

    You'll have to defeat the heretics and cross the sea to get to the Orks.

    (humm, and the Ork Navy....)

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  13. Thanks for the suggestions, guys - I'll look into them (though I'm not looking up 'G.I.M.P' as this is my work laptop!

    More pics tonight...

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  14. Very very cool looking, and even better that a full squad fits in there just right!

    Great work Drax.

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Thanks for taking the time to comment!