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Monthly Archives: March 2013

Final-f**king-ly.

By | | Dark Angels, Miniatures
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I got to admit, this Storm Talon to Dark Talon conversion is a long and bloody painful journey. I’ve learnt many new things and new ways to build old things, but more than anything else it’s a bloody frustrating trip.

The cheek support took ages to finalize, and the gun mounts — not the guns themselves — took forever to crystallize into reality. For example:
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This was Mount Mk. I, from another earlier post. Turns out the ammo feed was simply too big and was unsuitable. So I broke the parts down and rebuild for Mk. II.
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Practical Problems

By | | Dark Angels, Miniatures
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So, I’m now working on the weapon mounts for the Dark Talon. Specifically, the Hurricane bolter mounts, the intent being to mount them on a turntable with at least a 90 degrees elevation.

So that wasn’t too bad…
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I’m actually quite pleased with the mounts, due to their simple assembly and clean lines. The ammo feed was put together quite quickly — I wonder how many who read this would remember a similar discussion in… happier… times — and actually wasn’t too much of a hassle.

I did make a mistake and that was to go with 180 degrees elevation. That on its own is trivial to achieve but the problem lay with the ammo feed; if you try to go 180 degrees, the ammo feed will sort of block itself. Try it sometimes, it’s just one of those things that doesn’t make sense to do.

So I’m happy with the ammo feed and the elevation, so I can move on to work on the turntable right? Well, let’s do a parts fit:
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It could fit, but the structure needed to hide the ammo feed is now so large that it overwhelms the miniature. The conventional feed system just takes up too much space. So, back to the drawing board,

The best way I can think of to solve the oversized structure problem is to rotate the feed through 90 degrees to lay the feed flat against the axle of the elevating arm. That should compact the amount of space needed down to something much more manageable. But that’s also going to be quite interesting to try to pull off…

Little Steps – Hinges

By | | Miniatures
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20130313-141814.jpg

Small steps to the next phase of the build. Ended up building hinges — this will eventually become the lifting/ elevating arm for my turret/ gun mount. The turntable will go underneath the hinge, and the lifting arm will be magnetized to accept different weapons. The hinge itself would be hidden by some detailing.

Right now though I have a poor idea of the size and length that is required and constrained, so it’s a bit oversized. Nothing a bit of filing and cutting can’t fix. Just time consuming.

These hinges are fairly custom, there’s very few aftermarket parts that sells these or are of the correction dimensions. One of the fundamental sis to know how to build these, and the forces/ mechanics involved. Range of play and motion must be understood to build a better hinge; my experiences with the Ork Bomma gave me some ideas how to better construct a hinge, and I used some of the lessons here.

Finally, a possible breakthrough?

By | | Uncategorized
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20130311-180010.jpg
I’ve been working on this stupid Talon for quite some time and it’s kind of frustrating, in that the concept is there, but just fails to materialize into reality. The main problem is the weapons; I wanted a design that can both rotate AND elevate, and that has eluded me for the past few iterations. It’s not a simple thing when you have to figure out how to get ammo or power to the guns, while maintains compatibility and a compact size.

So meanwhile, I kept building up the side pod mounts. These have to accommodate the existing engine pods, which is tricky because I don’t have plastic tubes of the correct dimensions. This meant a bodged together job which frankly just grew out of proportion. A lot of areas have mismatching joints, because I’m just bodging, not planning the build.

Another frustrating point is that the landing foot pads are going to need an extended leg in order to be able to give enough clearance for the engine pods, but how that is going to fit into the existing space is a headache.

Thankfully, it looks like I can finalize a weapons pod design which is flexible enough. Have to build and test though. Hopefully can get this bird into the sky finally.

Mechwarrior Online March Outlook

By | | Mechwarrior Online
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Well, the March Creative Director Update is out.

Big item appears to be the State Rewind update, which is kind of a lag compensation technique. I do expect for Asian and Oceanic players who regularly experiences ping above 250 to now do better… But if you were a poor shot previously this ain’t gonna help. They are tackling only some weapons and it goes in tonight, usually 2am local, so effects won’t be seen till tomorrow.

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Back to Work: Dark Talon

By | | Dark Angels, Miniatures, Warhammer 40K
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Last few weeks have been hectic with CNY and work. Not much time for hobby, plus MWO is doing unhealthy things to my sleep cycle.

So it is with some relief hat this got so what back on track:
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Work on the cheek mounts is progressing, just trying them out to see the effect. A more conventional layout:
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So now what’s left is to detail up and work on the Hurricane Bolters. That’s for another post.