Locust Mech

The Locust mech has got to be one of my favourite mechs since the birth of Battletech!

"Borrowed" from Joe Crusher, this mech, originally called the Ostall, became one of the "Unseens", which I believe those diehard mecha-heads will have no problems knowing what is it all about! Was there a popular Battletech novel wrote about some Locust mech pilot's adventures? Hmmm.....

Anyway, I was looking at this correction-tape dispenser the other day and the more I look at it, the more it is screaming in my head :" USE ME ! I AM YOUR DESTINY OF A MECH!"

At a dollar each, failing is a bloody option...

And then there was 2 empty dental floss dispensers (I have good oral hygiene...lol) from my bitz box:

... and adding all the parts together, they seem alright and asking for a challenge to my somewhat mediocre scratchbuilding skills..so here it goes!

PREPARATION:

Keyword : Research, research, research. Look at pics. Lots of pics. Make sketches, think how some common parts you see daily can come together, etc HELPS A LOT.

EQUIPMENT :

I think any modellers / scratchbuilders will have all the common equipment here: plastic glue, cutters, files, bits, paperclips (for pinning), pliers, scissors, pipcutter, plastic pipes, rods, etc of various sizes... and the trusty hand drill with various bits for pinning, drilling holes.

Some preparation work is needed, you need to sandpaper or file the plastic surface so paint / glue will stick better and Pinning always helps!

Some plastic rod were pinned and glued to the dental floss containers:

One thing learnt is measuring helps! This ensure when you are building the other side [Right and Left] are consistent...

 

 

I was pretty random at this point onwards, from the legs, I added a piece here, a bit there...hoping the overall feel resembles the real deal...If I were to build another, the joints could have been thicker..so...

 

 

After I got all the important parts, I hold them together for a dry fit, this part is necessary as you get a rough guide on how the overall mech will look like and I wanted it to be able to stand ON ONE LEG just like the one in the classic pic!

 

 

 

What the hell was I thinking?! So I shifted the weight here and there, added 2 rocket launchers to each side. Then I glue all the parts together and glue it on a square, 1mm plastic base, and.....

 

 

TADA! It actually balances! PHEW! The left foot was glued to a square black plastic base while the right foot claw's back claw was only touching it, so I added a dab of glue to adhere it to the base too, so the weight distribution is better.

 

This didnt really look 100 % like the original, but I was glad it's pretty close...

Onwards to adding small details, undercoating and paint later !

 

Thanks for viewing!

 

 

 

 

TO BE CONTINUED

 

Update: it is painted and done! Would you like to know more?



CLICK HERE

My Aliens vs. Colonial Marines Project - Corridors, Corridors Corridors...

Those corridors....

I needed cheap, effective walls to form up corridors and walls for LV426, or some other interior corridor scenarios for my marines to run around and get chased by Aliens, so after looking around there is these packs of plastic office drawer dividers which are of the good choice, they come in 3 pieces in a pack for about SGD2 [about USD1.60 at time of writing] so I bought bunches of them.

I polished /filed them with a fine grade sponge file to roughen up the surfaces so the black undercoat paint will stick later.

Bits are then glued on it from coffee-stirers resembling pipes, insulation pipes, bases and pill boxes to represent cabinets, drawers to break the monotonus, boring walls.

I will do a bunch with "Aliens infestation" with more tubes, gooey stuff and a victim hanging on the walls here and there later.

After the black spray paint, I drybrushed them with cheap acrylic grey paint from an artist supplies shop [a large, toothpaste tube can last very long and ensure conssistency in paint colours for all the corridors]:

I then search for suitable signs, logos and printed them out in paper, then stick them on the corridors using PVA glue.

"Alright, I want a nice, clean dispersal this time." - Apone

"Yo Hicks...I think we got something here. It's coming straight for us...Straight up." 

- Frost

More to come, thanks for viewing! Comments welcome too!

SAM Station from Common Household Items

Its been awhile since I've posted something, so I've been busy building a 20mm African warlord force and somec mechas for Future War Commander. They are in need of some AA [Anti Aircraft] battery, so.....

Anyway without all the BS, here it goes :

Some pill boxes from the local discount store :

 

And some thumb tacks with plastic buttoned heads, these act as the "radar dish" in front of the SAM station:

Some bases with plastic wall hooks were used as the base, and they were glued together:

 

 Some Hasegawa Aircraft Weapons 1/72 missiles were used:

 and these were attached to the sides, with some pinning work to toughen it:

 

IMPORTANT:

You MUST use either a fine sandpaper or file to roughen up the surface of plastics, especially the pill boxes so prep them for painting, otherwise the paint wont stick!

 

PAINTING:

 

I gave them a coat of black undercoat, followed by Vallejo's Violet brown and a mixed of bone white, followed by highlight to bonewhite to bring out the details.

 

I will give them a gloss coat and flat spray later to protect the paint from chipping, and viola ! 3 SAM stations ready to take down the good guys / or bad guys / or some other flyers...hee hee...Here they stand next to some 20mm WW2 German soldiers give a dark african skin tone paint, essentially African rebels.

 

These SAM stations can also be easily used on 15mm or 28mm. So I find them quite useful and adaptable.

 

 

 

'ERE WE GO, 'ERE WE GO!

ORK WARBUGGY

This was made sometime ago, but I guess I will share it here with some of you guys who had those toy cars lying around, could'nt afford the crazy prices of a GW one, so...

why not build one ?

This used to be a cross country toy car which unfortunately I've lost the pic of it, but any buggy car of about the official size will do. This one has some nice fenders infront and the wheels have those rough ridges which is nice and screamming WAAAGH all over...keke

The original body of the vehicle had a metal frame, which I've unscrewed and toss it away, leaving the bottom part with the wheels, which I've cutted it and shortened the body, helded together by hotglue:

SCRATCHBUILDING THE METAL PLATES AND SHOOTAS

First of all, you need lotsa and lotsa plasti rods and plastic cards...er...not really if you know what are the ones you need.

For this project, some 5-10 mm round plastic rods [shoota] , squares and 1-2 mm rods [for rivets] 5-10mm plastic cards [armor plates] will do:

The armor plate infront consists of 4 parts: 2 small squares and the the bigger square in the centre, and finally a long, shorter piece for supporting the 3 pieces together. Rivets were glued at the side [see above].


I made some spare shootas as you will never have enough of dakka...

The design can be simple, as shown above.

THE CREW

My friend gave my some old edition Fantasy Orcs, but rather than let them lying around hidden in some forgotten boxes, they are recycled here:

 

The body of the orc was cutted apart, and arms repositioned.

 

 



Glue 2 shootas together, added another Ork gunner behind, and the whole piece was primed black and after some easy paint job, viola! you have a Ork Warbuggy!



 

 

The one on the left is a rokkit launcha version, which consists of multiple tubes glued together. Its nice as Ork tech is shoddy, so you can get away if you are not too neat...har har...

 

I've made 3 of these and now they are off to the battlefield ! 'ERE WE GO, 'ERE WE GO!

 

Thanks for viewing !







STAR WARS EDGE OF THE EMPIRE RPG REVIEW

 by Fantasy Flight Games

OK its been awhile since I posted something, so just came back from the local gameshop and, how can a Starwars nut not have this?

THE CONTENTS
1 Adventure Book, 1 Rulebook, 1 intro sheet, 1 double sided map, 4 Character folios, 14 Custom dice, 8 Destiny tokens, 35 Character tokens, 5 Vehicle tokens.

This introductory set is decently presented, with a set of colorful custom dice, which takes a bit of getting use to. Each symbol represent Success/Failure, Advantge/Threat, etc. there are 7 dice types altogether, and each are used for their specific functions, there is the Ability die, Proficiency die, Difficulty die, Challenge die, Boost die, Setback die and the Force die.

It is also for beginners who have not touched any RPGS[Role Playing games ] in mind, with easy to follow booklets like "READ THIS FIRST", and "READ THIS LAST", etc...

The art is beautifully drawn but wait, there's no decent chicks?!

Even Oskara the bounty hunter, the twliek on one of the character's folio, seems to want to rip your guts out lol...

The cover art on the box looks "adventure" already, personally I prefer the Invasion of Theed's cover art even though its more "cartoony"...did I say the Jedi chick is cute?

Other than THAT, this is a really nice product, the art is great, and rules are easy to follow.

BACKGROUND

The intro game probably takes place somewhere between Episode 4 - 6, between A New Hope to Return of the Jedi, and had the players all trying to escape the servants and henchmen of a Hutt boss in Mos Eisley called Mos Shuuta, and plans to steal the Krayt Fang, a Millennium Falcon-like YT-1300 freighter from a Trandosan.

The story is nicely interwoven, with Teemo the Hutt as the main boss villain.

 The character folio are stock presented with a good background and layout so players can easily connect to each other and get the game going [and easy for the Game Master].

The hard paper round tokens are useful for beginners, for the old geezers, some Star Wars miniatures are on the way!!

 

SHOULD YOU BUY THIS PRODUCT?

Why not? Even as a proud owner who had the old D6 version West End Games, the Wizard of the Coast minis games, and the D20 ones, the material presented is good although it doesnt allow you to create specific characters, a certain tweak or mod shouldnt be a problem [althought because there's no Jedi characters, you might need to get the core rulebook...] this addition, however is a good, neatly packed Introductory set which will appeal to new and old gamers alike, adding to their collection of their Star Wars RPG.

More X-Wing and Bantha Express Pics with short story

Hi there,

Here's another set of photos from my trashbashed freighter The Bantha Express and Revell's X-wing and short story, enjoy :

As the Bantha Express hems and haws, its noisy old thrusters switched on and off and landed on the rebel base with a loud "TUDD". It was excorted by an X-wing on its way into the intricate and complex tunnels, heavily camouflaged at the entrance. From outside, it look nothing more like a thick forest basin.

X-wing pilot Jaz Malone hopped out of his weathered snub fighter, and walks over to greet the captain of the Bantha Express, his childhood friend back in Dantooine.

Drack Decker, or known by his shipmates as "Dee", came out from the ship and greeted his friend, while his crew unloaded the much needed shipment of rations and military graded blasters into the cargo hold. He was, however, not very pleased.

"Jaz, this is the third run already, THIRD! When am I getting paid?!" At this rate I might as well sell it to the Hutts, at least they pay, even if it's less!"

Jaz made a forced, apologetic smile and gave his friend a pat on his shoulders. "The commander's request for funds had been approved already, the credits will wire to your account soon, trust me, Drack...."

"The rebel's cause for freedom is important, you are part of it, and we will be freed from the Imperial's tyranny soon, aren't you proud to be part of it?"

Jaz, waved off his astromech while signalling for the tech people to service the Bantha Express.

"Spare me the threatrics Jaz! We are not holovid stars for goodness sake! And they get paid too!"

As the duo walks towards the officers' mess, Drack made up his mind.

He will sell the location of this rebel base to the Imperials. Whether the rebels pay or not.


He will also regret his action in time to come.

Revell's Luke Skywalker X-Wing Fighter

Very happy this came in the post today:

This is a Revell Easy kit, which is not only snaptite or snap together kit, the colors are pre-painted, so it is really fantastic for lazy people like me ahahahah ( - -!!)

 

 

The package also come with a nicely painted X-wing pilot /Luke and R2D2 or R2 unit.

No scale was given, but it measures something like 1/56 , so it will be dam fine for my Star wars miniatures wargame!

I'll leave the pilot out first so they looked like its docked and ready for some hero to jump into the cockpit!

Having builded quite a bit of Gundam kits, I am actually quite surprised how simplified the instruction manual is, however, it does have a very good description and background of the famed X-wing.

Other than that, the pictures on the manual are simple to follow although most of the parts aren't very clear, so you will have to figure out how the parts fit especially around the 4 engine exhausts area where the landing gears are...

The good part :

Its very easy to fix! Any person with some basic knowledge of doing kits can finish this in less than 2 hours or so.

The plastic are quite hard and sturdy unlike some plane model kits which have thin plastic and are quite brittle [purely for display kind].

The kit also allow you to build with landing gear on or kept in flight mode. It shouldnt be very difficult for anyone with some basic modelling skills to drill a hole underneath it and /or give it a flight stand.

The cockpit can open or close as you like, and the S-foils can open and close too!

Because it's pre-colored, you can leave it as it is, but for my case, I did a bit of washing and weathering, so the end product is nicer !

The X-wing are washed with Vallejo's Negro black, some greys and little amounts chest nut ink.

Overall a satisfying and simple build !

The X-wing is ready to escort The Bantha Express and go smuggle some supplies for the Rebel Alliance !