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Post by loyalist on Jan 1, 2016 21:13:25 GMT
I've been assembling the tripods from 2 starter boxes today; not happy with the poses of the tentacles, so have been modifying them to appear more serpentine as in H.G. Wells novel, which I've just read again.
I've been cutting the tentacles at 2 or more joints, drilling the ends with a pin vice for thin brass rod inserts, then ca gluing them together but with the joints rotated from the original positions, usually by 45-90 degrees to add a second curve. (The stock tentacles simply curve downward.) Every tentacle is different.
Modifying the Heat Ray tentacles changes the gun angle, usually vertically, so I cut off the 3 segments above where the cable from the HR enters a segment, drilling a hole in each piece for the brass rod before cutting it off the tentacle. A piece of brass rod is bent into a shallow curve and glued into the HR end of the tentacle; the segments that were cut off are slightly beveled on the distal (far) end and fed onto the brass rod like beads. Each is test fitted then glued in position. Then the rod is trimmed to fit into a hole drilled in the upper end of the tentacle and the two sections are glued together. This made a big improvement in the appearance of the models and allowed the Heat Rays to be trained fully forward vs off slightly to the right.
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Post by madmorgan on Jan 2, 2016 3:53:26 GMT
Man, I wish I had your patience and skill. So much work with great results. A Salute Sir!
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Post by novista on Jan 3, 2016 22:22:33 GMT
Modifying the Heat Ray tentacles changes the gun angle, usually vertically, so I cut off the 3 segments above where the cable from the HR enters a segment, drilling a hole in each piece for the brass rod before cutting it off the tentacle. A piece of brass rod is bent into a shallow curve and glued into the HR end of the tentacle; the segments that were cut off are slightly beveled on the distal (far) end and fed onto the brass rod like beads. Each is test fitted then glued in position. Then the rod is trimmed to fit into a hole drilled in the upper end of the tentacle and the two sections are glued together. This made a big improvement in the appearance of the models and allowed the Heat Rays to be trained fully forward vs off slightly to the right. Here's what I did, I moved the heat Ray from the right to the left arm, cutting the HR tube at the arm seg and repositioning, I lost a little length but hey. I thought about pinning with brass, then realised I'd have to go to the shed to get another box out, also gluing metal and plastic. So I used the tube from the black dust launcher to pin and got a great bond from poly cement.
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Post by Quendil on Jan 4, 2016 14:03:38 GMT
I didn't put this in the WIP section as photos are required and at present I have no place to host them and link to. I can post them directly when the forum has that capacity. You don't need photos to post in the WIP section it just helps to show what you are doing. Also you don't need to have your own hosting account to post images look at option 2 here aqmf.freeforums.net/thread/4/add-images-posts
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Post by madmorgan on Jan 4, 2016 16:30:06 GMT
ah ty
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Post by loyalist on Jan 12, 2016 2:42:53 GMT
Here are some photos of the tentacle mods:
Well so much for that! After a dozen attempts to upload photos I've given up. All uploads of every image stalled at 37%. Is there a problem uploading from Macs?
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Post by Quendil on Jan 12, 2016 8:26:24 GMT
Here are some photos of the tentacle mods: Well so much for that! After a dozen attempts to upload photos I've given up. All uploads of every image stalled at 37%. Is there a problem uploading from Macs? I use a Mac and have not had any issues. Sounds more like an Internet issue with connection speed or web traffic
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Post by loyalist on Jan 13, 2016 14:09:17 GMT
I don't know what the problem is but I got up twice overnight when web traffic should have been low and this morning the situation is unchanged - none of the photos will fully upload. The program finds the files then stalls part way through uploading, usually at the same percentage for each photo. Maximum upload has been 62%. I've tried posting non-AQotMF photos that were successfully posted on other sites but nothing will upload completely.
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Post by Quendil on Jan 13, 2016 14:28:54 GMT
I don't know what the problem is but I got up twice overnight when web traffic should have been low and this morning the situation is unchanged - none of the photos will fully upload. The program finds the files then stalls part way through uploading, usually at the same percentage for each photo. Maximum upload has been 62%. I've tried posting non-AQotMF photos that were successfully posted on other sites but nothing will upload completely. Probably best to try a Photobucket or Imgur site to host the pics than but the link in the post Option 1 aqmf.freeforums.net/thread/4/add-images-postsI use Photobucket myself
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Post by loyalist on Jan 14, 2016 11:49:57 GMT
Trying again after rebooting: It worked! These are my Assault Tripods with Green Gas demonstrating over-hand and under-hand tosses of the grenades. The containers of Green Gas grenades were moved onto the body - it didn't make sense to me that the Martians would give up use of a tentacle just to hold the container. Gluing a small square of 1mm styrene over the hole in the container where it was supposed to attach to the stubby tentacle was enough of a spacer for gluing it to the body. Thinking of putting a second container on the left side.
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Post by Quendil on Jan 14, 2016 11:52:28 GMT
They look great, what colour scheme are you going for?
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Post by loyalist on Jan 14, 2016 11:59:41 GMT
The mods to the tentacles, though limited by the relatively small number of joints available, did make a difference in appearance. Every tripod's arms are slightly different. Black Dust Tripod with weapon down-angled because the range is only 10". Like all of the Heat Ray tentacle arms this one was rotated so the ray was aimed forward instead of slightly to the right. This one is reaching forward to grasp something. Sorry for the sideways photos - didn't expect them to appear that way!
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Post by madmorgan on Jan 14, 2016 13:51:26 GMT
Once again I salute your work - very sensible application of the battlefield uses vs the model. Looking forward to the painted versions.
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Post by loyalist on Jan 14, 2016 14:06:16 GMT
I haven't finalized the paint scheme yet - debating whether to light them or not first. I have an unused fiber-optic light kit that may be useful. I also need to decide whether to drill a hole at the front of the head ridge and add a venturi-style intake (based on the Norman Hyde venturi intake on my Triumph Thruxton).
They'll be metallic and because I want to stay close to the description in 'War of the Worlds', shiny. I'll probably use GW paints vs Vallejo and follow one of two schemes for painting the metallic parts of GW Imperial Knight kits that were published in 'White Dwarf' a couple of years ago. Might add a bit of copper tone via a wash.
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Post by madmorgan on Jan 15, 2016 1:16:31 GMT
I've not settled on paint schemes for most my Martian machines with the following exceptions: all earthproduced figures will have an antique gold secondary finish, for example the Veteran, Royal Scientist, may the Royal Viral Drones. I intend to do at least one cell of metallic red hulls and probably will go on to do metallic blue, green, and at least one pewter look. I'm not sure about this, as I want to be able to plug any Tripod into any cell/pod for a given game. The 'regular' silver might be highlighted by some aluminum.
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