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Author Topic: Blackadder's WIP Warlord Titan  (Read 36260 times)

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Offline Edmund Blackadder

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Re: Blackadder's WIP Warlord Titan
« Reply #40 on: June 13, 2012, 08:54:05 PM »
Just another bit before I put this aside for the weekend. The detail is progressing nicely although what these devices actually do is a mystery. but they do look intricate and that is the look I am going for.

http://i.imgur.com/TSHHq.jpg


Tomorrow the main lower leg cylinders; that should be fun.

Offline Edmund Blackadder

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Re: Blackadder's WIP Warlord Titan
« Reply #41 on: June 13, 2012, 08:58:52 PM »
Building a workable pelvis.

First let me apologize for such a tawdry post but I figured there are those that might benefit from an image from the beginning of the construction. The waist block is probably the most important structure in the whole model. Not only must it bear the weight of the structure above but it must transfer that weight to the movable legs and sustain that transfer for the conceivable future (At least until The Blackadder has shuffled off this mortal coil.)

You will note that the structure is grossly undersized as it is about 5 cm square. This is intentional. You can always add girth, subtracting is more difficult. tomorrow I shall apply my solution to the articulation problem; i.e. a workable material that will sustain the pressure of the upper works and still be small enough to remain within scale.

In addition the thigh detail is coming along nicely (IMHO)

http://i.imgur.com/ndbbS.jpg

Offline Edmund Blackadder

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Re: Blackadder's WIP Warlord Titan
« Reply #42 on: June 13, 2012, 09:01:47 PM »
Today I worked on the pelvic mechanism which needs a bit of revising. Even though it works just as I wanted the sphere halves need to be undercut to fit the 'Tee' fittings thereby retreating further into the pelvic block. Therefore I need to mount the 'Tees' further outboard so they will be visible and allow for a great range of motion.

http://i.imgur.com/kiq1U.jpg


 http://i.imgur.com/LjIlP.jpg

Offline Edmund Blackadder

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Re: Blackadder's WIP Warlord Titan
« Reply #43 on: June 13, 2012, 09:03:36 PM »
It strikes me that this model is insufficiently complex.

Just kidding but over the weekend I received a query on another forum as to whether I was going to include an interior to the cockpit. I had alway intended to make the cockpit interior but it got me to thinking about my regrets when building the Lucie Warhound; namely no interior whatsoever. So...........

I threw together a front view of the compartments this weekend just so I could get a feel for how the various areas might be arranged.

Surprisingly it all fits and each compartment has about an 11 ft ceiling.

My dementia is serving me well.

Naturally the cockpit will be forward of the bridge and is not represented in this diagram.

http://i.imgur.com/eJxy0.jpg

Offline Edmund Blackadder

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Re: Blackadder's WIP Warlord Titan
« Reply #44 on: June 13, 2012, 09:05:29 PM »
I'm toying with the idea of stacking the decks like a child's stacking toy about the center pivot post:



This should afford ease in viewing the internal detail.

There are so many interlocking armour plates that alignment should be relatively easy to maintain plus there is the added bonus of modular construction which should facilitate modification and repair not to mention adding lighting at a later date as opposed to wiring it as I build.

Offline Edmund Blackadder

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Re: Blackadder's WIP Warlord Titan
« Reply #45 on: June 13, 2012, 09:08:08 PM »
Okay let's recap for the week to establish where we stand. The pelvic block is basically done and the legs are basically done except for the detail.

Now the cross 'Tees' are temporarily in place to establish the width of the hips and allow for the splaying of the legs ala the 'classic Reaver pose'.



I figure I should get this in before the weekend as I will be working on the 'hip articulation' whilst everyone is off having a life for the next few days.

I can see already that my greatest fear has been allayed and the pelvic block is not too big and that I actually have to increase the width of the hip joints once the hip gimbals are installed.

For that I shall have to employ a couple of PVC fittings to house the spheres and fill them with resin so they will take a thread much in the manner of the Lucie hip joints but this much larger model gives me the luxury of two articulation points instead of one that the limited space in Lucie provided.

http://i.imgur.com/QrSyc.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/GXt6s.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/kj875.jpg

Offline Edmund Blackadder

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Re: Blackadder's WIP Warlord Titan
« Reply #46 on: June 13, 2012, 09:10:52 PM »
Now we will further address the manufacture of the pelvis/hip attachment.

I found some ideal PVC 1 inch pipe nipple to PVC tubing adapters that fill the bill for the hip joint ideally. There is even an internal shoulder ridge after the threaded portion is cut off to act as the race flange for the gimbal sphere to be retained by.

 The remaining sleeve is drilled, tapped, and countersunk to receive the 1/4 inch axle screws............ (I apologize for the American Standard measures but there isn't the diversity in metric hardware available on this side of the pond for me to render this in metric components.

There may very well be metric items that equal or exceed the materials used but they are not available to me .).............

As I was saying, using only 1/2 the hip sphere it leaves ample room for the epoxy plug in the end of the sleeve to be threaded and hold the leg attachment screw.

I hope to achieve this later today.

http://i.imgur.com/noiY9.jpg



http://i.imgur.com/pFMWZ.jpg


Note the degree of flexibility that can be achieved with this setup. Stops will have to be added to cut down on this amount.

Offline Edmund Blackadder

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Re: Blackadder's WIP Warlord Titan
« Reply #47 on: June 13, 2012, 09:16:40 PM »
Time for the weekly recap along with a pic in pic comparison with the DS model.

I have to admit waiting for the resin to dry consumed a lot of the production time but I worked my butt off to get to this stage and it's a testament to the durability of this thing that nothing snapped as I slapped the components together.

Now I know the legs look a bit thin but if you look at the comparison shot and mentally remove the armour and spurious hydraulics there is a reasonable case for verisimilitude.

The images are self-explanatory when taken in conjunction with the recent WIP posts but I can explain any area that anyone might be unclear about.

http://i.imgur.com/CQ1BA.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/uQF8B.jpg

This is a very bad pose but it does demonstrate the flexibility of the design.

http://i.imgur.com/NVgrW.jpg

A pose reminiscent of the classic Reaver stance.

http://i.imgur.com/I8lZN.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/Mkwk0.jpg

A pic-in-pic comparison with the DS model.

http://i.imgur.com/pUzzc.jpg

Offline Edmund Blackadder

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Re: Blackadder's WIP Warlord Titan
« Reply #48 on: June 13, 2012, 09:19:47 PM »
As you may know I post on a lot of fora and the question/criticism I get most often is that the legs look too thin. When I was building Lucie that was the most frequent observation and I appreciated the kind intent to warn me of impending mistakes. It turns out that I kept increasing the cross section of Lucie's legs until I realized a reference namely the banners on the knee segment.

It turns out that Lucie's appendages are much more robust than the FW model and the latter looks anorexic vis-à-vis Lucie.

Now the same concern is being voiced regarding this model and I do appreciate the critique; I'm also a bit anxious about it so I 'shopped the DS leg from the back removing all the front armour and if anything the legs actually look thinner than my titan's. I couldn't remove the hydraulics.

http://i.imgur.com/Kgq0Z.jpg
 

There are a few inconsistencies as my ankle discs is thicker than his but I needed that to make the ankle flex. and I have one more dart in the zipper-like design running over the front and back of the upper leg but thats just a matter of artistic interpretation as there are only five or six on the epic model.

So to paraphrase the line of 'The Black Adder' in the Infanta's Beard episode, "So Percy, what you are telling me is something you've never seen is slightly less thick than something else you've never seen."

I appreciate the candor,

The incorrigible Blackadder

Offline Edmund Blackadder

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Re: Blackadder's WIP Warlord Titan
« Reply #49 on: June 13, 2012, 09:21:44 PM »
No everything is just slapped together, it's like a house of cards but;

This just in:

New information regarding the size of the legs:

The fine line of madness seems to be serving me in good stead. My son on return from college apprises me that  there is a perfect Leman Russ component that will verify or refute the scale and width of the leg components.

He recognized right off that the ankle disc leveling device on the DS Warlord is actually the dozer blade actuator of the Leman Russ item 4 on the image below and that all I need do is apply it to the rear of the lower leg to determine if my eye was off or on regarding the width of the DS model.

http://i.imgur.com/dP8Gd.jpg


The images below vindicate my perception at least regarding the lower leg width as it appears that I cannot be off by more than the tiniest fraction of a millimeter,. whew!

http://i.imgur.com/bATIm.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/sfSNd.jpg
« Last Edit: June 13, 2012, 09:24:03 PM by Edmund Blackadder »

Offline Shas'Oink

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Re: Blackadder's WIP Warlord Titan
« Reply #50 on: June 14, 2012, 08:38:22 AM »
Spot on!  ;D  I'd like to hear your thoughts on the Luck : Judgement ratio with that!

On the leg width though, surely once it's all up-armoured it will help to give a greater bulk to the whole thing anyway!?

I do have one concern though, but it's not to do with the leg width. Mine is the worry that those hips will need to carry the entire weight of the upper body, head and arms. The weight bearing down on this may cause additional stresses to the moving and static parts around the pelvis, being that this appears to be the weakest link in the connection between the two.

I am more than certain that you will have considered this already anyway...





Offline Edmund Blackadder

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Re: Blackadder's WIP Warlord Titan
« Reply #51 on: June 14, 2012, 06:05:25 PM »
Thanks for the reply. I'd say my judgment put me 'in the ballpark' and luck gave me a 'hole in one' to mix my sports metaphors.

Right now the hardware I selected would support my weigh about 17,5 stone the parts the screws go through are solid styrene so they should bear up under the load (I estimate about 1 stone max.) for quite some time into the foreseeable future. If I notice significant wear or sagging I can alway install a metal sleeve or larger diameter hardware.

Offline Edmund Blackadder

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Re: Blackadder's WIP Warlord Titan
« Reply #52 on: June 14, 2012, 06:11:00 PM »
Started on the greaves yesterday, it's interesting that such a simple looking panel is so difficult to get right. There are so many compound angles on these that I had to invent new ways to make them. I settled on a twelve mm thickness for the basic structure, most of the Warlords I see have armour way too thick to be practical. 12 mm translates to 2.57142857 feet which I believe is quite thick enough considering that the Iowa class battleships (the heaviest armoured ships ever built) have a belt thickness of only 19 inches. Given that in the far off bellicose future there is ceramic and/or depleted uranium armour; 30 inches seems to me to be more than sufficient.

http://i.imgur.com/0wuVH.jpg


Unless it don't look right!

Offline Edmund Blackadder

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Re: Blackadder's WIP Warlord Titan
« Reply #53 on: June 16, 2012, 01:30:22 PM »
Hmmm, have not posted for a week this will never do.

I got caught up in building the greaves and rather than post a half a--ed response I waited until I actually had something to show.

First the diagonal toes, I was wondering how I would mount them that they could be movable. They needed to twist when the front and back toes were flexed so they could maintain contact with the ground as the foot lifts during the step.

 I woke up Wednesday with an epiphany* the solution was simplicity in itself; no wonder I couldn't think of it (I never do anything the easy way.) Anyway drilling 7/16 holes in the diagonal toe mounts and drilling 3/8 holes in the toes themselves, gluing in the respective tubes and letting the dry overnight I trimmed and sanded them today and walla the toes are mounted. Now for the kick in the a-- from the great equalizer in the sky, they can only twist a couple of degrees! HA!

Oh well it's the exercise that counts.

*Is that what they're calling it nowadays?

http://i.imgur.com/1XR3O.jpg



On to the greaves:

As they were when last presented they were too boxy looking IMHO and I thought the DS model looked a bit overly large and clumsy with those wide straight sided panels. I still will make the panels but slightly smaller and the flying portion is at a tighter angle to the leg.

http://i.imgur.com/knCRu.jpg
 
 

 The greave base section is what is pictured today and I built battery boxes into them for 9 volt batteries. I'm not sure a switch will be necessary as the whole greave is easily removable and uncapping the battery requires but a few seconds. I can still install a switch if I find one small enough.

http://i.imgur.com/CJKTy.jpg
 

http://i.imgur.com/ylmzp.jpg


 The greave on the left is clamped because the battery compartment is glued in place and drying. Once assembled the box will slide on rails into the compartment and help center the leg to the greave along with rare earth magnets to hold the greave in place.

 

Offline adamscurr

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Re: Blackadder's WIP Warlord Titan
« Reply #54 on: June 16, 2012, 10:03:00 PM »
This is pretty spectacular...  I think you beefed up the legs enough that it looks believable to be carrying the weight of the body now...  Awesome work and I'll be waiting to see it progress!

Adam


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Offline Edmund Blackadder

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Re: Blackadder's WIP Warlord Titan
« Reply #55 on: June 17, 2012, 10:53:18 AM »
Ah summer when young men's thoughts turn to something other than tiny anthropomorphic figurines.......... .........

meanwhile the Blackadder blunders on. This has been a very productive weekend having come close to completing the detail on the inner surface of the greaves replicating as closely as I could (because I changed the shape of the greaves a bit to suit my aesthetic sensibilities) the DS model.

First the DS model for reference:

http://i.imgur.com/lZOma.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/ARboG.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/6Rawd.jpg


I have a feeling I won't be seeing any more critiques on the legs being too thin; quite the reverse in fact considering that the hydraulics haven't been installed yet.

I don't have any idea why so much electric conduit is needed for such basic structures; there must be a lot more than just armour plating going on in these greaves. Considering that these titans are millennia old I guess a lot of additional retrofitting has taken place as technology changes. Finding space for wiring and the like inside the structure isn't always practicable so running it outside may be the expedient way to go.

Anyway the detail on the toes is next because if I don't do it now I may not after the superstructure is completed.

Offline Edmund Blackadder

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Re: Blackadder's WIP Warlord Titan
« Reply #56 on: June 21, 2012, 05:58:12 PM »
The bloom is off the Tudor rose it would appear. The Blackadder has lost a lot of momentum judging by a cursory glance at the last few days effort but a closer examination will reveal a plethora of tiny detail on the toes all of which is time consuming.

On the basic structure front I began the upper leg armour and was very surprised how small the actual size was. Granted they represent armour on the order of more than a meter thick and twelve th fifteen feet long but they do look small even to me. I was use to looking at the top image on my screen which made the part look huge. I was actually concerned I had enough plastic to construct them. As it turned out I constructed them out of the scrap box. 

http://i.imgur.com/ejWUT.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/fo1TS.jpg

Offline Edmund Blackadder

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Re: Blackadder's WIP Warlord Titan
« Reply #57 on: June 24, 2012, 12:03:30 PM »
Once again the devil is in the details. I spent this weekend producing what amounts to about twelve square inches of armour for a model that will have I figure about 500 to 600 square inches of highly detailed surface. And thats not counting the framework or interior detail plus the lighting and the fiber optics.

It is highly satisfying to work on a model in this manner though. Were I to complete the basic structure and then attempt the intricate work I might be tempted to skimp on the finishing up; this way if I get lazy toward the end the huge blank surfaces will be readily apparent and that will never do so I shall be committed to keeping up the intensity of the intricacies.

Perhaps "committed" applies in more ways than one.

Anyway the thigh armour is more or less complete except for the bitz and the moss-like fuzzy that abounds on the DS model. I cannot figure out what that material is.

http://i.imgur.com/kF0R7.jpg


I it has a nurgle like quality to it that conveys great age and decay; could it be dryer lint? I must remember to save the lint the next time I do my underwear.

http://i.imgur.com/GocUY.jp


http://i.imgur.com/fryYx.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/PVNmV.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/NPpvn.jpg


This is my favorite picture so far, It really conveys the scale of this thing.

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"Aye lads there's majesty for you." Ahab to his boat crew in pursuit of the white whale.


Offline Edmund Blackadder

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Re: Blackadder's WIP Warlord Titan
« Reply #58 on: June 28, 2012, 03:55:40 PM »
Time to assemble the whole and see where we stand:

The upper thigh armour needs to be lengthened about a quarter of an inch but the hinge and plate should take care of that.

The trailing legs don't have a large enough range of movement.

The leg joint lock systems works well but the bolts still need to be concealed.

The hip axles are way too thin in diameter but the length looks right.
 
http://i.imgur.com/ikTXV.jpg


The step dynamics look right in both the static and the step out pose
http://i.imgur.com/51WPc.jpg


The front elevation while bland will convey the power of this brute.

I may have to mount the greaves higher.

http://i.imgur.com/4QfE2.jpg


And I just love these low angle shots
http://i.imgur.com/I0Er1.jpg

Offline Edmund Blackadder

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Re: Blackadder's WIP Warlord Titan
« Reply #59 on: June 30, 2012, 04:12:49 PM »
I'm looking on this thread as more of a public service. While I can't hope to equal Mr Smith in originality I do hope to shed some light on how he accomplished his Magnum Opus with a few little Blackadderisms thrown in to keep my self respect.

Today I worked on the massive block that supports the weight of the upper torso and transfers it to the legs.

The pelvis is the de facto heart of this beast and many of the models I have examined it is usually much too small. We must assume this Titan masses on the order of a thousand metric tonnes at least half of which is above the waist block. There must be something substantial to support this mass and still provide the flexibility to achieve bipedal locomotion.

Below is my interpretation which masses a third of a kilo already (about 11 ounces).

I built it in two interlocking parts so I have access to the adjustment screws to change the pose.

I figure when complete it will mass about half a kilo or thirteen ounces.

That's a lot of plasticard.

http://i.imgur.com/wzcVr.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/28sm5.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/GQp3H.jpg

 


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