WIP: Kugelblitz Mk III

[abbysdad]

Hi,

The parts for my Goliath are on back order so I tried to sculpt a vehicle. It was an interesting study in symmetry, something I'm not very good at. A few more finishing touches still need to be added. And I'm sculpting a diorama base for it. The inspiration is a check point gate or arch, a lot like the Pulp-City/AE diorama shown in the back of the core rule book.





The armature is made from un-reinforced super sculpy firm. The more curvy details are made from green stuff. The hard surface details are made from a mixture of green stuff and brown stuff. I'm planning on painting it in a stippled light grey/dark grey camo scheme. That should cover-up most of the mistakes filing and sanding can't get to.

Comments are appreciated.

Best Regards,

Chris

[xGIxJOKERx]

That looks really good. It is tough to make green stuff come out even and smooth on a small surface, to say nothing of a full model. Bravo.

[abbysdad]

Thanks for the kind words! Here is the whole thing together on its base, just need to paint it now. It should be done in time for the vehicles contest. The goal is to have it available for running demos against an American tank detachment on the church board and bridge board being built here in Pittsburgh.











Comments are welcome!
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Lessons learned from the process...

Use 3D cad if you can! I didn't have that tool available, but I totally understand why most vehicles are done that way now. Blending a curve 3 different ways is tough.

If I had to do it all over again, I'd have cast the pieces separately instead of trying to build it as one. I tried that with the mark II, but cooling it in the oven caused it to crack into many pieces because some sections were thicker than others. So instead I started with a thin armature and bulked it up.

Pick apart what you want a complex 3D shape to look like and deconstruct it into simpler shapes. That was tough to do with the curves on this piece, but as a rule, it makes a complex shape easy to sculpt. And things like tanks and hummers are a lot simpler to sculpt than a crazy little disk. At least, that's what I think until I try one of those next.

I'm pleased with how it all turned out. I'm not thrilled, and I'd like to have done better, but for a first try at something, I think I did OK. I would love to know how exactly they tackle something like this at GW or PP or what the process was for doing the Tumbleweed.

[evernevermore(john)]

Sept 12, 2009 14:50:28 GMT -5 abbysdad said:

Use 3D cad if you can! I didn't have that tool available, but I totally understand why most vehicles are done that way now. Blending a curve 3 different ways is tough.

If I had to do it all over again, I'd have cast the pieces separately instead of trying to build it as one. I tried that with the mark II, but cooling it in the oven caused it to crack into many pieces because some sections were thicker than others. So instead I started with a thin armature and bulked it up.

Pick apart what you want a complex 3D shape to look like and deconstruct it into simpler shapes. That was tough to do with the curves on this piece, but as a rule, it makes a complex shape easy to sculpt. And things like tanks and hummers are a lot simpler to sculpt than a crazy little disk. At least, that's what I think until I try one of those next.

I'm pleased with how it all turned out. I'm not thrilled, and I'd like to have done better, but for a first try at something, I think I did OK. I would love to know how exactly they tackle something like this at GW or PP or what the process was for doing the Tumbleweed.

I can help a little with the GW process - somewhere in my White Dwarf collection they have the creation process from when they first made the multipart plastic Chaos Marines, the Fantasy Giant (last large model created by hand sculpting instead of CAD) and I think some of the Eldar vehicles, which were the first major non buildings done on the computer.

Now I just need to get further along with the abbey..

[csr556]

@chris - do you think we could have a crashed version for the demo at GASPCon?

john - how is the abbey going? I know the hills and bridge should be almost ready with painting and tracks needing done yet.

Have either of you let GASP know that we need a table? I saw a post from you John about needing a folding table, but I wasn't sure if it was for this or not.

[Darkson]

The Tumbleweed was done with digital sculpting. Only half of the beast needed to be made and than all the parts we cast twice (excluding the center ring and gun).

Nice work on this it looks great. Now get it painted and on the table.

[evernevermore(john)]

GASP is flat booked out in the prime slots but I'll check to see if we can beg or borrow a table as minis are currently under represented.

The abbey is not as far as Id like as Ive been bogged down a bit and started classes again - Im hoping to make a push this week to knock out a chunk of it as I realized a simple way to do the outside textures and some options for the interior. I just need to figure out how tall the lintels would be to get everything moving again.

[abbysdad]

Sept 13, 2009 16:29:10 GMT -5 csr556 said:

@chris - do you think we could have a crashed version for the demo at GASPCon?

john - how is the abbey going? I know the hills and bridge should be almost ready with painting and tracks needing done yet.

Have either of you let GASP know that we need a table? I saw a post from you John about needing a folding table, but I wasn't sure if it was for this or not.

@ Chuck,

Yes, I should be able to cast up two of them for CON purposes after I put the urethane hard coat on the model. It's about half painted now, so I should begin casting this week.

I had soo much stuff pop up in the past two weeks that I did not get to talk to the GASP people either, and John told about where we are with that.

Darkson/Rob,

Absolutley! Y'all should be seeing it painted on the board soon.

I figured you guys used some sort of 3D modeling package to do the tumbleweed. It's the easiest and most efficient way to do that sort of thing.

The funny thing is I couldn't find any model out there that was even close to what I wanted so I had to make it. You'd figure with all of the pop culture references to WWII foo fighters and flying saucers there would be at least one good model. But I looked around and asked for a month or so before I just gave up and started making my own.

Any chance you guys will be designing one in the future?

[evernevermore(john)]

Here is the link for the current schedules for the convention - www.warhorn.net/GASPcon10/schedule/day.php - like I said, the prime slots are filled, but we may be able to squeak in.

@ Chuck and Chris - can either of you give me heights on the Sturmaffe and the Werewolf? I found a good method of making stone walls but Id like to figure out how much to cast/make up

@chris - youd be surpised how rare flying saucers are anymore - its like trying to find tanks for those green army men... damn political correctness

[csr556]

Not including the base, my sturmaffe is 2.5" high from his feet to the top of his upraised fist.

My werewolves are packed to be shipped out and painted, but I believe they are very close in height.

[evernevermore(john)]

Thats around what I guessed - and now I know how tall to make the walls of abbey, or atleast the intact portions.