15mm New Vistula Legion ( NVL)

[zrunelord]

Hello again all,
Been some time since I posted.
Here is my latest army.
The infantry are NVL  from O8 ( Assault Publishing )
The vehicles are  Scratchbuilt.
The mecha are EM4 plastic ones ( which I used in previous builds ) with Warlord plastic Ghar heads.
The drones are vintage 1991 heavy jetpacks by a now defunct company.

Thanks for your comments.
Z

https://castrarunis.blogspot.com/2019/05/new-vistula-legion-nvl.html

[AWu]

Very nice. Ans super realistic basing in 15mm.

[Ockman]

Very cool, Z!

[zrunelord]

Thanks all,
I forgot to add that the mechs' arms are plastic sprue & old Gw boltguns.

I'll post more pics soon.

Z

[Ultravanillasmurf]

Nice work.

Ingenious use of bits for the mechs.

[manic _miner]

 Heads on the mechs look like they are from the Ghar battlesuits.They work really well.

[CookAndrewB]

The scratch built vehicles are terrific. I looked on your blog but didn't see a tutorial for those. Some really great ideas for other vehicles on there. I did have a couple specific questions I was hoping you could answer:
1) on the mech builds you have an 'X' pattern that is imprinted on the legs, etc. Do you have a tool that leaves that impression, or... ?
2) On the vehicles above, how are you constructing the main body? The add-ons and greeblies I can follow, but not the source.
3) I feel like I can almost picture what the wheels are. Tire stem caps?

[Cacique Caribe]

Z

Those look fantastic.  I’m jealous.

[zrunelord]

Thanks all for liking them,,
Cook,
The X pattern is made by pressing a flat piece of thin metal into the card . ( imagine a 4mm x 1mm flat  short piece of metal inserted in a hobby knife handle )

The vehicle body was first drawn on a piece of card, cut , glued then filled with resin to solidfy it.


But some others had the hull built out of wood then covered with card.
Whilst others especially the bigger ones had card hulls reinforced with card supports.

The wheels are cut down marker caps (  tyre valve caps are small & I have a plan to use them for moon buggies )

Must do a how to ..... sometime 

Hope this helps.... just ask if you have more questions...
Z

[CookAndrewB]

Oh lord, yes. Tons of questions now! If you are so inclined to do a tutorial I'd be quite grateful.

So, the first practical question I have is how you get all the angles to match up on your folds? From what I can determine from the planning phase above, there is some formula to it. So, the roof shape is drawn, and then I can tell a "flat" side has the panel drawn 90 degrees out from the corresponding roof line. Are the in-between sections used as tabs for gluing? I assume you could do that or edge glue if you were careful.  If you aren't looking to create a box, is there a quick formula for creating angles? I mean, I could see this being a serious engineering feat, but my brain isn't built for that. I can follow directions and simple math, but if I have to figure out too many angles I suspect my brain will blow a gasket!

Anyway, I wasn't sure if there was some secret of card building that I hadn't struck on yet. I mostly create buildings, so right angles are pretty much the only angle needed for my work. Slopes and such are new territory.

[zrunelord]

Ask away Cook ...

1 Can you sketch or draw? You have to imagine what the 3d model will look like. Knowledge of Eng. Drawing helps a lot but not indispensable.
A design has to begin somewhere.
Draw side,top,front & rear views of what you think the model will  ( hopefully) eventually look like.
Squared paper is very good for this as you only need a ruler & a fine point pen.

Make your angles out of paper first & see how they would align to each other.

Angles can be a bit tricky as it does depend on trial & error to get them to align just how you want them. I will forego pythagoras theorem but basic geometry is needed ,
Check online about basic geometry.

Look here.This was one of my most complicated builds , especially to align the curved under face & to cut the hole for the tower.

https://castrarunis.blogspot.com/2015/08/borderlands-terrain.html

https://castrarunis.blogspot.com/2017/02/borderlands-terrain-part-2.html


And my fav one... look up all the posts.



https://castrarunis.blogspot.com/2015/09/the-lander-is-finished.html


2 tabs are there to secure build. Use  smooth pliers to press them tight. A plier type stapler helps also or small clamps. You might try without tabs but it takes precision to align the edges & i don't do precision even if i wished to!!!!

3 keep in mind you are creating, so be prepared that the final design may be different to what you planned. Call it an evolution.

4 consider mdf or pvc to build your models also. Like these.


https://castrarunis.blogspot.com/2017/10/gzg-mercs-sons-of-blue-sun.html

5 I will do a how to... i have so many designs on paper.

Try it out , do not be discouraged. Use pva & superglue. Any card will work but some is better , for eg. I like the card beer can 6 packs are packaged in locally. Smooth brown card. You must score card to bend , use a thin rounded steel point for this not the reverse of a knife blade, as blades have a tendency to damage the card... unless you want to cut through.
Tools are your friend. I buy hand tools especially for the shape of their jaws. Try to imagine the imprint they will make.

Hope this helps
Z

And here are more pics

[Ultravanillasmurf]

That is a nice building.

Good work on the rest of the models as well.

[Billchuck]

Anyway, I wasn't sure if there was some secret of card building that I hadn't struck on yet. I mostly create buildings, so right angles are pretty much the only angle needed for my work. Slopes and such are new territory.

Print out some paper models and see how the pieces combine to form complex shapes. You can find a lot of good ones here:  https://www.genetmodels.com/free-stuff/

From there you can move on to designing your own models.

[zrunelord]

Good one Bill,
Those are great models & generously shared for free.

Though I would have to add that there is a great big difference between  scratchbuilding & building paper models especially if they are scaled down to 15/18mm.
At this scale they are very fiddly to build & I am speaking from experience.

Z

[Billchuck]

Yes, but the way the angles make the faces fit together on the paper models will be similar to how they work in your scratch building process. 

I’ve built a few paper models in 15mm.  I found the easiest way was to cut off the existing glue tabs and replace them with my own that sit entirely behind the seam.  It’s simpler to fold a long strip of 6mm wide card in half then cut off the lengths I need, rather than trying to precisely fold those small glue tabs in place.