Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => VSF Adventures => Topic started by: Admiral Benbow on September 09, 2009, 09:21:44 PM
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What follows is a step-by-step report about building and painting my VSF Galvanic Lightning Cannon, entered in the Lead Painter's League Season 1 in July 2008. Yes, it's pretty long since I announced a report, first I had some delay due to other engagements, then I might just simply have forgotten it; my age shows again. :` Anyway, better late than never, so let's start with
Materials
The tractor started as "Stormtroopers's Water Tanker" from the Disney ATLANTIS toy line shown below. My construction was heavily influenced by a similar conversion made by the great Herb Gundt from HG WALLS, unfortunately no longer online with his massive site of beautiful terrain making and conversions of all kind.
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/3/93_09_09_09_9_12_58_3.jpg)
For the gun I used two sets of these laboratory things by Ral Partha, don't know the exact name; it could be used to build kind of a Dr Frankenstein laboratory. Two of the blocky things on the right were used for the gun body, filed flat and glued together back by back.
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/3/93_09_09_09_9_12_58_2.jpg)
Another item provided the idea for the smaller tractor gun: I had scratchbuilt this little gun years ago for a colonial steamer project which was never realized (till now at least ..). As you see, it was constructed from many parts of my scrapboxes, among them some 1/72 scale 8.8 gun parts. I really love this kind of "creative gizmology" as a fellow modeller called it once.
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/3/93_09_09_09_9_12_58_1.jpg)
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/3/93_09_09_09_9_12_58_0.jpg)
Construction of the gun tractor
The following pics show the main conversions of the Atlantis toy and building up cabin and main body from plasticard. The rotating open gun turret was constructed over a leg part from AMT's StarWars AT-AT walker (a plethora of useful parts, might be a bit blasphemic for collectors ... 8)) and decorated with rivet strips cut from the very handy riveted sheet of plasticard from Antenocitie's workshop. http://www.barrule.com/workshop/products.html (http://www.barrule.com/workshop/products.html)
Driver's compartment and body were designed quite square and bulky, as I was after that destinct WWI-look of heavy and clumsy looking machinery, and also riveted heavily, as you never can have too many rivets on VSF-vehicles, can't you?
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/3/93_09_09_09_9_11_10_4.jpg)
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/3/93_09_09_09_9_11_10_3.jpg)
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/3/93_09_09_09_9_11_09_2.jpg)
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/3/93_09_09_09_9_11_09_1.jpg)
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/3/93_09_09_09_9_11_09_0.jpg)
At a later stage I added a lot of details like tools and tool boxes, ammo boxes and an ammunition rack for the turret gun, the front smoke stack (from a gun barrel and a scale ship's part) and, yes, you guessed it; more rivets.
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/3/93_09_09_09_9_09_39_4.jpg)
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/3/93_09_09_09_9_09_39_3.jpg)
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/3/93_09_09_09_9_09_39_2.jpg)
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/3/93_09_09_09_9_09_39_1.jpg)
The machine gunner from Foundry's Boer War MG set was slightly modified to change the head position at bit, the weapon converted to fit into the MG-mount on the cabin top and a bullet belt added.
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/3/93_09_09_09_9_09_38_0.jpg)
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/3/93_09_09_09_9_08_00_4.jpg)
Construction of the Lightning Cannon
I had some nice looking white metal heavy wheels laying around, got them from a UK trader who always has his booth at the Intermodellbau (one of the largest modelling shows in Europe). The gun carriage was cut from 3 mm styrene, detailed and heavily riveted, this time with my trusty punch-and-die-set. I used some brass rod for the axle and decorated the gun's body with etched brass parts from scale railway accessories. This gives the gun a nice victorian touch.
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/3/93_09_09_09_9_08_00_3.jpg)
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/3/93_09_09_09_9_08_00_2.jpg)
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/3/93_09_09_09_9_08_00_1.jpg)
Main construction problem with the gun was to get all the quite heavy white metal barrel parts straight amd in line, and on top everything had to be build sturdy enough to stand the usual wargame handling. In the end I pinned just every piece with long pieces of silver wire and glued with two part epoxy. Till now the gun had seen some handling through our games at shows and the barrel kept straight. I added some more handrails and smaller details, and the gun was ready for priming.
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/3/93_09_09_09_9_08_00_0.jpg)
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/3/93_09_09_09_9_06_23_4.jpg)
One of the gunners got an extra long (for keeping electrical hazards away ... :o) firing mechanism into his hands, and then everything was primed a light grey colour and painting started.
Painting
Painting was a quite straightforward process: the tractor got some light airbrushed coats with Vallejo Model Air colour, using two different greens, the gun was airbrushed black, followed by brass hand painting. Then some washes with sepia and dark brown mixes with some added future-like fluids and alcohol for better spreading, some drybrushing and pastel work for that grime and dusted finish. Before adding pastels the pieces got two coats of varnish, one gloss and one flat. I let the pics speak for themselves, and if you would like to know more about any detail techniques or colours, please just ask.
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/3/93_09_09_09_9_06_23_3.jpg)
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/3/93_09_09_09_9_06_23_2.jpg)
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/3/93_09_09_09_9_06_22_1.jpg)
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/3/93_09_09_09_9_06_22_0.jpg)
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/3/93_09_09_09_8_57_14_2.jpg)
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/3/93_09_09_09_8_57_14_1.jpg)
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/3/93_09_09_09_8_57_13_0.jpg)
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/3/93_09_09_09_8_54_44_3.jpg)
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/3/93_09_09_09_8_54_44_2.jpg)
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/3/93_09_09_09_8_54_43_1.jpg)
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/3/93_09_09_09_8_54_43_0.jpg)
I really enjoyed building this VSF artillery set and had the first time opportunity to test the Vallejo Model Air line of airbrush colours. I was quite impressed about their good flowing abilities and colour range, and just use them currently for my next VSF project ...
This time it's no tank, gun, robot or airship, but a steam-powered victorian harbour crane! So stay tuned ...
8)
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Nice tutorial, can't wait to see the crane!
LB
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Absolutely Awesome...well done and thanks for the step by step!!
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Faultless. :-* :-* :-*
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Wonderful :-* :-* :-*
A real inspiration :D
cheers
James
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Skill, taste, and sublety in everything from build to painting. Beautiful weathering.
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Real little beauty. A right corker. So many cool little touches. Proper job VSF, none of your gluing rivets to a Land Raider nonsense that gets my goat so much. :)
The jury from Plynkestan say: "Douze points."
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Yes it is a marvellous piece!
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:o
Madness, I tell you!
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Stunning! Absolutely stunning!
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Wow, top bit. And all at once! High quality painting and workmanship. Top grades to you, sir! :)
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I have been looking for this for ages and I had thought I had missed it.
Stunning work. :o :-* :o :-*
The level of detail is great. It’s the little bits of detail that really bring it to life. :-* :-*
The paint job is great as well. :-*
I keep thinking I should try airbrushing the results look outstanding in an experts hands.
Very inspirational.
Looking forward to your next project.
Couple of questions if you don’t mind? :D
How did you bend the plastic beam around the turret?
Where did the bullet belt come from?
Thanks
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I need to go and have a bit of a sit down. Wow!
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For once... I've lost my speech... ;D :o :P :-* etc
Rudi
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Couple of questions if you don’t mind? :D
How did you bend the plastic beam around the turret?
Where did the bullet belt come from?
Thanks
First thanks to everybody for your nice comments; this will encourage me to finish that harbour crane in due time ... :)
The styrene u-beam is from Plastruct and was just glued to the round turret body using a liquid plastic cement (like Tamiya's super thin); if you start with a small part of the strip first, let it harden a bit and then be patient enough not to hurry, you would be able to glue it around the turret step by step. Then fix the end pieces with a clamp and let dry thoroughly.
Can't remember the whereabouts of the bullet belt, must be some 1/35 scale item from a set of ammunition I bought many years ago at a show. But I'm sure there must be a lot of useful aftermarket products from 1/48 scale military stuff as well. I often look for useful things for my 28s at 1/35 and 1/48 scales kits and stuff, you'd wonder how many pieces fit in nicely.
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as svenn says absolutely faultless
great conversion
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Excellent work. My hat is off to you Sir.
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Excellent work. My hat is off to you Sir.
I second that, pure genius :)
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And once again, I wonder whether I deserve to post when such wonders are being put up. Beautiful work, man.
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I second that, pure genius :)
Impossible to argue with that.
You've really raised the bar with this model. As the others said, so many wonderful small details, great imagination to visualise the final result and superb finishing.
My favourite part is the brass filigree bits on the "GLC". Just the sort of useless, expensive and impractical thing a slightly deranged Victorian inventor might add to a weapon of mass destruction. A small but perfect addition.
I love your take on the RA uniforms too.
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I'm not worthy, I'm not worthy............................................. :o
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Fantastic :o
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I may be a bit slow off the mark but I have only just realised why it is called Lord Kelvin's (I think?)
http://www.mymultiplesclerosis.co.uk/big-ideas/scottish-inventors.html (http://www.mymultiplesclerosis.co.uk/big-ideas/scottish-inventors.html)
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I may be a bit slow off the mark but I have only just realised why it is called Lord Kelvin's (I think?)
http://www.mymultiplesclerosis.co.uk/big-ideas/scottish-inventors.html (http://www.mymultiplesclerosis.co.uk/big-ideas/scottish-inventors.html)
sorry, but I don't get it what electricity and thermodynamics (Lord Kelvin's fields of expertise) would have to do with stimulated particle emmisson (rays) or conductor-free energy transmission (my presumed principle of operation for the weapon)
apart from the fact that Kelvin invented a GALVANOMETER, which might relate more to the name of the weapon
my guess is that it's simply a fancy name and sounds victorian
if I went with my guess, the name would have to do with Tesla, somehow late victorian and edwardian
but the Gun is definetely a victorian masterpiece, along with the steam tractor
is there something like Edwardian Science Fiction? ;)
or would this be called Dieselpunk? or Raypunk? or Retro-Raygun? ;)
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I may be a bit slow off the mark but I have only just realised why it is called Lord Kelvin's (I think?)
http://www.mymultiplesclerosis.co.uk/big-ideas/scottish-inventors.html (http://www.mymultiplesclerosis.co.uk/big-ideas/scottish-inventors.html)
Errr, no. lol
There are some very good VSF / Steampunk-novels around by authors James P. Blaylock, K. W. Jeter and Tim Powers, and one of my alltime favourites is "Lord Kelvin's Machine" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Kelvin%27s_Machine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Kelvin%27s_Machine)
Although the very powerful device invented in this novel is for time-travelling and has nothing to do with my cannon, it was crystal clear from the moment I started on this gun that it must be Lord Kelvin's etc. pp. :D
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sorry, but I don't get it what electricity and thermodynamics (Lord Kelvin's fields of expertise) would have to do with stimulated particle emmisson (rays) or conductor-free energy transmission (my presumed principle of operation for the weapon)
apart from the fact that Kelvin invented a GALVANOMETER, which might relate more to the name of the weapon
my guess is that it's simply a fancy name and sounds victorian
Sir, I can assure you that MY gun IS a galvanic lightning cannon.
And it's VERY infernal, too!
If not devastating.
8)
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If you follow the link you supplied to wikipedia and click on the lord kevin link in the plot summary it take you to the same guy I thought.
Err, YES lol lol
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Ah
thank You for enlarging my horizon on Steampunk literature
it seems I got tangled up between real and fictional characters here
my fault here - it seems to be an interesting book
but no matter what fancy name You choose for Your indeed infernally and devastatingly faultless model, it rocks nevertheless Admiral Sir 8)
so call it Uncle Tom's rock lobber or whatever You like, doesn't change a bit ;)
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That is one awesome weapon and a brilliant scratchbuilt piece!
I have been gathering my own bits and pieces together to do my own "really big gun" and this is great inspiration.
I can't wait to see some battle photos of this gun in action.
terrific work!
Cheers
Fuzzy.
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http://www.ths-wargames.de/index2.htm
check out gallery, tsingtao plot
on this teutonic and interesting site
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Lots of good looking games there. Glad to see someone doing a large scale Boxer rebellion game :D
cheers
James
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That's some amazing stuff :o