Building Log. Ramshackle Huntsman Spider Tank (Warning, Picture heavy)

[Little Pete]

Yay, it arrived! 

My Huntsman Spider Tank from Ramshackle that is.

First off, the packaging was excellent. A bubble wrap lined envelope containing a cardboard box. Inside the box, the pieces were in copious bubble wrap and separate from one another. The legs were kept apart from the other pieces in their own plastic container. They were safely between layers of bubble wrap, I guess because they are longer and thinner than many of the other parts. The whole thing was filled with those polystyrene S-shapes as well.
  The resin is grey, quite dense and smelly (as others have said). It's not really unpleasant, just a little bit solvent-like. It reminds me a bit of some permanent marker pens. It was also a little sticky to the touch, presumably from the mould release. In any case I washed the pieces by hand in a little soapy water, which also let me check that everything was there. After that they were smoother to the touch and didn't smell any more.


Below is what the pieces look like all separated. Even from here the high level of detail can be seen.





From the second picture you can see the stack of bubble wrap that came in the box. There was a lot more than you can see in the picture. This thing was really well wrapped.

I then laid out the pieces on a towel to dry and also put them in order of where they (probably) go. The shiny parts are where things are still wet from the washing.



The two red circles show the broken pieces. The left one is the side armour from the bell cannon turret and the other is the tip of one of the leg claws. In each case they were fixed in about ten seconds by a dab of super glue. The breaks were so clean that you can't tell once glued.
  In the case of the legs, it's worth noting that Curtis has included eight pre-posed legs as well as the two poseable ones. So even if I wasn't inclined to make a repair, there would be more than enough to construct the kit anyway.

 Details.



  It's hard to show in pictures but the level of detail on this kit is really quite amazing. My particular favourite is the gearing on the upper hatch. When you see it up close, it really looks like Curtis made the gears and then slotted them in. There is no resin-bleed and you can see the fine line where the gears mesh very well.
  There are some small (1/4 of a mm) air bubbles but only on the flat back surfaces of some of the pieces. It's nothing to be bothered about at all because those are the parts that will be glued against each other and there is no structural weakness caused by them at all.

 Finally, a picture for scale.



That's all for now. Tonight I'm going to clean up the pieces and start on the fitting and perhaps gluing a few things.

Thumbs up to Curtis again.

[Dolmot]

This should be interesting. I managed to finish most of my Ramshackle vehicles a while ago, but this one is still in its box. I'm currently far too busy with assorted real life matters to build any models, but it's going to be a priority as soon as things calm down. Your bits list and assembly photos should prove helpful. I'll be following this topic.

[Little Pete]

Okay, I have done my first bits of work on the HST. I'll do some pictures later when I get home from the office but a few comments so far.

  Working with resin is a little different to working with the GW plastic kits that I'm used to. It is about the same weight, though some pieces are a lot chunkier than any GW plastic I've used (biggest was my Land Raider). It is much more brittle than the plastic though and I've noticed that different techniques need to be used to alter it.
  With plastic kits, I tend to gently carve off any excess or mould marks. The resin won't carve smoothly though and tends to break off more easily. This isn't a big deal, you just have to be aware that it will work that was and cut/scrape accordingly. I had to make the adjustment to cut away from myself. I know it's bad but I've always found good control in gentle pressure towards my thumb. This DOES NOT apply with resin as the material will break off and let the knife slip. Luckily I have no injuries but I'm definitely being careful from now on.
  The flash was pretty light overall and mostly had very thin sheets on the edges of the flat pieces. These were easy enough to snap off and then trim back to the body. A few parts of the body edges needed filing/trimming down so that the other parts sat flush and let the glue bind.

 So far I have only had time to glue the main body parts (Head, Body, sides, top) together. I used Loctite 2-part resin, which seems to be the same as the Araldite I used to use in England. I started off using superglue on one of the side panels, but then I ran out. This gave me time to reconsider and I decided to step up to epoxy because of the weight of the central body blocks. Also, it is a lot more voluminous than Superglue so it helps to fill in any spaces between the pieces in case they are not entirely flush.

 The fit of all the pieces is very good. The main body has various parts that allow you to slot the other pieces into place (Pic from Ramshackle)



  This picture shows the body upside down. The two strips on the closest facing side are where the head section slots in. The side panels have a strip at the back and two small vents in a rounded piece (see the bottom of the pic). The leg mounting sections slot neatly up in here and then the top panel fits over all of the pieces.

Will update more later

[Mr. Peabody]

Very cool.

[Dr X]

Can't wait to see more!!!!

[Michi]

Stunning! I insist to see more!

[Little Pete]

More there shall be (tonight hopefully). I just got through gluing the legs onto the body and I am very drained by it all. Damn epoxy resin and the long drying time. Just when you think it is ok to stand on its own and you step back, all six legs slowly waltz out of the sockets. 

In the end though it was alright because I used the many spare pieces Curtis sent me to prop up the legs and rested the body on an old cell phone plus my coffee passport (I work at Starbucks). I'm pretty sure that the legs are glued now, though I think my phone and passport are stuck to one another and to the newspaper underneath. Once the resin in the sockets had mostly dried, I dropped some more globs of epoxy onto the upper section of the sockets. I may have lost some detail there but I'm happy with that because it'll mostly be overshadowed by the turret and the legs breaking off would be far worse.

I'll add pictures later because the tank is looking really impressive now.

[Little Pete]

Ok, so some pictures. First up, the camera was/is dying so I only got two photos. These are mostly to show the progression of the beasty compared to a nice GW model I have nearby.



That photo shows the basic body size/shape with the six supporting legs in place. I have yet to add the guns/mandibles on the head, the large boiler assembly on the back (seen in photo), the turret, the smokestack and the two poseable front legs. I'm thinking of using one front leg as some extra support and posing the other up in the air ready to stomp down on the foe.



This one shows where the boiler unit will sit when I glue it. Sorry for the swap around, I am right-handed so needed to hold with my left to keep it all steady.

You can see that size wise its body is smaller than a land raider but with the legs it really really spreads out. I feel like this thing is as wide as a Baneblade is long, easily. I'll be able to post more complete comparisons once it's all finished.

[Pil]

Awesome! There are some really cool piccies in the Ramshackle gallery of this beast as well.

[Little Pete]

Okay, finally got some more done. Our friend was visiting for a week and entertaining him did make it hard to get more stuff done on the spider tank.

So, a bunch of new pictures. First of all, I've discovered the secret to building the tank using epoxy resin. You need to use the many extra parts from Curtis (you did order the miscast parts right?) as propping up points for the things while they dry.



This one shows me using the two cabs (one real, one miscast) for the Boneyard truck to support the leg while it dried in the socket. You can see on the left that I used two of the tracks to support the mandible claw in place while the resin dried.



With this one, I had a lot more propped. I used the boiler section as a prop for the extended leg as it's just the right height.
 I decided to extend the leg as much as possible so it could be poised to stomp down. I glued the elbow joint with epoxy but used superglue for the claw tip as it was a thin section and I wasn't sure if I could face holding it in place until it dried. In any event, I tilted the leg slightly in the socket so that it was better placed to be raised threateningly and also I could glue it to the next leg for a little more security.



This shows the last pieces that are not attached. The turret simply needs the armour hatch over the gunner and the main armour swivel plate on top. I decided to glue it all because I don't think I can rig a good temporary hold for the gunner's cover. I'll make up for it with extra painting on the driver (who will probably stay exposed). The tubing in the middle is part of the boiler connection. You can see on the far right that the boiler sits at an angle and the tubing covers the mould edge on on the lower-hanging part of the boiler.



This shot shows the detail of the underside. It's really quite an amazing piece of work that Curtis has done on this model and I can't wait to see if he has any more big things planned. You can see the drips of epoxy here from the leg sockets but I might just paint them as hydraulic fluid/oil and not even worry about sanding them etc.

 Righto, drum roll....



 This is what the HST looks like now alongside my Marine Devastator Sergeant. It really is quite a massive model. You can see clearly here that I have added both guns and mandibles and there wasn't much problem attaching them to the head. I chose to put the guns up top as they had less pronounced pegs for the chin mounts and I wanted the mandibles to be closer to whatever they were 'eating'.

 

 Same thing with the turret added. I'm not going to glue the turret. Partly it's so you can remove it if it is destroyed in battle but mostly it's because I want to be able to show off the detail underneath.

 Well it's all going great now. I've just set the boiler in place to glue (more propping up) and then the tank is all done and ready for its primer. I really can't wait to get going on the painting and see it all finished. More photos will come once the last epoxy sets and I can start turning it every which way.
 Most of all I've discovered that the model looks better and better the more you work on it. Individual pieces may have miscasts/flashing or injection pegs that you can't cut off easily but they are very minor and really can't be noticed once you start finishing the tank. It really takes on a menacing air and I'm looking forward to fielding it in battle.

 As always, comments and criticisms welcome. Also anybody with questions on the tank, feel free to ask.

[Pil]

I absolutely love it! I think it would be nice to magnetise the front hatch (in front of the 'driver') so you can remove it. Leaving it off altogether would seem a bit weird to me. Can't wait to see it painted

[Little Pete]

I think you're right, Pil; something needs to be done with the front hatch. I was considering getting some fine wire mesh to cover the driver while still leaving it open enough to view.

I've not done any magnetising before but this might just be the time to start. Also, I have to decide whether to use my hatch which has a slight miscast in the vision slit or use the one I got in the miscast box that has a chip missing. I'm thinking the latter as I could just paint it as a little battle damage.

[Little Pete]

One more little piccie of the beast. This will probably be the last until it comes time for painting.



Since the tau will the intended allies for these models, I figured that it would only be right to feature them alongside.

[Little Pete]

Well I'll add an update to this. My spider tank is now primed and has the first semblances of a paintjob on it. It's still in the early stages but my new gaming buddy Old Shatter Hands (from the Tau of War blog) agreed to face it down.

I've posted up the battle report on my blog Ghost Nebula (http://ghostnebulae.blogspot.com/2009/12/battle-report-against-old-shatter-hands.html)

Enjoy. Any feedback on the model or the rules is very welcome.

[rob_the_robgoblin]

Lookign great!

I want a few of these (or at least the legs), for tanks in Panzerfauste.

Was thinking of nicking the legs and putting them on various tanks. Or building my own WW2 style tanks, btu with these legs instead of tracks! 

Resin being sticky? That's usually down to the amount of catalyst used, or how well it has been mixed. I'd contact Ramshackle as it's an issue they should try to fix.
My resin casts usually stop being sticky after a couple of days, but the resin we use is mixed at a ratio of 1:100, so I think it's down to the lack of catalyst in my case.

I look forward to seeing you paint it.