Rogue Trader Mentor Legion - Converted Exo-Suits

[AKULA]

Lovely paint job mate and a great build 

[snitcythedog]

Very slick conversion and nice paint all around.  It is always nice to see a paint job inspired out of the RT book. 

[Mason]

Very nice, mate.
It is always good to have a completely unique character in a force.
 

[hubbabubba]

I like him, the pose is very natural, well executed.

[Red Orc]

So, any updates on this? Honestly, I came here for the grav-tank build, but like many others have always had a soft spot for the Mentors. I will not, however, be doing anything silly with my own little stash of RT Beakie-Marines in a box upstairs.

I will however definitely be building some 'inauthentically-modern oval-cross-sectioned' grav tanks... ooh, any decade now... and would love to see how your classic 'flat-top' turns out...

[Daeothar]

Well you've got me there... 

I kind of abandoned my first effort due to several mishaps during the scribing of panel lines. The errors were so difficult to repair and also, the scribing itself was a total mess (read: fiasco) and I couldn't see myself doing it twice (I was planning on making two of them; I've got the Zoids parts and all ). Also; lessons learned; this was my first 3D design and a lot could have been better.

So I decided to redo the entire vehicle from scratch, and also redesign the whole thing digitally.

And that's where the project ended up in limbo. Because I need to teach myself a new 3D-design program other than Sketchup (which I used the first time around) and I just can't find the time for that.

Well, I could, but the task is a daunting one, and I'd rather paint in the few hours a week I can dedicate to the hobby these days.

And that's where we're at right now. The project is surely not dead, as I still want to do the hovertank tribute(s), but until I am able to, it's on a sort of hold, sorry... 

[Red Orc]

No worries from me, I decided to look up 'deodorant' in the search function to check when the idea of the deodorant grav-tank had been mentioned as a modelling idea on LAF, and came across a thread from 2010 where I said I'd thrown away a deodorant-stick that I'd kept from 1987 (one of the ones you were looking for, ironically), and since then I've collected at least 6 of the new type and have done absolutely nothing with them.

So it's 36 years and counting of me not getting round to this. I applaud anyone making any attempt towards it at all and am not at all worried about it taking a very long time.

If you come up with something before 2058, I'll consider that you've done it faster than me.

[zemjw]

And that's where the project ended up in limbo. Because I need to teach myself a new 3D-design program other than Sketchup (which I used the first time around) and I just can't find the time for that.

Well, I could, but the task is a daunting one, and I'd rather paint in the few hours a week I can dedicate to the hobby these days.

I'm assuming you mean something like Blender . Big polygon packages are, indeed, time consuming.

If you're looking for something smaller, that runs on a tablet, have a look at Nomad Sculpt. It's zbrush/3d-coat-lite, but still incredibly powerful. Its hard-surface stuff is still rudimentary, but it can be done.

One advantage is that, because it's tablet based, it's easier to keep beside you, to work on things in spare moments.

[Daeothar]

I was not particularly thinking of Blender, as I have dabbled with it a bit and without hours upon hours of tutorials the learning curve is simply too steep to even contemplate at this stage.

I did some research into the matter after Red Orc's post, and considering the very simple geometry of the design, I might give TinkerCad a try. I was also advized to try out Onshape, which is beefier.

But considering I've become rather familiar with Sketchup Free, I might simply opt for the full version, even though it'll imply a subscription(?)

[majorsmith]

Love the pose! That too half was always my favourite one in the rhino riders lot of figures

[Daeothar]

So, any updates on this? Honestly, I came here for the grav-tank build...

Well, despair no more! I've finally made a 180, and have gone back to the Grav Attack Vehicles

Last week I was downed by flu/corona, had a couple of rough nights and with nothing better to do at night, I got to thinking about my hobby projects. And it then came to me that I still had to redesign that dang deodorant bottle after my less than ideal first attempt at 3D design.

I also remembered that I had seen some kids doing stuff with Tinkercad at my daughter's new school, and I decided to have at it. I expected another learning curve, more frustration and loads of time spent. But I was pleasantly surprised, as I had the entire thing done in under an hour, including hollowing out, holing and slicing!

So when I felt a bit better, I ventured into the garage and fired up the printer to make the design physical. It took several tries though, to find the right way to position the design so the print would not fail. But after 3 fails, I finally ended up with a prefectly fine specimen of the hull.

I then went through the (abbreviated, due to experience) same process with the nose section, kept on printing, and I now have two complete bottles/sticks ready for the physical modeling work to commence.

The design was greatly simplified: I did the hollowing out in my slicer program (Chitubox) and this eliminated the problem with the solid resin block in the middle of the first design.

Several holes were also added for the liquid resin to flow out of during the printing process, and I was able to add the angle to the collar for the nose to be positioned correctly as well. After the fiasco that was the scribing of the first iteration, I've decided to not scribe my models and adding them in Tinkercad proved to be both fiddly and not uniform (enough). So I will add the panel lines either by painting them or by creating waterslide decals.

What's next? I now need to prep the second set of bits for vehicle number two. I previously already did the cleaning and filling of the Zoids parts of first set, and obviously the second one needs to be every bit as good.

I need to gut another one of the empty/blank deodorant bottles for the bottom wheel (which fits like a glove on the new design), I need to think about the filling of the turrets, magnetizing them and the (flying) bases, attaching the nose sections to the hulls, attaching the cockpits, and I need to source the correct screws for the turrets!

Yeah; I found out that there is a screw inserted into the side of the plastic spoon of the original turret. It was very hard to spot (I previously completely missed it), but now I'll have to tip over my jar of loose screws, bolts and nuts to find two that match the one in the few grainy pictures I have of the original...

Very little will get done over the coming weekend though, as it's Carnaval over here and for four days, life will come to a virtual standstill like it does every year

So for now, here's a picture of the two 'sticks' as they lie in wait on my desk...

[zemjw]

I have the compendium, so I can take a couple of pictures of the screw if that would help.

It is a round-headed crosspoint, but there's no mention of its size. Other screw sizes mentioned are 1/2" and 3/4", but they're for securing the turret to the body

[Daeothar]

Cheers Zemjw, but I have the compendium as well. It's just that I had failed to notice it before. Which is kind of weird, considering I've spent loads of time studying all the existing pictures.

One thing I noticed is that later pics show that the antenna dish is missing. The tank must have taken some damage throughout the years I reckon...

[JollyBob]

This is a brilliant project and I'm really curious to see how like the original you can get it.

I'm afraid I went the lazy route though...

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1595261880/deoderant-bottle-hover-tank-28mm-scale

[Daeothar]

After having spent all of my hobby time on my BSC entry for two full months, I was slightly burnt out on both my entry (get that b*stard off my workbench ) and miniatures stuff in general for the better part of a week or two.

Other stuff, like garden work, social commitments and a Frostgrave league game took prescedent, but after a while, the itch resurfaced. So I took up a project I had been promissing myself to tackle for a while now; a Rogue Trader Exo-suit Terminator squad for my Mentor Legion.

So this week, I started on them. I actually have 6 of the old monopose Exo-suits, but I'll be using 5 for this squad. I'll probably use the 6th one for a commander later on.

And since I didn't want 5 exactly the same poses in one squad, I decided to commit utter blasphemy and cut up these rather rare and expensive miniatures.

First and foremost, I wanted to give the sergeant a powersword, as they should obviously be WYSIWYG. I decided to use parts from the first (metal) Terminator boxed set. So I previously sourced some extra arms for them (since I didn't want to take them from my own, complete, boxed set).

I settled on a Librarian's Force Axe for use as the Powersword. For some reason, the curved blade seemed to fit with the massive, curved shoulderpads better than the actual sergeant's Powersword. Also; the same blade shape can be found on several CCW's on the metal Beaky marines I will be using as an assault squad as well. So the maths worked out...

In the same vein, I also got myself two Assault Cannons and two Heavy Flamers from the abovementioned boxed set. Two of each, since 5-man Terminator squads could field two heavy weapons all the way up to 3rd edition.

So both heavy weapon marines have three magnetized right arms; one with a Stormbolter, one with an Assault Cannon and one with a Heavy Flamer. I simply wanted to keep my options open, since one does not simply convert even more Exo-Suits...

Finally, I added yet another part from the Terminator Boxed Set to the squad; a Chainfist.

So, that's the metal kitbashing done. I just need to smoothen things out with some putty, re-attach some cables, etc.

On the basing front though, I wanted to be able to field them on their original 25mm bases, but also on the later required 40mm bases, depending on the rules system used.

So I've already converted two 40mm bases to include a recessed 25mm hole with a magnet at the bottom, to take the 25mm bases I will be putting the miniatures on. They'll have some magnets on the bottom as well, so they'll sit securely.

It's a bit of work though, so the other three still need doing up.

And that's where we are right now. Depending on how much time I can scrounge up this weekend, I'll probaby have them ready for painting by the end of it