Ramshackle Models blog (pics)

[Little Pete]

Okay, the rest of my order arrived from Curtis this evening and I'm very excited to get going with it. Alongside the Huntsman Spider tank that I have another topic for, I ordered:

 - Boneyard Truck
 - Chimera Traction Engine
 - Giggles Clan
 - Society of Intrepid Explorers
 - A set of Dungers
 - Trixie
 - Isembard Kickass Brunel
 - £5 set of miscast pieces. I requested vehicle based ones to use for scenery/conversions.

As with the HST, everything was very well packed. The miscasts were packed in bubble wrap in the box and then the normal order parts were in a separate bag (useful, too much resin gets confusing) that was stuffed with bubble wrap too.

On to the pictures.

This first picture shows everything laid out after I washed it and spread things out (Kroot, marines and Hammerhead show scale).




Then I have a closeup on the figures to give a better indication of the size. You can see from this that Papa Giggles (the big claw guy) is actually as bulky as the marine (banner bearer from Marneus Calgar's boxed set). The other Ramshackle figures are not in their bases so will stand a little taller if/when I glue them in.




Finally I want to show everyone what Curtis thinks £5 of miscasts should look like.



Just looking at it, I think I could make at least two, possibly three vehicles from that without too much effort. If I count correctly, he included thirty-two wheels so I might just have to make a tire junkyard as cover for my ragtag force.
 The moulding quality of these pieces is more variable as Curtis says he basically chucks whatever resin is left into the moulds and lets it set without worrying about vacuum pumping etc. Having said that, at least half of the pieces are perfectly formed and detailed (including the five sets of tracks) so I can use them right off the bat. Of the others, most are just a little rough around the edges (a little wonky, some missing detail) and only a few are actually poorly made or bad. They look just perfect for scenery that shows its age though, so expect to see some rusted remains half buried in the ground when I get the time.

So another big thumbs up from a player who is now wondering how he could have spent so much at Games workshop and received so little stuff to work with. I look forward to ordering from Ramshackle again as soon as I finish these.

[Bako]

Wow!

[Mancha]

Finally I want to show everyone what Curtis thinks £5 of miscasts should look like.

Wow, that's a lotta stuff.   

[Pil]

I ordered two piles of miscasts as well some time ago. I even got a discount on it because the shipping was pretty high (it was a 2kg box)! I have yet to make some stuff from it but there were lots of parts for vehicles and terrain. Some parts have quite a lot of bubbles but I don't think I'll bother filling them.

[Little Pete]

Just to add something that I forgot about. The Boneyard Truck Engine stack (http://shop.ramshacklegames.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=15&products_id=182) actually looks like a particularly nasty quad barreled gun turret if you turn it on its side.

Ork players rejoice. Sadly it is not one of the spare pieces that Curtis sent me but you can bet I'll be requesting some of them when I do a new order.

[Little Pete]

Okay, will upload pictures when I get home tonight but I've made a good lump of progress on the models here. My Huntsman Spider Tank took up a lot of time and only having a small workbench meant that I had to glue only a few things at a time (epoxy has a long curing time).



Pic from Ramshackle Games.

So, the boneyard truck is most of the way complete now. It's a little confusing at first to assemble all of the pieces but essentially it comes down to about four stages.

1 - Assemble the body. This has the front cab, chassis base, engine stack, two side panels, roof and rear panel. I managed to get them all (save the rear panel) done in one gluing session. I decided to wait on that piece as it hangs below the body. I added that one after I did the tracks and running boards.

2 - Add the running boards. There are two plain boards and two hydraulic pattern sections. The hydraulics go towards the front as they provide the 'seating' for the engine grille and dozer plough. They need to kept level and there are no notches or the like so you have to freehand it. I lined up the rear running board's upper side with the vent things at the bottom of the cargo section (as Curtis has done). The front boards then attach level with this.

3 - Add the tracks. The only challenge here is to make sure that they sit level with one another so that the truck will stand flat when it is finished. If you get the running boards level and then glue the tracks right up against them you shouldn't have any trouble.

4 - Add the front grille, dozer plough and tridlins. The first one slots in against the front of the cab and will sit nicely on top of the hydraulic running board slots. The second presses up against it and should just be levelled with the tabletop so that you can set the truck flat. The last is personal preference and so just go wild.


For me, I'm arming my truck with a set of Hurricane bolters from my Land Raider kit (I built the Redeemer not the Crusader). At first I was going to put them straight on the side but that looked a little silly so I looked through my bits box. No joy there and then the miscast parts from Curtis came to the rescue. I've attached two motors that came from the set to the sides. I put them with the gears towards the rear and now they look quite like big ammunition drums. They do look a little unbalanced and so I've used two of the struts that come with the truck kit to prop them up and now they're looking suitably ramshackle yet solid.



WIP photos when I get home.

Pete
Pic from Ramshackle.

[Little Pete]

Okay.



That shows the basic body structure as I have got so far. Sorry the picture is a little blurry. All that's left is to attach the Hurricane bolters, finish the front grille/plough and add any tridlins that I want.



This one is much sharper and shows where I want to place the guns. I was initially going to just have the targeter on the side but the weapon block is already sticking out a fair way and also there is a peg hole for gluing the LR sponson side armour into that looks just like a breech. So it's turned into top mounted targeter and plenty of space for the spent casings to come out. The angled strut underneath is actually quite important in the overall look of the piece as it stops the weapon mounts looking to strange and unbalanced. I've only got one long armour strut though so I'm going to have to have a rummage to see what else could do the trick.

[Pil]

Looking very nice, but wouldn't the bolters look better in front of the motor piece?

[Little Pete]

Thanks Pil. I did consider mounting the bolters up front of the 'ammo drum' motor piece but it didn't look right to me. I'm not the biggest fan of side sponson guns only (there is a reason most tanks use turrets) but I found this configuration the most balanced in terms of the vehicle proportions.

I set the last pieces to glue this morning before I left for work so hopefully once the epoxy is cured,  I can get some nice pictures of it from front and back etc. That should give a better idea of the overall look of the vehicle. I'm pretty happy with it so far. I found that the basic vehicle is quite narrow and so I like bulking it out at the sides.

The ammo drum feature is a great one too as I'm thinking of a second variant using seeker missiles from a Tau Skyray kit. Since the Skyray comes with all the parts for a Hammerhead tank it's the better buy and I think a nice trio of high exposive rockets on each side of a Boneyard truck would be great fun.

[Little Pete]

Well having spent a good long time assembling my various ramshackle bits (derailed slightly by buying some more GW Tau models), I've got onto the painting. It's been very fun so far as I've been working a lot more layering and so on than I usually do. My marines and Tau are fairly clean and simple in their colours so getting to do 4+ highlights and layers is a really different challenge.

My first one was Trixie (the free promotional piece). It was really fun to work up through all of the layers and bring out Curtis' great sculpting.

The rock Trixie is chained to was painted by basecoating with Scorched brown and then messily drybrushing up through a mix of scorched and vermin brown, vermin brown, vermin and bleached bone and then a little pure bleached bone. For the earlier layers I let the brush strokes go on fairly randomly just to break up the flat brown then as the paints got lighter I focused more on keeping them just on the most outwards surfaces.

The moss around the base is Dark Angels Green highlighted with a DA green with a little yellow and white. The dress is Regal blue with yellow and white added for highlights. Her hair was a combination of reds, oranges, yellows and a Gryphonne Sepia wash. Flesh was bleached bone with a hint of red added and then some highlighting.

I'm not happy with her eyes as she has quite a scary stare at the moment. I think perhaps I might just paint them out and leave them in shadow. Eyeball painting on 28mm scale models is not easy.





I've done some work on the other models as well. Mr Snicketty (the jack the ripper lookalike) is finished. It's not so clear here but he has a little hint of red mixed in with his robe highlights that hopefully gives him a creepy feel. The giggles clan get to have green robes so that I can use them as servitors in my marine army if I choose to, or henchmen for an inquisitor.




Last up is a little size comparison with my Crisis suits. The Ramshackle models are a good size all in all, especially the resin ones. For the record, that red Fusion blaster on the right hand Crisis does look pink up close and so I've decided to repaint. It was an experiment that didn't work. Back to the classic blue-white glowing fusion look methinks.




PS: If anyone has tips for taking good photos of models that would be appreciated. I've been mixing it up with using flash and a desk lamp but it always seems washed out or blurry. Also, what is the best background to use? I'd like to send the photos to Curtis for his gallery but need some better ones first.

[Hauptgefreiter]

You might want to look at these sites:

http://thescreamingalpha.com/2009/04/22/better-mini-photos/
http://www.twfigurines.de/main/workshop/photos.htm
http://www.perry-miniatures.com/index2.html

[Ramshackle_Curtis]

Hey, its all coming on really nicely Pete, great work.

As for photos, use a tripod, no flash and fiddle with the camera settings. You want to do nice long exposures. A cheap tripod is good enough. I have a £100 camera and a £10 tripod, and while its very limited you can get decent results.

Also, put the models on a plain background as the focus program looks for the areas of most contrast. You wan this to be the model, not the table! I often just use a beige coloured blanket to put the models on.

[Little Pete]

Thanks for all the help Hauptgefreiter and Curtis. I know that I need to do some work on my photography. I've still got a mountain of models left to paint so I'll really sit down with the camera and do some practise once I'm caught up.

Two more questions now:

 - What colour should the main theme of the Huntsman Spider Tank be? I'll probably take that general look and use something similar on the Boneyard truck and Chimera Traction Engine so they have a coherency.

 - Curtis, do you have anything more on the sculpting block at the moment? I'm really interested to see what else might come out of the ramshackle forges.


PS: Does it cost a lot to set up the moulds and make something as large as the HST? I'd really like a sailing-type ship on wheels with some funky steampunk engines like the Chimera. I know that it would be a lot of work though so just wondering if it's something that you'd consider or whether you'd need a certain confirmed interest to pull it off.

[Pil]

You posted some 40k rules for the vehicles a while ago, while not build from that when thinking of a colour scheme? What army will you be using them in? What kind of infantry will you use to support them?

A rusty metal combines with one or two main colours would seem right to me. Maybe it would be easier to paint the boneyard truck first and come up with a colour scheme for that, as its outside seems most like a 'normal' vehicle. Then you can extend the colour scheme to your other models.

[Little Pete]

My current plan is to use them as allies for the Tau. The loose background I came up with was that they were an isolated colony of the Imperium that fell out of contact and developed their own vehicles and the like. The Tau choose to ally with them because they don't have the strength to conquer the planet on their own.

Essentially they will be a rumbling block of ramshackle (no pun intended) vehicles dropping off an eclectic mix of troops into battle. They would provide the awkward and unexpected force that lets the smaller, more specialised Tau stuff to eliminate key targets.

I think I'll probably go for a muted, rusty colour scheme and then maybe use some brighter reds to bring out the armour plates or the like. Keep it dirty but with a few bright standouts.