MWO Centurion progress

Long story short back to work in the centurion after and enforce break while my house was remodel. I wanted to beat Christmas but from mid September to early November there was just too much dust and noise to achieve any kind of productivity.

The Cent has lots of fins, unjoined up parts, undercuts and variants so its been a ton of work to make good the model for casting and make working joints. I thought about trying to cast with the fins in place but for every good cast they'd probably be 3 broken ones and there's only so much swearing my neighbours will put up with. I also broken down bigger parts into smaller pieces either because they'd trap bubbles or parts to lock into the mould (like the claw hand).

So here it is as you can see alot of parts (34) goes into making this one up.

It looks done here but there's probably 7days work still left in the 3D desing. The CT still needs locator pins then every part has to be looked at to check it'll make good moulds and given a final clean.

The barrels slot in the fore arm and the AC20 section can make either AC10, AC20 or UAC5. There's also a laser barrel, LBX10 barrel and a Gauss barrel for clan invasion Kai Allard Wangs.

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween, 

I asked my son what he wanted me to carve on the pumpkin he screamed "Dinosaur!". Not sure he knows what a pumpkin or halloween is but he sure does like dinosaurs at the moment

Cent test prints

Centurion test prints from the new printer looking pretty in jade green.

Centurion - WIP

I've just finished fixing the mesh on this bad boy. The shin and foot are done so I could request some sample prints from a new printer to see if I can get a better surface finish. The rest still needs joints and details but the heavy lifting (making a good soild mesh has been done)

I'm still working on where to separate the AC arm to give a strong joint given its a lots of levered weight hanging out there. I've made 6 barrel types but chances are due to costs I'll only keep 3 and they will slot into the forearm. Its likely the head and the shoulder shield will have to be separated because the fins will be too fragile for casting as one.

Mechwarrior Online - Dragon

Mechwarrior Online - Dragon 
mwomercs.com
Scale: 1/60
Size: 19.5cm tall (to main mass)
Articulation free: Elbows, shoulders waist
Articulation glued: Ankles, Knees, Hips


Arms and legs detach from the main torso with a 90degree turn similar to the armorcast Atlas. Its been painted in default MWO red and given the shark mouth from the MWO concept art and I was asked to make it a look as if it had been on active duty. The red and the mech origin suited the Draconis Combine Sword of Light Brigade. 

(IMW Atlas for scale)

CMDO in 3rd person OMG OP!

It was very hard to let this one go (The DRGN-5N at the start of MWO open beta it was my main ride). Later today it should arrive at its new owners and take pride of place at PGI's front desk.

As always you can contact me using the email below. I tend to save emails up then tackle them all in one go as I can't always set enough time aside to field them as they come in. I should mention I did mean to answer a few this Monday but i got taken out with the flu (god bless toddlers and their germs) so I decided the couch was a better bet with a few episodes of "Space above and beyond".

The dragons finish but you have to wait a little longer

I finished the Dragon on Friday, I've taken some photos and I'm waiting for the Fedex dropship to collect.

I want the client to be the first to see it in person once I get delivery confirmation I'll post pictures here hang tight





Also for those contacting me with questions now that I've reclaimed my desk and scrubbed away all the red paint I'll get tackling those emails! Sorry I don't reply while I'm working, I like to keep focus or I find my self loosing a few hours after a 'just a quick peek' of MWO/emails/Facebook/etc.

Almost there with the Dragon

Rain has stopped play for now as I need to get outside to give it a clear coat and then a gloss coat on the glass.


Once all that's dry, I'll be ready to take some photos and pop this fella on a Dropship.

Let there be (task) light!

For the longest time I have been beholden to nature when it comes to good light for working. I finally when and bought a proper task light after spending the weekend with my head tilted at odd angles to keep what I was working on well lit and giving my self a sore neck.

Lightcraft Twin Tube Pro Task Lamp

What a difference! It gives a neutral white soft light that doesn't cast shadows or over expose the work surface. I have it clamped to one corner of my computer desk which means I can swivel it back and forth between my messy desk and PC desk depending on what I'm doing.

I knew I had to get one of these since last winter but lights are so unglamorous compared to other tools I just put it off. You can't detail paint well under normal household lights or halogens because they distort colour and are either to weak or too sharp means shadows conceal lots of faults.

Dragon Toof's!

Dragon - Colour down

A fun afternoon battling with airbrush over, here the results

The colour is a shade off under artificial light but its in line with the default MWO dragon colour, some parts are still masked off (joints/vents) I'll pick that off once I'm 100% happy with the top coat tone. I sat down and through over the salting to make rust bilsters on the top but decided against since what was asked for a rust red mech not a rusty red mech. I also ditched the duck egg green under coat after a quick test on an old part showed the two mixed to make pink when I took the colour back not what I was going for.

I'm defiantly going to salt rust effect mine. Any way tomorrow shading and highlights is the goal for the day.

Dragon Vairous stages of assembly/base coat

The legs pre-primed in the hard to reach spots (to prevent over spray) before make the final pose and glueing.

Glued and black base applied

I like this pose a one stable but conveys the notion that the dragon is just about to pick its back foot up for a step. It also so how nicely the legs can be articulated and still proved great stability.

Rust rust rust everywhere.

This is the 2nd coat of light orange rust wash waiting to dry (on top of warlock bronze, boltgun metal, strong orange rust wash). No point in trying to rush here you just have to let it dry naturally or it doesn't look right. I'm going to add some stippling of strong orange to finish it off before giving it a clear coat. (You can also see the 1mm stainless steel pins poking out of the legs I spoke about previously, there's one in each ankle knee and hip joint. While not necessary step those it does aid strength and fiddly part of getting the pose right.)

The colour for this dragon has been chosen MWO default rusty red. I'm going to spice that up some giving it a light coat of duck egg green first "whaaaaaaaat?" I hear you cry well most metal gets a primer/etch coat normally a different colour to the top coat or maybe it had a respray at some point. With a mist of duck egg green/beige under the dark red when I take back the red to show the under coat you see (hopefully) a small contrast line of the rust base which will set the weathering off nicely. Without it I think the rusty red and the orange rust would blend to much especially after everything gets a brown wash.

I'm also tempted to try rock salting the top surfaces (to give a blistered paint look) but I'm worried that will be a step too far. My opinion is mechs valued irreplaceable items and in most cases rare heirlooms so while they may receive some wear an tear through harsh environments (acid rain, extreme heat, abrasive dust, dense undergrowth) and combat they'd never be left to rot. Maybe some mild heat scorching on the top..

Dragon dry assembled

I thought I'd just through this up there;

I love it when a mech comes together.

Its not glued (hence the droopy barrel and wobbly legs) just a friction, elastic bands and pins holding it together while I rough out the pose for the legs. Its worth taking the time to do this right save a lot of heat bending later leveling things out

No dramatic running poses. Though possible (hell I think with a bit of time you could make a knee down stance) I need this one to be a strong and stable as possible.

First Dragons cast

After a few very hot days (36c in a respirator, goggles and lab coat #melt) casting in the workshop everything went fairly smoothly which was nice. I'm onto the next stage of preping the parts for assembly and base coating.

3 dragons worth (Clients, mine and one to put aside till my son is old enough to enjoy it)

The next step involves removing any mould lines, pour spouts. Working out the pose and adding steel wire pines to aid durability. With so many points of articulation it takes time to set the pose right before gluing.

The feet must be flat to the surface (I tape them to the worktop) for maximum stability and I like the hip to be level so when the torso rotates it doesn't wander off at an odd angle. The wire pins allow me to dry assemble the model and bend them into the right pose. I then glue the joints and the pins help hold the part in the right position.

I base coat the model unassembled so I can make sure every nook has paint on it, then part assemble the model legs, hip, torso, arms for the top coat and detail this still allows me a good amount of access to all sides.



The gauss and UAC5 barrels came so I need to cast make some moulds for them.

As for paint I'm thinking along the lines of one of these unless I'm asked different;

I like bold flat colour schemes over camo. The other dragon will be in heavy guards again and before you say it there was plenty of access to salvaged dragons out side of the Draconis Combine ("So many were produced that the Federated Suns and Lyran Commonwealth employed salvaged Dragons in their own arsenals, while many mercenary commands used captured or purchased models"-sarna). I'm tempted to even add a patched on salvaged limb still in Draconis Combine colours.

Dragon - Update

This came today

Everything looks good (some what hard to tell until i give it a base coat) just cleaning all the gaps now. The barrel was missing a quick call confirmed they forgot to pack it so that should be here tomorrow. I need to reinforce some parts with putty because it looks like they need it to be robust enough for casting. I'm going to spend a few days going over the model give it a base and seal coat before setting up moulds.

exciting eh?

Dragon - Extra barrels

Some of you asked for the extra barrels for the Dragon here they are;

(UAC5 and Gauss)

They slot in the end of the forearm and I'm sure one could add magnets instead of glue to allow 'hot swaps'

Later MWO models have been designed to be more modular. I hope that as much as possible designed into my models if I get the chance to make them. The caveat being there may be a small compromise in fidelity compared to the original MWO model get all the parts to merge with the main bulk.

Dragon - Currently at the printers

I finished up the dragon last weekend and it was accepted by the printers on Monday. Some new features on the joints with this one allowing the arms and hips to be removable from the torso.

Point of glued articulations
Ankles Ball
Knees Barrels
Hips Ball

Free moving
Torso twist
Shoulders
Elbows
Hand

The height is 19.25cm from foot to top of the main bulk and in my opinion sits prefect in the 1/60 scale of mechs.

Below a picture of the upper parts 'packaged' for printing purposes. They quoted me a time of 2weeks but as all things we'll see.

So its been a while

Well its has been a while hasn't it. Sorry to disappear for so long I haven't been idle just couldn't share what was happening and there's only one of me to go around so I had to choose in what order to tackle the tasks that needed doing.

If you sent me an email in the last 8 or 10weeks chances are I haven't replied yet....... sorry that's really poor manners on my part but but there was a mountain ton of emails from you big scale Mech Model fans and I want to write a through reply to everyone and not just a few words. I will get to these I promise (I've replied to 6 so far out of 150!).

Any way its my birthday today spent with family in the sun and consumed far too many sweet things. I thought I'd treat you with what I'm working on next;

"SLACKER!" I hear you cry. I know, I know doesn't look like I've done anything, but that's half the point. You cant take what's in game and just make a model of it (well you can but it'll suck as a physical model). Everything needs checking to make sure it connected to something and its solid. Then one needs to reinforce all the weak points that don't matter in a virtual world so what you end up with isn't going to break into pieces every time you pick it up. Then add proper mechanical joints that aren't there in the game (because parts can clip through each other). Then add in all the tiny details that only exist on the texture maps.

All of the above should look just as it does in the game to everyone but me and the guy who first made it. At this point your almost there (which is where I'm currently at) one needs to decide where to put the intersects on parts and how these parts will be cast (mould flow) then the printers, followed by some Hi-tech mould making and resin casting and you have yourself a mech buddy!

Simples

RAVEN - Davion Guards finished

This last week the blog past 20,000+ unique visitors and sailed over 21k mark this weekend. Response to the MWO mechs has been awe inspiring and very gratifying to see some many people like something you've worked very hard to make happen.

By now you've all seen the PGI raven but this one is my personal model painted in the Davion guards scheme. You get to know a model very well while painting it and I think PGI did a super job in the raven design right down to the a asymmetric aerials, truth be told I didn't liek the redesign when it first came out but I've grown to really like it. I'm please on how all the lenses came out (of which the raven has many). Enjoy

Some stats;
The Arms go up and down
Torso Twists
Legs can be posed and glued into place
Cast in resin and weighs around 600g
14.5cm tall (1/60 scale, equal to the likes of Armorcast, Warhammer 40k, etc)
The aerials and rails were made from 1mm wire

 

Too dark for photos - dang

Paint was finished on my raven this evening I just ran out of daylight. I thought I was almost done on Thursday but forgot totally about the rails, aerials had to be made and painted doh

Expect something tomorrow

While I wait for bits of paint to dry...

While I wait for bits of paint to dry and various varnishes to dry on the raven, I thought I'd show you the parts unseen;

You can see the raven has a hollow nose and on the torso parts the mirror side has MWO and the Mech name written. SMTK being my initials (just in case in a 1000years time some archaeologist unearths these)

Mechs painted for PGI - First look finished RAVEN

So I guess I can reveal that the reason I was so quite for a few weeks is I was cleaning, assembling and painting two MWO mechs in PGI colours and send them along with a business plan some mocked up packaging and marketing ideas.

I've not heard anything back from the business side however I know they love the models heres what I sent them.

Raven paint progress

Raven with its main colours on. Excuse the prop holding it up I don't wish to glue the legs on till after I've done some more painting. Once glued the raven does stand perfectly balanced

Dropship landed

The reason for my lack of bloggage lately has arrived at its destination.

Now back to painting my raven.