Blackadder's Lucius Pattern Reaver Conversion Kit

  • Louvers:


    I hate doing louvers just about more than any other part of scratchbuilding even more than rivets.


    The problem is if not spaced properly or straight or the degree of opening is not homogeneous they look like crap.


    So how to make the Void Generator exhaust louvers?


    I hit upon the idea yesterday, checking out the moulded Mars resin castings..........


    http://i.imgur.com/Oq3wdwv.jpg


    ...........I found similar strips in my stock of Evergreen styrene; nothing new there, but also I got some 1,0 X 1,0 MM strips for the slat spacing.


    I glued the square stock to the strip stock leaving a half MM margin from the edge.


    http://i.imgur.com/ApOEjmp.jpg


    I marked the face side of the slat with pencil for even straight spacing.


    http://i.imgur.com/g7ZC6Cb.jpg


    Once I got the procedure down pat with the first louver as an experiment; the subsequent three remaining are going quite quickly.


    more to follow..........

    "It is easier to deceive people than it is to convince them that they have been deceived."

  • Generator Vents


    I spent quite a lot of time on these Reavers this past week and there is darn little to show for it, mainly cleaning up some of the recent work and duplicating parts for the other beastie.


    So mainly all I have to display is the installed Vents which didn't turn out too shabby but I can see by the photo one of the slates is askew which should be hard to adjust.


    http://i.imgur.com/SEB4vJH.jpg



    Now that the vents are installed I can fill the gap under the generator housings so the upper and lower louvers form a continuous line.


    Next on the to-do list is to finish off the center rocket pod housing and the rear of the adjacent superstructure housings...........


    http://i.imgur.com/sOUGszg.jpg

    "It is easier to deceive people than it is to convince them that they have been deceived."

  • Done:


    God knows how many bits and pieces of styrene went into replicating the interior framework of the Mars Reaver so the parts fit to a paper's thickness tolerance but it's finally done.


    http://i.imgur.com/eULUl0c.jpg


    All the pieces fit exactly and the front upper and lower components lock together with just two pins.


    http://i.imgur.com/GiBJScB.jpg


    Below is the front top and bottom sections connected with the two styrene pins


    http://i.imgur.com/HNbJcjn.jpg


    And the front assembly with the forward bulkhead in place


    http://i.imgur.com/PjS661X.jpg


    Whew!

    "It is easier to deceive people than it is to convince them that they have been deceived."

  • Greaves and Lower Legs:


    I was never satisfied how the greaves and lower legs swapped out, the whole assembly was too flimsy and looked amateurish.


    http://i.imgur.com/zNxT8pX.jpg


    Whilst finishing up the greave armour I came up with a better solution that will allow the lower leg to be build up completely as a Mars pattern and the new Lucius lower leg and greave likewise.


    Below is the greave as a single self contained lower leg assembly albeit without the upper shank/knee joint installed


    http://i.imgur.com/llJfnqh.jpg


    The image below shows where the ankle hemisphere will attach.


    The asymmetry is because of how the Reaver legs are constructed. I have studied the anatomy of the Reaver and found it ill conceived as far as functionality. That is why the classic Reaver stance is with the legs sprawled; it cannot do otherwise.


    The Reaver actually as designed could never walk so much as waddle like a toddler the top hamper weaving side to side in a severe dead man's roll rocking motion like a boat broadside to the waves as the legs spraddle and are incapable of being put one behind the other in a true biped gait. On the whole, Reavers moving across a battlefield would be a comical sight.


    http://i.imgur.com/YmudIJY.jpg


    Finally the shank of the upper leg being built up


    http://i.imgur.com/Y53Iik9.jpg


    Right the core is in fact a one inch section of a broomstick.

    "It is easier to deceive people than it is to convince them that they have been deceived."

  • Dementia:


    Probably this titan will never see completion as I keep finding things with which to be to be dissatisfied. The latest is the lower legs which while somewhat workable with the FW model need modification for a Lucius Reaver especially since I want them at least engineeringly feasible dynamically as well as satisfactory in a static pose.


    Below is the reconstruction as of this morning demonstrating the stages needed to effect the modification.


    http://i.imgur.com/JxZGdD9.jpg


    As usual I underestimated the time involved in the repair as I keep adding unnecessary details such as beveled edges and rivets and reinforcement strip decorations on pieces that will barely be seen or appreciated for their complexity.


    http://i.imgur.com/9OgyJkMl.jpg


    My goal today is to duplicate the detail on these drum shaped objects to match their FW counterparts, the resin piece on the right.

    "It is easier to deceive people than it is to convince them that they have been deceived."

  • How To Make Drums and Cylinders:


    With the images in the above post sturdy cylinders for use as legs &etc compatible with styrene is simple an quick.


    Evergreen Styrene makes tubes up to 13 MM (1/2 inch ) but sometimes you need a larger diameter.


    Start with a wooden dowel slightly less than the requisite diameter of the part you want to make; in this case a leg so we'll say leg but it can be any cylindrical object.


    If the part has flat ends that you want to glue to more styrene parts as I need to you'll want to glue on endcaps as well so use 0.020 inch ( 0.5 MM ) styrene sheets; cut the sheet slightly longer than the dowel and wide enough to wrap around the dowel slightly more than twice which will give you sufficient gluing surface to attach your end caps.


    Wrap the plastic around the dowel and glue and clamp the seam. For larger diameters wrap wide widths of styrene sheet or use bigger dowels.


    When the glue is dried bevel the edge you glued so the seam in relatively flat.


    Sand off the ends flush with the wood dowel, put a drop of cyanoacrylate on the end of the dowel and glue on a sheet of 0.040 inch styrene for end caps. The cyliner is done, encased in styrene and strong enough to support any reasonable weight.


    Next; installing bands and details........

    "It is easier to deceive people than it is to convince them that they have been deceived."

  • unnecessary details such as beveled edges and rivets and reinforcement strip decorations on pieces that will barely be seen or appreciated for their complexity.


    I see them and I appreciate them! In my opinion, thats one of the reasons why your works are so awesome.
    :thumbsup:


    And beside of that, this inspired me to put a lot of details on my works, than I would have before.
    :up:

  • A fascinating project with a truly incredible amount of detail! :up: Looking forward to see the finished model! :)


  • I see them and I appreciate them! In my opinion, thats one of the reasons why your works are so awesome.
    :thumbsup:


    And beside of that, this inspired me to put a lot of details on my works, than I would have before.
    :up:


    That's the name of the game; inspiring scratchbuilding is my main purpose...... the more scratch builders the more styrene sold the price comes down and I benefit or don't Ii understand the laws of supply and demand?????? :D



    A fascinating project with a truly incredible amount of detail! :up: Looking forward to see the finished model! :)


    Thanks for the reply and no one would like to see the end of this project more than me.........


    I wanna (sic) start on a Forgeworld Warlord

    "It is easier to deceive people than it is to convince them that they have been deceived."

  • Great work again.


    You have build several other large scale models.. is there somewhere a collection of the finished projects to honour them ;)


    keep up the good work and explanations how do oyu do the tricky parts its always fascinating how you solve the problems / create the details

  • It seems my initial estimate of how long it would take to replicate the lower leg was badly skewed............


    Are we have fun yet??????


    Knee Prosthesis?


    My wife who had to have her knee replaced (Time for a newer model?) says this looks remarkably like the one she had installed.........
    The initial stages I used the upper leg knee joint for a moulding guide.....


    http://i.imgur.com/PWH0LoX.jpg


    http://i.imgur.com/LeZ3bN6.jpg


    Built up of strips of plastic instead of casting required a bit if work especially since I want these to position in any reasonable pose although flexing will be out of the question given the nature of the resin model. I should have opted for doing the entire model from scratch.


    http://i.imgur.com/769PueT.jpg


    The knee joint sits perfectly in the lower knuckle guides.


    http://i.imgur.com/tjzFlpO.jpg


    Side view shows that it is a go to fabricate the other three


    http://i.imgur.com/0xQynQ0.jpg

    "It is easier to deceive people than it is to convince them that they have been deceived."

  • Not Too Shoddy:


    It was a week ago I decided that the lower legs and greaves were substandard and decided to rebuild them.


    I was never happy with the greaves, everything was too flimsy and required too much fiddling to set up.


    Here it is a week later; the reinforced greaves with thicker armour with an integral leg assembly and the new legs and foot pad attach point are re-designed, fabricated, and installed.


    Not too shoddy if I do say so myself.


    http://i.imgur.com/q5koQIq.jpg


    The abomination on the right of these images is the way the old design looked, rather like a house of cards compared to these new very substantial pedal appendages.


    http://i.imgur.com/RicWB5K.jpg


    This thing just might fly after all .

    "It is easier to deceive people than it is to convince them that they have been deceived."