Saturday, May 28, 2011

Metal vs Finecast Quality Showdown!

There has been a lot of back and forth about how much better, worse, or the same Finecast would be compared to metal minis. So I thought I'd try to post my findings in a side by side comparison with two of the same model, one metal, the other Finecast. Having a bunch of stuff still unopened finally came in handy! I also grabbed a mini that, while I don't have the exact same mini in metal, I do have a similar type mini. You'll have to watch the video to see how that one went though.

One thing I found, it is hard to compare a metal and Finecast mini. The two materials mean that they don't show up the same under a camera (or a light bulb for that matter). But I've done my best to compare the two and will give you my thoughts.

The pictures below are the Empire Captain with Hammer and Pistol. I dig the epic beards on the Empire guys.

The front side of both...


Feel free to click for a larger version...


And a shot of the backs of both...


Feel free to click for a larger version...


I'm also going to subject you to another video so you can enjoy me rambling in full audio as well in the written word...


If you have bandwidth to burn, I'd recommend the 720 version...


Over all the quality of both is great. I have no complaints on the cast quality of the new Finecast. However, I'm just not seeing the superiority of detail that others have mentioned. Could be just this sculpt though? I will say there was a guy in my GW store this morning droning on about the Finecast and how you can now see so much more detail. He pointed out that you can now see the rivets on the armor of the Emperors Champion... I've always seen the rivits on the Emperors Champion mini though, so I'm not impressed. My biggest complaint is the price increase on these. In my opinion we are getting a lighter mini and paying more. I'd like a heavier mini and my other six bucks back. Thanks.

Till next time folks, enjoy the Finecast and keep out of trouble!

Thursday, May 26, 2011

New Space Marine Video Game Vid

Or as I like to call it, my September is spoken for...

There is so much cool stuff happening on this vid I want to spit. Pre-orders from the right vendor will get you Space Wolf, Black Templar, Emperors Children, or Iron Warriors multiplayer skins. Or some vendors will give you blinged out weapons... meh.



Work on the Scratchbuild Titan is coming along. Not a lot to share as it's cutting and pasting pieces of paper. Should be an update in the next few days though.

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

A Project For Those Without Top Hats

A recent commenter mentioned that he would like to buy a certain resin kit if he were rich like me, and inquired as to whether or not I wear a top hat? It was all good natured poking and I responded that, no, I had to pawn my top hat to buy the Crusader from Dream-Forge Games.


It will be missed...


It did get me thinking though. I'm very blessed to have the things I have and even luckier to have an understanding Mrs Geek. Not everyone has the chance to build some of the things I build on my blog. But, maybe I should build something more within the means of the community at large? I had been considering just such a project and this clinched it!

Thus is born, The Scratchbuild Titan project. Will it be free of cost? No, but it will utilize easily attainable bits and hopefully easily attainable skills. There will still be materials cost, but nothing close to a full blown resin monstrosity. At it's very simplest I could see this project done with a few dollars worth of exacto blades, some glue, some paper to print on, and about twenty to thirty dollars of building materials. I plan to add a good bit of detail which will up the price in bits and materials. However, I plan to show how you can have something basic, but awesome, on the cheap and you can add details as your budget/bits box allows.

First off, I have to give credit to those who made the project possible. I found the inspiration for this project on the Tanks and Trolls website. Shaun, or Bulldog, is an amazing scratch builder. Some of his stuff I thought was ForgeWorld until I read the description. The particular Titan I'm going to be trying to emulate/copy is his Brother Humungous. I can't stress enough how awesome his website is for inspiration and reference. I stalked his page so much working on my Reaver that I actually sent him a paypal donation to offset the bandwidth I sucked up (I had my Top Hat on). Another person who deserves some credit here, is Mark Mondragon of Dream-Forge Games. The build is based on a Titan he designed that was snuffed out by an IP happy company who will remain nameless but whose initials are GW. He also created the plans for the Titan that I'm working from.

So to begin, let me tell you that there is a lot of trial and error in this project. For each thing I share with you, there are many attempts that didn't make the cut (pun). I'm going to be starting on the lower parts, legs etc, and working my way up. I've got paper, building material, parts, parts on the way, and even some casting materials to replicate a few parts. To give you a basic idea about how this all goes together I've collected some WIP pictures of a bit of leg coming together.

While the material recommended is "Cardstock" I couldn't find any that I found suitably sturdy enough. I did find Matt Board, as used in framing pictures, for $4 for a 32"x40" sheet at my local Hobby Lobby. By printing out the plans and cutting them down from the 8.5"x11" paper I can get a lot of parts out of each sheet of Matt Board. I used a spray on adhesive to stick the plans onto the Matt Board... and then found I did it wrong! I sprayed the adhesive to the Matt Board then attached the paper plans. The adhesive never really loses it's tackyness. What I will do in the future is spray the adhesive to the back of the paper and attach it to the Matt Board. The 'attacher' gets and stays tacky, the 'attachee' does not!

First we have a shot of the plans put to material.



Since the 'Toes' on the original plans are a little sad, I've drawn some extra cutting lines to accommodate some cooler toes, ala Shaun style. I've also added some 'tabs' to the twelve sided circle to use as attachment points. The plans do not have glue tabs included, but it's easy enough to add your own with a little planning.


Note the darker lines I 'sharpied' onto the plans


Cutting the Matt Board requires a sharp blade and a bit of pressure behind it. There are also score lines on many pieces. These are cut only part way through to allow the piece to be shaped. After some careful cutting it was time to glue. I'm using something called 'Tacky Glue' which seems to be very similar to plain old white glue. I first glued one half of the lower leg, the back half, to the circle using the glue tabs I'd added.





Then I worked the front lower leg piece around the circle the same way. I also added a couple of long very thin pieces of card to the join between the two shin pieces as trying to glue the pieces edge to edge would have been weak and difficult.



Because of my adhesive problem I'll probably have to do all this work over again. But, it's all part of the learning process.

A couple of quick answers to question you may or may not have. No, the Warhounds are not on the back burner... they are on the side burner. I plan to alternate between these projects as the sea of grey resin was threatening my sanity and this project makes me feel a little more creative. Will I post the plans that I'm using? I'm not sure what the legal ramifications could be by doing so? I would certainly be willing to share them, but I'm not sure about posting them for download.

So I hope you enjoyed this first post on the Scratch Build Titan project. If you have any questions, comments, critiques, or interesting commentary; please feel free to leave a comment!

Sunday, May 1, 2011

WHx2 Pt 6 (Torso, Back, and Turbo Lasers)

I'm combing the torso and back bag of parts with the Turbo Lasers bag. Both are pretty sparse in parts so there is no need to give them each their own blog.

First a couple of shot's of all the parts.

Here is the torso and back parts bag...



I have it on good authority that if you miss the strainer when rinsing this bag of parts, the small bit int he middle of the above photo will go down the drain. I can do a tutorial on how to retrieve a small bit that has gone down the drain from a "p-trap" under your sink if there is any need for it expressed by my readers...

Next up are the Turbo Laser parts. Pictured below is enough parts to make two Warhound arms...



You may have noticed that these parts contain some of the largest channels in the entire kit. Notably on the back pieces...



And the backs of the Turbo Lasers...



I'd like to share how I handle channels this large. Though my method is not an option for everyone, it does demonstrate how some extra tools can speed up a process.

Low Bandwith version:




High bandwith version:
(warning, you will hear my voice and the sound of my bandsaw in this video. Try not to fall in love with either, we will only break your heart)





There was a short follow up on the belt/disk sander and the results are below...



The back pieces still look a little rough, but the parts where the channels were are covered by the rear exhaust vents anyway. Good planning on that one Forgeworld!

If you watched the video and found it at all useful or entertaining, please feel free to leave some feedback in the comments. I'm playing around with video but I'm not yet sure how large a part it will play in future blogs.

Other news on the horizon. Have you heard of DreamForge Games? Did you know that the pre orders are up for the Mortis and Crusader kits?



I don't know about you, but that Crusader screams 'Knight Titan' to me, though it's a work of art with it's own merit. Expect a product review up once they ship. I'm pretty freaking excited myself. DreamForge has the assembly instructions posted on their website. I suggest anyone interested in these kits look those instructions over. They show a lot of the detail and planning that went into these kits that the webpages' photos don't quite do justice to.

Till next time, enjoy yourself... or if you can't enjoy yourself, enjoy someone else!

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