Saur's big bunch o' Stuff - now featuring more than ships! Black Eagle/Harrier!

[Sauragnmon]

Interesting point about the blast pressure, and I might well do the blast screen thought.  Of course, with the guns being another five calibers longer, they might have less pressure effect unless turned all the way too close to the plates.  Blast pressure from the rifles is not spherical, as there is the effect from the barrel to deflect the majority of it away from the ship in the course of a broadside, so a deflector plate or something would decrease the collateral damage.

I have a couple Seahawks, I might have one parked on the fantail by the RAM launchers, not sure currently.

[Sauragnmon]

OK, here's an update on Mightier Mo, on the section of the ship I'm calling the post office, because this sucker can ship a whole lot of air mail.











So, Behold, my putty-fu is continuing, and it is strong.  It's a harsh, and annoying, process, but slowly, slowly, it's paying off in the stretch.  I know, the plates LOOK bad, but I promise, they actually look better than the pictures show, I've taken my pin vice and scratched off most of the putty overrun that was over defined things such as pipe/wire lines to clear them off so I still have definition.  There's small gaps under the aft AEGIS plates, I was thinking the protective covers slide out and fold up over the AEGIS mounts, and lock into place over them.  The forward mounts would probably be a straightforward pop-up deflector wall to cover them.

[BlackOps]

Looks like a whole lotta work but it also looks like the results will be worth it

[pyro-manic]

Just out of interest, why are you building up the structure with putty, as opposed to plastic?

Looking good.

[Sauragnmon]

Why, you ask, not plastic?  No supplier of sheet styrene locally, and I'm not gonna order online for sheet styrene.  Thus, Putty-Fu, Grasshopper!  And in truth, I'm using plastic in places for detail increase boosts.

[sotoolslinger]

Looking really sweet Saur I am looking forward to the progress reports on this most excellent ship

[Sauragnmon]

Well, I threw some paint on it, helps show me the problem spots, but so far it looks pretty smooth with the paint on it.  The putty isn't as messy as it looks on the other surfaces.  So far, so good.  I took a momentary break and decided to test out the look of Rodney Turrets with 50cal guns.  I figured I'd test-fit the guns on the turret that least interests me, the one made for boats up top.  Looks rather interesting, I think, but here it is.

[Sauragnmon]

Alright, I told folks I'd get started with this once I had the Tigershark down, so here we go, I started the kitbash, with my sledgehammer force, and here we begin, the M60 Tiger conversion.  Leopard fans shall behold a few things they know.







As you can see, I have yet to start the Putty-Fu, but it will take a notable ammount of sculpting to smooth it out nice, but it should look quite beautiful when I've smoothed it out.  I'm going to keep the driver's hatch where it is, and sculpt the armor up to the sides.  The front plate's going to get sculpted smooth to come down over to the vision blocks.  The engine deck fans are going to be sculpted in a little to fit back clear of the track covers.  It should look quite interesting once I'm done.

[sotoolslinger]

COOOOL

[Sauragnmon]

Yeah, she's requiring some putty fu for certain, smoothing out the new armor over the track guards, the front plate, the turret ring, the engine deck.  I thought the top fans would be useful with cooling an uprated engine.  Aside from the hull top this should be a rather straightforward build, not sure if I want to try tweaking the suspension with Leo road wheels, I am not sure if I've got enough track for the job if I try it.

The turret will be the familiar standard Leopard 2A5 turret, though I might modify it to include the .50 instead of the MG3 up top, or perhaps both, mounting the MG3 over the loader's hatch.

[Sauragnmon]

Well, my sanity continues on its downward spiral.  On the side - Here's the latest of the M60 Tiger Project.  I demonstrate the Tao of Putty Fu once more, and I worked up the turret this morning with some of the project.  I'm debating the enclosed roof MG over the loader's hatch.  I might remove his vision block and use the ones from that secondary turret.

In the model, the turret slides on the engine deck, but in reality it would likely sit a small gap over the top of the vent fans.  It certainly looks a lot nicer after some paint, a little smoothing, and some work.  I think the headlights and the extra armour make a new change on the glacis, and the top of the engine deck looks nice.











There's the detail shots.  Questions, comments, queries, rude remarks are welcome.

[pyro-manic]

It makes for a very interesting look, that's for sure!

For the turret, just sand down the bottom of the bustle a bit to get some clearance - you'll keep destroying your paintwork otherwise. It should only need a fraction of a millimetre taking off it.

[Sauragnmon]

Yeah, I could sand the bustle a little, it's just brushing the edge of the fan, really.  I'll figure out what I'm going to do when I finish assembling the bustle, there's still another piece to go on further back, and a couple on the corners, then I'll see about sanding, though it's a slight rub, and it doesn't seem to currently be damaging the paintwork.

[sotoolslinger]

Nifty armor right there. 

[Weaver]

If you wanted a different look, you could cut the bustle off and re-attach it to clear the engine deck. Two options:

1. Have the whole bustle sloping (it's only a few degrees): maybe it helps the loader to pull the rounds out? 

2. Have the bustle horizontal but with a short, sloping or stepped transition piece.