I trim off the back of the hip hose-rings are the back. This helps the leg fit at an angle. Then the gap is filled with greenstuff, which is crudely sculpted to look like it's got ridges light the other side of the hose ring. When it's painted you won't notice. I also use piece of sprue to hold the torso in place, cutting a notch in the hole to make a 'lock and key' fitting.
The pistons on the inside of the thighs were drilled out and had metal pins added. Holes were drilled into the inside of the legs to receive the pins. This will make it stronger. However, it can be tough getting the hinge pieces to fit in the groove around the groin. I crudely hacked at the connector until it fit. It won't be noticeable when it's painted.
Adding a gun shield to the Thermal Lance
I also decided to create a gun-shield for the Thermal Lance, using a Questoris Ion Shield. I drew a lien down the centre, put the gun in the middle, marked off the centre for each lance barrel and then drilled a hole. Getting bigger each time.
And bigger, until I stopped at 5.5mm and joined them up. However, I think 6 mm is perhaps the better size.
So it could get over the lozenge shaped barrel mount. There's some gaps to fill around it but not bad fitting in the end.
In some respects I still prefer the profile without the shield, but I wanted more variety and to give the Armigers more character.
I prepped the other shield too, same process and results.
Reposing the legs on a running Armiger
Here I decided to do the better job on the legs - removing the hind joint whole. It is best to do this when the leg is still in right and left halves. It's harder to do and digging into the joint with a scalpel is not without risk. I found a way to do it that is relatively safe and videoed it but haven't done the edit yet. Once done you take the six pieces, join the halves together so you can pose the three pieces as one leg.
This means you can compress the leg as much as possible. I removed the pipe at the back, drilled holes in the connectors and used guitar string to replace the pipework. I would go onto trim the peg at the ankle ball so I would have more options in positioning the foot.
This foot is only resting on the front toe, with the back toes contracted. This mean you could see underneath. I used a nail to help pin the front toe. Filled the other toes with green stuff, then rolled out a thin piece to cover the bottom of the toe. Trimmed to fit the profile.
Then I used car body repair mesh to create a tread pattern - pressing it into the green stuff, after dampening it a bit.
The second toe got done too. I had to do this three more times on the other foot..
This leg has no reposing on it - it's full tilt but it was so low I added the little piece of slate under it's foot to add a little more height. It also meant the pin in the foot is not just going into cork. I sued tile grout to blend around the stone, so it looked like it was coming out of the ground.
Testing the position of the legs. I use a pin going through holes in the legs, the hole in the hip joints al the way through to the other leg.
You can bend the pin a bit to get more direction in the hips.
The foot will need to be fully contracted before I glue it in place.
And that's it. I'll upload the video at some point and next it's basing these two, ready for some good priming weather.
Fun conversions!
ReplyDeleteGetting there. I'd so love to have these primed and basecoated at this moment. I'd be all in on them trying to avoid my Deathwing - which is probably why I did the conversion! Can't wait to have them done, maybe I like the Armigers as much as the bigger robots afterall?
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