Thorssoli's Vacformed Warhammer 40k Space Marines
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Starvinartist80
Well-Known Member
Great update. So much progress it'll take a while to process all the goodness
It gets even bigger when you lay out all of the pieces and realize how much acreage the whole set of pieces takes up...
Yesterday was a pretty busy day. I had the crew in the shop, so I oversaw a couple of the guys on the forming machine:
As we made pulls, another one of the guys would do the rough cutting:
Then the rough-cut pieces would be carried out to the rest of the team for some finer cutting:
While they were doing that, I also had one of the girls cutting out the eye holes and grills for the helmets:
We made lots of pieces of armor:
If my count was right, we've got all the parts we need except for the vacformed backpack and boot parts.
We also made lots of scrap:
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Since there's no way the whole project will fit into my workshop, we stacked the pieces in my storage container until we get the kinks worked out of the assembly process:
[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/8050182@N06/7127419413/]
I'll be building one suit this week and then take the lessons learned from that one to build the rest next weekend when I've got everyone back in the shop to help.
Stay tuned...
Yesterday was a pretty busy day. I had the crew in the shop, so I oversaw a couple of the guys on the forming machine:
As we made pulls, another one of the guys would do the rough cutting:
Then the rough-cut pieces would be carried out to the rest of the team for some finer cutting:
While they were doing that, I also had one of the girls cutting out the eye holes and grills for the helmets:
We made lots of pieces of armor:
If my count was right, we've got all the parts we need except for the vacformed backpack and boot parts.
We also made lots of scrap:
Since there's no way the whole project will fit into my workshop, we stacked the pieces in my storage container until we get the kinks worked out of the assembly process:
[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/8050182@N06/7127419413/]
I'll be building one suit this week and then take the lessons learned from that one to build the rest next weekend when I've got everyone back in the shop to help.
Stay tuned...
I don't have a heck of a lot to update, but I started the sculpt for the rubber briefs that will fill the gaps at the hips:
This is the very rough, early version. It'll look better once the detailing is done.
In order to differentiate the helmets a bit, I've started tweaking a few of them. The most radical change will be this one with the big optical sighting attachment:
I never much liked them on the miniatures, but hopefully I can make it more interesting in real life.
Finally, I've given up on the idea of using the boots as a pair of giant platform shoes and decided to go with stilts similar in design to a pair of drywall stilts. Here's the prototype pair as of yesterday:
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This is the very rough, early version. It'll look better once the detailing is done.
In order to differentiate the helmets a bit, I've started tweaking a few of them. The most radical change will be this one with the big optical sighting attachment:
I never much liked them on the miniatures, but hopefully I can make it more interesting in real life.
Finally, I've given up on the idea of using the boots as a pair of giant platform shoes and decided to go with stilts similar in design to a pair of drywall stilts. Here's the prototype pair as of yesterday:
Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss any updates.
So here I am wearing the stilts with high-speed, temporary strapping system (duct-tape) in place:
The "ankle" at the bottom has stops that keep the foot from bending too far in either direction. It's a good thing:
Over the weekend, I had a few more folks show up to help out:
Since I had a functional prototype of the stilts, I decided it was time to make boots. Lots of boots:
While they're easy enough to walk around in, attaching the much bigger footprint of the Space Marine boot to the bottom of the stilts would make it more likely to twist a knee or pop a hip out of joint if the wearer steps on an uneven surface. To ameliorate this, I had to build in a bit of lateral wobble. The simple solution, a section of rubber floor mat bolted in between the bottom of the stilt and the sole of the boot. Here it is taped in place on the bottom of the stilt:
For the sole, I made this simple arrangement out of 3/8" plywood and a piece of piano hinge:
Then I stapled the toe piece in place:
Then the rest of the boot was stapled to the sole:
With the stilts bolted in and the shin in place, the wearer's knee is just above the character's knee:
I'll be using more of the rubber floor mat to make a rubber sole (and a raised edge around the bottom of the boot) but once I had a pair of boots put together, it became more important to try them out:
They're a bit heavy, but they worked pretty well. Here I am stomping around in my excessively cluttered workshop:
[video]http://youtu.be/HyprNmf31mI[/video]
Stay tuned. I will have at least one fully-assembled suit within a few days...
The "ankle" at the bottom has stops that keep the foot from bending too far in either direction. It's a good thing:
Over the weekend, I had a few more folks show up to help out:
Since I had a functional prototype of the stilts, I decided it was time to make boots. Lots of boots:
While they're easy enough to walk around in, attaching the much bigger footprint of the Space Marine boot to the bottom of the stilts would make it more likely to twist a knee or pop a hip out of joint if the wearer steps on an uneven surface. To ameliorate this, I had to build in a bit of lateral wobble. The simple solution, a section of rubber floor mat bolted in between the bottom of the stilt and the sole of the boot. Here it is taped in place on the bottom of the stilt:
For the sole, I made this simple arrangement out of 3/8" plywood and a piece of piano hinge:
Then I stapled the toe piece in place:
Then the rest of the boot was stapled to the sole:
With the stilts bolted in and the shin in place, the wearer's knee is just above the character's knee:
I'll be using more of the rubber floor mat to make a rubber sole (and a raised edge around the bottom of the boot) but once I had a pair of boots put together, it became more important to try them out:
They're a bit heavy, but they worked pretty well. Here I am stomping around in my excessively cluttered workshop:
[video]http://youtu.be/HyprNmf31mI[/video]
Stay tuned. I will have at least one fully-assembled suit within a few days...
Wow, that's incredible! Looks a tiny bit ungainly and cumbersome in that crowded shop, but it looks like you're getting some pretty decent mobility out of it! Great idea with the foam cushioning, too! I bet that makes it less jarring. Having walked in it, would you say it improves your balance, as well? I imagine you'll be securing or padding the pieces so they don't knock around as much, yes? Great work, as always!
Cinderblock
Member
haha, thats soo awesome, I liked the little hop you did lol.
Starvinartist80
Well-Known Member
Looks like the stilts are gonna work just fine. Throw proper padding and strapping in there and you have some really functional legs
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