Blackadder's Attempt To Build a Lucius Patten Imperator Titan 'Invictus'

[Hairster]

Love it! looking forward to seeing this develop.

[wargamesculptor]

Always ingenious BA, and one anybody can follow and replicate as well. great use of available plastic shapes as well

[Blackadder]

Neck:


The coupling being PVC is not compatible with styrene so I applied a veneer of 0.015 sheet styrene so parts and detail can be added.


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



I then roughed in the cutout coordinates for the head to neck connection.


http://i.imgur.com/fI28OOL.jpg



The large round cylinder just below the helmet where the ears would be I am assuming is the neck/skull joint to allow the head to tilt down. Likewise the flexible conduits on either side of the chin.


Why not call these by their anatomical names. The so-called "Command Bridge is very skull-like.

[Blackadder]

Jaw Cut Out:


Using my vibrating saw it was a simple matter cutting out the jaw recess in the coupling.


http://i.imgur.com/V33rgGl.jpg



The neck is now ready for shaping and detailing.


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



Incidentally my Chicago Electric vibrating saw is a must have tool for hobbying;


http://www.harborfreight.com/variabl...ool-62867.html


This cut would be really difficult with virtually any other device other than a hand tool and my $25 dollar saw was a tremendous time saver. It took about five minutes to make this cut including the blade swap.

[wargamesculptor]

Sounds, a handy piece of kit to have, thanks for the tip BA

[Blackadder]

Snow Bound:


So to while away the weather front I did some work on the neck which I have to admit is coming out better than expected. I sheathed the coupling on 0.040 thousandths styrene to three layers and then proceeded to bevel the rear edges 45° as in the drawing.
http://i.imgur.com/Z9duybo.jpg



As you can see below there is quite a bit of cutting to get the 45° bevel in the front edge ............




http://i.imgur.com/gZQcNh6.jpg





but my 'Farmers file' was up to the task.


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



The forward bevel needs to be refined but is okay for the moment while I make the inner neck mechanism so the head can be tilted down. My previous Warlord has this capability but the mechanism is very clunky and I am hoping to refine it on this model.


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



Finally I found this collar that will work very well in the scheme I have in mind for the side to side movement of the head and fits into the Emperor design quite well.


http://i.imgur.com/Ofba1Op.jpg



Can anyone guess the source of this wondeous bit of sculpting?

[wargamesculptor]

Nice work BA, and I would guess the top of a yogurt pot on the useful piece of plastic

[Blackadder]

Nice work BA, and I would guess the top of a yogurt pot on the useful piece of plastic

Right you are; a 5.3 ounce Shoprite yogurt container. I plan to use a lot of recycleable plastic in the manufacture of this model.How well I succeed remains to be seen.

[Blackadder]

2D vs 3D


I'm getting way ahead of myself with this head assembly so I put the brakes on to pitch an update. After scraping my initial idea of how the head assembly can tip forward on the neck I came up with this solution which will give me a lot more cockpit room for the crew. There also is a poetic license taken by the artist who drew the front and side reliefs of the Command Bridge. The huge ear discs that contain the head tilting mechanism cannot function as drawn and are of different sizes in the drawing. Never mind though, I have a solution.


I'll start with cutting the forward neck ring to allow the discs to mount flat to the sides of the neck.


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



Carving out an outer race for the gimbal head mount pad and gluing on the gimbal bases is what is shown here. The two 0.040th inch discs are 71 MM apart and 56 MM in diameter.


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



The bridge truss maintains the distance and keeps the gimbals square to each other and stabilizes the bases


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



Bottom view showing the forward ring carved out to accommodate the gimbal bases.


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



Next, the manufacture of the gimbals mounts. (The area left black in the 2D drawing.)

[Blackadder]

Gimbals:


Or Trunnions whatever, These truncated discs will support the head on the neck to allow it to look down in a purely theatrical way as a downward pointing camera would be just as effective but the menace of this skull staring down at it's victim is too good to pass up.


http://i.imgur.com/TxBpE0G.jpg



Above; the disc is a simple truncated construct featuring two circles 45,0 and 54,0 MM separated by 2,0 MM by 4,8 MM styrene spacers.


http://i.imgur.com/fIfj5Yf.jpg



Unfortunately I got the angle wrong so I have to re-sheath the bevel but that's not a big deal.


http://i.imgur.com/J7JtoOQ.jpg



Tomorrow I hope to be working on the cockpit.

[Blackadder]

The Visor:


Allowing for the helmet I mounted the gimbals with extended visor mounts made of 0.015 thousandths sheet styrene. As I don't really have a plan for the cockpit, chin or gullet piece all this is subject to change but at least now I understand how the cheek pieces work with the gimbals.


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



I suppose the best thing is to cut the helmet to see where it falls in relation to the ears (gimbals) and the amount of clearance required to allow the head to lower and raise.


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



Somehow I managed to guess right which moving part eclipses which and for that I am grateful.


http://i.imgur.com/a8ra21q.jpg



Later on this evening I'll cut the helmet but I need to relax a bit after this thoroughly draining exercise in design. Martini Time!!!!!

[Hairster]

Your thread is gold Mr Adder...you are guaranteed first click when I see you have an update. Absolutely fascinating

[Blackadder]

Thanks for the reply,

Helmet:


My initial thought was to use a suitably shaped bottle to form the helmet but after experimentation I found that was unsatisfactory for my obsessive compulsive mindset. I opted instead for building up the helmet out of stratified layers of styrene and cutting the helmet out of the resulting block in much the same manner as I did for my Warlord Titan


http://i.imgur.com/gxEB51B.jpg



This also relieves me of the necessity of finding a suitable glue for mating the different sources of plastic......


http://i.imgur.com/uAIDHK3l.jpg



It's bad enough that I had already go through the identical thought processes in making my Warlord but to have not learned for my previous effort defies logic.

[Foxtail]

Struggling to work out how all the parts will fit together at the moment, but I trust they will and it'll look immense.
Carry on th good work

[wargamesculptor]

Foxtail if you check out BA's warlord thread you'll see how he does it have got the link for the page the head build is on http://www.coolminiornot.com/forums/...d-Titan/page16
Great work as always BA and seems to be progressing quickly

[Blackadder]

Foxtail if you check out BA's warlord thread you'll see how he does it have got the link for the page the head build is on http://www.coolminiornot.com/forums/...d-Titan/page16
Great work as always BA and seems to be progressing quickly

Wow, I did that?

[wargamesculptor]

Wow, I did that?

You did indeed, and another 20 odd pages of work, took a while to find the relevant page ! LOL

[Blackadder]

Sometime when I go back to my previous work I am astonished at the amount of effort these constructions require. It's a good thing I enjoy building these because I couldn't be paid to do this work. "Whaud he say?"

Ready To Begin Shaping:


The layering is complete and all needs be done is the shaping


http://i.imgur.com/aK44D0O.jpg



I made the helmet about an eighth inch over sized per inch to allow for carving and sanding


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



Tomorrow I should be well along on the paring down to the rough dimensions.


http://i.imgur.com/l0WOVlJ.jpg

[Foxtail]

It's a good thing I enjoy building these because I couldn't be paid to do this work.

Do you crave attention? Because I can pay you in attention!

Looking through your warlord titan was awesome, can definitely see how well this one is shaping up

[Blackadder]

Well I don't crave attention but your input is always valued.

First and Second Contour Cuts:


Most of which are done on a stationary belt sander.


http://i.imgur.com/7RO8KiC.jpg



One more preliminary contour cut to make.....


http://i.imgur.com/SVQpT3F.jpg



The sides have to be rough sanded at about 45° before the finishing contour sanding.


http://i.imgur.com/VYPbiO9.jpg