Big Mek Booma

Thunderhawker

New member
I like the forearm, but I am not diggin on the termi hand. Perhaps you should try and sculpt a GS hand? Or, better still, Brown Stuff.
 
Grah. Okay, I\'m pretty sick of trying to do this already - I was pinning a very teeny, tiny hand together in the hopes that it might be durable enough to work but small enough to look decent. This is honestly as small as I think I can manage, but I am not happy with it.

booma_model15.jpg


It doesn\'t look terrible, but that\'s because the foreshortening of the camera angle is making the arm not look too long. Take a look at the exact same position from the side:

booma_model16.jpg


Holy gorilla-limbs! :(

Honestly? As of right now, I am nearly sold on using the metal arm I have. There are two reasons...

1) Much as I\'d like to be able to model on this minute of a scale, it\'s just too much.
2) This is probably the only model that the bionic arm actually fits on. The metal arm is too small for a nob, and the arm I have made for Booma seems to be a perfect fit on that new Direct-only Waaagh-Banner Nob as far as scale goes:

booma_model17.jpg


So. I have some thinking to do about it, I guess. I considered maybe just cutting the \'hand\' part off the metal bit and using it on the plastic arm I have been making, but I only have one of these bitz and I really don\'t want to ruin it. :p
 
In the spirit of compromise, I hacked the hand off my metal arm bit and placed it on the wrist of the arm I have been scratchbuilding in the hopes that maybe it would solve my hand dilemma. I realize the forearm is a bit longer than I might otherwise want it to be, but it\'s not possible to shorten it very easily right now, and I made it the size I did so that I could cram detail onto the curved areas when I got to that step.

booma_model18.jpg
 

rextalon

New member
The longer arm actually creates a nice balance with the large hammer head.

That said, I would have sculpted my own bionic hand before I chopped up that nice looking one. If you hadn\'t the sculpting skills, then it was a nice compromise.

A long time ago I experimented with making my own bionic arm. I think it turned out okay. I hope this is of some use to you.
All I did was cut a piece of plasticard into the shape of a bent finger. Then I painted on the joints to the fingers. So each finger is a different piece. Then I made an open door in the forearm. Yours looks a lot better, but here\'s a word of advice, Don\'t try to paint those thinly wound springs. Just brush on some ink. Anything thicker and you\'ll lose too much detail.
ArmCollage.jpg

It\'s created from plasticard and brass wire. I meant it to look really grainy, like the metal had started to corrode, but I never found the right color to make it look good. I may have to repaint this some time, but I think you get the idea on how I made it.
 

Friar

Dorks for Orks
Personally I think the new arm is great and it looks to me that it matches the artwork very well in leangth and appearence.
 
Originally posted by rextalon Don\'t try to paint those thinly wound springs. Just brush on some ink. Anything thicker and you\'ll lose too much detail.

This is an excellent point and suggestion and will be taken to heart.

Here\'s some more progress for you guys to (hopefully) enjoy. I know I\'ve been working slow recently, but between school and all of the Valentines day shenanigans going on I haven\'t had much free time.

First, the bionic arm is coming along. I haven\'t put the exhausts on it just yet, but they\'re in the works. I started on what will optimistically be the \'gauge\' on the arm, as well as a couple of nuts and bolts and the vent. I even put the little power-plug outlet in, though it is so infinitesimally small that I will have to paint it with a microscope.

booma_model19.jpg


booma_model20.jpg


I\'m starting to really like the look of things now.

As far as the KFF goes, I\'ve done some digging through my bitz bins and come up with some parts that may produce a workable Kustom Force Field...

kffbitz1.jpg


Of particular interest is the metal bit with exhaust stacks coming off it. That part is from a Warzones miniature (non GW game, I know, but I\'ll get over it even if tournament-mongers don\'t. ;) ). I believe the original model was some sort of battle suit, but whatever. It fits fairly nicely on Booma\'s back, so it\'s got my gears turning right now. Here\'s a shot with it just pinned on:

booma_model21.jpg


booma_model22.jpg


Z and I have been bouncing ideas back and fourth as to what we could make of it, because he wants his art to reflect the miniature and vice versa. Some more thought still has to go into it for the time being, particularly because I would love to be able to fit a tiny red LED somewhere in whatever ends up being made. :)

As a little bonus, I\'ve noticed that Booma is actually nicely poseable now. For example:

booma_model23.jpg


He could be holding something (like a whirring gubbin or marine helmet) up infront of him and eyeing it up for parts. Alternately...

booma_model24.jpg


He could be cranking a valve wheel on a busted Dreadnought.

Obviously, I don\'t intend on him doing these things on the final, playable miniature, but I just found it entertaining that he could be posed to be a bit more interactive with things. If I had the patience, time, and parts, it\'d be fun to make a couple versions of him just doing things to pose in pictures with my other conversions, but I obviously have none of the above. I can\'t really leave the arm free-swinging on the final model, either, as paint would chip, bits would get broken, and I couldn\'t sculpt to fill in the seam between his upper arm and torso. Still, it\'s fun to photograph.
 

Friar

Dorks for Orks
Well all the new gubbinz and worky bits are really bringin that arm together, and I\'m loving the backpack fits damn perfect. dependin on your inclination might do to use some plasticard tubing with holes drilled thru for the ends of the exhaust break up that smooth tubing. Edit: just looked back at the pic and noticed the exhausts are connected makes this suggestion as either more work or just not lookin right lol but I leave it sit here anyhow :D

Lookin forward to more, your work is wonderfully creative.
 

rosac

New member
bonjour monsiuer sessoin, I have been waiting... to ask you whethe you will put a plasticard article on the site. I have always wondered how you make such smooth curves on the meks arm for example. Ilike this project so far, the long arm is perfect for an ork mek, he can reach parts on a dread easier!

thankyou, but please finish this one:p

rosac
 

Thunderhawker

New member
The smooth curves are plastic tubing, sometimes hollow, sometimes not. The rest for ein is, I think it is safe to say, lots and lots of practice.
 
Originally posted by Thunderhawker
The smooth curves are plastic tubing, sometimes hollow, sometimes not. The rest for ein is, I think it is safe to say, lots and lots of practice.

Thunderhawker is right - I have a lot of different sized styrene tubes that do the job. You can cut up old pens and the like if you remove the ink first to get around the same result.

Time for an update!

Not much happened with Booma himself in the past few days, as I\'ve been quite busy with other things. Still, I have done a little bit - I\'ve tried to add the \'exhaust\' pipes like what is in the illustration. I took a bit of artistic lisence as far as their angling, but it was the easiest way to implement them. I\'m not actually sure I love the way they look, but it may grow on me.

booma_model25.jpg


booma_model26.jpg


booma_model27.jpg


booma_model28.jpg


The arm needs some more of those big screw heads like what\'s on the front - I had three on there this morning, but they popped off with a bit of rough handling, so I\'m going to glue them back on with some tweezers. The backpack is also still temporary, but I think I\'m going to build off it.

As far as the rest of the model, I have done some deliberating, and this is what I\'ve come up with.

I find it very hard with this new Ork Codex to put together an army list that doesn\'t feature a Big Mek. Booma was originally intended to be just a KFF Big Mek, but since I like the model a great deal, I would be sad if I had to substitute another model in his place to play a Shokk Attack Gun option. So, to work out a way around this, I\'m going to go ahead and make a separate, large Shokk Attack gun on it\'s own base to be placed near Booma when I choose to run that wargear option.

I have a couple ideas in my head for this model that I thought I would lay out. According to my ork army backstory, my warboss has an unnatural fondness for grots and gretchin, and they are put in positions of authority accordingly (driving a dreadnought or stompa, for example). Needless to say, my Boss would not be happy with a gun that uses his little buddies as ammunition, so he would have forced Booma to come up with an alternate solution. Booma, being the enterprising sort, decided to fire squigs out of his Shokk Attack Gun instead!

My plans for the gun include:

- Motorized, spinning Shokk Attack Gun head
- A light behind the spinning section of the Shokk Attack Gun so it appears to strobe.
- \'Grot Helpers\' that jam the squigs into the Shokk Attack Gun\'s funnel. These will have bionic replacement limbs, as shoving angry squigs into a hole is not without consequences.
- Caged Squigs on the base

I\'ll probably mount the whole thing atop a 40mm, maybe 60mm base for the sake of convenience. I already took a stab at motorizing the spinny bit on the Shokk Attack Gun with promising results:

Youtube Link

Oddly enough, those 2 AA\'s seem to be all that makes the motor spin. I\'ve tried a 3v watch battery, and it just sits there immobile. I\'m not honestly sure why, but I\'ll keep working on minimizing the power source.
 

Friar

Dorks for Orks
lol thats goin to be pretty swank, I swear your \"bits box\" must be the size of a small barn. It\'ll be interesting to see this develop.

you tube link this one should work
 

mud duck

New member
I guess if you can not get the power source any smaller, could you use the case as a base for \"go cart\" vehicle base for the shockgun. I could see a couple of grots hanging off the back, \"dumping\" squigs out of cages in the gun.
 
I\'ve not had much time to think about Booma this morning, since I\'ve been helping my father format his computer, but I did make up my mind about a thing or two.

The object that\'s going to be on Booma\'s back is not going to be a Kustom Force Field Generator. Insead, it will be a \'power pack\' - basically an engine that helps generate power for his hammer, bionic arm, and whatever wargear he possesses. I\'m going to try to make two 60mm bases that his 25mm base will slot onto. One will have the Shokk Attack Gun, and the other will have the Kustom Force Field.

Both of these will have spinning parts and light up.

As far as the Kustom Force Field Generator goes, I have come up with what I think will be a great part to work from:

booma_model29.jpg


This is the motor and rear wheel assembly from one of those micro Zip-Zaps RC cars. Basically, there\'s a miniscule motor in there, and it turns gears so that both of the \'wheels\' on the sides spin. What this will allow me to do is make a big, freestanding Force Field Generator that will have two spinning gubbinz on either side. :)

I am considering what might look good on them and at first glance, two tau shield drones might make an interesting spinny bit, though I\'ll do some more thorough planning before I commit to anything like that.
 
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