Saturday 8 August 2009

The rumours of my death...

...have been greatly exaggerated... :)

Yes, good people, finally I return to the Angel's Talon. It's been weeks and weeks, and it's great to be back.

I'm not prepared to start promising regular updates yet. I'd feel bad if I couldn't keep those promises. I'd rather under promise and over deliver, than the other way around, so to speak.

Here's the promised tutorial on how to make a Scratch built mount for Hunter Killer Missile.

Hopefully, I'll see you again soon.

Best regards,

Stitch

Friday 7 August 2009

Tutorial: Scratch built mount for Hunter Killer Missile

I came up with this conversion because I needed more Hunter Killer Missiles to put on my tanks. Well, I had all the missiles I needed, but I didn't have any mounts for them, because I'd used them for the storm bolters.

Custom HKM Mount
So I decided to make some on my own, and here's how you can make yours.

The Parts

These are the parts needed:

Custom HKM Mount, partsAs you can see, except for the actual missile, you only need a couple of bits. The conversion is dead easy to do.

Cut and Paste

First you take the mount for the "scanner", or small "radar" thingamajig, and cut off the diagonal bit. Make sure you cut it straight, so you'll get one clean edge. Clean it with a knife if needed.

Custom HKM Mount, parts

Next, you separate the mount bit from the hatch bit.

Custom HKM Mount, parts

Now, clean up the mount bit with a knife. I made a straight edge, and then I trimmed this as I fitted it to the scanner mount. It'll make a lot more sense later on, so keep reading. Or look at the first photo again, and I think you'll see what I mean.

Custom HKM Mount, parts

Take the mount bit and do a dry fit on the missile, don't glue it in place.

Custom HKM Mount, assembly

Now you need to trim away some plastic to make the mount sit at the correct angle.

Custom HKM Mount, assembly

Keep trimming away plastic until it looks right. Then you glue the missile bits in place around the mount bit.

Custom HKM Mount, assembly

Now you just need to glue the mounted missile onto the scanner mount, and you're almost done.

Custom HKM Mount, assembly

Leave it on its back for a while, to let the glue set.

I want my Hunter Killer Missiles to be removable, for two reasons. One is that it's handy to be able to remove them as you fire them. The other is transportation. If I remove them before packing the tanks in the army transport, I don't risk breaking them off. So, I drill into the mount and glue a pin in place. The pin is just a piece of a metal paper clip.

Custom HKM Mount, assembly

Next, I drill a hole in a suitable place on the tank...

Custom HKM Mount, done

And there you go!

Custom HKM Mount, done

I'm sure there are a million other ways to do this, and if you've got links to tutorials, please share them! For now, though, this is what I'm doing. I think it looks pretty good.

I hope you liked this small tutorial. Please take a minute to leave a comment, it's highly appreciated!

Best regards,

Stitch