Blackadder's Scratchbuilt Thunderhawk

[Blackadder]

Ball Turrets Two:

Reinforced center axis installed, Rotation axle installed sides flattened to receive gun mount axles.

[url]http://i.imgur.com/m4wxHTJ.jpg[/url]


Not much more to say until the gun mount is built.

[Blackadder]

Conduit Collars:

You always have to be on the look out for interesting bits of scrap such as the subject of this post; conduit collars.

It would be pretty tedious to make collars to ring the penetration points where the large electrical conduits enter the housings; in this case the Reaver head jowls. Leaving these plain give an unfinished look to the area besides the more detail the better.

[url]http://i.imgur.com/HyMYDR5.jpg[/url]


Fortunately I have had this idea for quite a few years and have mentioned it before but it doesn't hurt to re-introduce it.

[url]http://i.imgur.com/EYrG2lv.jpg[/url]


When you cut large holes in styrene using wood hole augers you get these nicely shaped rings that are roundly beveled inside and out but usually get swept away with the refuse. These make dandy collars with a minimum of cleaning and sanding.

[url]http://i.imgur.com/VayG0C3.jpg[/url]


The image above shows the collars glued in place before the final cleaning and I believe they add a nice touch to an ordinarily bland area.

I have used these extensively on most of my models even as just tchotchke decorations.

[Blackadder]

The Man Who Do Too Much:

Previously I demonstrated and suggested an easy way to add detail to projects by utilizing scrap discs left over from drilling holes in styrene. That offering apparently fell on fallow ground other than to generate not a few replies that I "mistakenly" posted either triplicates or on the wrong thread entirely; Ha! I just felt that the information applied equally to all my scratch projects.

That intentional ''blanket'' suggestion was a precursor to the current project where I am attempting to recreate the FW "Ball Turret" for my Thunderhawk.

Making the turret operable may have been a bit too ambitious at least for the way I conceptualized the assembly.

[url]http://i.imgur.com/jTxQqXe.jpg[/url]


(BTW I am not aware whether the FW Ball Turret functions on all three operational (axēs) parameters?)

Anyway employing the scrap discs to supply two of the three axēs I needed now only address the rotational axle.
[url]http://i.imgur.com/vowHL34.jpg[/url]


I'm sorry to say I'm not at all pleased with the overall result which appears to me too cumbersome.

[url]http://i.imgur.com/Vm344XV.jpg[/url]


Especially the straps that append the training axle to the targeting race.

[interrogator_chaplain]

I was wondering how you were going to sort this one out, should be interesting to see what you come up with when you finally have a solution you're pleased with.

[Blackadder]

The problem with the FW design (Which BTW I seriously doubt actually functions) if you look at the attached image, is the same as I am encountering; i.e. the view port (the rectangle window above the gun shield)is locked in place by the targeting ring.



Even if the guns themselves are fastened to the training axis orb the view port remains static thereby limiting the view of the operator/gunner.

Were the guns trained at maximum elevation or declination the view port looks straight ahead and therefor of minimal utility in all but firing straight ahead; do you see the problem?

OF course I could be totally wrong but how FW managed to make the turret functional has escaped me thus far.

However I have the solution albeit it modified the look of the turret somewhat. Hence "The Man Who Do Too Much." Ha!

[Wolfshade]

Mabe the gunnery chair is actually set further back into the body and it swivels in the same way that they do on the millenium falcon?

Obviously, if they were just behind the guns then as they decrease angle of shooting, the person gets squished into the structure...

[Blackadder]

Ya mean like this?



Obviously I can't be concerned with the creature comforts of hypothetical beings 38,000 years hence but I would like my turrets to make sense from a mechanical prospective. You see, there is that pesky view port...

The M. Falcon had remote firing cannon with the gunner targeting on a screen if I recall; quite archaic as I am sure a computer could much more effectively target/fire quicker than human reflexes. Unless of course the "Force" was with you.

[Wolfshade]

Yeah, that's the stuff. Though if it is a servitor that fires it, it could just have a head on the port window, just on the otherside and controlling mechanics slaved to its will?

[Blackadder]

Can't We All Just Get Along?

Well the whole premise is rather disheartening when you think about it; that in the far flung future there is no better way to resolve differences than to clobber one another much as so many Neanderthals.

Excepting of course for the Bugs, Greenies, Deviants and the Dark Fairies.

The Xenophobic,
Blackadder

[Blackadder]

Foam Core! The Bane Of My Existence:

Once again I have come to regret the folly of using foam core poster board for a quick and easy and inexpensive way to frame a model.

It's alright for some; rational people secure in their competence that they will not change that which is satisfactory. But for a neurotic like me who is dissatisfied with completion and goes to extraordinary lengths to forestall that eventuality foam is a bad way to go.

Here we see the first inroads into cutting a socket fo the future ball mount. The yellowed area is resin applied to foam board to secure the styrene skin to the poster board frame.

[url]http://i.imgur.com/1WhabJW.jpg[/url]


So what time have I saved when I have now to build the cargo bay inside out now to install the ball turret module.

The left side with the ball temporary mounted in the cutout for scale.

[url]http://i.imgur.com/ar6z0pJ.jpg[/url]


There seems ample room for the entire module and a fairly uncluttered field of fire for this weapon with 'interrupters' installed to prevent shooting off the still to be fabricated canards and the wings and the engines.

[url]http://i.imgur.com/ATnvi3L.jpg[/url]


A closeup of the accordion boot fabricate from a bendable soda straw for the recoil-less AA gun barrel.

[url]http://i.imgur.com/VcXrXYY.jpg[/url]