Space Wolf Drop Pod Part 5 - Conclusion

Well, not only did I get some time over the weekend, I finished! I was closer to being done than I thought. I'm pretty happy with the result, but it could be a lot better. I learnt a lot for next time!


These have been neatened up and washed etc. Pretty simple really.

These have been neatened up a lot and then given some edge highlighting, which I'm not happy with. I thinned down the paint like people say to do, but it just kind of blobbed and flowed where I didn't want it to go sometimes. More practice maybe?

This is the gun with a bit of bronze added to the metals to pick out details. Probably won't see much of it when it's assembled! I glued the two gun halves together, but didn't glue it to the center bit. That way the gun can rotate a little up and down. Maybe it will make for some good photos during battle reports?

Harnesses all painted up, picked out detail bits in boltgun, washed, then a bit of chainmail to re-highlight. The blue straps have a single layer of highlighting.

With all the bits painted, it was time for assembly! The moment I'd been waiting for!
The bottom half all put together pretty easily... or so I thought (ominous music).
Remember how I'd not had the harness ends perfect? Well, note to self and everybody else who builds one of these - get that bit right!!! (Three exclamations are required here.)
The cylindrical bit that slots from the harness into the central console looked like it had gone in just fine. However... it really needs to go in all the way. Next time I'll be filing the edges down to really make sure it gets right in.
The reason for this is that the side vanes attach to the exterior side of the harness, and if they're even a mm further out than they should be, the vanes don't meet up properly up the top. That makes it hard to attach them to the central block at the top. 

Now the next thing I'll be doing next time is gluing the square pieces to the central bit beforehand. I'd put the glue on, then tried to fit two vanes, a square bit and attach them all to the engine block. End result - a lot of frustration, words I don't usually utter, stripped paint and a complete hash up of everything. I couldn't hold it all steady long enough, and even then it was clear things weren't lining up properly.


So I took it down, you know what a mess plastic glue makes. I then worked hard at getting the harnesses in as close to the center as possible. Most of them moved in another couple of mm. Then I glued all the square bits onto the engine, dry fitting a vane between them to make sure they were vertical. You see, they almost act as slots for the vanes to slide into, as well as providing more gluing surface.


Then I went back to attaching one vane into position and waiting for it to set, holding the engine block in position until it was nicely stuck. Next I went around and glued all the rest of them in, letting the glue set a little each time so it wasn't completely bonded, but was strong enough to hold.


Once they were all in place I could slide and jiggle a little to best try and balance everything. Because the harnesses weren't quite right, the whole thing is just slightly off. There are some gaps showing here and there. Because of my failed attempts, some glue has ripped paint off in a few spots too. Also, the doors will sort of close if you hold them really tight, but not really.


It may be a case of not even noticing the flaws from a distance, especially if you don't know where to look, but I'll always be just that little bit disappointed.


Anyway - here it is!

Keen eyes may note that I also didn't file the edges of the vanes smooth, there's a mold line running along them. *sigh* My next one will be much better for what I've learned during this one!


It's quite a project! Perhaps I should have gone with tanks like 99% of the community, but they're just not what I had in mind for my army.

Next time I'll talk more about the future of my army...