In today's update, I am pleased to announce some progress! After a week of planning, cutting, scrapping, heavy drinking and a fair bit of colourful language, the final incarnation of the flywheel for HMSW Gargantua is complete!
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| Lieutenant Boddington nurses a sore shoulder after attempting to roll the gargantuan thing unaided. But no one's laughing now... |
This wheel is slightly smaller than originally intended (80mm diameter instead of 100mm) but I'm very happy with the results.
The outer rim is a roll of masking tape, peeled back to the desired thickness. (Don't worry - I kept the tape for re-use, wrapped around a plastic hair-gel pot.). The inner hubs are press-studs for denim jeans. Everything else is plastic board and rod.
Needless to say, the rivets took quite a while - each was cut from a plastic rod and glued in place by hand. There are 144 x 1.6mm rivets and 192 x 1mm rivets - a total of 336! And this is just the flywheel...
Anyway, that's all you get for now. I've got a couple of days off soon - I plan to finish the engine and start on the legs.
Watch this space!
All the best!
Looks very good to me. Maybe just a few more rivets??
ReplyDeleteNot to insist, but a 'Lacepunk' model would have no rivet at all -but, it's true, a rococo decoration...
ReplyDeleteTremendous work!
That thing is going to be huge!
ReplyDeleteImpressive work Joe. I would never have thought of using a tape roll that way. Good lateral thinking that man!
ReplyDeleteAnd hats off to the minutiae of the details. I know your pain! With so many of the scratch builds, the bulk construction is fairly straight forward, but its adding all those little details that bring it to life. Excellent work.
Incidentally what do you find works best for gluing plasti-card pieces together. Poly cement doesn't work, and even superglue seems to take an age to stick the pieces together...
regards
Scott
Thanks, everybody. Glad you like it so far...
ReplyDeleteScott: I use Humbrol Liquid Poly (the kind in a bottle with a brush) if you're using GW's brand, I'm not surprised you're having trouble.
It's also important to make sure you're buying actual 'styrene' - rather than white plastic sheets. I've fallen for that one before. Styrene should be dull on both sides - it shouldn't have a glossy finish. Many brands I've seen are shiny on one side and don't work very well.
That said, this model (as with my previous walker) incorporates PVA, Superglue and Ados F2 as well...
Ah ha! I've got the shiny sheets so that explains why the liquid poly didnt work. I'll look out for that in the future.
ReplyDeleteCheers
Scott