Evil Genius Have Insects

Hi, All!

Archibald Phunk, feeling rather small...

A quick post to reasure you all that I am still here...

Having replenished my somewhat ransacked supplies of plastic board and tube, I was able to make a start on one of the set-piece features of my giant walker project - the stairwell.

The four walls of the stairwell are drawn onto plastic board to a reasonable level of detail. It is important to get the early stages of design right, before problems and inaccuracies compound themselves.

This will sit within the mansion secion of the walker, leading down from the main dwelling level through three lower decks. Portholes in the bulkheads and doors will be lit from behind with flickering LEDs.

Doors and portholes are cut- and stamped-out.

Of course, this is going to be somewhat complicated to paint and put together, as it is enclosed on all four sides. I'm having to think several moves ahead, so to speak. But it will be worth it.

The front and starboard walls of the stairwell. Doors have been glued behind the open doorways and more portholes stamped through these. All windows will later have frosted glass to catch and diffuse the light of the flickering LEDs.

As I hope you can see from the initial pieces, the stair winds round and down, passing doorways and windows. I plan to build this whole piece as two right-angled halves which will then fit together precisely. The whole thing will then be built into the walker.

The two halves together. I hope this is going to give a great impression of depth and bulk.

Rivets will abound!

...And now for another little distraction. Or two.

May I introduce to you the latest of The Nefarious Machinations of the Doktor Nefarious:  

Anty Infantry Walkers!

(sorry!)

A correction-tape roller is perfect as the abdomen.

Buttons are stacked to form a boiler / thorax.

I've been playing with ideas for correction-tape rollers for a while, and these little monsters have been scuttling about in the back of my head. This week I finally decided to make a start on them.

Brass wire is shaped around the smaller buttons to form the skeleton of the legs.

This particular brand of roller has a nice little scalloped part which, it occurred to me, could be cut out to leave something resembling a cockpit. I tried two or three times to do this after pulling the roller apart, so that I would be able to insert a driver from behind, but the top (white) part of the roller is very brittle and fell apart every time. In the end, I left the roller intact and cut  the front section away.

Thorax and abdomen are joined, and the legs are added as plastic tubing surrounds the brass wires. You can see where I have cut out the cockpit section.

I'll have to put the drivers in from the front and complete the models around them - not easy, but there you go.

A wooden bead and part of a brass press-stud help to form the head. The cockpit is clearly visible.

Beads are added to create a Faraday weapon similar to those used by British Hydrothermicopters.

These are going to be fairly large for one-man vehicles, but I'm hoping they'll be one of my best creations. I have great hopes for them!

A wooden bead and some plastic tubing create a chimney for that authentic steam-powered insect look. Just like the real thing!

Obviously, thre's a fair bit of work left in these, but they'll help to keep me going in the moments when the giant walker seems somewhat overwhelming.

So there you go! I hope this will keep you all entertained for a while.

The Nefarious Doktor Nefarious admires his newest monstrosities.

All the Best!