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FW Brass Scorpion

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FW Brass Scorpion

Postby Baragash » Thu Feb 26, 2009 10:57 pm

Strangely, I'm a completer-finisher at work, and rubbish at it outside work...but we'll see how this goes (hopefully the fact that it cost ~£143 will add motivation.... :) )

(This is a combination of several posts, so sorry if it reads a bit funny, and was written for people generally less experienced than the denizens here, so apologies for any egg-sucking on display.)

Not sure how informative people reading this will find it, if you have any questions, fire away :)

Brass Scorpion

So, a surprisingly small package in comparison to the boxes FW normally send me:
Image

Warm (not hot, don't want any unintentional warping), soapy water to clean it in:
Image

8" diameter cake tier for a base. May not be big enough on reflection, but Hobbycraft also do 9", 10" and 12" bases too, and at less than £2, not a big deal. The shiny side will be the bottom as it's more resilient than the paper-covered side, and PVA takes to the paper covering better:
Image

Half the pieces washed (needed a cuppa):
Image

All the pieces washed:
Image

Once I've washed the pieces and patted them dry with kitchen paper, I use a hairdryer on a light setting, focussing on the detailed crevices, as there tends to be water pooled in them, and a lot of them will be places where you'll need to apply glue.

I then put all the pieces I don't immediately need in a padded box so I've got space to work in, leaving these bits out:
Image

And set up my space to start cleaning them up:
Image

Then I do something extremely important: have lunch :)

The other side of the base, as I mentioned it:
Image

The body and the tail, showing where there are tabs that need removing (already cut the small one off before I took the pic):
Image

When doing this sort of work, I have a slightly damp cloth/kitchen paper to hand to wipe away the resin dust as it's not a good idea to blow it up into the air, mask or no mask. I also have the hoover near by for periodic dust suckage.

The body and tail "assembled" (not glued yet until I check it over for flash etc):
Image

The instructions tell you to carefully clean the "sockets", on the one hand, I was lucky, 7 of the 8 were clean. The 8th one was an animal though, as it had some nice, solid lumps to cut out:
Image

Then I glued it:
Image

When using clippers on resin, unlike metal, you can't clip right up to where you want the break. Resin doesn't have a consistent reaction to the pressure, and sometimes it'll break off part of the model. So, always clip a bit further up, then use a knife and/or file to finish the job:
Image

Boiling water to straighten the Scorpion Cannon, as one was a bit bent. Left in for about 90 seconds it goes really soft, takes about the same time to harden once out of the water:
Image

Straight enough:
Image

The Tail Blades have a slightly annoying mould line on the blade. As they're two copies of the same mould, it's on the same side, so I had the cleaner one facing upwards after much filing/knife work:
Image

The Tail Blades and Gun Shield are dead easy to fit, the Gun Shield needed very little cleaning, bar two tabs. It attaches to the top of the Tail quite snugly:
Image

The Maw Cannon Assembly has two tabs on the back, it had a slightly fiddly mould line on the bottom:
Image
EDIT: sorry about the pic, my camera counter-compensated for the daylight bulb because of the angle I took it from.

The body and Maw Cannon Assembly fit together with these two central holes:
Image
Unfortunately, mine showed no interest whatsoever in lining up, so I cut the tabs off (the surface is huge, so sticking shouldn't be a problem, I've also roughed it up with a file to get a good stick). Anyway, I'll just have to make sure that when I attach the Maw Cannon Assembly, it doesn't block the Maw Cannon Barrels that go into the slots where I've put the green circle.

Note: the other reason to clear up resin dust regularly and use the damp cloth is because it ends up stuck to your super-glue brush, which writes the whole thing off next time you open the bottle, as the bristles are all glued together (yes, bitter experience).

The Maw Cannon Assembly has 4 blades to go around it. Very straight forward to clean up:
Image

Which gives you this:
Image

Which attaches nicely to the front, with no hassle:
Image

The Maw Cannon Barrels go on underneath, one has quite a hefty mould line, but it's under the raised piping, so pretty invisible:
Image

And a "the story so far" shot, not stuck the Stinger on yet, as it's got a massive piece of cable that hangs off separately, which I need to clean and line up:
Image

FW love cables, especially piped ones (the two Ogryn Zerks I have gave me a lot of fun cleaning them). So, given the opportunity they could hardly resist a huge one (behave :roll: :P ). Requires care to snip away the tab without snapping it off the smaller cable (which I then cut with a knife):
Image

As I found out on my Militia Champion (see sigged blog), thin piping is very easy to break, and there can be thin flash, which needs cutting out with as little pressure as possible on the piping:
Image

Cables often have mould misalignment ridges to file or knife down, this was no different, requires patience and a delicate hand with the tip of the knife and/or file ("and" in my case).

But once it's done, it fits together quite well, unglued shot, connecting points circled:
Image

And today's lesson is don't speak too soon........ :roll:

Fortunately, I noticed just as I pushed it into place that there are two cables to line up, otherwise things could have gotten......frustrating:
Image
Image

4 tabs to remove on the Claws:
Image

However, they aren't straightforward. The two Pincers are a right angle, so at the very least will need a knife to thin the join before clipping. The Carapace tabs are at an angle, so needed to be very careful with the clippers to keep off the Carapace rim, before filing the excess down:
Image

And a scale shot of the Claw Carapace...:
Image

I've spent around 12 hours at the desk, although this includes periodic breaks for tea and Forum surfage.
Last edited by Baragash on Thu Feb 26, 2009 11:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby timewizard » Fri Feb 27, 2009 1:01 am

Nice report so far! Can't wait to see the next installment.
I haven't had the pleasure (?) of working with a resin kit yet, but found your notes to be informative and interesting.
Keep it going!
BTW, I am (and did) behave myself about the huge ones (cables) reference, but couldn't resist mentioning that you said:

Baragash wrote:Left in for about 90 seconds it goes really soft, takes about the same time to harden once out of the water:


You might want to speak to your urologist about this! :lol:

TW
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Postby Gymbol » Fri Feb 27, 2009 3:59 am

He could just stand further back. That's what I had to do.
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Re: FW Brass Scorpion

Postby LordMalekTheRedKnight » Fri Feb 27, 2009 8:08 am

while im never going to build one of these, i will certainly find the following tips useful:

Baragash wrote:(This is a combination of several posts, so sorry if it reads a bit funny, and was written for people generally less experienced than the denizens here, so apologies for any egg-sucking on display.)

Not sure how informative people reading this will find it, if you have any questions, fire away :)
...
Once I've washed the pieces and patted them dry with kitchen paper, I use a hairdryer on a light setting, focussing on the detailed crevices, as there tends to be water pooled in them, and a lot of them will be places where you'll need to apply glue.
...
When doing this sort of work, I have a slightly damp cloth/kitchen paper to hand to wipe away the resin dust as it's not a good idea to blow it up into the air, mask or no mask. I also have the hoover near by for periodic dust suckage.
...
When using clippers on resin, unlike metal, you can't clip right up to where you want the break. Resin doesn't have a consistent reaction to the pressure, and sometimes it'll break off part of the model. So, always clip a bit further up, then use a knife and/or file to finish the job:
...
Boiling water to straighten the Scorpion Cannon, as one was a bit bent. Left in for about 90 seconds it goes really soft, takes about the same time to harden once out of the water:

cheers! :D

~ Tim
p.s. my own FW order arrived this week, the Renegade Psyker for my Zombies. :)
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Postby ruffian4 » Fri Feb 27, 2009 8:08 am

Ditto, never bought a resin kit, so cheers for the hints.

timewizard wrote:
You might want to speak to your urologist about this! :lol:

Ohhh, that reminds me...
...and she said "No! Put your clothes back on, we investigate unexplained aerial phenomena here."

What can you do?
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Postby timewizard » Fri Feb 27, 2009 1:32 pm

ruffian4 wrote:...and she said "No! Put your clothes back on, we investigate unexplained aerial phenomena here."

What can you do?


Leave the ufologist's office as soon as you can! :lol:
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Postby Baragash » Mon Mar 02, 2009 10:38 am

timewizard wrote:
Baragash wrote:Left in for about 90 seconds it goes really soft, takes about the same time to harden once out of the water:


You might want to speak to your urologist about this! :lol:

TW


I should have known someone here would find something in the small print :roll: :P

LordMalekTheRedKnight wrote:p.s. my own FW order arrived this week, the Renegade Psyker for my Zombies. :)


I do like those models, looking forward to getting them in the (hopefully near) future, once the rest of the Militia I already own are painted.

Short Update

So, for the Pincers, I clipped out the right angle to start with, then used a combination of clippers, knife and file to tidy the rest up down to the fit. Other than that the Pincer marked "R" was pretty clean, but the one marked "L" needed a fair bit of mould line removal:
Image

But once clean, they fit really nicely onto the Claw Carapace:
Image

The second set was cleaner and quicker/easier to do.

Did I mention FW love their cabling and piping?! :roll:

The two arms for the Claws:
Image

Pretty easy to clean up, despite a slight mould misalignment on one. The legs have similar pieces, except one side is armoured.
Last edited by Baragash on Mon Mar 02, 2009 10:39 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby ruffian4 » Mon Mar 02, 2009 8:39 pm

I like the cable stuff.
Does anyone know of some kind of product that looks like that?
Some kind of flexible (there is no-way to say this without sounding dirty, damn dirty) GRUBSCREW?
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grubscrew

Postby Herne » Wed Mar 04, 2009 10:21 am

Guitar strings - the metal type - different thicknesses available and the thicker ones show a broader rideging.
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Postby Baragash » Wed Mar 04, 2009 11:19 am

Indeed. My Militia Champion's power cable came broken, so I did this instead of getting a replacement:

Image

EDIT: it may not be clear, but it is "piped".
Last edited by Baragash on Wed Mar 04, 2009 11:20 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby Baragash » Wed Mar 04, 2009 10:20 pm

So, started working on the upper legs. Got 4 out of 6 done so far, and pretty straight forward (asking for trouble much?).

Tab needs clipping off:
Image

A small amount of smoothing needed on the knee joint:
Image

The only consistent piece of flash on these pieces:
Image

Should have mentioned this before, but most of the curves on the armour plating on any piece usually need a bit of trimming and cleaning for a smooth finish (not really clear in the photo):
Image

Good example of mould misalignment (although quite easy to trim and file in this case):
Image

Bit of theory/asking for suggestions now. As the Scorpion stands on tip-toes essentially, this isn't great for basing, and I feel a base is a must for stability in transportation at the very least. My thought is to make a good ~3mm indentation into the base with the Talons, and then glue it like that. Obviously this means the end of the Talons will be hidden, would this look bad? Any alternatives?
Image
The only other option that springs to mind is to insert a pin a couple of mm up from the tip, and then sand over it, or otherwise conceal it amongst the base. (Possibly could use a combination of both ideas)

Thoughts?
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Postby Firecrest_inc » Wed Mar 04, 2009 10:30 pm

From a realistic sense, having some of the pincher in the ground would be ideal, since something that big and heavy will leave an imprint.
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Re: grubscrew

Postby ruffian4 » Thu Mar 05, 2009 4:38 am

Herne wrote:Guitar strings - the metal type - different thicknesses available and the thicker ones show a broader rideging.

Did you ever have one of those "doh!" moments???

Which reminds me, I need to re-string my Washburn g5v.

:oops:
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