payzahh
New member
Post 1: Design and mock up
This latest project started with the idea of converting a doom scythe kit, to make it more personal.
After some thought I decided to do as I had with my Night scythe and make an interesting base.
The main role of this flyer is to strafe the battlefield with its crudely named "death ray" so I wanted to have the model doing just that.
After some thought, and playing around with the kit, I realised the only way to do this was to completely redesign the base.
View attachment 17898
This design negates the need for the clear plastic support, as the weight will be taken by a rod, that will enter the model through the barrel of the cannon underneath.
I bought a steel rod, 3mm diameter, to act as the death ray, and set about a mock up to work out the details.
I cut an an oval shape out of some MDF, to the same dimensions as the base supplied with the models, but a centimetre deeper.
A 3mm hole was drilled into the MDF at the desired exit angle for the rod.
A router was then used to create a groove underneath the base, so that the rod would run through the base, and after a sharp bend appear out the top side.
View attachment 17899
The next problem to overcome is how heavy the base needs to be for the model to be stable, and with what material to add this weight.
I enlisted the help of a structural engineer friend of mine, who thoroughly enjoyed explaining how to calculate moments about the point of rotation, in order to calculate the exact weight needed to balance perfectly. Then multiply this by a factor of 1.5 to ensure stability instead of a delicate balance. I realise that this is an over the top approach to this problem, but it was interesting.
View attachment 17902
The calculations sketched out above were to calculate the weight that I had to add to the point where the rod met the base.
I initially planned to router out more of the underside of the base, in which I would secrete some thin lead weights I had.
After some more thinking, and another chat with my friend, he instead calculated how heavy the actual base would have to be, in order to not require any lead weights. (This was done using the centre of the base in the moment calculation.)
Rounding up to an easy number, I set out to find some dense wood, from which to cut out a base that weighed approximately 190g
I do not know what variety of wood I have used, as my father kindly donated it from the wood blocks he uses for wood turning (and I forgot to ask.) But it is incredibly dense.
View attachment 17904
In the image above, I have cut the wood to the same sized oval as the GW flyer base supplied, but have increased the depth of the base to get the necessary weight. One of the reasons for doing this is that I do intend to use the model for gaming purposes.
It is quite late at night now here in Sheffield, so more on this tomorrow.
This latest project started with the idea of converting a doom scythe kit, to make it more personal.
After some thought I decided to do as I had with my Night scythe and make an interesting base.
The main role of this flyer is to strafe the battlefield with its crudely named "death ray" so I wanted to have the model doing just that.
After some thought, and playing around with the kit, I realised the only way to do this was to completely redesign the base.
View attachment 17898
This design negates the need for the clear plastic support, as the weight will be taken by a rod, that will enter the model through the barrel of the cannon underneath.
I bought a steel rod, 3mm diameter, to act as the death ray, and set about a mock up to work out the details.
I cut an an oval shape out of some MDF, to the same dimensions as the base supplied with the models, but a centimetre deeper.
A 3mm hole was drilled into the MDF at the desired exit angle for the rod.
A router was then used to create a groove underneath the base, so that the rod would run through the base, and after a sharp bend appear out the top side.
View attachment 17899
The next problem to overcome is how heavy the base needs to be for the model to be stable, and with what material to add this weight.
I enlisted the help of a structural engineer friend of mine, who thoroughly enjoyed explaining how to calculate moments about the point of rotation, in order to calculate the exact weight needed to balance perfectly. Then multiply this by a factor of 1.5 to ensure stability instead of a delicate balance. I realise that this is an over the top approach to this problem, but it was interesting.
View attachment 17902
The calculations sketched out above were to calculate the weight that I had to add to the point where the rod met the base.
I initially planned to router out more of the underside of the base, in which I would secrete some thin lead weights I had.
After some more thinking, and another chat with my friend, he instead calculated how heavy the actual base would have to be, in order to not require any lead weights. (This was done using the centre of the base in the moment calculation.)
Rounding up to an easy number, I set out to find some dense wood, from which to cut out a base that weighed approximately 190g
I do not know what variety of wood I have used, as my father kindly donated it from the wood blocks he uses for wood turning (and I forgot to ask.) But it is incredibly dense.
View attachment 17904
In the image above, I have cut the wood to the same sized oval as the GW flyer base supplied, but have increased the depth of the base to get the necessary weight. One of the reasons for doing this is that I do intend to use the model for gaming purposes.
It is quite late at night now here in Sheffield, so more on this tomorrow.
