Mastodon Gets Its 2 Front Tracks For Christmas

So after getting the left front track done over the weekend, yesterday I got the right track spaced and fitted and added the bolters to the to the casement with blu tac, will look at maybe magnetising them next as well as plating the sides to make it look manufactured and try to blend the join between the AT ST head and the home made body. I'm also looking at getting a couple of flame storm cannons in January and swopping the front Heavy Bolters for those and moving the sponson forward and down to a more tusk like position and then adding a shiled of some sort around the front pair of heavy bolters to give the inpression of ears.

Sinister side started

Managed to squeese in 5 minutes on Project M today before I went outvto a (ha!) mammoth 13 hour shift (really how is giving me a longer working day doing me a favour even if it is in the town where I live? It's not like I can go home at any point,). So started spacing/squaring up the front tracks on the Mastodon, got the left sinister side done before I had to set off for work. Minor finessing issue of getting the right side done before I can try then both and then I also need to check that the tracks are level on the front. Think I've broke the back on this one; not much longer to go and it'll be ready to paint.

22nd of December Mastodon WIP

Was on my weekend off and amid getting Christmas ready and family visiting I got the casement done on the Mastodon, took it out back got 10 Marines up top and photographed it.

Back Plate

Not got a lot done this week, just the decoration on the arse of the tank. All the bits are from the Leman Russ kit although I'm thinking the fuel drum is not a good idea.

Mastodon Moving On

Glued the track sections to the back compartment today and tried the Soylent Green from GW. While good I think you need to find the right problem to use it on which I didn't.

Progress On Project M

Not much progress no, but a small amount. Added some fairing under the turrret to hide the foam board. With a bit of luck tomorrow should see the out riggers added so the tracks will sit on sides of the head squarely. Tomorrow should also see the gaps filled in with some liquid green stuff, mostly to see how it works.

WIP Mastodon, Techpriest Enginseer

So tiny bit done on the Mastodon around working stupid shifts at work. Clad the sides in plasticard will cut some bits out for plating the sides and doors for access. Will get a castlement done for round the top and may just move the roof access hatch to the back angled plate.
Also read the email from Wayland Games with the Bombshell Babes and saw this little lady, think I found my Enginseer.

Mastodon Latest WIP

Few days off work and I'm already moving on with this build, used up the last of my super glue last night sticking the back plate and sides to the base and used some of the green stuff to fill the gaps where the fit is less than perfect (all of them). After gluing the angled plate I'd fitted on roughly was massivly undersized so I flipped that and put it underneath as a brace where the body mates with the head, that was last night. This morning I cut a new angle plate and then started to finess myself a top deck. For this one I actually got the tape measure out and did some vaugely accurate measurments, but my cutting was a touch up. So with some remedial trimming and gently knife work to trim out the foam but leave the plastic coat I got the top deck on. As it stands now I can fit 10 marines on there, but I still need to fit a casment around the top to give the riders cover.

Bottom photo; while out working yesterday I saw this lego kit, the Mandolorian Speeder, had to double check but if you squint you could pass this off as a Forge World Javlin  Land Speeder I think, and half the price.

Good Week For Working

Not so good for time on the hobby, 49 hours and 6 straight days. Plan is to get down to Granthams to get hold of some foam card to start the Mastodon body.
Other plans.
I had always intended to sell the Mastodon and keep the Titan  but now I'm thinking of selling the Titan and keeping the Mastodon and add a couple more as Company Transports for The Lions Blades or maybe selling both and using the cash to make the 3  Mastodons I'm planning on. Beyond that and using those 3 to get used to messing around with foam card and plasticard I'm thinking of possible starting to sell them. I know I'd not be able to use the GW bits if I was to sell them on so I'd have to make tracks, turret and the rest out of foam and plasticard with enough divergence from GW to get away with it and also use a different name as I'm fairly sure Mastodon will be a registered name, that bit is easy as I've already looked up the evolution of the Elephant and it's family tree and seen a couple of branches that died out that I might use the names of.
So on my day off I got on with cutting up the foam board to make the body of Mastodon. I started off with a base and made it a bit too long, along with the sides, it took some work to at first and it wasn't a looker, with the Russ tracks on the front it was not good. I flipped the tracks around and found that they looked better that way than I had thought but the extra weight kept pulling the body apart and with the with the look of body I thought I'd chop it down a bit, I orginally thought to cut 2 inches/50mm out of the body, but going with the baby steps idea I thought it better to cut half of what I wanted to out as I can always cut more off, but if I cut too much out it would have been a waste and I'd have to start again with another sheet of foam board. After the cutting I spent a bit of time finessing plates and getting them to fit. With the heavier tracks on the back I was only able to stand them next to the back for the photo but I think it looks better like this.

Playing With Power Tools

So I borrowed a Dremmel off a mate of mine last night and had some fun today, Saturday, cutting up the Rhino and the turret mount for the Leman Russ. I started on the Rhino cutting into what had been the front plate. I got to work on the cut outs with my file tiding up the cut outs, I realised that I hadn't taken into account the brace that the head had fitted to so I got the Dremmel out again and cut down a slit so that the hull actually angels downwards. I spent some more time playing with file to get a good fit. I'm now waiting on the magnets to arrive from Hong Kong to fit the hull to the shell properly. While talking to my mate last night we got onto to the weapons I'm getting, I was planning on getting the guns from Forge World but my mate suggested that they'll be over balanced as the mounts are near the back, if I make them I can have the fittings more central and get the guns back ends to help counter balance the forward weight of the head. Onto the Mastodon; I wanted a turret on it and am using the Leman Russ for this, as I think that this rather than a super heavy gun is more in keeping with the transport role of the Mastodon, a Baneblade type weapon while an option would take up way too much space and while I see a Big Fracking Gun version being made ( 4th up as I intend to sell the first on ebay to to pay for bits to make the next 3. This one will have a smaller transport capacity of say 15 with maybe an Earth Shaker Cannon mounted on the back to act as a Command Version which was a suggestion from someone in the Imperial Guard group I'm in on Facebook, the Command Squad and maybe the an elite squad or 2 to act as bodyguards will be transported in this one. So I started off by fitting the turret plate on the ATST the wrong way round. To get a better fit I cut off the flat end plate. This looked okay but needed a bit of finessing, now finess is an alien concept to someone who lived by by the ethos the only 4 tools you'll ever need are WD40, Duct Tape, The Chisle Of Ignorance and The Lump Hammer Of Brute Force and I cut more off than I intended to. Luckly glue, green stuff and a coat of paint should hide that little mess. After fitting it to the top of the ATST it looked bad, so I turned it round and had the "crew hatch" at the back, this also helps to hide the extra cut I made by mistake. The turret looks good on it this way round, and I look forward to getting foam card this week to make the body of the Mastodon and the weapon arms on the Titan. I think I'll be adding some magnets to these to help hold the weight of the weapons and not just hope that the rubber nut from the Zoid will hold it on.

300!

Wow 300 posts and people all over the world are reading them, makes me feel good to know my messy living room has been viewed world wide!
Right back on track, I had a glass is all ways full moment the other day when it comes to the cockpit for the Titan; I'm getting an old Rhino for it's tracks, I need a cockpit for the Titan. I'll have a Rhino hull that could well be going in the bin, can I not use that as my cockpit/ head? Will need magnets of course for this and the front panel in my bits box, but I think I could get this to work, also I could get the hurricane bolters as anti infantry weapons on the sides of this. The image in this post is the, I belive to be, one of the first pair of Titans built for 40K, back in the days before Apocalypes had even been thought of as a concept. I know 2 where made, 1 Loyal and 1 Chaos but beyond that I don't know much about this model.

Project M, WITH PHOTOS! And Boobs!

Okay no boobs, but I know what you gamers are like, as I am one. So after first reading about the Mastodon in the Iron Hands story and Fear To Tread I really wanted one, bnut as of yet the only options were to commission someone to make it or make my own and no matter how close I worked with someone it would still be how they see it not how I see it.

So these photos are a little mixed up here but overall this top pic is the current state of play as I have it now. The ATST head is on it's back the Leman Russ has been taken apart and the bits that are most easily used are already fitted to the head. I had to cut the guns that came with ATST off the side of the head and the spindle mounts as well to get the sponsons to fit onto the plates, I added the skull "head lights" from the Nephilim Jet Fighter to the top of this and a smoke launcher in the middle, these are all blu tacked on for now (note to self- need super glue), and of course blu tacked the track sections on the side as well, with the head tapering inwards/ downwards I'm going to have to put a spacer in there, but this helps as I'm planning on

having an exhaust stack on the back of each one of these and a radiator on top to suggest independent drive. I had at first put the track sections on the right way round but I tried turning them round and seeing how that looked, it kind of reminded me of the Sicaran tank from Forge World, although I think the Sicaran has more slope to the tracks than a Russ does. The pilot came from the Nephilim Jet Fighter box, as I didn't make the pilot with a pair of legs I had spare in my bits box. I've mounted him in the gap where the chin turret was, this was in no way inspired by the Lord of the Rings Ollipont Riders.

If GW/Forge World ever do make an official version of the Mastodon I expect it to have at the core of it this guy.

This is Bladrick the Servitor and my Tech Lord Perr Cey for The Lions Blades Yes I may have lied about the boobs

And the other day we had this weird cloud formation over my town.

Mastodon WIP.

Latest photo's have been added to my G+ account with the ATST head and Leman Russ tracks that I've turned around, I'd actually bought the Russ hoping that the tracks would look like the Sicarus tracks thus hinting at a design link between the 2. I've cut the guns off the ATST & added the sponsons from the Russ to the plates on the side of the head. In the photo I've added a driver from the Ravenwing in the gap where the chin turret was on the ATST, this was in no way inspired by the Olliphont riders. Rhino has been bought for the rear tracks and a friend looking for plasticard for me at her Uni for the body. After talking to Lexicanium on Facebook yesterday about the Mastodon it has a capacity of 40 but in Fear To Tread, you read about Blood Angels hanging off a Mastodon, so I'm planning on having Rhino top hatch & enough space on top for 10 marines with 2 pairs of matched heavy weapons on the front and the rear of the roof. On the back I intend to mount the Hurricane bolters from the Nephilim Jet Fighter that I haven't used. There are a lot of panels from the Leman Russ & Rhino that I intend to use on the body when I get that made, will be looking for a tutorial or 2 to show me how to use plasticard. Hopefully by the time I get the body built I'll be able to get photos back on my blog so I can show it off.

Big Jobs Update

Real life caught up with me this week and very little was done, a Leman Russ has been bought to provide front tracks for Project Mastodon and have an old Rhino on watch on ebay for rear tracks need plasticard for the body... On the Titan front I spent some happy time with my angle grinder and files finesing a couple of brackets so thet would fit on the upper fixing point. Showed my progress to a mate last night and he told me he has a Warhound flame cannon that I've asked to borrow while I work out how to fit it to the brackets and add some housing. Not had the chance to go and look for a head yet. EDIT:- Won the Rhino on ebay last night and now just need plasticard to go ahead with this project, and the Titan as well.

Plans and Project M.

So last time I was in the library I wasn't able to get the blogger screen to load,so I wasn't able to put any photos on my last post and I'm doing this from my phone as it doesn't need any pics. Plans for The Glorious 1000 after readg Codex: Space Marine, I feel that at first glance the Ultramarine Chapter Tactic is going to draw a lot of kids and power gamers but each Tactic being usable only once a game, unless you take Pappa Smurf who lets you use one again, I don't think it's worth it. Personally I think I'll be using Imperial Fist Chapter Tactic and when I pad them out or I'll be using The Ravenguard Chapter Tactic, although I do plan to try the others at some point, I think the White Scars CT will be better fielded with the Lions Blades 2nd Company. Now onto PROJECT M; M for murder? M for my god wheres your money gone? M for my god what are you doing? M for Masterdon? A while ago I picked up a new Star Wars ATST to make a Scout Titan, now the version I picked up had a detachable head, which had been sitting around doing nothing all that time. I have read almost all of the HH novels and one of the things talked about was the Space Marine Mastodon, when I first read about it I wanted to buy one/make one. So after a chat with my oldest daughter about the art supplies at the uni shop she works at she's picking up some plasti card for me to make the body, just need to find a company that makes tracked bogies so I can buy 4 and some old engine blocks from Land Raider/ Dreadnought and some more heavy weapons to load it up. The Scout Titan hasn't really progressed beyond the bits legs and shell, still looking for a cockpit, I did see something a couple of weeks ago, but didn't have any cash to pick it up.