Chimera WIP Part 3

Well the Chimera is now about as finished as it's going to get before QM3, at least in the building department.  I may add some extra details like stowage and stuff later though.  I'll undercoat it tomorrow in the morning.

I've used plasticard to make the hatches.  I thought about adding rivets but after spending 3 minutes trying to cut plastic rod to size and then also realising that I don't have tweezers handy, I decided to give them a miss at least for the time being.  I added an Imperial Eagle to spice up the blank front plate and have added a groove to the rear hatch.  I may glue some handles on there before I spray it tomorrow.

Eltnot.

Chimera WIP Part 2

I continued work by cleaning out the old lasgun ports as these weren't going to be used.  I had tried filing them off without much success until I tried my scalpel with its new blade.  This made short work of the ports and I soon had that area level after also clipping off the necessary rivets.

I then started on the side plates.  I tried a test fit but didn't like the fatboy look it gave the tank, so that had to be rectified.  I used my saw to cut them down to around 3mm wide.  It was a bit fiddly with all of the edges but it worked out alright and only required a small amount of filing to make them level at the end.

Once they were done, I attached them and started adding on the extra bits.  The panels were glued into place along with the tracks and track guards.  I played around with different ways to mount the guards, but ended up preferring them at the rear of the tank.  I filed down the smoke launchers to give them a sharper angle and mounted them to the side of the turret in the same fashion as my other tanks.

I'm in the process of filing down what was the hatches that normally go on the rear to place them over the empty lasgun ports.  This way if the rules change in the future and I get back my firepoints then I have a reasonable way of representing them.  I'm also trying to work out how best to mount a spotlight.  I'd prefer not to use the big clunky IG version that currently exists.  I've looked at a SM version but am having difficulties finding a suitable method for attaching it to the turret as it's still to big to place anywhere else.  I am toying with the idea of placing it at the rear of the tank and doing the same with the ones that need to be attached to my rhinos.  I'll leave the dozer blade off for now to make it easier to paint the vehicle.

Eltnot.

Chimera WIP Part 1

Going on from my previous post, I've started work on my Chimera.  I've been taking photos and will try to lay this out as a guide for others wishing to do the same.  I started out by assembling the track sections as normal (I decided not to go with the alternate track style).  I've left off the tracks for the time being, as I can easily add them on later.  I got out all the other major parts and cleaned them all up ready for assembly.

I then started to work out my measurements.  I concluded that to get the look that I wanted, I could remove between 18mm and 22mm from the top section.  Any less than that and I would partially cover some of the hatches that I wanted to keep.  Any longer than that and I would have to add extensions to the lower hull and that would be painful.  I worked out that I could cut out from just in front of the first lasgun port to just in front of the second lasgun port.  This worked out to be about 18-19mm of hull.  I put together the front part of the hull to help me with guessing and fitting of parts.  I took my new hobby saw and proceeded to cut the section out of the hull.  Unfortunately I let the blade slip at one stage and put a nick in the hull that I will have to cover up later on.

I then cleaned up the cut a little with a file and glued the two halves together.

For extra strength, I cut off two legths of sprue and glued them to the underside of the hull.

Once that was done, I glued the lower section of the hull to the two track sections.  This was a little tricky as the parts all need to be squeezed tightly together to get them to glue straight.  I also lined up my top hull with the lower hull and clipped off the rear rivets and one of the sets of hinges to allow a flush finish.  I'll have to make up the hinge parts that I've removed latter on out of greenstuff or small bits of plasticard.

 Once that was done, I've test fitted all of the parts and am assembling each of the other sections.  I haven't glued on any of the hatches yet as I'll leave them until I've got all of the parts built that need to be.  I've already had to fish one of the small hatches out of the hull as I try dry fitting them in place and filing.

You can see the tank starting to take shape.  I'll keep this updated as I continue working on it.

P.S. The new version of the blog composer is bloody annoying.  Especially the fact that if I'm uploading pictures, I can't write at the same time like I used to.

Eltnot.