I’m shelving it indefinitely. And when I say “indefinitely,” it’s like when
you asked your parents if you could go to Disneyworld and they said “We’ll
see.” Everyone knew what they really
meant.
Let’s be honest. It
was moving at a crawl, and with the extra stuff we all have to do around the
holidays that meant it was insanely slow.
In another two months the real model will be out and a bunch of very
talented engineers will put out spectacular paperhammer models that my
scratchbuild won’t come anywhere near.
Plus, to be honest, I didn’t have a lot of enthusiasm for
the project. It was just something I
started to capitalize on the current Necron popularity. And there’s just too many other ideas that I
really want to be working on for me to be mustering up fake excitement in the
hopes of getting one or two more followers here on my geeky blog.
So next time I’m going big with another Apocalypse-level
unit. Inspiration came to me while building the Baneblade/ Plaguereaper.
More on that later.
I don’t know why, but purity seals have always sort of
embodied Warhammer 40,000 for me. Maybe
it’s the idea of prayers and devotions being bound up as physical things. Maybe it’s the stark contrast between science
and faith. Or maybe it’s just the
fluttery ends.
Regardless, purity seals are a great piece of detail that
make any model look better. Even
paperhammer models. So when it struck me
how easy it was to make them... well, I had to share.
I took my 1/16” punch and make a few holes in a piece of
card, leaving a bit of space around them.
Then I took the 1/8” punch, lined it up over the 1/16” hole, and
punched. End result—a 1/8” disk with a
1/16” hole in it. If the hole’s not
perfectly centered, don’t worry about it.
As long as it doesn’t look drastically off it’ll be fine.
Helpful Hint- You need to do it in this
order. If you try to punch 1/16” holes
in 1/8” disks, you’re just going to end up with disks impaled on the
punch. And you’ll shred them trying to
get the off. Start small and work out,
not the other way around.
I made up about half a dozen of those and then made half a
dozen straight 1/8” disks. These got
paired up with the “donuts” so I had a disk with a depression in the middle. If there’s a little extra glue on this,
that’s okay.
Next, I got some plain paper. If you’ve got any scraps of typing paper from
templates it’d be great. If you’ve got
something a bit heavier with a bit of a
grain (some junk mail comes on really nice paper), that’d be perfect. I cut out a thin strip (under 1/8”) about an
inch long. If you want to be clever, you
can cut a piece like a tall, thin hourglass, but make sure the narrow bit at
the center is under 1/8” wide.
I crumpled the paper and carefully smoothed it back
out. This gives it a little more
texture. Then I folded it in half, but
not perfectly. I want the crease at a
bit of an angle so the two “legs” hang a bit apart, like an upside-down V. I put a very tiny bit of glue inside the
crease, too, to keep it folded.
Then I just glued the paper to the flat side of the donut
and voila. Purity seal!
If you want larger seals for dreadnaughts, tanks, or scenery pieces, use the 1/8” punch to make the initial hole and a 1/4” punch to make
the donut around it. You could also make
the paper longer (for either size) and try twisting it or putting waves in
it. There’s a good chance such things
will show up next year when I try making a few Imperial vehicles again.
If you’ve been playing with the card “flats” that have had a
run of popularity lately, this is also a cheap and easy way to bring those 2-D
models a little more into the third dimension.
Cover the purity seals printed on them, or add extras.
All for now. Next
time... something big and very classic.
And probably following my usual leanings.
You did get me to follow with the Doom Scythe, so mission accomplished. :)
ReplyDeleteDamn it! Now I feel like a jerk for not working on it. :)
ReplyDeleteWell, hope you stick around anyway, MSP. I've got a couple things planned for the immediate future that I think most people will like. And as soon as someone puts out a halfway decent Scythe template I'll jump on it.
Next up--think big and towering and silver.