Making exhausts

The other day i was trying to be helpful in suggesting a way of making some exhaust pipes for a very cool anti grav bike he's building but looking back at my explanation it's useless without pictures. So here it is in pictures. Been a while since i did this last and that time i used brass pipe but out of brass at the moment so picket up some ali pipe instead. First cut the ali pipe down to the required length and insert a smaller length of plastic pipe, and it needs to fit inside snug.

Then you need to crimp the ali pipe "gently" with pliers and if you have it use some leather to stop the pliers marking the tube. Also crimp the plastic pipe so it matches your ali pipe.

Now mark out where you want holes in your pipe and make a pilot hole using a scalpel point, then drill out the holes. I don't need to say it but will anyway DON'T DRILL YOUR FINGER! IT HERTS! A LOT!

Then cut the plastic pipe to required length and find a heat source. A candle is best or in this case a zippo as it's a constant flame and you don't have to hold it whilst warming your pipe. Don't put it in the flame, that will just result in a mess, hold it above the heat for a few seconds and gently bend in the desired direction. I've put a cocktail stick in the end to help bend it.

You may find the plastic pipe warps a bit but at this point a rub with a sanding stick will bring it back into shape and sanding over the drill holes to remove any burrs from it.

A spot of putty around the point were the 2 pipes meet will blend them together nicely.

And finally here's a couple i painted up to show what you can get for half an hours work per pipe.

I did this on the fly tonight after thinking about it at work today and i think it's worked out quite well even if the holes are a bit dodgy and should have left the putty to go off more before painting lol

Hope this gives you the gist of how to add custom smoke pipes to your tank or grav bike or mek or what ever you need an exhaust for.

Rich

Meet the Marshal

Here's my next project on the bench Marshal Law, for the SFM Hero's and Villans Group build that's just started. I was torn between doing a hero or a villan so decided to do Marshal Law as he's a bit of both and also known as the hero hunter lol. It's not a scratch your own GB but there aint any ML kits out there so having to Sculpt my own. above is the wire armature and covered in tinfoil, then the sculpy 2 as a first base layer to build on to with Super sculpy . I'm looking forward to doing the barbed wire on his arm as i've got a kick ass method for making convincing scale barbed wire. A note about the scale it's sort of 1/20 or a bit bigger so were calling it blitzscale for now lol. Looking after a grumpy 3 year old tonight so no progress till tommorow.

Smoking Joe and pals Part 2

Here's a few more pics of the guys with there decals on. Now i was going to ask yesterday about decals as i don't seem to see much use of them on IG armies but I'm hopeing to decal most of my guys so here's the question "am i mad to try".

I wont try to give them all individual squad and company flashes as that would be nuts but a regimental number (28th Stalichian Rifles) and brigade/ division badges and campaign markings.

Grenade launcher guy just has the regiment number and the winged skull on his cap as it looked very plain, I've used ink to tint it yellow and will try to build up some layers of gloss varnish to give it a more 3d look. May add some info blurb on the spare ammo drum satchels i scratched up for him. Aircraft kits are a great source of small blocks of text usually for the cockpit layout or Ma.k kits which have more warning decals than could ever be used.

Next up is one of the Catachans i butchered into a more generic trooper that could pass as a veteran with personalised kit, That's going to be another theme to my IG force, a more personalised kit and a more individual look. I think that a veteran unit would gain this look in a long campaign of planet hoping as kit wears out and is replaced locally and altered to suit the individual rifleman.

And yep that little 7 is a decal from a votoms kit.

Another Votom decal on the top of this guys shoulder armour and the other side his regiment and another winged skull on the flex plate armour.

And here's Smoking Joe more formally known as Senior Sergeant Josep Hazehill. He started of as a plastic Necromundan ganger with a lazrifel and spiky bits on him.

After some quick frankensurgery and a few blobs of Aves i think i've got a decent looking specialist veteran with the sort of build to look good whilst toting a flamer. The Regiment number with the spade interposed are all from the cadian sheet and the small halo is from a chopper decal sheet all positioned using micro set and embedded using micro sol. The yellow decal on his other shoulder is again from the votoms sheet, i thought it had a sergeants look to it that'd look cool. You can see it in the previous post group shot.

Well that's all for now, i'll hopefully get a few more finished soon but still need to order my head swaps and next post i'll post some pics of my next Group build project on SFM:UK

TTFN Blitz

Smoking Joe flame trooper

Just some quick pics of Smoking Joe and some of the other guys i've been decaling up. Been away in Scunthorpe the past 2 weeks working so this is about all i've had time for over the weekend but more coming soon so stay tuned. Well not strait after this as i'm off for a bath and read of the Eiesenhorn omnibus (even better second time around)

Rich