So here's part 2 of my walk through of the Mega Dread build. This will show how the primary weapon arms were built. Importantly it should be noted that both arms can be built for left or right fitting, depending on the orientation of the upper arm to shoulder piece connections. Your choice but be careful not to make 2 left arms! ;)
First up you should recall that I did a dry run and drilled and pinned the shoulder sockets previously but didn't fix them to the torso as shown here;
The Kilkannon arm;
The following series of shots show step by step how I built the main gun and the left shoulder;
The shoulder joint and upper arm, drilled and pinned;
The Barrel and Support prior to fixing showing the excess lug protruding and then with the excess material removed so that the barrel joins snugly to the chambers later. DO NOT fix the support to the barrel yet!
The Kannon frame attached to the upper arm/shoulder sub assembly with the kannon klamp, shown from several angles. The large hole is for a wide pin to connect the shell chambers to the frame later.
The wide pin which will hold the cylinder in place, the kit doesn't contain this. Whether mine was missing or not I don't know, the instructions/contents sheet doesn't show anything. I made this pin from the chopped off lug from the barrel, by shaving it down to the correct diameter. You could use whatever you have available.
The cylinder attached to the assembly. Ensure you fit it with the shells pointing forward! ;)
The barrel support now fitted in place, note that the hole for the barrel is aligned with one of the shell chambers.
Barrel fitted. This was a nice strong joint.
The shoulder guard fitted onto the shoulder joint. This was a total mare! The join is small and not well moulded. I spent a lot of time filing and sanding and in the end used 3 pins to get a decent fix. Be wary!
Left arm in place but not glued, the pin is tight enough that the arm doesn't droop under the barrels weight so I'll probably leave it unfixed after painting for ease of packing and transport.
The Ripper Klaw arm
Now the right arm, this was tricky! The worst bit was fitting the 4 pistons, the instructions are rubbish! My pistons did not conform to theirs, I did lots of dry runs and ended up using them in different positions and having to create an extension for one of them. There was some bad moulding involved with 2 of the pistons. My advice is to take this bit really slowly and be very very patient!
The shoulder pivot connected to the shoulder joint. I pinned this just in case.
Adding the pistons to the arm. As I said earlier this was tricky and required a lot of trimming and repositioning.
The arm connected to the shoulder pivot. This required a pin and some careful positioning so that the finished arm was in the desired position when complete. Again dry runs required at every stage.
The pin and hole for the wrist joint;
The klaw attached to the arm. Full rotation is possible here for a wide choice of positions;
The shoulder guard fitted. Again this required a lot of work and 2 pins to get a decent joint.
At this point I will share an important lesson I learnt; Don't Stop Doing Dry Runs!!! With the guard on, the arm didn't fit to the torso with the pin in its current position. Only a fraction off, but enough for the join to not work. So I removed the guard and fixed the arm as I wanted it and then put the guard in place. The arm is now fixed to the torso and cannot be removed.
Lesson Learnt!
The finished model;
Overall well pleased with the build, I made a few mistakes along the way but also learnt a couple of things. This is a big and complex build which deserves a careful approach and the model is well worth that effort.
I have since modified the model slightly as I want to field it in a codex orks army and the latest data sheet for it in I.A.Apoc, which is the only way to have one in a codex list, doesn't allow a third big shoota! Boo! So I've removed it.
The next post will cover painting the model and the base I decided to put it on.
Bluddtoof