++ AUGUSTUS b'RAASS ++ pre-heresy BRASS SCORPION p.247

[Kriegsmacht]

Predators look great. As usual I love the trophies. Where do you get the hands that are on the side of the WIP tank?

[Augustus b'Raass]

Predators look great. As usual I love the trophies. Where do you get the hands that are on the side of the WIP tank?

Mostly from the zombie regiment kit, especially from the standard top. There's also a nice severed arm in that kit.

http://www.bitsandkits.co.uk/images/DSC_0055.JPG

[Forté]

Now paint one without an airbrush (kidding I swear). That talon is going to look nasty on the table.

[Augustus b'Raass]

Now paint one without an airbrush (kidding I swear). That talon is going to look nasty on the table.

Haha dude that's the one arrow I have in my quiver!

[Eldrick Shadowblade]

Those vehicles are looking ace!

[Brother Heinrich]

http://i41.tinypic.com/1et6iv.jpg

 

Seriously dude, the tanks are looking great. I may have to add some Predator Annihilators to the armory of 15th Company ;)

[Augustus b'Raass]

Alright, ETL update time. I've been working on the build of my Brass Scorpion. 
 
I'm not going to lie. The Brass Scorpion kit was a challenge.
 
This kit is huge and has a lot of parts. What's  especially challenging is that it has three pairs of two-part legs and two two-part claws, all of which are attached to the body with a ball joint (similar to the defiler and soul grinder kits). The joint in the appendages themselves is similar to the joints in the decimator kits, in that they have a female and a male part (and 'innie' and an 'outie', if you catch my drift). Getting this thing to stand on a flat surface with all the legs on the ground was going to be tough. Also, the body of the scorpion has a relatively large mass, which fully rests on the three pairs of legs. So these legs need to be very sturdily build - and the ball joints are NOT built for sturdiness. At all. So superglue was out of the question immediately. I used two-part UHU Schnellfest epoxy resin adhesive. But that wouldn't cut it, in my estimation.
 

Research on realistic scorpion movement

I studied the movement of Scorpions (who interestingly enough have four sets of legs, not three. So more like Brass Insect, Forge World design team! ). I wanted the miniature to look like it's moving realistically, so I wanted to do some research how scorpions move. I searched and found a cool video of the Scorpion King on YouTube. As you see, the width pair moves oppositely, and each pair along the length too. 
www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyMCCw_lPA4
 

Dry-positioning all the legs in their entirety

Now that I had the intended scorpion-in-stride pose down, it came to positioning the legs. I used large blobs of poster buddy instead of glue to attach the two parts of the legs together, then did the same for all the complete legs to the body, making sure the movement was realistic. I did this in the following order: First the front two pairs in opposite positions from each other (so one stepping forward and one going back). I then did one of the rear legs, making sure it was in the same position as the front leg on its side of the boddy. I now had a stable tripod. I then did the other rear leg (in the opposite position of the other one), after which I positioned the two middle legs, making sure each of them was opposite to all three of their neighbours.

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d185/mkruijff/Night%20Lords%20WIP/2015-06-04%2017.41.07_zpsjtbweqx2.jpg
 

Glueing and Pinning the inner legs to the body

I then drilled holes into the middle of every ball joint socket of the body, and drilled coinciding holes in the balls of the joints of the legs. I put small metal rods in the holes, test-fitted the legs into a realistic position and then then glued all the legs to the body using the epoxy resin, in the same order as the test-fit, and allowing the epoxy resin of each pair of legs to dry completely (30 mins) before moving on to the next pair. So front, then rear, then middle pair. I then did the same process for the claws. After all where completely dry, I drilled another hole through the lower part of the socket into the ball and put a shortened flatheaded nail in there too. All leg-to-body joints now had two pins in them, as indicated by the red lines.

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d185/mkruijff/Night%20Lords%20WIP/Brass%20SCorpion%20pin%201_zpstwhrdmwc.jpg

 

Glueing and Pinning the outer legs to the inner legs

I then again test-fitted all the outer leg parts onto the inner leg parts to see if the intended pose was still possible. Luckily it was, so I glued them all in place, in the same order as the inner legs to the body. When the resin adhesive of each glued pair was dry, I drilled a hole through the joint, and put a pin through it with superglue (check out the picture below, the red stripe is the location of the pin). I then smeared a tiny blob of Milliput (why milliput and not greenstuff? Because milliput is far more maleable and can be smeared. When it is dry it can also be effectively sanded, unlike greenstuff). I then moved on to the next pair and repeated the process. 

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d185/mkruijff/Night%20Lords%20WIP/Brass%20SCorpion%20pin%202_zpsroxtcetq.jpg

Timing and Order of glueing the Armour Panels on its back

Yeah, last tip: The armour panels on its back can be dryfitted very easily and do not need to be glued in place. They have no bearing on the structure whatsoever, so for easy of painting, I would strongly suggest leaving them off an only gluing them in place after you've painted (and maybe even after priming) it. When you're glueing them on, start with the one highest (so closest to its tail cannon) and work your way down.

 

So! That was my process of building the Brass Scorpion. I hope future Brass Scorpion builders find this of use. I will leave the claws and the upper armour plates unglued. Once they're painted, I'll glue them in place using the two part epoxy resin adhesive. 

 

And here's some pictures of the build before trophification.

 

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d185/mkruijff/Night%20Lords%20WIP/2015-06-04%2018.09.51_zpsaxq4geco.jpg

 

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d185/mkruijff/Night%20Lords%20WIP/2015-06-04%2018.09.42_zpsehdoejaj.jpg

 

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d185/mkruijff/Night%20Lords%20WIP/2015-06-04%2018.09.27_zpsiseyfky5.jpg

 

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d185/mkruijff/Night%20Lords%20WIP/2015-06-04%2018.10.30_zpssxwrj73t.jpg

 

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d185/mkruijff/Night%20Lords%20WIP/2015-06-04%2018.10.09_zpswgdg4uuh.jpg

 

I hope you like and as always: feedback more than welcome. 

 

Reply (the board is so busy with what the ETL and all, that I'm happy there's still frater commenting here ):

 

@Brother Heinrich: thanks buddy! As you know, vehicles are a pet fave of mine to build and paint, so I'm happy you liked the end result!

 

 

 
 

 

Edited May 29, 2021 by Augustus b'Raass

[Dragonlover]

See, I ballsed up the pins on some of my legs, but the main supporting ones are all fine so I'm probably gonna use the old superglue and green stuff of the ones where the pins are in the wrong place. I just wish they'd given guide pegs and holes for those of us that didn't want to mess around with a drill. I often felt like I needed another pair of arms to hold everything in place while I drilled.

 

I've also left all the legs and plates off for painting, because sod manipulating the whole model while I do the trim.

 

Looks damn good though. Thanks for doing the extra angles in photos btw, helps me plan my paint job a bit better.

 

Dragonlover

[Augustus b'Raass]

I often felt like I needed another pair of arms to hold everything in place while I drilled.

That's why I bought four packs of poster buddies for a giant ball of about 500 grams of the stuff - it's dirt cheap so no worries there. The scorpion was literally covered in the stuff while I worked on the pose. It's also great for decimator and contemptor posing. :tu:

[deathspectersgt7]

Wow, Looking forward to seeing this Beast done.

[Kizzdougs]

Oh man! This is going to be amazing! I can't wait to see you apply your talent to the Scorpion :tu:

[Wicced]

very nice project and tutorial, looking forward to seeing it with trophies and i hope it'll be midnight clad ;)

[Augustus b'Raass]

Thanks, deathspectersgt7, kizzdougs and wicced! I will start painting soon - perhaps even this weekend. However, wicced raises an interesting point. Again. 

 

Night Lords or Khorne colour scheme?

 

Let's put this to a final vote. Any preferences? And why?

[Kizzdougs]

Night Lords would be awesome! I don't think I've ever seen a VIII Legion Brass Scorpion, plus lighting would look amazing on the segmented armour plates.

 

Another idea would be to paint it all in metallics. A real Brass Scorpion. The carapace would look great in the same colour that you paint on the trim of your Night Lords.

 

Having said that, I'd vote for the NL version. Just make sure there is plenty of gore on the mandibles and claws :)

[Forté]

To be a complete pain...I'd say something in the middle. Khorne uses red, black, and brass. Somehow incorporating that into the Night Lords scheme.

[Wicced]

Night Lords all the way ;) never seen one in midnight clad and i bet it'll look fantastic :tu:

[Teetengee]

khornate night lords, I am with forte

 

would red lightning work? or would that look weird?

[Dragonlover]

To be a complete pain...I'd say something in the middle. Khorne uses red, black, and brass. Somehow incorporating that into the Night Lords scheme.

 

Riffing on this, do the armour plates that are attached to the body Night Lords, the ones that come loose in the kit Khorne and then do the legs Night Lords but covered in blood to balance the red with the blue. Scorpion Cannon guard whatever you fancy, my gut is Night Lords.

 

Dragonlover

[Augustus b'Raass]

Thanks guys for the awesome and inspirational replies! Wow, I sort of expected the response to be 50/50, but you guys are pretty unanimous in that there should be a definite Night Lords element. I think I'm gonna go for a mixture of forte and dragonlover's ideas: the main body Night Lords, while it's becoming more and more Khornate towards the extremities. Cool beans!

 

Again, thanks a lot - you guys have really inspired me (the main reason why I waited so long to start this kit is because I was torn between the colour schemes, but this solution is pretty good. Whaddayafink?

[Teetengee]

Should work! Although you may want to consider having a smattering of parts be Khorne, rather than just a regimented selection of them. Perhaps every time it gets repaired the replaced parts are now in Khorne colours kind of thing?

[Kilofix]

Wait, did I just read "SCORPION KING for RESEARCH"? Lol!

 

But really, can't wait to see what you add to it and how it turns out.

 

How about some sort of craggily skull design as part of the camo of its carapace?

 

Like you know how some butterflys have like a face design across the full span of their wings (I think to dissuade birds from eating them)?

[GhostMalone]

I think night lords would be the way to go imagine the terrified look of the enemy as from out of the Storm surrounded by Lightning and thunderstorms Heavy rain and gale force winds this monstrosity came out of the darkness

[Honda]

I just love this model.

 

If I was ever going to "take a walk on the wild side", this model would make me do it.

 

Play on good sir!

[Soldier of Dorn]

Wait... why is everyone so opposed to pure Khorne? I mean, Khorne is awesome. Actually, now that I think about it, you should probably wait to do more Khorne stuff *wink*

[Eldrick Shadowblade]

I think you have to go Nightlords here.... Think about that awesome full army shot with the lightning arching on the scorpion's tail as it towers over the rest of the army. everybody has a khorne scorpion.... think about the army unified vision, fluff and coherence / appearence on the tabletop!