Welcome to Mod Monday! One of the best ways to make your force stand apart from the rank and file and attract new players to the table is with creative and unique game pieces. While Battletech and Alpha Strike aren't WYSIWYG (wee-see-wig, "What you see is what you get") like other games, modifications, reposes, and creative construction enhance the gaming experience. In Mod Mondays, we look at cool modifications and tutorials to build dynamic poses! This week, we'll look at an easy repose and modification to make the Jenner JR7-C. Although this tutorial uses a metal model, it is just as easy with the plastic models-maybe even easier! SuppliesJenner Model Hobby Saw or X-Acto Saw Greenstuff Sculpting Tool Files Pen Drill Antenna Wire (floral wire or toothbrush bristles) Making the JR7-C ModelThe major change from a JR7-D to a JR7-C is the same as many of the early C3 refits: the removal of a medium laser and the addition of a C3 slave. In this case, one of the left arm lasers is dropped. Pick a weapons port and apply a small bit of greenstuff. Squish it into the port. With a sculpting to or X-Acto knife, scrape away the excess. You may find it easier to do this with a blade dipped in water (this helps prevent the putty from stucking to it). Let it cure over night. Once set, gently file the spot until it is flush with the rest of the surface. To help emphasize the C3 computer, be sure to add an antenna. While there isn't a nice guide hole in the mini, the panel lines on the back of the cockpit make a T shape that works nicely. With an appropriately small drill bit, drill a small hole in the T lines. Glue in your choice antenna. Reposing the Jenner Bonus ModTo repose the Jenner takes a only a little bit of time but makes for a repose more inline with the model's stats. It is easier with the metal miniature becuase it allows for bending the piece in a few places. Start by removing one foot and the corresponsing leg from the base and the torso with a hobby saw or X-Acto saw. Cut slowly and carefully to preserve as much detail as possible; this will save you from having to resculpt details later. Remember, the thicker the cutting tool, the more material you will lose. To keep model proportions, this may require you to rebuild lost material with greenstuff. On this miniature, I had to resculpt the horizontal panels on the inside of the hip because the saw removed them. To make the foot appear as if kicking back in stride, remove a small triangle from above the heel. File down the excess material. Apply a small dot of glue and gently bend the foot into place. Wipe away the excess glue and file when dry. If you would like to add simple treads to the foot, scour and file a few lines across the bottom. To keep the weapons pods aligned forward, remove and reposition the one from the leg. Simply remove the pod as close to it as possible to leave the joint in tact. This js a good time to get at pesky, hard to reach mold lines. Once the weapons pod is removed, find the desired angle and reglue the leg. There is enough sueface area that pinning the joint isn't necessary. It doesn't hurt, however, to pin it in place. Find the desired angle of the weapons pod and reglue it. To give the piece a bit more of a running pose, gently bend the leg on the base at the ankle and the knee. This will distort the panel lines a bit. To clean up the curved lines, carefully reform them by scraping an X-Acto or files through them. In about an afternoon, you too can have an simple and awesome reposed Jenner. What's more, the fundamental skills used in this job apply to nearly all levels of reposing and modding. From files to saws and drill bits to greenstuff, developing and refining these techniques opens an infinite world of new and interesting models. Have your own Jenner modification? Tell us about it in the comments! Hanger Crew Supporters
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Welcome to Mod Monday! One of the best ways to make your force stand apart from the rank and file and attract new players to the table is with creative and unique game pieces. While Battletech and Alpha Strike aren't WYSIWYG (wee-see-wig, "What you see is what you get") like other games, modifications, reposes, and creative construction enhance the gaming experience. In Mod Mondays, we look at cool modifications and tutorials to build dynamic and different models. For this post, I'll walk you through the build of a work in progress, moderately challenging, Nyx with a C3 slave. Something reminiscent of a Jenner II, the Nyx is a speedy Strike and fade unit. With a shared aesthetic and similar performance Profile, the most noticeable diffference is the lack of jump jets. What is looses from being grounded, however, it makes up for with a significantly increased ground speed. Add a C3 computer to its load out, like the NX-80C, and you have a tough to catch spotter. This is another case where record sheets are very helpful. The standard NX-80 carries a top-mounted SRM6. To make room for the C3 computer, the -80C downgrades this to an SRM4 system. This mod is relatively easy, with a few cuts of a razor saw and a little bit of greenstuff. With a razor saw, cut across the top of the torso, under the nibbly bits that hold the missile rack in place and theory to under the first tube on either side. Tracing the slope of the tubes, the cut down the space between the outermost missiles and their closest neighboring tubes. (Keep these for your bitz box.) Wi h your files, file thee surfaces smooth. If you preserved the nibbly bitz, carefully align and reglue onto the torso. If you didn't--like this guy--you'll need to whom out and mix up some greenstuff to sculpt these. Don't worry if you're not familiar with greenstuff. The relative ease of sculpting two slightly slopped blocks is easy and a good starting point for your adventures into sculpting! If you're also sloppy with your saw work, you may need to reconstruct some of the torso--like this guy.
With a little more work, you can turn a Nyx into a swift, C3 spotter to accompany your C3M Komodo from last week. Have Nyx mods of your own? Share them in the comments! |
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