Painting Up A Hammer Suit: Base Coat






Well, do yourself a favor, and DON'T click on the pics for a closer view. Thankfully, this is just the base coat.

Here's the Titan HAMR suit I put together and primered earlier today. The boy and I painted at the kitchen table on old newspapers. He painted his first mini, a CAV Centurion I had laying around. It's a green blob, slathered thick and deep, but he's proud of it, and so am I.

Anywho, I envisioned this particular HAMR pilot as part of a Titan Marine pirate hunter unit, charged with policing (and executing) pirates and brigands. The asteroid belt is riddled with criminals and raiders, and the Titan Marines send in special strike teams in HAMRs to clean out nests of them.

This paint job is unsightly and bright right now, but will be much more subdued as I apply darker blues, blacks to cover up my blobby painting, and black washes to settle into the panel lines.

The gold canopy isn't very stealthy for sneaking up on pirates, I know, but I like it. Reminds me of Apollo space suits, and F-16 cockpits.

Stay tuned.

Best,
JBR

Comments

Looking good, and a great mini background story for them! I plan to put an order in to Rebel soon to pick some up!

Question for you - what bits of what vehicles are interchangeable? I think either you or Mike mentioned that the Gunship and Titan weapons are, but what about some of the tracked vehicles? I'm going to try to magnetize a full set so they can be swapped out for specific missions and scenarios.

Chris
John Bear Ross said…
Modularity in the Rebel line, just off the top of my head...

The APC has two turrets, the single barrel with 4 missiles, and a double cannon version

The HAMR suits are all made to have similar shoulder sockets, so arms can interchange. Eventually, I think the same ball and socket dimension will be used in the waist, so that upper hulls and lower legs can be changed out.

The Combat Flatbed actually has two bed modules designed for it. One is a fire support version, able to use the same turrets as the APC. The other flatbed module is an APC backpack as well.

The gunship's weapons are able to be used by the Earth Force HAMR suit. Basically, I used the upper arms from the standard hammer suit, and added a compatible peg on the elbow.

The Merka tank has a pair of turrets. One main battle cannon, one artillery.

And all the pintle-mounted weapons and top-deck accessories are on the same peg system.

I'd love to start incorporating pockets into the builds to make room for magnets. What's the most common size for various uses out there?

Best,
JBR
Great info. I didn't realize the flatbed had so many options... I'll have to take a closer look at that. And I do like the waist-joint idea.

The most common diameter I've seen for rare earth magnets is 1/8". 1/4" are probably next, but probably too large for 15mm purposes. 1/8" is also the chuck size for a Dremel tool, which I'd rather use on miniatures than my big craftsman drill. :)

I have a package of these in my gameroom:
http://www.rare-earth-magnets.com/p-6-nsn0566.aspx

If I'm able to get this project going in the next few months, I'll detail the integration of the magnets on my own blog!

Chris
John Bear Ross said…
Sounds good, and thanks for the heads-up on what's commonly used out there. Keep us all posted.

Best,
JBR

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