A Beginner's Guide: Scratchbuilding an Assault Cannon with Plasticard

[YorkNecromancer]

Ahoy-hoy, one and all.

So, last time, we learned how to scratchbuild a Heavy Bolter. This time, we’re going to look at a slightly more popular weapon. If you want to cheaply create some Assault Cannon Razorbacks, believe me, this is the cheapest way to do it. The total cost to me in bits was 30 pence – around 50 cents to my American cousins.

So, to begin with, we’re not going to build a typical Assault Cannon – you can use this to do that if you like, and more power to you if you do, but it’s not an especially challenging conversion, and frankly, I’ve never liked the Vickers machine gun look. I prefer my Assault Cannon to look more like an actual minigun.

http://cdn3.volusion.com/oybs6.39kfn/v/vspfiles/photos/48925-2.jpg?1386948839

So, where do we begin?

The Tools You Will Need:

I’m assuming you’ve already built a Heavy Bolter body using my last tutorial. So one of those. If you haven’t seen the previous tutorial and want to build a body for your Assault Cannon, here’s the link: http://www.lounge.belloflostsouls.net/showthread.php?44720-Scratchbuilding-a-Heavy-Bolter-with-Plasticard-A-Beginner-s-Guide

In addition to that, you will need

A single length of styrene rod – about 120mm x 1.5mm. If you want fatter barrels, you’ll need a thicker rod.
A length of styrene strip.
Thin superglue – don’t use gel superglue for this, it won’t work.
Something pointy. I use a metal scribe, but a cocktail stick would be just as useful. You could use a scalpel for this, but I wouldn’t recommend it, as you might damage or even cut the styrene unintentionally.



http://th05.deviantart.net/fs70/PRE/i/2014/135/1/8/2014_05_15_17_43_44_by_yorknecromancer-d7iglrk.jpg

So, with your tools assembled,

How To Scratchbuild an Assault Cannon

First, I take some measurements. Then, I throw them out the window, and decide I want slightly longer barrels. I settle on 20mm barrels, but you can go shorter for Psilencers, or longer for Hades Autocannon – go for what you like.

http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2014/135/7/6/2014_05_15_17_44_30_by_yorknecromancer-d7iglr8.jpg

Once I’ve settled on my barrel length, using the rod cutting technique we learned last time (roll the rod with the edge of the blade, pushing down and away GENTLY), I cut six barrels, and two little bits of rod. The barrels need to be the same length, but the little bits don’t.

Here they are:

http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2014/135/8/9/2014_05_15_17_47_17_by_yorknecromancer-d7iglr5.jpg

I then carefully apply glue to the edge of one rod.

http://th03.deviantart.net/fs70/PRE/i/2014/135/5/3/2014_05_15_17_47_49_by_yorknecromancer-d7iglqv.jpg

and stick it to another, using my mat to keep them flat and aligned.

http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2014/135/2/f/2014_05_15_17_48_16_by_yorknecromancer-d7iglqo.jpg

Once the glue has set, I stick the two little bits so that they are a short distance (5 mm will do) away from the tips of the rods.

http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2014/135/a/8/2014_05_15_17_48_43_by_yorknecromancer-d7iglqg.jpg

I then glue the next rod to the edge of one rod like so:

http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2014/135/d/2/2014_05_15_17_49_29_by_yorknecromancer-d7iglqd.jpg

Once that’s done I add the next rod…

http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2014/135/0/5/2014_05_15_17_50_22_by_yorknecromancer-d7iglqa.jpg

…and the next, until we’re left with something that looks like this:

http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2014/135/c/7/2014_05_15_17_51_16_by_yorknecromancer-d7iglq7.jpg

As always, the rest of the tutorial comes when I get replies, due to forum restrictions limiting the number of pictures I can post.

[Thaldin]

This again? =D

[YorkNecromancer]

Yeah boy!

I’m sure you can see where we’re going here.

Next comes the tricky bit. I guarantee you’re going to get superglue on your fingers SO BE CAREFUL.

First, you need your superglue controllable. You’re not just going to pour it from the bottle onto the model. Begin by getting a scrap bit of plasticard and blobbing out some glue onto it. You need a big-sized drop.

http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2014/135/4/b/2014_05_15_17_56_38_by_yorknecromancer-d7iglq3.jpg
http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2014/135/4/2/2014_05_15_17_57_03_by_yorknecromancer-d7iglpt.jpg

See?

You then get your pointy thing (in my case a £2 metal scribe from Barnitt’s of York – great shop if you’re ever in the area).

Dip the point into the glue…

http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2014/135/8/9/2014_05_15_17_57_18_by_yorknecromancer-d7iglpj.jpg

…and place a dot of glue about 1mm to 2mm away from the gun muzzle, like so:

http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2014/135/6/f/2014_05_15_17_59_31_by_yorknecromancer-d7iglog.jpg

Carefully take you thin strip of styrene, and place it into the glue, keeping the strip at 90 degrees to the gun barrels until the glue has set. THIS IS THE TRICKY BIT, because the glue will set erratically, and that bit of styrene is so thin, it’ll just flop everywhere. KEEP YOUR NERVE AND BE PATIENT.

Once it’s set, use your pointy thing to carefully spread superglue along the length of the styrene strip. You’re going to wrap this around the barrels you’ve made, so make sure you have enough strip to surround their circumference.

http://th02.deviantart.net/fs70/PRE/i/2014/135/c/1/2014_05_15_17_59_57_by_yorknecromancer-d7iglo6.jpg

Now, the reason we’re using superglue is because it sets quickly. Poly cement will not hold quickly enough, and will partially melt the styrene, making it look like something which can charitably be described as ***. Once done, you should use your blade to carefully clip the length of styrene that isn’t glued so you can use it again. I recommend clipping it so that it is as close to the end of the strip as you can. When finished, it should look like this:

http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2014/135/9/5/2014_05_15_18_00_56_by_yorknecromancer-d7iglny.jpg

You can see where the two strips are joined because I’ve faced them towards the camera. They will look like *** if you don’t do something about it. Your options are:

a.) The long perfectionist’s method – fill any gaps with Green Stuff or Milliput, then sand down.
b.) The lazy man’s method – just apply a dot of poly cement until the two pieces melt together.

Whichever you do, make sure that the join is on the bottom when you place your completed cannon on the model, to minimise the chance of it being noticed.

Next, you repeat the last stage twice more, until you get a gun that looks like this:

http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2014/135/e/2/2014_05_15_18_04_15_by_yorknecromancer-d7iglnm.jpg

You’re actually nearly done now!

Next, you’re going to create the gun cowling which the barrels slip into. It’s simple enough – just repeat the previous step, only at the opposite end of the barrels, and as close to the end of them as you can. Now, I’m going to use a thicker piece of strip for this, just to make it feel more solid, but you don’t have to – the original strip you’ve got will do fine. I just prefer the look of this. As always, go with what is in your heart.

So here’s the strip I’ll be using.

http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2014/135/f/3/2014_05_15_18_04_36_by_yorknecromancer-d7iglng.jpg

Now, this strip is a little thick, as you can see, so what I’m going to do is curl it like a ribbon. To do this, simply hold it between your thumb and a hard piece of curved metal. You could use a scribe like me, or the back of some tweezers, or a pen, or anything, so long as it’s blunt.

http://fc03.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2014/135/4/1/2014_05_15_18_04_53_by_yorknecromancer-d7igln6.jpg

You then pull down multiple times until the strip has curled like so.

http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2014/135/e/a/2014_05_15_18_05_15_by_yorknecromancer-d7iglmu.jpg

One post to go!

[Thaldin]

Sorry, had to go to lunch, but I am back! =)

[YorkNecromancer]

Oh it's fine. :)

So anyway, curling the strip ensures it’s more likely to stick to what you want it to, because it will curl round naturally.

Repeat the above steps to glue it down and you should be left with something that looks like this

http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2014/135/b/5/2014_05_15_18_07_27_by_yorknecromancer-d7iglmg.jpg

Which looks like this when assembled:

http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2014/135/0/0/2014_05_15_18_13_19_by_yorknecromancer-d7igllm.jpg

And here it is in comparison to a real one:

http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2014/135/e/c/2014_05_15_18_13_58_by_yorknecromancer-d7igllc.jpg

Total build time: roughly 20 mins for Heavy Bolter body, ten minutes for Assault Cannon barrels.

Thank you for reading, thanks again to Thaldin for your assistance, and as always, I hope this encourages all of you to get experimenting.

[Súil Dubh]

Very interesting. Never seen this done before.

Please keep us posted by keeping on posting.

[Stonemunkki]

Good stuff. Nice tutorial, I actually understood it! I've tried to make an assault cannon before, it was... passable. You could tell it was home made, wouldn't even go as far as to call it scratch built.