Herisy 101

Captain MAGpie's "How I commit Herrisy"
The Engineering process I usually take.

A tutorial on how I plot and plan

So Brother Golf33 over at Bolter and Chainsword asked me what my engineering process is about. Gave it a bit of thought and came up with the following tutorial.

Now, although this will cover most of the process, I may know I will miss a lot. This is the basic idea though. 

Basically, it starts with an idea for me. For this tutorial, the "Idea" was, the RYNO Artillery piece. 

I usually start with getting the basic design of what I want to do on paper... or monitor, actually. I don't have any really good software, so I just use Microsoft PowerPoint. I know, pity me.

But anyhow, it starts with a drawing of what I want.

Step 1 - Basic idea

Basic idea 0.1

Of course, to make a drawing, you need a template to base that one. The template I use I originally made with a caliper and pics of one of my already-made rhino's.

Template - Top view

Template - Side view

Step 2 - Shapes

Once this is done it is time to draw out the basic shapes. This is a little more evolved if you are forced to use PowerPoint. Will be easier with CAD... but, I have what I have.

A very important thing here, is to remember to measure angled plates, with the angle. 20mm high is not 20mm long. As confusing as that may sound, basically, remember that as and angle, the length of a shape should be measured perpendicular to the angle, not the vertical or horizontal axis. 

To ensure that the shapes are at the correct angles, you need to draw them from a direction where they are flat. The top view provides that angle for me in this case. So I pulled the shapes off, then just stretch them to the correct height.

Now, remember that for this turret, there is another angled plate. The rear plate rises to clear the antenna area on top of the Rhino;s chassis. To again, "True-length" measure it.

Step 3 - Paper-craft

At this point it is time to test your theories. It took me 3 tries to get to the "actual" shape I was after. This is simply because of measurements mistakes and brain-farts. 

Step 4 - Problem solve

At this point, you have the physical means to look for some issues. And some I found. I will use the template just to show all the problems I found:

Highlighted in red circles are the issues. 

1. The turret is too long, stretch over the rear and the hatches in the front.
2. The turret clips the exhausts. This is a 2 fold problem. 1, the turret clips the exhausts. 2, the turret will have no rotation at all.
3. The angles back plate is not exactly aligned to the Rhino's chassis. Not a big issue, but I wanted to address it.

1 and 3 was easy. Adjust the sizing.Problem 2 was not so easy, as I had to add an additional angle and plate.

Step 5 - Fixing the problems

Using the Template with the rotation circles marked on the inside of the exhausts, I drew a simple line past the exhausts and formed the plate.

This gave me a tiny bit of rotation, but it was more than enough for an artillery piece.

Step 6 - Final Paper-craft version

So now I make a final paper-craft version to double check. 

Vicky Confidential Reporting live on the latest MAGpire Heresy.

All things considered, I was happy. Even the rotation angle looked perfect.

Step 6 - The Gun

Designing the gun was a matter of size and angles. I had 9mm tubing. So thats what I started with.

Step 7 - Transfer to the shapes to the Styrene

Here you can do it in a few ways. I have found that printing on poster-board and then tracing the shapes on the styrene is very easy.

You can also do it by transferring the shapes through light. In the pictures bellow, I use 0.5, and 3mm styrene. 

3mm styrene. Works just as well

And thats the process. To see the rest of the build, go here.

Hope that helps!

Captain MAGpie,

Styrene Addict