Dig in (40K); Tau heavy railgun emplacement

How to make Tau Heavy railgun emplacement

Inspiration;

Love them or loath them the Tau have some pretty big guns. The rail gun platform was first featured as part of the Apocalypse expansion in 40K. Alternative inspiration might the rebel defence guns in the empire strike back (aka the snow planet)

Materials needed;

· Hamster wheel, ideally 6.5" in diameter. trip to a large petstore should offer a good choice for your shape of emplacement.

· Plastic card, 2+mm thick sheets and strips

· Filler, either polly filla or milliput

· Electric drill with accessories (ideal parts that allow you to clamp sheets of plastic card in the drill head.

· Sanding block or Sand paper wrapped around the block

· Mdf, 6mm thick

· Steel ruler

· Mechanical pencil or pen

· Jig saw or normal saw ,both need adult supervision

· Two Tau heavy rail guns and one tau sky ray weapons mount.

· Pipe adaptor, ideally 4.5cm to 90cm) it depends on how much space you want the guns to take up on the emplacement. A trip to a hard ware store should offer a good choice for your type of connection.

· Textured paint.

Method;

• Twist the hamster wheel in half and separate. The ring section will be the main body of the gun.
• Using the wire snips cut the protrusions on the ring section.
• Place the ring section on the sheet of plastic card, large diameter size touching the card and mark out the outline of base of the ring section.
• Cut out the marked section.
• Drill a small hole through the centre of the circle of plastic card.
• Use a Drill bit head through the small hole to secure the plastic card to the drill.
• Turn on the drill ideally the plastic card should rotate evenly on the drill head.
• Use the sand block to sand down the edge of the plastic card until it is the desired size. This depends on how deep you want the railguns to sit in the platform. For the example shown the plastic card was sanded until the guard were roughly waist high. This will act as a base for the railgun section of the platform.
• Once happy with the plastic shape secure it to the ring section and fill in any gaps with filler.
• Place the ring section on a sheet of MDF, large diameter size touching the MDF and mark a circle with a 5mm space between the base of the ring section and the edge. This will act base for the whole platform.
• Cut out the marked section of MDF. (Tip; if you are using a Jig saw you can adjust the angle of the blade to slope the edges).
• Bevel the MDF section so the top side of the MDF is matched to the large diameter size of the ring section.
• Assemble the Sky ray weapons mount and two rail guns as per instructions.
• Snip of and replace with plastic card the stubby sections on the side of the rail guns.
• Glue the railguns to the sky ray weapons mount. (tip; alternative you can pin them so they can move up or down during the game).
• Attach the pipe adaptor to the centre of the plastic card.
• Cover the top of the adaptor with plastic card.
• Drill a small hole to the plastic card on the adaptor and glue a wire through the hole.
• Drill a small hole with the same the dimension partial through the bottom of the sky ray weapons mount.
• Paint the ring section in texture paint.
• Once dry attach the sky ray weapons mount to the pipe adaptor and paint the model as desired.

How to make Hab Domes

Inspiration: based on the Star Wars hab domes on Tattino and the GW domes at GW HQ.

Materials needed;
• Hamster ball, ideally 6.5" in diameter
• Plastic card, 2+mm thick sheets and strips
• Filler, either polly filla or milliput
• Wire snips
• Mdf, 6mm thick
• Steel ruler
• Mechanical pencil or pen
• Jig saw or normal saw ,both need adult supervision
• Textured paint

Method;
• Twist the hamster ball in half and separate.
• Using the wire snips cut the stubs in each hemisphere(dome) and remove the upper part of the dome.
• Using the filler fill in gaps at the side of the dome.
• Place the dome upside down on the sheet of plastic card and mark out the outline of the missing top section.
• Cut out the marked section and glue it into the missing gap of the dome.
• On a sheet of plastic card draw the desired height of the door for the hab dome.
• Draw two perpendicular lines from the top and bottom of the door.
• Place the dome on the plastic card and move it so that it intersects with both of the perpendicular lines.
• Adjust the dome place on the lines until you are happy with how far the door sticks out from the dome.
• Once you are happy with the size mark the curve with a marker and cut out the door side.
• Do a rough fit of the door side to the dome to make sure it roughly fits.
• Once you are happy with the fit use the door side as a template and cut out a second door side.
• Using some plastic strips roughly 1" long attach the two door sides together.
• Cut out a door shape to and attach it to the door sides.
• Place the completed dome on a sheet of MDF and trace the outline on the board.
• Remove the dome and cut out the outline on the MDF.
• Use an all purpose adhesive to stick the dome to the MDF base.
• Cover the door with masking tape and paint the whole dome with textured paint
• Once the paint has dried remove the mask tape and paint the door.

Notes; In 40K the domes represent impassable terrain