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Saturday, February 20, 2016

Space cannon WIP

Ion defense cannon
15 mm scale (?)

Someone on the 15mm sci-fi gaming Facebook group posted a link to this set recently, and I cavalierly commented that it'd be cheaper, and easy to just build one.  Normally when I say things like this I'm full of crap wishful thinking, but this time I thought "Don't be that guy", and decided to put my hobby tools where my mouth is.

The inspiration: $40 USD
I wanted this to be a cheap project; partly to prove a point and partly because I don't really have any use for it.  So it's made out of bitz, card stock, and repurposed items:

One Canadian craft beer, one papier mâché Xmas craft ball.

Can end cut down and tabs folded over for stiffness.
 
Decorated with bitz and card.  I went for a longer cannon; size matters.

The result, even when just spray-primed, is surprisingly decent-looking:


At 15 mm scale this is much smaller than the famous "Hoth cannon" from The Empire Strikes Back, but I was careful to avoid any obvious scale-betraying details, so it could be used as a turret for 28 mm, or a planetary defender for 6 mm.  I anticipate the rough papier mâché texture being a bit of a problem when I go to paint it, but my plan is to obscure it with painted-on details if needed.

7 comments:

  1. As long as you don't paint anything scale specific on it, any scale goes for it. Great build! And point proven!

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  2. I must admit, it looks great. The larger cannon makes it look better than the original one.

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  3. Fantastic scratchbuild, Mr. M.

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  4. Quite nice work, and the larger gun barrel really helps to sell it in a way that the short one does not... looks longer ranged at least!

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  5. So, not only cheaper, but far more satisfying! Great modelling skills!

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Thanks for commenting!