Fox Box

Author: Flamekebab

  • How to assemble our Orc Pickup Truck

    Something I’m not all that good at is instructions on how to assemble the kits we sell. Normally I figure this isn’t a problem but in the run up to the release of our Pickup Truck kit I gave a few copies away to see how they’d go down. Whilst people loved them images like this made me reckon that maybe some guidance would be helpful…

    Mike's admirable attempt!
    Mike’s admirable attempt

    So I’ve filmed something that’ll hopefully clear up any questions you guys might have 😀

  • Sculpting Da Monster

    Roughly every month YakTribe has a competition of some sort. The most recent one, competition 13, has been centred on the theme “It came from the…”

    Make / Paint a Monster or some Monsters – this is our first ever dedicated monsters competition too, so we’re hoping for some really creative entries.

    Ideas: Some kind of ‘It came from the sump’ scenario, wandering monsters, summons or perhaps something a little more mysterious.

    There is no minimum or maximum base size or min / max numbers for this.
    Usual games apply – Necro, GoMo, Mordheim (& FG), INQ28.
    Again, you have 6 weeks to get your final entries in – closing will be T̶h̶u̶r̶s̶d̶a̶y̶ ̶5̶t̶h̶ ̶M̶a̶y̶ Monday 9th May (due to Holiday Weekends :)🙂 ).

    I’ve entered before but in recent months I’ve been fairly busy. Well for once there was a gap in my schedule – we’re about to move house and so I’m trying to pack away bigger work projects (there’s quite a few!) and just work on small things. I figured a competition entry would be a fun change of pace and so got stuck in.

    A fair few years back we put together a scenario called “Frankenork” featuring a create so disgustingly unorky that it could not be allowed to live. It didn’t even have an interest in fighting!

    Clayton Tait drew some beautiful artwork to go with it:

    Clayton Tait’s vision of “Da Monster”

    So for the competition I set to work creating a 3D version!

    It started with some miscast bits…
    The legs were quickly coated in green stuff.
    Next up – a guideline head (It’s a modified version of the Snow Stinger rider’s head)
    Just like the legs the torso, head, and guide arm were all completely obscured by putty.
    The arms were done like this – a miscast arm with some armature wire inserted followed by putty.
    The armature wires vanish under layers of kneadatite!
    Let’s get some muscle on there!
    Time for some gizmos and cables.
    Once firmly set they could then be curled into his back and blended in.
    Details are important – note the staples on his left arm and the stitches on his chest and cranium.
    Once the arms were removed I was able to get in there and sort out details on his palms as well as a few other areas much more easily.
    Given that I’d like to use the model as a basis for other projects a cast seemed sensible! Some details were added before this but I don’t have a photo of those (notably the shackles and chain links).
    I squished his shoulder a little when I hastily pulled it from the mould. Oops!
    Done!
    As you can see – this guy is *big*!

    Want a better look at him? Take a look at the video below:

  • I think the magical blue smoke has escaped…

    It’s been a good year for my vacuum pump but apparently the anniversary of its arrival was to be the day of its departure. I was in the middle of making a mould of some wheels when it died on me. I’d switched it on to make a quick adjustment to the mould and when I tried to start it again there was a hum followed by permanent silence.

    Bugger.

    From what I’ve seen under the hood the outer electrical bits are fine so it seems likely it’s something more complex inside and I doubt I have the tools to fix it. It’s going to need to be repaired or replaced and whilst inconvenient it’s within our means to do so immediately. There’s going to be some disruption of course – I can’t exactly cast more Create-a-Shoota sets without my casting rig!

    On the plus side the exact same model is still available so it should just be a case of attaching the hoses to the new pump and turning it on. It’s served me very well this past year and an upgrade shouldn’t be needed just yet.

  • Truckpdate!

    I’ve been working on the armament for the truck and the crew. Once they’re done then it should be easy to continue on structural things. This is the problem with creating multi-part kits – things need to interlock but one can’t glue them together properly during creation.

    The truck is going to have a machine gun option and a rocket launcher option. Currently the focus is on creating the machine gun as it’s a very specific design (and whilst the rocket launcher is also its design is significantly simpler). As with other things this is where 28mm “Heroic” scale is tricky – things aren’t proportional. I have to make a judgement call on which bits should remain prominent and which can be safely shrunk down.

    So for reference the machine gun is based on the M60:


    Here it is on the truck (missing its rear iron sight – it hasn’t been attached yet):


    As you can see the gunner is sitting on a stack of boxes. Currently they’re placeholders as they’re going to be replaced by ammo tins:


    I’m working on a master at the moment:


    Once it’s done I’ll make some copies and use them for a variety of things. Extra boxes and stuff to decorate vehicles 😀
    If anyone is wondering the rocket launcher is going to be based on the M202 Flash (you might know it as the Grim Reaper from Call of Duty: Black Ops).

  • Fox Box at ExiliCon 2015

    The weekend is coming this way fast and whilst some of you probably already know I’ve not announced it on here:

    Fox Box will be at ExiliCon in Cambridge this weekend.

    If you’re going to be in the area and would like to pick up your order there get in touch (either via email, Facebook, or Twitter). We’ll have a stand upstairs in the main hall (The Merchants’ Quarter). Hope to see you there!