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Thanks to Athelu for this.
I am new to Warhammer, but played the computer game extensively. One of my friends played the Imperial Guard in Tabletop, so I decided to play Tau. This is my first scratch made building, and I have based it upon the Tau Listening post from the computer game.
100 CD Spindle (cake box). I used one with 4 little keeper tabs.
Panduit Tak-Tape Container - (link) - This is what I had on hand.
Kids restaurant drink cup. I get these when I go to Max & Erma's or Red Robin.
Tubing -RC Rubber Fuel hose and 1/16" in brass tube to do these as well.
Rubber Wall Door Stop (home depot $1.97)
Paint
Super glue or plastic cement
Green stuff
Drill a hole in the center of the door stop. This should accommodate the CD spindle post. I used a 9/16 bit and rounded it slightly to fit on. A snug fit is better than a loose fit.
Drill a hole in the bottom of the drink cup. Again, the same diameter as the CD spindle post. A snug fit is better than a loose fit.
Place the used CDs as spacers in the bottom of the spindle. We are trying to raise the base to the same height as the outer lip. It took a mix of CDs and Clear protectors to match the height for me (2 CDs and 2 spacers worked for me). Once you know how many you need, glue them put glue on the spindle base, then drop a CD on. Hold it till try. Then glue between each CD/Spacer till done.
Cut the top of the CD Spindle to the desired Height. I left mine a little higher so that the turret add-on I am making will be able to sit on it. It should protrude no less than ½" above the Door stop. I measured the height by placing the cup and top ring on the spindle and marking form there - (note - if you do not want to cut out the center of the Panduit container and just stack it under the cup, take that into consideration in the height. That just didn't look right to me).
Next we cut out the center of the Tak-tape container (if this is the way you are going). Measure the height of the take tape container - mines was .888 - or about 7/8" of an inch. You now need to measure this far down from the lip of your cup and measure the diameter. My cup was about 2.86 inches at this point - about 2 7/8". Unfortunatley you will not find a hole cutter bit this size. You can use a hole cutter scribing tool instead, or free hand the circle and cut it with a hobby knife (which is what I did with ok results).
Secure the Take tape container and the drink cup to the CD spindle. Since both of these are a flexible plastic, glue does not work really well. I would recommend using some green stuff to patch in the gaps and secure them to the base.
Glue the Door stop to the bottom of the Drink cup. Pretty easy, it should just glue in place to the spindle/cup.
Create your pipes I cut 1" lengths of the Hose and put a ½" long piece of the Brass tube in each end.
You need to mark the hole locations on the Base and on the sides of the tak-tape container. Drill these to the proper diameter. Put the tubes in place and glue.
Create the Panels for the sides of the Observation post. This was made from a 2-1/2" long piece of PVC pipe. Using a chop-saw I cut the PVC pipe in half - resulting in two half circles (not two rings), and then in half again.
I used the PVC pipe because the radius of the pipe is close to that of the cup. I failed at attempts to use Plasticard for this step. I then cut the resulting pieces at a slight taper to one edge. It may be easier to mark the taper and use a grinding wheel.
For the notches and rounded corner, I used the grinding wheel. I finished the edges (breaking the edge) with a Hobby Knife.
Glue the Panels onto the Drink Cup. I set the widest edge of the panel on the top and centered them on the retaining clips on the bottom of the CD spindle. I gave them a ¼" overhang over the top of the cup. I Glued them then wrapped the whole unit in rubber bands overnight to set.
Create the Feet. These are two lego pieces glued together. I cut the lego nubs off with my GW Snips and flattened the surface with a hobby Knife. I then Glued the 2x2 slope to the 2x3 slope as shown in the picture. I let the 2x2 slightly overhang the back of the 2x3 so that I would have more surface area to glue to the CD Spindle. Once dry, I then glued these feet to the retaining clips of the CD Spindle Base. You could attempt to round out the back of the 2x3 lego to match the radius of the spindle - or just fill the resulting gaps with green stuff (which is what I did).
Prime and paint the observation post.
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| Comment made by Brain on 09:59:25, 19 July 2008 |
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| Really cool, but i think it would look better without the lego. |
| Comment made by Gatorfan83 on 03:53:10, 17 July 2008 |
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| nice |
| Comment made by Plazmadude on 03:19:44, 30 June 2008 |
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| Great work, it looks incredibly simialr to the turrets in DoW. 10/10. Fattyboy5 has a great idea with the guns. |
| Comment made by insanetau on 12:06:17, 23 February 2008 |
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| why dont you just tell us how to make that forge world model, its basically the same thing anyway |
| Comment made by taugundrone on 20:53:09, 21 February 2008 |
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| cool, but is it to scale? |
| Comment made by 195killer195 on 21:02:07, 1 December 2007 |
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| the dow tau listening post is based on the forge world turrets |
| Comment made by Tyr on 16:19:20, 1 September 2007 |
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| I like it. Good instructions too. Now if I can just overcome my inherent laziness.... |
| Comment made by Walrus man on 13:15:39, 22 August 2007 |
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| Nice you have a real skill for making scenery 10/10 :) |
| Comment made by fattyboy5 on 08:18:02, 20 August 2007 |
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| cool. You can also put either 2 modified pulse rifles on the top or a railgun, also like on the game |
| Comment made by Alexander on 20:26:07, 19 August 2007 |
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| Good article. 10/10. |
| Comment made by Tau Online on 05:35:22, 19 August 2007 |
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| A very nice article - in-depth yet easy to follow. 10/10 |