Shield generators?

By Chucknuckle, in Painting

There has to be some kind of packaging or container or wheel or something out there that can be upgraded for use as a shield generator in Legion. What have people seen around?

Try your local craft store like Michaels or Hobby Lobby. walk around and think outside the box. One larger wheel and two smaller wheels (wooden circles, discs, etc.) all cut in half with the larger half in-between two smaller halves.

I made a unit inspired by the Power Generator destroyed by General Veers in Empire Strikes Back. It's meant to be a smaller device than what was in the movie and it's made of both halves of two Bubbletape gum dispensers. Plus some sheet styrene and assorted model tank parts.

Note that the device that Veers destroys is explicitly called a Power Generator, not a Shield Generator, although on Rebels, a very similar looking device is called (and even used as) a Shield Generator. So, what can you do? Until Rebels it was always my assumption that that big upright dinner plate thing was for making electricity that a shield generator elsewhere used.... But... Meh.

5 hours ago, Albertese said:

I made   a unit inspired by the Power Generator destroyed by General Veers in Empire Strikes Back. It's meant to be a smaller device than what was in the movie and it's made of both halves of two Bubbletape gum dispensers. Plus so  me sheet styrene and assorted model tank parts.

Any chance you could share a photo?

18 minutes ago, BigBadAndy said:

Any chance you could share a photo?

The FFG forum file size limit is much too small so I'll have to wait until I get my home PC up running again. (I don't want to bother farting around with juggling photos on my phone)

I will post pictures soon, but for now you'll just have to trust me that it's awesome.

I usually just get a link from Imgur. It’s an extra step but not too difficult to do even on a phone. In any event thanks, and I will look forward to seeing it.

You do know Veers just can't help himself around shield generators and you really want to be killing your opponents units not the terrain. If you must, google "Legion terrain shield generator". Many people are offering these things right now.

Yeah but they're all tiny, 3D printed (way too much work) or very expensive. It's really just some sci-fi looking semi-circles so I was hoping someone had hit on a good scratch-build solution. I think I'm going to go for a walk through my local arts and crafts store and think about gluing plastic plates or bowls onto some pre-cut MDF circles. I want it to be a fairly large terrain piece that blocks line of sight and is maybe 12" long and 6" wide.

6 hours ago, Chucknuckle said:

Yeah but they're all tiny, 3D printed (way too much work) or very expensive. It's really just some sci-fi looking semi-circles so I was hoping someone had hit on a good scratch-build solution. I think I'm going to go for a walk through my local arts and crafts store and think about gluing plastic plates or bowls onto some pre-cut MDF circles. I want it to be a fairly large terrain piece that blocks line of sight and is maybe 12" long and 6" wide.

Get a large cardboard tube and cut it in half then cut five equally sized sections from the half-tube.

Take the five sections and apply paper to the sides to create five solid semicircles.

Take the cardboard tube from a kitchen roll and cut that in half, then cut seven equally sized sections from it before gluing them to the five semicircles you already have to make the shape of the Hoth shield generator.

Paint the cardboard construction as desired.

Edited by Indy_com

The problem I have with a solution like that is the precision of the cuts. I've tried doing stuff with cardboard tubes in the past and even a task as simple as cutting one in half winds up with two uneven halves. I really need a semi-prefab solution, or something I can cast up in plaster. I'm laid up in bed at the moment recovering from surgery so I've got more time than anything else. The offering from GF9 looks really good:

https://www.flamesofwar.com/gf9online_store.aspx?CategoryID=13738

But it's $30 per segment! $90 for a decent sized piece is way more than I want to pay.

I'm thinking about adopting this idea:

http://wpggamegeeks.blogspot.com.au/2012/05/shield-generator-terrain-project.html

But I'll try and find some plates/bowls that don't have that reverse lip, because that really makes it look like two plates stuck together. And I'll try and jazz it up a bit more with some foamcore/plasticard. Could maybe even run some kind of ribbed tubing between the two plates to add some detail and make it look less like a couple of paper plates stuck together.

On 5/8/2018 at 3:32 PM, Albertese said:

I made a unit inspired by the Power Generator destroyed by General Veers in Empire Strikes Back. It's meant to be a smaller device than what was in the movie and it's made of both halves of two Bubbletape gum dispensers. Plus some sheet styrene and assorted model tank parts.

Note that the device that Veers destroys is explicitly called a Power Generator, not a Shield Generator, although on Rebels, a very similar looking device is called (and even used as) a Shield Generator. So, what can you do? Until Rebels it was always my assumption that that big upright dinner plate thing was for making electricity that a shield generator elsewhere used.... But... Meh.

This

They are all over the Facebook Legion Terrain, Painting and Gaming threads. That little gum dispenser idea pretty slick.

https://www.google.com/search?q=bubble+tape&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiSnOGA8PnaAhWg14MKHXysCiYQ_AUICigB&biw=1245&bih=703#imgrc=_

4 minutes ago, Dash Two said:

This

They are all over the Facebook Legion Terrain, Painting and Gaming threads. That little gum dispenser idea pretty slick.

https://www.google.com/search?q=bubble+tape&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiSnOGA8PnaAhWg14MKHXysCiYQ_AUICigB&biw=1245&bih=703#imgrc=_

Yup, that's the gum packaging I used. I need to figure out picture posting as the one I built really does look good.

Edited by Albertese
2 hours ago, Albertese said:

Yup, that's the gum packaging I used. I need to figure out picture posting as the one I built really does look good.

Seriously, Imgur is easy as heck. Just get an account and post to a private thread there. Wait ten seconds while it publishes then copy the link to here.

Edited by BigBadAndy
2 hours ago, BigBadAndy said:

Seriously, Imgur is easy as heck. Just get an account and post to a private thread there. Wait ten seconds while it publishes then copy the link to here.

Let's try this out....

http://imgur.com/gallery/CSBTgTm

Okay! Took me several tries but I think that'll do it... Let me know what you think.

Edited by Albertese
1 hour ago, Albertese said:

Let's try this out....

http://imgur.com/gallery/CSBTgTm

Okay! Took me several tries but I think that'll do it... Let me know what you think.

Terrific! The link works andnthe generator looks fantastic. It’s not a copy of the generator in ESB but it is evocative enough to fit in and looks pretty simple.

As an aside if you get a link from Imgur with the .jpg file extension at the end it will imbed the picture directly on to the forum like this:

du3cOp4.jpg

I don’t know why, but sometimes you have to wait a minute or two before Imgur generates this link.

Ok, that looks fantastic. Definitely given me some food for thought!

Thanks, guys. This was made from two Bubbletape dispensers, some sheet styrene and some parts from a 1:35 tank kit I've sacrificed for its greeblies. Then, paint to taste.

It's worth noting that the plastic the dispensers are made of might not take paint well on its own. The solution is Adhesion Promoter, which is a clear primer spray you get where you buy automotive paint. It's used any time you want to paint a weird plastic that otherwise won't grip normal primer.

Have fun, guys!

Edited by Albertese

Thanks for the heads up, I've got some plastic primer leftover from when I was painting 1/72 plastics a long time ago, so that should probably do the trick.