Putting shelves in Ikea cabinets

I think that the IKEA's Detolf  glass cabinet is a staple of the hobbyist - lots of people I know have these inexpensive cabinets for displaying their the models they're most proud of.  I keep some of my Dark Angels models locked inside two cabinets for all to see and they look great!

What I don't really like about the Detolf is that it only has four surfaces inside for you to place your stuff on.  They're 15" apart which is good if you have a Reaver Titan or tall building or some such item.  If like me you're displaying bikes and Land Raiders and speeders - it leaves a lot of unused potential.

I got this idea from a posting on Dakka Dakka that I came across many moons ago and until recently when I found the hardware I needed, it had just been an item on the wish list.  But I found the hardware required.

You'll know if you own one of these cabinets that there is nowhere to mount additional shelves.  Well there is now.  You should go to the hardware store and buy some wire rope clips.  These things get clamped around the end of wire rope so that it doesn't fray and hurt people.

A pair of wire rope clips, earlier today

You can mail order them from Harbour Freight if you're so inclined.  I bought mine from Rona, a Canadian hardware chain.  To get the ones you need for this project you are looking for 5/16" or whatever the metric equivalent is I think you can get a clip as small as 6mm to fit but don't quote me on it. The ones I bought were 5/16"

All you need to do is clamp them around the inner frame of the cabinet.  Measure carefully, or use a level, or make adjustments as you go so that your glass doesn't wobble like a table with a short leg and you'll be fine. Install like this!

 

I just installed mine halfway between the stock shelves. Of course you can put them where you like.  Yes, that's my reflection.  Take care to ensure that your clamps are tightened quite securely.  They will bite into the plastic covering on the upright but still - it would suck a green weenie if the shelf fell onto the models underneath it. Oh my. 

The glass! The size that I had made up is 11 3/4" x 15 1/8".  You can convert that into mm if you're so inclined Google is great for that.   I ordered 1/4" shelf glass.  Cost me about $12 a sheet.  The wire rope clips cost me about $6 for a box of twelve, as I recall. You may like to add some soft foam tape or something to the clamp or the glass to cushion it slightly.  I will be when I go digging in my toolbox at work tomorrow.

And ta-da!  It works REALLY nicely if you're displaying transports, cavalry or infantry models.  You can easily double the shelf space you have for your armies by doing some running around and manual labour, without spending the money to buy another Detolf cabinet and without losing that additional square footage of floorspace. I'll be ordering a few more shelves soon, I think.  My son needs some for his cabinet with his favourite Lego models and his football trophies, and I think I'll be filling up a third cabinet with some Tyranids in the near future!

IC podcast - March! Nephilim and Dark Talon pt 2

Not much of an update, but I wanted to mainly cover some airbrushing that I did on the fliers.  First, and most foolishly I basecoated them in Chaos Black. BAD MISTAKE.  I ended up with fuzzy models. I ONLY ever get this problem with Chaos Black, it's an awful paint in my opinion.
Luckily I was able to deal with the issue with some careful wetsanding, then re-primed the affected areas with P3's black primer.  It's far superior in my opinion.  It's a shame that I can't buy Osh primer up here in Canada. After I airbrushed, then did the usual thing where I have to get rid of the "suede texture" that the Tamiya paint leaves behind for me, it was better.  Then as with the bikes I painted the Boltgun Metal and the red (hurricane bolters on the Dark Talon) I did a wash through the airbrush with the thinned Badab Black.  I wasn't happy as there was a bit of a tide mark left, which hasn't happened before. Cleaned it up though, with some careful application of a 50/50 mix of black paint and black wash.

I wanted to get the wing panels to look something like they do on the box. Well, the Nephilim wings anyway.  I do like the look of the Dark Talon, but that is a lot of work. I tried to mask off the statuary bits on the fuselage bit it was a LOT of work, and there are - for me anyway - a lot of awkward spots and corners to get the masking tape trimmed around. I will brush paint that stuff as best I can.

 

I masked the wing panels with some 10mm Scotch autobody masking tape, and trimmed with a fresh #11 blade.  It took two evenings to get it done, but it was very tidy in the end.

Yes. Hilarious amounts of blue painter's tape.  The green stuff was from the dollar store and just STUNK. Didn't stick worth a damn either.  I was quite worried that when I took the tape off that the adhesive would affect the paint.  Didn't, though. 

I decided to try some of Vallejo's Model Air line for airbrushing the wing panels.  I bought the white and cerulean blue from Imperial Hobbies, a local hobby store that has a LARGE range of materials for all kinds of scale model, miniature, board game and card game hobbyist. They're also sponsors of Foodhammer too!

I also bought some of Vallejo's surface primer too. I'll have to play with it to see how it works for me.

I gave the wings a few thin layers of the white until it was pretty much opaque, then I switched to the blue, using a pre-shading technique to hit the rear edges of the wing panels. After that, I just dusted the wings with the white until it reached a point where there was a slight fade into the blue. 

Before I took the tape off, I didn't think it looked that great because I was just looking at a lot of white with a little bit of blue.  I had not considered the contrast that the black would give.  But when it came off - WOW! I'm very happy with it.  

As you can see, the wings look great. I'm hopeful that the rest of the painting goes just as well and each model just pops. That's as far as I am with them right now.  Taking a distraction break while I build a Dakkajet for the Waaagh! of Hamish, my 7 year old Warboss. I'll be putting the third twin linked Supashoota on it, but I need to find a way to Ork up the mounts for that third weapon.  Hopefully the Nephilim will be finished quite quickly.  I imagine the Dark Talon will take a little longer :-)

IC podcast - March! Nephilim and Dark Talon

My commitment for March was to build and paint the Nephilim Jetfighter, but since I also have a Dark Talon I thought that I would do them side by side. Not in single file to hide their numbers.

I built one Nephilim and two Dark Talons. But I only have one Dark Talon. Story goes thus; I started assembling my Nephilim and went through the first few steps of assembly. Then I went to grab part #3 from the sprue which is the cockpit control panel. Missing... I looked around, POSITIVE that I hadn't clipped it and dropped it.

The part that was missing is the one you see in front of the pilot. Now not missing.

So as I said in a previous posting; after I tore my hobby space apart I convinced myself that it was in fact missing from the kit. I called my local GW, gave them a heads up and went in the following evening. I was sure they thought I'd just lost the part, but true to their customer service policy they wrote off a new kit and gave me the missing part. I happily completed the kit!

The Dark Talon assembly was going VERY quickly, and I almost had it done in an afternoon. Almost. I was almost finished the assembly when I noticed a fault in one half of the fuselage.

Wife suggested that maybe an extra gun could poke through the hole. 

So off I went with an almost completed kit and showed them. The member of staff tore open a brand new kit so that we may inspect the entire kit together. The look on his face was priceless. The part that was missing from the first kit was also missing from this kit! Because I didn't want to be a complete ass, I pried the control panel from the model I was returning and took the replacement kit with me. Five hours later I had the kit fully assembled without faults. Work the next day was not fun. So tired.

As with the Darkshrouds, I magnetised the pilot for easy in-place assembly.  He's out and in the box to make it easier to paint the cockpit.  Nick The Grip suggested that I should not merely magnetise the torso in case it came loose after the canopy was glued on.  Bonus attraction - it can be a game where you shake the model in an attempt to get the torso back in position! But I said no - it will be glued.

Oh, I have no idea why because I'll probably lose the bloody thing but I magnetised the Statis Bomb that goes on the Dark Talon. Installing magnets like this!

 

Pretty easy, and I didn't really need to put any putty on the back for support, it's not like there is any heavy weight on it.  I did buy some very short drill bits at GameStars, my FLGS.  1/16" High Speed Steel bits, and they're about 1.5" long! A product of Primal Horizon.

Magnetising the bomb was a little fiddlier.  The small tab was too small for a magnet, so I drilled in and buried a piece of paperclip in there.  Just enough for the magnet in the fuselage to grab. Nice.

So there they are.  Ready for paint.  I also magnetised the megabolter/lascannon assembly for the Nephilim - there is a spot where a 1/16" magnet will fit inside the recess at the top. Next - PAINT! Huzzah!