You may recall that some years back, Forgeworld produced a nice little variant kit for their Sentinel walker. The Sentinel Power Lifter was essentially a fork-lift for the 41st Millennium, and very nice it was too.
 |
| The Sentinel Power Lifter |
My hazy memory tells me that while the standard plastic Sentinel kit was £15, the Power Lifter was only £17, which made it great value. I used to own one. I decided I had no use for it. I sold it. When I wanted one again, FW had discontinued it, and the kit is worth a fortune on ebay.
So back in 2014, I decided I would make my own retro version of the Sentinel Lifter, more suited to a Rogue Trader setting.
I took the classic egg-shaped Rogue Trader Sentinel, and mated it with the forks from a toy fork-lift truck and a Techmarine's servo arm.
 |
| At some point between 2014 and 2017, the grey plastic pipe disappeared. |
 |
| The crewman received a replacement head from a Marauder Chaos Thug of all things. |
 |
| Some early feedback resulted in the addition of upper forks to make the lifter a touch more believable. |
After building it, the Sentinel stood on a shelf for about 2 years. Then it got put in a box. Then, a few weeks ago, I extracted all the bits from the box, and re-glued them all back together. Why? I needed something to move all my
pallets around.
 |
| I sprayed the whole Sentinel with a yellow car spray, then dinged it up a touch with the reliable blister foam weathering. |
 |
| I made the operator a grizzled late middle-aged man, complete with a nonchalant narc stick. |
 |
| After looking at images of fork-lifts, I realised most of them have yellow bodies and black forks. Most also have the manufacturer's logo prominently displayed. Hence 'COMA'. |
 |
| The rear mounted servo-arm for fiddly stuff. And cables, possibly for charging? |
 |
| The little centre-mounted control panel is a plastic piece use to hide the node where the multi-laser should go. |
 |
| I even painted a tiny little warning sticker. Don't stick your hands in there! |
As a scenic item, or even a fun occasional vehicle in a game, I can see this Power Lifter getting stuck in in a range of environments.
 |
| There's always crates to be shifted down at the starport. |
Well, I suppose th e2 years wait was well worth it, it's a fantastic addition to your collection and in all fairness, I prefer your version however smaller it is to the FW one.
ReplyDeleteA project is never abandoned, merely postponed! There's probably a place for both models. Mine is more suited to operating in confined areas perhaps ;)
DeleteSeems like a compelling RT-esque load lifter! I like that the lifting forks are smaller than the giant claws of the FW version. Makes it seem like the legs do all the lifting, the claws just hold the crate.
ReplyDeleteWhen do we get to see it in a dual with a large gribbly beastie?
I think the FW design might have balance issues!
DeleteAs for a dual, I think the largest beastie I have is a genestealer!
Lovely job mate, that is really nice - now you need to dump a hive tyrant out the goddamn airlock with it!
ReplyDeleteThanks mate! An airlock you say?!? I need one of those!
DeleteIt looks great , i didn't realise that loader was oop though :(
ReplyDeleteThanks. It is sadly OOP, like a lot of the cool non-mainstream FW stuff (trailers, fuel dump etc).
DeleteThat is a clever little model. really adds to any warehouse-type scene.
ReplyDeleteThanks very much. I really enjoy these scenic type models - making them just for the fun of it :)
DeleteI never knew that FW mod was ever made! I noticed that it mentioned it came with a counterweight, must have been too front heavy with those claws? But what was the counterweight made from? Lead?
ReplyDeleteYour converted Sentinel looks ace Axiom! Somehow I get the feeling that it won't be lifting so much as crushing living organisms between it's jaws :)
The FW counterweight seemed a bit to small to me, but I guess there was a stylistic limitation on size.
DeleteI reckon alien crushing is the primary use for such machines ;)
Excellent - love it :)
ReplyDeleteThanks :)
DeleteI like the pony-tail cables. Keeps the mecha-flies away from it's rear end.
ReplyDeleteLove it mate - a great re-purposing of an old mini and far more interesting for it!
The cables were just an attempt to balance the model visually. But they might be useful for servo-squitos as well as mecha-flies ;)
DeleteLooks fantastic! :) Not familiar with "blister foam weathering" though. Is it like using 'sandpaper' on the paint job? The results are great!
ReplyDeleteI literally put some paint on a palette, thin it a touch, then dip a corner of a piece of foam in, then dab it over the surface I want to weather (paying attention to corners / edges). It's really simple.
DeleteThanks for clarifying axiom!
DeleteThat collection of parts works surprisingly well, its bang on.
ReplyDeleteKudos for having the patience to work with the original sentinel legs too :)
Urgh! Those legs have too many joints and too many planes of movement. I didn't enjoy assembling them I can tell you.
Delete