How to Build a Combi-Flamer

[iNsOmNiAc'S dReAm]

UPDATED COMBI-FLAMER

Well for those of you who have been following my SoB WiP thread, you should know I originally started building these combi-flamers for my Sisters of Battle. The first 'prototype' was pretty impressive, but I was never really completely satisfied with the overall look.. It wasnt quite " sisterly " enough for my taste. It was much to large and better suited for a space marine or something of the sort. With this in mind I recently set about making a NEW combi-flamer. The new look is much more compact and overall closer to the combi-flamers of SoB fluff.

If anyone is interested, heres the link to my WiP thread:
ID is Tired of Playing with Naked Sisters of Battle!!!

As requested, I will be updating this Tut with instructions on how to construct both versions of my flamer toys. I hope you find these instructions helpful and easy to understand.

Enjoy! ~ID


Old Combi-Flamer:


The NEW Combi-Flamer:

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PART ONE: OLD COMBI-FLAMER

For my Sisters of Battle army I had decided to equip my Veteran Superiors with the elusive combi-flamer. I had searched high and low for this bit and soon realized how rare it actually was. I had found only one mini that actually had this item modeled onto it, unfortunatly for me the model had long since been retired and is no longer in production. So I set out to create my own...

After several prototypes and receiving the ' Drax/ Erus seal of approval ' along with many threats of ' stick beatings ', I decided to go on and start this tutorial. This is my first attempt at a " How to " so please bare with me, and I hope you find this little tut helpful.

Materials needed include :

- Space Marine Combi -Melta
- Catachan flamer
- copper wire
- brass modeling tubing
- modeling tube cutter
- clippers
- hobby knife
- pin vice with varius sized drill bits
- a magic marker, or sharpie pen

Lets get started...



Step 1 : Take your hobby knife and carefully remove the flamer head and gun barrels from the multi-melta. DO NOT DAMAGE THE BOLTER BARREL, you'll need this later so be careful with this bit or you will be hard pressed to fabricate another.



These are the parts you'll need to construct the combi-flamer. At this point you should take the bolter barrel and put it some place safe or you WILL misplace it as I did, things would be much easier if you didn't need to construct another barrel from scratch.



Step 2: We will be drilling pilot holes into our parts. This will make it easier to drill through with a larger bit later, and will overall insure accuracy.

Start first with the flamer head, we'll eventually need to drill all the way through, but don't do that just yet. Take your pin vice and a small drill bit and center yourself in the back of the flamer head and drill a few millimeters deep.STOP!! Its very important that you do not attempt to drill all way through from one end. After you are a few millimeters deep, turn it around and drill the rest of the way through the FRONT of the flamer head. By drilling from both ends, you ensure a straight shot and won't risk drilling crooked.

Drill you next pilot hole into the body of the combi-melta. Center yourself just under the mid point of the front of the combi melta and drill in a few millimeters deep.



Step 3: Take your pin vice and a drill bit the same size as your brass tubing and drill all the way through the flamer head and a few millimeters into the combi-melta. Center yourself with your pilot holes and things should be a peice of cake.



Step 4: Dry fit everything together, and mark off where you plan to cut your tubing with your magic marker. You want something about the length of a normal SM flamer with a millimeter or two of tubing sticking out of the front of the flamer for form a nozzle.



Once you got your tubing marked, remove it from the combi-flamer and cut it with your tube cutter. The tube cutter for those of you who have never seen or used one, is basically a clamp with a small rotating blade which you tighten and twist around your tube or pipe. DO NOT USE YOUR CLIPPERS, you'll only pinch the ends of the tubing and most likely damage your clippers.



Step 5: Without gluing the tubing in place stick it in its appropriate hole in the combi-melta body. Use a drill the same size as your copper wire and drill a second hole a few millimeters deep just under it. Do the same to the back of the flamer head.

Continued Below:

[iNsOmNiAc'S dReAm]

Continued



Cut a length of copper wire and dry fit everything together and make adjustments as needed. Once your sure of everything, glue it all together. Remember to leave a millimeter or two of the tubing to stick out of the front of the flamer.



Step 6: The last step is just to pin your bolter barrel in place. Use some left over copper wire for you pin and remember to drill out the little details in the gun barrel to give it that extra realism.

Remember how I said to put that gun barrel someplace safe? Well I didn't and lost mine, so after crawling around the floor for 15 minutes and returning empty handed I had scratch built one out of part of the old flamer body. LEARN FROM MY STUPIDITY!!!!



Step 7: Finally we got ourselfs a pretty impressive Combi-Flamer, if I do say so myself. So the last step would be to pat yourself on the back and go perge some heretics in HIS Holy name... Happy Modeling

[Drax]

Nicely done ID, now you can sharpen your skills by making 5 more for me

[iNsOmNiAc'S dReAm]

Lol Send me the bits and I'll think about it

[Daria]

Nice tutorial ID , good pics and easy to understand

[Lord Commander Erus]

Nice tut... But in response to the 'Burn baby burn' subtitle...

'DISCO INFERNO.... Burn tha mother doown!'

(I'm off to work folks... Be back in about 7 hours)

[Ides]

I've seen a similar conversion for BT, though it used the standard bolter body as a base... Actually, quick question, if flamers fire promethium, and promethium ignites on contact with air, why the little lighter attachment? or have I read it wrong?

[wolfpack]

Promethium ignites with Oxygen...not all worlds are gonna have an oxygen rich atmosphere so...there has to be an ignition source for these instances...

BTW...Nicely done Insy...get rep for that one

[iNsOmNiAc'S dReAm]

Thanks for the support guys Look forward to more tuts in the future

[Captain Slow]

Very very good tutorial, and one thst solved a seriosu problem. for me at Least ^^
Anyway, i will definatly bee giveing this a try try. cheers

[r4wr89]

that was awesome :] while i'll likely never be one of the fortunate individuals with a tube cutter, it was a cool tutorial to scroll through :] thanks ID !

[Four20edLogan]

A very good tutorial

[Lord Commander Erus]

Originally Posted by r4wr89

that was awesome :] while i'll likely never be one of the fortunate individuals with a tube cutter, it was a cool tutorial to scroll through :] thanks ID !

A tube cutter can be subbed with a dremel, which you can pick up a cheap one with a cutting wheel for under 20 bucks at a walmart or such.

[GriplionGremlin]

Originally Posted by Lord Commander Erus

A tube cutter can be subbed with a dremel, which you can pick up a cheap one with a cutting wheel for under 20 bucks at a walmart or such.

depending on where you live. if you have a harbor frieght or similar discount hardware store you can pick up a tube cutter for less than $10. sometimes during sales for even less than $5.

[Rellik]

thats a awesome tut!

[iNsOmNiAc'S dReAm]

Originally Posted by Lord Commander Erus

A tube cutter can be subbed with a dremel, which you can pick up a cheap one with a cutting wheel for under 20 bucks at a walmart or such.

a dremel will work just fine. Infact thats what I use to use before I got a tube cutter. The main thing is just not to use clippers, as they will pinch your tubing. Thanks for pointing that out Erus I should have said something about that sooner

Also I picked up that tube cutter at a craft store for about $5. You dont need anything too fancy for this. Its a convenient and safer alternative opposed to a dremel, especially for the younger members of this site.

[Prince of the Night]

Beautiful revision ID. That is sweeet.

[Brother Warchild]

Wow ID this is a super Tut,i really like the finished product.Good job

[iNsOmNiAc'S dReAm]

PART TWO: NEW COMBI-FLAMER

Once again here are the materials we will be needing:


-Space Marine Combi-Melta
-plasticard tubing of different thicknesses
-brass tubing
-copper wire
-cheapy tube cutter ( you can get them at most hobby/craft stores for under $5 )
-clippers
-x-acto blade
-multiple drill bits
-pin vise
-supper glue


Step 1:

Use your blade to carefully remove the melta head and bolter muzzle off of the combi melta. Keep the muzzle someplace safe, unless you plan on scracth building a replacement

Step 2:

Drill a small hole big enough to fit your brass tubing in the " mid section " on the face of the bolter. A good center point would be near the top of the grip.


Dry fit your tubing and make adjustments as needed.. DO NOT GLUE ANYTHING YET

Step 3:

Fine some plasticard tubing big enough to slide over your brass tube, and using your tube cutter, cut a peice of tube about the length of a normal flamer head. Sorry no exact measurements here folks I did it all by eye. Once again, Do not use your clippers to trim your tubing, as you will only pinch the ends of the tubing and we dont want that

Step 4:

Dry fit everything together but DO NOT GLUE. Mark off where you plan to trim your tubing, remember to leave a mm or two sticking out of the front of the flamer head to form a nozzle. Once again using your tube cutter, trim your brass tubing to the appropriate length.

Step 5:

Now we will start building the Igniter. Using a really small drill bit, drill a tiny just beneath the first hole you drilled earlier. When youre done you should have something that looks like the picture below.



Step 6:

You may now glue your brass tubing in place. Secure a length of copper wire and glue it into the smaller hole.


To Be Continued Below:

[iNsOmNiAc'S dReAm]

Continued:

Step 7:


Using a small coin or a peice of pasticard as leverage, bend the copper wire down into a 90 degree angel.

Step 8:

Glue your flamer head inplace like so.

Step 9:


Use your coin again to bend your wire into another 90 degree angel, this time toward your barrel end.

Step 10:

Once again cut a small peice of brass tubing slightly smaller then the length of your flamer head. CAREFULLY string it onto your copper wire and glue it inplace under the flamer head.

Step 11:

Now this is where it gets really tricky! Carefully cut an even smaller length of tubing and string it on the copper wire. Glue it inplace a few mm away from the bigger tube, then trim away the excess wire. Leave a bit of the wire poking out the front to form the nozzle of the igniter.


Once its trimmed, bend the nozzle upward towards the flamer nozzle into an obtuse angel. Now we got something that looks more like a flamer

To Be Continued Below:

[iNsOmNiAc'S dReAm]

Continued

Now its time for the final details.

Step 12:

Using your tiny drill bit, we need to drill 7 holes. Start first by drilling 3 evenly spaced holes across the lateral side of the flamer head.


Once thats done, drill 2 more evenly spaced holes above and below the inital 3. Repeat both steps on the other side.

step 13:

The final step would be to replace your muzzle, in this case I had lost mine AGAIN so I had scratch built one out of plasticard tubing and pinned it in place.

I hope you all find this tut helpful and easy to understand! If you folks have any questions or suggestions feel free to leave them here or PM if you wish.

Enjoy ~ ID