Robo-pterodactyl (Zoids Pteras)

[Will Vale]

Hi folks,

 

With a big Zoid in the offing I thought I should build a small Zoid to figure out the process. I think I posted a picture of this snapped together a while ago, if not then it looks like this:

 

 

This is the bombed-up version with leg-mounted missile launchers, extra giant wing cannon etc. Which clearly looks ludicrous! It's a bit better if you leave all that off:

 

 

but then you have the issue that the legs are long and silly. I ended up transplanting the feet onto the knees to get something which works a bit better, and then put it aside because it needed filling and cleaning up. I pulled the box out this week and spent a morning with the superglue, file and sandpaper sorting out some seams and other bits and bobs. That all went quite quickly so I had two huge paint sessions yesterday and got it all primed and mostly base-coated:

 

 

Ignore the Cute Tank bits and bobs. All the black parts are going to be metallic, the yellow is Chrome Oxide and the greys are Gunship Grey 2, USAF Light Grey, Light Ghost Grey and Insignia White (all Tamiya lacquers.) I'm not 100% sure about the ghost (blue) grey but it should boost the yellow and it is a very "Zoid" colour.

 

I need to re-do the masking for the stripe on the head (it was late and I was rushing) and then mask up the wing knuckles and leading edges which are going to be a nightmare. But first I'm off to town for more Gunship Grey 2.

 

And yes, this is a transparent attempt to show off my "look at me I'm a Pro Modeller" sticks-with-alligator-clips. They really do make the painting experience much much better

 

Cheers,

 

Will

 

[Hunter Rose]

Nice! I love zoids, will follow with interest.

 

And yeah check out Mr Professional with his clips on sticks

[Andy Moore]

And where exactly did you get your fancy clip sticks from Mr Vale? I wouldn't mind getting some of them.

 

Andy

[Thud4444]

Are you building the Pteras of the Helic Republic?

 

 

Or your own design?

 

As for your new clips, fancy!

 

 

 

Edited July 22, 2017 by Thud4444

[Will Vale]

1 hour ago, AndyRM101 said:

And where exactly did you get your fancy clip sticks from Mr Vale? I wouldn't mind getting some of them.

 

They're from HLJ - I got the ones from Sujbori Do as they were cheap and in stock:

 

http://hlj.com/product/SJDSG0010

 

except I had a mixture of sizes - maybe small and medium? I think I slipped them into another order as they don't weigh much at all. The stand is also from there, although the polypropylene foam block is really good too. It doesn't look as "pro" though.

 

I believe Tim Mather makes his own from bags of alligator clips and bamboo skewers, but the pre-made ones are very cheap and convenient.

 

31 minutes ago, Thud4444 said:

Are you buildings the Pteras of the Helic Republic?

 

 

Or your own design?

 

I thought it was my own design at least! The Helic Pteras appears to have blue armour and yellow wings in most pics, although in the one above it's all yellow and v. close to mine. Maybe I've seen it somewhere and subconsciously filed it away?

 

My original plan was yellow, white or orange, maybe with black/white markings as a prototype or "test-type" version. I'm also wondering about replacing the back missiles with an AWAC-style dome or fitting a dome to each wing knuckle? Not sure yet, but I have some of the nice Bandai radomes that would probably look good.

 

The yellow is really pretty, I hate lemon (cool) yellows and thought that Camel Yellow was the only way to go, but the Chrome Oxide looks great and is a bit less orangey without being cool

 

Cheers,

 

Will

[Thud4444]

They had an AWACS version on the show too!

 

 

 

The yellow and blue zoid was supposed to be a commander's ride (I think ). The solid yellow one was in an Helic hanger. It was never shown again that I can recall.

 

For some reason I think the yellow looks like a trainer. I couldn't tell you why. 

Edited July 22, 2017 by Thud4444

[Will Vale]

"Trainer Yellow" is definitely a thing

 

I like the look of that radome but I'll need to find a much bigger one than I've got, or make something custom. Is there a recommended Zoids anime? Most of what I've seen in clips has been pretty bloody awful

 

This morning I spent an hour or so masking the wings:

 

 

Quite fiddly, where I judge the demarcation to be is very 3D - not a nice clean interface, especially on the inner wings. Looking at the pic I should probably mask off that little "flap" tucked into the leading edge as well.

 

There's more masking later if I want the metal leading edges, which do look quite cool. Hmm...

 

Cheers,

 

Will

[Will Vale]

I wasn't able to get any more Gunship Grey 2, so I picked up some Grauviolet instead since it's quite close. I sealed the tape with the yellow, then sprayed a coat of grey primer to touch up the yellow bits, a coat of Grauviolet and then two thin topcoats of the dregs of the Gunship Grey 2. I had a bit left in the paint cup so mixed in a lighter grey and some thinner to paint some fading. Not very exciting but good on the knuckles which have a big flat surface.

 

Then the dreaded unmasking:

 

 

It's not half bad! There are some places to touch up on the perpendicular (small) grey surfaces, but that's OK as I can do it with a brush and Citadel paints, and there's no need to blend across a large area I also have a few spots where the paint has chipped (to the plastic!) from not being careful enough with tweezers or the tape scissors. Maybe I should've washed the parts, I suppose it was lurking in a box for a while, but normally the lacquers hold quite well.

 

Again, not a big deal since I can weather it and hide the chips with more chips.

 

I also did the metal bits, here's the frame:

 

 

All Alclad paints, with Dark Aluminium, Pale Gold, Pale Burnt Metal in increasingly finer areas, plus some messing about with Hot Metal Blue and a mist of White Aluminium to help bring it together. It's a bit "80s luxury hotel" at the moment but should look OK when toned down and seen peeking out between the armour bits.

 

I also sorted out the head stripe, mostly - I still need to re-mask and respray the white topcoat. 

 

Cheers,

 

Will

[Andy Moore]

Thanks for the link for the clip sticks Will. I may order some, or if I feel motivated I might have a bash at making some.

 

Love how the grey and yellow look on the wings. Are you going for a relatively clean look, or something more heavily worn. I think it's just that whenever I see yellow I always think of chipped rusty construction equipment. Probably not an appropriate look for this subject though.

 

Andy

[Will Vale]

36 minutes ago, AndyRM101 said:

Love how the grey and yellow look on the wings. Are you going for a relatively clean look, or something more heavily worn.

 

Worn is tempting - rust looks *great* on yellow - but I think you're right that heavy wear probably isn't quite appropriate. I think some aircraft-style weathering is the way to go, especially as I think it's going to be perching or flying when done.

 

First I need to finish a few painting tasks and look out some decals though. There are decals in the kit (yay!) but I'll probably add some more stencils. I've just acquired a load of GW Tau and AdMech decals and the Tau logos might be good on this.

 

Cheers,

 

Will

[Thud4444]

8 hours ago, Will Vale said:

Is there a recommended Zoids anime? Most of what I've seen in clips has been pretty bloody awful

 

 

No, I'm afraid it's all pretty bad. It's kinda like those 80's cartoon shows that exist solely to sell toys.  It's more like Transformers than Gundam unfortunately.  But I have nostalgia glasses when it comes to this show. I used to get my boys up when they were little and watch it with them when I got home from the firestation.  They loved it. I also got them several of the old Tomy kits that they could play with.

 

Here is the better of the two main series. It's supposedly set decades after the end of the first series. In this version Zoids are used in a sporting event.(this is the series your model comes from)

 

 

This is the original series, where Zoids are used by the military.  It has common Zoids and rare legendary Zoids like the Gojulas. Sorry about the quality, even on bootleg sites this is a poorly retained series.

 

 

BTW, Genesis and Fuzors are just follow up series to CC.

Edited July 23, 2017 by Thud4444

[Will Vale]

Thanks for the movies, will have a look tomorrow lunchtime. I loved the toys as a lad after seeing the ones you could send off for on the back of Monster Munch packets. They were this legendary unobtainable thing (we didn't eat a lot of crisps) and it felt like an age before I finally saw one in Robert Sayles in Cambridge.

 

I've done a bit of washing of the bits - I used acrylics on the frame for safety, and tried enamels on the armour pieces since acrylics didn't work well there. So far that seems to be working and the brown wash is definitely reinforcing the digger look.

 

I am really worried about final assembly though - the fit was tight and is now tighter, so I'll need to ream some holes or sand the pegs. I noticed some cracks opening up around the joints even on the unpainted parts. The chipping paint is also a PITA and is going to need a fair bit of touching up.

 

Still, it's a robot dinosaur and automatically worth some amount of suffering

 

Will

[Will Vale]

Sorry these aren't great pics, I had a long modelling session this evening and didn't take any photos until the end.

 

 

I have: Decalled various bits with a mix of the kit decals and some from Bandai HG Zeon sheet. Used Tamiya panel line washes (brown/grey/black depending on the colour of the part) with a degree of trepidation but seem to have got away with it. Drybrushed the edges (joy!) of everything which either pale yellow, pale grey, or white. And finally sponged and in spots brushed on some chips and added two coats of Alclad Klear Flat.

 

 

I also painted the cockpit interior, which is rather plush and leathery I need to go back and touch up some of the still-blue-plastic chips later but this is a good place to be. I also haven't done anything towards fitting it together.

 

I forgot to say - after all the masking I also masked and painted the leading edges of the wings in steel-ish Alclad. Which looks pretty cool actually! I haven't done any other finishing on the wings yet though, that's a job for tomorrow. There are also a load of weapon and booster parts to look at - they all have base colours but most haven't got past that stage.

 

Cheers,

 

Will

[Thud4444]

When thinking about Zoid weaponry,  remember they don't do subtle -

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Will Vale]

I love those, especially the massive beam cannon thing on the tiny wolf (fox?) 

 

The gatlings don't look super-aerodynamic. The kit provides some little launchers for the chest which I really like, and a couple of AA missiles on a mount above the wings which I'm not sure about - they would appear to hit the Zoid in the back of the head on launching!

 

That's aside from the giant beam cannons, six-missile racks, and bomb-filled legs which I've already put to one side as "ludicrous"

 

Will

[Will Vale]

I took some better pictures of progress. Here's the frame, which has had a few fasteners touched in silver, and a burnish with graphite to tone down the gold a little:

 

 

And the two sets of armour that wrap it top and bottom:

 

 

I think the yellow has ended up a bit "great big digger" but I like how it looks, and the damage is all quite fine so you don't see it until you get closer.

 

I also finished up the cockpit. It didn't close cleanly so I've sawn the peg off the top of the glazing. That fits into the headlamp thing and provides the glass for that, but now they don't need to work together and I can just glue the canopy in place - it fits nicely apart from the hinge issues. I also domed the two displays (search and track radar!) with X-22 clear and added a little less to the three blue lamp cluster things.

 

 

The kit includes an okay-ish prepainted pilot, who I can either repaint or leave out. I won't be able to change my mind later either... I should probably add a harness either way.

 

The legs look quite good now - cleaning up the thighs was the worst bit and I've left them a bit lumpy, but they're so matt it's hard to see

 

 

There are also these grey bits which form the roll bar and add attachment points to the frame.

 

 

There's a bit of decal silvering evident (which isn't surprising) so I might need to poke some holes and very carefully add some Extra-Thin to kill that now that it's under the varnish.

 

I have one detail to hand-paint - the little calipers on the brake discs - and then I can open the holes and put some things together. I've also finished some decent looking engine bells but they're so hard to photograph when they aren't attached to anything, so I didn't!

 

Cheers,

 

Will

[Will Vale]

Had time to do some assembling and finishing after painting the brake discs:

 

 

Some of the fit was quite tight - I scraped away paint and used glue for the tail and other armour pieces, but the grey parts and caps are press-fit. I did sand out the insides of various holes to ease things a bit, no apparent damage so far!

 

The roll bar thing doesn't fit incredibly well (it doesn't seem possible to get the arms dead square) but it's good enough. And you can just (just!) see the red brake caliper in the second shot so it wasn't a total waste of time

 

Very happy with how the colours have come out, I hope the fourth grey (on the weapons) isn't a bridge too far!

 

Cheers,

 

Will

 

[Hunter Rose]

That looks killer! The greys yellow and metalics work so well together.

[rockpopandchips]

Looking Good! Great colour combo.

[Will Vale]

Thanks, I'm really pleased with the colours so far. My daughter said she wasn't sure yellow was a good idea, but it made sense now it was on the model as you could see how they fit together. I guess the wings will be the make-or-break though, since they add a lot more yellow.

 

I lined and highlighted the wings last night, need to add some chips and I can varnish them. I was doing the small missile packs as well but one of the warheads has some weird feathery surface texture - I think maybe it caught some coarse overspray and/or water from the air line? So that needs to be stripped and re-done.

 

I have also just dipped the canopy in Klear - never tried that before!

 

Will

[Will Vale]

Wings have appeared! I initially forgot (and then didn't bother) to add decals so they're a bit plain, but there's quite a lot of contrast in the panel lines.

 

 

I painted the slot-head fasteners silver on the top after I took these, I haven't done the bottoms yet. The caps are also temporary, I should probably have some guns there or something

 

I'm really pleased with the way the dark grey comes out from the frame, goes up and out across the wings again, it feels quite functional!

 

 

I also blu-tacked the dipped canopy in place, it's not bad:

 

 

I suspect, having tried him, that I'll be leaving out the pre-painted pilot since he hides a lot of the cockpit detail. I was thinking initially that I'd have the Zoid in flight, but there's just enough forward movement in the toes that I can probably display it perching on a rock spire with the tail hanging down behind? Then I can paint up a standing pilot, I think that would look cool and be nice to photograph

 

Edit: forgot to add a couple of things - I dealt with some decal silvering by puncturing them with a pin and brushing on Tamiya Extra-Thin very carefully, then touching up the matt varnish after. And I broke off the tail transporting him to club night I suppose it was quite a bit of weight on one little pin, luckily there's a decent gluing surface so I should be able to repair it fairly easily. Especially since the real tail parts fit in with poly caps so I don't need to try and push the whole thing into place, just the yellow block that says "ZOID".

 

Incidentally I cut that out of the bit of the decals sheet that said "1/72 ZOIDS KOTOBUKIYA" or similar - the kit decals were a bit uninspired...

 

Cheers,

 

Will

[spaddad]

tasty

[Hunter Rose]

Looks cool with the wings on!

[Will Vale]

Thanks, it definitely makes a lot more sense suddenly! Although there were some comments about wing surface area at club night...

 

I've re-attached the broken-off bottom. There was a part held between the two halves by a rather thin connection, and this snapped. The connection between that and the metal frame I'd already glued. Not hard to fix since it was all bare plastic inside. I trimmed away the snapped piece a little to make sure I could get it all to sit flat, and applied a little of the Tamiya liquid poly (the thicker one) and some pressure.

 

 

The joins to the tail and the forward frame are via polycaps so easy to remove and shouldn't go too floppy over time

 

While I had it apart I took the legs off to paint the energy pipes on the backs, and grabbed a picture of the brake disks:

 

 

I painted them with streaks of Mithril Silver while rotating the part to try and get wear scoring, but it was really tricky with the moulded in caliper in the way. Luckily I could edit them a bit with a toothpick afterwards without harming the Alclad base. To tone things down I blended some graphite into the surface.

 

It's all invisible after assembly, but I know what that flash of red means

 

Lastly I added a harness to the cockpit, I was going for the look of a race harness, but it's a bit of a mess and I might have another go. This was 0.7mm micron tape with tiny bits of aluminium tape for the hardware. The fact that one bit is out of alignment annoys me, I should've made the harness up outside the cockpit rather than trying to fit the metal bits in-situ.

 

 

I've also given the canopy a polish and a wash prior to fitting it. I ought to try and paint the edges black to kill the reflection but it's a tad nerve-wracking to do.

 

Will

[Thud4444]

Can I put on my nerd glasses? 

 

 

 

6 hours ago, Will Vale said:

Although there were some comments about wing surface area at club night..

 

The Pteras doesn't  use aerodynamic flight. Notice how the wings glow in flight? The Pteras uses a form of anti gravity lift called the Magensser wing.  While this makes the Zoid cheap, easy to fly and maintain,  it was quickly out molded by Zoids that combined the anti gravity technology with conventional aerodynamics.  Think of it as a mach 2 capable helicopter.  In the fiction it's a lot like the real world Mig-21.  By that I mean it's survived longer in service than the type meant to replace it. 

 

It's main opponents in the Western Continent war were the Guylos Empires-

 

Sinker:

 

and  Storch: (in combat with a Pteras on its instruction sheet)

 

 

both types had superior aerodynamics over the Petras. This lead the Helic Republican forces to develop a more advanced type that was optimised for air to air combat the Raynos:

 

 

Once the Raynos was deployed the Pteras was moved into ground support and second line roles.  However despite it's superior performance,  the Raynos was expensive and difficult to maintain and fly. So as soon as the war was over all the Raynos squadrons where withdrawn and placed into storage and the older Pteras  replaced them in front line service!

 

After the war the Empire and the Republic tried to work together to develop a replacement for the hopelessly obsolete Pteras (the Empire had captured quite a few during the war and pressed them into service) the Storm Sworder:

 

but for unknown reasons the Empire withdrew from the project after it was completed. They put into service two Imperial designs instead. 

 

The Redler:

 

 

And the Zabat:

 

 

 

Sorry about that long winded response to a unasked question. 

 

Utterly fantastic work on that cockpit BTW. The yellow is looking better and better as well. I like your faux polycap paint work the best.  I assume they are fake and not functional like on the motorized kits?

Edited July 27, 2017 by Thud4444