Photon

More than a year later, I'm back on this. I took a break for a while to work on some other projects and now I'm coming back with renewed enthusiasm. One thing that has happened since I last posted about this, is that I joined my local chapter of IPMS. Our big show is in late September and I have 4 models in various stages that I'd like to show there (this being one of them). So, there will be a flurry of activity this summer, as I struggle to get them ready. If you followed any of my other projects, you may have gathered that I'm perfectly content to keep starting new projects without finishing the prior ones. So, having the deadline of the autumn show should help to keep me focused. I will also create posts for some of the other models, although they are not all sci-fi (nor are they very well documented) Okay, This about where things were when this went on hiatus. I had attached the tan front bits, which were from a WWII Russian 1:35 artillery gun. The pink bits are Gundam. I also attached this computer console to the frame. I plan on routing some wires out of that tube. One area that I felt was unresolved were the empty spaces to either side of the pilot. I decided to attach a couple of side booms from a Hasegawa 1:72 P-38 Lightning kit. I tacked them in place with model cement and then attempted to blend them into the surrounding area with putty. The two side openings will eventually be stuffed with more mechanical detail. Here's where it stands. There's still a fair bit of refining to do and then I have to come up with some mechanical stuffing for inside the pods. And with that, we're now up-to-date. After I get the two side pods sorted, I think it will just be down to adding some of the final details...hoses, conduit, etc. Then I can start to think about the extremely daunting task of painting this. More soon....Watch This Space. regards, Peter

Thanks, everyone! Yeah Pete, I’ve got a couple other projects going at the moment. The Falke-like hover racer made from the 2 flying banana helicopter fuselages (if you recall), and an attempt at recreating one of the cargo trucks from the 70s movie, Sorcerer.

I recently painted this up and took some (very likely overexposed) photos. check it out here.... Ready For Inspection: Thanks to everyone for following along and your words of encouragement. As always, I really appreciate it. -Peter

Finally got this painted up and weathered. Thanks to everyone who followed along and offered encouragement. I really appreciate it. This was painted with AK interactive acrylics and weathered with oils and enamels. It was a fun build. I'm looking forward to doing more similar projects in this scale. Thanks again for any interest. Heres a link to the original Work In Progress posting:

Nice work. You did a great job interpreting the ship from a few pics. I’m looking forward to watching this come together. I’ve always loved the movie. It was on a lot when I was a kid. It was called ‘Five Million Years to Earth’ in the US.

Yeah, good idea. I’ll see what I’ve got in the muffler dept. of my spares box.

I made a little progress on this, mostly just small details here and there. I think the mechanical stuff underneath is pretty much done. I'll see how it looks once there's some primer down. The pipes are bent from some sprue, the rest is just odd kit pieces and Evergreen bits. That's all for now. Thanks for stopping by.

Thanks, Richard!

Thanks, Pete. I’m glad you like it. Yes, hopefully I’ll have an update soon. The goal is to finish this up in a few weekends.

Hey everyone...its been a while. I've been modeling fairly steadily, but fallen behind in sharing anything here. I do plan to document my recent completed projects here, but for now here's a smaller project that I recently started work on. A few years ago I had picked up one of those Meng Cartoon Tanks with the clever idea of panting and weathering it realistically. I quickly realized that many others had the same idea , as the internet was littered with them, many done very nicely. So somewhat crestfallen, I put the kit aside and before long was stealing parts from it for other models. Recently, I was looking for a small project that I could complete fairly quickly, as my typical models seem to drag on for months and remembered the 'Toon Tank, a French Somua 35. Inspiration struck when I stuck a 1:35 Tamiya figure into the hole where the turret was meant to attach: Then I remembered this drawing by Hamish Frater among my bulging collection of reference images: So with that I began sealing of the bottom of the hull with some styrene card. I found a 1:72 Russian tank hull that with some minor trimming, fit the bottom quite nice and provided some instant detail. I also addded some styrene pieces that lined up the row of bolts on either side. These got blended a bit with some epoxy putty to try to look like a heavy casting. The figure got a kick-stand to lift him to the proper height using a piece of thick aluminum wire. I thought the curved front of the fender looked a little odd on its own, so I added a cylindrical tank that seemed to give the curve a purpose. The hull had a bunch of rectangular slots that needed to be filled. I whittled some styrene scraps to fit the holes and glued them in place. once the glue was dry, I snipped off the excess and sanded them flush. I've already started to detail out the underside with some kit parts and pipes made from sprue. I decided to 3D print the legs, so I designed these in CAD and printed them out. The central hub was printed with polystyrene filament in 3 pieces that are registered by a plastic tube. The legs themselves were resin printed. A polystyrene rod will mate them with the hub and allow for a small amount of posing before I add glue. Here's more or less where things are at So I think things are on track to be finished sooner rather than later. I'll post an update soon. thanks for any interest.

Wow, Pete this is great. Excited to see where you take this.

Thanks everyone, I really appreciate the kind words!

A quick update...I've mainly been working on integrating the two sides. The symmetry isn't perfect, but I think its good enough. I also built up these two inlet/ tank things and got them attached. That's it for now. Hopefully, I'll have more to share soon. Thanks for checking in.

Thanks so much!

subject to change, but this is the general idea: everything is just balanced and held with tape, so its a bit wonky, but hopefully the vibe comes through

Thanks, Pete. Yeah, I’m starting to fill in the side pod attachments. I’m using an epoxy putty/clay. The attachments will have similar thickness as the rest of the pod and hopefully flow organically into the body. I have some outrigger/ stabilizer type projections for the front of the body.but I still haven’t got that area totally sorted yet. I may add a fin or two on the bottom. I have a box of miscellaneous plane bits at the ready. I will finish it for sure. I may delay starting the contest until this is wrapped up…at least the building part. I may hold off on painting until the weather warms up a bit. I’m also planning on dialing back my contest entry this year so I have more time to build other stuff.

I've been slowly making some progress on this and I finally have enough to warrant an update. The orange piece pictured below is a frame from an unidentified car model. I want to keep the cockpit mostly open, but like the idea of a protective cage of some sort. This was the best thing I could come up with, given the parts I have to hand. I like the sloping shape, so I 'll try to make it work. The alternative is scratch building something, which honestly isn't very appealing at the moment. I wanted to have an absurdly huge engine in the rear. I didn't have the right kit parts to really achieve what I was imagining, so I resorted to a hybrid of 3D printing and kit bashing. The two bulbous exhausts are from a couple of novelty pens that I've been saving for a while. the central cylindrical tank is a Gundam option part. the rest were designed and printed to integrate the kit parts. Then I continued to add model parts and wires, including an entire motorcycle engine. I got some primer on it and deemed it good enough. I glued up the two helicopters and sealed up the windows and hatches with some putty, having first glued in a styrene sheet from the inside. I also added some tapered bumps from an airplane kit (?) and blended them in with some putty to vary the shape a bit. Some mechanical bits were added to either side to suggest some airbrakes, or some such. The side pods were attached using aluminum wire so I could adjust the "pose" and get them symmetric. Then covered in epoxy to fix in place. Now I'm entering the 'Epoxy Putty Hell' portion of the build, whereby I attempt to blend them into the main body. The annual mecha building contest that I've been participating in the last few years starts up again on Feb 1st, so I'm rushing a bit to get this in a good place before I inevitably put it in a box for the next six months. oh well... Thanks for looking in. Pete

Pete, this is so cool. I really love the shape and proportions of this one. It’s so good!

Thanks for the pic, Pete. its very cool. I did try a Yakult bottle, but its a bit big for the space where I'd like to put it. I think I'm going to have to bash something together from odds and ends. Yes, I think using parts from vastly different scales can often lead to very interesting results (as long as the parts aren't too recognizable.)

You have an egg chair, but do you have a hamburger bed?

I started a new kitbash. After building only robots and mechs the last couple years, I’m itching to build some vehicles. This time, a sort of hover racer, stylistically landing somewhere between ye olde video game Wipeout and the Ma.K universe. I started with this 1/24 scale Fujimi figure. I modified his arms to go from holding a steering wheel to holding joysticks by his side. This was done by inserting an aluminum armature wire, bending the arms into position, then filling the gaps with some putty. This, unfortunately, caused some distortion to his already weirdly proportioned body. I’m not to bothered by this, but yes, he looks a bit weird. From there I started to build up a cockpit of sorts. The chair is from an old muscle car kit. The chair control arms are suspension leaf springs from the same kit. I also started to glue some junk to the figure to make sure he looks suitable futuristic. I need to do a bit more, maybe some hoses etc. I also added a styrene pin to keep the pilot from constantly falling out of his chair... Some time ago I had seen someone had built a cool Falke variant using 2 H-21 Shawnee flying banana helicopter fuselages. I thought it looked really cool and filed that idea for later use. Recently, a local shop had a couple 1:72 Italari versions of the kit pretty cheap (17 bucks ea.), so I scooped them up. So that's the basic scheme. Now...how to actually pull it off? After rummaging through the bit boxes, I came up with this arrangement: 1:12 Estar Guars Battle Droid and Tamiya motorcycle frame form the basis of the central pod. There's quite a bit of scale variation going on so far, 1:12, 1:24, and 1:72. So here's a few shot of where things stand, taken quickly before the tape holding everything together failed. I plan to build a big engine for behind the pilot and start working out how to attach the booms. I'm thinking about aluminum armature wire so I can adjust and match the angle and then sculpting some putty over that. Ok, that's it for now. over and out.

Thanks, guys. I’m currently working on another weird robot for this year’s Original Mecha Contest. After that, I think I’ll take a break from robots for while and do some sci-fi vehicles.

Yes, it has been a while for this one. I recently came across the shoebox that this project had been languishing in and decided it was time. So, picking up where I had left off, I started working on the arms. I based the arms around some lengths of polystyrene tube that I had to hand. The elbows joints were made by laminating three strips of styrene and whittling them to fit the ID of the tube. Hard to describe, maybe these pics will help: For the forearms, I 3D printed some parts in styrene that were designed to fit over the outside of the tubes. I didn't have the computer modeling skills make such a complicated organic shape as depicted in the original drawing, so I modeled them in two halves and then blended between the two different profiles with sandpaper after gluing them to the tube. This actually worked out better than I expected. The hands were also designed to be inserted into the inner tube. For these I used a similar technique as the elbows, only from much thinner styrene strips. These were pretty delicate so I put them aside to be glued in at the very end (SPOILER ALERT: I still managed to break a finger off). Next I turned my attention to the back side of the torso to give some attention to the engine and thrusters. For this, I had very little to go on except for what I could infer from the original drawing. Since this guy has rockets for feet, I assume he is what the Gundam folks call a "Space-Type". You can see the hint of thrusters on his back, as well. For these I started with a rocket engine from the Lindberg Space Shuttle mentioned earlier in the post. I continued to build up the are with addition bits, until things looked suitably complex. For the cowlings that cover the thrusters, once again I fell back onto 3D printing. From here it was a matter of filling in the rest of the details from the drawing. For the weird sails on the shoulders, I used some 1:72 helicopter props from a couple of Flying Banana kits from another (yet to be started) project. Here are the main sub-assemblys in primer. And that's it. Here are some photos of the finished model: Thanks for any interest. Best, Pete

Thanks so much, guys. At this point, I’m just glad to be finished with this. There are so many models to build…

Thanks everyone. I really appreciate it. I finally got this finished. Here's the last bit of build photos, mostly focusing on the display base. I was worried about simulating the concrete with paint, but it turned out pretty well. I think the texture of the plaster did most of the heavy lifting. i just used a couple of different gray acrylics, then dirty brown oil paint wash. When I showed my wife this photo, she actually though for a moment that I had built a giant structure in the garden. I stenciled some yellow graphics an the floor. The chips were done by applying liquid mask with a sponge. Then I used some very diluted oil paints to accent the panel lines and make some stains. Some additional pipes were made to put under the floor. I made some 3D printed elbows and pipe hangers the would work with some styrene tubes that I had to hand. I painted them with a neutral grey acrylic, then a grimy oil wash. I also printed a vent grating and blower motor to add some additional detail to the duct. The dust hangers and brackets were made from styrene. Thanks everyone for following along. The final photos are in the Ready for Inspection section