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Photon

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    Night Stalker Mech

    in Work In Progress - SF & RealSpace

    Posted

    Chapter 3

    Ok, thanks for following along. Hopefully with this post I can bring everything up-to-date, so apologies if it’s long winded. 

     

    The underside of the hull needed some attention. I started by adding some kit parts to the pelvis area. On either side of this I got lucky and found a couple of pieces that would fill in major areas and looked quite bug-like. In the front was a bit that came from one of those Meng cartoon tanks, a Somua S35. (The rest of it is being put to good use on another project. Stay tooned…)

     

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    The piece in the rear is from the Pilgrim Observer Space Station kit (a treasure trove of amazing plastic).  There were a couple gaps on either side that I filled in with some giant exhaust pipes made from tank barrels…it gets weirder and weirder. 

     

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    A gap in the front, behind the ‘neck’, needed something. I made up this array of styrene tubes which I sanded with some paper wrapped around a dowel of the same diameter as the neck. It fit pretty good, but will be a nightmare to paint.

     

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    For the rear legs, I wanted to have an outer armoured shell and some exposed mechanics on the inside, similar to the hull. The legs were built up from some thick styrene sheets and the inner portion detailed with kit parts. I vacuum-formed the armour pieces over some 3D printed forms. The forms were pretty rough and needed a fair amount of body work. The vacuum formed armour was trimmed and I wrapped the bottom edge with a strand of styrene printer filament to get a beaded detail. This was crudely blended in with some epoxy putty. For the vent louvers, I fit some small styrene shards. This was tedious and difficult, but in the end looked ok. I also added some kit detail to the top as I thought the legs were looking a bit bland.

    All this got a thick coat of Tamiya grey putty cut with acetone to give it a heavy cast texture.

     

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    The lower legs got busied up with more kit detail and I made some knee armour, cut from a couple plastic take away spoons. These were also stippled with thinned Tamiya putty.

     

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    I thought I might like to have a figure with this to show scale and add a bit of story, so I picked up a Tamiya German infantryman. I replaced his head with a 3mm ball from a Bandai kit, so I could try out some different head ideas. He needs a lot more work, but I did make a weapon for him that I’m happy with. A sort of directed energy weapon. I call it Spiny Norman.

     

    (can't decide on which head to use. I do like the shoulder pads mad from 1:72 fenders. this gun didn't make the cut)

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    Spiny Norman

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    whew, I guess that does it for now. Thanks so much for any interest.

     

    Pete

    • Like 12

    Night Stalker Mech

    in Work In Progress - SF & RealSpace

    Posted

    3 hours ago, Pete in Lincs said:

    I did wonder where you'd got to. Great to see you back.

    Cutting  a tank hull in half. Why didn't I think of that? I may well steal the idea at sometime in the future. Thanks.

    Love the engine and the rest of the build is looking interesting too.

    A name? Something like Mollustein perhaps?

     

    Yeah, if I stayed away, it was mostly because I was embarrassed by how many projects I’ve started, but not finished since I was last here.  
    I claim no ownership of the split tank hull idea, so feel free to use it however you’d like, no stealing necessary. 
     

    Mollustein, huh? I admit it’s better than the dreadful ‘prawn mecha’,  which is all I could think of at the time of posting. 

    • Like 3

    Night Stalker Mech

    in Work In Progress - SF & RealSpace

    Posted · Edited by Photon

    Update 2

    The feet were made from some Bandai parts. I have some styrene half pearls from the craft store that fit nicely into the hole in the top of the foot, so I’ll have a sort of pseudo ball and socket joint. The ball won’t be captive, so it will have to be glued once I settle on a pose.

     

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    I got a pair of Tamiya 1/12 motorcycle kits and they have some really useful parts. I stripped the chrome using some cleaner from the dollar store. I used the forks and swing arms (?) in combination with some Gundam joints to make the front arms. The length of the forearm will probably be cut back as I fine tune things. I like the spindly look, but they may need some beefing up. The shoulders are 1/100 Gundam parts that fit like they were made for the job. At the moment the front limbs are completely posable, but will likely get glued at the end.

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    The lower legs were made from more SW battle droid parts. I made them wider by sandwiching some styrene between the half’s. Later, these will get dipped in glue and rolled in kit parts, so to speak, to prove they're from the future.

     

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    The head was built up from a variety of bits…part of the 1:72 Mörser Karl rail gun, Gundam bits, craft beads, engine parts, a custom styrene piece, and tank and motorcycle bits. I will also be adding some antenna, but will wait until later because I’ll probably break them.

     

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    To attach the head I used a piece of 1 inch styrene rod left over from another project. It was too short and had some chunks removed so I patched in some scrap pieces and blended it on the lathe.

     

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    And here are most of the parts so far. 

     

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    Thanks for tuning in. 

    Pete

    • Like 12

    Night Stalker Mech

    in Work In Progress - SF & RealSpace

    Posted · Edited by Photon

    Hey guys…it’s been a while since I’ve shared anything here. My big project this year is my entry for the Original Mecha Contest (OMC). It’s an international online competition to build a “robot” model of your own design. The contest runs from Feb thru Oct., so we’re about at the halfway point. I’ll try to get you up-to-date with my progress over the next few posts.

     

    I decided to go all in this year, so I pushed the handful of projects already underway to the side to focus solely on this, with the goal being to motivate myself to grow beyond my current skills. 

     

    Going in, I had some very hazy ideas…a sort of crustacean-like thing, armoured on top, with an exposed, mechanical underbelly. I also wanted it to have an absurd sci-fi engine in the rear and be posed in a menacing, crouched pose. So starting with that, I began.

     

    For the armoured body, I started with a 1:35 Sheridan tank hull. This was cut in half lengthwise and sort of folded on itself. I glued it back together with a styrene sheet spacer, with the half turret hole now serving as a sort of ‘wheel well’ for the rear legs. This also left a large opening fore and aft for the head and engine, respectively.

     

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    The torso from a 1/6 Star Wars battle droid seemed to make a good pelvis / leg mount, so I made a styrene spacer that would place the leg attachment points at the center of the opening in the hull. This was mounted to a removable sheet of styrene, the idea being that I could keep all the mechanical underbelly bits separate for ease of assembly and painting until the end, so I could avoid a ship-in-a-bottle situation.

     

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    Next, I started to block out the rear engine, using a variety of parts in different scales. The yellow is a 1:144 Gundam part. The green bit is from a 1:72 Soviet rocket launcher and there are also some 1:35 tractor parts. To add some interest to the Gundam part, I bent up some pipes from some small acrylic rod. I also cut a square opening and inset some detail. 

     

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    I sketched a some quickie silhouettes and thought that this one best had the vibe that I was going for. I found that working from a silhouette like this is helpful because it points me the right direction but is open ended enough so I can define the details as I go.

     

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    At this point, not much is glued in place. I’m using lots of double-sided tape and poster tack to try things out which is good and bad. I don’t have to commit to anything yet, but the model is constantly falling apart when I handle it.

     

    That it for today. I’ll post again soon.

    Peter

    • Like 15

    Codename: Gerbera (Kitbashed Mecha)

    in Work In Progress - SF & RealSpace

    Posted

    Thanks, Andy. Yes, I’ve really come to enjoy this particular way of working. I think there is so much potential. For this model, I’m trying to work faster and looser than I usually do. So far it’s been very liberating.
     

    At the moment, I think I’ll stick to the original colour scheme, despite having a disproportionate number of orange models on the shelf already.

    I’m already sweating thinking about painting the stripe on the shoulder armour 🤪

     

    Codename: Gerbera (Kitbashed Mecha)

    in Work In Progress - SF & RealSpace

    Posted

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    OK, this is a weird one. I started a new robot model based on this drawing by Jan Buragay. It's mostly kit-bashed with a few key elements being 3D printed. The grey and bone colored pieces are polystyrene beads

    from a craft store, that I counterbored and inset a 6mm half pearl. The green bits are helicopter gun pods and the pink tube is from a pocket lint roller.

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    The bulk of the rear portion was 3D printed in polystyrene and blended with the other parts using a 2-part epoxy putty. a quick blast of primer to see how things were working together,

    then I wet-sanded most of it off with 600 grit. The ribs were cut from .5mm plasticard.

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    I made a removable insert for the bottom of the head, decked out with some choice bits from the greeble patch. I have not glued it in place because I know I will break off an antenna.

     

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    For the rocket legs, I had a couple fuel tanks from a junky Lindberg snap-together Space Shuttle. They're ribbed, unlike the smooth ones from the original illustration, but I'm not going to 

    loose any sleep over it. I figure having more places for crud to collect during the weathering stage can't be a bad thing, right? These have needed a fair amount of work to hide the seams

    and I can see from this photo that I'm not out of the woods yet.

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    I printed this part to hold the legs at a 14° angle from each other, which is what looks right, judging from the drawing.  I also glued in a piece of styrene that I sanded to the curvature of the pink tank, to take up a gap.

     

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    For the torso, I started with a back pack from a 1/144 Gundam and glued a couple of fishing floats/bobbers for the shoulders (polystyrene is everywhere if you look hard enough). This was

    busied up with some model bits, mostly 1:72 flak gun parts, courtesy of Revell of Germany.

     

    Front:

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    Back:

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    Here's the torso and legs temporarily assembled. The 3mm rod helps locate everything and will register some additional detail behind the head tank. I know it looks suspect, at the moment...

     

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    The shoulder armour was also resin printed. This was a tricky (for me) part to make in the CAD program. 

     

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    So this is everything mocked up. I'm pretty happy with it so far. 

     

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    The arms are next. I will post again soon. Thanks for tuning in.

    Pete

     

     

     

     

     

     

    • Like 11

    1:35 Manned Mech Walker

    in Work In Progress - SF & RealSpace

    Posted · Edited by Photon

    I've entered the home stretch on this one. I got everything in primer and ready for paint. Unfortunately, the primer went down a bit heavier than I intended and softened some of the finer details...oh well. A small spray can of Tamiya or Mr. Surfacer is quite expensive around here (and usually out of stock), so I sometimes get by with grey primer from the hardware store. This is a case where I regret that decision a bit. Maybe switching to the Mr. Surfacer for airbrush would be a better way to go. The problem is, my wife is very sensitive to solvent vapors, so I'd have to move the compressor outside for that. 

     

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    The primer revealed that the upper arm armour needed a bit of work, so I sanded it back and attached these wrap-around plastic card bits to enclose the mechanics.

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    After all the fretting over a color scheme, I just went with a simple grey green with some yellow markings. The green is a mix of hellblau and hellgrün acrylics from Mission Model Paint.

     

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    For this model, I tried painting the chips with a brush for the first time (rather than my usual go-to hairspray method). I'm a bit crap at it, so it looks cartoonish to my eyes, but I think the further weathering steps will tone it down a bit. 

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    These calipers made a very convenient handle for this during painting. 

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    I'm getting close to finishing. A bit more weathering, then assembly. I imagine that final assembly will be difficult because the limb connections are just ball joints. I will have to rig a way to hold the parts in position while the glue sets up. 

     

    Also the figure needs to be painted, so I expect I'll be watching some figure painting videos on Youtube  in the near future.

     

    Thanks again for any interest.

    P.

    • Like 12

    1:35 Manned Mech Walker

    in Work In Progress - SF & RealSpace

    Posted

    Yes, that’s the kind of finish I’ve had in mind. I’ve been looking at a lot of WWII aircraft colors, particularly the paints for the interiors and the underside of the plane. I think a lot of the original Ma.K colors that Kow Yokohama chose were from WWII aircraft, as well…duck egg, middle stone, Grauviolet, etc.

    Thanks for posting

    • Like 2

    1:35 Manned Mech Walker

    in Work In Progress - SF & RealSpace

    Posted

    Thanks for the suggestions. I'm going to try and paint over these photos in Photoshop and I'll definitely try these out.

     

    As much as I like the idea of the JCB yellow (I think it suits this subject well), having just finished a model of a construction robot, I'm a bit reluctant to "do it again". I'll try mocking it up on the computer, in any case.

     

     

    15 hours ago, Pete in Lincs said:

    There's a Jerrycan on that arm so therefore it must be Military.

    It was my hope that the jerrycans wouldn't be too obvious. My thinking was they were a detail stamped into the sheet metal to give it some strength. I have a bit more work to do on the upper arm armour, anyway. I'll try blending the edge of the can in with some putty. Maybe that will slightly disguise its origins. Thanks for pointing that out.

    1:35 Manned Mech Walker

    in Work In Progress - SF & RealSpace

    Posted

    I've added more small details here and there and also got some primer down to both see where things are at and to use in photoshop to help work out a paint scheme.  So here are some gratuitous primer pics to geek out on (if you like that sort of thing). I freely admit that I have NFI what colors to paint this. 

     

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    thanks again for any interest.

    Peter

     

     

     

     

     

     

    • Like 8

    Starship Maintenance trench wall hanging

    in Work In Progress - SF & RealSpace

    Posted

    Wow, what a crazy-huge project. Are you looking to clear out your entire stores of detail parts? There are easier ways…for instance, you could send them to me. 😎

    All kidding aside, this is the kind of project that I dream about…a wall of greebles. However, since a typical model kit is $$, I will have to continue to dream and live vicariously though your build. 

    Will watch with great interest. 🍿

     

    • Thanks 1

    1:35 Manned Mech Walker

    in Work In Progress - SF & RealSpace

    Posted · Edited by Photon

    Hey friends. I got some time in on this recently and made enough progress to be worth sharing. 

     

    I formed the roll cage from some ⌀1.5mm acrylic rod. It bent reasonably easily with some gentle help from a heat gun. I bent the rod around a form cut from some thin MDF with the profile of the cage. The cross pieces were cut to length and the cage was gently squeezed by hand while the cement dried. I had been dreading this and I'm chuffed that it turned out as well as it did. if this hadn't worked out, I probably would have tried soldering some brass rod.

     

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    I also have assembled the legs from an assortment of parts. The feet and lower leg are made from some Evergreen styrene and the armour is Gundam. The upper thighs were some unused bits from the Hasegawa Hitachi excavator. They were thin shells, so I filled them with epoxy putty and drilled the hole for the tube. The tube was capped with some 1:72 tank wheels and a polystyrene 1/2 pearl. The pearl will seat in a spherical depression in the flange on the main body.  This should allow me some flexibility to pose the leg while the glue is drying. I'll need to improvise some sort of jig to support the body at the proper height  while doing this.

    Hopefully, this will be able to stand up on its own 😳.  I'll probably pin it to a small base, in any case.

     

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    I'll hopefully be adding some more mechanical details to legs, then onto finishing up the arms. At that point, I'll be on the home stretch. Thanks for looking in.

     

    Peter

    • Like 9

    1:35 Manned Mech Walker

    in Work In Progress - SF & RealSpace

    Posted

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    Just a brief note to say that I am still working on this despite the lack of posts. 
    I have taken a brief hiatus to finish a couple of older models that were 98% of the way done before I got distracted with this (& others that have yet to be disclosed here 😳).

    I always seem to stop 3 feet short of the finish line...a bit pathological, maybe?

    Usually a model show or contest is needed (ie. a real deadline) for me to actually completely finish something. So, I’ve decided to participate in something with a mid-June deadline, largely to provide a bit of motivation so I can put these older pieces to rest (the Construction Mech & my Spaceship Crash Site DIO).

     

     

    • Like 2

    It's GONK-o'clock

    in Work In Progress - SF & RealSpace

    Posted

    Very nice, Andy. I really like the approach of using a combination of printed and scratch built parts, rather than just printing the whole thing as a monolithic figure.


    Fusion 360 and the Mars are a potent combination indeed. It’s kind of miraculous that’s it’s in reach of the hobbyist for so little money. I really should fire mine up more than I do. I had originally intended to use it as a desktop greeble factory, but have yet to really explore that possibility.

    • Like 2
    • Thanks 1

    Vaurbian Freighter

    in Work In Progress - SF & RealSpace

    Posted · Edited by Photon

    Looks great, Pete.  It should be really fun to paint in the Star Wars style, with some jaunty chipped stripes.
     

    There’s a new company out of Lancashire, called Archive X that sells paints (acrylics & enamels) that are colour matched to the paints used on the original Star Wars studio models. For me, however, they are priced way outside of my budget.

     

    I’m glad to hear your feeling better

    • Thanks 1
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