Search the Community

Hi all, It's always interesting to see which project of the several I'm working on makes it to the point of painting, at which time I'm less reticent about sharing as there's a chance I might see it to completion This time it's another Kotobukiya kit, the Molga or as we know it Slitherzoid. This was easily my fave Zoid as a kid, with its crawling motion and nifty hidden gun and cockpit. It'll look better with its wheels, but I'm changing the mounting for those to give it a narrower track (like the original Tomy toy) and haven't finished cleaning up and painting the modified parts yet. It's painted with Tamiya red oxide primer and then dull and bright red lacquers. Over that I gave it a coat of GW Flesh Tearers Red mixed about 3:1 with Wyldwood - those are contrast points so they settle in the detail a bit, and I let them pool to give a patchy finish. I drybrushed it with a couple of brighter reds, sponged on some Vallejo German Grey chips and painted a few scratches. Almost none of which will be visible at the end unless I contrive to have it leaping off a base? Then sealed it all with Dullcote. I'm trying to avoid using any enamels as there's quite a lot of ABS in the frame, and I've fitted parts together with friction so it'll probably crack. I'm currently dithering about the body panels, which are painted in Alclad and decalled, but haven't been washed yet. They might not crack with enamel, but they might. But if I use acrylics around the details it'll be hard to get a really soft look. I'll see if I can take some pictures of the armour bits today. Cheers, Will

Hi all, I've previously built one of the Kotobukiya HMM Zoid kits (the Pteras) and was casting around for something to do recently so decided to start the Molga in my stash. The Molga (or Slitherzoid as we knew it in the UK) was one of my favourites as a kid. Silver and red! Hidden guns! Wiggly crawling action! This version doesn't go, but it's got nice details apart from one or two "phoned in" areas like the tail, and was really nice to build and paint. I painted it with Alclad Aluminium (I think White Aluminium) and highlighted the tops of the curves with Pale Burnt Metal. The flanks and lower areas are heavily shaded with Hotmetal Blue, normally I'm a bit too sparing but this time I wanted it to be really visible which I think has paid off - you can see the shading even after all the dust was applied. The red is a mix of Tamiya Hull Red and Bright Red, shaded with a Citadel Contrast mixture made from dark brown and cold red which created a lovely rich colour with some surface patina to keep things interesting. It's weathered with enamels (sparingly, I used acrylics for any panel lines and other wash-like tasks) and misted coats of Tamiya acrylics, plus a few pigments, lots of dry-brushing, the usual sorts of things. I was going to weather less, but I got the colours a little wrong and had to take it further to get everything to sit right on the base. Speaking of which, the base is a little piece of acacia sold as a sort of hipster serving platter. I built up the landscape with scraps of foamcard, and used slate, sand and CA to provide surface texture. The cracked earth on the roadway is one of the GW crackle paints, which work rather well if you put them on thickly enough. All in all, a relatively short project, but a fun one - the kit was well-behaved and the simple base was quick and satisfying to do. If I hadn't put the weathering off out of fear, I'd have been done at least a week or so sooner. If you're interested in the steps, the WIP thread has most of them, especially some step-by-step pics of the base. Thanks for looking! Will

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