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K-2SO Security Droid


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For an impatient Mike!!

 

Getting a good photo without flooding the eyes with the light from the LEDs wasn't easy but finally got something half decent.

 

IMG_6694_zpsekeij3nf.jpg

 

They are still a bit bright and could do with a higher value resistor.

 

The torso looks great Andy, might go and throw some primer and paint at mine before Bolton tomorrow.

 

Cheers,

 

Warren

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Yep - that looks pretty good. :) As you say, they could do with being a little less bright, but you're definitely getting there.  I'd be interested to hear your plans for the alts to the kit to get everything shoe-horned in though, as there's not much of him outside of that barrel chest to put batteries, wires etc. :hmmm:

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Sorry (again) for the lack of updates. It's been another hectic week at work, so I've not had much time at the bench.

 

I have got some small bits done though. I needed to get a base sorted so I could figure out what pose he'd be in, then I can glue the joints in position. I'm using the same type of base I made for the First Order Trooper, which is just a circle of mdf with a strip of plasicard glued around it. I cut the plasticard to be about 3mm higher than the top of the mdf to form a lip, then filled the top with a thin layer of plaster and stuck a few small stones into it before it dried. Once the plaster had set, I coated the surface with Vallejo Sandy Paste and sprinkled some fine basing sand over it. It'll be painted in a suitable sandy colour, and some of the stones will be picked out in different shades. I'll glue a couple of brass rods into the base which will slot into holes in K2's feet.

 

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One of the arms is also together now. These are a little easier than the legs as the main sections are one-piece mouldings, so there are no awkward seams to fill. Like the legs, I've left the clear inserts out of the elbows, and the joint will be fixed, although they'd probably be fine left unglued

 

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The only modification I've made is to the fingers. Like the other joints, they should have a hole through each section, but, as they're so small, Bandai have moulded these solid. I've drilled these out, which is only a small mod, but it does add some detail to the hands

 

 32410795851_d6f87edc3d_b.jpg

 

I've also started a bit of weathering on the torso and head. K2's got lots of layers of oil and grime on him, but it doesn't always show that well due to the dark paint. I wanted to keep the finish on the model pretty subtle too, so I've started by sponging on some Citadel Nuln Oil wash. It's a black wash so it doesn't show up that much but, because it dries matt, it leaves variations in tone across the paint, which goes some way to replicating the look of the original

 

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I'll build up more layers of washes in different colours which will hopefully give a richer surface finish without obscuring too much of the base paint layers.

 

Andy

 

 

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Thanks guys

 

Just a quick update. K2's got his legs now. I've glued the knee joints in position, but he's not pinned to the base yet, so he is at least capable of standing upright albeit rather precariously. All the other leg joints will remain articulated, so I'll still have some adjustment when he's attached to the base

 

32388945222_0afbf0d0c0_b.jpg

 

Andy

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Thanks guys,

 

Most of the painting is now done, although not without some minor incident. The paint chipping on the legs, arms, feet etc. didn't go as well as it had on the head and torso, probably because I painted too many parts in one go, so the chipping process took longer and the paint had dried more, making it harder to remove.

In the end I added some IPA to the water I was using for chipping, and that helped a bit, but I wasn't that happy with the final effect so I added some extra chips by brush at the end.

The other issue was the colour. When I painted the head and torso, I added some black into the panzer grey to darken it. I did the same here, but I obviously didn't add enough, as the result looked a little lighter. I got round that by painting a black enamel filter over all the parts, which darkened them enough to blend in with the previous painting. By the time it's all weathered it should match pretty well

 

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One more slight cock up was the fact that I forgot to chip the upper arms, and by the time I realised, the paint was pretty much dried. I had to add even more IPA to the water to shift the paint but that didn't really work, at least right up to the point where it did work... a little too well. Yes it started to strip the paint completely. I thought at first I was going to have to repaint them, but actually some of the paint remained in a mottled pattern, and after a few black filters it didn't look to bad, so I'm leaving them as they are

 

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There's still a bit of detail painting to do. There's some lighter grey panels on the arms to paint, and I've got to re-touch the chrome bands around the top of the legs because I masked off the wrong bits. It should be the longer panels that are in the polished finish, not the short ones as I've done it

 

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Next job after those touch-ups are done will be to add the sponged weathering to the legs and arms, then do some further weathering with enamels across the whole model.

 

I've got the base pretty much finished too, so once K2's done I can mount him strait onto it. I painted the ground work with Tamiya buff, followed by a bit of shading here and there, then added some brown washes to bring out the detail

 

31753345414_fe5cddfa35_b.jpg

 

Andy

 

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That's looking great, I'm catching up a bit but I think the masking for the yellow arm striping is amazing! All the light visible through the joints (and fingers) is a huge improvement on the base kit too.

 

I also rather like the picture of the collapsed droid - it has a creepy Silent Hill vibe, you could make some really unpleasant biomechanical things with a couple of these...

 

Cheers,

 

Will

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3 minutes ago, Will Vale said:

That's looking great, I'm catching up a bit but I think the masking for the yellow arm striping is amazing! All the light visible through the joints (and fingers) is a huge improvement on the base kit too.

 

I also rather like the picture of the collapsed droid - it has a creepy Silent Hill vibe, you could make some really unpleasant biomechanical things with a couple of these...

 

Thanks Will,

 

The yellow bands were pretty simple. I just masked off the rest of the shoulder then sponged on some masking fluid for the chips. I did have to give the yellow a white base first though.

 

I definitely think he's a good candidate for some customising. He's got quite a gaunt and scary look by the usual standards of Star Wars droids.

 

Andy

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It's the "just masked off" that I thought was special - having to deal with the flat outer surface and the curved inner surface. Thin strips for the latter and a disk for the former?

 

W

 

 

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just caught up with this - brilliant stuff

I just wish you'd do something really cruddy to let us mere mortals know your human. Even your so called "cock ups" end up looking more real than anything I can achieve :D

Seriously though - great stuff as always 

Looking forward to seeing more

Si

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9 hours ago, Will Vale said:

It's the "just masked off" that I thought was special - having to deal with the flat outer surface and the curved inner surface. Thin strips for the latter and a disk for the former?

 

I used a thin strip of the Tamiya 'flexi' masking tape for the outer edge of the stripe, then blocked off the rest of the area with regular tape. I didn't bother masking in inner edge at all. I just sprayed the yellow at an angle to avoid it going on the front edge as much as possible, although if you look at the first few photos after I'd done it, you can see some over-spray. I've now cleaned up the edge with a grey over-paint.

 

7 hours ago, Madhatter said:

I just wish you'd do something really cruddy to let us mere mortals know your human. Even your so called "cock ups" end up looking more real than anything I can achieve :D

 

Don't worry MH, there's plenty of cruddy areas on him. The bevel-edged chrome trims on the joints have some nasty seams that were just too fiddly to bother cleaning up. There's also the rather glaring fact that I didn't fill the shoulder seam.

 

5 hours ago, M_Sinclair said:

 

Looks like you were able to turn any incidents into happy accidents. How tall is K2 compared to say, your protocol droids?

 

 

He's 180mm high, which in 1/12 scales out perfectly to K2's 2.16m hight. He doesn't seem that big when you're working on him, as he's quite spindly, but when you put him next to the other Bandai droids you realise how tall he is. Boris comes up to about nipple height on K2. U9 is about, err... mid height. Nigel's just something to trip over

 

32226957510_c02703d308_b.jpg

 

Andy

 

 

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Awesome group shot ! K2SO is looking great. Really looks different. That's also the great thing about droids, you can write off things like that upper arm different colour as a replacement part.

 

The base is also looking the goods. Not so sure what actually was done in the explanation. Did you actually "paint the dirt" in some places ?

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Magnificent as always Andy.....Really appreciate all the advice you pass on both in your threads and elsewhere.  :thumbsup:

 

Wondered if this might be of interest to you and others in this section of the forum: 

Yup.....A GB that sci-fi & dinosaur modellers (of which we have so many) can actually join in!  ;)

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