Godnece/Rihio Mecha

[MrProd]

I got back into modelling during lockdown vol 1, after a break of approximately 33 years, give or take. I've built a number of aircraft and a helicopter in the months since and whilst I can't say I've enjoyed every minute it has been such a calming and rewarding way to fill my time (due to the nature of my job I can't work during tier4/lockdown).

 

Wanted to do something different and with more freedom and I've always enjoyed sci fi. My youth was filled with Star Wars (I was 5 when I saw Star Wars, mind blown!), 2000AD and Harry Harrison novels so sci fi kit seemed appropriate. 

I didn't want to spend too much for a first dip of the toe and found this on amazon https://www.amazon.co.uk/GODNECE-Mecha-Model-Kits-8cm/dp/B08149TQC2

 

 

Why this is sold as Godnece I've no idea. It's made by Rihio, the amazon vendor isn't called Godnece so who knows

 

The parts look like 

 

There's some reasonable detail on some parts 

 

And then some other parts are just awful

 

 

The plastic is inconsistent as well. The sprues are not just different colours, they are different plastics with the tan colour being most similar to regular model kits, the metallic grey seems really hard and slightly brittle and the chocolate brown parts remind me of the stuff the little airfix soldiers were made of circa 1981. Touch it with sandpaper and it looks like a scale model of a ploughed field.

The parts can be swapped around with other kits in the same series, and there are parts to make an open front mech with the operator visible (think power loader from Aliens) but the figure is garbage and the presence of a human imposes a scale (1:60 allegedly) so that was out. I instead used the closed up body so its a droid.

 

 

It won't look like this for long.

More soon, thanks for looking

Jon

[Stephen W]

It will be interesting to see what you can do with it.  Happy modding! 

[Pete in Lincs]

21 hours ago, MrProd said:

It won't look like this for long.

Sounds promising. 

[MrProd]

So I've been busy attacking the droid (doesn't have a name yet, we'll see) with sprue cutters, files and sanding sticks. First to go were the pegs sticking out all over the place and then a lot of sanding to smooth all the sharp edges and corners, of which there are many. 

 

Also I didn't like all the gaps in the arms and that slot around the wrist. Putty in two of the gaps and the wrist, Mr surfacer 500 dabbed and stipled then primed with Mr surfacer 1500 got me to this

Much better.

Also decided I preferred the alternate legs, the mech type i was going to use were too square and edgy.

 

Compared to the legs shown here

 

The groin area, for want of a better description, is on backwards. The kit would have it the other way round with a set of ladders at the front for the operator to climb in.

 

Dremmel took care of the ladders.

Now the torso.

Comes with a range of inserts

I thought this was the best, but wasn't convinced. 

 

Too square, too sticky out and too symmetrical. 

Hello Dremmel. 

Realised later that I could have taken more pics during what I'll call the milliput phase, but live and learn.

Mr surfacer 500, going for that roughly cast metal look.

Heading in the right direction.

Embellishments, paint scheme and armaments to follow. The "cannon" or whatever is gone, its replacement is much cooler....

Thanks for looking

Jon

[Pete in Lincs]

And now it stops being a toy, and gets interesting. I like the rough finish.

Is it intended to be autonomous or manned? If manned, it's going to be a bit cramped for headroom in there.

Though a couple of small figures (1/72nd?) nearby would scale it up.

[MrProd]

Hi Pete, definitely unmanned and as to size I think it looks 'right' stood next to a 1/48 scale plane, but the diorama I've been vaguely contemplating would be using some 1/35 scale figures. Never made a diorama before so we'll see.....

I'm unlikely to be able to legally work for the next 6 weeks so I won't be lacking time.

 

Now the progress. 

Armaments; the kit came with

Bit on the small side.

Or there was this

Bigger, but better? 

Then there was this

Which has some potential,

But I preferred this

Why have one barrel when you can have five?

Started by taking the small gun from the top flipped it round and cut a chunk off

I'd been thinking to bring together about 7 or 9 pieces of sprue to make a sort of handheld sawn-off rocket launcher, but then I cam across some wheel inserts in the spares box

Drilled out both, used one as a template on some styrene, cut some lengths of copper tube, a piece of brass rod and trimmed a MiG-21 exhaust.

Which went together like

This has been added to the 'handgun' along with some more detail parts from the spares box

The blue grey cone (MiG exhaust) got glued once some priming was done and then Mr surfacer 500 was used to fill the gaps, built up over a few days then sanded back.

I'm making a rack on the other side to hold the ammo case, which is two of the kits boxes stuck together with the holey handle removed

 

Be seeing more of that box in the next update which will be paint scheme. 

And I haven't forgotten this

If you've got a sizeable gatling gun in one hand it would be a shame to have such a plain, lame flamethrower in the other. 😀

Thanks for looking. 

Jon

[Pete in Lincs]

4 minutes ago, MrProd said:

Why have one barrel when you can have five?

NOW you're talking!