Codename: Gerbera (Kitbashed Mecha)

[Photon]

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.

 

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.

 

 

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.

 

 

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.

 

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.

 

 

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:

 

Back:

 

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...

 

 

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

 

 

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

 

 

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

Pete

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Andy Moore]

Really like the way this is coming together Pete. The combination of scratch building and 3D printing is  something I've really come to enjoy. I know just how much satisfaction you will have got from designing parts like that component that attaches the legs to the body - something relatively simple, but which magically brings everything together once it's fitted, all from your head and the calculations you need to make so that it fits the way it should.

 

Are you going with the colours from the illustration, or something different?

 

Andy

[Photon]

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 🤪

 

[Hunter Rose]

Nice! Will definietely be following along with this one, great work on those early details

[voozet]

The robot looks cool and so does your interpretation of this drawing.

Will it be unarmed?

[Photon]

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

[voozet]

Well, it was worth the wait to see it. Brilliant work.

[Pete in Lincs]

Very weird, but very well made and painted. I'm afraid I don't remember the original post. What's next? 

[Hunter Rose]

Cool, quirky design and I like the colour scheme 

[Photon]

Thanks, guys.

 

16 hours ago, Pete in Lincs said:

What's next? 

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.

[Thom216]

Great job on transforming it to a 3D model. Cool looking lil guy.