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DIY 1:35 Mecha Constructor


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A touch of paint has brought the whole thing to life.

 

On 2/27/2024 at 2:38 PM, voozet said:

I'm considering giving up on the excavator because it doesn't quite fit in size and, besides, I think it disturbs the model's proportions.

 

I think you're right about the excavator bucket, a welding or cutting torch would probably make for a more balanced display; so the excavator bucket doesn't go to waste, could you repurpose it as deck cargo for your Remora ?

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Some amazing scratch building especially considering the seat is what, 2cm by 2.5cm? 😮

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36 minutes ago, Richard E said:

as deck cargo for your Remora ?

Remora... a ghost from the past 😉

It stands in the corner, and it's my guilty conscience. People have shelves of shame, with models they haven't even started assembling. I have a corner of shame, with things I can't finish... 

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7 minutes ago, Gruntpa said:

the seat is what, 2cm by 2.5cm?

More or less 🙂

It seems to me that it is several millimeters longer and a few millimeters narrower.

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8 minutes ago, voozet said:

More or less 🙂

It seems to me that it is several millimeters longer and a few millimeters narrower.

👍

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Another small step. The other hand is done.

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Let's assume that the gray rod is a welding electrode or a welding torch tube. It's probably part of the suspension of a modern AFV. I cut it into two pieces and used the thicker one as a handle for the thinner one.

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From the opposite side it looks like this.

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This mech probably won't be able to clap, but I think his hands will come in handy at work 😉

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Thanks for watching.

Wiesiek.

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1 hour ago, voozet said:

This mech probably won't be able to clap,

In that case I'll applaud your work. They look great to me and it's good to see this back in work. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

The last few days have been mainly conceptual work. I had to figure out a way to connect the arms to the cab.

First I just glued them directly to the cabin. But it looked bad because the arms were at an unnatural angle.

However, the glue stuck it together very well, so removing them was a brutal operation, which left scars...

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I also rejected the next idea, magnets, because it would be difficult to fit them into the ends of the arms.

Finally, I used the wheel rims, the ones from which I also made a hand. This required adapting the flat rim to the rounded surface of the cabin. I used a method found on the Internet to do this. I wrapped the cab in sandpaper and used that as a matrix to copy the shape on the rim.

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Just in case, I also used a 3 mm rod to strengthen the connection of the elements.

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Voila!

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Thanks for watching.

Wiesiek

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50 minutes ago, voozet said:

I wrapped the cab in sandpaper and used that as a matrix to copy the shape

Damn! I thought it was only me who knew how to do that :laugh:

 

I think you've nailed it my friend. The arms look perfectly natural just there. 

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Curious to see what it's going to look like with a coat of paint on.

 

One suggestion if I may: could you fit a lighting array on the front of the body to illuminate the hands and their working area?

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Thanks gentlemen. I'm glad you like it.

 

1 hour ago, Richard E said:

could you fit a lighting array on the front of the body to illuminate the hands and their working area?

 

This is a good idea, although it may be difficult for me to create a set of multiple identical  lights. I don't like doing the same thing many times. Yes, I know that repetition is the mother of learning (fun fact: in the Polish version of this sentence, the mother was replaced by the queen), but in me, repetition kills the will to work. So there is rather one large spotlight within my reach.

Unless you mean a working lighting array, i.e. diodes, fiber optics, cable soldering etc. Then even one spotlight is out of the question, because I have no idea about these things 🤣

 

 

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21 minutes ago, voozet said:

Unless you mean a working lighting array, i.e. diodes, fiber optics, cable soldering etc. Then even one spotlight is out of the question,

 

No - rest assured that the possibility of a working light hadn't even considered crossing my mind :) 

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I used the last few days to finish the hull / the engine and drive housing.

I started by breeding earthworms 😉 

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Hydraulic hoses in large quantities, because I will need a lot of them, and some always form poorly.

I did it using GSW roll maker. I use milliput and greenstuff in my work, but in this case greenstuff works better: it is more flexible after drying and does not dirty the tool.

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They are intended not only for the hull, but also for the arms. When the green stuff dries a little and stops sticking to the fingers, I shape some of them so that the bend fits where they will be attached.

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But let's get back to the hull. This is its lower back part. It has a name, but using it in public can be tricky... 😝

This photo shows one of the ways I connect green stuff "hydraulic hoses" with polystyrene components. This is a Tamiya tube with a diameter of 3mm. I glued this to another piece of polystyrene and added what looks like a valve to improve the look.

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The rear part of the hull also has a flap/door that I made earlier and painted together with the operator's cabin.

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View from the left side.

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View from the right side.

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View from below

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Thannks for looking.

Wiesiek.

 

 

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Darned cool, how did you corrugate the hoses? I am assuming you rolled the pieces to the right diameter over a corrugated flat object?

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@Gruntpa I have a tool made by Green Stuff World called Roll Maker. It has 3 different sizes of corrugations and works really well IMO.

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I only regret that when buying this I did not choose the XL version, which has slightly larger plates and allows you to make longer rolls.

 

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I made some using ballpoint pen springs (stretched a bit) wrapped in tissue paper and coated with white glue. Messy but they looked okay painted.

I think I put some wire inside and bent it to fit where I wanted it to go. This was a while ago though.

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