So FilmMkr on the forum said that he’d enter the 31 Days contest if some of us would make resin girl kits as our entries. (He does a lot of them and quite well as a matter of fact) Since the spirit of this contest is to try new things and expand our skills, and I had this pumpkin-girl Marisa kit in my stash, I agreed. I generally don’t do many anime figure kits, in fact I’ve only done two (Gally and Deunan) and even those were painted in more of a weathered, “real figure” style.  I’m still not sure how I’ll paint this one. Will it be oils or airbrushed or both? I have no idea what this figure is from even… I just thought it looked cool and I LOVE Halloween so I had to get it.

I can’t start on this kit until 2/21/2009, as per the contest rules, but I can show what my entry will be. Also the rules state that we should show that the kit is indeed unstarted and well… I haven’t even removed this from the bags yet! How’s that for unstarted?

What I do know is that I’m planning a few mods for the pumpkin. The two halves are solid and the eyes/mouth are not cut-out. I think that it might look cool to cut-out the mouth and eyes and make the pumpkin look more like a real pumpkin as opposed to a dress. There’s fully sculpted legs beneath the pumpkin so this is should work well. Maybe I’ll light it from within too with a flickery LED! Anyway, this is as far as I can go on this project until the 21st. Stay tuned!

Build Discussion in FichtenFoo Forums »

11.16.08 » Source, Concepts & Initial Scratchbuilding

I’ve had this kit sitting on my shelf for over a year now and was putting it off for no particular reason. I love the design, but needed some inspiration to get to it. I found the inspiration on 2chan in the form of a desert open roof/headless scopedog in 1/72 scale I believe. Here’s the image I found:

I decided to do something similar, but with a plethora of modifications and my own touches. I want to make this so that I could easily remove the rollcage and replace the head section. This will give me 2 kits to photograph and have fun photoshopping later. I also wanted to do the left arm similar to that of the “earlydog”. See above.

The rollcage was made from styrene rod. It’s jointed together either by glue or amulinum tubing. Later I’ll add some weld joints to the glued connections. The bar above it still needs it’s attachments done, but it will be for either a canopy or camo netting. I figure a canopy would be a nice thing to have in the desert sun.

The left arm shield was made from styrene sheets and strips. I “bolted” a piece of “steel” to the tip of the shield as a melee weapon.

The seat was made from thin sheet styrene with holes drilled out based on a printout I made. This styrene was then glued to some copper sheet. I used copper since it’s easy to cut and bend. The basket on the back was made from brass rod and strips. I had purchased a package of misc metal sheet and the screen was part of that. I cut a piece and added it to the bottom of the basket to keep the little bits from falling though.

And here’s the ‘dog with the rollcage removed and roof/head replaced.

11.22.08 » More building and modifications

First off it came to my attention that what I’m doing and what my reference was based off of was an official design for the scopedog. Here’s the link.

I started on the stowage for this build and so far have made a bucket and a water tank. The tank will be strapped under my stowage rack. It was made by folding some very thin brass sheet around a styrene block. Then I added the side walls made from styrene and the handles made from brass strip and rod. Lastly I dented the hell out of it!

For the bucket I figured that somewhere out there on the net there would be a template that I could scale up. I didn’t find one but I found some instructions which I used to create the bucket and the template below. This little template is for 1/20 scale but can be adapted for whatever. The styrene disc for the bottom is a 3/8″ circle of styrene. The handle was made from floral wire while the bucket itself was cut from very thin brass sheet with plain old scissors.

Instructions: http://www.missing-lynx.com/articles/other/makebuckets_ahall.html

Next up is the large RPG-styled Bazooka-Faust (Panzooka?). This was made from styrene and brass tubing as well as some misc gundam parts. The flared out back-end was the most difficult part. I heated the end over a candle until slightly soft, then pressed it onto the screw-end of a paintball co2 tank to widen the edge. This was done several times to get it right on the final piece and quite a few times screwing it up royally as well trying to figure it out. The end result is great though!

In the Scopedog instruction manual, Bandai shows some “detailed-up” pics of a scopedog. These looked great so I decided to apply some to mine. First was the welded joints. I thought about this for a bit and decided to try a modified solder iron tip to do the job. Below you can see the replacement tip and my old one which I modded. I used a dremmel cutting disc to make it have a chisseled point then a metal file to hone and sharpen the tip.

The trick is to get the tip just hot enough. Too cool and it just leaves a little scratch. Too hot and it sinks too deep into the plastic. I found myself unplugging and plugging the iron back in and out frequently to maintain my perfect temp. I held the iron still on my left hand and held the part to be modded in my right, tapping it along the weld-edge. You’ll get a few strings and whatnot, but after
I was done I lightly sanded all 3 edges (middle weld line, and the two opposite flat parts) to clean it up. A quick brush of tamiya extra thin cement will make the after-sanding effect more visible and smoother. This tip also worked well for torch-cut edges on the added armor panels.

Lastly I used Aves Apoxie Sculpt to make the other weld beads for the D-Ring mounts and the roll-cage.

11.24.08 » Mesh Protection

This update is brought to you by mechaskunk.com. Model update parts that don’t stink! Or something… Rob sent me over some samples of dot-screening he’s considering adding to the store. For the dog I decided to use the larger holed version (he sent a finer screen as well). It’s brass sheet with equally spaced rows of holes all over and very nice for panel updates, screen and whatever else you can think of. In this instance I wanted to use it as small-arms protection for the pilot. I cut it along the dots with scissors, then

used a dremmel tool to make the perferated edges straight.

Also shown are my stowage options for this kit. I’ll be using 2 of the boxes seen, one MRE and one water box. I also have a bunch of stuff leftover from my Dunehopper. I made a lot of extra stowage for that and knew I’d eventually use it. Here’s a PDF to print your own boxes in 1/20 scale.

11.29.08 » Insurgency

This build needs a figure to go along with it and the stock fige, while nice, are kinda boring in the sense that EVERYONE has them. So since this is a desert build I decided to modify a Tamiya race crew fig into an insurgent type figure. This has been done so far with dental tools and Aves Apoxie Sculpt.

The tape was to keep the thinnly rolled pieces of sculpt from sagging into the leg gaps.

The AK-47-ish gun (just a simplified version I made to look like one) was made from styrene and metal rod/tube. I still need to make the strap for it.

Lots to do still on the figure including moer detail to the ammo belt, more cloth wrapped over his shoulders
(the reason for the unfinished belt/harness), pouches, and more detail/clean-up.

12.01.08 » Barriers

The figure is pretty much done. I just need to do a little clean-up and primer spot-checking. The pouches were made from Aves as usual and the snaps from pin-heads. I think it made for a nice conversion from those standard Tamiya figs into something more interesting.

For part of the scenery I finally made a concrete barrier. I started making a master for some 1/35 scale Jersey Barriers a while back, but the project I need them for isn’t ready to be started yet. This finally gave me an excuse to make some and bigger to boot. They’re 4.75″ long, 2.75″ high and about 1.5″ at the base. I first made a quick master from some styrene sheet then attached it to the bottom
of a box and covered it with mold silicone. That was all yesterday. Then today I did 2 pours to try it out. The first was pure plaster of paris. (B) It took 1 cup dry plaster and 1/2 cup water to fill it. The second pour, (A) I did the same, but mixed in about 1/4 cup of sand. I want to see if this looks more like natural concrete when I chip and bust parts of it off. I really didn’t measure anything when doing these, but I was going for a taller barrier, about 4 feet tall. You can see the scale of it with the figure. I’ll just be using one
of these for the final scene. They came out nice, but very clean and angular… too perfect! Some roughing up with a wire brush will soften the edges and make them look more natural.

Close up of the sand-mix:

Next are some old maps and a Soviet era 1001 Arabian Knights (I think) poster I printed for the scene.

This shovel was made from thin brass sheet and styrene rod.

These are the very nice Jerry Cans from Maschinen Kreuger and High Desert Pilot. Very nicely done and larger than I expected as seen by placing one next to one of my cans I made for my Dune Hopper. Guess I was wrong size-wise!

12.10.08 » Painting Begins

This past week I had a very nasty cold which put me out of commission for everything. Modeling, being awakes, etc… I’m back at it though and started by priming all of the parts with Mr. Surfacer 1200 from the jar thinned with lacquer thinner and a few drops of Mr. Retarder.

Once cured I separated the parts by end color then painted all of the parts needing rust in two tones. First a light rusty brown-orange color. Then over that I lightly and randomly dusted the parts with the same color mixed with a little black. Here’s the results:

Those parts will later be clearcoated, salted, hairsprayed, then overpainted ion their top-colors. The rust will show through after removing the salt and some of the paint over the hairspray layer.

I also chipped up and painted my Jersey Barrier. I used the barrier that I had mixed sand into and the texture is very much what I wanted. At least it is after some light wire-brishing and sanding. The chipping was done with whatever metal tools I had handy. Going for a Gears of War look for this with bullet chips concentrated on one area where one might had been taking cover.

Once chipped I first sprayed the entire barrier with Tamiya Neutral Gray thinned with alcohol. Then I used thin coats of cheap acrylics (JoAnn Fabrics store brand actually… there was a sale. no joke.) white and gray and mixes inbetween focusing on downwar streaks. A piece of masking tape was applied no both sides and Cadmium Yellow was sponged on for the worn paint.

Once I was satisfied with the colors and paint textures I applied a thin wash of black oils mixed with oderless turpenoid which was easy to apply then wipe away for more weathering.

12.12.08 » Time For Another Blog
Article!

I was doing a test of the salt technique for rusty chips on part of the scopedog that won’t be in the final-final diorama: the top-hatch. I sprayed the rust-painted part with hairspray then added some kosher and table salt as each gives a different look and looks great combined. It looked good and gave me an idea for the parts which I wanted to be plain rust and no paint. I started with the scopedog head and the result was so good I decided to do a step-by-step:

1: Spray the part to be rusty with several shades of rust-colored paint mixes. I spray the part with a solid rust mix then randomly spray with darker tones. Finish it up with a light coat of Future Floor Acrylic to seal it.

2: Spray the part with a generous coat of hairspray then coar with kosher, then table salt. Don’t be stingy but make sure there’s gaps as well.

3: Now spray a few parts of the piece with some black-brown and follow up by spraying in other spots with some orange.

4: Dip the part in water and use a soft brush o remove all of the salt. The end result will leave a desireable rusty dextre both visual and tactile. (note: white specks are styrene beeneath and not salt… I was careless and salt IS an abrasive. Take care!

Here’s the armor panel added to the scopedon hatch along with my initial trial part, the head and hatch! Since I used hairspray beneath the Tamiya Buff color to adhere the rust, I was able to use the hairspray technique to remove even more paint chips.

12.12.08 » The Primer Look

Maschinen Krueger mentioned that it needed “primer” so I thought about it and did the following which worked out well:

1: Sprayed hairspray on rust-toned part and sprinkled on kosher and table salts. Then I gave it a light coating of “neutral gray”.

2: Oversprayed the above with Tamiya Buff then a lighter version of buff for a “modulation” look.

3: Removed salt and some paint with water. Notice the primer-gray rings that show through. I think I might be able to spray some hairspray/salt over the gray paint and before the buff, but am not sure how well that’d remove. It’ll leave some gray chips along with the rust though if it works.

12.13.08 » Degradation and Corrosion

I’m really letting loose with the corrosion and overly-worn/past it’s prime look with this build. Most builds just don’t look right or don’t feel right with this much wear, but for some reason, this seems to be fitting together with it.

To start things off, here’s the other shoulder. In the Votoms series, there’s a group of elite soldies known as the “Red Shoulders”. I’m making a Blue-Shoulder for kicks and the blue looks great with the buff base color. I wanted the blue to look as if it was painted over the buff paint, but didn’t adhere very well and quickly has weathered away. To do this I just added another coat of hairspray and
salt over a shoulder done like the one in my last update. Then I sprayed on the blue and removed the salt and a lot of paint in some water.

I added the rusted armor plates to the skits. Rust was done as shown above. You can see where I sprayed a little desert yellow on one of the side skits to break-up the monotonous buff.

The stowage rack turned out really nice and corroded. Lots of nice little pins of rust popping through. Really looks like it’s been used and abused. Mostly though it’s beel left in the sun too long.

Lastly for this update is the main boddy and a knee. Again… sun bleached, poor maintenance and the look of a mecha that was found abandoned for quite a long time and quickly put back into service. I’m sure that all kinds of mechanical difficulties plague it’s operator.

LAter during the weathering process I’ll do some oil and pigment shading as well as filters to make panels and segments of the dome, body, etc… pop-out.

12.16.08 » Rust Three Ways

That’s right… rust done three different ways so far on this build. The first way is a new product I heard about and decided to give a change. This product is called Rustall. (visit  their website here) Rustall comes as individual bottles or as a set of 4. Bottle 1 is the rust solution, #2 is “blackwash”, #3 is a matt coating, and #4 is dirt as seen in the cup below.

Using this stuff is pretty straightforward and simple and it yields some great results, however it’s not the end-all solution to everymodel and takes a little practice to start getting the look you desire. There’s instructions on a review on thei website, but here’s how I’ve been using it which makes it a little simpler I think.

First pour the dirt contents of Bottle #4 into a dish. Start out with bottle #3, the matt finish. Brush this on the part to be rusted. It goes on nice and thin and levels out beautifully. I really like this stuff! While the part is still tacky, coat it with the dirt in the dish. (the instructions say to do this dirt-dip while your paint is still wet, but my airbrushed paint dries too quick for that) Take a soft
brush and brush away the excess dirt.

You’ll not notice much of a change in the finish or color with the added dirt, but the dirt is important. It’s clay-based and makes for a nice texture and makes the rust solution distribute evenly. Once that’s all dry brush on an even coat of bottle #1, the rust solution. It goes on very thin and you won’t see much noticible rust on the first try. You add more layers to build-up rust. Without the dirt, the
rust solution tends to run like a wash and not “stick” where you want it.

You can add more and more layers of the rust solution, drying in-between but that will leave a fairly even and solid coating of rust. For a more realistic look I brush my second/third coats in random spots and then blend them in with water over the rest of the part. That way the rust builds up in some spots and not consistently over the whole piece. Looks more interesting and realistic this way.

Here’s the rust solution added to a shovel. Note the “blade” of the shovel was painted in a neutral gray then sponged with lighter and darker grays thinned with water to give it a mottled, but not textured look. I applied it to the whole blade and handle, the for the 2nd
and 3rd apps only around the upper part of the shovel, blending it towards the point with water. The bucket was painted the same way, but no rust was applied yet. This shows the difference.
I’ve found that this looks better if applied over an uneven-colored
paint job and not a solid one.

The same technique was done with the Scopedog Visor. The visor was painted in Neutral Gray and mottled with water-thinned darker and lighter grays to give it an uneven, natural appearance. Then some rust colored actylic thinned with water was sponged on in a few key spots. Not doing it all over increases the realism and visual appeal.

Finally I coated it in the matt-finish/dirt-dip then a coat of the rust solution. A few more coatings of the rust solution were applied where I had sponged on the rust acrylic. Finally the part was coated in satin FFA for sealing for later filters and washes. It yealds a very realistic looking fresh rust over steel look though.

The next rust technique is pretty easy as well and yeilds some good results. I totally screwed up when removing the tape from the rust-base coat of this roll-cage and ended up pulling a lot of paint and primer off of the brass dot-plate. AAARRGGHH! I repainted and primed them by hand, but worried that the salt-rust method I showed a few updates ago (method #1 of 3 BTW) would rub the paint and primer off again.

So to do this more gently I tore off a chunk of sponge and dabbed on thinned acrylics in black-brown, rust, orange, and brown. This was really easy and the result is pretty cool. While it doesn’t look like the other 2 rust methods I’ve shown, I think all three look great and show the variety of rust that occurs. If all the rust looked the same that might not look as interesting.

All three of these methods can benefit from being combined. Using the large amount of rust-colored pigments from Mig Productions will also enhance these techniques as I’ll show later on when I get to that point. The next two pics of the external tank use several of these methods with good results.

The first rust was shown when I applied the salt over the rust-base coat with hairspray then removed it after painting with water. In a few spots I added more rust with the sponge technique.

The next pic is the aftermath of the first having applied the Rustall system to it. It’s a subtle difference but enhances the look. Note that you’re looking at the bottom of this hanging tank. The top won’t be seen while strapped under the basket on the ‘dog’s back.

Next is the arm shield which shows the first method of rust I tried, the salt-method. (see a few updates ago for a Step-By-Step) I did this in a faded military green to make it look like an add-on to this refurbished ‘dog. Later I’ll rub a little graphite powder on the “blade” to make it look as if it’s been recently used and that the rust has been worn off.

And here’s part of the leg armor, also being rusted and chipped using the salt/hairspray method. With these buff-colored parts I sponged some very thin white-buff color in spots to simulate sun-fading of the paint. This part shows the most extreme example of this, others are more subtle. All of this though will be muted somewhat when filters, discoloration, wash, and pigments are applied later so don’t be too shocked about the starkness of it.

And lastly is the insurgent with his base-coats of paint. Looks like crap, yes, but that’s fine for this stage and lets me see what it’ll look like color-wise later. More opaque oil-paint will be applied over this base-coat rendering it invisible later. The basecoat is important though since the oils are applied thin. Primer-gray would show through a thin white oil-paint for example.

12.17.08 » Modulation

Adam Wilder over at Mig Productions (makers of Mig Pigments and other fantastic products) developed a technique called “Modulation” for armor subjects. It’s basically taking queues from figure painters in regard to light and shadow and applying that to armor. Light-to-dark gradations, highlighted/discolored panels, etc… I have been doing that with this build. When I sprayen my  uff and other colors I mixed lighter versions and highlighted with the airbrush where light would hit. Now after my first application of Mig’s Sin Industries “Tan for Dark Yellow” filter I have been using their 502 Abteilung line of oils to highlight and shade areas of this build. This can really be seen well here on the body of the dog. Note the highlighted panels and how using darker and lighter mixes
of the buff color plays with the light and shadow emphasizing detail on this kit.

Once this dries I’ll apply another layer of the filter to blend all the colors together better. I’m loving the results though so far and they’ll look even better after washes and discoloration pop out the panel lines! (scroll up for the “before” shot in an earlier update)

12.21.08 » Filters and Discoloration

I mentioned earlier that I had applied a single coating of the Sin Industiries Filter to the scopedog. While the product itself is awesome, the thinner reacted bad with the Bandai plastic (as most thinners do actually, especially mineral spirits) and made a few parts brittle and cracked. This was really only where I had pre-snapped parts and there was pressure. The filter works great on other models plastics and resin, but Bandai plastic… sucks. So I blame Bandai more than the Sin Industries filter. The cracks I believe

can mostly be fixed and won’d show up on the final build. Instead I decided to use my usual Turpenoid + Oil Paints mix. I used the Mig Productions 502 Abteilung oil paints and made a yellow-orange filter to brughten-up and yellow the look more. Look at the photo above this sentence then the one below. Note that the highlights I did earlier are now more blended in and natural looking. THe filter ties all those colors together and enriches them.

After the filter I applied another satin coat of FFA then applied the discoloration. I used the 502 Abteilung line of oils as they’re much better than my cheapies from Michaels. I used dark and light rust, blue, yellow, and dark mud. These were dabbed on the blended into the surface. The result is fantastic and really makes the surface look used, worn and more natural. Later I used more light and dark rust and added additional rusty streaks.

The following I learned a few builds ago by accident. I applied some graphite to a gun, but later did the discoloration technique with the oils and turpenoid. That blended in the graphite and made the surface look like worn metal. I did the same thing on the internals here. I painted everything in Tamiya Dark Gray then lightened panels and such with oils. After a satin coat I buffed on the graphite with my fingers, applied dabs of blue and rust oils, then blended it all in with turpenoid. The result is really great!

Lastly is the gun progress. This was painted as above substituting German Gray for Dark Gray. The wood was painte dby hand then coated in gloss FFA and later dulled with a satin coat and discoloration. I think the gun needs to be darker so I’ll fix that later.

12.26.08 » Pin-Wash, Flat Coat, and Rust Pigments

Since my last update I’ve applied pin-washes of 502 Abteilung ‘Dark Mud’ oil paint which is a nice dark grayish brown. Perfect for this build. Afterwards everything recieved a flat coat of Future Floor Acrylic + Flat Base.

Once the flat coat cured I began blending various rust-toned Mig Pigments into the rusted panels to tone down the color-texture a bit more and increase the realism. The texture from the salt shows through a bit and makes it look very nice and random. The rust pigments were Light Rust, Standard Rust, Rail Rust and Old Rust. I also used Grimy Black and their new Graveyard Dirt pigment for shading. The Graveyard Dirt is a dark redish brown color which is perfect for shading rust. This was applied alone the channels on the head. I blended these in with clear turpenoid and a flat brush. Once that dried I applied some of the Mig Fixer for the first time.
This stuff works great and makes the pigments stay put. This will be useful for my next layer of sandy colored pigments.

On the body I appled small amounts of rust-pigments to some of the larger chipped areas and grimy black around the arm joints and vents. These were blended in with clean turpenoid as well. What turned out great is that the rust was blended all over ad applied thicker in some spots to increase the rusty and streaked rust look.

Below you can see that I added the great and shiny sticker lenses to the head. A small steel bearing was used for the tiniest eye. These will be dulled down with a little matt medium and dust. You can also see the difference in the Rustall rusted visor v/s the salt-technique and pigment rusted panels. Makes for a great contrast or realistic rust effects.

12.30.08 » Dust and Build-up

First-up today are the tarps. These are made using the method described in an article at ArmoramA which describes how to use tissues brushed with water-thinned silicone sealant to make fantastic scale tarps. First below is the large canopy tarp I made for the open-cockpit ‘dog. I took a small scrap rectangle and made a “repair patch” in the one corner.

Next I decided to try to use these to make a duffle bag. I was surprised at how easy this went together and is even laced and actually works. It’s filled with small and-rocks to give it weight and bulk. The strap is made from a strip of the same material.

Once I had everything ready I began the final dusting and building of this beast. Below you can see some shots I took. The camo netting was made from cheesecloth painted with cheapie acrylics. Note the different colored tarp pieces in the stowage basket to give it some variety.

The ropes are twine soaked in water and glue and tinted with pigment powders. While wet they’re put into position, held down if necessary, until dry.

I even made some cargo straps from the leftover bits of painted tarp.

The insurgent is coming along nicely, but slowly. I usually need to wait 24-48 hours between sections painted in oils to allow them to dry enough. Tonight I should be able to finish him up with the irises and additional shading/highlights then once completely dry I can flat-coat and weather him. Yes, weather. Nothing like some dusty shoes and discolored robes to add realism to a figure of this scale.

08.22.08 » Sources & Concepts

I wanted to design my own suit for a “Design
Your Own Suit” group build over at the Maschinen
Kreuger forums. I’ve also been on a steampunk kick so I decided
to combine both into a single build. This is a fully scratchbuilt
“what if?” suit based very lightly on the Heinrich.
MaK in the 1800s. (Ma. K. zbv 1800?) In fact it really doesn’t
resemble it at all except for them both having front windows.

I wanted this suit to be a fully enclosed and
armored suit based on antique diving suits and steam boilers.
It’ll have a large boiler on the back as wel as a plethora
of piping, valves, knobs and rivets.

I did a lot of research when starting this.
The bulk of it consisted of doing Google image searches on
steampunk, steam engine, steam boiler, antique diving helmet,
and more. So much great stuff in my searches that I’ve been
inspired to make several more steampunk builds in the near
future.

08.18.08 » Initial Scratchbuilding

I wanted the front to have that diving helmet
look, but also have a larger view port similar to the Heinrich
or Gustav. The cock-looking object next to it is the boiler
for the backpack. The larger ball-portion will be hollowed
out and be filled with coal. I’ll make a vented door for it
first.

I also want to have him holding a bronze cannon,
possibly steam-powered, similar to the center one here. Ideally
I can find someone to lathe the basic shape for me (rings,
ball-end and taper) and I’ll add the floral designs. Otherwise
I’ll have to look around for something similar in size and
shape for my needs. I want it to be about 5″ long total
and have a ball-end like the other 2 in this
image.

The base will likely be cobblestone with a gaslight.

08.18.08 » More Scratchbuilding

Here’s the start of the powerplant on its back.
I’ll be adding some watch gears and some of those old-fashioned
electrical capacitors on the back near the top. Plus lots
of piping, rivets, and knobs.

08.18.08 » Even More Scratchbuilding

Here’s the latest on the Dampfrich. I made my
grab/roll-bar around the top from brass rod and styrene. The
steam whistle is made from miscellaneous parts. And I hollowed
out the large sphere a bit for the door and to add coal later.
I started on the shoulders and arms. The thinner tube inbetween
the shoulder and mid-upper arm will be covered in Aves later
to make that a leather joint cover. Oh, and I finished the
hinge for the top hatch.

For the finish I’m planning to be mostly copper
for the main body with brass, bronze and iron accents. There
will probably be some wood in there as well and definitely
some leather. The interior will have a nice leather (with
buttons) chair-back and the rest of the interior will be flocked
in red to simulate that classy red velvet of the time period.
And with all of that, a “nicely worn and used patina”
as was used to describe steampunk on one of the sites I researched.

08.20.08 » Even More Scratchbuilding

Here’s the latest! Mostly I’ve just worked on
the front window detail and door. I made a mold for my Wave
hex-bolts since I felt like I was buying way too many of them
lately. I used those on the interior of the door and on the
outside I used the same diameter slices of hexagonal rod from
plastruct. That stuff is great for bolt-heads… just slice
and glue. I also did a few strips around the body which will
later have more bolt-heads or rivets. Screws on the door were
made from heat-mushroomed sprue and the groove cut with a
scribing saw.

I also found some cannons at the LHS in a set
of civil war soldiers. This came with a single cannon, but
2 barrels which will leave me with another for future ideas.
The wheels and cannon-mount will also co into the spares box
for future oddities.

08.21.08 » Feeling Riveted

Here’s yesterdays progress. I started a periscope
on the hatch along with a breathing tube/air hole. I also
added bolted bracings around the exterior. The bolts are hexagonal
rod from plastruct sliced thin. I made a mount for the steam
whistle as well. I also too a shot of the window glass pieces
cut from package plastic. Oh, and I started the front armor
skirt too.

08.22.08 » Standing Tall

At this point I’ve finished the very basic shapes
for the legs, but enough to stand him up! Yesterday I made
the basic shapes from styrene. Today I stuch them to some
duct tape so seal-up one end of the hollow shapes then filled
them with white resin. This makes them easier to add pins
to for posing and whatnot.

Shown here the suit is standing on its own.
The feet are solid boxes right now, but later I’ll carve and
file them into more of a foot shape. You can see the penciled
lines where I’ll be cutting. I’ve also finished the front
and rear skirts and mounts.

A few people asked about my bolt molds. Since
I’ll be using a LOT of Wave option bolts I decided to make
a simple 1-piece mold in order to make as many as I’ll ever
need. Glue the bolts to a piece of styrene then place into
the bottom of a cup. Apply mold release then pout your mold
mixture into the cup over the styrene and bolts. Remove the
mold when cured and pour leftover resin into the top an time
you have some. Then slice them off the form and you’re done!

08.27.08 » Just about done…

This week I’ve been adding a plethora of rivet
detail and finishing up the other additions to make it steamworthy.
First up on the backpack is where I’ll be placing some watch
gears as detail. You can also see the wood being used as the
electrical insulating mount. After is the seat-back. I rolled
out some Aves Apoxie Sculpt then applied it to a square of
styrene. Next I brushed it with water and put a piece of plastic
wrap over it spread flat. The back of a needle file tool was
used to push in the plastic where the buttons will be creating
the wrinkles in what will eventually look like leather. Remove
the plastic and let cure!

And lastly here is the final suit. Not pictured
is the electrical cables valve knobs, pilot, and there’s “ugly
toob” instead of thicker spring for now. Need to pick
that up still. I also need to add a cast texture to the cannon
and lower boiler. After that it’s on to priming and painting!

08.30.08 » Pilot, Color and Paint

First up is a shot of the pilot I sculpted.
I think the cap and goggles and big mustache sets off the
steampunk mood. “there’s no beard like a nineteenth century
beard”

Nextly is the rough color scheme. I took one
of the above images and filtered it to look like lineart.
THen I colored it and added a few more filters to give it
this look. Basically it’ll be leather, copper, brass, iron,
and bronze. All od which will have a nice tarnished look.

Since I’ll want to keep track of what I did
for future reference, and of course to let everyone else know,
here’s how I’m painting this beastie. First everything got
a coat of Alclad II Jet Exhaust. For the copper parts I sprayed
on in the center of panels and such Alclad II Copper. For
the Brass, I was on my own since AFAIK Alclad still doesn’t
make a brass paint. For mine I mixed a touch of Alclad II
Jet Exhaust and Copperwith Pale Gold and Magnesium. Probably
70:30 Gold to Magnesium then a small amount of the J.E. and
Copper. This makes a very dull brass color. I could make it
more yellow-brass by adding some more gold and copper to the
mix. Basically mix to taste. This too was sprayed like the
copper over the Jet Exhaust base.

09.01.08 » Paint and Gears

Next up with the painting I used various mixes
of Rub-n-Buff thinned with mineral spirits to discolor the
metallic surface. Silver and Gold were miced to lighten all
the brass bolts and discolor the brass and “Autumn Gold”
which is really like copper was used to lighten and discolor
the copper bolts and surface. Also shown is the various valve
wheels that I’ll be using. They were painted in brass then
dabbed with red acrylics to give them a rough painted and
chipped look. ALso shown are the boiler and secondary steam
tank. Silver Rub-N-Buff, thinned with mineral spirits was
used to simulate solder on the pipe joints. Silver RnB was
also used to lighten the bolt heads on the steel portions.

Next is the body with a satin coat of Future
Floor Acrylic. This seals the metal paint, evens the sheen
and creats some tooth for the later oil-paint weathering steps.
Also shown is the built-watch-part gear sections of the backpack
and electrical system. You can also see more silver solder
detail painted on the copper piping around the waist.

09.03.08 » Weathering and Flocking
Prep

The poast few days I worked on weathering this
contraption. First I applied a filter of dark yellow from
the 502 Abteilung line of oil paint. When cured I applied
my discoloration which consisted of 502 Abteilung Industrial
Earth, Navy Blue, and Dark Yellow. Lastly after the discoloration
had a chance to dry I applied pin-washes of thinned Black
and Industrial Earth oil paint. These were also streaked to
make greasy/sooty rail marks. Next up is pigment powders.
Here is a larger shot of the back as requested.

In the next two shots you can see that I painted
the interior (badly) with a marron mix of acrylics. This is
just a back-coat for the marroon flocking which will be applied
over it. I wanted to make sure that there was a back coat
in case there was thin spots in the flock coverage that would
show through. I managed to mix-up a nice match. The flocking
will look like the interior has a maroon felt coating. Very
luxurious and I think it will fit in with the look of the
period. More on
application of flocking can be found here. I also used
it in Vorflugkontrolle.

09.04.08 » Building and Flocking

Yesterday I flocked the interior and constructed
the rest of the painted backpack. The flocking is being particularly
difficult to photograph however due to the dark color. Next
up is to finish painting the leather parts and the figure
and weather with pigment powders. Oh, and the new front window
glass is from a watch-face. (part of a large amount of watch
parts I purchased on eBay) Worked out well!

09.07.08 » Final Update

Here’s the final update. In the first image,
you can see the flocking better and the seat back inserted.
In the last 3 images you can see the painted pilot and the
leather padding around his torso. As is usual with MaK-type
suits, the pilot would never fit in without being deformed
some how. Note the extremely short waist of the pilot!

09.07.08
» Completed Images »

09.03.08 » Sources & Concepts

I’m still on my steampunk kick while finishing
up the Dampfrich scratchbuild.
For my next feat of 19th century engineering, I present the
Steam-Walker!

I sketched this out soon after I started the
Dampfrich build, but really I’ve been wanting to do something
coal-powered like this for years. Note the coal-box on the
back behind the deck. The large boiler will be made from a
piece of 2″ black ABS pipe and a coupler I got at Home
Depot. The mid-section, AKA the deck, will have a wood-beam
floor, bench, coal-door for shoveling, and many MANY gears,
levers, and gauges. A canopy will be made from cloth and will
sport a metal curly “S” styled girders throughout.
The lacross-stick-like hands will lob cannonballs or maybe
steam grenades (whatever the hell they are) at its foes. Here’s
a side-view. As usual, this is all subject to change while
building.

As most of you know by now, I love to try something
new with every kit. This time my new item is a smoke unit
to make the stack actually smoke. Below is a test I just did,
video’d and uploaded to youtube. The unit is fairly simple
and cheap too. It was a mere $5. However I had to purchase
the smoke oil and a 12 volt adaptor and socketat Radio Shack
which ups the overall cost a bit. But basically I just hooked
the female socket portion of the adapter to the two ends of
the smoke unit which looks like a resistor covered in fiberglass
sleeving. (that holds the oil which is dripped onto the sleeve)
Then I plugged it in and SMOKE!

Anyway, that’s it for now. I’ll jump into this
more after the Dampfrich’s done.

09.08.08 » First Progress Shots

Here’s the first shots of the construction phase.
I really wanted it to have an almost comical appearance and
I think I’m achieving that. It looks like a REALLY oversized
wind-up toy which is what I’m going for, especially for the
feet/legs. They’re based on your typical small plastic wind-up
toy that walks. Stiff, unjointed legs that move in the most
simplest of fashions. The boiler/burner head is made from
ABS pipe. It’s similar to PVC, but black (obviously), lighter,
easier to cut and you can use Ambroid Proweld and a few other
modeling glues with it as opposed to PVC. The only drawback
is that the interior structure is “foamy”. (not
the inner or outer wall which is perfectly smooth and bubble
free) This doesn’t matter here as it’s not seen, but if one
was to have open portholes, or visible ends, some puttying
would be necessesary. The “jaw” is made from the
same ABS coupler. It’s not foamy inside. Anyway, it’s coming
along well IMO and is quite large in 1/20 as the scale-figure
shows. The final figure will be very different. Here’s some
pics:

08.13.08 » Source, Concepts &
Initial Building

This is the Taco-34 Beetle from the Junk
Tank Rock series of GKs out of Japan. I’ve been a fan
of the JTR designs for a while now and already built their
monocycle design. Unfortunately,
the JTR guys won’t sell their kits outside of Japan so unless
I want to pay far more than the kit is worth, I’m unfortunately
left with recasts. Now this isn’t a bad recast mind you, in
fact it’s as good as some originals I’ve bought, but it’s
still a recast and that in essence sucks since it takes $$$
away from the original sculptors. I think if they DID sell
outside of Japan then the need for recasts of this in order
to build this wonderful design wouldn’t exist, but whatever…
that’s a whole other story.

Like I said, this is a nicely done little kit.
It has a few flaws, mostly where parts are to be welded, but
these are easily fixed with a little Aves Apoxie Sculpt. Let’s
start with building the kit then move on to the base.

08.13.08 » Mmmmm… Tacos

First up is fixing a few issues with the body.
There’s twp parts that need to be affixed to the body within
set spots marked out by weld seams. This is generally a neat
idea, but seldom do the seams line up with the parts. Not
sure if that’s a matter of the recast or of the original is
like that too. This is easily fixed by removing the original
weld lines, super-gluing the parts into place, then rolling
out strings of epoxie putty. Mold the strings around the part
seam and use a dental tool or other sharp object to make the
weld lines before the putty cures.

Here you can see the original poor fit. Plus
I removed the kit’s couplink for a hose and replaced it with
some spring.

Green-coated floral wire was used to create
some grab-handles.

Next-up is a gun for the kit. Another version
of the beetle comes with some side mounted rocket launchers.
This isn’t that version. I wanted a gun AND a way to show
off MechaSkunk.com’s new machined aluminum bazooka shells
so I went with a long recoilless cannon. This was made from
various bits from a few tank kits and styrene shapes.

The gun mount snaps right into the hard-point
on the side of the body so there’s no need for me to glue.
The shells will be shown in a box next to the kit.

Once all of the small clean-up and modifications
were done I added some surface texture by stippling Mr. Surfacer
500 onto the kit with a hard brush. Do this randomly then
smooth out when cured with some fine steel wool to remove
the peaks. Below you can see the peaks.

Next up I primed everything with Duplicolor
Self-Etching primer. This adheres to the resin quite nicely
and is a nice shade of military green. At this point I also
drilled out the original eye from the front of the body and
will be replacing it with a 1/4″ styrene sphere I got
from mechaskunk.com. Next up will be painting the metal parts
with Alclad II and then the rust/chip coat. I’m doing the
hairspray method on this like I did on my Zeon
Jeep.

08.13.08 » Rubble Rubble

For the base I decided on creating the rubble
of a destroyed building. In this building I wanted plenty
of stone and concrete debris, but also some corrugated steel
sheet, wires, wood, steel supports, and other miscellaneous
bits from the spares bin like a tire and some fuel tanks to
make it interesting. On top of all this the Beetle will be
hiding out waiting to fire it’s cannon on some unsuspecting
targets.

First up is the corrugated steel sheet. I read
a tutorial on creating this material using ribbed styrene
sheet and paper. First I wet the paper (copy paper) and placed
it onto a piece of the styrene. Then I took a matching piece
of the styrene and pressed it down stamping the shape of the
styrene into the paper. I lifted up one of the styrene sheets
and brushed the paper with white glue. When dry you get a
nice sheet what holds its texture. A few coats of primer and
it’s ready to be mangled, painted and glued into place.

I’m also adding some various scraps of wood.
These are test pieces I made and used while constructing the
lighthouse standoff diorama. I made the shipping pallet
from the same 1/32″ thick plywood that I used to make
the rowboat.

Once I had some of my debris painted I began
attaching them to the bottom of a finished wooden box I’m
using as a base. I’m using a few of the steel sheets to widen
the groundwork a bit to ensure the Beetles fit. I also added
some more plywood and some thin plaster chunks which I made
by pouring some plaster onto some waxpaper. The plaster was
broken-up, then tinted with acrylics and india ink. Some pieces
were painted with a sage green to simulate paint formerly
inside of the building on the walls.

To continue building up my debris I next added
larger chunks of tinted plaster. To make these I poured some
plaster into my larger rock-molds, let it cure, then wrapped
it in paper and whacked it with a hammer. These are used as
the foundation in order to build-up the height of the debris.

Inbetween the large chunks I added more thin
pieces of painted plaster and my misc. model bits like a fuel
drum, cables, and tanks. These were applied with white glue.

For the fine grit cementing it all together,
I made a mixture of fine gray talus, medium buff talus, small
plaster chunks (some tinted in paint and brick colors) and
sifted yard dirt.

This mixture was placed into a large PVC end-cap
which I use for mixing and grinding materials and ground-up
with the blunt end of a screwdriver handle.

The result is a finer mix of debris ranging
from original-sized pieces down to dust.

First spoon smaller chunks of plaster into larger
crevasses. Now spoon small amounts of this fine grit over
your debris and push it around with a soft brush up against
parts and into gaps. To seal/cement it all together, first
mist it with water from a mister bottle.
This wets the grit slightly so that the next step is easier.
Now take prepared matte medium (matte medium thinned with
water) and using an eyedropper liberally apply it to the grit.
The water will let this soak right in, otherwise the droplets
of PMM will create clumped balls of glued grit. You may need
to apply, repeat, apply again, etc to build this up. Once
dry, the grit is nicely cemented into place without fear of
it dumping or blowing about. Next up for the base is applying
rusty and dusty pigments.

08.13.08 » Stretch it out!

So this Beetle, while cool in appearance, HAS
to be a pain in the neck to pilot. Literally. So instead of
using the kit-supplied figure, I cut apart a few soldiers
from various figure sets and made a new figure stretching
out with a kink in his neck. Here’s the pics so far.

08.15.08 » Painting and Weathering
Part 1

Next up is painting the various parts. First
up is the “eye” part. I had drilled out the old
eye and replaced it with a styrene sphere I got from MechaSkunk.com.
I drilled a hole in order to attach it to a skewer then I
dipped it in my bottle of Future. That makes it fairly clear
as opposed to the frosted look is has initially. Next I dipped
it in clear red, the again in FFA. The result is a ruby colored
sphere which looks darker than what’s pictured here.

For the body I first painted it in Neutral gray
then applied random sprayings of rust and a black-brown color.
Following that was a coat of gloss FFA and when cured a few
layers of hairspray.

When the hairspray dried I sprayed on the camo
colors. I decided to go with a blue camo. I have too much
green, gray and tan on my shelf so having a blue tank will
give it some variety. I used yellow-orange to highlight the
tops of the leg and front armor. The blue is a mixture of
Tamiya Medium Blue, Flat Blue and White. More white was added
for the lighter color.

Next I used a wet brush to loosen the hairspray
and remove the blue paint to create the paint chips. Afterwards
a few gloss coats of Future were sprayed on in preparation
for the decals. Decals were applied when that cured. The numbers
are from a Corsair kit, the dice from a SAFS, and the maintenance
marks are from a set I got from MechaSkunk. Very nice decals
and set very well!

After the decals a satin coat of FFA was sprayed
on. Then when cured I applied “The Filter” from
Sin Industries (aka Mig Productions). The filter I used was
Blue for Panzer Gray and came in the German Filters set. It
dries to a very nice satin sheen.

After the filter dried for a few hours I applied
my discoloration via oil paints. This time I used some new
oils in my toolbox, 502 Abteilung also from Mig Productions.
These oils are fantastic and blended very smooth without any
grainy artifacts left over after drying. They come in a bunch
of great colors for modelers. For this kit I used Industrial
Earth, Snow White, Faded Navy Blue, and Light Rust Brown.
Next up is a few washes also using these oils. I’m also using
them to paint my figure and am having fantastic results with
them versus my cheapie Winton oils from Michael’s.

08.17.08 » Painting and Weathering
Part 2

After the discoloration dried I applied a wash
using light and dark mud oil paint colors from Mig’s 502 Abteilung
line. First I made a wash using the dark mud, then when that
was applied and dried I added one with the light mud. These
washes give it a slightly dirty appearance.

After that dried I assembled the legs so that
the taco would stand nicely on the base. Once that was completed
I began rusting portions of the walker, specifically the lower
leg armor. They had almost all of their blue paint removed
in the hairspray chipping phase. During the discoloration
phase I added a little more rust-colored 502 Abteilung colors
to those parts. And now I applied four different rust pigments
dry with a round semi-stiff brush. First I applied Old Rust
and Rail Rust which are nice darker rust tones. Then I randomly
applied Standard Rust and Light Rust as a highlight color.
This was also done to all the rusty portions of the base as
you’ll see shortly. A little rust was also applied to larger
chipped areas.

Lastly before final images is a shot of the
completed Beetle. A light mud mixture of Mig pigments, acrylic
gel matte medium, plaster of paris, water, and sand was added
to the lower parts of the legs. Afterwards a thinner darker
mud mixture was added over that in spots to add variation
in the tones as would be seen in real mud. After some additional
dusting with pigments colors such as Industrial City Dirt,
Dry Mud and Rubble Dust, a thin wash of a few drops of Future,
water and dark pigments was added around joints and around
hatches as fuel spill and wet greasy stains. Grimy Black and
Black Smoke pigments were also applied in some of these maintenance,
and exhaust areas. Black Smoke was applied to the smoke dischargers,
exhaust, and gun barrels. The large cannon was rubbed down
with Gunmetal pigment to give a worn metallic look. This was
also applied to some of the parts of the Beetle where frequent
friction would rub the rust away.

And last but not least is the completed base.
For all rusted portions, I applied four different rust pigments
dry with a round semi-stiff brush. First I applied Old Rust
and Rail Rust which are nice darker rust tones. Then I randomly
applied Standard Rust and Light Rust as a highlight color.
Additional dusting was applied to everything using pigments
colors such as Industrial City Dirt, Dry Mud, Russian Earth
and Rubble Dust.

Not pictured is the final figure as he’s still
being painted and a calico cat.