Been plugging along with this project slowly but surely. Hundreds of rivets take time afterall! It’s about done though and ready for the caster.For this design I only have two workable pistons (two more are hidden in the leg armor) which lead to an interesting cris-cross design where the upper piston travels through the mid leg support. The foot is on a ball-joint and has detachable ankle armor. This time I made a wider foot for more traction. Not that the KV didn’t have that, in fact I liked it’s variable foot, but this is more specialized and probably prone to less breakdowns. Anyway, here’s the pics. Enjoy!

Now that the KV-2X is available I figured it was time to start my next  X-Series walking tank. (‘X’ for the shape the 4 legs makes from above) This time it’s a German model based on the German Panzer Kpfw.38(t) Ausf. G. This will be somewhat smaller than the KV-2X, but be full of detail. I decided to do the 38 because of the many riveted details on the surface. I thought that would make for an interesting piece. Plus it’s small size is fun as well. I can imagine a swarm of these things overunning the countryside.

Here’s the initial in-progs. I’m trying to improve upon the KV legs by adding a vertical swivel where it connects to the chassis to give it one more angle of articulation. I’m also using one less set of workable pistons per leg, although there remains additional piston detail under the main leg armor segments. I’m also trying to make this look more German-styled as opposed to the very general look of the KV. So far it’s just the main shapes, but soon I’ll be adding detail to the surfaces.

About The Build »

This is a Taco-34 Beetle walking tank from the Japanese Junk Tank Rock series.

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.

About The Build »

This was a design I’d wanted to create for a few years. When I decided to finally build it up for a group-build at the Mig Productions forum I figured it’d make a decent resin kit as well.