I’m not sure where I left off in the progress report, but this has been done for well over a month. About time to take some pics! This is just the robot for now. The rest of the diorama will be completed at a later date. Since this Chubu was found rusting on an old farm, I decided to do that as a wallpaper. Enjoy!

Plugging right along. I got a nice big box of samples from AK-Interactive last week and started putting them to the test on this build. For this progress report I’ll focus on their streaking products, but I’ve tried some of their others since these pics were taken and REALLY like them so far.

Since the last update I’ve focused on the rust chips. I had started doing a few streaks with oil paint, then the next day the box from AK arrived with samples of just about everything as well as their Washes, Fading and Oils DVD which after watching, I learned how to use these products and just how easy they are to use to get very nice results quickly. I decided to give the bottle of “Rust Streaks” a try first. Basically, you shake up the thinned enamel mixture, paint your streaks on with a thin brush, wait a few minutes, then “stump” (blend/blur) them with a brush dampened with “White Spirits”. And that’s it. After that dried (I gave it a few hours) I went back and added more streaks with the “Streaking Grime” mixture. Same method and same simple good results. I really recommend the products, but also the DVD as it was very helpful.

My only problem is one that has more to do with the kit than the AK products. The Chubu is all curves… and not only curves, but curves at an angle. Since I want to depict a machine that’s been sitting in a farmers field for quite a while, the streaks had to follow these contours. That’s a little more difficult than the flat sides of most tanks and AFVs. However I quickly figured out a simple method of determining the angle streaks should flow. Just use an eye-dropper and water and let gravity be your guide. Nothing simpler than that!

I had to take my chipped areas one step further however due to the large scale. The chips looked decent enough, but were missing something. I discovered on accident that some “rust bleed” around the chips makes all the difference. It looks as if the chips are rusting and the resulting rust is creeping beneath the chips into the surrounding paint. I was applying some rust-toned oil paint to some of the larger chips and over-thinned a few resulting in the bleed. After that I just refined the method a tad. Just paint the chips with slightly thin rusty oils (I used the 502 A. Dark Rust) then using a thinner-dampened brush, feather the rust paint around the chip.

Now I’m onto the pigment dust and fuel/oil grime and stains phase. Pics on that in a few days.

Yes, yes… I’m all over the place. The Core Fighter is coming along, but I find myself going back and forth between projects more and more. (I’m also scratchbuilding a 1/20 scale diner with full interior, but see my facebook fan page for that info) The past few weeks I’ve been working on the 1/12 Chubu Mechatrobot. I wanted this thing as soon as I saw it, but it took me quite a while to locate a shop in Japan willing to sell one outside of Japan. Thanks to Walter for the tip! I am a sucker for good, realistic mecha designs from the 1950′s.

I had sculpted a few mechanics for this piece as I’ll be doing a garage/workshop diorama. Yeah, I know… workshop/hangars are a dime a dozen and about overdone, but it gives me an excuse to play with many aspects of modeling I enjoy such as lighting and scratchbuilding. And hopefully I’ll do something inspiring and different from all the other garage dios out there. Hopefully!

The kit itself is very nicely done. Only a few issues such as placement of mold-lines, but overcome simply enough. The parts that gave me the most trouble were the white metal parts. Unfortunately they’re not as clean as one would like. I polished them up to a beautiful chrome sheen, but they were too pitted to work. So I had to use some putty and filler primer then paint them. I also rebuilt my own control sticks, knobs and foot-rests. The sticks and foot-rests were made using MechaSkunk’s brass knurled tube. Cool stuff really!

I went with a pale yellow to do something different from the blues and greens, but still have that old car paint look. I used the hairspray technique to do the paint chips on the yellow. The internals were painted with a Tamiya Dark gray, then sponged over with water-thinned sea gray. Then a few thick dark filters were applied to blend them in, followed by some discoloration and rubbed with powdered graphite for the metal sheen. The sponging gives it a nice worn metal look.

I had some photoetch made for the 1/12 scale tools I need, so I added a few Chubu emblems to the fret as well since the kit had no emblem decals. The red/chrome adds a nice pop as a “car” emblem should. I also made a photoetch “1958 MECHA PA” license plate to use. Looks great and adds something different from the resin/sticker Japanese plate the kit came with.

Anyway, I’ve a ways to go yet with more weathering, dusting and rusting to be done. I want it to have a used, somewhat worn look to it. More soon!

Oh, and for more on the Chubu, check out the creators blog here. MODERHYTHM

Here’s the final images of Vincent. I’d like to thank Walter Pezzali for this wonderful model and design. It’s really a fun kit with a lot of possibilities and I hope to see more builds of him by some of you soon. (Walter would like that too!)

I shot a short video hoping to show the flickering of the eyes from the LED tea-light candle I modified to light the eyes, but the video is crap. I’ll post it anyway, but it’s hard to tell bad video from the flickering. Meh. I’ll search for some tips and try again soon.

Since the last update I’ve been applying the various fading, discoloration and rust techniques using oil paints as well as chipping up and aging the chrome finish. First a flat coat of Future Floor Acrylic was applied over all the parts including the chrome. This seals all the prior layers and significantly dulled the chrome. A fine sponge was used along with Vallejo dark rust, red leather, and dark gray to apply the small speckled chips to the chrome. Once that was dry I applied filters (tan) and then oil paint discoloration using white, rust, dirt, and blue oil paints.

Once these had a few days to dry I sprayed on another flat coat and began applying the rust streaks with 502 oils Light and Dark Rust and Shadow Brown. A little ochre was added in some of the larger rust areas for more variety to the tones.

The next day (today) I put a cotton swab in my dremmel, and on the lowest speed buffed the chrome pieces lightly to get some of the shine back. This worked really well as long as you keep moving and keep the spin as slow as possible as to not eat through the paint layers. Occasionally I applied some SnJ aluminum powder to the swab for some extra shine.

Next up pigment effects, but the paints need till Monday at least to dry. Wahhh! Here’s before the rust/polish.

I masked and sprayed more chrome onto the blue parts today and finished the shoulders and “hips”. The “1″ emblem was painted over with red oil paint then wiped away to show the raised chrome parts. I painted rust-colored Vallejo paints onto the inner-torso parts then masked with liquid mask and applied more gloss black and chrome. It turned out so nice and flaky around the edges that I wish I had done that to all the chrome parts from the start. Live and learn and I have more techniques up my sleeves to age the chrome.

The eyes for Vinnie’s head were painted in Tamiya Clear Red then polished with the fine polishing compound. The eyes are just sitting there for now and I’ll attach and align them properly after the weathering.

The added half-round for chrome trim around the arms turned out nice and hides some hard to reach seam lines.

I’ve been working on painting up Vincent the past few days inbetween getting things ready for my youngest daughters 4th birthday party tomorrow. (check out the cake I made her today!) I started Vinnie the same way as the signs with a base-coat of Color Place flat black and rust, hairspray, then paint.

To keep with the decayed, retro  50′s look, I painted Vincent turquoise and white with chrome trim. So far I’ve only painted the chrome on the white and solid chrome parts, but tomorrow night I hope to mask and paint the chrome for the blue.

The chrome is Alclad II chrome over a Mr. Color gloss black base. Later I’ll chip and rust-speckle the chrome and make it look just plain awful. I just hope I didn’t start with too shiny a chrome. I might have been better starting with an aluminum metal or Mr. Color Super Silver, but we’ll see.  Experimentation is half the fun!

The chrome isn’t the most polished smooth chrome I could do, but I figured with the amount of damage I plan to do it it, it won’t matter in the end. Originally I had the torso tubes all white with the chrome trim, but it didn’t look right. Adding the two blue rings (top and bottom) really ties the blue-top, white-bottom scheme together. Vincents huge shoulders will be nasty chrome as well… eventually.

At this point I’m about 95% done with the base. All I have left to do is to put a nice wooden edge around the plywood base and add some “to be determined” effects from Vincent when he’s done. He’ll also need some holes drilled to pin him to the base.

I decided to fill in a small block of space with a steel parking barrier filled with concrete. It was a brass tube which after painting/weathering was filled with a little bit of my plaster/grit mix. The reflector was made from a slice of clear sprue which I grooved the back of and painted to get the diamond texture reflectors have. Weeds were added to the retaining block box. The bottles were made from clear stretched sprue and acrylic, then painted/decaled.

Toilet tissue was used for the wads of paper and the red cloth. Paper cups were printed out and glued together. The stray and cigatete butts were made from 1/2 round and rod styrene. plastic sheet trash was plastic wrap sprayed with a mixture of flat FFA plus Tamiya Earth. Lightbulbs are BB shot painted and dusted. And lastly, bird poop is acrylic paint. Lots of pics:

Continuing on with the sign and weathering, I applied some oil paint discoloration to the sign. Blues, rusts and light dirt colors were applied to the blue circles while reds, pinks, light dirt and rust were applied to the red circles. These dabs of oil paint were then blended in with a brush wet with odorless Turpenoid. I started to apply some Mig Filters to the pole, but quickly discovered that the thinner in the filters attacks the spray paint primer underneath viciously. The Turpenoid is fine however. The letters were attached and neon glass tubes were made from bent steel wire, painted with a gloss white spraypaint then yellowed with Tamiya Clears.

I applied some mold/mildew stains to the base of the white painted block retaining wall with oil paint. The small electrical outlet was made from styrene shapes, rods, and strips. I added the marquee sign plug to the outlet already, but have not attached the wire yet. I did however make a chain and padlock that will wrap around the maquee sign leg and motel sign to keep it from being stolen. Weeds will be added in and around the wall and in the pavement cracks soon. The little loose rocks are talus and ballast.

The marquee sign is almost done. All I have left to do is attach the electrical wire from the outlet to the underside of the sign and dist it up a little more. Oh… I forgot that I need to get some small bearings and paint them up for lightbulbs as well. For the sign letters, I laid out a sheet of letters and took them to FedEX Office to be printed on transparency film. I hit the letters with my soda blaster (air eraser) to dull the gloss and weather them a bit, then cut them out and fit them in the grooves. I decided to make it more fun and real by mismatching letters. I’ve only one side of the sign filled in so far.

More to come…

I’ve been progressing with the scenery while waiting for some LEDs to arrive for Vincents head. First up is the portable marquis sign. After completing the scratch-building process I primed the sign in Mr. Color Base White.

Then when dry I masked off the white portion and sprayed the whole sign in uber-cheap “Color Place” flat black spraypaint from Walmart. It’s under a dollar a can and actually sprays beautifully. Over that I sprayed a thin random coat of rust-tone-mixed Tamiya Acrylic, a thin coat of FFA, and after that cured a generous coating of hairspray with a dash of salt.

As soon as the hairspray dried I sprayed the whole sign in XF-18 semi-gloss black. After a couple minutes I rubbed off the salt and started the chipping away of the black coat with water and various brushes and toothpicks.

After the marquis sign was done I went to work on the Motel sign. I used the same techniques described above, but with different top-coat colors. For the blue, red, and yellow I sprayed a coat of white down first over the hairspray so that they would come out brighter. This had an added benefit of multi-toned chip-edges. These will all be faded and weathered more in later progress reports. More pics below in the gallery.

I also worked on the base. The asphalt is plaster of paris mixed with brown ballast and beach sand. This makes for a nice textured surface once you give it a rough sanding. Cracks were made with razor blades while the plaster was semi-wet. For the color I applied very thin washes of dark brown-gray acrylic. WHat worked out really well is that the acrylic did not want to stick to the sand particles resulting in a very worn looking surface with just the right about of sparkle. Seriously looks just like my street which is great. Stains, dirt, tar, weeds, etc will be added later. I’ll probably add a pin wash to the cracks too to make them pop a little more. The retaining wall box around the sign was also made from this same plaster mix in a temporary wooden form and carved/chipped when cured.