I applied the pigments the other day and made a new base so this build is done! The other base was not wide enough so a new one was required… the 38t(x) has a leg-span of about 6″ and the old base was done on a 4″ box. Doh! The figure is from the Dragon DAK set and is nicely molded. I painted it with oils.

Like I said earlier this latest of my walking tanks was painted up for the box-art and should be available some time this month from Mig Productions. Tow flavors will be available…. one with a turret and one without in case you want to use a different one. The casting was amazing and not much clean-up was needed at all. Not sure of the final price yet, but probably comparable to my KV-2X and Hovertank designs.

Enough yakking… pics!

I skipped over a few steps with the photography, but I can describe them here. When I left off it was time for additional modulation, but this time with oils. Using 502 Abteilung oil paint I highlighted and darkened areas to give them more depth. The colors I used for this were Buff, Light Mud, Dark Mud and Starship Filth. I basically just hand-painted and blended the colors into the surface to lighten and darken it. I added some very faint rust-colored areas in a discoloration technique as well then set it in a hotbox for a few days to dry.

The “hotbox” is just an old paint of speaker-boxes made from wood with one side open enough to put a lightbulb in and raise the temp to speed up oil paint’s dry time. I have a 1/35 DAK fig in it now drying to go with this vignette.

After the modulation/discoloration had dried I wen back and added darker and more defined rust areas with the 502 oil’s Dark Rust and Shadow Brown colors. Then I used thinned Shadow Brown to do light pin washes on the rivets and panel lines. Then once more into the hotbox for some drying. After that it was all hit with a flat coat of FFA. Next up is pre-dusting with the airbrush and then pigment dusting.

I also started on a small display base for this build just for my own uses as I doubt it’ll make it to the box art. I started with a leftover wood box lid from a jewelery box who’s “box” had been used elsewhere for another dio… maybe the “Taco”. Anyway, I then built up some 3/16″ basswood walls and stained it. After the stain dried I sawed off some edges to create a few levels then filled the box with green floral foam for bulk. Plaster rocks were added then it was all filled in with a gravel, ballast, tallus, sand, white glue, and Celluclay mixture. This was worked in with a wet stiff brush and then more tallus/ballast was added to simulate rockfall fixed with white glue.

I wanted to simulate a Moroccan desert scene so with the help of some reference started choosing colors to paint the groundwork. After the Celluclay dried, I hand-brushed on several coats of cheap tan/chocolate mixed acrylics with a very slight hint of red based on my refs. I added several coats until all the rocks and groundwork was a uniform color. Next I darkened the base color with a darker tan/chocolate/red mix. Once that dried I applied a wash of Mig Productions “Dark Wash and let it dry as well. When dry I drybrushed the whole base with light tan to make the rocks pop more. Once done the whole thing was dusted with African Earth, Gulf War Sand, and Dry Mud pigments and doused with Pigment Fixer.

Plants are bundles of dark shaded jute fiber, drybrushed with white glue and dipped in earth colored fine turf.

I’ve been slacking on the photography lately, but here are the images of my completed ScopeDog. While I love how the ScopeDog turned out, I’m not too happy with the base and figure. The figure appears to be leaning forward in all the pics and in real life even though his feat are planted flat and firm on the ground. The base… well I think all of the parts of the base look great, but IMO it’s just boring and lifeless. Maybe I’mm make something more dynamic for it in the future.

01.12.09 » Source, Concepts & Initial Building

So I heard about a MaK contest coming up whose
deadline is the 12th of January. When did I find out? I think
it was December 28th or so. Oops! I thought for a few days
that it was too bad since that would be fun to participate
in. Finally on the morning of the 31st I decided to put off
the ScopeDog and try to build something cool in 12 days for
the contest.

I decided to build up an awesome Hardboiled
AFS conversion on a waterfall base with a large oak tree.
Things were going smoothly until 5-days in when I was informed
that the conversion kit I was using wasn’t “official”
and would anger the Japanese. I had no idea when I purchased
a few of them that it was considered “bad” so to
the Japanese MaK community you have my apologies. While I
still could enter the kit in the contest, the fallout would
had been more of a mess than I wished on some friends of mine.
Instead I decided to make this build purely for personal sport
and see if I still could finish this in 12 days.

When you read below you’ll see that as usual
I made something that should had been easy and quick into
something way complex. Below is the build on a near day-by-day
account.

12.31.08 » Day One: AFS and Base Planning

I started by building my Wave AFS + Francesco’s
Hard Boiled AFS conversion. Talk about shake and bake. I spent
40 minutes getting the kit to a stopping point where I needed
to soak/clean the resin and let seams cure. Then later that
night I cleaned the seams and resin. (no pics)

I also started the base for it which will be
a summer waterfall scene on an unfinished hexagonal jewelry
box. For the water I’ll be using the castin’ craft clear resin
as I’m familiar with it and it’s drawbacks, gloss gel medium,
fishing line, clear plastic, and plastic wrap. Yeah… lots
of stuff! The plastic wrap will be to seal the waterfall holes/gaps
off from the pool so that when I pour the pool I don’t lose
all the resin below and make a mess. The clear plastic and
fishing line are coupled with the clear gloss medium to make
the splashes and drips and even the falls. Here’s my reference
pic:

01.01.09 » Day Two: Materials and Base Sculpting

Today I have the AFS wired into a pose and have
started the joint sleeves by forming a thin core of Ave’s
Apoxie Sculpt over the wires to hold their place and create
some bulk for the later folds and such. (no pics yet)

I also picked up some “Super Moss”
Preserved Mood Moss (MOOD MOSS!? WTF?!) at Michael’s today
as it looks like small sprigs of it will make for some nice
randomly placed weeds along with my usual moss stuff.

I also purchased something called a “clay
pot topper” which I swear looked like Silflor over a
compressed moss backing. At $1.99 for a 5″ disk I think
I’ll use them often. The reverse side looks like great leaf
litter.

Here’s the pics so far of the base. You can
see that I’ve cut some of the hexagonal box away to facilitate
the 3 levels of the waterfall and the rocks. The middle tier
will contain a small pool which has been dammed by a random
log based on my reference pic. This gives me a great way to
realistically add more water so that I can have the AFS interacting
with it. The AFS will be stepping out of that pool and onto
the level next to the tree. One foot will be by the tree while
the other will be lifting out of the water. right now I’m
not sure if the foot will be submerged but there will be splash
effects and many drips coming from the lifting foot.

The rocks were glued onto the base after I added
some odd rock in the base for filler. Smaller rocks and sand
was used to fill in the gaps and then just river-rock was
used over that to hide the sand.

I also made a to do list for EVERYTHING that
needs done for this build. Looks like a lot but I think I
can bang all this out in the 12 Days of MaKsmas! Lists help
me see where I’m at and schedule events to make the process
quicker.

Hardboiled AFS

• Cut and Sand AFS Parts
• Clean Resin
• Clean-up seams
• Wire AFS into pose
• Joint Covers Legs
• Joint Covers Arms
• Texture
• Primer
• Paint
• Additional Camo
• ID Bands
• Mig Filter
• Paint Chips
• Gloss Coat
• Decals
• Satin Coat
• Discoloration
• Wash
• Flat Coat
• Pre-Dusting
• Pigment General Dusting
• Specific Pigment Effects
• Rust spring cables
• Build All
• Water/Wet Effects

Base

• Stain Wood Base with thinned India
  Ink
• Clearcoat Wood Base
• Make Tree
• Paint Tree
• Paint Celluclay
• Paint Dark Dirt
• Paint Dirt with pigments
• Apply Gloss Gel as Sealant to water
  pools
• Add sticks and leaves in water
  floor
• Mount AFS if necessary
• Seal waterfall gaps with plastic
• Make Upper Waterfall
• Pour Main Pool
• Make Lower Waterfalls
• Pour Lower Pool if necessary, otherwise
  use gloss gel
• Make ripples in pools with gloss
  gel
• Apply a few leaves floating in
  upper pool
• Apply Leaf litter
• Apply Foliage, grass, plants, and
  fallen whole leaves
• Make Leaves
• Add Leaves to tree
• Add Moss and Lichen to rocks
• Add bird poop (deer poop too?)

I also created an animation showing my painting
and weathering process for the camo scheme I decided upon.

01.02.09 » Day Three: Base Staining
And Falls Part 1

I stained the base with water-thinned india
ink then sealed it with this Matt Varnish:

The upper waterfall has been started using the
gloss ge and stretched clear sprue.

After Maschinen Krueger saw this and mentioned
my “twig” which I was going to base the tree on,
I did some thinking and root searching. Having come up with
not a whole lot I decided to try something out I’ve been wanting
to try for a few years now. Making
trees out of wire based on an article at ArmoramA.

So far I have the tree trunk and branches done
and textured. Based on the article, I did the wire wrapping
then I covered the larger branches and trunk with a cloth-like
but untextured medical tape. Then I coated, filled and sealed
everything, even the thinnest wires with the Liquitex Stucco
Texture Gel. On the thinnest wire twigs it makes them look
like they have small bud-like bumps and on the larger with
some vertical scribing with a needle while wet it looks like
bark. Really looking forward to priming it.For the smallest
twigs I used really thin bead-wire glued to the smallest twigs
with CA Gel.

Looks great though and like a real scale tree.
(birch at the moment since it’s all white, but tomorrow it’ll
be a young oak tree) Thanks for the constructive criticism
BK… always helpful to have another set of eyes.

OH and that Zombie Green Mig Pigment is great
for moss effects! I also used thinned black/brown acrylics
and FFA to make the wet and darkened rock effects.

Then before today was over I got a lot of the
tree painting done. I sprayed it with dark gray primer then
hand painted it in thinned black apple barrel acrylic.. like
a thicker wash. When dry I airbrushed it with a medium brown-gray
mix AKA tree color. Then I gave it a few washes of black and
black-brown. Finally I drybrushed it with a tan-gray mix of
cheapie acrylics. I’ll refine the color and such later but
this is good enough to now set into the base.

01.03.09 » Day Four: Hardboiled AFS

Okay… been a productive day even though I
think I’ve spent less than 2 hours total on the paint not
including the drying times. Yesterday I managed to finish
the joint covers, pose and the texture. Even did a Hardboiled
Diaper like BK did on his.

I primed the kit about 9am this morning. Then
about 11-12am I did the paint and camo, even the octopus.
Really easy as you’re just hand-painting quick and random
small “c” shapes with a brush. I used Deck Tan for
the base and JGSDF Olive Drab for the camo.

Then after a few TAN filters (4 hours drying
time total) I masked off the ID stripes and used a sponge
with liquid mask to pre-chip them like I did with the Slave
1. And that’s it so far. I’m going to let it rest a bit then
later I’ll airbrush on some FFA for decals and sealing.

01.04.09 » Day Five: Working Hard

No progress to report, but working hard! Check
out how I do groundwork
here on my blog.

01.05.09 » Day Six: Mounted Tree, New Leaf Method, And Falls Part 2

No pics of the suit right now but it’s coming
along quickly and very nicely so far. The tree is ready for
leaves having finished a bunch of washes and drybrushes to
get that perfect tree color. Having some “twigs”
helps for reference. The waterfall in the front is shaping
up nicely as well. I’ve been using lots of stretched clear
sprue and stretched clear sheet to make the individual drips
and such. Dotting them with the clear gel makes for that realistic
rippled/drippy water falling look. You can see some un-touched
sprue ready to form a side waterfall that’ll shoot out from
between some rocks. I need to tame-down and attach the bottoms
then add the clear gel to do the drips and ripples. The main
fall is layered with sprue drips behind a sheet which has
more sprue drips and vertical gel streaks.

Not sure what to do though as far as color.
I’ll use very little cotton at the bases to help portray froth
but I’m debating on drybrushing the falls with gloss white
acrylic or not. Lots of the falls pics I’ve seen are taken
with a time lapse so they look white but those without look
a lot like what I have now which is perfectly clear drips.
Decisions decisions…

I figured out how to get green or autumn or
any colored leaves all year round. I really wanted to do a
green-leaved oak tree, not a yellow-leaved maple from the
yellow pre-punched leaves I already had. Plus my maple punch
is kinda small for 1/20 scale. Perfect for 1/35 however! So
I was thinking last night that maybe I could go to Michael’s
and use some sort of tinted parchment paper. No luck, but
I found some very thin, strong translucent green paper in
the scrapbook section. I also picked up a bottle of Folk Art
paint that was a very leafy color. The paper is awesome as
the light will still shine through the painted leaves a little
making it more realistic.

To start out I pinned the paper on the four
corners of a piece of plywood. I then sponged on random colors
of the 3 darker green tones UNTHINNED. This makes the paper
curls so the pins are important. The paper will also not be
flat but that’s not important either. After that first sponging
dries I used the green color I purchased and sponged that
all over the top. Kinda like Lin.K’s paint technique and gives
you some good tonal variations and a perfect texture.

Once that dried I turned the paper over and
sponged the back with a lighter sage green tone since the
undersides of leaves are lighter. Two other pluses to this
leaf method… No decay and no crispy breaking dry leaves!

I used my oak leaf punch and pinched out many
many leaves. In the final image, that’s all the leaves from
one 8.5″ x 11″ sheet.Might be enough or I might
need more.

Before putting them on the tree I’ll use a
razor blade to push a crease down the center for the main
vein.

Michael’s had lots of translucent colors so
I’ll be doing this again for an Autumn scene for my Gans.
The also works for any leaves I think. I’ll be buying a heart-shaped
punch at some point to do those large leafy jungle leaves.
Just scissor-round the point.

Leaves so far. Been attaching them with small
dabs of CA gel and accelerator. BKs method of matte medium
wasn’t working for me as it doesn’t dry quick enough… at
least not mine. I also used those Brita filter balls which
are a greenish color as young acorns and glued clumps of them
on many of the small branches under leaves.

Marvy is the brand of punch I use for the oak
(fiskars is the small maple) and it looks like Marvy
has a larger maple too!

Here’s the AFS as it is now (compare to the
last pic) with the weathering and washes and discoloration.
All that’s left is flat-coat and pigment effects. I think
everything is more blended in now between the tones. The chips
were done with a small brush then some sponge for the finer
scratches like on the side-eye.

01.06.09 » Day Seven: Finished AFS and Gel Sealing for Water Pools

HB AFS is done except for the spring hoses.
Wanna “blacken-it” them still. Also need to add
“drips” but will add them when I mount it.

Fuel stains! The blueish plasma burn mixed with
some grimey black, future and water work great for them.

On the first day of MaKmas my true love gave
to me: an AFS with a oak treeeeeee!

Yeah, that was awful… Here’s the HB AFS mounted
on the base.

01.07.09 » Day Eight: Water Water Everywhere

I wasn’t going to, but I guess I’ll explain
how I did the water as a mini-tutorial. Mostly because looking
back at my Hovertruck dio
there was precious little info for me to recall reading it.
Everything I read I had already remembered on my own. This
way I can document it as I have more spectacular watery builds
planned!

The first are the materials I used for the water.
Castin’ Craft Clear Resin, The Catalyst for the resin, Flat
Earth, Gloss Black and Clear Green Tamiya Acrylic Paint. In
a small cup I mixed 1 oz. of resin, 6 drops of the catalyst,
and one drop each of the paint. Stir slowly and deliberately
as to not froth up bubbles in the mix.

Next is the main water pool before the pour.
You can see that I did many thin coats of the clear acrylic
gel in order to seal the rocks. Otherwise bubbles will come
up or resin will leak out. I used clear plastic under the
tree branch dam to keep the resin in. It’s basically invisible
now. Apply the gel very thinly and try not to make it more
than 1-2mm for each application. It goes on white and dries
clear, but if it’s too thick you’ll get frosted patches.

I only did one pour as it was sufficient for
the small depth and area to be poured. I wasn’t going to but
the resin was pouring nice and the color was perfect. Keep
dabbing the resin after about 5-10 minutes until it firms
up and the ripples keep their shape. When it gets tacky you
can still add more texture with a cheap plastic brush. Use
the leftovers from your pour-cup to test before going to the
main model. You’ll find that at the beginning of the tacky-stage,
about 30-minutes in for me, the texture still will soften
after a few seconds. I made more texture at the bottom of
the falls and under the foot.

One problem was when I tried to speed up the
curing a bit (since temp is a factor) with a heat-gun. I had
it set to low and was far away but it curled a few of my drips
as you can see below. Easy enough to remove them though and
make new ones so at least it’s a minor issue and not a huge
peeling shrinking mess like the hovertruck.

Next I’ll be adding more ripples and drips on
the legs, water surface, and two waterfalls. I’ll add froth
with polyester polyfill. Fake cotton fill for pillows. It’s
clearish, shiny and should work well if used VERY sparingly.
I’ll also be tinting the water a bit lighter under both the
falls with some tinted gel. I’ll add some Tamiya “Sky”
which is a pale gray-green and Flat Earth.

Since next up is also the groundwork I began
looking through my bins and found some items I had forgotten
about or didn’t think would work. For one I found a bunch
of oak leaves I had punched out of fall leaves god-knows when.
These will be great in the ground litter.

I knew I had some “Model Scene” 1/35
dandelions that might work which are made from laser-cut paper
but I forgot I had a ton of other plants from the same company.
All 1/35 scale plants and leaves but should work anyway here
as they’re large enough for small random plants. I think they
just need a slight semi-gloss finish. Right now they’re too
matte for real-fife. Thanks to Jindra for sending me all these
great laser-cut items.

01.08.09 » Day Nine: Plant Life and Completed Water Effects

First up the last of the water effects. The
Castin’ Craft has some issues but all of these are workable.
One problem I had with the Hovertruck base was that the surface
of the water seemed tacky forever. Well there’s a reason for
that. Apparently after doing some searching, this type of
resin will not cure completely where exposed to air. That’s
right… air. What to do? Well there’s sprays and stuff to
use or a waxy thing that ruins the clear effect. My solution
is my solution to all of modeling’s woes…

Future Floor Acrylic. Simple! Let the resin
cure for at least 8-12 hours on its own in a dust-free place.
Then simple brush some FFA over the surface. The future will
begin to cloud which freaked me out on my test pour but just
dry it with your airbrush or let it air-dry and it goes back
to crystal clear. Apply it in several thin coats. So there’s
something else to help you and me in the future when I wonder
again why my clear resin is tacky.

First on the images is the waterfall in-progress.
You can see how I used dabs of Clear Acrylic Gel to attach
more stretched clear sprue pieces. It goes on white but dries
clear. Once dry you can add more “dots” to the stretched
sprue pieces to make them look like falling water.

I did the same thing for the foot. Below is
the dry and clear water effects. At the bottom of the main
falls I added a very little bit of polyfill. (used for filling
pillows, toys, etc) It’s clear and simulates the tiny splashes
at the base. I added some clear gel dots to it as well.

Lastly for the base I applied the plant-life.
Moss was used for the random small plants in the leaf litter
and between the rocks. I also used the Fiba laser-cut plants
which I’ll describe below.

Roots were used for two small vine-type plants
branches. Each used my leaf technique as described above.
The small maroon leafs are from a Fiskars Maple punch. I just
dabbed on a semi-gloss maroon mix to my oak-leaf paper before
punching. The other bush also used leftover oak paper. These
leafs were made using those “pattern scissors” used
for borders on paper. I simply cut one loopy edge of lined-up
1/2 circles, flipped the scissors over and cut again. The
result was lots of these small eye-shaped leaves.

The leaf litter is just crushed-up fall leaves
with some punched fall leaves mixed in. TO apply it to the
surface I mixed some dark soil colored pigments with some
Matte Gel and brushed the dirt with it. Then I poured on and
pressed the leaf litter into that. Lastly I applied some Prepared
Matte Medium which is watered down matte medium. This seals
it, lets it keep it’s fullness but invisibly glues it all
together. Glue some full punched fall leafs to the top for
contrast and to cover up bare spots.

Now back to the laser-cut Fiba paper foliage.
I used “hart’s tongue” and “burdock”.
The burdock is the larger one in the pic. These are easy to
use but need some prep IMO before placing on the base. First
the paper looks like paper… very flat and well… like paper.
Plants are smooth so I airbrushed on a few thinned coats of
Future. Not to gloss it but to semi-gloss it. Afterwards it
looked much better. Then you simply cut them out of their
paper-sprues (easy) and take a rounded tool and press the
vein creases into them. Laying them on a soft surface makes
this easy.

Once “planted” I thought the burdock
was too green. A few coats of Mig Productions Tan Filter solved
that. Apply them with some Matte Gel.

01.09.09 » Day Ten: Completed Tree

Last night and today I completed applying the
leaves to the tree. This was a painstaking process with a
few learning curves. The first thing I learned is that CA
gel is wonderful stuff for this. I usually use the liquid
CA aka Super Glue, but the gel clung to the leaves and branches.
Small dabs of accelerator and the leaf was affixed. At first
I tried Matte Gel but it took too long to dry and the leaves
wouldn’t stay up on their own.

The other thing I learned is to work from the
inside out and from the bottom-up. The first few branches
I applied leaves to I applied them all over and at first this
was fine. However as I got more leaves on I began to knock
others off while trying to use the tweezers and a rod to apply
the leaf and CA accelerator. Since each leaf was added one
at a time this was very annoying and a hard-learned lesson.

Lastly I learned that trees have a LOT of leaves.
I made one sheet of leaves and thought I’d have plenty. Then
I thought with my second sheet of leaves would be enough.
Then it was another 1/2 sheet. In the end I used almost 3
letter-sized sheets of punched out leaves. This was a lot
as I am quite frugal with the punching getting them as close
to the next as possible. So make more than you think you’ll
need then double that. You can always use any leftovers for
a later project.

Lastly is the additional moss and lichen. I
used my own tutorial to make this which
can be found here. The only difference with the moss is
that I applied it thin first then added some thicker patches.
Then as it started to dry I stippled it with a stiff brush.
This teased up the fibers in the flocking and made it look
more natural and carpet-like. I sparingly added a brown-black
wash when near-dry the sparingly drybrushed it with a bright
light green to simulate the new growth. I changed my lichen
application as well by adding it sparingly and as dots as
per my reference photos seen again below.

Yay! Ten days from start to completion. I’m
very proud of myself for doing this piece in that amount of
time and then sticking with it after I found out I couldn’t
enter it in that contest. I even have 2 days to spare! Sweet!

01.10.09 » Day Eleven: Photos Uploaded!

The project is done and photographed. Click
here for the final photos »

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.