BYOB - Briegel - FilmMkr

[FichtenFoo]

This is the in-progress thread for FilmMkr's BYOB Build-off entry. For more info regarding the BYOB build-off, please click here.

[FilmMkr]

Okay, so I've been building models for four decades now, but this will be my first attempt at mecha/fighting suit doo-dah.  I've not attempted anything resembling an AVF before either, so this will most definitely be a learning experience for me.  Having said that, I am eager to try my hand at this new challenge, so please bear with me as I beg your indulgence.  I know these may seem like nutty questions, but I'm trying to get my mind around which way I want to go with my build.

Whenever we develop a character for film, we always write that character's backstory so that we can figure out how he/she will behave, dress, look, wear their hair, react to certain situations, etc.  I use that same approach when modeling - I like to work out a character's history and put them in certain situations.  That in turn determines how I model that character.

I at least want my Briegel to be in the same ballpark as everyone else's in terms of realism and believability (such as it is for a fantasy vehicle!), so my first question is about the character's background.  I assume that this is a fighting suit involved in warfare sometime in the future.  Is it Earth-based or from another planetary system?  Is there any storyline involved with the Briegel?  Is it part of an army/fighting unit?  Large or small?  Bad guy or good guy?

A question relating to color scheme, camo, etc. (this is directed to Michael):  is it permissable to use any of the alternate color schemes that you developed for your build, but that you are not using?  Or can we use them as a basis for our own interpretation? 

Again, silly questions, I know, but remember that I am not as experienced in either the the big picture or the minutiae when it comes to this subject matter.  I just want to build it 'cause its cool!

Filmy

 

[FichtenFoo]

For the backstory I cannot answer except to say this is a great opportunity to just let your imagination fly. Pick an ice-world, Mars, earth, etc...

I asked Luca a few weeks ago about soldiers since I'll be modifying some 1/35 guys to go with it. Here's what he said:

For Soldiers:: I think it's a Great idea! I have no drawings of them now, but I can imagine something like Mak world or something like your mosquito's pilot. It was very good.
However I'm planning to create some references about Briegel world, with other mechas, soldiers and ships!

So look to MaK and wait a bit and I'm sure he'll post some Briegelverse info.

You can use any of the schemes except for the Late Autumn which is the one I'm using.  Not a problem at all... that's partially why they're there.

Also pick up the MIG FAQ book on weathering Armor and Afvs. If you order it from Amazon, you'll save $$$ but it'll take a few months. Click here for more info.

[FilmMkr]

So look to MaK and wait a bit and I'm sure he'll post some Briegelverse info.

Okay, I can do that.  "Briegelverse" - I dig it! 

Also pick up the MIG FAQ book on weathering Armor and Afvs. If you order it from Amazon, you'll save $$$ but it'll take a few months.

Actually, I ordered it  - and the figure painting book as well in a package deal - night before last and it shipped yesterday.      

[FichtenFoo]

Nice... it sucked having to wait for mine but it was well worth it. It's a great book for painting armor-like-subjects. More pics than words, but for those of us used to looking at HJ, MG, and DH for reference and tips, that's no problem.

[ZLuca]

Sorry FilmMkr,
I'm in hurry for departure and I didn't notice the post!
Briegel's world isn't phisically created yet, for lack of time, I have some reference in my mind, not drawn yet.
As Michael said, I imagine soldiers with a "retro'" characterization, like Mak world, or Michael's Mosquito pilot.
Leather suits, with some protection armour plates as Briegel pilot.
Only an idea: look at some Moebius' suits sketches for Alien film or Bilal stuff for reference, there's some interesting materials. In addiction, obviously Kobayashi works too...
For weapons, I don't know, I think you can choose some 1/35 details to modify after.
As Michael said Briegel could be a point of departure only, or a good opportunity to make immagination fly.
Camouflages, weapons, soldiers, landscapes, I'd like to see all your different ideas, it will be funny!
Invent what you want, all ideas are good!
Luca

[FilmMkr]

Okay, since I own the company, I let everyone go home at noon today, including the boss! 

Actually I wanted to get an early start on the weekend and get to my bench so that I could start on my Briegel.  (BTW, I got a package from Amazon right before I left the office - it was my two FAQ books.  Yippiee!  Its Christmas in March!)

I opened all the bags and started soaking the leg and chest parts in Purple Power.  There are so dang many of 'em (some the size of a baseball!) that I used up all the sealed containers I had, so I had to run to Target to get more.  Anway, all of the parts are now taking an overnight bath, so I'll break out the SoftScrub and toothbrush after my coffee and the sports page in the morning.

In the meantime, I've decided to go with a variation of Michael's Urban Assault theme.  I really dig the blues - it kinda reminds me of a Corsair all painted up in Naval carrier colors, a longtime favorite of mine.

A little backgorund: I have always been a space geek, growing up during the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo era right here in Clear Lake, Texas, aka Space City USA, just outside the gates of NASA's Johnson Space Center.  I am also a huge fan of three-finned rocketships and sci-fi films of the 40's, 50's, and 60's, so much so that when I branded my company, we went with the concept of a city in space filled with three-finned rockets and a look that I call "futuristic retro".

I gave this whole Briegelverse some thought and my interpretation is that of a stylized future version of my concept of futuristic retro.  I imagine my Briegel in a post-apocolyptic world sometime in the 30th century, set on an Earthlike planet with the remnants of a decimated futuristic architecture.  The Briegels are the protectors of this world and the remaining citizenry, fending off attacks from a seemingly unstoppable force of invaders from a nearby galaxy.  The invading force includes these nasty-ass mofos:

BYOB - Briegel - FilmMkr

BYOB - Briegel - FilmMkr

I considered a diorama that includes one (or both) of these bad boys, and I still might do that later, but for now I'm gonna go with this backstory as the basis for my build. 

[FilmMkr]

Scrubbed the A and C parts with Soft Scrub and my big ass purple toothbrush today - damn there are a lot of parts to this monster!  I cleaned and scrubbed 41 parts for the chest and 52 for the legs alone.  Yikes!  That's 92 parts washed and scubbed, and that's only two bags.  (The other two bagfuls are still swimming in Lake Castrol.)

Speaking of . . . my son and I hung out together all day today, and this morning we went to Wally World to get some more Purple Power, and what do my wondrous eyes see, but the Real Deal!  That's right, CSC.  I was shocked, 'cause I thought it had been recalled, but there it was, so I bought three jugs just to have as backup.

I am SO stoked to work on this kit.  It has really rejuvenated me, and I am eager to get past the cleanup and get to painting and assembling.  The only hitch so far is that both of my C74 parts (they look like rocket launchers) have a single tube broken off.  Not a problem, really, but one of the tubes that had broken off is missing.  No worries, though - I'll either attach the single  loose tube to one of the partials and then cast another set or scratchbuild one out of brass tubing.  A tiny price to pay for such a magnificent model.

Tomorrow I finish scrubbing and start sanding, pinning, and priming.

[oteebzo]

Wally World to get some more Purple Power, and what do my wondrous eyes see, but the Real Deal!  That's right, CSC. 

I was just wondering what this CSC is? And is it used for cleaning parts?
I also am waiting to see your start on this monster.
Dam I wish I had one.

[Major Blah]

CSC = Castrol Super Clean, it is used to remove the mold release from resin parts.  I think purple bath is pretty much the same thing, just branded differently.

FilmMkr, that's a lot of parts!  And I'm glad to hear that you're all excited about this kit.  Now show us your skillz!! 

[FilmMkr]

FilmMkr, that's a lot of parts!  And I'm glad to hear that you're all excited about this kit.  Now show us your skillz!!

LOLZ - believe me, Major sir, I am hard at it!  There is just so much prep to get to a stage where you can actually begin!  Then again, I'm pretty obsessive when it comes to cleanup.  This resin is so nice that you could prob'ly just soak the parts in dishwashing liquid, rinse, and go, but does Filmy do it that way?  Nooooo, of course not - I've gotta do it the HARD way!   

Its just an ingrained habit, I guess.  I've had problems with fisheyes ruining a great sand, prep, and prime job on more occasions than I care to remember.  Everything looks just peachy, so I start laying down color, then DOH!  Many screwups and years of experience has taught me that no matter the grueling process of overnighting in a degreaser followed by a thorough, painstaking, and meticulous scrubbing of each. and. every. single. part knocks out all those worries and rework.  Anyway, I'm through scrubbing, my hands look like prunes, and the last two bags full are air drying as we speak!

Parts count update:  52 parts in the D bag (arms) and a measly 26 for the pelvis.  'Course, the pelvic parts could injure someone if you chunked one at 'em.   

That brings the total to, um, lets see - carry the 2, hmmm . . . 176 parts!  Man, oh man!

p.s.  Great news!  I found the lost launcher tube soaking with the arm parts.  Yay!

p.s.s.  MB is right, oteezbo - CSC is Castrol Super Clean, the best commercially available degreaser and parts cleaner for resin modeling.  It is nasty, nasty stuff though.  Gloves, respirator, and eye protection is a MUST!

[FilmMkr]

Okay, contrary to popular belief, I DO have a Briegel and I AM going to build it for this little shindig!   

I am almost finished with my Carmen 99 (anime babe).  I tried to finish her on Friday night 'cause I went to the Houston IPMS show yesterday and wanted to take her, but alas, as is often the case when building under deadline, I found a few little things that needed tweaking before I could finish.  So, instead of staying up until the wee hours and scewing up the entire build, I put her away until this morning.  I am now using the mori-mori technique to close a gap caused by the way her hair fits.  While the putty cures, I started drilling and pinning the Big Boy.

First impressions: boy, this is some soft resin!  Its easy to sand, but one has to be reallllly careful so as not to remove too much or scar it with a heavy grit paper or sanding stick.

As Francesco pointed out in his thread, there are some misaligned parts on the very first assembly, the front and back parts of the feet.  Pinning the hinge was easy-breezy, but getting the attachment to fit between front and back took a little finessing, and its still not perfect.  I'll continue to work it until it is!

I will be playing at the bench all day today, so maybe I'll have some major progress to report later today.  In the meantime, the proof, as they say, is in the pudding!  Behold the beginning!   

BYOB - Briegel - FilmMkr

BYOB - Briegel - FilmMkr

[FichtenFoo]

Yeah, the feet weren't too easy to get right... that part took me a while. I love the softer resin though... makes clean-up of all these parts a breeze.

[FilmMkr]

Progress!!    

After nearly two weeks on the road, I had a break in the production schedule and spent most of yesterday and today at my bench.  Yippiee!  I am nowhere near Foo, but hey, at least I'm making progress!

Once you get into the meat of this bad boy, there are all sorts of challenges, which is to be expected with a resin kit of this complexity.  Probably the biggest challenge is getting everything lined up and pinned without gluing anything together!  Well, okay, there are a few parts you can glue, but if 'ya wanna paint this thing and make it look good, you simple MUST be able to disassemble it to do so.

Putting the legs together properly is a lot of work, filled with starts and stops.  One of the reasons it takes so dang long is getting everything aligned properly.  There is a lot of drilling, test fitting, Dremeling, coercing, and holding your tongue just right in order to get things to line up properly.  Now don't get me wrong - I certainly don't mind, because this is such a beautiful and unique kit.  After all, I am a modeler, not an assembler!   

I completed the legs last night and set about working on the pelvis this morning.  There are some gimongous parts involved here, and I must say that the casting is very nice and the resin is extremly easy to work with.  Having said that, I hit a couple of speed bumps today.  One of the first things I noticed is that instead of having just one part B-25, it seems that I had two.

I scratched my head and compared the two pieces to the photos, and I finally realized that my part had somehow broken during shipping (or at some other time).  No worries, though.  I drilled a hole at a 45 degree angle to the crack through the two halves (from the little notch in the second photo) and inserted a nail (I am using nails and brass rods to pin my kit), then countersunk the nail.  I mixed up a small bit of Aves Apoxie Paste and filled both the cracked area and the hole.

BYOB - Briegel - FilmMkr

BYOB - Briegel - FilmMkr

BYOB - Briegel - FilmMkr

I set the girdle aside to let the putty cure and continued my assembly.  I next found a noticeable gap between B-26 and B-27.  I mean a big one.  If you look at the photo in step 14, it is very noticeable, even in the instructions.  This part is actually on the bottom side of the Briegel, and I suppose you could just ignore it if you so choose, but I am rather anal about my modeling and I would know its there, so there was never any doubt that I'd have to repair it.

I thought about this for a while, trying to decide where I was going to compensate, as there are four rather large components that make up this assembly.  I could use the Mori-Mori technique and close the gap with putty, but I decided instead to use styrene sheet and strips on part B-26, because it would be the easiest to shape once I closed the gap.

BYOB - Briegel - FilmMkr

BYOB - Briegel - FilmMkr

After I built up the leading edge on B-26, I used the leftover Apoxie Paste to fill the gaps, then set that part aside to cure overnight.  Tomorrow I will clean and shape everything and the gap will be no more!

BYOB - Briegel - FilmMkr

It was a glorious day here on the Texas Gulf Coast, so I headed outside to do my yard work and called it a day on the bench.  Like I said, I'm nowhere near the rest of you guys, but I am happy that I got to play with my models all wekend!

BYOB - Briegel - FilmMkr

BYOB - Briegel - FilmMkr

P.S.  Sorry for the large pix, but I have no idea how to do the thumbnail thing.

Filmy

[FichtenFoo]

Looking good so far. I didn't fill that gap, but I did make some mods so that it fits closer. I made that part "slide-able" since inside of that cavity is where my 9v battery is going. Not like it'll be seen anyway.

[FilmMkr]

Not like it'll be seen anyway. 

That's okay.  When the IPMS judges use their little mirror-on-a-stick thingie to look at the underside of the kits, they won't dock points from MY Briegel.    

BYOB - Briegel - FilmMkr

Edited to add:  Now I gotta fix those two pesky pinholes.  (Where did I put that Apoxie paste?)

[FilmMkr]

Geez, I didn't realize that I haven't done an update recently!

I've got the legs and pelvis pinned and primed, and all the metal bits painted and shaded with Alclad.  They are ready for a bit of hand painting, glazing and washing, drybrushing, and highlighting.  I finished cleaning, pinning, and priming the chest yesterday and will base coat the mechanicals with Alclad tonight.  I am saving the camo until I get the arm armor ready to go.

That will have to wait until weekend after next though.   We are leaving for Salt Lake City on Thursday for GSL XXI, the world's baddest and most competitive model car contest:

GSL XXI

All of the major players and biggest names in model car modeling converge on SLC every two years for Mark Gustavson's shindig, where only the best of the best stand a chance.  I am taking a full film crew to shoot the show, and I'll be hooking up with my editor (Jim Haught of Scale Auto) to bring show coverage in my column and a feature piece that we'll be doing for the December issue.

I'll try to post a few pix of my Briegel bits this evening.

FM

[FilmMkr]

Well, I promised an update over in the What's Going On thread, so here it is!  (Believe it or not, I HAVE been working on my Briegel and here's where I am right now):

BYOB - Briegel - FilmMkr

All of these parts have been cleaned up, pinned, disassembled, primed, painted, and hit with different oil washes.  Some of the parts have been drybrushed, but not all.  I want to wait until I get most of them back together first so that I can remember the sun angle and how they would reflect light properly.


Here are all of the body parts for the legs, torso, and pelvis, complete through the primer stage.  I am waiting until I get the arms finished and in primer before I apply any paint on the body parts.  The idea is to pin everything again and figure out how the camo pattern will flow from one section to the next, so that it doesn't look like it was applied by some old guy who paints girlies and cars most of the time!    

BYOB - Briegel - FilmMkr

BYOB - Briegel - FilmMkr

And here is the progress that I've made on the arms the last couple of nights.  I'm going to try to finished cleaning up and pinning the arms tomorrow so that I can get everything in primer and start slingin' paint again.

BYOB - Briegel - FilmMkr

Once I get the body parts primed I'll start the major painting of those sections as well as finishing the metal work in the arms.

Filmy

[FichtenFoo]

I live the orange metallic bits on the leg internals. Very nice touch which will make those stand out nicely.

[mtomczek]

WOW!!! That is looking fantastic. I am going to have to echo Mike on this one, the orange bits look amazing. Really can't wait to see this thing built.