Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

[Hunter Rose]

Well finally I'm able to get another model underway and post some progress with my first Ma.K build! 

The plan for my diorama is to have a setting as if a polar bear on patrol has stumbled across the patrol path of a krote in the deep snow, he falls back in surprise pointing his laser canon as the krote turns to point his gun at him, so the scene is going to look like a kind of stand off between the two.

I have actually been working on the polar bear for some time, but due to moving house, my model set up still being at my parents and the birth of my now 2 and a half month old daughter its been progressing at a snails pace, but I'm doing a lot more now we're settled so I should be able to do regular updates now so have finally posted my progress.

First things first, sprue cutting sanding and drilling holes for cables

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Next using a tip learned from the Ma.k site, I use melted sprue as filler on the seams, I used red sprue, I figured that way I can easily see if I have excess to still sand away

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

I want my pose to look really natural as if its fallen right back and he's just managed to sit himself up and rest his laser on his knee to steady it.  My joint covers were done using aves, I didn't reinfoce using any wire, as it will be laying down so its not really necesary

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

As I want the afs sitting up he is quite bent at the waist which meant  I had to trim down the groin armour to allow it to sit between the legs, I tried just having the groin armour pointing up resting on the thighs but it really just didn't look right.

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

The legs were attached just with a simple aves diaper holding them together and to the body by just mushing it into the leg pegs.

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

I also attached the manipulator to the right fore arm, which had to be bent right back as he is supporting himself on it, I got carried away and did a little joint cover for the wrist, only because I thought there was one, only after I realised it normally just clips into it, although you wont see it anyway as there will be deep snow around it.

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

After getting the arms totally done and the shoulder covers (sorry, didn't have my camera with me when I did that so no pics) it was time to prime, and the do some pre shading

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Next I sprayed down the white, again, sorry forgot my camera for those steps, d'oh! then I future it and decaled it

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Next I weathered the decals with a scalpel, then mixed up some dark hull red with a little silver in it, and sponged it on to give a worn used look to the suit, and also did the head. This was just a basic paint job, I'm not a great face painter. but you aren't really going to see it anyway. Oh and hand brushed on the blue. Sorry again, missed a few photo ops.

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

I also did the helmet

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

I got some spring tube to replace the power cables.

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

The rusty exhaust was enhance with some rust mig pigments and powdered graphite for slight metalic sheen

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

For the other cables I used vinyl shrink tube over thin solder for flexibility, oh and I forgot to mention the visor was given a future dip before placement.

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

All the shading done on it was achieved with mig pigments, and a black mig pigment was brushed onto the thick spring cables to let a little of the metal sheen shine through.

At this point I'm calling the polar bear done, it will have some snow added later though, as well as some frosting to the visor.

Okay so now its pretty much up to date.

What I've been doing over the last couple of evenings is starting construction on the Krote

Got the body put together so I could work on the big seam that runs down the middle

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

I've also got the head together and thrown on most of the details. Wow sanding down the seams on the head was quite a task!

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

I still need to get the d rings and bars in place, and some of the details need some aves around to fill and also enhance the weld seams, especially that monster gap you get at the bottom of the light bracket!

I got the scanner gatling gun and computery thing put together, this is an pretty much an OOB build but the only thing I've changed is the aerial, I have some tapered ones I used to scratch build a 1/35 fishing rod on another build, and I think it looks much better than the straight one.

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Like I said this where I'm at now, hopefully my progress will be much quicker now and I can give regular updates.

More soon all comments and questions welcome, thanks for looking  :)

[Hunter Rose]

I'm really happy with the pose I've achieved, as for the krote I'm still unsure if I should have it with one leg raised or both feet on the floor. Probably both feet on the floor because to get it looking down I'm going to he to have the head leaning forward and turned as its posed off to one side.

More construction done on the krote today, just want to get all the key parts together so I can start airbrushing it all at one. Still unsure about the camo, I'm leaning towards either white or a really light grey with dark grey German style mottling.

Got the d rings and one of the side bars in place, also used some aves to fill the big gap around the light bracket and make weld seams around it and the curved piece on the side of the snout.

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Haven't put the bars over where the computery bits go as they are being painted separately and with the aerial attached I cant put them in till its in so I'll just hand paint them once its painted and in place

I got the engine bits and leg stabilisers together, and got the end caps where the legs attach onto the body after removing the big piece of plastic in the middle by drilling it out and then putting on top leg connectors.

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Its funny when I first glanced at the sprue it didn't seem like that many parts but its certainly feeling that way now I've started! Will start getting the legs together next, and as such making a final decision about the pose. More soon thanks for looking  :)

[Hunter Rose]

Okay legs are together, its funny they werent quite as tricky as I thought they'd be but took longer than I thought!

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Only thing I need to do is sort out which leg is going to be slightly raised so I can cut the back flap off and have it hanging down a bit. The leg springs will be painted before attaching to the painted legs.

Didn't get a chance to make a start on the base, I'll start sorting out composition and the base tomorrow

[Hunter Rose]

Okay, today I didn't get a chance to do much but I did manage to get my pose sorted after mucking about with some dry fitting

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

I'm pretty happy with it, want it to look like its in mid step coming to a stop, took some shots with the head on turned at the angle it will be at with its gun pointing right at the polar bear

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Glued them into position, and cut the back flap of the left foot which will be raised with it hanging down

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

JUst used the trusty razor saw then used a blob of white tack to hold it at the desired angle, and glued it with some liquid cement then a little zap a gap just for more strength and to slighlty fill where the square edge of the flap meets the rounded hinge on the heel

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Noticed as well that on the legs there was a gap on the legs above the knee joints so clamped the hell out of them and used more liquid cement

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Also got the PE radar bit in, used a 20mm piece of tube to give it a nice wide curve, just layed it on and rolled my finger hard over it to bend it

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Then used my PE bender to bend the bottom hinge so it sits at the proper angle

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Then just put it in place, really happy with the curve

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

So its still been fairly productive, wont be working on it tomorrow but am going to spend all saturday on it so will FINALLY get to start the base and prime the krote ready for some paint.

More soon   

[MGmodeler]

Some nice work there Hunter.  I love all the extra details that these Ma.K kits provide.  Must be enjoyable to paint and weather them.

[Grail]

Nice dude. Great wip again,

[Hunter Rose]

Some nice work there Hunter.  I love all the extra details that these Ma.K kits provide.  Must be enjoyable to paint and weather them.

Thanks MG! Yeah I love the ma.k kits, its so nice that even within the ma.k "canon" there is a massive amount of freedom, and yeah they are a lot of fun to weather. Maybe you should get one, give yourself a fun break from your excellent crisp clean gundam builds 

Nice dude. Great wip again,

Cheers dude, its nice to get my teeth back into something, first build since the Red Hornet and that was ages ago!
And I'm amazed you could find time to comment on my WIP with all the cool WIP's (huh huh cool whip!) you've got going on 

[Grail]

And I'm amazed you could find time to comment on my WIP with all the cool WIP's (huh huh cool whip!) you've got going on

Well, your work is definitely worth commenting on. I WISH that those wips were all that was taking up my time. I recently stayed up for about 62 hrs straight working at my day job with no breaks. 1 day without any food.
(funny part is I'm not at all exaggerating. Really starting to hate my day job and trying to get out)

I hope to get on those kits more, and I'm working on a piece in 3d for a model company too that I really want to spend some more time on.

Anyhow, not to derail, love where you're going with this.. great stuff.

[Hunter Rose]

Man I dont blame you for starting a few models, helps take your mind off it!

Okay, well I've had an amazing day in the modeling shed, got quite a bit done this afternoon.

Started by glueing the now dry bent foot in place, and glued the springs on, and all joints are now fixed on the legs

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Got the hip and knee armor together, in preperation of priming.

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Used some aves on where the heel flap mets the foot to fill the slight gap between it and the hinge

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Leopard reminded me I need to detail the underside of the raised foot, I'm pretty sure the deep snow I have planned will mean you wont see under it, but I still wanted to do something just in case!  So I grabbed together some styrene bits and pieces and set to work.

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

I cut a section of styrene tube and pressed it into some aves like a cookie cutter to fill it and level the aves in one hit, on top of that I glued a large screw bolt type bit from an old mech kit.
Then lined up with the raised ribs on the foot some small styrene tube that goes from the outside to the middle, sanded it at a shallow angle so it tapers down to the edge of the foot. It is raised from the foot where it meets the middle part so they look kind of like support bars.
Then I just cut a small rectangle of styrene to cover where the ankle presses into the foot, and cut the heads of some plastic bolts from another kit for some interest

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

So now all bits are done and ready to be primed, only other thing I did was to sort out the seam line on the piston on top of the leg, that one slipped through the net.

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Paint time!! Started with all the bits that are going to be a metallic finish, going to use alclad for that so I started by laying down the alclad gloss black primer.

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Then they were all sprayed with alclad steel, except the sensor unit and the gun, which were first sprayed with alclad gunmetal, which is a really nice colour, it just gives the black primer a metallic shen when it catches the light, and then they were just given a fairly light spray of the steel just to pick out some detail.

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

And the final thing I did was to prime all other parts of the krote just with some halfords grey primer from a rattle can.

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

And I was pleased with my foot detail once it had been primed.

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

I'm pleased to be at the paint stage, now I have to sort out the camo!

Thanks for looking guys more soon  :)

[Jiloo]

Nice work man, I just can't wait to see more.
I want to make Guns, Krotes younger brother and your work is very inspiring.

[Lin.K]

sweet work on the P. Bear and the krote is an amazing build! Great scratch on the underfoot and that's a pretty believable striding pose you've made, hats off Gren... I mean, Hunter Rose. 

[Hunter Rose]

Thanks Lin.k, appreciate the compliments, arghh my secrets out! haha, Hunter Rose was taken on the Ma.k forum so I just went for grendel, his alter ego

@ Jiloo - thanks man, go for it, ma.k builds are a heap of fun 

Got a chance to get in the modelling shed today, first thing that struck my eyes was a seam line!

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

So I grabbed the squadron white and thinned it down with a little cellulose thinners, I prefer doing this as I feel like I have more control over it, plus my putty is a little old and a bit stiff so it helps!

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Let that dry for like 45 minutes and then sanded it down with some 300 grit sandpaper, then buffed the sanding scratches out with some 1200 paper, just like I did the first time (but obviously not quite well enough!   ) and then gave it a quick spray with the halfords grey primer and voila, its how it should have looked the first time around

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Right, went onto stage 2 of the metallic finish for all of my steel parts, mixed up some tamiya hull red with some silver vallejo and black tamiya.

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Then I just take a small piece of sponge held in some tweezers and dip in in, wip off the excess than lighlty sponge it over, its not a problem if you do this a little too much and get blobs, I just switch to a clean piece of sponge and dab it onto all the metallic parts.
Its good to do that anyway because as the thin layer of paint you dab on dries it creates tiny fleks of dry paint which add to the texture and help even more with the tarnished steel look.

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Next I thought I'd add just some little bits of visual interest break it up so its not just a big piece of steel. Added some red, and a little silver on some of the nuts.

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

With the sensor unit I wanted to give it some blue lenses, so first I painted the "eyes" silver, along with the nuts, which will remain silver, again just for visual interest.

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Once that had dried I got my jar of tamiya clear blue and blobbed it onto the surface neat from the jar to give a lense effect.

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Okay so thats it for now, next I'll start painting the krote itself, think I'm going to do it a really pale grey with sky blue ID bands, still thinking about it though.

Thanks for looking  

[Grail]

Nice!
This is great wip stuff again dude. Engine parts look cool, like the attention given under the foot, Love the dynamic pose you are going for.

I do the same thing with the sponge for pitted metals and dried mud base. I'll have to remember that for tarnished metal too.
Makes me wish I hadn't put my Krote up as a contest prize  

[Hunter Rose]

Thanks grail! Yeah I've always done tarnished metal this way, its really simple but very effective. Its also how I did the rusting/wear on the polar bear

[MGmodeler]

Loving the Alclad metalics and the in progress pics Hunter.  Saved for future reference! 

Does cellulose thinners work the same was as nail polish remover with regards to the squadron white putty?  I think my tube is over 10+ years old and is dried out and crumbly...

[Hunter Rose]

Thanks MG! To be honest I've only ever thinned my squadron with cellulose so dont know how it compares, it gets it nice and smooth, I can tell you its really strong solvent so I wouldn't be surpised if it ws able to dissolve your old squadron into a usable state.

[Hunter Rose]

Managed to sneak in some shed time between baby feeds today!   

Started off by mixing a nice light gray and spraying the krote

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Once its dry I'll free hand some medium gray camo patches with the airbrush.

And finally I've started on the base, managed to "borrow" a piece of blue insulation foam (which to be fair was on what looked like a rubbish pile) thats about 4 foot long and 4 inches thick. So I cut a piece that is probably a bit longer than I'm after, but I'd rather have it a bit big and have to cut it down a bit than piss about adding bits on.

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Then I traced around the polar bear with a pencil

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Then using a stanley knife and a chisel I dug out the area to depth between 1 and 2 inches, went by putting it in and seeing how it looked rather than actually measuring.

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

I'm really happy with the effect already, and the insulation foam is nowhere near as hard to work with as its density suggests (thank goodnes!) had some floral foam as a back up just in case it was a total bitch. Obviously I wont be doing all the snow effects till last, first I also need to carve out the footprints for the krote which I'll do once I've finished the camo, I'll do a dry fit and work out the final position.

Mores soon guys, thanks for looking   

[Sharkdog]

Glad to see you do another diorama, your Red Hornet one was a real treat to follow the work in progress of.

I really like the insulation foam already, I think the snowy landscape will be pretty neat.

I'm not a big fan of these Ma.K kits myself, but I'll be interested in seeing this whole thing coming together :)

[struschie]

Great to see - yes
I'm really excited to see the NEXT steps!

[Hunter Rose]

@sharkdog - Hey shark! Thanks man appreciate the compliments, glad your enjoying the WIP mate  . How is zeruel coming along?

@struschie - Thanks dude! I'm looking forward to the next steps too!

Okay well on with the build! Had a very productive weekend in the model shed, started by laying down my medium gray camo pattern with the airbrush over the light gray base coat

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Pretty happy with how it turned out, I know its a snow scene, but I didn't want to just do it in white the same as the polar bear, wanted to give it more of a 'lost in the snow' feel.
Next I had sprayed the leg stabilisers with the steel and tarnished it with the rest of the engine bits and was really happy with how they looked. I was toying with the idea of leaving a bare metal finish but instead decided to sponge on the light gray to make it look as if the paint didn't take very well over the metal.

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

After doing that I masked out the area that will be behind where the computer/aerial bits go as I wanted to give it the same tarnished steel look (albeit slightly darker) and also the front section to make the inside of the nose a dark metalic gun metal finish.

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

After masking sprayed the alclad black gloss primer

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Then sprayed first some gunmetal, then the steel. Didn't spray it too heavily so as to make it a bit darker then the other engine bits.

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

The nose was just given the dark alclad gunmetal and then a very very light spray just to give a metallic sheen rather than colouring it as I want it to be very dark behind the gun and scanner unit.

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Then I just wanted to get the light sorted, so I started by giving the inner bit a coat of silver humbrol enamel paint

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Then popped the lense in, and I have to say I was so impressed with how it looks I was seriously considering keeping the light cover off.

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

But I decided to stick with the original plan.

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Once that was done I gave the areas that require decals a spray with future, then once dry put on the decals with the aid of some micro set and micro sol.

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Man the toad decal that goes on the hip armor just doesn't want to sit nice, it really creases up over the curve of the armor plate, but does end up looking really good (amazingly!) once it had a damn good soaking of micro sol. I really dont think it would have been possible to put it on right without the micro sol.
Once they were all on and dry, I chipped them with a scalpel blade, only did it lightly on the krote just as a contrast to the heavily weathered ones on the polar bear.

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Then I sprayed another coat of future to hide the edges and seal them down and then a flat coat

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Then I made another mix of hull red, black and silver, and sponged it over the whole thing for the chipping, and over the bit I sprayed steel to give the same tarnished metal effect as the engine parts.

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

And then finally I was able to add the computer parts gun, and scanner to the head

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

And I also added the hip armor, engine parts and leg stabilisers to the torso

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Only things left to paint and add are the bars that go around the computer bit and engine bit, and the one that sits at the top of the nose section.

So I cut them out and primed them

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

Ma.K Polar Bear and Krote Dio

And that is all for now, I'm very happy with how its looking, cant wait to get the little bits sorted and get this all together! Next I'll also get the vinyl cord and spring tubes in place, then i can put my full attention to the base.

Thanks for looking more soon