{"id":1257,"date":"2004-10-31T09:29:47","date_gmt":"2004-10-31T17:29:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fichtenfoo.net\/blog\/?p=1257"},"modified":"2009-02-11T09:34:36","modified_gmt":"2009-02-11T17:34:36","slug":"completed-%c2%bb-maintaining-the-malevolent-creature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fichtenfoo.net\/blog\/completed-%c2%bb-maintaining-the-malevolent-creature\/","title":{"rendered":"Completed \u00c2\u00bb Maintaining the Malevolent Creature"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"fichtenfoo-mcpgzakufinal-07\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Story \u00c2\u00bb<\/p>\n

The smell of oil and ozone fills
\nthe air as the support crew of Unit 22 struggle
\nto complete repairs in the dim light and dank,
\nstale air of their bunker. Their megalithic charge
\nlooms overhead, an MS-06F Zaku II. Most of the
\nrepairs have been completed except for the right
\narm. In the opening artillery barrage, it took
\nseveral hits, and needs work before the giant
\ncan return to battle.<\/p>\n

For the past seventy-two hours,
\ntheir underground base has been under siege, their
\ngiant doors, bombarded by artillery fire. Deep
\nwithin their excavated borrows they’ve safely
\nheld out, awaiting reinforcements which may never
\ncome. The doors have held, but unless they can
\nget their last remaining Zakus running, they’ve
\nno hope of disabling the Federation Gun Tanks
\nand their supporting Mobile Suits.<\/p>\n

Planning The Diorama \u00c2\u00bb<\/p>\n

This whole thing started in October
\n2003 when friend had asked if I wanted to buy
\nan extra Perfect Grade Zaku which he had three
\nof. The price was decent enough, so I decided
\nto take it off his hands. I had several other
\nprojects in the works so I put off working on
\nthe kit. In the meantime however, I started planning
\nwhat I wanted to do with this rather large kit.<\/p>\n

From the start, I wanted to do something
\ngrand. I’m not likely to do a lot of big expensive
\nkits like this, so I decided to make it worth
\nmy while. I also wanted to do something where
\nI could display the nifty internals. Since I wasn’t
\naware of any Perfect Grade dioramas, I decided
\nthat I was going to construct one.<\/p>\n

My first idea was to make an outdoor
\ndio with some repair crew working on the kit in
\na fall setting. I found the Hasegawa figure and
\nequipment sets on Best1Hobby’s web site and decided
\nto get them with some prior contest winnings.
\nI was going to have the figures coming from a
\ncave door in the side of a hill and the Zaku would
\nbe kneeling outside the door with it’s panels
\nopen. I later used this bay door idea on my
\nAbandon Base<\/a> diorama.<\/p>\n

The Zaku was going to have a fall
\ncamo scheme with browns, burgundy’s and olives.
\nSince it was fall at the time, I collected leaves
\nand branches which I was going to use for the
\nground. I had two concerns though, the space to
\nfit a large outdoor diorama, and the consequences
\nof dusting the ground cover since I hadn’t planned
\non enclosing it in a clear box.<\/p>\n

At this time, I worked up my decal
\ndesigns. I wanted an outdoors theme and was online
\nsearching for reference materials for camo schemes.
\nI remembered a book of fairies I had and flipped
\nthrough the pages remembering the images of leaves
\nand goblins. After looking through the book, I
\nsketched up a fairy\/goblin that I would use on
\nthe shield. I gave it a spring blossom twig version
\nof the standard Zaku Heat Hawk axe that came with
\nthe kit. After I redrew my sketch in Illustrator,
\nI worked up markings to match the feel of the
\nemblem. I added more petals on some of the other
\nmarkings to tie the whole look together. I ended
\nup calling this design the Malevolent Creature.<\/p>\n

Since I had the time, I began to
\nrethink my outside diorama idea. I still wanted
\nto go with a maintenance theme, but needed a better
\nsetting. After much rethinking, I decided to do
\na cave setting. A large wooden box was needed
\nfor this idea. I measured my shelves and made
\nthe box deep enough to not hang over the edge
\ntoo much when done. To combat dust, I decided
\nto make two wood-framed plexiglas doors for each
\nopen side of the diorama.<\/p>\n

When doing this, I thought about
\nmy lack of shelf space and how I had a large open
\nspot of wall in my office\/display area. Because
\nof this I made the back door set inside the box,
\nwhile the front door framed the outside. I did
\nthis so that the box would support the dio and
\nnot a weak hinged back door.<\/p>\n

Initially, my idea was to have the
\nback of the cave be some big rock doors opening
\nunder a waterfall. After I made the box and saw
\nhow much room I didn’t have, I changed plans again
\nand went with an excavated underground maintenance
\nbay setting.<\/p>\n

I had decided to light the bay after
\nrealizing how easy and fun wiring LEDs could be
\nwith my Abandon Base<\/a>
\ndiorama. Ebay is a great place for large amounts
\nof LEDs for cheap. I got 50 bright white LEDs
\nfor about seven dollars. I also knew that I’d
\nwant to take this diorama when completed to some
\nof the local model shows. This meant that I’d
\nneed a long lasting power source and a place to
\nhouse it. After consulting my friend Zog, I decided
\nto go with 2 D-cell batteries. THese will supposedly
\ngive me 10-18 hours of power based on the number
\nof LEDs I used, however I haven’t tested this
\nyet.<\/p>\n

To house the batteries, I scratch-built
\na large freight container. I constructed a smaller
\none to house the on\/off switch. Later, I realized
\nthat I could had purchased similar-sized containers
\nand just painted them, but scratch-building them
\nwas fun and as always I learned some new techniques.<\/p>\n

A growing concern of mine before
\nI began construction was how I would build the
\ncatwalks, stairs, ladders, platforms, and the
\nbridge crane. As luck would have it, I soon found
\nHO scale train accessories that were perfect for
\nwhat I needed. I purchased a box girder kit, a
\nstairs and ladders kit, and 2 sets of fence kits
\nsince I needed a lot of the metal pole type. After
\nfinding these, construction became less of a worry.<\/p>\n

The last thing I designed was a
\nseries of “propaganda posters” for the
\nPrincipality of Zeons struggle against the elite
\nof the Earth. I used images of various characters
\nfrom the Gundam universe and laid the posters
\nont in Photoshop. They were then printed on a
\nhigh-quality matt finish photo paper.<\/p>\n

Constructing the Diorama
\n\u00c2\u00bb<\/p>\n

When I had started this project,
\nI began building everything at once. The amount
\nof various items which needed built, constructed,
\nwired, and painted was overwhelming. I decided
\nthat I needed to take this project one step at
\na time. I divided the project into three sections.<\/p>\n

First, I would build\/paint the internal
\nskeleton of the Zaku. There were hundreds of parts
\nfor this and they needed to be completely finished
\nbefore I could move onto the second part which
\nwas painting and detailing the outer armor. Normally,
\nI do very clean mechas without any weathering.
\nThis one however had to have a realistic worn
\nfeel to it. I had researched a lot of armor modeling
\nweb sites and found several techniques using dry
\nbrushing, pastel washes, and oil washes that worked
\nout wonderfully.<\/p>\n

After the internal skeleton was
\ncompleted, I took some photos of it. I did this
\nbecause it would be the last time I was all of
\nit exposed ever again. Because of the way the
\nkit was molded, I needed to glue on the external
\narmor in several places to remove seam lines.
\nThis meant I could no longer remove the outer
\narmor. I masked off the internals and removed
\nthe seams. Then I greebled the outside with minus-molds
\nand d-rings made from floral wire.<\/p>\n

I painted the externals in a similar
\nscheme to a fighter plane which I saw images of
\nonline. After the camo was painted, I applied
\n2 coats of Future floor acrylic and then applied
\nmy decals. When that was done, I applied another
\ngloss coat of Future and applied my oil wash and
\nrust streaks. Over that I applied a coat of Future
\nflattened with Tamiya Flat Base.<\/p>\n

Next I airbrushed a layer of thin
\ndirt\/dust onto the armor. This was a mixture of
\nTamiya Acrylics and flattened Future to make it
\nsomewhat transparent. The tops of the armor got
\nmore dust as I figured that the cave maintenance
\nbay would be a dusty place. After that I used
\na pastel wash and applied the dried dirt to the
\nfeet.<\/p>\n

Now that the Zaku was completed,
\nI took pictures of it completed. I wouldn’t see
\nit completely covered again once it was placed
\ninto the diorama.<\/p>\n

My last step was to construct the
\ndiorama. I had stained and finished the box prior
\nto starting the Zaku so all I needed to do was
\nconstruct everything. First was the cave and floor.
\nThe floor was made from sprinkling a layer of
\nbaking soda over some matt medium and allowing
\nit to dry. After, it was sanded flat, primed and
\npainted, the grooves and cracks were scribed into
\nit using a Testors scriber tool.<\/p>\n

The walls were constructed using
\nCelluclay. The clay was applied thin, then grooved
\nout using some clay tools. The walls were sprayed
\nwith black flat Krylon spray paint. After that
\ndried, I used a cheap 2 inch nylon paintbrush
\nwhich I cut in half and dry brushed the rock with
\ncheap acrylic paint. I started with dark gray-brown
\nand with each layer I went a few steps lighter.
\nThis gave the walls more depth.<\/p>\n

Next up was constructing the crane,
\ncatwalks and control booth. I used sheets, rods,
\nstrips, and tubes of styrene and the railroad
\naccessories to build everything. Since the setting
\nwas a dark cave, I painted it in common gold construction
\ncolors so that they would be more visible in the
\ndim surroundings.<\/p>\n

The Hasegawa aircraft support crew
\nand equipment sets were a blessing. They worked
\nout perfectly for this dio. I got a large variety
\nof figures that I built into a number of poses.
\nI was able to make them all a little different
\nas well. Different skin and hair colors as well
\nas different uniform colors. Blue overalls\/fatigues
\nfor the workers and olive drabs for the soldiers
\nand pilots.<\/p>\n

When all of the equipment and bay
\npieces were done, I used the same weathering techniques
\non them. All of the equipment, the crane, the
\nwalks and stairs were given an oil-wash and then
\nsprayed with a layer of my dust mixture.<\/p>\n

The wiring was the trickiest part
\nof all. I had to make some of it hidden and I
\nhad to make the exposed wiring look like it belonged
\nthere. The wires start from the large red freight
\nbox and run up one of the pipes. They then go
\nbehind the left crane support when they light
\nup the 2 red LEDs.<\/p>\n

Black wire was then strung to since
\nit simulated electrical wire between the light
\nsupport girders on the ceiling. The wire then
\nruns to the right crane supports red LEDs, then
\nto the control booth where it powers LEDs for
\nthe computer console and the two monitors. From
\nthere it travels to the lights below the control
\nbooth and under the main catwalk.<\/p>\n

The light covers were made from
\naluminum tubing which was left bare on the inside
\nto reflect more light and painted on the outside
\nto match the support girders.<\/p>\n

After everything was built, I began
\nputting it all together. I figured I could have
\nit done in an afternoon, but placing everything
\nwas a longer task than I had anticipated. This
\nwas mostly due to my wanting everything to look
\nperfect. Once I glued something down, it had to
\nstay or else I’d have more sanding and repainting
\nto do.<\/p>\n

After everything was positioned,
\nI began to use CA glue to put everything in place
\npermanently. The white tubes running from the
\npipes to the Zakus back needed to be glued to
\nthe floor to have a realistic look. The wires
\nfor the lights were shaped to look like they were
\ndraped between the girders. The figures and equipment
\nwere also put into position. I also glued my propaganda
\nposters to the fences against the cave walls.<\/p>\n

Finally, I added the hinged doors
\nand was able to photograph the finished piece.
\nI’m very pleased with how it turned out and consider
\nit to be my best piece yet.
\n\n\t\t