{"id":1749,"date":"2004-10-31T06:18:11","date_gmt":"2004-10-31T14:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fichtenfoo.net\/blog\/?p=1749"},"modified":"2009-02-12T06:20:13","modified_gmt":"2009-02-12T14:20:13","slug":"in-progress-%c2%bb-maintaining-the-malevolent-creature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fichtenfoo.net\/blog\/in-progress-%c2%bb-maintaining-the-malevolent-creature\/","title":{"rendered":"In Progress \u00c2\u00bb Maintaining the Malevolent Creature"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"07.13.04
\n\u00c2\u00bb The Story…<\/p>\n

The smell of oil and ozone fills the air as the support
\ncrew of Unit 22 struggle to complete repairs in the dim light of
\ntheir bunker. Their megalithic charge looms overhead, a MS-06F Zaku
\nII. Most of the repairs have been completed except for the right
\narm. In the opening artillery barrage, it took several hits, and
\nneeds work before the giant can return to battle.<\/p>\n

For the past seventy-two hours, their underground
\nbase has been under siege, their giant doors, bombarded by artillery
\nfire. Deep within their excavated borrows they’ve so far been safe.
\nThe doors have held, but unless they can get their last remaining
\nZakus running, they’ve no hope of disabling the Federation Gun Tanks
\nand their supporting Mobile Suits.<\/p>\n

07.13.04 \u00c2\u00bb The Big Build<\/p>\n

Okay, I think I’m insane. My next project is going
\nto be a Perfect Grade (1\/60 scale) diorama. I’ll be using the PG
\nZaku II MS-06F undergoing maintenance in an underground cave base.
\nShould be a lot of work, but a lot of fun as well.<\/p>\n

The Zaku colors will be based off some aircraft camoflauge
\nthat I found while doing some research for the Cloud 09. For the
\nmain shield decal, I was inspired by a book on fairies, gnomes,
\ngoblins and other creatures. The book is great and has TONS of drawings
\nand sketches. I drew this one with a twig axe with a Zaku Heat Hawk
\ninspired blade.<\/p>\n

For the record, this won’t be an F2 conversion<\/strong>,
\nI just used the lineart since the PG manuals was already colored
\nin and Zakus have basically the same parts anyway.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I’m going to attempt some uber-detail painting on
\nthe internals and so some added greebling to the outer armor. Minus
\nmolds and maybe a scratch-built gun as well. I’m going to try and
\nlight both the Heat Hawk and the Zaku Machine Gun lens. More on
\nthat as I figure it out.<\/p>\n

For the repair crew, I got a few Hasegawa Figure sets
\nin 1\/72 scale. Now you’re thinking “Wait, I thought that this
\nwas a 1\/60 scale Zaku?” Well, putting the 1\/72 Hasegawa figs
\nnext to the Bandai 1\/60 figs made me realize that there isn’t much
\nof a difference size-wise. I got these from Best 1 Hobby with some
\nof my winnings from the Dec 2004 Gundam Comp.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The cave will be constructed inside of a wooden box
\nwhich I have already constructed. The inside size of the box is
\n12.5 inches wide by 13.5 inches tall. I’ll most likely be making
\nthe cave structure from celluclay or joint compound or both. The
\nbox will have a hinged wood and plexi door on the front and back
\nto keep out dust and allow for viewing from both sides. I’m going
\nto also attemt to mount it on my wall in an empty spot to save myself
\nshelf space.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\n\"\"<\/p>\n

For girders, walkways and railings, I found a few
\ntrain accessories cheap at a local hobby store. I got 4 sprues of
\nfencing for about $5-6 and 5 sprues of “box girders” used
\nas railway bridge option parts for around $12.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\n\"\"<\/p>\n

To light the cave, I’ll be constructing several “stadium”
\nstyle light arrays with white LEDs. The LEDs will be laid out 5×3.
\nNot sure of the power supply yet, but I may have to go with C or
\nD size batteries since I’ll be using 34 + LEDs. See below for the
\narray concept drawing.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

07.13.04 \u00c2\u00bb Cutting and Sanding<\/p>\n

My least favorite part and unfortunately this kit
\nwill require a lot of it. I started the cutting of the PG yesterday.
\nFor 2 hours of cutting\/sanding, I’d say I got pretty far. The head
\nand the shoulder internals are all cut\/sanded. So far it seems like
\nit was placed better into the sprues than the Ex-S. A lot of the
\nflash-marks are hidden in one way or another which is great. Plus
\nI haven’t had a part with more than 3 sprue attachment points yet.
\nI swear some of the smallest parts on the Ex-S had like 4 parts
\nto sand, all in the most obvious of places.<\/p>\n

07.14.04 \u00c2\u00bb Two Arms! Two Arms!<\/p>\n

Two arms… so far. Just need to do the shoulders.
\nNext up is the legs.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Also, here’s a shot of the 1\/60 Zaku Pilot (green)
\nnext to the 1\/72 Hasegawa Pilot (gray). The Zaku pilot is only slightly
\nbigger so it won’t make much of a difference in the dio.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

07.17.04 \u00c2\u00bb Freight Boxes<\/p>\n

So far on the Zaku, I’ve gotten to the leg internals.
\nNext is the feet internals, then the leg\/feet armor. I was getting
\na little tired of sanding so I thought I’d take a break and temporarily
\nmove onto a scratch-building project. I’ve been trying to decide
\nwhere I would put some batteries. With 30+ LEDs I’m going to need
\na long supply of power, so I decided to use D-cell batteries. To
\nhave a place to put the D-cells I made a “freight” box.
\nThe type you see on ships crossing the Pacific. I made a smaller
\nfreight box to hide the switches under. I’ll me making several more
\nof these to place around the repair bay.<\/p>\n

Here’s some pictures:<\/p>\n

\"\"
\n\"\"
\n\"\"<\/p>\n

07.18.04 \u00c2\u00bb Cranes and Controls<\/p>\n

Since this is a maintenance bay for a rather large
\ngiant robot, I thought it’d make sense to have a crane to maneuver
\nthe large robot pieces into position for repair and installation.<\/p>\n

At first I was going to build a series of girders
\nwith tracks along them suspended from the ceiling. The track would
\nhave a “crane car” that would hang and move about. Well,
\nafter some thought I realized that it wouldn’t be a very efficient
\nsystem for moving cargo into anyplace on the floor or above. The
\nlong boom style crane however would be perfect since it can swivel
\n360 degrees AND move its cables up and down the boom enabling it
\nto place parts\/cargo anywhere in that 360 space. Here’s a pic of
\nwhat I’m planning:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

While nothing on it will actually move and the cables
\nwill be static, I still want it to look somewhat realistic. The
\nlarge box on the back would be for ballast. The cables on top of
\nthe “box girders” will be for supporting the crane. The
\ncrane will be hooked up to the ceiling where it will be able to
\nrotate 360 degrees.<\/p>\n

Now this crane would need a place to be controlled
\nfrom. I’ll be building a small box with a glass windowed front to
\nbe the control room. There would be no room on the actual crane
\nfor this. The rooom will be built into the cave wall. A set of stairs
\nwill lead up to a platform where one could enter this room. The
\nroom will be lit and I may use some blue LEDs to simulate the computor
\nmonitors. The stairs and platform will have railings, but I didn’t
\nput them in the sketch. There will also be a cat-walk suspented
\nfrom this platform to get to the pilot hatch on the mech. Here’s
\na pic without the catwalk since I’ll have to decide what to do with
\nthat after I do some measurements.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

08.01.04 \u00c2\u00bb Changes both good and bad…<\/p>\n

So I’ve decided the lighting arrays just are not gonna
\nlook right. Instead, I’ll be going with a “warehouse”
\nstyle of lighting where I put lights at intervals along the ceiling
\ngirders.That should work fine.<\/p>\n

I managed to light up the heat hawk EXACTLY how I
\nwanted to so that the light will just light the blade edge. Unfortunately,
\nsometime after I glued and sanded the axe halves together the lights
\ndecided to not work anymore. I managed to pop out the blade and
\ncheck the LEDs and they were fine. Somewhere in my wiring, there
\nmust have been a snapped piece. Long story short, I salvaged a few
\nof the yellow LEDs and the blade will no longer be lit. Ah well…
\nbetter luck next time.<\/p>\n

I’m not concerned though as it was a side project
\nand wasn’t even going to be lit in the diorama anyway. Here’s some
\npics though of how it looked before the disaster.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\n\"\"<\/p>\n

I’ve got the whole Zaku cut and sanded. Now I’m just
\nadding greebles like minus molds and d-rings. Here’s a few shots
\nof the shoulder.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\n\"\"<\/p>\n

I figured out a way to paint many of the beads at
\nonce, but still keep them separated. For those that fit on skewers,
\nI separated them with folds of tape. For those too small for the
\nskewers, I used wire to do the same tape trick. This will make painting
\nthem much easier and quicker.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I’m still toying with different options for the crane
\nsystem as well. For now though I’m going to focus on the Zaku internals,
\nthen the armor, then I’ll move onto the dio.<\/p>\n

08.04.04 \u00c2\u00bb Let there be paint!<\/p>\n

I’ve had a cold since Wednesday. Blah! I’m starting
\nto get over it though so I decided to paint. I was putting it off
\ndue to not wanting to get my respirator all snotty and infected.
\nWhile I was waiting, I started building the Hasegawa Aerospace equipment.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Anyway, as usual, I started with the boosters. I made
\na dull “brick-red” color for those. I got a dual use out
\nof the color since it looked great for my larger freight container.
\nI also painted the tips of all the pistons yellow-orange. I may
\ngo back and add black stripes to make them “warning”-ish,
\nor a may leave them orange. Haven’t decided yet.<\/p>\n

Here’s some pics \u00c2\u00bb<\/p>\n

\"\"
\n\"\"<\/p>\n

08.08.04 \u00c2\u00bb Metallics & More<\/p>\n

So to paint my Zakus boosters, I used the same technique
\nthat I used on my Cloud 09. First I painted the insides with a red.
\nNext I put sticky-tack inside of the boosters to mask the red from
\nthe outside colors. I then painted the boosters with a mixture of
\nTamiya Coppor and Bronze. Lastly, using a “max” technique
\nI painted the outsides with a mixture of Gunmetal and silver. I
\nsprayed the gunmetal thinner near the edges so that the coppor-bronze
\nwould show through a bit. THis gives the metal a “burned”
\nsorta look.<\/p>\n

I did the same thing for the gun, only I used straight
\nGunmetal with no silver mixed in.<\/p>\n

For the bullets that will go inside the machine gun
\ncannister, I used Tamiya “Titanium Gold” with nothing
\nadded except thinner. It has a nice pale brass color to it and is
\nvery shiny. I have also gotten my two primary internal tones painted.
\nOne is a medium gray, the other is a darker medium gray + gunmetal
\n+ metallic gray. The color is awesome!<\/p>\n

Here’s some pics \u00c2\u00bb<\/p>\n

\"\"
\n\"\"
\n\"\"
\n\"\"<\/p>\n

08.09.04 \u00c2\u00bb Internals<\/p>\n

I started detailing the internals today. I’m hand-brushing
\nmost of the pipes and rivets, but the pipes on the backpack halves
\nwere airbrushed. You can see how the backpack “tanks”
\nare the same rusty red as the boosters and freight box. I think
\nthe variety of tones there will look great when the backpack cover
\nis displayed open.<\/p>\n

After I am done with the painting, I’ll be putting
\ndown a coat of Future and then doing a chalk wash for mechanical
\ngrime. After that will come a very light drybrushing of silver.
\nI’ll be doing a few more weathering techniques as well, but we’ll
\nsave those for another update.<\/p>\n

In the PG Zaku manual, there’s a picture of 2 Zakus
\ntest-fighting. One has red stripes on its elbows. I love how that
\nlooks so I did it to this kit.<\/p>\n

Pics \u00c2\u00bb<\/p>\n

\"\"
\n\"\"<\/p>\n

08.12.04 \u00c2\u00bb Wash Behind Your Gears<\/p>\n

Wash time. I have sprayed all of my internal parts
\nwitha gloss coat of Future and have let them cure for a few days.
\nNow I’m washing on pastels. It’s a mixture of water, ground up black
\npastels and a drop of dish soap. I brush it onto the part then set
\nit in front of a fan to dry. When dry, I take a not very damp paper
\ntowel piece and lightly wipe off the excess. After I finish all
\nof these parts, I’ll give them a flat coat of Future.<\/p>\n

Here’s some pics.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\n\"\"
\n\"\"<\/p>\n

08.15.04 \u00c2\u00bb Drybrushing and Building<\/p>\n

After the parts were chalk-washed I gave them a thin
\ncoat of flat Future to seal in the grime. Next I used silver Rub-n-Buff
\nto drybrush all the internals to give them a worn metal look. The
\nfirst image shows the washed part with and without the drybrushing.
\nAfter that I gave the parts another coat of flat Future and began
\nto build. I’ve only gotten up to finishing the legs so far.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\n\"\"
\n\"\"
\n\"\"<\/p>\n

08.16.04 \u00c2\u00bb Red Eye<\/p>\n

So the Zakus internals are finished. I’ll be taking
\ngood shots of them soon before I start working on the armor, so
\nkeep an eye out for them. The Red LED that came with the kit is
\nreally really bright. I may add a resistor to dim it a bit. The
\nsecond shot is with no lights on except the Zakus eye-light. The
\nother two are of the internals of the upper torso.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\n\"\"
\n\"\"
\n\"\"<\/p>\n

08.18.04 \u00c2\u00bb Good Internal Pictures!!!<\/p>\n

I took good pictures of the internals today.
\nClick Here!<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

I still need to do the dusy weathering and the rust,
\nbut will be waiting till I get the armor to that point so I can
\ndo it all at once.<\/p>\n

08.18.04 \u00c2\u00bb Good Internal
\nPictures!!!<\/p>\n

I took good pictures of the internals today.
\nClick Here!<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

I still need to do the dusy weathering and the rust,
\nbut will be waiting till I get the armor to that point so I can
\ndo it all at once.<\/p>\n

08.21.04 \u00c2\u00bb The Old Grind…<\/p>\n

I want this Zaku to look as if it’s been in active
\nservice for years. To do this I’ll be denting and damaging the external
\narmor in places where it would have more contact with itself, the
\nground, or other MS in combat. I have a second shield thanks to
\nVengeful 1 so it has been damaged and will be replaced with a relatively
\nnew and undamaged shield in the diorama. The damaged shield contains
\nstrips of styrene in the hollow area to give the illusion of a multi-layered
\narmor.<\/p>\n

To do the damage, I’m used my dremel. After all the
\ndamage was done, I placed the parts onto skewers. I included a pic
\nof how I put parts onto the skewers since people have actually asked
\nme that.<\/p>\n

I am painting the insides of the armor first and will
\nbe using the same technique as I did for the internals. The only
\ndifference will be the addition of rust. Since a lot of the externals
\ndon’t have “holes” I have had to use stickytack to hold
\nthe parts to the skewers.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\n\"\"
\n\"\"
\n\"\"
\n\"\"<\/p>\n

08.24.04 \u00c2\u00bb Axe About Weathering the
\nArmor Interiors<\/p>\n

For the external armor, my first step was to paint
\nthe insides the same metallic gray as the internals. Then, the same
\nblack chalk wash. After that though I did another chalk wash using
\nseveral shades of pastels mixed with water to make rust. Instead
\nof removing the excess with a damp paper towel, I used a stiff-bristled,
\nyet soft brush.<\/p>\n

I applied it in areas where water may seep in an
\nstart the rust process. I figure that these parts will be rustier
\nthan the internals since the internals would be well-oiled and maintained.<\/p>\n

After I put a very thin flat coat of Future on the
\nrust to keep it from dusting away and frem getting fingerprilted
\nor pulled up by tape, I’ll do a very slight drybrushing with the
\nRun-n-Buff. I tested the flat coat on the rust earlier. If I put
\nit on too thick, it darkens the pastels. However if I lightly spray
\nit, it leaves them relatively as-is, but protected from the drybrushing
\nand masking tape.<\/p>\n

I also have a shot of the painted, damages, but unweathered
\nheat-hawk axe.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\n\"\"
\n\"\"
\n\"\"<\/p>\n

08.25.04 \u00c2\u00bb Long Live Tamiya Extra Thin
\nCement!<\/p>\n

And their basic putty too. I’m just about ready to
\nstart painting the camo on the exterior of the armor. First though,
\nI need to deal with a nasty little seam. The two halves of the leg
\narmor have a seam which just looks bad. A few of the other seams
\nlike this I scribed out to be panel lines and they look fine. The
\nleg seam however…<\/p>\n

Now that the internals are 95% done (still needs a
\nlittle rust) I can put the two halves together. I snepped them on
\nand ran Tamiya Extra Thin<\/em> (E.T.) cement down the crack.
\nI waited a bit and squeezed to that the melted halves and plastic
\nsquished together. After it dried, I sanded them down. There was
\na few hairline cracks in the seam so I put some Tamiya Basic Putty
\non my putty pallete with a drop of the E.T. Cement. THis thinned
\ndown the putty so that I could apply it into the cracks easier and
\nI didn’t have to “glop” it on and risk messing up my internals
\npainting. I’ll sand the putty tomorrow after I’m sure it’s fully
\ncured.<\/p>\n

I also began “building” the armor. This
\nwill make it easier to line up my camo and instead of having to
\nmask a ton of insides, I’ll only have to mask the little bits of
\nthe joints that are exposed. Here’s some pics \u00c2\u00bb<\/p>\n

\"\"
\n\"\"<\/p>\n

Also, here’s a pic that I found somewhere online (no
\nclue where) about a year ago that inspired my camo scheme. My final
\ncamo will be closer to this than the lineart which I’ve changed
\nslightly, but haven’t re-posted yet.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

08.26.04 \u00c2\u00bb Altered Beast<\/p>\n

I altered the color scheme image a bit to show what
\nthe final piece will look like after my tweaks and changes. Mostly
\njust lightening the camo for scale, camoing the elbow disks, the
\nred elbows, and fixing the darks\/body to what I’m painting now.<\/p>\n

Altered Scheme \u00c2\u00bb<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Old Scheme \u00c2\u00bb<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

08.27.04 \u00c2\u00bb Camo Painting – Part 1<\/p>\n

I’ve put together the arms and legs and masked off
\nthe internals. I used masking paper and tamiya tape for this. After
\nthat was all masked, I painted my first color which was my light
\ngreen. I went with the light green first because it’s easier to
\npaint darker on lighter as opposed to lighter on darker. (see first
\npic)<\/p>\n

After the light green had a bit to cure (about 24
\nhours) I masked off what I wanted to keep light green and then painted
\nthe next color which was the light tan-gray. It’s as light as the
\ngreen so it really didn’t matter which one I painted first. I’ll
\nbe leaving the tape on the parts and masking off the tan when it’s
\ndry enough. Probably tomorrow morning. I removed the tape from the
\none arm piece that will only be tan and light green. (see second
\npic)<\/p>\n

Next I’ll be painting my blue-green color then finally
\nthe olive drab. When that’s all done, I’ll remove all the tape revealing
\nthe camo pattern.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\n\"\"<\/p>\n

08.30.04 \u00c2\u00bb Camo Painting – Part 2<\/p>\n

The camo is all done. After removing a ton of masking
\ntape I found that it turned out very nicely except for a few spots
\nthat needed touched up. Those were easy enough to fix however.<\/p>\n

The first pic is how I used small strips of tape to
\noutline my camo scheme. You can see the brown paper used to mask
\noff large areas which saved me a lot of tape. The second is of a
\nfew un-futured parts and the last is the finished leg camo with
\nFuture.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\n\"\"
\n\"\"<\/p>\n

Next up in order is \u00c2\u00bb<\/p>\n