{"id":1755,"date":"2005-08-30T06:24:02","date_gmt":"2005-08-30T14:24:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fichtenfoo.net\/blog\/?p=1755"},"modified":"2009-02-12T06:25:18","modified_gmt":"2009-02-12T14:25:18","slug":"in-progress-%c2%bb-round-buckler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fichtenfoo.net\/blog\/in-progress-%c2%bb-round-buckler\/","title":{"rendered":"In Progress \u00c2\u00bb Round Buckler"},"content":{"rendered":"

08.30.2005 \u00c2\u00bb Concepts
\nand Initial Build Info<\/p>\n

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Blub blub blub… time for a quick ‘mental health’
\nkit while I work on the Gerbera Tetra. I try to stop in the
\nmiddle of large projects to do quick little ones just to keep
\nfrom getting burned out.<\/p>\n

Anyway, this mental health kit is
\nthe ‘Round Buckler’ or ‘RB’ from the anime ‘The
\nMars Daybreak’. I’ve never seen it and don’t know
\na whole lot about it aside from what I read on
\nthe manual, (it was in English for a change! Score!)
\nbut the robot was too cool to pass up. Plus I
\ndig almost anything having to do with Mars.<\/p>\n

The premise is that there’s oceans
\non Mars (probably after some terraforming effort)
\nand people apparently live in city ships. There’s
\nsome war or something and Mars ends up a haven
\nfor criminals and other such outcasts. Enter the
\ntypical plot of boy stealing giant robot and for
\nwhatever reason is great at piloting it and there
\nyou go.<\/p>\n

Whatever… it’s a cool underwater
\nrobot and that’s all that really matters. What
\nI like most about it is that it has a Rahxephon\/Zone
\nof the Enders feel to the design. Same mechanical
\ndesigner? Beats me!<\/p>\n

The kit is in 1\/48 scale and only
\nhas about 40-50+ parts. When I prdered it and
\nsaw the box I expected a small kit, but to my
\nsurprise this kit’s actually quite large. It’s
\na little bigger than your average Master Grade
\nkit. It’s got a lot of nice detail, however the
\njoints kinda suck. They’ve got those crappy rubber
\njoint covers that don’t do much since they still
\nleave gaps that leave the ball joint pegs visible
\nwhen you try to pose the RB. Because of that I
\nam making the kit fixed-pose and sculpting new
\njoint covers from Magic Sculpt.<\/p>\n

Everything comes in halfs and there
\nwill be a lot of masking required to paint it
\nlike the box art (or any scheme). Some of the
\nseams can become very difficult to reach since
\nyou’ll need to build the arms and legs before
\npainting to fix the seams. Speaking of seams,
\nyou can’t beat Bandai when it comes to easy-to-fix
\nseams. The parts go together so well that you
\nmerely need to run some Tamiya Extra Thin Cement
\ndown the gaps and give a slight squeeze. Sand
\nthe flash when the glue is dry and you’re pretty
\nmuch ready to prime. The problem is getting into
\ncrevases to sand. Those areas will requite extra
\neffort.<\/p>\n

I started this kit on Sunday and
\nwithin a few hours had it all glued together.
\nLater I sanded half the seams. Today I started
\nmaking the joint covers and the display base.
\nIt comes with a nice, but boring display stand,
\nbut I’m making my own with an underwater scene.
\nSand, coral, star fish and a shark. It’s looking
\npretty good so far.<\/p>\n

As for what color I’ll paint it,
\nI’m still undecided. I might go with a variation
\nof the stock scheme. Below you can see the built
\nkit (and it’s crap joint covers), the new ones
\nI am in the process of sculpting, and the base.
\nThe shark is in the process of being scratch-build
\nfrom styrene and MS as were the shells and starfish.<\/p>\n

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