{"id":4522,"date":"2011-06-02T21:40:17","date_gmt":"2011-06-03T02:40:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fichtenfoo.net\/blog\/?p=4522"},"modified":"2011-06-02T21:43:28","modified_gmt":"2011-06-03T02:43:28","slug":"in-progress-%c2%bb-112-chubu-mechatrobot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fichtenfoo.net\/blog\/in-progress-%c2%bb-112-chubu-mechatrobot\/","title":{"rendered":"In Progress \u00c2\u00bb 1\/12 Chubu Mechatrobot"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yes, yes… I’m all over the place. The Core Fighter<\/a> is coming along, but I find myself going back and forth between projects more and more. (I’m also scratchbuilding a 1\/20 scale diner with full interior, but see my facebook fan page for that info) The past few weeks I’ve been working on the 1\/12 Chubu Mechatrobot. I wanted this thing as soon as I saw it, but it took me quite a while to locate a shop in Japan willing to sell one outside of Japan. Thanks to Walter for the tip! I am a sucker for good, realistic mecha designs from the 1950’s.<\/p>\n

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

I had sculpted a few mechanics <\/a>for this piece as I’ll be doing a garage\/workshop diorama. Yeah, I know… workshop\/hangars are a dime a dozen and about overdone, but it gives me an excuse to play with many aspects of modeling I enjoy such as lighting and scratchbuilding. And hopefully I’ll do something inspiring and different from all the other garage dios out there. Hopefully!<\/p>\n

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

The kit itself is very nicely done. Only a few issues such as placement of mold-lines, but overcome simply enough. The parts that gave me the most trouble were the white metal parts. Unfortunately they’re not as clean as one would like. I polished them up to a beautiful chrome sheen, but they were too pitted to work. So I had to use some putty and filler primer then paint them. I also rebuilt my own control sticks, knobs and foot-rests. The sticks and foot-rests were made using MechaSkunk’<\/a>s brass knurled tube. Cool stuff really!<\/p>\n

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

I went with a pale yellow to do something different from the blues and greens, but still have that old car paint look. I used the hairspray technique to do the paint chips on the yellow. The internals were painted with a Tamiya Dark gray, then sponged over with water-thinned sea gray. Then a few thick dark filters were applied to blend them in, followed by some discoloration and rubbed with powdered graphite for the metal sheen. The sponging gives it a nice worn metal look.<\/p>\n

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

I had some photoetch made for the 1\/12 scale tools I need, so I added a few Chubu emblems to the fret as well since the kit had no emblem decals. The red\/chrome adds a nice pop as a “car” emblem should. I also made a photoetch “1958 MECHA PA” license plate to use. Looks great and adds something different from the resin\/sticker Japanese plate the kit came with.<\/p>\n

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

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

Anyway, I’ve a ways to go yet with more weathering, dusting and rusting to be done. I want it to have a used, somewhat worn look to it. More soon!<\/p>\n

Oh, and for more on the Chubu, check out the creators blog here. MODERHYTHM<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/fichtenfoo.net\/blog\/tag\/core-fighter\/<\/div>\n\n\n