Zero: Dumber Than Fiction

I need to remember that my cell phone was built by Motorola--not Nikon or Canon. Regardless, I keep taking (and posting) pictures I've captured with it. I'm getting better, but these pictures will never be useful for anything but blurry progress shots. I've found that backing up quite a bit and reducing the size of the photo to 50% (after cropping) seems to help quite a bit.

 

... Of course, that's neither here nor there. As you can see in the picture to the right, I actually put some paint on that base. For the colors and outward appearance ("weathering"), I'll be heavily relying on that same reference picture mentioned in at least the last two previous posts. Thus, the Tamiya "NATO Green" pillar. The cement color for the base was achieved by a mix of around 3:1 of Sky Gray and Flat White. In the reference picture, the cement is very lightly colored and I wanted to replicate that as best I could.

 

The next steps on the base are the ones I'm looking forward to the most: washes & weathering. First, the washes to bring out the details, such as the seams in the concrete and the faux-cracking near the pillar. After that, I'm going to try my hand at playing with MIG pigments. I was sent a very generous sampling of their new sci-fi pigments a while back (short write-up here) and I've never had a chance to try them out. So... after reviewing the DVD on how to use their pigment line for weathering, I think I'm ready to give this a shot. Hilarity may ensue.

 

I'll save my exact plans for a future progress report (so I can comment on how they actually turned out), but the reference photo contains several different fades on the concrete as well as some dust accumulated in the corners of the pillar. Hopefully, I can replicate that appearance through the use of pigments. We'll see--very shortly--if I'm right.

Since the last update, I've moved forward on the base, going as far as to finish the construction--all but a little sanding and all the painting, anyways. Going back to the reference photo (this one), I really wanted to replicate the look of the cement, including all the seams and cracks. While my first idea was Milliput, my first attempt was actual drywall "mud". But I'm getting a bit ahead of myself...

 

I needed something to form my faux-cement into a circle to fit on the base--so a rougly 4" diameter circular form. I also had to be able to "pop" the cement out of the form so I could attach it to the base. After a somewhat exhaustive search around the house and around the hardward store, I ended up with a pair of 1/8" thick standard sealer rings for sinks. While the inner diameter was shy of 4", they were easily the best solution I found--and clocked in around $1.50 at the hardware store.

 

So... Getting back to the top, I used glue-tape to stick one of these rings to a thick sheet of styrene, and then tried putting drywall mud into the form, painstakingly trying to get it smooth on the top. After that, I let it dry for a little more than 24 hours. And then I tried to remove it. It was at this moment I found that the drywall mud wasn't going to work. It just completely fell apart. Scratched that off the idea list.

 

My next thought was to use the sink ring to make a resin mold and just pour resin to make the base. In order to get the lines and cracks in the resin, I had to try to build them into the mold. So... I decided that the bottom of the mold would be the "top" when it was done (in short, I was going to flip it over to make it the "base". With that in mind, I used some pieces of styrene half-round to form the cement seams and applied some semi-dry Squadron putty to the base to be scraped out of the dried/cured resin to form the cracks and crevices. And... It worked! I ended up with a smooth top surface, perfectly straight and uniform seams, and simulated cracks where I removed the seams. Hopefully the use of pigments will give me the blending appearance of the surface of cement. Other than painting/weathering, I'd say the base is just about done. Not only that, but I'm pleased with the results. That's a pretty rare thing.

 

... And hopefully I'll follow this up in a day or three with a clear picture of the base that I just spent all that time describing...

While not much of it is visible in this blurry picture, I've actually done quite a bit of work on Tatiana here... The most obvious thing in the picture is the knee pads. I was tossing a few ideas around, but--in accordance with the K.I.S.S. principle--I opted to just use pieces of a styrene tube with a couple small pieces of styrene rod to simulate bolts. I also re-positioned the feet. Because the legs/feet were one-piece resin, this involved cutting the feet away from the legs, removing all the in-between resin, and "pinning" the legs to the feet with 1/16" wire--bending it slightly for the repositioning. the dead space around the wire will be filled in with Milliput. Not so visible is the top of the legs, which I've cut up a bit to allow easier fit with the AFS torso. I've also drilled holes in the top of the legs for future pinning.

 

For her "muffler", I used a headlight(?) from the Tamiya 1/35 M41 tank, and styrene. Behind her head, I've added a couple pieces from motorcycle kits and a piece of styrene so that it doesn't just look like part of a model kit. On the front-interior of the torso, I've added part of the instrument panel from a 1/48 airplane (P-40, maybe?) as well as some mechaskunk wire mesh and styrene. Thus, if anyone cares to look that close, there are some interior details and not just barren plastic.

 

Next up are the forearms. I've gotta figure out if I'm going to scratch-build something or just make a silicone mold of some existing kit forearm and copy it. Right now, I'm leaning towards the scratch-build. And then there's the small matter of the hands. I should have some parts on their way to me to use for that. At least, I hope I do. The base is a whole different matter. I'll cross that bridge down the road, but I do have some thoughts on it. We'll see how they play out. So... Not a lot of visible change on Tatiana, but things are happening. No doubt about that.

I think I've spent more time lately trying to figure out what parts to use for other builds, but last nite I took a little bit of time to work on the base for the AFS "Hard Boiled" conversion set...

 

I want to put him in an industrial/factory setting--at least, as much as that teeny-tiny base will allow me to suggest. To that end, I decided to put a support column in there. For my reference, I used an image of a pillar at the local baseball stadium as my reference (click here for the reference photo). The largest H-pillar I could find in styrene (because I'm too lazy to make my own) was 3/8". Scale-wise, this makes it probably two to four inches off in size. But that's okay... I'm making a factory--not a scale model of the baseball stadium.

 

I couldn't figure out a square to use for the base for the last two days, and then it finally dawned on me to just use Legos. I've got a bucket of 'em on-hand to create mold boxes for the silicone, so I just raided the bucket, pulled out a couple of sqare pieces, stuck them together, and then cut the little nobs off the top. Viola! Column support. To the top of that, I added a styrene "plate" and the H-pillar. I also added some very thin styrene squares at each corner. Upon those, I'll place the nut/bolts. The nuts will just be made from hexagonal styrene rod and the bolts will be round styrene rod. I'll run one pipe up the column--if you're looking at the picture, I'll be making the green one.

 

And that's about it for the pillar. For the cement, I think I'm going to try rolling some Milliput out flat, letting it dry slightly, and then gouging it up so that it looks like the reference picture.

 

And I'm not sure if you can tell from the crappy pictures, but I haven't done anything else with that AFS yet. He still needs more paint, sealing, weathering, washing, decaling, etc. Oh, and I still really need to stain the wood for the base, too. Yeah... There's definitely a long list of things to be done yet, but it's taking shape. And when the shape it takes closely resembles the pictures you'd made in your head... Well... You must be doing something right.

Yes... I've started another Ma.K. build, without bothering to finish the five or six others already in-progress. With some luck, one of them may get finished sometime this week.

 

At any rate... That "hard boiled" conversion set (the orange guy in previous posts) left me with a fair amount of AFS parts left over. And recent attempts at mold-making and resin casting have left me with a surplus of  not-quite-perfect resin SAFS legs. There's also the not-so-small matter of a very large 1/20 scale sniper rifle left over from an unfinished attempt at getting a decent-looking Ma.K. figure. Put all of these together, and you have my latest in-progress build: Tatiana, the A.F.S. sniper.

 

"Tatiana" was named after a fictional Soviet sniper of the same name in Harry Turtledove's "Worldwar" series of books. It just seemed like a good fit. It's certainly a good series of books.

 

Since all I really have to work with is the AFS torso and the resin SAFS legs, there's going to be a fair amount of scratch-building going on. The arms are going to need to be built, the "skirts" and shoulder armor will need to be created, and I'll need to detail up interior a bit, since I'm not going to give her a helmet. And while we're on the interior, I've done quite a bit of cutting & scraping already, since the "stock" AFS kit just has a head, the tippy-top of the shoulders, and that's it. I've removed some of the plastic from inside the kit, and vastly modified a "Geech" torso in order make it fit in there. And it wasn't just modifying the size. No... With an Xacto knife, I removed the lapel and chest markings as well--to give the shirt a less decorated appearance. More along the lines of what you'd find on a SWAT sniper--at least, what you think you'd find.  Fortunately, because of how little you'll be seeing of it once she's done, there was no need to worry about certain gender-specific features of the torso.  

 

I also spent a LOT of time, effort, and resin trying to get a decent recast of the female head I was going to use. For some reason, the resin really didn't want to pour into her nose, so I made about six or eight attempts and managed to squeeze out two decent heads. And, in the process, got enough casts of the other heads to keep me from needing to make more of those for years and years.

 

I've got a long ways to go, but I've made good progress so far. And, hopefully, I'll finish her and/or a couple others before starting another entirely new Ma.K. build. Till next time, here's a link to a great reference I've been using on this build: Jason Eaton's AFS Mk.II Split Suit.

(a.k.a. "How To Make A Heinrich Without the Kit")

Just as a one-stop guide to scratch-building a Heinrich, I've compiled the following and posted it over at FineScale Modeler.com...

Left side: Scratch-build / Right side: Nitto PKA "Heinrich"

I recently suggested that, if someone were anxious for a Maschinen Krieger "ground suit" (other than those five different A.F.S. variations), they should try their hand at building their own. It's probably easier than you think to build something resembling the PKA H0/H1 suit, with only one kit being a true "requirement" to get started.

I'll walk you through the steps I took to make my own, but I'll also remind you that there are far better modelers out there than I (as if that wasn't readily apparent), and I hope this inspires you to (1) Try your hand at scatch-building a suit, and (2) Go with the flow and let your own creativity guide you. I'll also note that this is not a 100% scratch-build, but I will point out where I used "stock" Ma.K. parts and what could be used for substitutions. I also need to note that this isn't a "canon" Heinrich. It's just my own little variant.

The Torso - The first thing you'll need is a 1/48 Hughes OH-6/500D helicopter model, like this:

At last check, there were three different versions of this heli at Squadron.com--all made by Academy. I'd recommend the 500D, as it also has a number of other useful parts for Ma.K. scratch-builds, but that's just me. As of this writing, I've actually started three separate Heinrich-style scratch-builds, but only one is finished. So I'll mainly be referring to that one, but will point out others as appropriate.

The first step is to glue the main section of the heli together--skipping the interior/exterior details:

From there, you'll need to cut it down to the size of the Ma.K. torso. The easiest way is to compare it to an actual Ma.K. kit, but you can certainly just "eyeball" it, too. If you're going for canon-accuracy, you'll also want to remove the rotor housing (like so), but it's not necessary as it was more-or-left as is on the Ma.K. "Gustav" suit.

On my completed build, I made it closed canopy, but you can certainly do an open canopy as well. You'll just need to come up with mechanical details for the cockpit area. For the closed cockpit, you just seal everything up, cut the torso, apply lots of putty, and then sand till you've pretty-well wiped out all the seams.

For the open cockpit... In this build, I used parts from a 1/12 motorcycle, a 1/72 B-25J, and plain old Evergreen styrene. I then added a seat, using a section of the "floor" from that same helicopter kit--with some bits of styrene added on.

For the rear of the torso (the "engine"), just make something up. 1/12 motorcycle kits are a great source of parts--as are 1/72 armor builds. Here's a tacked-together engine I put together for an open cockpit. The exhaust pipe came from an AFS, but there's a very similar piece that can be pulled from the heli kit. And here's what I used for the closed cockpit version. Motorcycle parts, 1/72 T34 road wheel, styrene, and Milliput (for the welds).

The shoulders were just styrene pipe, cut to shape. 

Once all that was done, I took a handy-dandy jar of "Mr. Surfacer 500" (a favorite amongst armor modelers) and just dabbed it on using an old brush for that "cast iron" appearance. Here's a giant picture of the results. Please note that not everything needs that cast texture. I just gave it to the torso itself while leaving the engine, shoulders, windows, and chest protrusion un-textured.

For the front of the torso, I just added on a few pieces that seemed to fit. I can't even remember where they all came from. I know there were a couple from that 1/72 B-25J and one from the heli kit. I also stuck some brass and random bits to that box/viewfinder, but I can't remember where I pulled them from. I just "made it up as I went".

A Call to Arms (or for arms... whatever)

The arms were simple. Just styrene pipe. I used a hobby-sized pipe cutter to cut the styrene to length (and also used it to get the upper arms a "seam"). I added some pieces of styrene pipe to the upper arms, just for some additional detail. From there, I used the standard hobby knife to give it some seams, filled the arms with Milliput (later learning that using resin to fill them would have been better/easier), and drilled 1/16" holes into the center of the arms so that they could be "posed" using pieces of copper wire bent to shape. Here's the results.

The "gun" was actually a recast of the Raptor gun, with details sanded away and then fiddly bits added back on. In lieu of Ma.K. parts, you can just grab the TOW launcher from that 1/48 heli, seeing as it was the donor part for the Gustav's gun-arm, anyways.

The right hand was another Ma.K. scavenged part. As a substitute, you can use a 1/144 Bandai Zeon-style hand (the B-Club parts work best). Of course, you can always just make your own, too. I made the hand pictured here from a Gundam "Master Grade" hand, styrene, and other odds & ends.

For the arm joints, I used Milliput sculpting putty, water, and a toothpick. Just wrap the putty around the wire, mold it roughly into shape with your finger, gouge out some creases with the point of the toothpick and roll others using the toothpick as a teeny-tiny rolling pin. After that, just use a paintbrush to brush water over the Milliput joints--this will smooth out any hard lines. And here's my results for that.

Looking at the picture in the above link, a couple other miscellaneous notes... The shoulder "armor" was a pair of fake fingernails, cut down on one side. The skirt holders on the sides of the torso were L-shaped styrene (with some tiny styrene rod cut to the shape of bolt-heads). The front "skirt" was a ping pong ball. And, while I used Ma.K. pieces for the side skirts, these can also be attained via a hacked up ping pong ball. The rear skirt is straight, and was just made from a thicker piece of sheet styrene.

Giving Him A Leg To Stand On (or two!)
The legs are the part of this guy that I'm the least happy with, but they work--and they're probably also the least noticed part of the finished build.

For the upper part of the legs, I cut two pieces of square styrene tube at an angle, as this best reflects the kit pieces. From there, I used a hobby knife to cut vertical seams into the sides, and added some thin styrene pieces to represent latches.

For the lower legs, I used styrene tube, again with the seam & latches. As with the arms, I filled both leg sections with resin, drilled out 1/16" holes, and connected them with wire. Here's what it looked like. On the back of the lower legs, I cut out a piece of styrene pipe and attached it, to represent the rear ankle armor.

For the knees, I used styrene tube and some rounded piece I found in the shelving section of a local building supply store. The gray parts in the picture (where the cables attach) were just cut up pieces of some drop tank from a 1/72 aircraft model.

The feet on the PKA H0/H1 are simple affairs, so I just sculpted them from Milliput. I used the inside curve of a smaller fake fingernail to give the front a more uniform appearance. I also used a fair amount of putty & sanding to try to achieve a uniform appearance. The outer ankle armor was styrene attached to styrene rod. The "inner armor" on the insides of the feet was just thin styrene with two holes poked in it with a push pin. Simple, but effective.

As a nearly-last step in the construction phase, I simply added some hoses from Mechaskunk. In retrospect, I'm not happy with their gravity-defying appearance, but oh well... They're eye-catching, at any rate.

After I got done slinging some paint and pulling decals out of the spares bin, he looked more like this:

Walkaround: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6

Other shots: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5

Everything was hand-painted in Tamiya acrylics. Washes with the same. Dry-brushing provided the weathering. Decals were from the spares bin, with a German WWI aircraft decal giving him his (Ma.K. canon) unit marking.

This build was done over nine months ago, and I learned a lot in the process. There's just as many "what-not-to-do" examples in here as anything else. In other words, I know he has mistakes which I have no intention of repeating. He's basically a proof-of-concept.

In Closing... I'd just like to thank everyone at maschinenkrueger.com for their continuous input towards my build. The guys there are much better at this than I am. I'd also like to thank FichtenFoo for his input and insprational builds. I'm open to any questions, comments, or constructive criticisms you care to make. And I hope this helps give some folks a direction to look if they feel the insane compulsion to try this on their own. Finally, here's where he ended up--next to a 95% scratch-built S.A.F.S.
 

I tested the limits of my own sanity by doing that S.A.F.S. scratch-build in seven days... Never again.

So last night, after fiddling around with the new Ghostbusters game for a good long while, I put some work back in on whatever this is (he still needs a name). I decided to give him some white identification bands. Two on the torso, and one on each forearm. I also decided that I wanted to try my hand at using salt for masking. It probably would've helped if I had actually gone and looked up the technique rather than just assuming that I knew what I was doing. In retrospect, I don't think I knew what I was doing. In the proper hands, using salt works great to simulate paint chipping--which is what I wanted to do: I was trying to give the appearance that the white had chipped off, revealing the orange underneath. Did I succeed?

 

First, I masked off the areas of interest with Tamiya masking tape. From there, I brushed on some plain old water and then just basically sprinkled kosher salt on it. Looking back on it, I can't remember if I was supposed to use kosher salt or sea salt--I still haven't double-checked the process this morning. Regardless, I obviously didn't give it enough time for the water to dry before I started painting. And then, once I had it painted, I didn't give the paint enough time to dry before scraping off the salt. It would've been a "comedy of errors" if I'd found any humor in it.

 

I'm still not sure what I think of the end results. Thankfully, my crappy cell phone snapshot hides most of the details. I suppose it could've turned out far worse than it did. It needs a little bit of touch-up (the result of masking + hand painting), but I think I may be somewhat satisfied with the results. I'll have to sit and stare at it for awhile, I suppose. At any rate, he's moving forward.

 

I've even got ideas--and reference photos--for the semi-simple base. I'll be moving forward on that as soon as I can figure out how to fake a 1/20 scale slab of cement.

This weekend was the monthly meeting of the local IPMS. By chance, it was also a "bring & build" meeting--where you just bring in the kit you want to work on and put in as much time and effort as you care to. I opted to push forward on the AFS-conversion build--specifically, I brought along some Milliput and water to sculpt the elbow and shoulder joints. And I did! As with previous efforts, I just rolled the two parts of the Milliput together, wrapped them around the brass wire I was using to connect the arm pieces, and then shaped them to fit. From there, I used a toothpick (both the point and as a tiny "rolling pin") to sculpt simulated folds into the Milliput so that it took on the appearance of creases in the heavy fabric that would make up the joints. And, honestly, the results turned out better than usual. Not perfect, but my best joints to date. I also did a little bit of seam work on the Gustav at the meeting, but nothing worth reporting out on.

 

Back at home, over the last two days, I managed to glue on the hip armor and also started painting. The overall suit is going to be orange (and all I have is gloss--that flat lacquer better do its job!), while the joints will be brown and the mechanical details will be gunmetal and flat aluminum. All Tamiya acrylics, of course. I've also got a pretty solid idea on what I'm going to do for the base but it will--not-so-surprisingly--require a trip out to HobbyTown, so I'll wait to report out on that, too.

 

And apologies, as usual, for the crappy cell phone pics. I think "better camera" will be one of the key selling points for my next cell phone. That... and a keyboard.

Just for kicks--and insanity--I've added a fourth model to the mix of "currently in-progress". Depending on the day, and which way the coin flips, I am actively working on every one of these every few days or so; which makes them all "active builds". I'm currently recasting the legs on two of them--to make resin parts for future scratch-builds--so, they've more-or-less been "inactive" since Sunday. And because of that, I decided to go ahead and take a stab at another kit that I had virtually all the parts ready to go for: Francesco Benedettini's "Hard Boiled" AFS conversion.

 

This particular piece is basically a torso and a gun arm (along with a smattering of other bits & bobbles) to change up the appearance of the standard AFS. God knows, the AFS line needs a little more variety. Since Wave re-engineered and re-launched the Maschinen Krieger "Armored Fighting Suit", they've released five different variants--with a sixth slated for September. And most fans are getting pretty tired of staring at the same ol' lines of the AFS, so this conversion is very welcomed. It's also slightly controversial, as there's some question as to the actual origin of the design, but I'll leave that to others to deal with. For me, 20 euros was a welcome price to pay for some of the most flawless resin I've ever seen. The torso consists of about six resin parts or so. The gun-arm is one piece, and then there's bits to add to the upper arms and lower legs. I belive the rest of it are parts dran from the AFS.

 

I had started an AFS nearly a year ago, but abandoned it after having gone so far as to paint it in a dark yellow. I was just bored with the kit itself (this was my fourth AFS) and couldn't decide on any terribly interesting ideas. Now, I've taken it back out, removed the torso, cleaned up the seams a little better, modified the appropriate existing kit parts, and glued/wired/pinned a few things together. I have a few ideas where to go with this thing, but I'll leave them on the drawing board for now. Hopefully, I'll have more progress to post soon. Maybe even a resin casting tutorial. Maybe.

I don't have an in-progress report to give you--mainly because I don't have any decent pictures to post. Regardless, I do have something I want to touch upon briefly: Where to buy stuff. Now, you may find yourself in a position where something you've seen on my blog--or elsewhere on the net has sparked an interest. You want to see what else is out there. You want to see what's available and what other (more talented) people are doing. Such a catch-all exists in the shape of StarshipModeler.com.

 

SSM.com has been around a good, long while now, but if you're just getting interested in this sort of thing, you may not know that. In addition to their news section, they also have review articles on sci-fi kits, online contests, references, and a whole plethora of other things. Two of the more frequently visiting things on their site are their message boards and their online store.

 

On the message boards, you can find build-ups of various models. They have a pretty big focus on North American science fiction, so expect to see a lot of Star Wars, Star Trek, and Battlestar Galactica builds. You will, however, find considerable variety. In addition, they have message board sections for hobby news, what's new in their store, and a trading post for those looking to buy or sell sci-fi kits.

 

Their online storefront is a blessing. They carry many resin kits and kit conversions, as well as mainstream plastic kits. In addition, they sell decals, tools, display stands, books... You name it. And--thankfully--they also import kits directly from HobbyLink Japan to sell in North America (and beyond?) for only a modest mark-up. Not only that, but they're fast. I placed my most recent order on a Thursday afternoon, they mailed it on Friday, and the parcel arrived on my doorstep (via USPS, no less) the following Monday. In short, they're fast--really fast.

 

So... To sum it all up, if you've stumbled across this blog and found something about science fiction that has at least piqued your interest, I highly encourage you to check out StarshipModeler.com. They've got something for every sci-fi enthusiast.