I build one of these straight from the printer a few years ago, but lost it in a fire. When I decided to build it again, I tried to do it on the cheap and print it in black and white then color it.
It looked like crap. Not just the color I chose, the whole idea looked like crap.
I got disgusted, put it away for a few years, stumbled upon it one day, and decided it wasn't hopeless. I'd detail the outside, and while I was at it, magnetize it as well.
I've used magnets before and aligning the polarity was always such a pain in the butt, I went with a magnet-and-washer approach instead. The joins aren't quite as strong, but it made sticking things together much easier. Originally, I just had the magnetized parts sitting flush against each other, but when I rotated the arms, they slid all over the sides of the torso, and the torso slid all over the hips when he was rotated at the waist. I ended up making some "sockets" out of skinny strips of paper wrapped around my magnets and then glued into place.
It's a great technique, because you can get a nice fit, but take care: everything shrinks a little when it dries, and now his joints are pretty tight.
On the plus side, he's pretty flexible.
I also had to rack my brain to come up with a way to make the louvered vents in the rear. I tried cutting out the small slits, and they never came out right. So here's my solution:
- Cut out the center of the vent. You want nothing left but the frame.
- Cut a strip of paper (card, whatever) the WIDTH of the vent.
- Cut several pieces TWICE as wide as the width of the louvers. In this case, the strips were about 3/16" wide, and about 1/4" long.
- Cut one of these strips in HALF LENGTHWISE. Set one piece aside for later.
- Cut a second strip of paper the HEIGHT of the vent hole, and the WIDTH of the vent hole. It should just fit inside.
- Glue one of your super-skinny strips to the bottom end of the piece you cut in Step 5.
- Glue the next piece (regular width piece) so that it halfway overlaps the first piece. You really only have to glue the edge that touches the piece you cut in step 5.
- Repeat until you are as close as you can get to the top edge of the vent hole.
- Finish it off with the second super-skinny piece you set aside earlier.
- Let the whole thing dry, and glue it into the vent hole. Voila! Louvered vents.
For the guns, again, I couldn't cut skinny strips out of the printouts to save my life, so I cheated, and got some fine mesh screen at the local craft store. I think it's originally used for cross-stitching or embroidery or somesuch. Whatever, it's easy to cut, and it works.
As a side note, I used plastic to make the various disks at the elbow and knee joints, and the missile warheads (the red thingies) in the torso. My technique is pretty easy (and it works with paper as well). I have a hole punch for working leather. The business end has a rotating wheel with several different sized punches on it. It's great for making teeny rivets as well as pieces a little over 1/8" across. I usually make a bunch at a time and store the extras for later (and I usually lose a bunch on the floor, too).
I lacquered this along with the test box and another project, and the magnets came in really handy when everything was drying:
Painting was pretty easy. I primed it with cheapo black primer from Walmart, and then finished it up with acrylics.
If I was to do this again, I'd change a few things:
- I'd print 3 copies, because looking at the textures, I could come up with at least 2 layers of details, and of course, I'd need a base to build on.
- I'd plan better, and integrate the magnets from the start, instead of having to pull apart seams, jerry-rig sockets, and so on.
- Use a sharper blade and sand down my edges better. Now that I see the closeup pics, I can see a lot of rough stuff.
- Use black for the shadows instead of brown.
- I'd run some supports horizontally through the hips, probably 2 bamboo skewers. Even though this guy isn't very big, he's pretty barrel-chested and I can see already where they may come apart (this is a gaming mini, so he won't just be on display)
- I'd get a variety of tubes (I used either rolled paper or the guts of some non-functional pens) for gun barrels, and actually cut the holes out and insert the barrels, rather than simply gluing them to the surface.
- Weight the feet. Make them as heavy as possible. I think that and the hip pins will become SOP for every mecha I make from now on.
Cannon Fodder's Eye View:
Extreme Closeup: (I really like how the viewport turned out. It was a combination of red, black, and silver, with a teeny dot of white)
Jotun and the Kirchner out to play:
AUTHENTIC BATTLE DAMAGE! (You have to sound like Kung Fu Panda when you say that) My oldest boy loved the smoke effect.
A Lego Welder and an astromech. They can fix darn near anything.
"I'll fix that #$& *$ @ &*(%# one way or another!"
At any rate, thanks for looking. As always, comments and critiques are appreciated.Here's my photobucket album with even more pictures, if you're interested: http://ift.tt/1SVDNiG
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