mslz22

No surprise how well engineered the kit is with the hardware. One pic to show the color of the foot guard. thanks mike

Thanks, here is the progress for today. I am using Tamiya insignia white for the white since it's scaled a little to gray, pure white looks too white to me. The nacelle are blueish gray, it's actually close to hot rod gray primer, the color of the original BSG studio viper actually, that's why i have it in my color library. For the blue i went to home depot, picked out a blue that i liked, and took it to an auto paint store and had them scan it, custom mix it and put it in a large spray can mixed dead flat. I use the auto paint store a lot for this, it's great to have a library of colors available, and the paint is awesome. It's a little pricey, but it's no more than buying 3 cans of tamiya spray, which is about the volume that you get. The other 2 colors will be gunmetal for some parts and accents and the footpad and foot armor will likely be tamiya storm gray. All the colors were picked keeping in mind that a light wash/filter will be done over the whole model when it's finished, so all the colors will benefit from some added depth. thanks mike

Mods, hope it's OK to put this here, the beast has lived in the forum for a long time so I wanted to share it with the guys here..... mike OK so this has been a lot of 10-15 minute work sessions, but now that i have a little more time in the winter i want to really get going on this if possible, this thing is to awesome to be a shelf sitter. I have made some mods that are specific to soldier mode, in no way are any of the mods a reflection of the kit, just some tweaks that i wanted to do to enhance the soldier mode. I modded the upper nacelle covers a bit to bring them inline with the intake part, added a few chip detail parts and a couple of other small details. The 2 big changes were the heavy mod to the nose to shorten it up for soldier mode, and the first operation on my milling machine to cut a trench into the body just above the hip where the color separation between blue and white are, that gives it a little illusion of separate panels in that area like the art. thanks mike

Which mill did you get? I got the "standard" cheap home one, i guess what is commonly referred to as the X2, the Central Machinery one from harbor freight, almost the same as the grizzly one. I got it on sale so i used the savings to get the upgraded belt drive conversion kit as well from Little machine shop. It will allow for an increase in the RPM, eliminate the broken gear thing, and quiet it down significantly. I should be able to do some aluminum stuff but i really got it to work with Renshape, it should be more than enough to handle that. My metal work would, at least at first, be only for aluminum armatures for the bigger models that i do. For the lathe i have shopfox 1704, i just upgraded it with a Nova 3 chuck, which should improve it significantly. Again, renshape is the material i will be using mostly so it should be powerful enough to handle that. thanks mike

Yeah the Renshape is used sparingly if possible. For the real big stuff like the boss pod I use precision board plus modeling foam board. There is an extra step or two involved in finishing but for stuff with a lot of volume it's a lot less expensive, something like the boss pod with renshape would be cost prohibitive. I am actually in the process of updating the shop a bit, just got a milling machine in, plus upgraded the lathe to a Nova 3 chuck to increase the ease of use on that. I have been wanting a mini milling machine for a long time, i have always had to "fake" certain procedures to get around owning one but figured the time had come to get one. I am hoping that it will increase the accuracy and speed of work. I should be able to do a few more valks in the spring if you guys want one... thanks mike

So after years and years i am really hoping to get this going soon. Casting season is finally wrapped up with only a few odds and ends to send out so i really hope to get more time in on this. Here is just a rough preview, i am hoping by posting it will get me motivated to really get moving on this. The body has been almost completely reworked, the nose, the cannon mounts, side panels, back end have all been reworked or tweaked a bit. It has also been set up for rotocasting. Same with the arm, almost nothing of the original remains, it's a bit longer and more aggressive looking. back end of the gun is complete rework as well, also set up for rotocasting. The engine compartment has had some tweaks as well. New foot also compete rework, will be cast in multiple parts and will be "angled" so that the monstar can have a more aggressive stance.. I still have a lot to do but I have been making progress. I think the only things that will really remain from the V1 will be the arms and even those will get some upgrades. I will be doing my best to make sure this will look at home with the Capt's destroids in the detailing department. thanks mike

Sorry, should have been one in there, I will send it out soon. I still have 2 of these to ship out, sorry for the delay, I tried to avoid the post office during the holidays, especially with a 3 year old in tow. thanks mike

Yep, your fine, cast up a bunch last week. Will be making a push this week to ship out all the stuff i have piled up here that needs to go out.......once all my loose ends are tied up, it's on to the v2 monster... thanks mike

I'll be posing more as i find out more but i am hoping that I will be able to get some of the members here stuff displayed at the "showcase" In short the idea that talked with him about is that the "showcase" would consist of unique sci fi builds, either scratchbuilds or low run garage type kits. I would think that the more commercially stuff would be more in the contest room. It's a little like the stuff that Jason Eaton did at WF with the 30th anniversary of Empire Strikes Back and the Studio Scale display the year that Lorne Peterson showed up. In fact i am hoping that Jason will be there with some new sci fi stuff. Planning to have big SW stuff, big BSG stuff like at the above, I am planning on bringing stuff like my 1/24 AT AT and the 31 inch viper that i did, but I am really hoping to have a section for macross stuff along with Mak and some other anime stuff. Guess i would bring stuff like the 1/24 valk, 1/48 pods etc. I am really hoping that people here will also be able to make it and get some stuff displayed in the showcase or contest. Again the idea for the showcase will be unique stuff, so any of the Capt's kits, old WF kits etc would be great, or any scratchbuilds too.... As more gets hammered out I will likely start a new thread on this, really hoping it all works out.... thanks mike

I have been talking with the guy who runs Jerseyfest about having a Sci-Fi spotlight including some macross stuff. It's a long way away but I am hoping to be able to show some of the macross models I have built in a showcase type display. I am hoping that it can be a mini east coast MW meet up if possible. Here is the website. http://jerseyfestfair.com/ Like I said i am in preliminary talks with him but he does want 2013 to have a heavy Sci-Fi component. mike

Yeah, planning too, just wanted to offer a quick round while i still had some decent weather here. I am hoping that i will be back up and casting in mid march, first up will be seeing if anyone wants pods/pilots. Also hoping that the 1/72nd monster will be done and molded by early april. thanks mike

Hey everyone, these are ready to go, I only have a handful of days left for casting so PM me if you want one. Here is a pic of what has come out of the molds so far, starting to paint mine up. The visor will be in clear vac formed plastic......both heads will be included. Sorry for the long time since updating, it's been a mad dash to get stuff done before the real cold gets here.... thanks mike

Holy cow, that was fast! It looks great, and boy it towers over everything......I like the red accents on the arms and stuff....

Just sticking with the name that he called it....as in "IT LIVES"

Thanks guys, once all the casting is wrapped up for the season I am hoping to finish up the 1/32nd scale "it" masterpiece that Capt America recently got out to us. That is too much of a masterpiece to sit in the box too much longer. After that as far as stuff here goes, I am hoping to finish up the 1/72 monster first, then onto other stuff.....can't cast the monster until spring but it would be good to get that pattern ready. thanks mike

Hey Guys, sorry the last month has been crazy trying to wrap up all the loose ends so i can close up the casting shop for the winter, plus i did lose power last week with the hurricane. I'll be sending decals to those who need them soon, need to get some envelopes that they will fit in. All but 3 kits are shipped, and those are cast up except for a few odds and ends, just need to get them packed up. Looking forward to getting back to some scratchbuilding once everything is shipped out.... thanks mike

Soon as i finish up the visor I will try to get a few ready before the cold weather gets here. I do have a hurricane headed my way in the next handful of days, hopefully that will not derail me too much. thanks mike

Hey Guys, looking forward to all of these builds. Just a note that I am suspending any new orders until spring, the cold weather is on the way. Any orders made up until today will ship out before the end of the casting season. If you did not get one and want one they should still be here in the spring, just time to wrap up casting season and get onto some scratchbuilding...... I will try to get the standing pilot finished up this weekend, i should be able to do a few of those before the winter gets here, more on that later... thanks mike

I think it's too big for any type of articulation, you are going to need to pick a pose and kind of stick with it. Starting with the feet one of the things i am going to recommend is to saw off those little resin locator pins on the ball and replace them with short bits of 1/4 inch brass. Originally i wanted to cast the brass in there but i immediately saw an issue with that tearing up them mold quickly, and it's a huge mold Each individual foot will need a small amount of adjustment via some file work to get them to fit square and parallel to the ball. If i was doing mine again i would get that squared away and reinforced with an additional bit of brass (maybe 1/8) from underneath before gluing in the very bottom of the foot pad. The arm to body connection is pretty easy, mine is actually just CA'd in place for now and it's holding. But what i would do is use 2 small brass pins i the "ball" section of the upper arm. You can either add them where those rivet details are and if you use hollow brass it can appear as detail once sanded and painted, or you can countersink them and fill them over with some apoxy sculpt. For anyone not familiar with apoxy sculpt it's a resin kit builders best friend IMO, it takes overnight to set, but it sets to almost the same hardness as resin so if you need to do things like seam work that requires some panel line work it's ideal. You won't get that panel line "wobble" that seems to happen all too easily with bondo. Moving on to the legs. Once the feet are assembled I got a piece of plywood that will function as a base at some point, did some fiddling with the waist/upper legs/legs and feet to sketch out where the feet need to be on the plywood. I then marked it, pre drilled some holes in the plywood and feet, and secured the feet with drywall screws from underneath the plywood into the bottom foot pad. This is invisible to the important parts of the feet and gives you a very sturdy platform to build the rest of the kit. The lower legs have 2 small dots on them that are locator marks for the red/clear bumps you see in the pics. Use those bumps to hide brass pins. Basically you will pre drill thru those to where the leg meets the ball of the foot. You will then be able to play around a bit to find out how you want to pose those legs, I kind of used a bit of hot glue to temp hold everything together. I then marked the ball of the foot by using the drill bit thru those pre drilled holes in the legs. You can then disassemble the whole thing for painting, drill those holes in the ball of the foot deeper for the pins to really grab in. Once it's all painted up and you reassemble it those bumps will be able to hide the brass pins. The rest of it from there is pretty straight forward, the hip joint is locked in good and secure. I would add some extra pinning to the body/leg connector thingy. Let me know if anyone needs help with assembly. I did take some pics of the assembly that i have not posted yet but hope to at some point. The next few weeks are super busy as i wrap up casting season but once things calm down i will try to get together at least a small guide. thanks mike

Helmeted pilot head done for the most part. Once i get these 2 parts molded up i can use a casting of the inner helmet to make the visor and this will be ready to go... thanks mike

Thanks very much for the compliments. I really hope the kit lives up to everyone's expectations. The first round of decals has shown up, so i will be able to get some in the mail soon to those of you who have kits without decals. mike

I was thinking more along the line of 1/12 to go with the old ride armor kits.....maybe someday... Really here is my wishlist for the next few years, not all of these may make it or make it into kit form, I do not know square 1 about 3D printing and i have a feeling that my days are numbered as far as offering up kits to you guys in that respect. Anyway, here is the list. 1/72nd scale monster 1/48 monster 1/48 tv Q armor suit 1/1500 tv Sdf 1/12 inbit 1/72nd regults in "army building" configuration, that equals cheap, no interior, designed to be built and painted fast. I know the Capt already covered the regult in superb fashion, but i would want to tackle this just for the fun of it and to have a correctly size (in comparison to the plastic kit) regult for myself...well a few at least Again, who knows what the future holds, this is just a wishlist, and all this needs to fit in between paying casting gigs, and real life stuff like the family, plus like i said if 3D gets cheap enough to print big stuff cheap enough these will not be kits, just 1 off's mike

I did not want to do joints because this is intended to be more of a statue to display with either the pod kits or even 1/48 valks if you don't have a pod, I felt that the joints would make it look more like an "action figure". That being said if someone wanted to add joints, it would not be difficult, and when it comes to resin kits it's always easier (IMO) to remove material than add it. In this case removing some material with a file or dremmel to accommodate the joints. I finished the molds for everything i have on this last night. I will pour up a head casting to build the 2nd helmeted head up tonight, that will take a few days as i need to do the inner helmet, outer helmet and a visor. thanks mike

Kind of continued from the boss pod thread, I wanted to have a thread devoted only to the figures. I will have a 2nd enemy "grunt" in the works soon as well and will all kind of land here. So i commissioned a sculptor to make a 1/48 standing enemy pilot, here is what he sent me..... He had a very busy summer and this obviously was a bit rushed. However I do appreciate his work, this was a really great starting point for me to refine from. I never would have gotten the head that good on my own, and while it needed a few changes, it really was a quick thing to refine. Some of the changes were style stuff and a few of the proportions needed attention, some of that I'm sure is due to the limitations of the line art. First i noticed that the torso was a bit short, he kind of needed a mid riff, so i cut him in half and added about 5-6mm in the center. That allowed me to give him a bit more of an action hero V shape, I also trimmed the upper armor a bit to add to the V shape, also toned down some of the belt height. I then lengthened the arms a bit and gave him a little bit of biceps under the armor, added some shoulder armor, a little attention to the legs, added some more hair detailing, and some additional clean up and he is just about ready to go. Here is what I wound up with after my work to the piece. Once I mold the head i will take the first casting and build a helmeted head around it, then i can offer both in 1 kit, with a magnet the head can be swappable. thanks mike