mslz22

And a little primer to see it start to come together.

So I, like many model makers are really bad at sticking to one project. But cleaning my shop I stumbled upon this kit in my stash, which I got from the boys at Wfest a bunch of years ago. It's such a beautiful (and rare?) kit I just had to get going on it. Not too many parts so I am hoping to finish it in time to bring to Wfest this year. Totally borrowing the panel lines from this amazing build. I'm going to be adding some of my own little details along with way, but the kit would be amazing out of the box. Thanks again guys! Rough map of the panel lines . Pinstripe material is great for creating an edge to guide the etching on these curvy surfaces. Once etched I pencil in to check the work.

Looks worth the price just for the box art!

Well I need like a 10 pack for the 1/48 when your ready.

So cool, so this would be done on like a vinyl cutter? My only request would be to do it in like a 5 or 10 pack to allow for multiple builds and mistakes.

Fantastic, fit, finish, weathering, chipping, everything great job.

One of the better looking kits from back in the day. As most of know that this is really scaled more like 1/100 rather than the stated 1/72. I'm doing a bunch of mods to make this a fixed dynamic pose rather than as designed. The kit has a great vintage look and with a little sprucing up I think it can look really good while maintaining a nostalgic look to it. Some of the mods are so I can achieve the fixed pose I want, and some are to mod detail or simply restore detail. These kits were not always really well thought out in regard to building with seam lines running thru details etc, but it's a fun challenge for playing around with downtime, of which I have very little of so I have been playing with this kit for over a year here and there to even get this far. One of the things that I have found that I really like for these old kits is using small acrylic spheres to make faux ball joints, faux in the sense that they are not functional but work for making a fixed pose. I have tons of them purchased in bulk from US Plastics. Using Weld on 16 they bond really well with the sytrene. I will also be using them to replace the "sensors" on the legs and engine things as well as the eye, all of which should have been clear parts in this kit. For some of the details like the recessed vents in the legs it's really easier to just dremmel out the detail and restore it with plastruct detail as the seam runs impossibly thru the detail panel. Same will be done with the arm venting. I never liked the recessed panels they added to the foot ball so I have filled those with apoxie sculpt along with the slot that runs along the track. This will allow for posing along the left/right axis of the foot.

Thanks, it was a bit nerve wracking to be on camera!

Sorry, I got super busy with stuff for Comic Con NYC and some other big projects. I am back doing some casting and can fit a few in if anyone wants them. $110 each plus shipping, includes decals. PM me, I will check here every couple of days. I have barely had time to check MW in the last 2 months. Time goes by too fast! mike

Could I make something that would allow it to keep it's transformation? Short answer yes if I made something that mimics the 1/48 Yamato swing bar. That being said it's completely unreasonable IMO to do so for a 1/55, I bet it would be like 2 grand of my time/work to do something like that. I am happy to stick to non transformables for these customs, like I said most of these are $20 beaters. The ball joints for the shoulder and hips are just 3/8 diameter brass balls that come pre threaded with a 8-32 thread. I just get some 8-32 machine bolts and cut them to the size I want. In the case of the hips the threaded rod is just straddled across the "headlights". You have to hog out a trench for them to sit in. Then I just putty up the nose and glue it all together and it's good to go. For the shoulders you need to make some mods but it's the same idea, basically a 5/8 8-32 screw covered with a 5/32 piece of brass replaces the post. In both cases I use apoxy sculpt to fill in the voids and then drill out 3/8 receiver for the ball joints. It has limited motion, but these are not for playing with.

Thanks, update for today, still lots to do. I made 3 mods to this that i have not done before. 1 is the hip sockets, which is cool not only for the pose but it also gets the legs in the right place. 2 Same type ball sockets at the shoulder. 3. I eliminated the backpack connector part and attached the boosters directly to the standard backpack. This brings those boosters in a bit tighter. Overall it only changes the proportions of the 1/55 a little bit, but I think it goes a long way. Of course all this only works as a non transformable battloid, but I kind of feel like this is what the 1/55 "wants" to be in battloid mode. Either way I feel like it's a good use of a $20 beater.

Another one one the bench, Hikaru 1S non transformable made from a beater with numerous broken parts. This will get non removable armor soon.

Done I guess...

Milia getting there.

Thanks, I'm sure it's my age talking but nothing gives me the warm feeling I want from collecting than a 1/55 custom. It took me years to realize it, but for all the superior releases in 1/48 and 1/60 it's the 1/55 chunky that makes me happy.

Max Super Battoid, only took me 32 years to get one done!

Getting close on Max

So here is a nifty little last minute mod that i don't know if I have seen before. I'm sure someone else may have. One of the things that always drove me crazy about doing customs is that the swing bar pin (that black spring loaded thingy) always would scratch the paint for the most part. I got lucky sometimes with weakening the spring and putting some petroleum jelly on the pin. And it was always a crap shoot. So here I am using 1/4 neodymium magnets on the metal swing bars, you have to drill out the area that pin would be coming out. Then on the nose I put 1/8 steel pins. I found that using steel rather than another magnet, while weaker does not have the issue of them needing to be lined up exactly. I beef up the connection of both the magnets and the pins with a little apoxy sculpt.

Thanks, for the sake of keeping these "reto" I have been using rattle cans of Krylon fusion. It's a great paint for 1/55's and keeps the look of those early 2000's customs I am going for. It's also very scratch resistant after about a week of setting. However, I will say that after 10+ years of using an airbrush exclusively to paint, using a rattle can kind of feels like trying to set a delicate brass furniture screw with a hammer. After this one I may try decanting it into one of my cheaper airbrushes. I just figured out that it cleans up nice with lacquer thinner. I was never sure if it was an enamel or acrylic, but lacquer thinner really cleans it up easy.

And getting some armor started.

The amount of masking that goes into a set of these is way more than I expected. Getting thru it slowly and starting to decal where I can.

Changed the topic, please if anyone else is working on 1/55 stuff feel free to post here. Summer seems a great time to get stuff done.

Summer time means long days home with the kids, that means I have tinker time when the only thing that makes sense to tinker with, 1/55 customs! Max and Millia in progress.