Disassembling/repainting a 1/12 Scopedog question

[QuinJester]

I recently got a Yamato scopedog, and while it was neat and all, the flat dull plastic appearance made me a little envious of the DMZ line, so I decided to do something about it.

So far, the project has been going pretty well, but I've got a bit of a snag in the visor; the sliding camera assembly seems to be irremovably attached to the visor itself, which will make the painting of both a nightmarish undertaking. It seems like there's a pin fixing the rotating assembly to the base, but this also seems to be immovable, and before I start wrenching and prying and breaking things, I was wondering if anyone else had any good ideas on how to get this thing apart.

[QuinJester]

No ideas, eh? Ah well, it was worth a shot. I'll just wing it and see how it goes, then.

[eriku]

You might want to try posting this in the Votoms thread just to cover your bases. I know promethem has done some custom work on scopedogs, although to what extent I don't recall.

[EXO]

so sorry... not macross...

Looks awesome so far though. Let give it it's own thread for now.

[Guppy]

I customised mine.. It was a while ago and if I remember the visor parts are glued together.. I had to pry them apart with an xacto knife..carefully.

[Sebastian]

I did same as guppy. You just have to be carefull.

GREAT paint job by the way!

[QuinJester]

I customised mine.. It was a while ago and if I remember the visor parts are glued together.. I had to pry them apart with an xacto knife..carefully.

Hmm... did you pry at the actual point of rotation, or did you pry under the whole assembly to pop it off of the slide?

GREAT paint job by the way!

Thanks! It's been at least four years since I did any painting, so this has been a refresher course for me :lol. It's been a lot of fun though. I'll probably take some more pics today after work.

[QuinJester]

Well, so far it's been a massive failure trying to get the visor apart, so I've decided to knuckle down and just go for it without disassembling it.

Also, since I seem to have been graced with thread approval for this, I figure I may as well put more photos in.

Junkyard Dog in progress!

I completely failed at matching the paint on the mid-torso for the light grey parts, so at some point I'll have to mask off and paint the inner frame part as well. First things first, though.

Right foot, light mud splashes

I really like the paintjob on the back of the scopedog more than the front, right now. C'est la vie!

Need to do something about the knee joints, too. I didn't think they'd be as visible (while it was in pieces) as they are.

That screw on the right, I have NO IDEA where it's supposed to go. <sigh> "I put it together myself, and look! I have all these spare parts..."

Closeup of the back of the right leg. I wanted it to look like the right leg had been re-built from scrap parts, so the various components are made up of two different greens plus a brown (like the scopedog Chirico fights in the arena) shade. I wore down the brown plates more than the green ones and added some corrosion texture to make them look older and more beaten up.

The mud texturing on the inner foot looks awful. Deciding whether to try and remove it or to just add to it at the moment. I want to

keep the mud coverage fairly consistent across both feet though. You can see a bit of the corrosion texturing on the brown leg plate in this shot though.

I have fun plans for this foot. I need to find a good "no step" decal. Unfortunately, all of my old aircraft kits are 200 miles away...

Yamato sticker attack . I tried everything to try and smooth out the transitions on the edges of the stickers but to no avail.

The chest is boring right now. Definitely needs something. Kill marks are a must, and probably some more washes to hide my lazy dry brushing.

Constructive suggestions are more than welcome. Alas, my current living conditions mean I don't have access to an airbrush or a spray booth any more advanced than a cardboard box on my balcony, so airbrush reliant suggestions, while appreciated, probably will be less helpful

Edited June 7, 2008 by QuinJester

[promethuem5]

Extremely cool looking, and I like the replacement part idea... the one criticism I can offer is that you have gone a bit overboard with the paint-chipping effect... there's really no reason for all the paint to be stripped off of every single edge on the machine... some light drybrushing of a lighter tint of green on all the edges would bring out the details and add some wear effect, but actual paint-chipping like that should really only be used on high-traffic areas like the grab handles and bottom edge of the feet and shins, or any specific damage you're trying to add... look at some tank models and such, and think about it. The other thing I could add is that it's not necessarily realistic to have every single ding and scrape on the machine be bright shiny bare metal... most chips either only go down to the primer coat of the metal, or even just leave a superficial mark on the paint, and after a day or two, any down to the metal chips are going to begin to rust in most locales. Otherwise it looks fantastic, and I'm real jealous that you've got the balls and the time to paint up one of these big guys... I've got every release so far except the Scopedog II w/ Round-mover set on my 'to paint and customize' pile

[QuinJester]

Eheh. Yeah. I was going crazy with the drybrushing and I knew it. I'm probably going to go over all the bare metal surfaces with some alternate colors to downplay the paint chips, as you say. A good idea with the rust on the metal exposed surfaces so, that makes sense and would fit with the "reclaimed from the scrapyard" aesthetic I'm going for.

[Guppy]

good work! its easy to go overboard with dry brushing.. I'd go over the chest section again. I got an old smallish paintbrush an cut off most of the brush with scissors so it was like working with a pencil, then brushed it over the edges only to make it look like the paint had worn off due to long term field use.

[Neova]

Sorry to bump but wanted to show off my friend's new custom scopedog:

[QuinJester]

Sorry to bump but wanted to show off my friend's new custom scopedog:

Very cool! I like the way the brown was used as an accent color on the grey parts, especially.

[g3173]

Well, so far it's been a massive failure trying to get the visor apart, so I've decided to knuckle down and just go for it without disassembling it.

Also, since I seem to have been graced with thread approval for this, I figure I may as well put more photos in.

Junkyard Dog in progress!

I completely failed at matching the paint on the mid-torso for the light grey parts, so at some point I'll have to mask off and paint the inner frame part as well. First things first, though.

Right foot, light mud splashes

I really like the paintjob on the back of the scopedog more than the front, right now. C'est la vie!

Need to do something about the knee joints, too. I didn't think they'd be as visible (while it was in pieces) as they are.

That screw on the right, I have NO IDEA where it's supposed to go. <sigh> "I put it together myself, and look! I have all these spare parts..."

Closeup of the back of the right leg. I wanted it to look like the right leg had been re-built from scrap parts, so the various components are made up of two different greens plus a brown (like the scopedog Chirico fights in the arena) shade. I wore down the brown plates more than the green ones and added some corrosion texture to make them look older and more beaten up.

The mud texturing on the inner foot looks awful. Deciding whether to try and remove it or to just add to it at the moment. I want to

keep the mud coverage fairly consistent across both feet though. You can see a bit of the corrosion texturing on the brown leg plate in this shot though.

I have fun plans for this foot. I need to find a good "no step" decal. Unfortunately, all of my old aircraft kits are 200 miles away...

Yamato sticker attack . I tried everything to try and smooth out the transitions on the edges of the stickers but to no avail.

The chest is boring right now. Definitely needs something. Kill marks are a must, and probably some more washes to hide my lazy dry brushing.

Constructive suggestions are more than welcome. Alas, my current living conditions mean I don't have access to an airbrush or a spray booth any more advanced than a cardboard box on my balcony, so airbrush reliant suggestions, while appreciated, probably will be less helpful

okay dude you're twisting my arms so i'll take it... Is it for sale....

[QuinJester]

okay dude you're twisting my arms so i'll take it... Is it for sale....

Er, you know, that thought had never even crossed my mind? I'm still not even finished with it at the moment . Got caught up with real life work. I wouldn't even begin to know what to charge for it, but if you want to start throwing numbers at me, be my guest.

[g3173]

Er, you know, that thought had never even crossed my mind? I'm still not even finished with it at the moment . Got caught up with real life work. I wouldn't even begin to know what to charge for it, but if you want to start throwing numbers at me, be my guest.

Quin,

PM'd ya!