1/72 Macross Armored Factory

[pengbuzz]

For a while now, I've seen the Macross Armored Factory kits online, and while I like the idea, the scale is too small for me. Additionally, my valkyries are all in 1/72 scale. So what is a pengbuzz to do?

Build the factory in 1/72, as a diorama/base/backdrop.

So first, the wall and door get traced and cut:

 

A tad smaller than I wanted, but whatever.  I only have so much mattboard and not a lot of money.

 

Door has been cut and placed, along with the beginnings of the wall:

 

Starting the "lock holes" for the moving gantry/walkway"

 

Not as bad on the scale as I feared, but still a little smaller than I originally wanted:

 

Next up: the floor with turntables; I plan on deepening this with a thicker base and wells or the turntables:

 

Added a "human-sized" door for forklifts and the like:

 

And last night, added the moving crane arm well, glued into position for this setup. Moving parts for me usually break, so I don't do much with them:

Stay tuned folks, more to come as I progress...

 

Edited August 4, 2019 by pengbuzz

[Bolt]

Bad a$$ !!

ya I had one of those , back in the day. But I agree. 1/100 is too small and I think misproportioned.

Very inspirational! Keep going

[tekering]

4 hours ago, Bolt said:

I had one of those , back in the day. But I agree. 1/100 is too small and I think misproportioned.

Not even remotely anime-accurate, either.  

I spent a great deal of time capturing images of the hangar bays from the Blu-rays as research for my diorama; if you're scratch-building anyway, perhaps these images will inspire you.

 

[Bolt]

Sweet

[pengbuzz]

Thanks for the pics, tekering; I'll see if I can use some of the details in this!

 

21 hours ago, Bolt said:

Bad a$$ !!

ya I had one of those , back in the day. But I agree. 1/100 is too small and I think misproportioned.

Very inspirational! Keep going

Thanks Bolt.

Just wanted to post a bit of an update here:

The truck was actually a knock-off g1 Constructicon that was dirt cheap: Mixmaster. I simply did some mods and rebuilt it (was busted anyways) into the boom truck for the factory section:

 

Stay tuned folks...

[pengbuzz]

UPDATE: some more paint and detail work-

 

While it's still not finished (still want to add my own details in addition to the walkways, crane and other regular detailing), I wanted to show the paintwork I got done so far:

 

And yeah: the lettering was a royal PITA to do freehand, especially curving around one of the turntables (no printer ink right now, so this is my only option):

More to come; stay tuned...

Edited August 6, 2019 by pengbuzz

[derex3592]

that looks great dude! 

[pengbuzz]

4 hours ago, derex3592 said:

that looks great dude! 

Thanks! I'm doing my best with this.

 

[pengbuzz]

Okay folks, an update on my latest progress: I got to thinking about it, and simply having the turntables immobile and the crane in much the same condition was just not going to fly very well on this project. If they could get both working on the 1/100 scale, then I had pretty much no excuse (i.e.: laziness) for mine to be stuck in place.

Soooo.....

 

I began by cutting the "turntable" sections out the rest of the way; they had already been scored during the initial assembly, and it simply took a little more to separate them entirely.

 

I then backed them with several thick layers of old vinyl-covered foam Venetian blind slats (pretty heavy stuff) and turned them into rotating "blocks" that would sit in the turntable wells:

 

The wells themselves got lined with thin sheet cardboard and then  surfaced and painted:

(We'll get to the small yellow tow car in a moment)

So the turntable blocks sit in the wells and rotate simply by turning them by hand. No pivot point is needed, as the well guides the table and the rotation naturally happens.

Meantime, I needed a few more things than just the "Bucket Truck":

From the aforementioned "foam slats" and a piece of wooden dowel, I crafted the rolling transport platform that the mech stands on while being rolled into the factory area. After covering the transport in masking tape (what else? ), I painted it in a way I thought would make sense:

How it looks on the turntable:

 

Now onto the tow vehicle: I noticed that the 1/100 factory also had one of these, so if they have it, I must as well! I glued 3-4 very heavy pieces of plastic that I had from and old printer/scanner, and glued some sprue to the bottom for wheels:

 

Then a snazzy little paint job with some spare decals i had from a couple of previous builds:

 

 

In place amongst the other vehicles; I also painted up a spare gunpod dolly in the same yellow. In a bit, I'll make a "pin" to allow the tow vehicle to tow the dolly around (Heloooo dolly! :D).

I then devised a system to let the crane slide without binding up:

 

I figured a simple pin-and-slide system would work, with the pin riding the slot in the housing A pair of guides on the inside keeps the slide from wobbling:

Pin and slide in place:

Front side (with crane arm in place):

The bottom of the crane is essentially a "boot" of plastic that glides on another piece of plastic in the track. It allows for simple movement that is supported, yet also allows for the crane to be removed so i can transport this setup safely:

 

The crane fully attacked; I also made a multi-utility arm that needs some warning stripes and other graphics. it also moves on the crane arm via a sleeve that goes around the upper arm:

 

And of course, the gate has been named;

 

So all of this bring us to this point now:

Still needs some paint work and a few other things. But it's come a long way from this:

Stay tuned....

Edited August 10, 2019 by pengbuzz

[Xigfrid]

Woah nice diorama set! I love the small vehicles 

[sketchley]

Excellent work!

 

Quote

I figured a simple pin-and-slide system would work, with the pin riding the slot in the housing A pair of guides on the inside keeps the slide from wobbling:

This is very similar to the way that they did it on the set.

Personally, I think they added the crane arm to provide extra support for the back of the diorama.  They also have a set of square blocks with right-angled pipes providing additional support on either end of the wall.

 

There's some picts of my building of the set her (technically still a work in progress.  Painting.  ): http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/topic/41609-1100-armored-factory/?tab=comments#comment-1149806

(scroll to the bottom of the post for the relevant picts)

 

Sadly, I noticed that you still have to make oil drums...

 

Edited August 10, 2019 by sketchley

[Bolt]

Looks great amigo! You're crushing it!

[pengbuzz]

11 hours ago, sketchley said:

Excellent work!

 

This is very similar to the way that they did it on the set.

Personally, I think they added the crane arm to provide extra support for the back of the diorama.  They also have a set of square blocks with right-angled pipes providing additional support on either end of the wall.

 

There's some picts of my building of the set her (technically still a work in progress.  Painting.  ): http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/topic/41609-1100-armored-factory/?tab=comments#comment-1149806

(scroll to the bottom of the post for the relevant picts)

 

Sadly, I noticed that you still have to make oil drums...

 

I have oil drums:

[derex3592]

You should make these and sell them! 

[Bolt]

1 hour ago, derex3592 said:

You should make these and sell them! 

Or trade for some Frontier Valks..

[pengbuzz]

3 hours ago, derex3592 said:

You should make these and sell them! 

 

2 hours ago, Bolt said:

Or trade for some Frontier Valks..

I didn't know oil drums were that hard to find! O.o

 

[pengbuzz]

Question: What can you make using the roller barrel from a "rolling ruler"?

Answer: a jet engine.

So, "how did you end up thinking of this" you ask? Well,  I was looking through the other "Factory" kits that Arii had in 1/170 (that Revell later issued under the Robotech line), and saw one that had a jet engine or two in it:

I couldn't resist... I just had to have one for the diorama.

And so:

One section of ruler barrel, a trimmed-down fan assembly from an old F-15 fighter kit and some masking tape and paint later, I had one to put on the dolly that came with my fighter.

Here's how it looks in the factory dio:

 

This is probably now going to progress beyond the scope of the original, with some additional stuff culled from other sources.

Stay tuned....

[Bolt]

Great job man. You're on a roll!

[MechTech]

Looking GREAT Pengbuzz? You have a lot of cool details in there. Yeah, old printers are awesome for all kinds of parts. I usually find old ones for $5 at thrift stores. -MT

 

[pengbuzz]

On 8/11/2019 at 1:38 PM, Bolt said:

Great job man. You're on a roll!

 

On 8/11/2019 at 4:32 PM, MechTech said:

Looking GREAT Pengbuzz? You have a lot of cool details in there. Yeah, old printers are awesome for all kinds of parts. I usually find old ones for $5 at thrift stores. -MT

 

Thanks Bolt and MT!

Speaking of which, time for...an update-

After cramming both VF-1's into the same space, I finally broke down and decided to build a second transporter:

I deliberately made it look slightly "newer" (not so dinged up), as you'll often find with older and newer factory equipment on the production floor. But I tried to make sure they were the same design and all, even though a couple of places are slightly different on them.

Ah, well...

Anyways, shots of both Skull-1 and Vermillion-1 on their transporters:

I installed the beginnings of a framework to represent building girders and such; it's a bit crude and rudimentary at the moment. I hope to get some materials to build it up a bit in a little while here.

A little "addition" while I was at it:

" A pair of "LED digital signs" denoting what is going on in the "A" and "B" parts of the bay.I plan on coloring these light red to complete the effect, and then cover them with clear acetate to give them that "electronic sign" look.

(I almost put in "Jiffy Lube Oil Change Special for UN SPACY members: $15.95!" )

Stay tuned folks....

 

[pengbuzz]

Okay, I'm finally calling this one "done":

I finally got the "elevating balcony/ walkway" done (you can see it in the last pic but not the first), but I'm not making it moveable due to the fact that one square peg holds it, and I feel continually remounting it in more of the square wall holes will just weaken them over time. So, est to leave it where it is for now. I may make a ratcheting slide/lock system if and when i get the parts and time, but that's not for a while to come.

I also made a figure in 1/72 for my tow vehicle: "Bob" from Engine Services:

He's made from multiple strands of twist-tie wire that have been tightly twisted together, posed and then set with plastic welder and painted. not the best in the world, but it'll do.

A "worm's eye" view of the factory set, as if you walked in there on ground level:

Thanks for following along on this one folks, and happy modelling! - pbz

Edited August 21, 2019 by pengbuzz

[Convectuoso]

Awesome work as usual, @pengbuzz

[Bolt]

Very awesome ! Nicely done!

I'll take mine in kit form

[pengbuzz]

On 8/23/2019 at 2:35 AM, Bolt said:

Very awesome ! Nicely done!

I'll take mine in kit form

lol

[coronadlux]

Very good work indeed

[pengbuzz]

On 8/27/2019 at 9:46 PM, coronadlux said:

Very good work indeed

Thanks! It was a good project to build. Next up, thinking about doing a Destroid in 1/72 scale from scratch. That should be interesting...

[MechTech]

I'm just catching the end of this. Everything came out great Pengbuzz! Especially when you consider it was all scratch built from common materials! - MT

[arbit]

Another Pengbuzz special! Looks great.

[pengbuzz]

On 10/6/2019 at 5:24 PM, MechTech said:

I'm just catching the end of this. Everything came out great Pengbuzz! Especially when you consider it was all scratch built from common materials! - MT

 

On 10/6/2019 at 9:30 PM, arbit said:

Another Pengbuzz special! Looks great.

Thanks guys; was going to do a destroid, but kind of low on just about everything right about now. Christmas is pretty bombed-out this year, seeing as I failed both of my exams for the A+ cert and we're pretty much in "survival mode" about now. All I can say is "FML"....

[MechTech]

Sorry Pengbuzz! I feel for you. I had to go through the whole A+ thing when I was a technician. Don't give up! Group study helps if you can find some study buddies, that's what I did. I've been in your shoes. I had a tough time going from my last career to my present. I'm praying for you! - MT

[Bolt]

Sorry to hear that amigo. This project is bomba!! I really want one!

Best wishes to you 

[neptunesurvey]

Nicely done.