Locust Mech - Painted and Done! (continued) ....

.....after finally putting everything together, I finally decided on this paint scheme, which more or less pay tribune to the original Macross Glaug / Robotech Officer Battlepod's red / grey scheme (er..okaay..you can say copied...LOL) : 

Initially I was thinking of a camo-green or desert scheme, but I guess I will have to postpone it until I managed to build another one..

Decals added a finer level detail to it, with a few tiny weeny "CAUTION ...Technical blah blah" here and there.

 

I am really proud of the foot railings I added to the right side of the Locust, I reckoned somehow when the pilot climbs out of the hatch, he has to slowly descent to the side and has somesort of tow cable to slowly lower himself down to the ground or, if you prefer, the traditional 10-metre, Anime jump [in and out of the mech] for you guys who are into the "Ninja Space Robot" kind [add some disco music on the background please]......LOL

 

 

 

The decal on the right shoulder is from a leftover M.ak. kit,, not sure whether there's a chinese word for it, but in Japanese it probably means "shark" or some fish...the decal broke but I smear some paint below to hide it and it kinda pulls off as weathering / battle damage....

 

and here with his buddy, the Warhammer !

 

 

thanks for viewing!

If you missed the making of the Locust Mech, you may click here :

Making the Locust mech from scratch


Cheers!

Locust Mech

The Locust mech has got to be one of my favourite mechs since the birth of Battletech!

"Borrowed" from Joe Crusher, this mech, originally called the Ostall, became one of the "Unseens", which I believe those diehard mecha-heads will have no problems knowing what is it all about! Was there a popular Battletech novel wrote about some Locust mech pilot's adventures? Hmmm.....

Anyway, I was looking at this correction-tape dispenser the other day and the more I look at it, the more it is screaming in my head :" USE ME ! I AM YOUR DESTINY OF A MECH!"

At a dollar each, failing is a bloody option...

And then there was 2 empty dental floss dispensers (I have good oral hygiene...lol) from my bitz box:

... and adding all the parts together, they seem alright and asking for a challenge to my somewhat mediocre scratchbuilding skills..so here it goes!

PREPARATION:

Keyword : Research, research, research. Look at pics. Lots of pics. Make sketches, think how some common parts you see daily can come together, etc HELPS A LOT.

EQUIPMENT :

I think any modellers / scratchbuilders will have all the common equipment here: plastic glue, cutters, files, bits, paperclips (for pinning), pliers, scissors, pipcutter, plastic pipes, rods, etc of various sizes... and the trusty hand drill with various bits for pinning, drilling holes.

Some preparation work is needed, you need to sandpaper or file the plastic surface so paint / glue will stick better and Pinning always helps!

Some plastic rod were pinned and glued to the dental floss containers:

One thing learnt is measuring helps! This ensure when you are building the other side [Right and Left] are consistent...

 

 

I was pretty random at this point onwards, from the legs, I added a piece here, a bit there...hoping the overall feel resembles the real deal...If I were to build another, the joints could have been thicker..so...

 

 

After I got all the important parts, I hold them together for a dry fit, this part is necessary as you get a rough guide on how the overall mech will look like and I wanted it to be able to stand ON ONE LEG just like the one in the classic pic!

 

 

 

What the hell was I thinking?! So I shifted the weight here and there, added 2 rocket launchers to each side. Then I glue all the parts together and glue it on a square, 1mm plastic base, and.....

 

 

TADA! It actually balances! PHEW! The left foot was glued to a square black plastic base while the right foot claw's back claw was only touching it, so I added a dab of glue to adhere it to the base too, so the weight distribution is better.

 

This didnt really look 100 % like the original, but I was glad it's pretty close...

Onwards to adding small details, undercoating and paint later !

 

Thanks for viewing!

 

 

 

 

TO BE CONTINUED

 

Update: it is painted and done! Would you like to know more?



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