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Story »
Just like the Marines of today and
their "Toys
for Tots" program, the Mercenaries of
Earth's distant future too have their holiday
gift-giving traditions. With his red "suit"
and large belly, Santa still visits Earths children
on Christmas. The times nessecitate him to be
a little more armored, but the spirit of giving
and the look of joy on the childrens faces makes
the dangerous trek across the war-torn landscape
a worth-while cause.
About The Build »
This is my fat-type conversion for
Nitto's 1/20 scale Super Armored Fighting Suit
kit. From the start I planned on making jolly
old Saint Nick the focus of my build. Who else
would need such a large variant of the SAFS? I
started with the base hull for the body and using
plastic Easter eggs and lots of Bondo, Magic Sculpt,
Apoxy Sculpt, and sanding I molded the large belly
and bum for this piece.
After some requests for casts of
it I decided to make this a conversion kit. Since
all the other Fat-type SAFS pieces I've seen used
the Raptor gun arm, I built mine and had it cast
to go along with the body. This particular build
is using one of the first pulls from the mold.
The 'bulk' of this suit was just
following the normal SAFS instructions and just
replacing the torso and gun arm with the 2 new
parts. I molded new joint covers from Apoxy Sculpt
for the elbows, knees, and ankles. I think these
are my best joint covers yet.
After priming, I painted the kit
in white, then masked off the stripes and painted
the kit a bright brick red. Then I added various
clear-coats and weathering. So I don't have to
retype what I did for this SAFS since it was mostly
the same as my last, please click
here for my Bloodwind in-progs.
Once main weathering difference
was the addition of mud splashes on the SAFS and
boy. Since it is winter the melting snow would
cause for muddy paths. I used a combination of
Light Dust and Europe Dust MIG Pigment powders
for the mud color. I mixed it with a little water
and brushed it on for the caked mud and spattered
it onto the sides and lower arms with a stiff
brush to simulate mud spatters from walking.
I modified the SAFS Pilot head and
the Eddy Amsel figure for this build. For the
pilot head, I just added a beard and mustache
using Magic Sculpt. For the poy, I holled out
under his coat and made the scarf and ear muffs
from Magic Sculpt and lead foil. They were then
painted with oils and acrylics.
About The Base »
For the base I wanted to depict
a muddy and heavily traveled path. I used a combination
of Celluclay and Joint compound for the groundwork.
When it started to set-up I used the legs of some
1/20 figs and made lots of overlapping foot prints
in the mud to make the road look very used.
I painted the ground as close a
color as I could mix to the Pigment Powder. Then
when that was dry I painted the pigment powders
mixed with mineral spirits onto the road to complete
the color matching of the mud on the suit and
boy to that of the base.
For the snow I mixed together a
slurry of baking soda, water and white glus and
merely spooned it onto the sides where there'd
be less foot traffic. Immediately after I used
a brush to clean up the edges. Then I watered
down the mixture and added drops of shush into
the road cravases. I got a few compliments on
the realistic looking snow at a recent show I
took this piece to. Thanks to maxwinamp for the
snow
tips!
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