01.02.05 » Nice Bike... Where Do You Put The Batteries?

So like I said before, this piece will have some lighting. The batteries will be hidden inside of the cabinet. Here's a few shots.

01.02.05 » Priming and Painting!

Woo Hoo! Finally after all the construction, I've started painting! So first off, an obligatory shot of the skewer forest and duct-tape small parts holder.

So first I primed all the parts with a dark gray Duplicolor primer. Nice stuff! After that dried, I gave all of the pipe parts a coat of a brown-orange copperish color. I have a bottle of Tamiya copper, but it's VERY sparkly and wouldn't look right on this piece. With the copper colored (non-metallic) paint, I can use some copper rub-n-buff over it for the drybrushed shine where needed for a more realistic and in-scale look.

The other pic is of the main Fliege body. I first painted the insides and sensor a dark gray. Next, I masked off the door and sensor and sprayed flat white where I needed it for the door and other sensor. Next I'll mask and paint it all a light gray color, then add the blue camo on the main body.

Finally for this update, I started painting the helmet. After priming with duplicolor, then spraying the helmet with flat white, I masked off the stripes with Tamiya tape. I then sprayed the whole helmet a yellow orange color. When dry, I removed the stripe masking and masked off the visor.

To make the visor look tinted without painting it just solid gloss black, sprayed it with a mixture of 1:1 Future and Tamiya Gloss Black. I slowly built up several layers of this. It allowed the striped to show through and makes the visor look like an added clear part instead of just a raised area of the helmet. Adding the stripes makes the effect more noticible.

There are 2 pics of the helmet tinting. One without and the second with a flash. I had a hard time photographing the visor so you can see the stripes like you can with the naked eye. Next I need to hand paint the rim of the visor and the added padding a dark gray. Then I'll coat the whole helmet with Future to make it gloss and apply flocking to the padding. I'll also be brushing on many layers of Future to the visor to smooth out the slight lumpiness I got with the gloss black mixture.

01.03.05 » Copper!

My idea for better looking copper worked out great! I went to the craft store today to purchase some copper Rub-n-Buff. They didn't have it. However they had a color called "Autumn Gold" which was basically copper colored. I purchased it.

My brass tubes were already primed and painted with a flat brown-orange color. (BTW, the raised areas on the pipes are just Tamiya tape) First I tried drybrushing it, but it didn't look quite right. Next I tried putting it on a q-tip and buffing it on. PERFECT! In the first pic, you can see the difference between the plain flat brown orange pipe and the copper buffed. The second pic is drybrushed. Later I'll post shade it with a "soot" color around the connectors.

I also painted the light gray of the armor and the blue-gray camo for the body today. First I masked off the white that I painted yesterday. Then I painted all the armor the light gray. Next I used my airbrush and made a faded "spotted" camo pattern on the top-front of the suit. Then I faded a blue-gray around the window area. Finally I removed the masking tape and you can see the results below. The suit looks bluer in person than in these pics. Even my blue cutting mat looks dulled for whatever reason.

01.04.05 » Eighty Four

I did some searching on navy ships last night for number reference. A lot of what I saw had numbers similar to what I did below. Stenciled block lettering. Instead of a huge decal, I decided to mask this and spray it on. First I designed, then printed the numbers out in the size I needed them. I taped this over several strips of tape which were latered on my cutting mat. I cut the paper and tape at once and ended up with a great stencil. I applied it to the hull, added additional masking and paper for overspray, and sprayed on the numbers. I didn't spray them on very thick. I wanted some of the gray beneath to show through as a slight weathered/stenciled effect. Why 84? Don't know... it was a good year with great music.

The inner walls were painted a thin white over a dark gray primer. A lot of my hull painting is being done thin to allow the primer to show a bit so that it looks old, worn and dirty. More grime will be added later.

For the diamond plate, cabinet, light step, and thingy on the wall, I used a blue-green-gray color similar to my heating ducts in my basement and of old metal cabinets. I gave the floor a coat of futuer, then masked off some squares to warn people of the d-rings sticking up. I lightly sprayed the squares with yellow, then I took a toothbrush and gave them a good scrubbing. This removed some of the paint to make it look somewhat worn. More yellow was taken off by slightly rubbing the yellow with the side of a bamboo skewer.

01.08.05 » Chip off the old paint...

So I've been really into this project the past week, plus I am finishing up some freelance, so that means a lack of updates. No worries though since I've still been taking pics.

First up is the clear covers for the gauges. These were made but heating up small squares of clear vacuform plastic and pulling them down over the end of a cheap rounded exacto-handle. I sliced off the rounded tips and will glue them over the gauges when I'm close to being done.

Next up, I started decaling and weathering the kit. First up I put 2 coats of Future Floor Acrylic down on the kit. After that cured, I decaled it. Decaling went quick since it's not a very large kit. The decals as usual are my own designs.

Normally I'd seal the kit with another coat of Future, but some of the thin panel lines are really starting to fill up. So before I coat it again for a panel line wash, I started the paint chips. I've never done chipped paint since I mostly work with 1/100 scale stuff which paint chips would be out of scale on.

I read an article on chipped paint effects (here) which really helped. First I painted on the chips over the white stripes with the color underneath to make the white look like it was flaking in spots. Over some of those chips and on the rest of the kit I used a medium gray to simulate paint chipped off the primer coat. Them on a few of thos chips, I used some rub and buff to make it look like the primer had chipped to the bare metal.

Since this is a combat robot, I chipped on any surface that may come into contact with any surface such as walls, terrain, other mechs, etc... After I put my next coat of future on to do the panel lines, I'll start weathering the kit with smoke, dust and rust. Since it's a space-suit, I won't be doing too much in the way of weathering since there's not much mud and earth in space. The dust will be from lunar/asteroid missions and general storage.

01.12.05 » Flat Coat and Greebles

Before flat-coating the parts, I washed the panel lines with artist's watercolor. The watercolors worked great. I used a mixture of Burnt Sienne, Black and White and diluted it with water. I applied the wash with a small brush only where needed. In reallity, I applied it as I would with a pen... carefully. What I like about the watercolor its that it cleans off with water instead of a solvent that could damage the undercoats.

I applied the flat coat of Future (70% Future Floor Acrylic / 30% Tamiya Flat Base) and the parts look great.

Also pictured is the "remove before flight" plugs for the rocket nozzels. They were made from headlight covers and d-rings from an M-8 Greyhound kit. The lens in the gun sight is just a straight pin dipped in Tamiya Clear Red. It's the most beautiful lens I've ever done. Nice and shiny!

Here are the insides of the hatch and cockpit with the flocking applied. I still need to add some more greebles to the cockpit and a little more "wear" to the leather seats and arm sockets. I was a little worried about the flocking looking good and not out of scale, but the end result is great. Better than what you can see in the pics.

Here's the kit without the arms added yet. I had some small black o-rings that fit perfectly in the arm holes. I have already cut the pegs off the arms and glued them into the holes with epoxy. Pics of that later.

This is the insulation material (for doors and windows) that I got at Wal-Mart for the gap between the inner and outer ship hull. I've already applied it and it looks fantastic. Pics later.

The first pic is of the "clamp lamp" I made to attach to the large pipe. The clamp was made from green floral wire whice was bent into shape and painted. The "rubber grips" is just cheap thick acryllic paint. The second pic is of the lenses before I applied them to the gauges. I sprayed them with a touch of transparent yellow to make them look old.

Lastly for this update is a shot of the base in-progress. Note the clamp lamp.

01.12.05 » Holy Crap! Large In-prog Pics!

Here's the latest...

Here's the outside hull paint chips... still gotta weather it. And here's the inside with the LED's lighting it in the dark. Obviously, this was never meant to be a fully lit piece like the Zaku dio. Neat effect though.

01.13.05 » Hull Weathering

First off, I shaded my bedrolls using oil paints. I had painted them with Tamiya light blue (which is more of a blue-green) first, then applied 2 gloss coats and 1 flat coat of Future. The flat coat gave the surface some tooth.

I brushed on my oils in spots where I wanted lights and darks, then let them sit a few minutes. Next I took a stiff small brush and blended the light and dark spots into the base color. I'm very happy with the results, but the pics aren't doing it justice.

Okay... I really like MIG pigments. This was my first time using them and I must say, they work so much better than pastels. They stay on the kit as opposed to just blowing off and blend really nicely.

Here's a shot of the "insulation" between the hull layers. The second pic is of the clamp lamp with some dirty hand/finger smudges from adjusting the light.

Next in a close-up of the floor d-rings. I rusted them a bit. I figure the inside of the ship may be humid from all the perspiration and people on board. Plus I wanted the ship to have an old worn look to it. I used MIG light dust to dirty the floor and MIG smoke and a tortillion to make the dirty scrapes on the floor. The second pic is of the cabinet doors with more rust, dirt, and finger prints.

Here's a full shot of the inside. All I have left to do is add the pictures, postits, fliers, etc to the doors/wall. The outside hull was first streaked with black smoke on the tiles simulate reentry burn. Light dust was then streaked vertically to give a dusty old look from countless planet landings. Around the paint chips, rust and light rust was applied using a small brush and water. I then tok a tortillion and blended them out a bit and streaked them down. I then rusted the i-beams using the same colors.

01.14.05 » Personal Touches

The inside is almost done. I added pics and post-its to the cabinet doors. Now I just need to "yellow" some of them a bit with some tea to make them look old. I think they add another level of realism to the piece. I used white glue to paste them up, but might add little slices of tape to make them look "attached". I might make a sign to but above the gauges to fill that space. It looks too empty.

Go To Page 3