03.24.04 » "Sucks to be me!" said the GM pilot.

Well, the GM is already cut out, puttied, sanded, and ready for damage. As soon as I start the damage, I'll post some photos. Another thing I did was to modify the ugly feet that came with the kit. They only took a few hours (plus drying time for the putty/primer) to modify. Check out my PGM build up to see how I do the feet.

04.07.04 » Damage

Here a shot of the damage to the rear of the GM. These are from 2 or so large explosive rounds. (or whatever... not like it's real.. heh heh) One hit the torso ripping a hole in the armor and sending shrapnel to nick up the surrounding area. The second hit the top left booster causing a small explosion. (I'm going to say that the flight computer had cut the fuel line after the first hit to prevent an explosion which is why the whole GM didn't blow. Sound good? The reality is that I just wanted a cool looking blowed-up good part.)

I made the damage using my dremel and an odd drill-like bit. I started the damage to the shield, but my Dremel battery ran out as soon as I started. I have to wait for it to recharge before I can continue. I'll be adding little tubes, extra metal and other "greebles" later.

04.08.04 » ...and more damage

Here's some more damage that I got done since yesterday. The first is of the shield. I cut off a good bit of the lower end of the shield and then "shattered" it up with the Dremel. I also added strips of styrene inside the shields gap to make the armor look layered. For the knee where the left leg will be missing, I dremeled it out, then added a piece of gear-looking washer that I cut-up and a thick metal bead. Both of which I damaged. Not pictured is the tubing that I frayed for the ends. I also used a pin-vice to hollow the support pieces for the frayed tubing to make them look more pipe-like. Other tubed, hoses and suck will be added later as needed.

04.18.04 » Paint and Feet

I'm all done with my current modifications and am ready for paint. I got my light gray painted for the feet, minus-mold innards, waist and backpack. Here's a pic of the modified feet panted in my light gray. I wanted to show the feet anyway, so here's killing 2 birds with 1 stone.

04.19.04 » Orange Fractal

I've painted the white and the orange today. The 4 pieces with orange paint are done in a fractal or aggressor camo scheme using 2 tints of the same orange. First I sprayed down the base custom orange color, then I masked off what I wanted to stay the base orange. I mixed the base orange with a little white and sprayed that overtop the base. After removing the tape you can see the slight "camo".

I wanted the camo to be very light. A lot of people make the mistake of using shade of color that are too different thus making the camo stand out too much. I like a subtler look.

04.21.04 » Internal Organs

Normally I don't bother detailing the internals as they'll never be seen again. For this mech however, it was a necessity since you'll be able to see them through the "open wounds" in the armor. Also, this will be good practice for my PG Zaku in which I want to uber-detail the internals.

All the internals were painted with a mixture of Tamiya Gunmetal (60%) + Chrome Silver (40%). It's a beautiful metal when done. The other detail colors are Titanium Gold which looks like a brass, Coppor, and Aluminum. ALl are Tamiya acrylics.

I haven't been doing the internals as metallic lately either. At least not since the Cloud 09. The reason I decided to do these is so my lighting will reflect off them nicely. (More on the lighting later.)

04.25.04 » More Damage and Leg Seam Fix

First off, here's a shot of the damage to the shield so far. I hand painted in all of the cracks, gouges and crevases with Tamiya Metallic Gray. Next I lightly drybrushed all of the damaged areas with a mixture of Coppor and Bronze. That gave it a warm burnt metal effect. And last so far, I drybrushed again with silver rub and buff to highlight the worn metal. Next I'll do a chalk-wash on the damage to give them a sooty look. After the flat coat, I'll use some pastels to finish the charring.

I also started on fixing the ugly-ass leg seam on the GM Type C. Luckilly I only have to do one of these. LOL! Basically I had to paint the whole internal structure of the legs first. Then after building the leg, I added the 2 halves of the armor to the outside using Tamiya Glue as a seam welder. When that's dry, I'll mask off the metal parts to avoid damage while sanding and puttying the seam smooth.

04.25.04 » More Leg Seam Fix

The seam has been glued, sanded, puttied, sanded again and primed. Here's a shot.

04.26.04 » Char-Grilled Damage

Okay, to add to the explosive damage effect, I added a chalk wash to the damaged parts. Basically a chalk wash is some pastel shavings mixed with water and a drop of dish soap.

I brushed the wash onto the parts and let it dry. After it was dry I took damp paper towel bits and wiped away the excess. What was left was black dry stuff left in the crevases.

Now some of the deeper crevases held too much chalk and wiping didn't remove enough of it. It looked too black for my taste. So I took an old dry toothbrush and brushed the excess out. The effect looks really nifty and it's hard to see in the photos due to the gloss coat on the pics. Once I dull coat everything and add the rest of the charring this damage will be done.

I still need to do the damage to the light gray parts since I just painted them today. I'll get to those later in the week. For now, here's many damage pics!

05.03.04 » Decals Done

That's all... decals are done. Next is adding a flat coat and using chalk pastels for the damage weathering.