Coming out of the Kampfer project, I really wanted to try my hand at a more custom mech, involving much more scratchbuilding then I have done in the previous builds. Armed with my new found courage, I started with a fairly basic, straight forward gundam - the Rick Dom. Large empty panels, big armor and little detail provided a perfect canvas for what I had in mind.
I call it - Urban Assault Unit - designed in dark grays, metallics and and showing some wear and tear. This Rick Dom will be covered in camo and sporting smaller weapons for a more clandestine insurgency-type missions.
Here is the first step - the head
Painted the clear shield smoke, used a green gem eye surrounded by mechaskunk metal eye socket. Drilled two went holes on each side, covered by a fine metal mesh from the inside. The visor had new panel lines scribed into it and a pla-plate armor plate on top. Pla-plate bolts and custom decals from mechaskunk also adorn the visor. The pain is German panzer gray (a-la Zeon heritage of German suits) and German Haze gray - both from tamiya. The paint job was treated to pastel shading, oil washes and streaks and dull coat on top.
The rough cast metal texture was achieved by putting brushing a thick coat of Mr. Surface 500 on the part and when it gets tacky pad the primer with a stiff, short bristle brush, pushing it into the tacky primer. I think it came out well.
Sudden tragedy inspired more scratchbuilding. I lost the right shoulder part. I prepped it, primered it and put it on the table in the backyard to dry out when a strong wind picked up and blew the part away - could not find it again.
So I went about fabricating something that would fit the right shoulder and the theme I was going for. I scratchbuild a pla-plate armor piece, I also built a small radio, using parts i had laying around and using a Zaku II 2.0 Scope I built a spot light. Seemed like it would work well together, so I wired everything with exposed wiring. I applied the same pattern, with pastels and markings.
Here is the result:
Front armor received similar treatment. I closed up the whole on the left breast where the search light was originally going to go. Since I no longer needed a search light, I am going to build a camera array there. I also used the same vent hole method to open up more vent holes. More pla-plate armor over the left breast and a vent on the right bottom is from g-temple option parts. I think it has a very urban feel now.
all tacked together with tape - the head is not on - hence the cocked look
the back armor received the same treatment, vent holes, rough texture, decals,a center gas vent - this one is a see-through.
Moving on to shoulders, same rough texture added. This time I used thin strips of pla-plate to make details, i used mechaskunk screws that i sunk into the shoulder armor, made armor plates,etc.
What do you think of it so far? Suggestions? Comments?