Ma.K Group Build 8/2010-8/2011

I think I'm going with a somewhat relaxed pose.  Since the idea is that this PKA is going to be pulling sentry duty somewhere far from the front lines, he's just going to be standing around holding the Neupanzerfaust in a not so threatening way.

I added a blanking plate behind the pilot's seat to conceal the hollow back on the engine, which can be seen from above.

There are a few things I need to research first and practice a few times before I attempt this figure.

I just love it when someone goes outside the box and makes the kit their own, you do that by just what you are doing, modifying but keeping the item as designed.  I look forward too more ponch!

smeagol the vile

A suggestion. If you are going to put decals on the kit, put them on BEFORE the weathering stage

I know I know

But your the driving force behind all this and I may be slow but I am having a good time even with the set backs

Gunpla Master

Thanks for the info Klik of where you came up with the paint schemes.  I like this kind of thinking, how to make it work as if really employed to do battle, right down to the camo pattern or in your case a stealth pattern, cool.  In answer to your question about the Fireball's, as far as I can tell, these versions are intended for work outside of Earth's atmosphere as are the Snake-Eye as well.  Though I am sure they could also inter into Earth's atmosphere, terra firma, and fight too.  What will you do next?  Looks like you pretty much got these bad boys wrapped up.

I don't have anything on my workbench right now...it seems as though it is time to make a journey to the LHS. The suits are nearly finished, just needing a few small touchups here and there. The Lunadiver just needs another coat of dullcoat, and the stand needs to be painted.

Thanks for the info Klik of where you came up with the paint schemes.  I like this kind of thinking, how to make it work as if really employed to do battle, right down to the camo pattern or in your case a stealth pattern, cool.  In answer to your question about the Fireball's, as far as I can tell, these versions are intended for work outside of Earth's atmosphere as are the Snake-Eye as well.  Though I am sure they could also inter into Earth's atmosphere, terra firma, and fight too.  What will you do next?  Looks like you pretty much got these bad boys wrapped up.

SLW 45

Wow those are looking great

Yes GM I know get my pics up and I will. Then a good laugh can be had by all

NO SIR, NO ONE WIILL LAUGH AT ANYONE'S WORK!

I hope to have the AFS MkII w/the finial coat of the basic color done by this weekend, then it is off to Bristol TN to the BULL RING.

PS: Remember SLW45, you asked for this GB, so yes, a WIP would be nice.

Wow those are looking great

Yes GM I know get my pics up and I will. Then a good laugh can be had by all

Got some done this evening on the Nutrocker.  I discovered something, depending on which way the turret is turned will determine how the gun is orientated on the turret.  I was confused by how to mount the main laser until after looking @ numerous photos did I figure it out.  If the search light is facing the front, then the main weapon is flipped to this orientation, but if the radar is to the front, then the laser is flipped so the bottom becomes the top.  This is confusing, the instructions show the way I have mounted, the three view drawing shows the other way.  Just one of those things you have to figure out!!!!!

Gunpla Master

Nice work and what is there too criticize, not criticism but accolades.  But for the life of me. I can not figure out where you got the idea for the camo pattern on the Lunadiver???????

I really like the schemes for the Fireballs, I agree, white is soooo passe!   

Very well, since you're stumped, I'll tell you: NASA.

The idea for my Lunadiver was that, since it was large and oddly shaped, I would use the gray scheme, but modify it, sort of. I planned for it to blend into the background of space by making it look like a small meteoroid.

Hidden in plain sight.

To do so,I used the odd scheme on the tail and side armor. But, as usual (for me), I miscalculated how much paint I had available, and ended up without enough light grey paint to finish the scheme all over the craft, and since it was soooo complex, I just left the tail and side armor camo'd. Not sure what drove me to choose the dark blue for finishing the scheme, but it looks pretty cool don't it?

Now it looks kinda like it would blend into a background of the moon, at least to the point where it would be hard to figure which way its facing.

As for the Fireballs, on the blue one, that is the same blue for the Lunadiver, and I meant for it to sort of dissolve into the background of space. The green and white is more for a WWII dazzle-type of camoflage, suitable for making it hard to see.

(one question: I am by far no expert or even a novice when it comes to Ma. K., but are these Fireballs SPACE suits?)

Sure, I'll post pics of how I do the covers. 

I use Milliput for this, which is a two part epoxy that dries slowly.  I usually just put a blob on the joint and then shape it using a wet finger (by the way, that's how you prevent putty to stick to your fingers or tools, just keep them wet).

Then I just use a sharpened toothpick to scribe in the "folds", and then smooth things out again with my finger and let it dry and that's about it.

For anyone thinking of building the 1/76 Nutrocker, this is a neat little kit, but do not get fooled by what appears to be a simple model.  Study the instructions, become familiar w/ea. of the numerous little parts and where they go.  While constructing the turret, there are gaps to deal with.  I found that if you just tack the top of the part into place to hold and then filling w/Tamiya's orange cap liquid cement which is really thick, will slowly fill a gap and dry that way if left alone.  After all the side panels are in place and dried, then dress w/a sanding stick.  After I applied the Mr. Surfacer, they were almost invisible.  I have looked @ numerous builds and noticed there were bad gaps in these locations that do not have to be there if you think about your progress as you work!  I am really enjoying this little tank and you will notice I have it setting on a GREIF desert base w/rocks which help to make the illusion of the tank hovering.

Today's work.  I am letting the paint dry-out well before I apply any other top coat to the AFS Mk.II, I have learned over many years modeling, we tend to not let paint cure properly and wonder why we get into trouble when trying to finish paint.  Too many paint solvents working against ea. other!  So I worked on the Nutrocker finishing the turret and applying Mr. Surfacer 500 f/a cast look.  You will also notice what I have out for a near future build after completing what I have on the board now.

Glad to see the WIP ponch, I do however have a request of you if you accept:  a tutorial on sculpting joint covers on Ma.K suits.  All would I believe benefit except for  Cosmic J, I believe he already has this detail down pat.  I know I for one would love to see the steps of how this is done.  I have a good idea, but some things elude me, such as what do you put on your hands to keep the putty from sticking too you?  What type putty is best suited for this application?  What'ca say

Nice work and what is there too criticize, not criticism but accolades.  But for the life of me. I can not figure out where you got the idea for the camo pattern on the Lunadiver???????

I really like the schemes for the Fireballs, I agree, white is soooo passe!  I can not wait for Hasegawa to hit w/the Nutrocker or again might I use the name as intended, Nutcracker

Glad to see you posting.

I bring pics (bad ones, yes, but a promise is a promise)!

First off, this is my Lunadiver stingray. Can anyone guess where I got the idea for the camo on the tail and the side shield-thingys? I marked it up as unit S44, mostly because of the awesome Melty Snowman decal. As of this moment, it doesn't look any different from these pictures, mostly because it needs an extra coat of dullcoat, and I am indecisive about what color to paint the stand.

This is the creme-de-la-creme: my Falke, which as of right now, is the only model I have ever felt that I truly finished, because it was the first that I ever got around to dullcoating after decalling it, and I have to say, that made it look uber realistic. I got this model as part of a special two-pack that my LHS recieved the same day that included the Ma. K. militia machinists, Set A (or something like that, I'm too lazy to look it up right now...). Anyhow, I thought it was a good deal, a $90 kit with a $20 figure set for just $85. I won't bore you with pictures of the machinists, as they don't look too good, and you will most likely lambast me for not fileing or filling seams fully (and trust me, those seams are as bad as they come!).

Lastly, the two S.A.F.S. Fireball suits that came with the Lunadiver. I decided that suits used in space should not appear bright white against a black background, hence, the camo schemes. since I had rarely used tape to mask out a paint scheme, and I paint with brushes, yes, brushes, the scout Fireball on the right was a major pain to paint, and ended up taking about three days of several hours' work. It has since changed with the addition of the tank thingy on the side facing you. The reason it is missing is that, during construction of the body, I wasn't paying attention to the directions and failed to drill out the holes for the tank, so I was forced to leave it off until I could puzzle out how to get it on (which took until today, by the way).

Well, that's all I got, as of this moment, so critic and criticize at will! (and that's an order )

I haven't really had a lot of time to work on my PKA-H0 yet

This is as far as I've gotten, I assembled the arms and legs and puttied the seams...still need to clean those up.

The upper and lower arms are connected with wire for now, to allow me to find the right pose.  Once that's done, I'll sculpt the flexible joint covers with putty.

I did spend some time adding fine wire hinges to the optical array that sits on the shoulders.  The idea being that it can be moved out of the way to display the canopy open.  Not sure if I'll end up using it or not, but it sure was fun to make the mods.

A suggestion. If you are going to put decals on the kit, put them on BEFORE the weathering stage

BASE COAT DONE:  Had time today to spray the underlying base coat of a dark brown.  I chose vallejo Chocolate Brown f/this.  I will allow to dry out well and seal the base w/vallejo matt varnish.  Once this is done, hairspray, dry well and then top coat w/vallejo Japan Uniform.  After that, the weathering process will begin.

Hey, you know what, I believe this is the only type Group Build of this type as listed right now on the Forum.  So in away, if you submit a WIP on this thread, you will be breaking new ground!

Holy Cow Batman, err Cosmic J, you just keep setting the bar higher.  Man that Jerry was just bad and I did not notice the 1st time the knocked out SAFS, 1/2 buried in the ground.  That just goes to show how powerful a statement can be made with a small diorama.  Again I am soooo impressed w/that Jerry, I have a Super Jerry coming and if I can just pull off 1/2 as good a build as that one, I will be happy.  I know, we are not supposed to compare, I just use Cosmic J as the yard stick to gauge my work!  Really like your choice for the WIP.  I got home today to find a pkg on the stoop, and inside was a Nitto Ma.K ZbV3000 KROTE.  Now I knew there would be some differences between it and the Wave kit, but when I was looking @ the directions, I noticed in the Nitto kit, you are given a mount f/a small elect. motor to make the Gatling gun barrels spin.

I will in the very near future build this kit f/1st time, have read many individuals perception of this kit, the good and the bad, but not once have I heard anyone say anything about a spinning Gatling gun, needless to say, I will add this little feature to including the lighted search light and sight system.  This thing just lends itself to a whole world of improvement, but yet, keeping it within Kow's design.

Cosmic J, I for one very much look forward to your WIP, and guys, this fella will teach us how to do justice to a Ma.K subject.

My kit for our little GB will be the Nitto re-issue of the Raccoon, in 1/20 scale. It's the recon armor for the Mercenary forces in the M.aK. universe, covered w/ special sensors, and having certain stealth modifications. The gun arm was also removed, making this a two handed SAFS variant.

Back when Nitto re-popped the MaKs, I bought and built every one them. Most of them came w/ visible pilot figures, and the juxtaposition of Man and Machine appealed to me, therefore I built most of them w/ the pilot showing.

However, the figures in the Nitto kits were... somewhat lacking. Detail was soft, they had molding issues, and sometimes they were barely recognisable as human. It took a lot of work to get them to look good.

So, I decided that I wanted to build an SAFS without the pilot showing. Since I was going to make it a pure Mech build, I bought the most non-human looking SAFS of them all - The Raccoon.

However, the high quality of the other Nitto releases had made me a bit of a snob. When I opened my new Raccoon, I found the kit parts to be covered w/ flash and sink marks. GASP!

Thusly disappointed, I tossed my Raccoon into the closet to be used for spares.

In fact, a few years later when building a Jerry, I used the upper sensor array from my Raccoon to detail it. in those heady days when MaKs were everywhere and only cost $11 (yes, you read that right) I scavenged a bunch of my kits, including most of a SAFS Fireball for that same Jerry model.

However, times have changed, and I realise that I was probably too hard on this little model (not to mention the fact that the cost of these kits has at least tripled), so I decided to give it another go.

Now, Nitto produced a number of the SAFS kits, including the Prowler - a Fireball variant covered w/ additional sensors. A little know fact, the Prowler kit contained all the sprues from all the various SAFS kits, including the Racoon's upper sensor housing. So, I'll be scrounging the parts from my Prowler kit, and possibly making use of the leftover parts from my Fireball kit as well.

Some of these kits also came w/ short lengths of corrugated vinyl tubing that was used to cover up the connecting parts inside the limbs. I actually prefer this covering to the current vogue of using putty to re-sculpt the joints. Fortunately, one of my kits came w/ a spare set of these little bits of tubing, so I'll use those on my model.

...and that's about as far as I've progressed.

Just snagged a sealed Nitto KONRAD on eBay f/$47.00 to include ship.  If you watch for Buy Now deals you can get that hard to find kit @ a fare price.  This kit can get up to $100.00.  My collection of suits is starting to grow.

There is a really good deal right now for a Neospotter ($75.00 + ship) on eBay!

Glad to see you found the thread and I look forward to your WIP ponch.  The PKA happens to be a fav and the possibilities are enormous for what you can do with this kit.  I was going thru the web researching the Nutrocker and I happened to come across some info I had not seen before, it appears there was some mix up in the original translation of the name of the Hover Tank and the result is as we have come to know it (Nutrocker), but the real name was Nutcracker.  I was quite surprised @ this.  The reason or meaning of the name was to imply this vehicle was meant for one thing, to crack open AFS's and accordingly did so up until the intro of the SAFS.  Just a bit of info I happened across.  I got a little chuckle @ the name, makes me shiver!

Ah ok, so this is where we post WIP pictures then.   Now that I know, here's what I'll be doing for the GB:

I'm thinking of a small vignette (is that how you spell that word?  oh well ) showing an obsolete PKA H0 relegated to sentry duty in some backwater outpost. 

But chances are halfway through the build I'll change my mind and have a different setting

smeagol the vile

I didn't post here because you didnt link it, and it took me forever to find the thead for some reason!

 

Buying kits that are already off the sprues, but all there, is a good way to get kits for cheap.  I got  a few nice kits, cheap, that way

ponch

So, I'm a bit confused here

Do we post the updates in this thread, or the one in the Science Fiction forum?

Ponch

I am pretty sure we post most of the work here but would still post some over in Sci Fi

good to see you model builder,  I hope this project comes out as nice as your tieren