Gunpla Master
CJ what fingers did you graft to the kit wrist, also like the alum stud f/mounting. You seem to have a talent for making those digits look real.
GM
Thank you sir, very kind. I admit that the stock hands in the MaK kits give me fits – I’ve modded or scratchbuilt them on every single suit I’ve ever built. The basic kit hands are just … bad.
For these fingers, I cut up a set of Kotobukiya aftermarket manipulators, specifically the 1/144 scale Custom Hand A set.
http://www.hlj.com/product/KBYMB-27
They carry two styles, the Normal Hands, and the Custom Hands (as in, "they're plain, so you can Custom-ize them yourself"). The A or B in the title refers to the scale – “A”s are 1/144 and “B”s are 1/100.
Note that there is a significant difference in the sizes of the Normal and Custom w/in the scale – here’s a picture of a 1/144 Normal, a 1/144 Custom, and a 1/100 Custom. I ‘m not sure why the size disparity.
modelbuilder
Just wanted to touch base on here. I havent left the group build. Still plugging away at the Mel. Got all of my parts ready to drill and insert wire so I can give it a dynamic stance. Running over some ideas in my head for a display base. I will try to post pics this weekend. waiting on parts to arrive and hopefully starting on a modified Dora soon.
CJ
Can you go into some more detail on you technique of making hands?
Cool. As I’ve posted, looking forward to seeing the Mel. Dora is a nice design too, and you have me intrigued.
For these hands it was pretty simple, if a PITA: using a razor saw I carefully cut the fingers off of the kit hands, then sanded the remaining “palm” into shape. I saved the base of the “pinky” fingers to mount the little finger on, but they were slightly damaged when I removed them. To fix them, I used gap filling superglue to attach them to some plastic stock, and then sanded them back into their original shape.
The fingers were cut from the donor hands, and after cleaning them up, drilled and fitted w/ thin brass rods. Similar holes were drilled in the kit hands and the parts super glued together. The thumbs actually come from different hands in the same set, but were made the same way – careful cutting, sanding, drilling and gluing. There was some sanding at the base of each finger to get it to sit in the right position.
One dry, I painted Mr. Surfacer 500 into the joints, and then wiped it down w/ a cotton swab dipped in rubbing alcohol. That got rid of any gaps or unevenness.
The wrist (for now) is a simple aluminum tube drilled into the hand – it fits into a slightly larger corresponding tube I fitted into the forearm. Small details like rivets and screw heads were added, and I reshaped some of the parts a bit, but nothing too fancy.
These sorts of mods are a pain on the SAFS series of suits, but much easier on the Gustav/Konrad/Melusine. Instead of aftermarket fingers, you can just use styrene tubing and thin wire, and the remaining hand pieces make much better bases to work from.
Looking good Mr. Squid!
Hey Watchmann! Good to see you, and welcome aboard!