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MS-06 ZakuII R1N Cerebus Testbed for Newtype (Commission)

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  • Member since
    February 2009
MS-06 ZakuII R1N Cerebus Testbed for Newtype (Commission)
Posted by Sian on Friday, August 14, 2009 6:05 PM
commission work for a friend, starting with the 2.0 ZakuII R1A. He describes it as a post-OYW testbed for a newtype ace pilot. Some features of this build will be a blue/black splinter camo and quite a few mods. Despite this, it's a easy build compared to the Sinanju.

Planned mods: Knuckle spikes, shield studs, mega-beam bazooka, machinepistols for close quarters, gouf heat-hawk.

Possible mods: Psycommu remote cannon bits x2, extra reactionmass/fuel cylinders, horns!






Inner frame is done! It will get primed and painted quick, some specific details picked out (Unlike the Sinanju, I'm not worrying terribly about anything that won't be visible once it's fully assembled) and then work on the armor, where the compound curved bits will get a cast texture, then paint and some custom decals. woo!
  • Member since
    April 2008
  • From: Philadelphia PA
Posted by smeagol the vile on Friday, August 14, 2009 10:27 PM
Cant wait to see more.  I must say though, that bazooka looks wrong, isnt that one of the ZZ beamcannons?

 

  • Member since
    February 2009
Posted by Sian on Saturday, August 15, 2009 12:01 AM

 smeagol the vile wrote:
Cant wait to see more.  I must say though, that bazooka looks wrong, isnt that one of the ZZ beamcannons?

 It's the beam bazooka from Char's Rick Dom. I need to mod it a good deal more. The Cerebus is supposed to have a big honkin mega particle beam cannon, and that's the starting point.

  • Member since
    February 2009
Posted by Sian on Saturday, August 15, 2009 9:15 PM
Started on mods today, applique armor, and some major mods for the head.



Applique armor for the shield, and start on mods for the head, starting with shims to act as a backbone for the putty.




Filled in the side windows. I'll be modifying this area further later, but it needs to be filled first.




Double-antenna. The plastic chunks there are for placement, they'll go away soon enough. The second antenna was from the spares box, from a ZakuII F2. Luckily the old part and new part were identical.



Starting to come together, some .010 plasticard roughs out the shape



Then it gets plastered with squadron white.



Sanded, puttied, sanded, puttied again, sanded again,




And that's it for today! Still have to finish shaping the underside of the visor, as it's a fairly complicated shape too.



  • Member since
    June 2005
  • From: NJ 07073
Posted by archangel571 on Saturday, August 15, 2009 11:37 PM
already loving the shape of the new head.  subscribed.
-=Ryan=- Too many kits... so little free time. MadDocWorks
  • Member since
    February 2009
Posted by Sian on Monday, August 17, 2009 2:06 AM

Little update, still working on the head.

 When I woke up, the visor was melty and rippled in the middle. The fix? More putty! I added wedges to the back of the visor, and things are looking good. Once everything is set up hard I'll go over it once more and probably call it done, hit it with Tamiya Surface Primer and give it a cast texture, which should conceal my hackery.

  • Member since
    February 2009
Posted by Sian on Wednesday, August 19, 2009 5:53 PM

Lil update for my color test. Hacked this out in GIMP last night and today.

 

and finished the head sculpt!

  • Member since
    December 2007
  • From: Louisville, KY.
Posted by Cosmic J on Thursday, August 20, 2009 11:20 PM
Sweet. Totally subscribed.
  • Member since
    February 2009
Posted by Sian on Monday, August 24, 2009 3:06 AM

Tiny update, more soon.

Zaku demands knuckle spikes. Zaku will not be denied.

 

 

I found a chunk of sprue, I'm not even sure what from, chocked it into the dremel stylus there and buzzed it down to 6 little cones. Speed 2 worked just fine! Next I'm gonna lop those off carefully to attach them to the Zaku's knuckle plates. 

  • Member since
    February 2009
Posted by Sian on Monday, August 24, 2009 10:57 PM

Today, I got the parts textured I want to get textured.

 Used Tamiya surface primer, applied with the pictured trimmed Testors junk brush.

 

 

Then each piece got a going over with junk sanding films. I got all this old testors stuff out of the clearance box at the FLHS for pennies.

 

Knucklespikes added, some surface primer to blend them in, and ready for re-priming. I had to make about 10 spikes to get 6 good ones.. then I dropped one...  had to make 4 more before getting one that matched.

 

So here's the finished, textured head, and knuckle armor. I'm almost declaring the texture too much, it's not exactly scale, *but* it looks good in an exaggerated way, which is probably a good idea when working in 1/100. 

 

And a couple of other pieces, shoulder and rear skirt armor, to show off the texture on some larger pieces. The shield for the other shoulder is rolled/welded, so doesn't get the texture.

 

 

Now I can start painting!

  • Member since
    April 2008
  • From: Philadelphia PA
Posted by smeagol the vile on Monday, August 24, 2009 11:01 PM

while out of scale the texturing isnt bad.  What I do is stick squadrin putty into alittle container full of laquer thinner.  It turns it into like.. a paint instead of putty

I dab it on then sand it almost smooth.  works great

 

  • Member since
    February 2009
Posted by Sian on Tuesday, August 25, 2009 12:41 AM
Yeah, I might sand this a bit more before painting, but then again, though not totally scale it does look *good* like this so I might just leave it.
  • Member since
    April 2008
  • From: Philadelphia PA
Posted by smeagol the vile on Tuesday, August 25, 2009 1:06 AM

it does definatly look good.

 

Wana know a trick I use?  I give it a base coat of steel or metalic whatever for the metal, then texture it.  So I can mar it with sand paper to get a realistic chipping effect

 

  • Member since
    February 2009
Posted by Sian on Sunday, August 30, 2009 3:41 AM

I don't know whether the silver paint made it brittle, or if I just dumbassed it, but I broke off all three of the tabs that go between the fingers in to the assembled hand. Attempts to repair this have not been very successful as its a rather high-stress area and the tolerances are close.

I could try and repair using wire, would need to cut channels in the part and all, but this would be the most durable solution. Also likely to be rather ugly.

of course if someone is doing something silly like swapping out the left hand of a ZakuII for a Gouf's gun-hand, a replacement part wouldn't be missed. For that matter, does the gouf use the same runner and maybe have a normal left hand in addition to its gun-hand? If this is the case I can get a replacement from a gouf box owned by the commissioner here no problem.

If it comes down to it I can probably get a replacement from gundamstoreandmore, but the timeframe on that is rather uncertain.

Anyone have better ideas?

 

Also, I got my mechaskunk order.

 


*EDIT*
Turns out the gouf DOES have the spare left hand, but the friend with it dislikes gun-hand and is going to use the spare.

Anyone else here building a gouf 2.0, and doesn't need the non-shooty left hand?

  • Member since
    February 2009
Posted by Sian on Sunday, August 30, 2009 10:57 PM

Primary painting is done! Got main tone and first pass post-shading.

 

It's actually a bit darker in person.

  • Member since
    December 2007
  • From: Louisville, KY.
Posted by Cosmic J on Monday, August 31, 2009 11:57 PM

 Sian wrote:

*EDIT*
Turns out the gouf DOES have the spare left hand, but the friend with it dislikes gun-hand and is going to use the spare.

Anyone else here building a gouf 2.0, and doesn't need the non-shooty left hand?

I often use these for replacement hands:

http://www.hlj.com/product/KBYMB-28

http://www.hlj.com/product/KBYMB-29

They had a set in 1/144 scale, but they seem to be out.

The model is looking good. The eye in particular looks very sinister. Cool [8D]

 

  • Member since
    February 2009
Posted by Sian on Saturday, September 5, 2009 1:22 AM

After giving the clear plenty of time to cure, today I went and masked the parts that are getting the camo pattern, and sprayed with model master RLM64 Lt Blue (german aircraft colors just work so well for zeon mobile suits!) did a bit of subtle post-shading on it

 

Carefully removed the mask and:

the edges buffed down nicely with a cotton t-shirt.

Parts got another layer of Future+20% flat, and now I'll let this cure 24-48hrs before adding the German Gray portion of the splinter camo pattern. yay!

  • Member since
    February 2009
Posted by Sian on Tuesday, September 8, 2009 11:10 PM

Primary painting is done. yay!

 

Yes I know the thigh armor is on backwards, It's fixed now.

 

I still have a lot of weathering to do, as the commissioner requested a heavily (Appropriate for space use) weathered suit.

I'm getting yet more parts breakage, has anyone else experienced Tamiya Silver Leaf spray making parts brittle? This is through primer even, and very worrisome. so far I've had one hand made useless, the hips have gone loose, one of the feet and the arm for the shield. This is getting ridiculous. I know I'm never using this stuff again on any part that is going to be stressed.

  • Member since
    February 2009
Posted by Sian on Friday, September 11, 2009 4:46 AM

Well decided to work on the hands a bit. I have all these spare resistors left over from the Vic Viper lighting project, and it turns out the leads from those make great repair parts. Drilled out the hand and super-glued em in.

Some careful bending and fine tuning and I have a functional hand again! I need to putty and the silver paint is officially wrecked, but it's good enough.

 

complication after complication due to that tamiya silver leaf spray making everything brittle. Argh! Anyway, I got the cables done with minimal fuss and installed. It really helps fill out the look of the head at any rate.

 

That's no puny Zaku heat-hawk, boy!

 

Work continues.

  • Member since
    February 2009
Posted by Sian on Tuesday, September 22, 2009 1:51 AM

Had to take a break, get my mind back together and everything.

Work started on modifying the beam bazooka. Bits and cables, and it's going to attach to the backpack, I'll wedgy up some sort of polycap attachment for this.

 I still want to add more cabling and wires and chunky bits to make it look more like a powerful prototype beam launcher, but it's coming along.

  • Member since
    February 2009
Posted by Sian on Saturday, October 3, 2009 6:18 PM

Okay, I need a little help here, I'm getting down to where I need to scratchbuild/kitbash the two gun drones, and I'm a bit stuck.

requirements:

wired gun bit with
fairly obvious thrusters,
roughly same size as zaku head
nose mounted particle beam gun
mounted somehow to backpack
removable/poseable on stiff, thin wire
A shape that I can put a shark-mouth onto the front of

Generally they should be similar to the Braw Bro or Elmeth bits. This is late OYW tech, so no elegant compact little funnels here. I like the flat ribbon wire of the evolve version braw bro, so I'll probably steal that, with the bonus of making the wire easier to run.

I'm just at a loss for what to make these things out of. =P


Bandai got back to me and are sending me new parts for the hand and hip. yay! I hope they get here before I have to move in early november, or I'll just have to do without.

  • Member since
    April 2008
  • From: Philadelphia PA
Posted by smeagol the vile on Saturday, October 3, 2009 6:31 PM

I'd suggest going in the style of the Zeong or brabro kind of thing.  Make an attachment point on the backpack with wire, If you didnt build the backpack yet I'd suggest like putting alittle spool with some of that stiff pipe cleaner type wire so it can be stored inside and pulled out, if you udnerstand.  One on each side.  Make the gun itself like the brabro's a simple box With two cannons on the front.  That can simply be manufactured by like... taking the old spikes from a Zaku's shoulder, cutting the very tip off, and sticking maybe... mechasunk straight tube beads.

 

something like this

_____________

|                   |

|____________|

    V         V

 

have the wire coming from the rear.

 

  • Member since
    February 2009
Posted by Sian on Saturday, October 3, 2009 7:03 PM

little picture update.

Thrusters are done. Clear red inside, along with model-up foot verniers, because the feet on the stock zaku2.0 suck bad.

 

Tube beads tube beads tube beads! 1mm and 2mm from mechaskunk.

 

  • Member since
    February 2009
Posted by Sian on Sunday, October 11, 2009 2:12 AM
Started work on the remote bits. Bashed these together from spare parts, mostly FAZZ and GP01fb as they have plenty of spare pieces. Gives them a nice chunky prototype look. I'm sure if they went into production they'd be all pretty and zeonified. XD



Seemed a bit long and unwieldy though, so I lopped off the rear thruster block. Much better!



Here they wre just resting over the shoulders, to give an idea of how it looks. Not bad!

  • Member since
    April 2008
  • From: Philadelphia PA
Posted by smeagol the vile on Sunday, October 11, 2009 8:47 AM
Dude, I gota call scratch building bull**** on this one.  You SO used the pegs from battleship and legos to scratch parts of that.

 

  • Member since
    February 2009
Posted by Sian on Sunday, October 11, 2009 3:16 PM

 smeagol the vile wrote:
Dude, I gota call scratch building bull**** on this one.  You SO used the pegs from battleship and legos to scratch parts of that.

 

Whistling [:-^]

 

Kinda looks that way, doesn't it? I may need to add a bit to the gun barrels, looking at it again.

  • Member since
    February 2009
Posted by Sian on Saturday, October 24, 2009 4:04 PM

Got a bit of my motivation back, we'll see if it holds! I managed to lose the remains of the PC tree with the small leg cables. Dammit. I guess I'll fab new cables out of the smaller snake chain, so it's all good I think.

 I swapped out the bit gun barrels for ones cut off some spare 08 MS Team beam rifles. This was a good move.

 

Cut aluminum tube for the gun barrels of the triple-triple 45mm gatling. Dremel burr to crown the barrels. they'll look better after paint!

 

Bits blu-tacked into place. I still need to build their racks and control wire spool.

 

ta till next time!

  • Member since
    July 2003
  • From: Huntington, WV
Posted by Kugai on Monday, October 26, 2009 9:41 PM
I gotta look into getting one of these ( a good Gundam kit, not necessarily this particular one ) one of these days.  I've never been a big Gundam fan ( only seen 6 eps or something of the original?  and about 4 random eps of more recent shows ), but it looks like something I could have some fun with, even if the final result isn't canon.

http://i712.photobucket.com/albums/ww122/randysmodels/No%20After%20Market%20Build%20Group/Group%20Badge/GBbadge2.jpghttp://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y211/razordws/GB%20Badges/WMIIIGBsmall.jpg

  • Member since
    April 2008
  • From: Philadelphia PA
Posted by smeagol the vile on Monday, October 26, 2009 10:13 PM

well unless you change the scale or modify it, there is no cannon.  Anyone could paint their mech a certain color, they just show certain Aces in the field thats why we know their colors.

 

This build here isn't canon either.  I hope you do build one Kugai.

 

 Also, those new barrels for the bits look great

 

  • Member since
    February 2009
Posted by Sian on Tuesday, October 27, 2009 2:01 AM
 smeagol the vile wrote:

 Also, those new barrels for the bits look great

 

Yeah at least they don't look like I nicked them from the Battleship! box. Whistling [:-^]

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