Introducing my next project: MG Kampfer "Desolator"
This is will be the 1st WIP post for this build. The Kampfer is one of my favorite mobile suit designs, and I was lucky enough to purchase this 30th anniversary release for a bargain. It includes extra clear armors, which opens up a lot of room for modding. The rounded armor sections remind me of a turtle - so I decided to build a concept around that. I have no green gunpla yet, so I wanted this one to be green. What kind of turtle is green and awesome? A teenage mutant ninja one of course! If you were born yesterday, "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" was a popular action cartoon back in the early 90s. The protagonists were four turtles that found their way into a puddle of glowing green ooze called
"mutagen" that was seeping out of a canister. It turned them into humanoid turtles with the ability to think and speak and crave pizza. They meet Splinter - a kung-fu sewer rat - who teaches them the way of the ninja...and rest is history. Combining these ideas, I came up with this:The line art is just a rough draft of what I have in my head, so I won't follow it to the letter..err..line.
Phase 1 was to snapbuild the kit - sanding and drilling along the way, adding detail where I felt it was lacking, and of course, wiring the radioactive canisters into the model.
Here's my progress so far:
built the arms sans the hands, which I tend to do last coz they break easily. I've managed to bore out the places where the spikes are supposed to go. I used the clear shoulder on the other arm so they both had slots for canisters. I've made the shoulder canisters by carefully drilling into the bottoms of glass fuses, injected it with some hair gel tinted with Tamiya clear green, then placed a yellow led to seal the hole. I test fitted the canisters using masking tape and they work ok. I just did a bit of puttying to smooth out the canister slots.
I built the head and torso, did some detailing on the arms and drilled more holes for rivets, and added a mono eye LED:
arm detailing: rivet holes, wire effects, elbow canisters
...not sure if I can still add LEDs to the elbow canisters as there isn't a lot of room left for their own battery (which bring up weight issues) or if i can figure out a way to wire it into the torso, which is rather hollow. I might just have an external power source in the end, as this thing is going to have a LOT of LEDs..
canister led test:
I intend to use a bosny chrome or gold base, then apply tamiya clear green mixed with tamiya clear yellow, so the finish will be something like my Sinanju. It will be hand painted, so I expect it to be a bit uneven, but if I play it right I might be able to use the blotchy effect to my advantage and achieve some form of shading/shadowing.
This is going to be one hell of a project, as it will be my first serious attempt at a clean model (ie. no nubmarks, fixed seamlines, smooth paint), not to mention the amount of modification I need to do to make everything work - wiring through the arms and legs without messing up the articulation, building the custom backpack, weapons and so on - and in order to keep myself motivated to maintain quality I have entered this model into Gundam Eclipse's Summer War competition!
Find out more about it here:
http://gundam-eclipse.net/topic/4805363/1/
and you can follow my WIP thread here:
http://gundam-eclipse.net/topic/4842586/1/#new
(not sure if you need a forum account to view those...)
I will still update the WIP here on the blog, but expect faster updates on the Summer War thread.
Wish me luck!
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