Aerospace

Hello all. So for the last few weeks Ive been doing a little painting here and there. Nothing to show off cause nothings done really. But Ive been working on a few mechs as well as a few Star Wars ships Ive been ignoring for way too long. My mech bay is primed an soon Ill get to painting that.
But what I wanted to talk about was the slightly ignored subject of the Aerospace fighters in the BT universe. My most favorite being the Corsair.

And for those of you that dont know it was based on the Siren fighter from the Anime Crusher Joe.

These are pics of the 1/100 model thats kinda hard to find these days. The artist straightened the fuselage and gave it a more Battlestar Galactica Viper kind a feel to my eye. This model is just too small for us to build and mod and have sit next to the 1/60 kits that we love. So i had one 3d printed for me.

As you can see Im already doing a few mods to it as it was built with the miniature as the map. I just feel the engine detail wasnt what I wanted. Also Im thinking about adding some extra details here and there and a cockpit and pilot.
But Im also thinking I need more than one, 3 or 5 for a squad. So maybe if there are a few out there who'd like to have one  maybe Ill get a full cast job done.  If there are any interested parties out there
drop me a line   scott-murphy@shaw.ca  and lets see what happens.

Little side project

I started this last weekend. I was looking at my mechs and I want something cool to display them on or just to take pics against and a mech bay was the obvious choice.
What Im doing here  is kind of an amalgam of several images found by googling mech bay. Lots bring up  the  MWO images and of course thats a prime right there, but there are a few other elements Id like to add. Like some ground crew, maybe a crane.
Also, I started to plan this as a six foot long shelf diorama but realized Id didnt have nearly enough plastic to tackle that, so I scaled back to 2 feet....and Ive run out of tube. Now I have to wait til the weekend to get to the LHS.

And now back to the MWO Atlas

Like I could stay away from this. Ive been wanting to build him for so long.
So straight to it. After the washing, flash cleaning and sanding here and there Im starting with the heads.

I have 2 copies but Im going to focus on the Founder's variant head. But first a little reminder that for the Standard head you need to add a couple layers of styrene to the channel to raise the height for it. If you are building the Founders variant it will sit just fine. There are 2 little angled bits that look like thumbs, they were removed from the head to ease the casting nightmare but they sit here.

Down to the feet.  Ankle shields fit here.

On the arms you can put either the PPCs or Large Lasers.

Ill be using the PPCs for this guy. Im saving the L lasers for the other one which Ill make into a Boar's Head.
K. Now the hips and all those little shield bits. Center these ones here.

Front bits here.

Ass bits here.

The back has layers. I start by sitting the torso flat and just center the bottom piece here.

Now turn the torso on its side to guide the placement of this piece. Flush to the top. And repeat on the other side.

Now the center mass is where I ran into a problem. Once I got it in it seemed to sit higher than its supposed to. I dont know why this happened. I guess I screwd up here.

 Anyway its a simple fix. Add a layer of styrene.

 And trim off the excess.

Final bits to the back, the big heat sinks. Again making sure they are flush to the top.

That means you can now add the shoulder tops. As you can see, you must place it right to the edge of the corner. Id add little  colored arrows to point it out better but I dont know how.

The rest of the arms go together thus

Now the side torso bits I admit I could have done a better job and added placement makers so just make note here. This side is easy. Flush to the edge and leave a 1/16 inch space to back edge.

 Replicate on the other side best you can. Again sorry for that lack placement marker.

.But once you have that the SRM6 fits right under.

And add the little bit under the SRM6

Now the torso again with the LRM 20. And opposite whatever-you-call-it-bit. They butt right up to the shoulder  round edge.

And of course the legs.

Knee joints, and add the flat shield to the outside of the legs. Round bit goes on the inside. And Hip pieces are self explanatory I think. And I think that about does it.

Except for the AC20 which Ill apply later. Damn this guys is big and heavy, all that resin. Im going to drill and pin a few places I think.
And a pic with the King Crab and Urbie. Id be shitting bricks in the game if I came face to face against all that firepower.

My attentions are seriously divided.

Im all over the place. I freely admit it. One day Im working on a mech(like the Atlas) then I look to my left and see the DL-44 blaster that needs more work

or the other one

but then that reminds me of the Dredd lawgivers that I still need to clean, crappy Stallone version

and awesome 2012 version built around a working airsoft Glock.

Then I look over and see the Halo pistol I recently acquired.

Awesome piece from Tactonyx Studios. With working trigger and slide and removable clip. Even the laser sight is removable.  And of course this reminds me to get back to pepakuring my HALO Reach armor.

Which I hope to have done by end of summer. And by done I mean resined, fiberglassed, bondoed, sanded primed painted. Shit, so much to do.
And I still have mechs to get back to.

Atlas on my desk.

Well Ive been sidetracked lately  with prop making for friends and family the last few months. Conventions and such. A few swords, a big ass hammer for a Harley Quinn costume, a few guns and of course hard at work on Halo Reach Noble 6 armor for myself. Pics of some of those will follow soon enough. But for now....

Like many of you out there an Atlas probably just arrived at your door recently thanx in no small part to the efforts of our good buddy Tim Fusco. He put up the capital for it. and he really pushed to get this kit off my desk and into your hands and I have to admit Im glad he did.   Of course a shout out goes to Jimi Glancy for the casting. As always a top notch job.

So this is the only pic Ive taken so far, after the initial unwrap the amount of parts is kinda overwhelming. Only 1 part didnt make it thru the whole casting process. Which is understandable when there are so may parts to keep track off. There was a part that was supposed to be slotted into the neck slot to allow for the Standard head to sit correctly. For a quick review have a look here

http://scott-messydesk.blogspot.ca/2015/04/atlas-bits-and-pieces.html

This was my first part education some months ago. As you can see I talk about the different heads and what to do for them.  Without the spacer part you'll need to just add a couple of styrene layers to bring it up to the right height. There are  no mods that need to be done to heads at all.
Everything else should be straightforward to any modeler with experience with resin kits.


Have to do the usual bath and flash cleanup but I should be able to get to building in a few days.

Wow, I havnt done much

At all in the last few months and Im really sorry if people still come here to check out anything new.

The Battlemaster Im working on got put aside after several failures on my part to make it look good. I will return to it when Im motivated. Sorry Lance. When you use paper plans you have a roadmap to size and proportions, when you build without that roadmap you end up with arms that are to short or long, legs that are way too big and a pelvis that not wide enough.

Anyway. About 2 weeks ago I was contacted by PGI (Pirahna Games for those that dont know) and was asked if I would be able to make some mechs that they could raffle off as prizes at the Steam Launch Party to be held on the 11th here in Vancouver. They had seen a post or 2 on the forums and knew I had a few but with only 2 weeks to go to the party there was no way Thor would be able to print so many new mechs. So the ones I had on hand would just have to do.

Looking at what I had it was decided that there was 6 Hero mechs there and so I got to work. 2 solid weeks of breathing in paint fumes and this is the results.

These have now gone to good homes and I need to replenish my collection. Thor will hear from me.