Templar

So here it is, primed and ready for.....some colour eventually.
Since the last post I was waiting on the Aves so I could do the lower legs bulges,(calves?) and now he's done. Standing over 8 1/2 inches tall this bruiser is a beefy addition to my collection.

And just for good measure I built a pair of those shoulder shields because the  Templar just doesnt seem right without them. But now that they're on there, Im not so sure the proportions are are right. At least they are removable.

So heres a neat thing, Im driving around doing my job( I work for UPS, figure it out) and at this one shop they had two large architectural models of buildings. You know the type that sit in the lobby of whatever building you're in? Well they had 2. And one seemed like it was fairly close to 1/60 scale. Basically the size I build my mechs in.
I asked what the deal was with these and long story short, she said I could take them. Cool.
So heres a couple of shots of the big one. It needs a little repair, the balconies are falling off but I think I may just destroy them a little. What good is a nice clean building when when you're in a war zone right?
But my daughters are against that idea, they love playing with it as you can imagine.

Grey Death Quickdraw

So I finally actually painted a mech. I figured since I was waiting on my Aves I do some painting. Also it helps that I just got some decals printed thanx to my bud Tim(theTeacher)Fusco.

In progress....what could it be?

Have a guess.







How bout now?













C'mon, too easy now.




















Yup a big old Templar Battlemech.




As soon as my new batch of AVES epoxy gets here Im gonna start on the lower legs.
I need the stuff to make those round bulges on the legs.








Bonus shot of a little Owens in progress.

Its been a month

So what have I been up to this last month? More Battletech of course!
I decided to tackle the paper plans of the Deimos.
In styrene and resin again.
Those damn legs gave me the most trouble, oh and the torso, and the missile pods... lets just say getting all those angles and facets right are damn tricky.
For an experiment I tried using poly caps on the hip joint. It basically just gives a wider range of posse-ability but it barely holds the weight of the torso so the whole thing wants to fall over.
I guess eventually Ill just super glue it all in a final pose.

You'll notice that for the feet I broke from the norm and made it a four toe design.
Some images out there, including the paper plans, show it with a 5 toe design. Ive also seen images where the front of the foot is one big pad. I didn't like either of the those. The 4 toe works better for me.



Other than that I think it looks damn cool next to my MadCat.
Who would win this fight?

Quickdraw.

Ive never been a fan of the Quickdraw Battlemech, it always seemed to be one of the designs that Duanne Loose sorta just phoned in.












It wasnt until I saw this painting by Alex(flying debris)Iglesias that it made sense to me, and I needed to build one. I started with a few drawings, trying to make sense of it. The proportions and
dimensions, but it didnt take long for me to start cutting plastic.

I did make a few changes to the original. For example, the miniature has the lamest looking jump jet system
so I improvised and came up with this version.

Also, the original feet were so lame, big block feet.
Since this was Alex inspired I tried to make the feet look like one of his designs. As you can see from the above photo the feet are pretty obscured so I copied as best I could the feet on his new Jenner.
There a few details left to do, some panel lines,
the hoses on the arms and those antenna things.
All in all, Im pretty damn happy with it.
So here it is in 1/60 scale.

So its been a little while since I last posted anything, its the busy season at UPS, like everywhere.
But I figured Id like to get one more post in before the end of the year.
So here we go.






First up, I finally put together my Catapault. I started this build back in 03 or 04 when my skills at scratchbuilding were so-so. I started by trying to make it look like the classic original but following the artwork of Pawel Czarnecki. That version was out of my league so then I tried the version as seen in MechAssault. Now I was doing pretty good with that one but unfortunately I couldnt get enough reference shots of that version. It went back on a shelf. Then eventually I went with the Mechwarrior4 version. Not as popular but I had tons of good shots of it thanx to finally figuring out how to get screen caps.
But again it sat on a shelf for a long time until my casting abilities were good enough to cast myself a set of feet and legs. I had only made one set as I always intended to cast it as a kit.
Well I finally just got tired of it sitting on the side and I put it together for my own pleasure.











Next, a couple of shots of a scratch of the Locust. Long story behind this one. back in 01 I was introduced to scratchbuilding thanx to this article:
http://www.starshipmodeler.com/tech/my_scratch.htm
And almost immediately I started to copy it. I found the donor kit and everything but then I found someone who had a cast of that very kit from the article by Mark Yungblut. I bought it without question and then my build went into a box. Until a few months ago when when I found some weapons I had from another kit that would look great on mine and so here it is. Now I have 2 Locust that both need a paint job.


And finally, my most recent build using paper plans, the 90 ton Mauler. Not my favorite design, in fact I have so many others I want to build more so I dont know why I built this one, but heres the big Mofo sans primer. Still a few more details to clean up and add but I want to get it one the blog before the new year.
Im considering selling it so make me an offer.