Ma.K. Camel

A while ago (somewhere in between the Undersea Pig and working on the AG Chopper) I started work on a Camel. Another kit by Hasegawa and as the name has come to suggest it was fantastic to build.

As per usual with builds involving a cockpit... I started with the cockpit. And this thing was pretty complicated. Because of its spherical shape, I had to first dry fit the whole thing... then prime it, paint it and chip it, and then assemble the whole thing.

This is still a dry fit because the pilot still needed to go in, just like a bunch of hoses and wires.

 The pilot came with a helmet... which didn't stay on very well so I added a little bevel to the connection ring to make the helmer fit better... but when I thought about is I found it didn't make enough sense to me to have the guy inside a space ship with his helmet on, especially since it didn't have a visor.
I'm get a little logical sometimes...

Anyway here he is... snug as a bug in a rug.

The rest of the build went of without a hitch or a mod. So it was ready for primer and paints...

My initial plan was to paint the thing a pale pink. The cockpit window was masked off and the kit had been on the shelf for some time because other projects had butted in...

So when painting got under way and this thing started getting more and more pink (I usually build up paints with really thin layers...) I suddenly remembered I hadn't seen the cockpit in quite sometime.

And when I took off the window, I suddenly realised the exterior and the interior colours really didn't work well together. So I changed course... to Mars (or the fire station)

Yep another one bound for the red planet... After a thin layer of orange, I mixed up some Tamiya flat red with a little pink and orange to make for a bright warm red.

I stuck on the big letter decals at quite an early stage so I could paint over them and integrate them into the paintwork... plus the decals sheet didn't have anything in the colour I wanted.

Anyway paints done...

...on to the chipping and decals...

As of this writing the decals aren't done yet but there, because there's a ton of them. But after they're all on it's time for some washes... but before that I want to build this beast a little companion in the form of a Luna Pawn...

Thanks for looking!