Oskar, Rust Details & Decals

So this thing is breezing along very nicely.

When the flaking effects were done (by pulling off the masking liquid) the rust marks were still a little coarse, so I added some details, by applying acrylic pain with a 0 brush and stamping it on with this green textured stuff that architectural model builders use to indicate hedges and other greenery.
Of course I forgot to take a picture.. I'll do it next time, ok! Get of my case!!

Anyway rust details done. Put down a layer of clear coat to prepare for the decals.
Decals went down like a dream.

Then another layer of clear coat went on to seal in the decals.
Hence all the shinyness...

Oh and I also painted the bottom.

Cheers!
Martijn

Oskar rust damage

I rubbed off the liquid latex masking fluid and now the thing looks all rusted up.
I will add some finer speckles or rust here and there, but the result sofar is pretty good.

Also added some more graphics to balance out the big 5 on the front. It's a Japanese four kanji idiom meaning "Death holds no calendar" Or in other words 'you never know when death might strike' or "Death strikes young and old alike".

This will get a lot of washes and streaking but it's starting to look pretty good, I think.

Oskar in the meantime.

The MK44 I was building got quite complicated and took actually quite a bit longer than I had anticipated... anyway I needed a break and wanted to build something quick so I could paint it.
I love painting.

The kit practically fell together and when the build was done I was struck with an idea for a bash...

but also abandoned it as quickly. I didn't want to get into another dragged out building process. I just wanted to get to the painting.

So anyway the build was done. I added some wires to the smoke dischargers and textured the hull with some Mr.Surfacer 500 to mimic cast steel parts.

Then it was one to paints.... finally.

First I put darkened the edges and panel lines with water thinned Tamiya Nato black, building up saturation with several layers. And then I added some colour in on the larger surfaces. Mixes of flat red, yellow and dark brown. All Tamiya and thinned with water. Applied in thin translucent layers.
Putting highlights on the horizontal areas (catching more light) and darker shades on the more vertical areas.

When this was all down I added a thin layers of Flat red and dark brown to the whole.

When this was dry I put down a solid layer of Mr.Super Clear matt varnish. When this was thoroughly cured, I added splotches and specs of liquid masking latex in the spots where the more wear and tear would occur on the paint.
When the final paints are on and I rub off the latex this will simulate flaking and rust damage... I hope.
It's basically a 'hair spray technique' but without using an airbrush.

I used Winsor and Newton Art Masking Fluid and that Molotov masking pen thing... it's nice the the pen leaves marks that are too 'round. The look too much like they were done with... well a pen. Duh.

Anyway, base paint done. Latex making done. On to top layer paints.
I use brushes and when I put on the paint I make sure it's quite thin (thinned with water) and use kind of a stippling technique to put it on.
I start in the center of a panel and then work out towards the panel line.
The colour is a mix of Tamiya medium blue and Tamiya sky blue in variable balances but mainly the latter (obviously).

So when the paints were mostly done I started thinking about the next step... decals.
Looking at the decals I found that the numbers felt a bit small. The Oskar has such big surfaces I really wanted one stoking big number on there... so I didn't really have a choice but to hand paint one on.

With the number on I had to look at some other details and I couldn't really leave out the iconic Strahl banding.
And after those were one and another small 5 on the little shield I pronounced the paint job done.

So have a look. Next time I'll stick on the other decals.

Thanks for looking.

MK44 paints

Just like the last time it's been a while since I updated this build so this is going to have quite a lot of pics... I'll keep the reading to a minimum...

Here goes:

The idea of an open cockpit got me thinking about one detail I had kind of ignored before.
I put a strip at the bottom of the front part so that there is a clear barrier between the inside and the outside... It wouldn't make sense to me having this thing be in outer space without the possibility of sealing the cockpit.
I realise it won't be visible and it would have rubber sealing strips of some kind and that this is all just fantasy anyway... but I just didn't like the cockpit to be as 'airy' as it was.

With the build finished it was time for the paints...
With the 'prototype/maintenance I wanted a unconventional paint scheme. And after doing a little test in Photoshop I went for a bright orange with dark grey/blue parts.

Next up decals... which turned out to be a minor nightmare.
I finished up the paints. And started the decals, but they kept tearing and seemed to stick to the model really fast (like right at touch down). I had put down a coat of clear gloss varnish, which usually prevents this from happening but this time something was obviously different.

Anyway, ripping and frustration galore. I would slide the decals on a layer of micro set (or sol... the blue one), but it would just settle really quick and be stuck. Or only partly, which would cause it to rip.

I had done the '3' on the top and wanted to put the big 3s on the hip plates too... but of course the first one ripped.
So I ended up painting them on by hand... a bit weird painting the decals as they come with the kit, but since the first on went on pretty well I had to stick with the 3s

After this was done, the project ground to a hold. The figure needed some arms and I had ordered a kit of 1/20 F1 pit crew figures from Hobby Link Japan but it took a while for them to arrive.

Anyway when they finally did I grafted them on and added some aves to make him look like Frankenstein's monster.
I also modded toe helmet to open up. An idea I admittedly stole from Love Love Garden who put out some AMAZING 1/20 scale figures and add-on parts for MAschinen Krieger kits.

Anyway this is how the figure turned out:

And that's it for now.
I'm still undecided on some added white details to the outside of the machine. Just something to make it a little more special, give some more personality... as soon as I come up with something I'l slap it on and start weathering this guy...

Until then, thanks for looking.

Cheers,
Martijn

MK44 mods

Well it's been a while since my last confession, but here's another update on the MK44 build... Quite a lot has happened even though not a lot seems to have changed.

The main build is done, but when I finished it there was one thing that just annoyed me to bits.
And that thing was the gun.
Not so much the weapon itself, but more the limited and frankly stupid way, the suit was able to hold it. Movement in the arms is so (limited) that it can hold point the gun to the side. To its left side.
That was just too dumb. This is supposed to be a machine of war.... in space.
Anway I decided to scratch it a new gun and I decided to integrate it into it's left arm. Like the smaller Ma.K suits.

It took a few attempts before I settled on a design I though best followed the lines and flow of the suit.
The first attempt I use the cap of a Copic marker and some of the remains of the original gun but this one looked too much like a pirate's peg leg:

Then the second attempt adding a more asymmetric element... didn't really solve the problem:

Then a builder friend of mine noted to lack of continuation of the lines of the arm.. and I had to agree, so I scraped the whole marker cap approach.

Third attempt was getting somewhere but still a little boring. I used acrylic nails, styrne tube and Aves putty for this.

The final design was close enough but had a little more detail:

So that was the weapon sorted. Then there was the issue of the shoulder plates. These things... what can I say. The didn't fit right, didn't fall naturally, they hit the top of the lower arm, the just looked off.

So I got rid of them. I tried shortening them but it just didn't work, so I chucked them.

But now the shoulder joints were too exposed, which wouldn't make sense on a futuristic space war machine... so I scratched him a couple of shoulder cover type things.

I think they work. Someone on Maschinen Kreuger's forum said it made him look less "Ma.K" which I get, but I decided not to care.

After a lot of ooh-ing and ah-ing I decided I was going to be presenting this guy in a garage / maintenance type of situation. The cockpit turned out pretty well and I don't think I have the guts or the talent to ever take a hacksaw to a regular Ma.K kit to scratch an open suit version so I figured this was going to be it. An open suit. 

This will need some further detailing/modding/scratch building. 

I want him connected to a good few hoses and wires eventually and a logical one would be a fuel hose.... but where would it go. The only really logical spot was und the bulbs cap on the back of the fuel tank. So I pried it off and turned into a petrol cap with a tank opening under it. 

The hose will have nice nozzle on the end of it eventually...

And then there was some further work to be done on the cockpit. Apart from som more painted details that I plan to do the armholes needed to be more like actual holes.

They are pretty shallow in the orginal kit so I took the dremel to it and deepened the holes. The I was satisfied with the depth (or rather when I was afraid got any deeper in fear of the arms falling off) I made some paying on the inside with Aves putty.

I nicked the left 'leather' part of the arm hole so this will need some further restoration and a new paint job but I'm pretty happy with the results thus far.

In the meantime I've also started work on an Oskar but I'll show you more of that next time...

Until then... meet Eddie. He's got asthma....

Thanks for looking, let me know what you think in the comments below.

Cheers,

Martijn