I'm back with a WAVE Seapig Build Complete!!
Seapig Snake Eye Reconnaissance Type Maschinen Krieger 1/20 Construction Kit
I'm back!!!
Welcome to my new modelling blog site! The plan is to re-release many of the better, classic builds and content from the old, lost to the internet Scale120.com site along with new, interesting builds and tutorials.
Look forward to having you along for the fun, experiments and happy accidents!
To kick off, something NEW. A Seapig from WAVE. The Seapig is the Reconnaissance version of the Snake Eye series of Space Enabled suits from the Mercenary Arms Faction of the Ma.K or Maschinen Krieger genre by Sensei Kow Yokoyama. It's 1/20 scale model construction kit.
A joy to build and quite fast, I've modified and customised the joints, sculpting covers with 2 part epoxy putty - Tamiya this time and the subject of an upcoming video how-to tutorial. This is not a necessary step by any means and the joints that come standard in the kit are more than fine and I simply did it for fun and to make the pose very fixed and solid.
Extra detail in the form of simulated welding beads around the additional parts that would have been retro-fitted to turn upgrade this suit from a standard Snake Eye to a Seapig. Again, this is not necessary to finish the kit but adds a great deal of detail and reality to the model. I went with 2 different techniques for different finishes to try to look as if 2 different people had worked on the suit. I can imagine them working on shifts through the night to get the suit ready for battle! For the brighter beige yellow welds, I used the same putty used for the joint covers and did this same time which was quite the challenge! The dark grey welds were done whilst putting the kit together and are made with melted, extruded styrene, quickly shaped. Will also show both techniques in an upcoming video tutorials so that you may add them to your quiver of skills!
Another slightly more challenging upgrade is to add the cables to the back of the legs, a throw back to the original series from the 1980's. These were made with a small pinvise and a 1mm drill bit into which I threaded 0.8mm plastic coated wire. It's not difficult but it is a little fiddly and after putting them into so many suits, I do have a quick way of doing it and will try to remember to add it to one of the tutorial videos coming up.
Lastly, I wanted to do something with the manipulator, robot world speak for the "hand". Something simple that shows they are not gloves but remote operated with one of the joints hanging by it's operating cable. I don't think they would need a very complicated mechanism, they don't look very articulate... if they were real... and they are not! :D Perhaps the pilot is talking with the ground crew about it being "stuck" like our real world pilots do about an aileron for example and so they are just starting to take it apart for a look.
Next step, base coating and I plan to show more on how I hand brush on Japanese lacquer paints.
Thanks for looking!
Linc
