1/100 MG Cairn Freya

[R.C.]

Tonight I just filled some seams, sanded a little, and primed.  I still need to finish up the rear skirt armor, add the mag attach mounts for the dual plasma sword hilts, and finish up the backpack.  The sides of the wings need either some plating, or some added intakes, if they don't look like overkill.  Maybe some sensors.  The missiles still need to be added to the hip skirts as well.  I just wanted to see the color uniform, and to see where are my problem areas for sanding and putty.  It's always a little off-putting for me to see the styrene rods and seams showing different colors, primer does help me see the finished product much better.  I guess that's anybody, but that's why I primed it when I'm not finished yet.  I removed the mechaskunk detail parts before I primed, and just added them back in afterward.  I am pretty happy with how it's coming along.  The chest looks much better filled in and even colored.  Well I'm rambling, forgive the similar pictures as always, I try to show the best angles I can, and different shots have different lighting.  Shadow looks neat sometimes.  Enjoy!

[Alan Britten]

Wow! You are really getting good at this scratch building business. I will have to buy one one day...

[R.C.]

I really appreciate it man.  I was hoping it looked professional enough.  That's a huge compliment.    (if you ever do want one and I cast them of sufficient quality, I would only charge for the plastic I used to make the parts.  I'd love to see my design painted and put together by others.)  That titans beast was pretty sweet lookin BTW.  Think I posted to it but just in case.  I liked the knees the best. 

Well tonight I mainly finished up my friend's lil' gi joe scale cockpit, but besides that I got to make my Freya's plasma sword hilt.  I would post the cockpit, but I need his permission first, as I think he wants to show it in his production before I do, so it's a suprise.  I will cast the hilt tomorrow to make the sister hilt.   I think the shape perfectly fits in with the design, and  for the casted ones I will slip in magnets to hold onto the hilt attachment points on the holsters on the rear skirt thruster.  Not much else except that today.  Enjoy.

[R.C.]

Ok I took a day to just do a color concept update.  I've drawn it down to four possible EXTREMELY CLOSE color schemes that are giving me a headache to look at.  I know I should just look that them all and the first one that I like I should choose, but I can't manage to do it.  I also am not at all following the advise I gave to other folks regarding color scheme, as I have my gray/black/white base, and my main color yellow, but no accent color.  I guess yellow can fill that spot, but I use it too far away from the the center of the mecha, and too often.  Hmm.  I guess I just don't want to pick another color because even though I don't really have a true accent color, I will also have the steel color of the frame, mixed with the gold of the cylinders, and the silver of the vulcans and vents etc.  Too many colors to add more.  Oh I guess I do have the accent color red on the missile heads on the hip skirts.  Oh well.  Oh I did also decide to add some detail to the kit by adding half cylinders to the sketches on the wings, and on the tail skirt armor.  These will simulate turbine drive mechanisms.  And look cool.  I also decided the backpack needed to have the actuator lifter gearbox and axels added to it.  I wanted people to be able to see the housing holding the motor and drive mechanism that lifts the wings up and down, supposedly it would be gear driven, but the gears would turn on the axel.  You'll see it when I'm done.  Well these are my four choices, all again exceptionally close to each other, some just missing yellow here or there, but I will choose one of these.  Sorry for the headache you are about to receive.  Enjoy!  hehe

[R.C.]

I did some tinkering around with google sketch up, just to try to get into 3d stuff, and I had fun making the calf intake manifold (weathered) and a starter for the head model, although some of the angles are way off, and the guns are missing in the model.  It was fun though!













Oh and this is probably the color standard I'm gonna use:



these looked neat though:

[Gunpla Master]

A very Art Deco style.  For some reason I think 57 Chevy when I look @. 

[R.C.]

Thanks a lot man.  Yeah I guess it's the big grills, and pronounced shapes.  Not too much beveling on this dude. 

[R.C.]

Ok, started making an actual version of the model in 3d or 2.5d or whatever.  I don't really know why I'm doing it, other than becuase it's fun though.  Here are a couple pics.  I'm still gonna build some tonight, maybe add some things.  Finish up the preparation for painting.  Well until I have more progress, enjoy.

[R.C.]

Alrighty well having learned basic 3d shaping in two days, I wanted to see if I could make something actually useful, so I decided to make a 3d model of a neat looking 1/100 SMG.  It's not related to the freya, sorry for that but I didn't want to post a new thread for a simple smg.  I made sure the file was mesh watertight, a term I learned today to mean that the file has all the edges connected so there aren't any planes that aren't connected.  so if the interior of the shape was full of water it wouldn't leak basically.  Made sense.  Then after a little file juggling with some more free downloads, (no not pirated just actually free) I exported the file as a .stl file and sent it to a prototyping and 3d printing company called shapeways.com.  They can also help me sell it if it turns out well.  I made two different versions of this smg, one for 1/100 scale and one for 1/60 scale.  Basically just for MG gundams or PG gundams.  I just changed the scaling in sketchup to match the measurement of the hands versus the grip on the gun.  I ordered two of the 1/100 version, and one of the 1/60 version and I paid in total $28.  That is freakin awesome.  If I can manage to make some more sweet 3d models and the prototypes turn out well, I can cast them and mayhaps have a small money maker to fuel my modeling.  So if the SMG prototypes turn out well I will post a link on here and you guys can order them if you want them.  I will share the results after I get them.  The smoothed versions of what I made look stupid, but the flat true shapes looked great.  I hope the printer doesn't use the smoothed image.  I guess I'll find out.  Well here are some pictures of what the SMG looks like in architectural line edging. 

I will get back to the freya tomorrow, I did some work on the rear thruster that turned out.  I still need to updo the wings.  If the prototyping thing works out I might use a 3d model to prototype the detail panel for the wings.  How cool would that be.  It's not too pricey either.  fingers crossed.  enjoy.

[R.C.]

Tonight I felt inspired to paint and I was incredibly excited about getting somethin done in that regard.  I soon realized how long this is gonna take, and resigned myself to painting with the understanding that I will probably have to do it again.  My white came out gray b/c the preshaded background color was too dark, and I didn't have time to properly paint the way I wanted, masking and such.  I've decided to dedicate next week's build time to this painting.  The moving parts are a pain, and I didn't engineer them well with painting in mind.  Mainly the wings, look neat, and move great, sliding in and out, wings flippin up.  Just painting them is really hard.  Oh well, I did get an idea of what it will look like when I do it right.  And it will look good I think.  I decided not to do gloss black and alclads on top for the frame.  It does look neat, but I need the frame to still move for filming stuffs, and the tamiya synthetic lacquers are tough as nails.  So I decided on tamiya silver leaf.  It looks metallic enough.  *again this is not the final paint job, in fact I will probably have to redo most all of this with the exception of the frame, but it gave me an idea of what it will look like.  The gray kind of gives me a star wars feel which is AWESOME!  hehe but not my color concept.  So next week it will be.  I did decide I'm happy with the rear thruster though.  Not incredibly detailed, but enough to fit the rest of the model.  Well I'm tired.  For tonight, enjoy.

[R.C.]

Oh yeah and I still need to add detail parts like the other missile heads and the gear box on the backpack, but that will wait until I see how my prototypes turned out, and how the process will work for me.

[R.C.]

Alright well the other day I decided instead of painting all the parts by color and just loading the airbrush once with each color, I was going to just focus on painting and finishing as many parts as I could completely do (without weathering and decals) in one night's work.  So albeit inefficient, I have been able to see what the project may look like finished in my head.  Seeing results is important for me to stay motivated sometimes.  This project has taken a while, but the painting is the tail end of the project and I need it to be as close to my vision as possible.  So I do it this way for the moment.  I will post a couple pictures of what it looked like with solid colors, and then with it repainted using shading.  It's not too noticeable because I refused to set up good lighting, but it's enough to get the picture.  And BTW masking this beast is a pain.  Just in case you were wondering. 

Solid:





shaded:


















On another note the prototype printing facility let me know that my protos were being printed.  I assume that means no problems!  Mcyay!  I suspect I may have to tweak the grips to make them a little thicker, and maybe the body of the SMG, but maybe not.  I know the Proton Push Current Mass Driver I made I need to thicken up some.  But hey I haven't ordered that one yet so I have time.  I'm also working on another neat assault rifle and a mag-rod propulsion gun.  Assuming all goes well again I will prototype the detail parts for the Freya's wings, which I can always paint when I get them, and glue them on later.  I might make and paint the housing first though.  As I get my stuff I will post it here for anyone who's interested.  For tonight, enjoy!  Oh and Final Fantasy Tactics is coming out in the app store weds, woot!

[R.C.]

I was painting for awhile tonight, and having facial hair makes the mask not so great at blocking fumes.  Those arms were quite difficult to get right, and are still not perfect, but good enough for now. This being my real first trial using enamel washes and trying to make it look good I'm pretty satisfied.  It really does help to fill in the blank spots and help to mask where I didn't mask quite so well.  I was unsure of the coloring, as I really haven't used a lighter gray like the color standard, but it seems to look good so far.  I will just post the pics from tonight.  And yeah I know I gotta sand the wing still, I will when I get there.  Oh prototypes should be here thursday if I didn't say so a hundred times already.  hehe.  I'm excited about it.  I wanna make a copy and paint a laywaster so the freya can hold it.  Oh and it turns out I'm dumb and final fantasy tactics doesn't come out for iphone quite yet.  On the way though!  Enjoy!  (well tactics and the photos)

[R.C.]

Today I got back the laywaster cannon I designed and had prototyped.  The gun is still a WIP as I need to clean it up, smooth some edges, and add some parts to it.  The Cairn Freya won't normally carry this as it's a mainly melee type mecha, but the laywaster is a large heavy particle accelerator cannon designed to wipe out mass amounts of really anything in it's way, and at one scene in the production, the Freya will come out of the hangar holding this monster and wipe out a chunk of the enemy horde.  So I took some photos to show it bein held by the Freya.  Hope you like.  Enjoy

[R.C.]

Ok, I tried posting this before, but I think my browser thought I hit the close button or something.  My mouse has been actin funny lately.  Anyway I did up the gun, as much as can be with the really grainy texture it came with.  It's made of nylon too, so sanding is difficult.  I got it looking pretty good though, and since I need to order another copy anyway, this one is good enough for now.  Next time I'm ordering the smooth detail material though, even though this stuff saved me money on the prototype, it's pretty much useless for casting, so I need another anyway.  Well enjoy the pics, I shrank many of them down to help the page not blow up.