DaFROG fails SAN(itation) check or no mech left behind or scrapheap challenge

[DaFROG]

Anyway, hopefullly it's cool to post this kinda thing here.....

No I have not become incontinent. I was supposed to be cleaning the house today and ended up cleaning out my bits box/ congealed mess/ toxic swamp o’modelling parts instead.
In doing so I found the legs, right arm and backpack of a heavy gear mech. I was going to throw them out, but decided to wait till I finished cleaning up in case the missing torso head and arm turned up. They did not.

Some of our UK viewers may be aware of a TV show called scrapheap challenge. Basically (in all but the latest series anyway) two teams of lunatics (contestants) are let loose on a scrap heap with the objective of building a machine to do something (throw cars through the air, defeat the opposing teams machine in mortal combat, fly, things like that) which ever machine works best wins using only the scrap and in a set time. Whichever machine works best wins. There have been plenty of throwey/shooty episodes where cross bows and catapults powered by car/truck leaf springs have been used (one was even fully automatic).

What does this have to do with my miniature metal mechaniod mate ^tm ?
well I was sorting all the greebly bits and as luck would have it there were plenty of leaf springs. There were also these jack type things that come on German tanks which have a linkage just right for a fully auto crossbow. Sure there was lots of less silly more shooty stuff but the cogs inside my head were turning and unfortunately their polar moments of inertia are frighteningly large.

The year is 2049 and the English prison system is overcrowded and the economy in tatters (or should it be taters). Regional conflicts using the newly developed mobile suit technology have further devastated the region. Seeking something to keep the masses entertained the BBC (who are now nominally in charge of the country after the entire parliament was taken out by a nuclear strike) decide that a "deathrace" between prisoners of war (and members of the general public who don’t run away fast enough) will keep the ravening hordes occupied. Unfortunately they can’t buy the rights from the yanks so they decided to modify the premise of scrap heap challenge: two teams of 5 each aided by an expert are let loose on a scrap heap with a limited amount to time to improvise weapons for the coming battle (ground to air, hand to hand, vs hordes of ravening zombies etc.). There’s plenty of military surplus scrap around, however, all the shooty bits has been rendered inoperable (usually with a particle beam weapon). The show is hosted by disembodied head of Robert Llewellyn kept alive by a life support exoskeleton.

For the finale of season three it is decided that the two teams who have survived the season will have a whole week to improvise mobile fighting suits/tanks to face the household cavalry (equipped with the new royal ordnance factory Type IV suits) in one of the more interestingly configures nuclear bomb craters that litter Salisbury plain. To make things fair (well entertaining anyway) the houshold cavalry have no ranged weapons and the challengers score on a fencing type system (it is expected that challengers will not be able to create weapons capable of penetrating the Type IV suits) the challenge ends when the household cavalry immobilise all opposing vehicles....

Here’s some pics:

my bench, oh the humanity


selected parts for the mech


test fitting torso and crosbow left arm (I'll remove teh gun from teh head it will just be a sensor)

[Weaver]

To hell with the mech, you've got a kit of a BMW R45 there - now that's just plain wierd........

Interesting project - could start a trend?  

BTW, have you realised what a keen hover/grav tank the top half of a Jagdpather makes, sliced off level with the top of the track cutouts and plated over?

Edit: got thinking about this some more and dug out some old stuff, more as talking points than anything else:

http://www.whatifmodelers.com/index.php/topic,25350.0.html

[DaFROG]

To hell with the mech, you've got a kit of a BMW R45 there - now that's just plain wierd........

BTW, have you realised what a keen hover/grav tank the top half of a Jagdpather makes, sliced off level with the top of the track cutouts and plated over?

The R45 was $1 at an op shop, which is the main reason i bought it. Is this R45 anything special? If you want it you can probably have it.

Unfortunately I'm an engineer and cant adequately suspend my disbelief to really get into hover tanks (the ones that hover by applied phlebotnium, gravatic repulsion, the abject terror the crew has for ever touching the ground etc anyway skirts are better but not exactly great for climbing mountains and all the other stuff tracked tanks do quite well). If you have the technology to levitate a 60 tonne MBT there are much cooler things to use it for than simply levitating an MBT (like building fortress Rommel)

PS PW builds lots of weird stuff like in your link (though mostly space craft)

[Weaver]

To hell with the mech, you've got a kit of a BMW R45 there - now that's just plain wierd........

BTW, have you realised what a keen hover/grav tank the top half of a Jagdpather makes, sliced off level with the top of the track cutouts and plated over?

The R45 was $1 at an op shop, which is the main reason i bought it. Is this R45 anything special? If you want it you can probably have it.

LOL - no, it's a dull as dishwater, which is why I'm amazed that anybody made a kit of it. All the old BMW boxers had the same crankshaft with the same balance factor, originally designed for a 750cc R75 (you can guess how the numbers work...), so the R80 was nicely balanced, the R100 a bit harsh and vibey, the R65 a tad slow to accelerate but basically okay, but the R45......

[DaFROG]

I see, although there is a 65 decal included in the box for an instant performance boost.

Well i was considering making a post apocalyptic road samurai version, complete with sword lance etc.
It's quite a terrible kit. The box has 100 yen as the RRP Whig would probably have been close enough to 1 USD when it was made.
Judging by the pics of other kits by the same manufacturer they specialise in rather dull subjects, they appears to have made a kit of the Nissan 280ZX (quite possibly the most traversty-eriffic "sports" car ever made)

I got curious and searched for the manufacturer "Kawai" they make 1/60 scenics including sake shops etc which come with scenic bases and all the grass flock etc

[Weaver]

I see, although there is a 65 decal included in the box for an instant performance boost.

Well i was considering making a post apocalyptic road samurai version, complete with sword lance etc.
It's quite a terrible kit. The box has 100 yen as the RRP Whig would probably have been close enough to 1 USD when it was made.
Judging by the pics of other kits by the same manufacturer they specialise in rather dull subjects, they appears to have made a kit of the Nissan 280ZX (quite possibly the most traversty-eriffic "sports" car ever made)

I got curious and searched for the manufacturer "Kawai" they make 1/60 scenics including sake shops etc which come with scenic bases and all the grass flock etc

It would need the barrels lengthening by a little to make an accurate R65, but othewise they're identical. The post-apocalyptic idea sounds good: see any Meatloaf album cover for references (some of the bikes under those skulls and spikes are very ordinary)  . More seriously, try www.ratbike.org . I've considered getting a Tamiya 1970's/80's UJM (Universal Japanese Motorcycle) and turning it into one of the matt-black-and-ammo-boxes Rat \Bikes that I see all the time at rallies.

Anyway, back to the plot, the thing I always have trouble suspended my disbelief with is giant robots, funnily enough, although I have had a few models in the past.

Re Llewellin, if you can find it, check out the comic book version of Michael Moorcock's Multiverse, the one based on the Second Ether series. It has some disembodied heads of famous people grafted to robot bodies and exhibited in a "circus": quite disturbing really......

[DaFROG]

here's an update:







The torso is finished as it the crosbow except for the magazine. I need to paint a bit before final assembly.

[DaFROG]

in primer.  Note the fiendish ingenuity of the crossbow. 



Not only am I becoming a rivit counter I make the things as well.



Behold the rivit masta pro (yes its a bit of copper plate with holes drilled in it)
basically you heat up the end of a bit of sprue and jam it over the right size hole. you then end up with a little rivit on the end of the melted sprue blob, shave the rivit off rinse and repeat. The grey rivits on the torso near the rivit master pro were made that way and are 0.6mm size (it's in several books on armor modelling)

Hopefully work can progress now that I have finished this

[DaFROG]

fin








Just incase you are doubting my sanity the thing in the background thing in the background should re assure you

[Eddie M.]

That is absolutely, grade A, 100% cool !! It's a coincidence that I'm working on something that I've used as much spare stuff from the leftover parts trees as possible. It does give the mind a bit of exercise.

[Weaver]

That looks great! Got a style all it's own too

[AeroplaneDriver]

I LOVE this kind of build!  Sometimes there's nothing more fun than taking a bunch of leftover parts and making them look good.  Except making them look great like this!!

[noxioux]

Steampunk a-go-go

You got me looking at my spares box with a little twinkle in my eye.