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Post by Maethius on Feb 9, 2020 11:58:48 GMT -5
My build is going slow, mostly due to family stuff. I'm hoping to hit it again today a bit to catch up on lost time. The tail is now comprised of two HMM Geno kits, which are difficult to re-joint. I still need a solution for a unique head, but I'll figure it out when that becomes a focus.
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Post by Fulano on Mar 22, 2020 17:17:31 GMT -5
Update on the HMM Gairyuki: I've added some detailing to the head, particularly near the nose to help it fit within the new face armor dimensions. I also did some detailing on the crest. More to come there. The thigh armor/Gekkou pieces have been combined. One half of each side is from the new Gairy I bought, and the other are reclaimed from my old Zoids collection. The thigh pieces and one arm piece and the right inner leg foot armor were the only pieces I could find of my old Gairyuki. Idk if you guys remember it, but it was first painted white and the tips of the armor frosted with metallic teal, and I glued a bunch of Buster Eagle parts to it (including the guns and wings). At some point, and for some reason, I decided to scrap that Gairy custom and, inspired by the Kampfer mobile suit from 0080 War in the Pocket, glued a bunch of verniers and boosters of various sizes and shapes all over it, and then I painted it metallic clear navy blue. In the photos, it looked like it had a glittery clear coat on it. You can still see both layers of paint in some places on the thigh armor. I'm copying the mechanism that lets you lock the HMM Fury armor to the arm. The little pla box thing will be glued into the Gairy armor, and then the whole thing will slide right onto the arm. I have 2 sets of arm armor, and I'd like to design two different arm armor sets to function in different scenarios, and combine in different ways to form one other blox Zoid to accompany Hien and Gekkou. I ended up compromising with the Fury's body armor - I didn't like how the Gairy body armor provided so little coverage, so I'm modifying the Fury's body armor with parts from the Gairy. It'll be one of the only Fury armor pieces I use in this custom (besides pieces like the chest and head-crest armor, and the knee armor that you'll see in the next picture). The next milestone will be implementing a way to attach and remove the thigh armor. I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to do it. I wish I had more blox - I'd use them if I had any from my old collection (which is gone, probably trashed at some point in the last 8 years. Oh well).
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Post by Maethius on Mar 23, 2020 14:02:19 GMT -5
Wow, you are doing stellar work! So great to see the artistry!
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Post by dchan on Mar 28, 2020 14:30:16 GMT -5
Really coming together nicely! I love seeing stuff like the scratch built connector-slot copy you made. Proportions look great so far.
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Post by shadowwolf40 on Mar 29, 2020 18:11:26 GMT -5
This is great work,i don't think i've seen anyone attempt something like this before. Can't wait to see it when it's complete. 🤘🤘
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Post by Fulano on Apr 25, 2020 11:09:35 GMT -5
I haven't had *that* much time lately to work on this thing, so the only real changes are that the set of tail armor and neck armor is officially attached via pegs that fit the tail and neck holes. For the tail, I ended up just chopping the Fury's actual tail armor pegs off and gluing them to the Gairy's tail armor. Creating my own pegs was too much work, and I don't have the tools to make the fit precise enough. As a result, though, the pieces on the tail kind of sit too far forward in my opinion, but instead of re-attaching the pegs, I might use pla to scratch build a new "edge" around the tail armor. Idk, that's work for another time. I'm also planning to add the same detailing to the tail armor that I did with the face armor. The next steps are as follows: 1. attach the forearm/wrist armor from the Gairy, though I really dislike that armor and I might try and modify it to be more "HMM" quality. 2. I'm going to fill the inside of the feet armor with pla plate, and then I'm going to carve out the same peg system that already exists for the HMM Fury's feet armor. I think this will be the most drastic bit of scratch building I do for this project. 3. Find a way to attach the thigh armor. I'm thinking that I will use the BF thigh-armor attachment (the piece that separates each side of the Fury's thing armor) to set a new, scratch built piece that will double as the intake for the orange panels (resembling an engine, with very light armor) and using some Kotobukiya joint and peg pieces. 4. I have this clear heat rod that I got from a DM Tallgeese 3, and I want to utilize it. The pieces, individually, remind me of funnels from Gundam, and I think it'd be cool to basically add an additional support Zoid in the form of a swarm of bees or fish or something, using these heat rod pieces. Idk. Originally, I was just going to make a simple Gairyuki Armor conversion HMM Berserk Fuhrer, but this is starting to look more like a real custom project, and is becoming more ambitious.
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Post by Maethius on Apr 27, 2020 13:22:23 GMT -5
Really coming along! I agree that a standard CAS conversion would be tough... the architecture between TT and Koto seems modest at first, but when you get into how the armor has to work over the new architecture of the body there is a TON of modification needed. Still, I love where this is going, and watching you build it is a delight. ^_^
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Post by Fulano on Apr 27, 2020 14:00:38 GMT -5
Really coming along! I agree that a standard CAS conversion would be tough... the architecture between TT and Koto seems modest at first, but when you get into how the armor has to work over the new architecture of the body there is a TON of modification needed. Still, I love where this is going, and watching you build it is a delight. ^_^ I don't think it's so much "tough" to do the standard CAS conversion as it is kind of unseemly. The Gairyuki's armor is just so... flat/smooth/featureless that it looks bizarre seated on the HMM Fury frame. Like you said, the architecture of the HMM Fury begs for a more ambitious re-tooling of the Gairyuki armor. Additionally, Gairyuki has little in the way of features, so the blox conversion is maybe somewhat challenging - in my opinion, however, there's just very little reason to convert the BF to Gairyuki, it's such a step down unless you've got 5 HMM Fury's and you're looking to do *something* with one of them. For that reason, my Gairyuki is fast accumulating details and ideas that weren't features of the orignal Gairy, and thus I'm starting to look at it as not-just-another-Gairyuki-conversion. This will be an actual custom HMM Gairyuki+. BTw Maethius, thanks for all your feedback. I look back to my old customs - something I can't even do anymore because the pictures are lost to time, as are most of the customs and the pieces themselves. Your website, the process pictures you post with each custom, and your presence have been an immensely helpful resource that I wish I had back when I was 15 and the year was 2005.
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Post by dchan on Apr 28, 2020 10:30:15 GMT -5
additional support Zoid in the form of a swarm of bees or fish or something Yes!! The best kind of Zoid accessories. The build looks like it's coming along nicely.
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Post by Maethius on Apr 28, 2020 11:05:43 GMT -5
Epyon, thanks for sharing that my site has value to you! It takes a bit of work to record the progress of a WIP and it is treat to know that people find it useful.
I can see what mean about the armor being so plain compared to the detail-soaked HMM frame. Adding details to bland parts would be a real skill to develop; creating panel lines, tiny vents, etc. I wonder how much of the Fuhrer armor can be re-purposed for that?
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Post by dchan on Apr 28, 2020 21:26:36 GMT -5
I think I've mentioned this before, but I'll second Epyon's sentiments: your site is a treasure Maethius. It's really fun and helpful to read your thoughts for each section (and also, I appreciate your sometimes pun-laden header titles). Your customs themselves aside, it blows me away how much thought and effort you put into documenting and presenting your creations. I showed your site to my spouse and she was convinced that some aspect of your day job must involve organizing graphics, or technical information, or something along those lines haha.
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Post by Maethius on Apr 29, 2020 12:40:28 GMT -5
<3
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Post by Fulano on May 25, 2020 20:43:53 GMT -5
A pretty substantial update on the Gairyuki! I started working on the knee(?) armor. These pieces have always been my least favorite armor piece on the Gairyuki, and I always kind of considered them to be totally forgettable. I remember that they were supposed to be some kind of booster for the legs, but I find that explanation laughable. I've decided, however, to make that a reality and seriously redesign this area of the Gairy. I have two sets, so I'm hollowing out the intake part of the armor, and each one pictured will go on either side of one leg. I'll do the same for the other. Here are a few progress shots of the process. It was a lot of tedious work - this plastic is so f-ing hard. I'm drilling holes and cutting a wedge to fit the peg and slots on the Fury's back calf armor. The result - snug as a bug! The next idea I had was to add some kind of thruster to the back of the calf, a substitute for the Fury's leg thrusters. I decided to chop off my Hy-gogg's toes, and with some math and a few spare parts, I created this: I haven't glued all the pieces together, because I'm trying to decide the order of operations here - to paint the small inside stuff first, and then glue it all together? Or just wing it and mask later, and hope the airbrush I buy (or the spray cans) can reach the hidden places?
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Post by Maethius on May 26, 2020 15:29:51 GMT -5
Wow, that is a lot of great work on the leg! See now, that is the kind of re-imagining that I see in many of Koto's kits; where they take some obscure surface detail and run with it. You are doing a super job on this custom... keep at it!
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Post by dchan on May 26, 2020 21:32:19 GMT -5
Looking really nice, and it's cool to read the thought process as well. The three segment verniers fit really well with the rest, and I bet it's satisfying that they open and close properly.
I always feel choosing which undo-able step to do first is a trial too. Your mileage may vary, but I'd recommend painting the small things first before assembling, as winging it doesn't usually work for me!
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