MS-06 ZakuII R1N Cerebus Testbed for Newtype (Commission)

[Darwin]

commission work for a friend. He describes it as a post-OYW testbed for a newtype ace pilot. Some features of this build will be a blue/black splinter camo and quite a few mods. Despite this, it's a easy build compared to the Sinanju.

Planned mods: Knuckle spikes, shield studs, mega-beam bazooka, machinepistols for close quarters, gouf heat-hawk.

Possible mods: Psycommu remote cannon bits x2, extra reactionmass/fuel cylinders






Inner frame is done! It will get primed and painted quick, some specific details picked out (Unlike the Sinanju, I'm not worrying terribly about anything that won't be visible once it's fully assembled) and then work on the armor, where the compound curved bits will get a cast texture, then paint and some custom decals. woo!

[fusion]

How big is that huge cannon in the anime compared to the Sinanju....

Anyways, this should be fun to watch.

[Darth Yoshi]

Has the Sinanju been animated? I thought it was strictly novella.

[Havok]

Needs a bigger gun.

[Stark]

Needs a gun that cleans up your house.

How does this sort of modding work? Are the models designed in such a way as you can swap around the inner frame and outer panels, or are you being mega-crafty?

[Ford Prefect]

How big is that huge cannon in the anime compared to the Sinanju

The Sinanju is in the same height-range as the Nu Gundam or Sazabi. IE. it towers over basically all OYW Mobile Suits.

Has the Sinanju been animated? I thought it was strictly novella.

The Sinanju has been very briefly animated for advertisements. However, there is a full on Unicorn Gundam production in the pipeline.

[Darwin]

Needs a gun that cleans up your house.

How does this sort of modding work? Are the models designed in such a way as you can swap around the inner frame and outer panels, or are you being mega-crafty?

Stole the beam cannon from Char's Rick Dom, and the triple-gat from a Gouf Custom. Everything else is going to be modding of MS-06-R1 kit parts.

[Darwin]

Started on mods today, applique armor, and some major mods for the head.



Applique armor for the shield, and start on mods for the head, starting with shims to act as a backbone for the putty.




Filled in the side windows. I'll be modifying this area further later, but it needs to be filled first.




Double-antenna. The plastic chunks there are for placement, they'll go away soon enough. The second antenna was from the spares box, from a ZakuII F2. Luckily the old part and new part were identical.



Starting to come together, some .010 plasticard roughs out the shape



Then it gets plastered with squadron white.



Sanded, puttied, sanded, puttied again, sanded again,




And that's it for today! Still have to finish shaping the underside of the visor, as it's a fairly complicated shape too.

[Darwin]

Little update, still working on the head.

When I woke up, the visor was melty and rippled in the middle. The fix? More putty! I added wedges to the back of the visor, and things are looking good. Once everything is set up hard I'll go over it once more and probably call it done, hit it with Tamiya Surface Primer and give it a cast texture, which should conceal my hackery.

[Darwin]

Lil update for my color test. Hacked this out in GIMP last night and today.



and finished the head sculpt!

[Darth Yoshi]

That is definitely looking good.

[Darwin]

Tiny update, more soon.

Zaku demands knuckle spikes. Zaku will not be denied.







I found a chunk of sprue, I'm not even sure what from, chocked it into the dremel stylus there and buzzed it down to 6 little cones. Speed 2 worked just fine! Next I'm gonna lop those off carefully to attach them to the Zaku's knuckle plates.

[Darwin]

Today, I got the parts textured I want to get textured.

Used Tamiya surface primer, applied with the pictured trimmed Testors junk brush.







Then each piece got a going over with junk sanding films. I got all this old testors stuff out of the clearance box at the FLHS for pennies.





Knucklespikes added, some surface primer to blend them in, and ready for re-priming. I had to make about 10 spikes to get 6 good ones.. then I dropped one... had to make 4 more before getting one that matched.





So here's the finished, textured head, and knuckle armor. I'm almost declaring the texture too much, it's not exactly scale, *but* it looks good in an exaggerated way, which is probably a good idea when working in 1/100.





And a couple of other pieces, shoulder and rear skirt armor, to show off the texture on some larger pieces. The shield for the other shoulder is rolled/welded, so doesn't get the texture.







Now I can start painting!

[Ford Prefect]

I think it looks great. With the right sort of painting, it may looks completely badass.

[Darwin]

Primary painting is done! Got main tone and first pass post-shading.



It's actually darker in person.

Now I need a spare left palm though (G11) from any zakuII or Gouf 2.0 kit. I've got a bit of a problem.

[Phantasee]

Whoa. That looks fuckin' pimp. Way to go, bro!

I that blue, btw. What is it, exactly?

[Darwin]

Whoa. That looks fuckin' pimp. Way to go, bro!

I that blue, btw. What is it, exactly?

Thanks! Testors Model Master acryl Dark Blue 4660 Its actually a bit more subdued in person, the camera makes it look brighter than it is. Also I post-shaded and post-highlighted with darkened and lightened versions of the color which really livened it up.

[Darwin]

After giving the clear plenty of time to cure, today I went and masked the parts that are getting the camo pattern, and sprayed with model master RLM64 Lt Blue (german aircraft colors just work so well for zeon mobile suits!) did a bit of subtle post-shading on it





Carefully removed the mask and:



the edges buffed down nicely with a cotton t-shirt.

Parts got another layer of Future+20% flat, and now I'll let this cure 24-48hrs before adding the German Gray portion of the splinter camo pattern. yay!

[TheMuffinKing]

This is looking great, I can't wait to see it finished!

[Darth Yoshi]

That looks fucking awesome. I'm especially digging the shiny skeleton.

[Ford Prefect]

I'm really impressed. I'm having enough trouble smoothing down my flash, let alone something like this.

[Darwin]

Primary painting is done. yay!





Yes I know the thigh armor is on backwards, It's fixed now.





I still have a lot of weathering to do, as the commissioner requested a heavily (Appropriate for space use) weathered suit.

I'm getting yet more parts breakage, has anyone else experienced Tamiya Silver Leaf spray making parts brittle? This is through primer even, and very worrisome. so far I've had one hand made useless, the hips have gone loose, one of the feet and the arm for the shield. This is getting ridiculous. I know I'm never using this stuff again on any part that is going to be stressed.

[FSTargetDrone]

Very nice work!

I'm getting yet more parts breakage, has anyone else experienced Tamiya Silver Leaf spray making parts brittle? This is through primer even, and very worrisome. so far I've had one hand made useless, the hips have gone loose, one of the feet and the arm for the shield. This is getting ridiculous. I know I'm never using this stuff again on any part that is going to be stressed.

It's making the parts brittle?? I've seen paint that attacks the plastic such that you can see softening or crazing of the surfaces, but I've never heard of paint making plastic brittle... Is it Tamiya primer you're using, or another primer that's definitely compatible with your Tamiya paint?

[Darwin]

It's making the parts brittle?? I've seen paint that attacks the plastic such that you can see softening or crazing of the surfaces, but I've never heard of paint making plastic brittle... Is it Tamiya primer you're using, or another primer that's definitely compatible with your Tamiya paint?

duplicolor automotive primer, which I've been using for years.

[Darwin]

Well decided to work on the hands a bit. I have all these spare resistors left over from the Vic Viper lighting project, and it turns out the leads from those make great repair parts. Drilled out the hand and super-glued em in.



Some careful bending and fine tuning and I have a functional hand again! I need to putty and the silver paint is officially wrecked, but it's good enough.





complication after complication due to that tamiya silver leaf spray making everything brittle. Argh! Anyway, I got the cables done with minimal fuss and installed. It really helps fill out the look of the head at any rate.





That's no puny Zaku heat-hawk, boy!





Work continues.