Armored Core - SUNSHINE-L

[urumomo]

Decided to throw him together to check him out .
Only the outside half of his hands and no thruster bells .
Try and get some work in on this over the next few days .

 

[urumomo]

The repair of the broken part :

 

[urumomo]

Quick update on this one .
I want it to resemble more a manga illustration than a scale model -- if that can be a thing .

A drop of that thinner when mixing the water color to break the surface tension , then affixed with the varnish when it looks right .
Multiple applications to build color .
These components below are pretty close to finished color-wise . KInda .
Flat coat when they are ready .
Minimal chipping where it makes sense ; at the feet and outboard on the legs etc .

 

[Quaralane]

Definitely liking the effect here

 

[urumomo]

Cool ,
Thanks , Q !

 

[urumomo]

 

[urumomo]

Now to make him a base .
Broken concrete slabs with the rebar sticking out .

 

[urumomo]

Ok , I was going to wait until this base was mostly complete before I uploaded photos , but it's been 6 months and at least the plinth for the actual groundwork is kinda , mostly done .

3/4 inch white oak
An octadecagon atop an octagon
12 degree bevel

Octadecagon border for atop the oak plinth
5 mm square polystyrene
10 degree cutting jig :

After it was primed , I discovered that the sides of the square stock were very slightly concave .
Tamiya lacquer putty used to correct this , then re-primed with Rustoleum alkyd primer :

7 coats of Minwax oil base wood stain with 6 days between coats with the majority of that time being in the dehydrator at 110 F
Then 6 or 7 coats of Liquitex acrylic varnish , satin , with 3 days between coats with the majority in the dehydrator at 110 F :

Temporary handle for applying watercolors and varnish :

 

[urumomo]

Charcoal gray and white watercolor affixed with satin varnish .
Additional coats of raw sienna and raw umber , then back to more white -- satin varnish between colors :

These photos are poor . It looks way better , I promise . :

The perimeter ring was sprayed with Alclad " steel " then lightly overtopped with Alclad " stainless steel " then hit with some 3000 grit sponge sanding .
Both the wood plinth and the ring are top coated with Liquitex matte varnish .
I'll probably do some more weathering to it , maybe , before I attach it permanently .
It has a good cold rolled steel look going though :

The groundwork / concrete will be drywall setting compound ( gypsum ) . The slabs will have a wood core ,, or possibly aluminum .
The broken concrete slabs he'll stand atop will cantilever out over the perimeter .
That entire " steel " border will remain visible .

 

[Marktastrophe]

I love seeing the way other people tackle problems!
The scratch repair you did looks fantastic! The weathering is looking really good too.


I'm confident I would've broken more pieces as an answer to finding a broken piece from production, lol.

 

[urumomo]

Thanks !

" I'm confident I would've broken more pieces as an answer to finding a broken piece from production, lol. "
Ha ha , what do you mean ? Like Peppy said ? about melting it down ?
It wasn't that hard of a fix , thankfully .

 

[Marktastrophe]

No, not purely out of anger, lol.
But weathering would've probably involved severing or heavily damaging that arm in other ways.

 

[Belugawrx]

Really nice paint work U ..concrete and steel look very realistic

 

[urumomo]

Thanks , man !
But - there's no concrete yet
That's just the plinth to support the groundwork which will be the concrete slabs and ruble .
I wanted it to have a muted earth tone to complement the mech's color scheme and the , soon to be , concrete and ruble terrain .

I hit that " steel " border ring a couple more times with matte varnish since it was still a little too shiny - at least on the outside edge anyway .

 

[urumomo]

The center strut of the border ring was glued down with a liberal amount of CA gel and then the interior perimeter sealed with acrylic super heavy gel ( Liquitex ) mixed with black acrylic paint .

The dowel sections will support the 2 rectilinear concrete slabs he'll stand atop , then the exposed portions of the dowels will be hidden with more rubble . They were coated with Vaseline to prevent the gypsum bonding to them .
The slab cores will be 3/16 " plywood ( actually 5/32 " ) , and I have to build them separately so I can apply and finish the drywall compound on their undersides ... plus be able to more easily detail around all the rebar that will be sticking out .
They will require only the access hole for the mounting screw to be filled once in place .

The plinth was topped with drywall setting compound with a slight crown in elevation , then coated with multiple layers of powdered and broken pastels anchored with matte acrylic varnish ( Liquitex )
Still needs a little work around the perimeter in places .

Onward to the slab construction ..

 

[Steve Ski]

Just trying to catch up on this thread, looking really good, imho. This has more parts than my grandson's Lego kits, sheesh!

If I can add a constructive comment; I see only one thing missing on the battle damage and that would be chipped paint in the "high" action, wear areas. The weathering is looking real good, but I see no paint chipping.

You are braver man than I, let's just say that! Cheers, Ski.

 

[urumomo]

Thanks !
the chipping is coming -- Once I get him on the base , he'll be removable , I'll do the appropriate chipping around the feet / legs , where it makes sense . ( I mentioned this earlier in the thread - it's a big reason I use the alkyd primer so I can remove the acrylic with isopropyl and expose that burnt umber color ,, kinda the hairspray method without the hairspray )

" You are braver man than I, " - lol , I don't know what you mean by this .

 

[Marktastrophe]

Thanks !
the chipping is coming -- Once I get him on the base , he'll be removable , I'll do the appropriate chipping around the feet / legs , where it makes sense . ( I mentioned this earlier in the thread - it's a big reason I use the alkyd primer so I can remove the acrylic with isopropyl and expose that burnt umber color ,, kinda the hairspray method without the hairspray )

" You are braver man than I, " - lol , I don't know what you mean by this .

This sounds cheaper than putting lacquer over acrylic and using lacquer thinner to take chips up...

 

[urumomo]

UUh - lacquer thinner will remove the acrylic too .
Hobby lacquers are all acrylic resins anyway .
You can get away with that kinda process with a green topcoat removal above a fully cured / crosslinked acrylic basecoat but it's risky and time sensitive since you'd need to remove the solvent as quickly as possible so it had minimal time to soften the basecoat .

I've done it with isopropyl but you'd need to be cognizant of which solvents and at what concentration existed in the lacquer thinner .
Definitely wouldn't use a ketone containing lacquer thinner .

 

[Marktastrophe]

Steady and quick is the key to pull lacquers off of acrylics with a lacquer thinner. Lacquers must be very freshly applied and acrylic fully cured.

Side note from a different convo of ours. Sealing acrylics with the Vallejo premium airbrush acrylic urethane doesn't even start to resist isopropyl after fully curing. But it creates a surface that allows acrylics to be cleaned with water if you're quick enough.