Ma.k. inspired underwater drone

[Beork]

Over at the Ma.k. forum, there is an underwater groupbuild/competition running, this is my entry; the Krevette:






Now for the long boring story;

I had no idea what to make, thought of different things, discarded many ideas, tried a few, and the waste bin did not go hungry those days.
Finally I was able to settle down on one idea, after seeing the YetiRobs beastie I wanted to do something similar.
I began with a Christmas ball and two computer mice. This design is not the above, it is still in the ‘to be finished’ bin.
Got stuck on the YetiRob imitation and whilst searching for a small piece of plastic for a nightstalker I found an old Honda Dirtbike toy with a large body piece which looked suspiciously like a shrimp to my untrained eyes.
Toy:


A Java later I had most of the above picture build, using a 1/48 jeep that came with a
Sikorksky heli and some 1/87 big boy locomotive bits to fill the body.
Random bits were added for details, not sure what everything is.
Arms are made from umbrella struts, and took me longer to make than the body…
I needed to find a way to make it float without pinning the body to the base and now the arms support the weight through the lower part of the mine.


The mine is a Seeigel BIUM II, (Begrenzte Intelligenz Unterwasser Mine (limited intelligence underwater mine)) mk 2.
I added it to emphasize the underwater theme. Made from a christmas ball, guinnes shaker and all the landing legs of Perry Rhodans ship. The ball on a stick was added to tie it in with the Ma.k. Universe.

Now to get it painted.

This model was also my first experience with adding texture to surface. I like the paint method, but had to decant to do it making it a bit to messy and smelly for my asthma littered home.
Superglue does a neat trick too though, which is most of the texture now.

Paintwise I'm hoping to make it mostly yellow and black with some weathering, will have to look up underwater weathering.

Any ideas for the base? It is covered with sand now but I feel it's a bit empty.
Maybe some oil spill from the drums...

cheers,

Ethan

 

[DreamKnight]

Now that's creative! Can't want to see the final product!

 

[Grendels]

It is looking really good. Keep in mind that oil floats, so if you do an oil spill, it should be moving upwards. Long stringy globs....

How about some sea weed? http://www.orgs-evolution-knowledge.net/Index/Tapestry/Kelp.jpg

 

[anthony14rmg]

Ethan
really nice job on this one. I like the look and the deail. Maybe you could help send a copy to help BP with the oil leak (just a joke).

Anthony

 

[Junkie]

Looking really cool. Great job!

Welcome to the forum both Ethan and Anthony! Great to have you here.

 

[java]

Looking cool Beork,i like the way it's working on the mine.

 

[Beork]

Thanks for the nice replies

@Grendel, I forgot about oil being lighter than water... It'll have to be something nastier then, radioactive sludge, heavy metal pollutant or something similar heavy.
Or maybe just empty drums.
Can't do the leak as they are both open at the top.... which is something else I forgot, modeling the lids...

Sea weed would be an idea, a well as the sand ripples Noddy showed me on MK forum (thanks again).

Now to learn how to paint, it'll be done by hand as I don't have an airbrush, need to buy paint first, and brushes and whatever else is needed

 

[elend]

Wow, that does look very nice indeed. Love its flimsy arms!

 

[Beork]

Did my first painting in a while, decided on a blue-grey because it was one of the few colours I still had available that I liked.

Turns out most of my paints were almost dry (all Citadel paints). Strangely, the only paints not dried out at all were the oldest I have, back when citadel used rubber-like bottles instead of the newer hard plastic ones... These are over 15 years old and still okay, while the newest I've got are only about a year old and needed reviving.

Managed to revive about half of the paints, using a mixture of 1:1 isopropanol:water.

Beastie:


Blackened the insides as those will be mostly metal.

Also did my first rust painting with flaked paint:

And for detail junkies, the insides are light grey as many real life drums are (at least the ones I handled)
[IMG}http://i985.photobucket.com/albums/ae338/Frosche/100_9232.jpg[/IMG]

Used hairspray technique for the first time, worked a charm.
Decanted it in a bottle so I could paint it, which made it easier not to spray the whole piece.

Also saw that I forgot to add lids for the barrels.... those will be made soon.

 

[Maknifiso]

Looking good

 

[Junkie]

This is really cool. Great chipped paint man, really great.

 

[Fruit]

Very amazing! Nice clean, crisp job on the paint.

Quick question, what are you using for the base filler? I read that you're using sand (?) (Forgive me if I read wrong) But what are you using to hold it together? A PVA mix? or....?

 

[Beork]

I used Das to make the basic shape, then covered it with a layer of thinned PVA sprinkled with sand and repeated a few times.

The nice clean and crisp will be somewhat messy when I'm done with it (at least, that's the plan)

cheers,

Ethan

 

[sunsanvil]

This is really inspirational work. Can't wait for the finish.

 

[Beork]

And here we are again, tried to do some painting, did some warnings (decals), wash on the inside and yellow markings.

Now working on the last yellow markings so I can wash the exterior and arms.

Also rebuilding stuff, most fingers broke off when it fell and his upside down periscope as well

Then adding scratches, wear and tear, rust stuff etc.




Oh, and rebuilding the base inspired by fichtenfoo's submersible build

 

[FoldedWings]

Really great work!
The paint scheeme is awesome great detail swell!
cant wait!

 

[DXM]

Man....That's just cool.

 

[dbhs]

This is really fantastic. The detailing on the bottom side is outstanding. The mine is cool too. A great diorama.

 

[Beork]

Well, didn't make the deadline for the groupbuild thingy, again....

But I got further than the last time, so if I keep this up next time I'll be done long before deadline (yeah, right...)

Beastie as is:

Oh, and a size comparison to a 1/20 pit crew dude:

I lost some fingers a few days ago, still need to replace them, and during the shoot I lost some more fingers

Good thing they can still be glued back...

And the rest
http://s985.photobucket.com/albums/ae338/Frosche/

It needs touching up on the fingers and the propulsion, some more weathering, new fingers....

The base needs finer sand, sea life encrustation, fishies, netting for the mine to be trapped on, corals, paint....

Hope to have the Krevette finished in a week orso and the base before the end of the year.

 

[Noddy4000]

Looks really good already, Beork. With the extra detailing in mind for the different parts of this build it's going to be stonking I reckon. Amazing transformation of the trial bike donor part.