Ride armor 1/15 Yellow Lancer IMAI

[YOULI]

I built it and painted it weeks ago, didn't had time to post anything about it here, since I wanted to finish it in time to present it to its Mecha Designer, Mr Shinji Aramaki himself. He was invited to a French Festival, Geekopolis, and I was the one responsible for a public metting. unfortunatly didn't finished it.

Back from Paris I resume the building process, painting and finally finished this old model kit.

And what is it ? It's from 3rd generation Robotech, Genesis Climber Mospeada (1983), a motorcycle that is able to transform to a body armor. This one is particular, it's the one from Yellow Lancer, he has blades, missiles, and I find it extremly cool !
Here is a teaser, the model kit finished. The WIP very soon !

 

[YOULI]

The box art, the box itself is old, I don't treat my boxes well since I'm not a collector but REALLY a modeler. Though the box art is marvellous, I should have treated it better. It's the real thing, not the reedition from Imai or Aoshima.



The decal sheet, old but steady.



That what the kit is supposed to be alike once assembled. I Think the pose I'll do will be more accurate.



I build it straight from the box. The parts are basically painted on the sprues, with spray cans, white and black... It's my method. The kit is 30 years old and will need to be treated with attention for the articulated parts, all the internal parts are to be black. It's like old times, back in 1986 !



Some parts didn't wanted to stay on the sprues, so I used some clamps and then sprayed it, black inside, white outside.



Some basic tools, a cutter, a blade, some revell glue, the one I trust the most to deal with those parts.



My improvised workbench in my Bedroom.



First parts glued together, articulated... Some sanding needed.

 

[urumomo]

That second to last picture is freaky !
That 'carpet' ? behind that clear plastic lol .

Look forward to the progress
Uru

 

[YOULI]

There's no carpet around...

The WIP will go on, i've got dozen of pictures ready to use. But Photobucket is no more fun when you have to deal with a "fat" album.

 

[YOULI]

The blades are white but i Painted it silver.



As all the old kits are, the articulated parts needs to be glued before glueing anything else. So you have to sand and/or paint it before that. The knees are OK to be sand, easily, but as you can see, the feet need to be leveled.



Same for the arms and hands. Tricky to sand the hands, clearly...



THe wheels are done rapidly. And easy. Some "black tire" are dry brushed here on a base coat black.



The parts are painted, some details are done on the sprue.



THis clear parts are going to be tricky to paint since the only transparent color I Have is Tamiya Smoke Screen. Most of my paints are in Paris. I'll have to improvise or find another way to tint them in yellow, orange and blue...

 

[ulvdemon]

I have been debating on picking up this model. I just may have to now...

 

[Grendels]

I built one of these years ago, nice to see it again!

 

[YOULI]

I've got most of them for 25 years. I HAD to build one of these, for the 30th anniversary, in honor to Mr Aramaki (the mecha designer, a humble japanese anime director who worked on the Harlock Movie, Halo, Starship Troopers, Transformers... ).
Too bad i've done it too late... Now I've got to build the other ones, same scale, and the "big" transformable ones.

I'll resume the WIP later. Dealing with Photobucket is really time consuming.
If you are impatient and a Sith lord :
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151651838126473.1073741835.580936472&type=3

 

[Cave_Dweller]

Love it, youli! Really brings back memories, I had the toy of this when I was a kid. Damn hard to figure out how to transform it. You did a good job on it!

 

[YOULI]

Thanks

A Matchbox Toy or the Gakken Toy ?
Mine is too damn fragile, but it's OK.

 

[Cave_Dweller]

Thanks

A Matchbox Toy or the Gakken Toy ?
Mine is too darn fragile, but it's OK.

The Gakken one, Scott Bernard. God I wish I still had it, it was a really cool toy.

 

[YOULI]

I've got mine, in box, a french one (lansay) and all the other ones.

It was in sale in the year 1986/87... 50 francs the 1/35 Legioss, for example. 10 francs the model kit but that's a different story.

 

[YOULI]

One year later I resume the WIP... Sorry about that, been busy the all time with my book (about anime and amnga in France) and a lot of exhibitions and conventions...

Forumers, Transform and ROLL OUT !

Chaotic workbench in my bedroom. The pink atmosphere is due to the curtains (not my choice, choice of Ma'am... ).



The hard part with od anime kits are always the glued parts you have to sand again and again... Thanks to the Tamiya Putty and a strong hand, this sanding process won't last.



The head part is beautiful and look like the anime character, Yellow. Even if you have a helmet on it, you don't want to mess it.



The chest part is mostly done, checking the wheels to see if it all go well.



The clear parts are tinted with yellow, orange, blue and black with Tamiya Paint.



There is two spheric shape on the legs that i chopped away, to replace it with genuine spheric gems tinted in orange... That would look exactly like the anime.



The leg are glued and I begin to put some White Tamiya Putty, fine putty, with far better result than the regular putty (grey). Then some sanding. Note the cuted area where the spheric orange gems will be placed.



Even though this part will be covered with the shields, I puttied them and sanded them.



Checking the parts for a heroic pose...

 

[YOULI]

Messy workbench again. SOme of my tools.



I've done the edges with some sand paper, no big deal here...



Done by hand, the paint did slipped a little on the black wheels. Will deal with it later with Realt Touch Marker Gundam.



The various parts are ready to be assembled. Will do some weathering later after the decals.



Here we go...



The decal process is flawless, even though the model kit is 30 years old.



The only big problem is the Withe decals, too transparent, I painted in white but not enouch obviously... You can tell the difference here.



The wheels are dealed with the real touch markers to correct the miss-painting. The decals are done and do pretty weel, they are beautiful and very precise, some text on the panels are so fine you can actually read it.



The parts are done one after another, with not much weathering since I still want to look like in the anime. I clearly want it to look like the box art of the model kit.



I'm more than happy with the result for the face and the helmet.



The parts will be assemble and I will be able to clean the mess in my bedroom

 

[YOULI]

Here is the completed model. Last check before some beautiful shots in daylight



Daylights shots...



Welcome to the jungle...



Details...





Thanks for watching. See you next time with Kotobukiya model kits from Armored Core and Zoids.

 

[Grendels]

Well done!

 

[DJSLY74]

Nice paintjob

 

[YOULI]

Thanks you guys ! ;D