Robotech or Genesis Climber Mospeada, either way its a Cyclone!

Jeep

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I don't know if it was all of "you" Ma K builders or the fact that I finally got around to watching "Robotech Shadow Chronicles (I could wait after all it took 25 years for it to released grumble grumble) But I decided to build a sci- fi entry at the last second to be put into the "figure........well um sci fi category.

For those not old enough to know the subject, Robotech was one of if not the first "anime' that was popular in the US way back when I was a squirt in 1985 when it came on after the National Anthem at 5:00 am . This was dubbed and marketed by Harmony Gold, (the scum, any battletech player HATES HG) in the US as Robotech. Robotech is a mish mash of several anime that once dubbed made a loose sort of epic story these include Macross, the rest of the tail can be searched out on old nerd book cases and this WIKI the part that concerns this build is from one of the latter portions called Genesis Climber MOSPEADA.

The Cyclone is roughly equivalent to the old VF1 Veritech fighter in protection, it is meant for infantry and as a back up for downed pilots of the VFA-6 Alpha vertech fighters. More on the history in particular to the cyclone can be had at this WIKI






Enough of the back ground and lets get this build on the bench, I don't have to much time!
 
Cool, I built one of those 10 years ago. Brings back memories. I actually have the gobot version of one of these. (Back in the 80's they repackaged the Japanese version for gobots. For a while these were pretty cheap on ebay.)

I will be watching this one just to see how it looks at the end.
 
I did some painting on the sprue last night. I have a dilemma though,

Do a finish this in a "anime or comic book style, with bold colors, with clean transitions, Little to no weathering. Or the second option is to do I do a pseudo realistic finish similar to a aircraft, with weathering such as mud spatter, dust, paint chips and the like? I don't have much time so I turn to the herd, what do I do?

Grendels said:
Cool, I built one of those 10 years ago. Brings back memories. I actually have the gobot version of one of these. (Back in the 80's they repackaged the Japanese version for gobots.

Makes sense, HG was partnered up with Matchbox for a while when they were trying to fund the aborted rest of the story line (at least until Shadow Chronicles) Matchbox also had a hand in Gobots.
 
I painted mine realistic, but if I remember correctly, Rand's cyclones was green. So you could combine the two.......Use a drab green theme, and weather it up a bit.

HG did partner with both Monogram (Gobots) and Revel (Robotech) I have an Alpha model too.
 
No pressure, the month is almost over and this thing is not off the sprue yet! I got recalled to work on Friday, I have worked 1o hours off 10 hours on since, but will probably be back to 1 or 2 shifts a week if not laid off again after my employer screws up my holiday plans. (grumble grumble)

I broke out the airbrush after work tonight (just finished cleaning it now in fact) I first laid a coat of Tamiya medium blue (more of a dark grey actually) as a base, then mixed 50% medium blue to 50% light blue, then thinned for airbrushing, this lighter mixture went in the center of the panels, after this I went with a coat of straight light blue only on the panels that are "up" to show some highlights.

Next on the agenda is actual assembly, hopefully I wrap that up tonight, leaving detail painting, weathering, decals (maybe) for tomorrow.

I finished rough assembly of the kit, but some how managed to misplace the "face" that is behind the clear shield, need to find that, tomorrow. Also since the initial spray was done on the sprue I need to go back and tough up the paint job before I continue. I post some images tomorrow.
 
I never thought about making a heavy weathered, realistic Robotech mech before and it sounds awsome. Now I really want to do one.

*grumble*

Off to the hobby store... again!
 


I got more work done tonight. But I am have some issues.

Issue one, I still can't find that loving painted "face" that is to be glued inside the helmet. I spent a lot of time painting skin highlights too.

Issue two, this is a fairly old kit, I am having a lot of fit problems between left and right sides. As a consequence there are some unsightly seem lines through most of the panels. It really is to late to go back and sand and fill or "plate" over the panel seams. At least not for the contest dead line. I may go back and fix it later.

Issue three, long ago I built a Vertech fighter VF1 , parts of it are still around, but I have not found enough parts to make the base I planed which was to to use the broken VF1 as a wreck on the ground with the much larger cyclone mid leap in a shadow box forcing perspective. Alas I can't find enough of the vertech yet to make the wreck. In the mean time I am cobbling together a nice base for just the Cyclone. I still plan of making use of the wrecked vertech some time in the future.

Some things that went right though. I sprayed a second coat of Tamiya light blue and medium blue to shade the armor. I then assembled the Cyclone again. I then coated a septia toned GW wash over parts of the armor that would collect mud, Once this was dry I broke out the airbrush again, and sprayed some Model master metalizer Lacquers, in jet exhaust and burnt metal. The metal was sprayed around the jet exhaust and around the missile launchers. I have had these paints for the better part of 15 years and never touch them till now. The effect is AWESOME. I was very pleased with these results. once these were dry I went back and sprayed Tamiya BUFF as a dust coat to dirty up the model heavier around the legs, arms and where wheel splash would be. I then applied some more GW devan mud washed to make "dried mush spatter" where the wheels would kick up filth, using motor cross images as reference. to top off the weathering, some HB pencil and prisma-color silver colored pencils were used to paint chips and scrapes. lastly dried mud was applied with the last of my MIG powders liberally coating around the wheels and running gear both wet (with tamiya thinner) and dry. I decided to forgo the supplied decals, they have not aged well and don't have time to bleach the yellow out of them. What remains is to find the "face" and apply the face shield and wind screen. I plan on doing that tomorrow after the base finished rusting. I will then see it my friend Stephen can take some clearing images to post for the contest, In effect, It should be done tomorrow.
 
Well, if you can't find it, take a nod from your first photos, the box art. All of them have a dark visor over the face, you could just use that for the contest.

Photos look good otherwise.
 

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