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05/22/2006
Motoko Kusanagi gets lit up
This is a project that I started a few years ago. I say a few years ago, because that is when I bought the model of Major Motoko Kusanagi, the lead female from the Ghost in the Shell series. This model in particular goes by the name Hard Disc. For the uninitiated, the series deals with a pseudo future where people can have upgrades and cybernetic enhancements as well as sockets for connecting to the net etc.
Motoko has had more than her share of models sculpted after her, this being my second, almost time Buc Wheat did a page about her for his excellent site Here eh Buc?
Anyway, here are the bits. You'll notice a tonne of wiring comes with the kit, and this is what has taken me so long to get round to doing. I always wanted to change some of this wiring for Glo Wire, or Electroluminescent wire, or even Surelight as it's called. it's basically very thin neon tubing.
1:
So, first step was the soldering of the kit that I bought on eBay. I chose the thinnest wiring, just over 1mm thick. This wire is stripped at the end to reveal 3 smaller wires, some are as thin as a human hair, which means the chances of a mistake are huge in the trimming and soldering stage.
What I found worked best was to solder the thin wire onto a thicker more robust peice, which in turn was soldered to the tranceiverthingumybob that plugs into the power supply. When I had a join and this was tested I immidiatley coated the join in hot glue to protect the fragile soldering. This was repeated 3 times, and tested along the way to make sure it was glowing correctly.
2:
A nice easy bit now, here's a pot I dug out of my bits box. I'm going to house the wiring in here and sit the model on top of it. I'm undercoating it in and ou for a good tough finish.
3:
Sorry for the blurry picture, by now I've pretty much finished the base and fitted the wires through some holes I've dremelled. I had to make sure the wire passed cleanly so not to pull on the connections. When it's through, and tested again, I put some super glue in place to hold the wiring some more.
4:
Now onto the model, it's a very clean casting, and fits together very well with it's own locater pins in resin to aid the join. There's just a bit of work needed on the legs. For this type of thing I use anything, I've used Milliput, hot wax, Super Sculpey, but this time I'm using Mr Putty, which is smeared on, wiped clean and then dries very quickly.
5:
The finished seam. I have a tendency to add superglue to things to fill in tiny gaps after and then sand down smooth.
6:
now, a first, the masking. Again, I've used many things for masking, white tack, cling film, tape, but this time I want to try latex rubber. It's used for mold making, and I'm thinking it will do for such a complicated shape. I followed the instructions and added it to my paint job with a soft brush. it looks like milk but dries clear. i gave it about 3 coats and left it over night.
Here's a quick look after the third coat
7:
Well, amazing! It worked, and so easily. I gave the model a few coats of silver clear cote and when dry just peeled off the mask. I'll definatley use that again.
8:
I finish the paint job on Motoko with metallic colours, the idea being that I want as many reflective surfaces as I can get.
9:
Well, here are the finished images. I've added the wires, trying to make the 3 Glo Wires prominent. I rebuilt the hair piece too, instead of using the resin lump of wires I made one out of real wire.
10:
The wiring is crazy to add on, and I kept having to tighten it, glue it with PVA or super glue and then go back to it. I drilled plenty of holes in here for the wiring to go beforehand.
11:
The first close up.
12:
I should note that the model has creases and grooves in it where the wire should go, though I added a few more too.
13:
And finally a brief shot showing her illuminated. The exposure on the camera has compensated for the light so it's not as contrasty as it should appear.
14:
All in all a good project, and she now has pride of place in the living room. I'm waiting to add an X 10 unit to the plug so she can be controlled by remote for on and off.
Update:
Very pleased to hear that Motoko made the gallery of the day at E2046:
16:10 Posted in Scale Models | Permalink | Trackbacks (0) | Email this
05/11/2006
And another fellow Blogger
I must just add a quick post here regarding another member of The Clubhouse .
He's Todd P and he's been very busy the last few months promoting new scupltures.
He can be found here by clicking his avatar:
10:59 Posted in Scale Models | Permalink | Trackbacks (0) | Email this
Command & Conquer Zero Hour
One of my all time favourite games just keeps getting better!
First, what is Zero Hour?
It's an RTS or Real Time Strategy game from Westwood Studios who sells through Electronic Arts or EA.
The game itself is a derivative of the very first RTS "Dune" where you harvested spice to convert to money, this money was used to build a base where new technologies were researched and new weapons etc were made. As you were doing this there were up to 7 other players doing the same.
Zero Hour which is itself an add-on for the game Generals takes this same premise and brings it into a superior graphical world where the 3 main sides (USA, China and the GLA) are at it hammer and tongs. The buildings have got bigger and better, the weapons stronger and tougher. You can call in air support, build nuclear silos, Scud Storms or huge Emperor Overlord tanks that roam around crushing other more mortal tanks beneath it. The game is incredibly well balanced though, and has a superb skirmish mode that lets you play up to 7 other Generals on a massive range of maps. But dont worry, if you get bored of the maps available there are sites that have plenty for download. I regularly get new maps from generals Maps
Anyway, I recently took an interest in seeing what Mods were out there for this game. A Mod is basically a fan addition to the game, something that has been MODified, weather a tank, a sound, a bit of scenery. Some people do total conversions, where nearly every aspect of the game is changed.
So as said, I recently started looking for Mods for Zero Hour and hit gold. I found the site Mod DB which has list of mods for hundreds of games including a huge selection of finished as well as ongoing mods.
So here are the top 4:
Retarded by The Gunrun.
For those who don't know what Zero Hour Retarded is it is a mod for Zero Hour which changes lots of stuff in the game and makes the game uber fun. Unlike most other mods this one is created by one person who also happens to be Filipino, ME! My main intent in creating this mod was to create the funnest gaming experience possible using zero hour. This mod features an innumerable amount of changes. These changes include a much further view of the battlefield, numerous music changes, $500 from all supply structures every 12 seconds, the implementation of your self as a unit, starting vehicles, new menu design, and many many more very sexy changes to the game.
Xeno Force by Jaf.
For all you fanns of Gundam and Macross out there....we've got a present for u. This mod adds not 1, not 2, but 3 new generals. These generals are: Gundam General, Macross General, and Zaku General. The Gundam General mainly has units from Mobile Suit Gundam 0079 Series for the EFSF (earth federation space force), the zaku generals mainly has the same thing, just with zeon units. Macross has basically everything from the series almost. the Zaku Generals Ability for 5 star general is that they drop a colony from space onto a base, u can imagine what kind of havoc that will cause, damn! Many people agree, that this is one mod that packs a big fat can of whup-ass!!
Shockwave by Da Hunter.
Shockwave is an enhancement mod for C&C Generals ZH.
The main goal of this mod was to make ZH a more interesting game with more differences between the generals making you think twice before you select a certain general.
it will include 3 new campeigns, 3 new Generals, over 100 new units, a fully working navy and many other gameplay tweaks to enhance the Zerhour gameplay with:
-New sound effects
-New ingame weapon effects and vissuals
-Many Bug fixes that where present in the original game
-Improved the battlefield overview with a higher camera
and many more stuff!!
Cold War Crisis by Shadow.
CWC is a C&C Generals Zero Hour Total Conversion. It takes place from 1980-1989 and it will feature realistic units from the 80's.
We want CWC to be a mixture of realism and fun. We will make it more realistic than vanilla Generals though, with real life weapon systems and side specific characteristics.
CWC will offer 3 factions: Russia, USA and Europe. The Russians tend to use tanks and artillery (for example: T-72 / T-80, BM-21, 2S1, RT21-M only to mention a few) while the USA rely on aircraft and high tech units (for example: F-15, F-16, F-117, A-10 etc.). The Europeans actually are something like a "Best-Of" of actual European units (these are, German Leopard, English Harrier and so on).
Also we we will have a lot of infantry in the game, not all of them will be just cannon fodder. Of course engaging a Leopard II with a US Ranger wont be a good idea. Other infantry units can be a real pain in the ass to armored units. We want the players to use more infantry than in regular Generals, where infantry wasn't the big deal. In CWC Infantry can be very useful, even against tanks if you have LAW/RPG-Soldiers.
So that's the 4. Remember, all these Mods are completely free! You just need to go and buy Command & Conquer Generals and then also buy the Zero Hour expansion pack. These could probably both be picked up on eBay very cheaply. Then download the Mod that you like the look of, use the installer and your away! One tip though is to copy the entire folder before Modding so you have the original to play too. Sure it takes up more space, but these games are definatley worth it.
Happy hunting!
10:33 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Trackbacks (0) | Email this
A Fellow Blogger
My fellow modeller at The Clubhouse has got a Blog going. He's Andre Kevermann from Brazil. he has a great Blog site dedicated to moddeling and sculpting. He's also got a terrific "links" section that can be used as a portal to many great modelling sites.
Pay Andre a visit by clicking his avatar here:
09:42 Posted in Scale Models | Permalink | Trackbacks (0) | Email this