MAK Walker - based...

... in Vallejo Desert Yellow.

MAK Walker - ready for primer

So this is as far as i want to go with it.

Thinking i might've already put too much detail on - and i don't want to make it worse.

So, top pic, you've got the Saturn V part at the rear and the bearing at the front.

What i love about these Mak craft are the unfeasable bits just sticking out, so here at the top you have the main body and head from a Macross kit. Onto it i've stuck a couple of round pieces to cover up where joints went.

The brown bit and the suspension just underneath are from donated bits so ahve no idea where they're from. Ditto the bit on the brown bit.

Pic 2 again has donated parts.

So, going to prime it with white. Going to basecoat it with Desert Yellow. Next question is do i camouflage it?

MAK Walker - rear

Ok, put a blanking plate on. Onto that is this Saturn V part and a length of ribbed Plasicard to tidy up the join.

In the background you can see my MAK Woman Pilot, who's coming on well.

Psydon Ship - engine area

Finally, FINALLY got the right shape tea dispenser. All this time i was looking for a "Caddy Matic" when in actual fact it was an "Auto Caddy" used on the original.

Quite a marked difference in size as well as shape.

Ping Pong ship - basing it.

Have it mind to have the ship hovering just off the ground, reporting in to a human.

Here's the base for it, kindly donated by top bloke Dave Trelfer, edges masked off, hole drilled for the clear support rod, hole filled in with Blu Ta, and ready for a coat of PVA glue then Games Workshop scatter material spread over.

MAK Walker - getting it to stand up.

First pic you can see the attaching the heavy bearing to the kitbit seems to have worked. You can also see i've started detailing the barrel.

There's none going on at the back because, as you can in pic 2, the rear is still open. That's because the next real worry is the body pulling away from the legs. What i've done is to make the hole in the body much bigger than it should be. Glued the legs to the body with Araldite. Left it a good 2 days to go off and have now smeared the inside join with P38. Won't know if its worked until i try getting it to stand up - and that's another problem.

MAK - Woman Pilot

The first of my official SF3D kits to arrive in about 23 years and, boy, she deosn't disapoint.

Been garage kit building for 20 odd years, usually 1/6th but sometimes 1/8th, 1/12th and 1/4th, but i've never EVER built anything so fine a detail as this.

Not even my Fewture bits.

Quite awe inspiring - and feeling a bit intimidated to put paint on her.

Boot sale goodies

Stroll round to the boot sale in our village and come back with this bunch of stuff, all for a meagre 20p.

Going to - you've guessed it - have the robot for a MAK-style thing and figure the other bits could be useful too.

MAK Walker

Another day, another project started.

Looking round the Net a few folk have used the Star Wars Scout Walker as a basis for their own design.

Got one of them just sat there on the shelf gathering dust so thought i'd give it a go.

But what to use for the body?

Couldn't find anything here at home but had to change a bearing at work and this metal disc is what came out. It's a lovely, inticate bit of work and, once cleaned up, figured i could use it. And had it in mind to have it as the barrel of a whacking great walking gun.

So, here's the legs, a piece of B&Q pipe wrapped in Plasticard for the body, the bearing and a kitpart to attach it too.

Two concerns though.

The bearing is heavy. Heavier than anything else i'll be using. So there's a danger of (A) it being top heavy and not able to stand up, (B) the join between the bearing and the body giving way due to the weight and (C) ditto for the attachment of the legs and the body.

Addressing (B) first. Stuck the bearing to the kitpart with Araldite for a nice strong join. To attach it to the body, you can see here i've put a Plasticard disc into the body. I'm going to pack that area with P38 before attaching the kitpart/bearing. Also going to glue some nuts to the back of the kitpart so the P38 will have something on that flat area to grip onto.

Ping Pong ship - finishing off

Crappy pics, but here it is basecoated in its final colours and washed with a brown/black mix.

MAK Sentry Post - assembled and basecoated

The basecoat is "Peugot Alpine White", a lovely off-white that's similar to the shade seen on a lot of MAK craft.

Far too glossy but that'll aid the decal process and will be taken back with matt varnish.

Going to lose the horizontal bar on the head as it looks a bit daft.

What was i thinking?

I mean, really.

Didn't i have an inkling at all that this wasn't working?

Anyway, stripped all the gunk off, primed in grey then Skull White.

As things are a lot clearer now, thought i'd play "spot the kit".

Full length shot, from top moving down and left to right:

Not sure of the main body but have a feeling its the body of the Airfix "Starcruiser,

cockpit window i think is a stand for something,

gun - its dark green rubber, so likely a toy,

rear of the "X Wing,

next is an unidentified raised area, and on that...

... insert from the wing of "Darth Vaders TIE Fighter",

bit of a leg to the same kit,

turret from a 1/72nd "Scorpion Tank",

two "X Wing" weapon sections,

very small unknown part, "Vostock" hemisphere, unknown square slabs,

unknown part, foot of an "Eagle", unknown part,

unknown engine bells.

Side view, left to right:

the bit under the main engine bell is a door of the "Starcruiser",

unknown round part,

"Vostock" hemisphere,

unknown squares again,

"Vostock" hemisphere,

unknown part,

cut-down "Eagle" foot,

"Vostock" hemisphere,

unknown part,

and the bit on the underside at the front is the cockpit bottom from "Vaders" ship.

Can see where a lot of my kits went now.

Chubby Ship - done

Could've done more, but this was really a project to get me back into "realistic" paint schemes and weathering.

MAK Sentry Post

"Dear God" i hear you cry, "not ANOTHER project????"

Yes indeed. While having a rummage though my bigbitsbox i came across this ball, which is a computer camera. Really like the detail on it, and it reminded me of Roboterkampf's excellent contribution to the ping pong build.

So, got to thinking what i could do with it and cam up with the idea of it being a robot sentry atop a pole, attached to a base.

Having another rummage got me a nice hemisphere just the right size for the base and this nicely detailed kit part (no idea where its from - came in the box from Martin Bower).

As you can see, i've started putting kitbits and panel lines on the base.

What you can't see is that i've only got one half of the pole, so the rear is faced with Plasticard. Not going to detail that as it'll only be seen from the front.

Next step: bung some P38 down the pole and squish the ball in.

Chubby Ship - near done

Been a long, long time since i did anthing like a real world military paintjob, so had a blast doing this.

Over the primer went a light grey from Games Workshops new Foundation range (can't get up to my den right now to let you know the name - my 1 year-old is perched on my lap as i type).

These are great - quite "realistic" colours that dry almost matt and are strong enough for one coat to be enough, even the yellows.

Anyway, i've been checking out what folk do for their colour schemes and thought i'd go for a Luftwaffe type of thing. So, mottled the upper surfaces with the same paint mixed with a blueish grey then mixed some more with black, mottled, then again with neat base coat, then repeated. The aim was to try and get it really random.

It was suggested to me over on the MAK Forum that a colour band might be a nice idea and i was originally going to go with yellow, trying to hint at the ME109 that wass done that way, but once i'd put the white undercoat on i left it as is.

Next were a few decals and the point i'm now is just after pastelling and sealing.

Next step is the metallics, then rust and oil drips.

Chubby Ship

Here it is with an engine area bunged on the back. MUCH harder than the MAK scratchbuilds would lead you to believe.

Not happy with it, but i'm learning lots ready for when i do proper scratchbuilds.

Chubby Mak - styled guy

All done.

Didn't really pay much attention to what i was doing - it was really just an exercise in getting used to heavy weathering and rust techniques again.

Nice to use a small paintbrush again after a few months of only painting with spraycans.

My ping pong attempt.

So, know i can't compare with those two, so had to figure another way of going about it.

And this is what i did:

Came up with the idea of cutting the ball in half and have each be the "eyes" at the end of long body, with an engine at the end.

The only preparation i did was to work out and cut out a cardboard template for the two Plasticard hull sides and a little elongated house shape to hold them apart at the right angle. And to amass loads of kitbits that i thought might work - and snipped them off their sprues to save time.

Also to save time, i used superglue and accelerator so stuff was set straight away. Pressed the stopwatch, glued the hull havles together (held in place by masking tape on the top, which i never removed, figuring it'd be messy and time consuming), bunged in the house shape, the long tube and the engine bell. Then went round and round the underside, sticking things on then looking for something to sit next to it. Made a few mistakes but couldn't go back.When most of that was done, i left it and cut the ping pong ball in half and put a couple of greeblies on. Turned the ship over and put the eyes on. To be on the safe side, i allowed 5 minutes for them to set. While that was happening i put the greeblies on near the engine bell.

Last thing was put a bit of wire on for a fuel pipe running the length of the ship. Time was then 53 minutes so took it outside and primed in Halfords Grey Plastic Primer. Couple of scuffs in the paint as i couldn't wait for it to dry on one side before turning it over.

And that's it. Kinda happy with it. Looking forward to finishing the paintjob once i've submitted it to the contest.

MAK ping pong ball challenge

Decided to have a go at this nifty kit build challenge.

Take a ping pong ball and you have an hour to turn it into something that looks like its from the MAK universe.

First couple of entries have been posted already and they're scarily impressive.

Feel quite intimidated.

M.A.K.

A bunch of folk from the SFMUK site came round Saturday for a natter, grub and drink.

Previous to that i'd been getting a hankering to have another go at a SF3D/Nitto/MAK/whatever kit, after enjoying converting the Lunar Prawn into my Starship Trooper.

Anyway, Alun had brought along a couple of MAK kits and that really got me fired up.

Had a trawl round the Net and i got even more so.

Right now there's a couple things on the way but i'm an impatiant so and so,

Had a look around to see what i could have a play with that's already here.

First pic has this charmer.

Its an Anime kit that i made years and years ago. Yup, its meant to be that shade of pink, but the tubing and rivet detail really hints at MAK to me. Size-wise, its 1/48th in its original form, but alongside the 1/20th Luna Prawn its not too far off.

Dusted him off, primed in grey, then basecoated in Tamiya JA Grey. And the second pic shows him with the first dirty wash applied.

While looking on the Net i really fell for the MAK that craft that're plain curved shapes for the most part, with incredibly detailed sections here and there. Like them so much i decided to have a go myself.

I've got lots of engine bells and suitably clunky parts in my bits box, but needed that curvy bit.

So, have a look around and this fella is sat on my bench right now.

I'd just bought it on eBay - its an Anime kit of a long spacecraft with 4 elegant wings sprouting out from it. Had in mind to convert it a bit and paint it in a Chris Foss style, and this is as far as i got - the front half of the main body.

Looking at the curves and the squatness of it, its screaming MAK to me, so this is the basis.

Planning on putting Saturn V engine bells at the rear of the side pods and the blank space at the rear of the main section a mass of clunky detail.

Martin Bower - top bloke

Got Martin a coupla kits when i was up at Comet Minatures a while back.

And look what he sent as thanks - a box chock full of modelling goodies.

Plenty of inspiring stuff in there and, i'm glad to say, quite a few pieces i need for my Psydon ship.

Don't need a Saturn V now!

Psydon Ship - as far as i can go right now

Here we are with the ends of the Herald section with plates on - since i took this pic i've capped them properly - and i can't do anymore until i get the shape to stand in for the Blue Ribbon container that was used on the original.

That dictates how wide the detail plates top and bottom need to be.

Frustrating.

Doing a Mat Irvine

Another month, another project started.

My wife's hairdrier died today and, knowing me SO well, handed it over to see if i could do anything with it.

So, emulating Mat Irvine and his now notorious hairdrier spacecraft from Blakes 7, thought i'd have a go.

Had to saw off the hadle to pop it open, but what a great bunch of shapes were inside!

Psydon ship - off we go - and a bit of a disaster

See here we have the two Herald lights stuck together. Before i did that i crudely cut a hole for the pipe to pass through, and here it is at roughly the right size loosely in place.

Second pic shows my attempt at duplicating Martin.

He used Plasticard to fill the gap at the top of the light section, bent round in one piece.

So, cut this to the right size, spent ages making the pipe hole the right size and then put it in boiling water till soft and wrapped it round.

Disaster.

The thing just went floppy and wouldn't hold its new form. Dunno if its a case of the plastic being thick enough - but that's all the shop has so got to think of something else.