When first approached to paint this model I suddenly
wondered to myself “What have I gotten myself in for”? This resin model was so
poorly cast with lots of bubbles, pitting and mis-molded sections. After much cleanup, pinning and considerable liquid green stuff he was finally acceptable for priming and base coating.
The client requested our paint level 5-Primarch (display standard) and in order to create a unique piece I was a little stumped on what exactly to do. The base needed help due to a chunk of the mold that was completely missing! The pins for the crown were missing from model kit and I needed a unique base for display. I saw all these challenges as opportunity to not only fix it but create a dynamic one of a kind model.
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The backpack posed a special problem for me. The
fitment was horrible due to the lifeless slab of resin used to form what was
supposed to be a backpack. It simply looked out of place. So I broke out the green stuff and added some hoses and texture. Which also aided in concealing the
noticeable gap left when placing the backpack on the model.
I free-handed some stripe on the claw and figured it
would be worn and rusty. Carefully applied nicks and scratches along with some
weathering pigment was added to get this effect.
His crown was a unique challenge seeing that the spikes shown in pics of the model on HiTech's site showed spikes extending out of it and the kit did not come with these. My solution was straight pins from my sewing kit painted NNM and carefully placed into drilled holes in his crown.
Trying to decide on a base I turned to the underlying feel of the model and pulled inspiration from its mechanical/industrial theme. The base is an actual gear from a 1979 Mazda RX-7 transmission which I acquired from an old parts bin at my work. A lot of cleanup was required to remove all the rust and grease but well worth the effort. After prepping I painted it NNM. To solve the issue of the small badly mis-molded base provided in the kit I decided some additional hoses would conceal the imperfection and tie the model to the base. Greensuff made this easy.
The bigger problem was mounting the model to the hardened metal gear and the gear to the wooden base. Well, no fear my trusty friend JB Weld came to the rescue along with a pin connecting the model to the wooden base (which btw, I stained and clear coated meself :)). An added bonus of the gear is it added weight to the model making it very stable.
Well, here is the finished result. Hope you enjoy! :-)
Mary
