COMPLETE
070112.18
PURCHASED:
061101
BEGUN:
061102
COMPLETE:
061102
I glued most of the kit together. I gave the body of basic red and silver at the appropriate parts. I'm going to light the head, so final assembly and paint is on hold. I must blackout the inside of the head and shoulders too.
Overall, it looks good. A real big robot. Beefy. Fully 70% of all the pieces were off the sprue upon opening this MISB. So, I removed the rest and did basic guessing game (no challenge). The directions were helpful for the arm assembly and as an overall guide, but unnecessary.
All the joints are fully articulated, except the wrists. Flash at most of the connection points was minimal, but seams were everywhere. And those may still need patching and sanding on the final assembly. Next steps: light the head, seal body, putty, sand, final base coat of red, followed by black washes. I don't think I need to seal the coat...
061225.02
Later today, Maximillian will become the first lighting experiment I've ever done. One simple red LED and voilà! Though I may need some kind of the something to achieve the exact effect I'm looking for... The LED will now simply show as a single point light source with an empty head interior. I need a way to diffuse the red plastic visor.
061229.06
I spent 1 1/2 days messing around with the electronics. I finally got two 10 mm red LEDs working when a diode snapped! I bought some new ones LEDs today. I need to deduce a mount of some form so that these are stable over time.
Also, I must take into account the swivel nature of the head and add more wiring for stress release and durability.
Also, also I need to figure a way to get smooth light band for eyes instead of the two obvious LEDs in the head. Wax paper may work if the head didn't get so hot from the lights... most plastic I've looked at so far won't be any good at all and it's either too thick, too transparent or not the right consistency.
070105.18
I utterly tackled the electronics and mounting systems today. I jury rigged a brace for the headlights, but it still needs more work and then I must deduce an internal mount to swivel the head. I went looking for some staples yesterday and came across the last of a roll of opaque scotch tape.
Usually, I only buy the transparent stuff, but this is an old leftover. It turns out that if you layer up to 15 or 20 pieces or so, you still get light transmission and the light gets diffused as well! Problem solved!
I was looking at all sorts of plastic containers and such to cut pieces from, never finding anything that was acceptable. Leave it to crappy old scotch taped to do the trick! I bet this trick will work in a wide variety of situations!
And finally, I rocked the base; installing a pressure switch for the light; drilling the wire holes, so the juice can creep up the hover-mode-wire and into the body; reinforcing the wire, housing, as I had jammed the wire in to the base so good a while ago that I ripped the plastic open. But it's just as well!
This reinforcement allowed me to set the sprues in to hold the under base wiring firmly in place, while creating an unlocking feature for ease of replacement.
Before I fully install the LEDs, I have to let them run overnight to make sure they won't fry with the juice they're getting in the long run. The wires in the head will get very hot (relatively), so it's just as well I bought a pressure switch that only activates while it's pushed in...
But overall, the base is a nice piece of jury rig if I do say so myself -- for a first attempt, that is... Once the lights are set, I can seal this boy up!
To sand and putty the seams? If so, I'll have to airbrush a new redcoat as the canned spray is too shotgun in its approach. To seal the main body means the head and arms must be attached. And when dealing with six arms with silver hands, why that's just asking for trouble. After that, a black wash or three should finish Max off.
Now that I think of it, I should make an extra effort to make the electronics modular so that I can fully remove Max from his base. I think things just got a little tougher... But overall I'm passing shortstop and about round third for a home!
070112.00
I modularized the wires from his head to the wall. Now the wires run from his head to his back. Then it's from his back into the base and to the wall. I will look over tomorrow. I'm hoping for something more elegant than bare wire with solder. Putty and sanding the seems only took about an hour. I put several coats of spray red down today.
The head got all sealed up beforehand. As long as I didn't jar anything loose, I should be all set. I haven't retested the connection yet as I should have done. I'm glad I did the extra work and minimized his seams. They were real, real ugly. Not as bad as Robot's were, but still very obvious and not very good. I won't know how the torso seams went until I put him together tomorrow, but they should be acceptable.
The legs certainly look better. The effect on the arms is minimal. The head is quite smooth looking. It took three to four coats of medium red to hide the putty and file marks, though I did some fine sanding over all the file areas as well to help.
Tomorrow:
1. Test lights and pray.
2. Assemble body.
3. Test the black wash on a leg, if good do the whole body.
4. If the wash is no good, re-spray red
5. Call it finished!
I need to do the test wash as I had done the base awhile ago and the result was pure ugliness. The wash seemed to intereact with-based red or the bare plastic beneath that. This turned into a mushy mess almost instantly. I'm hoping this will not be the case with the body as a wash will bring some nice details out. I don't think I'll seal the paint at all.
The specular shine is fine enough as it is and I really want to call this one done. Also, due to design, getting a simple seal on it would be difficult enough to factor against the process.
070112
Seams are still not nice, but acceptable.
070113
I'm waiting on the body assembly to find an elegant power connector.
070117
Yesterday, I found just about perfect connectors. I had to drill new holes which are closer to 1/16 or 1/8" around and to the sides of the stand socket. The previous holes were just below it. The internal dynamics do not allow for that configuration for thus requiring the new holes to be drilled.
These new power connectors are even red! Their structure is such that the backside is an open hole and on the internal side is a piece of metal. So I only have to stick the bare leads into the hole and the connection is made.
The internal metal connector is soldered to the head wires. So, I soldered the internals, glued the body together, and everything still works! While it could use another redcoat on the body and the black washes -- which I have skipped. And even some new putty work, this kit is essentially done!
