In-Progress : Ma.K A.F.S Mk II
22-03-09 : First time Ma.K...
I've been looking at Ma.K kits for a long time but I've never been able to decide what to build. I recently went to a Swap and Sell in Melbourne and managed to find a cheap Ma.K kit so I took the plunge and he we are looking at my first Ma.K.
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I plan on weathering the crap out of this one and placing him on a small base - nothing fancy just something small and basic. My first hurdle was the plastic that Wave likes to use with their kits. I had a similar problem with the Tachikoma last year. The glue seems fine, but as soon as a littel pressure is applied, the parts split open. Another issue with the kit is that Wave have used that damn Polycap material for the joint covers and paint is an absolute bitch to get to stick to the material.
Here's a couple of pictures of the assembly process, the first being glueing the pieces and the second is the pieces ready for priming :
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I plan on attempting the hairspray and/or salt technique to weather this one too. First up, I have sponged on some primer to give the pieces a cast iron look. The first picture is before the texturing and the second is after :
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Finally, the first paint layer has been applied in anticipation of the hairspray technique. I've chosen brown as the base colour and plan to top it with a light or olive green. Hopefully within the next few days I cna progress some more with this one. Until then....
05-04-09: Paint chips and scratches done...
A quick update to show that I am still working on this kit. Finished the scratches using the hairspray method a few days ago and have since been masking and painting other areas of the kit. Here is the helmet with a blue band across it (also done using the hairspray method) :
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And here's the face, painted in flesh :
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I've since masked the face off with Blu-Tak and painted the head covering with Olive Green. Next up is to decal and wash everything with a Burnt Sienna type oil paint wash.
10-04-09: Decals and wash applied....
Day off work today due to Easter, so time to catch up on the AFS. I applied decals during the week :
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I went with the grey numbering as it makes it harder to see and easier to weather. I scratched away some parts of the decals that covered the scratches below to match the original scratch pattern made with the hairspray method earlier.
I have removed the piping from the torso to the leg and replaced it with some small diameter snake chain :
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The snake chain has been firmly attached using CA Glue which was also allowed to coat the entire length of chain to fix it into the position pictured so as to prevent movement and possible damage to the kit.
That all happened during the week and today I spent a little while washing the kit in an artist oil wash of Burnt Sienna :
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This gives it a red tone now and I plan to make the base look like a Martian landscape (aka red sand and red rocks) to match the wash on the kit.
Next up is to apply a Satin Clear coat and then make the base for him to stand on.