Model Armour

I took this to my Club meeting last week and according to the Club members 'Kröte' must be future Teutonic slang for 'Electric Robot Chicken'!

Anyway, time for the next update! As mentioned before, we’ve now pretty much completed the kit build as laid out in the instructions, so the next steps is adding the additional details to the model. The first bit of this is to sort out the access hatch cover. My idea is to have this on the ground rather than hinged so a little work was needed. The kit part had some moulded on bolts and a hinge, as well as a panel line down the middle. I carefully removed the bolt heads for use later and shaved off the hinge detail. I then used filler for the seam, let dry and then smoothed off.

Next, I scratched up a number of small brackets from thick foil (opened and cleaned tomato puree tube). These were glued in the access area and once in place holes were drilled in the cover plate at appropriate locations. I then scratched up a number of bolts using hex and round styrene rod. The cover will be somewhere on the display base, possibly leaning against something else. At the moment I’m not sure where I’ll have the bolts – there could be a combination of then on the cover, in the brackets in the access area and / or in a small tin... Your ideas on this are welcome!

The next planned detailing is the smoke canister dispensers. As there is no reference (either imaginary or real) for this I’m pretty free to build anything that I think would look right! The idea is to mount the dispensers on either side of the turret. One side of the turret will be pretty much complete, with three tubes fixed, wiring added leading into the turret and canisters loaded in the tubes. The other side will be in the process of being added, so only one or two tubes will be added and the wiring will be hanging loose.

The dispensers (all 6!) were built from styrene sheet, tube and rod, with each having 12 pieces. The tubes are tube sealed at the bottom with some stock sheet styrene and detailed with some further styrene rod. The weld seams were made with fine styrene rod softened with liquid poly and textured with a blade. The small tubes at the back will accept the wiring which will be connected to the turret. The base plate of the dispensers is sheet styrene with 0.5mm hex rod used as bolt heads.

So here we go...



The dispensers are only attached with PVA glue at the moment to get a feel for how they will look before they are finally fixed... Please let me know your thoughts!

Cheers,
Ian

Ian-
I like the smoke dischargers just as they are- don't change a thing!

What I really like are the tabs you added where the access panel bolts attach to the "head".

Great work Ian!

Steve

Heya, Ian,

Nice work, amigo --- I love the additions to your Krote!! The smoke dischargers look absolutely fantastic --- I took one look and they made me go: "Whoa, where did he get those cool 1/20th scale smoke dischargers from...?!?" And now, I see: a Shumsky Industries product!

I dig your other additions and details you've added as well. Great detail work!

Are you planning a diorama...?

Keep up the good work, Ian!!

Regards and Aloha,

Johnny B.

Like the smoke launchers Ian, I think you should go with them as they are.

Nice detailing all round.

Chris

Absolutely agree

Rob

Steve, Johnny, Chris and Rob, thanks! I guess the smoke dispensers will stay I'll get them fixed on and wired up tonight and take some better photos.

Steve, I added the bracket tabs as I thought if they were not there, how would the panel be fixed on? I do need to add some small bolt heads on the inside of the tabs and I'll get them done tonight.

Johnny, I did think about making just one of these and then casting several, but I decided to just make them all in plastic, not least as I'd be able to attach them more securely with some liquid poly. There may be someone else watching this thread who may be interested in casting these... if so I can send him details and dimensions of the pieces (yes Mr. Reid, that was for you! ).

I am planning a dio for this. I've sourced some 1/20th scale tools and (with Steve's help) the perfect figure. I'm drafting up plans for what I hope will be an interesting construction on the base (who would have thought I'd be using trigonometry at my age -- remember to pay attention in school boys and girls -- you never know when you'll need to know this stuff!) and keeping an eye out for suitable vegetation. But more details on this lot once the Kröte construction is complete.

It shouldn't take too much to finish off the 'head' / turret tonight, so hopefully I'll also get the base detailing of the legs complete tonight as well... watch this space!

Cheers,
Ian

Watching closely! Great work on the smoke dischargers, they look 'right'.

Vinnie

Hello Ian,

Great work on everything i have to say


Woody...

Hi Vinnie, Woody, thanks for the thumbs up!

I fixed the smoke discharges to the 'head' last night and wired them up with some lead wire. I also finished the kit build items by trimming the tubing and fixing it to the various locations as well as adding the final kit details (three bolt heads and a round thing).

The kit comes with some pipework for the legs, but it is not at all clear where this should go, so I started making my own guiding rings and end points from styrene tube. I'm halfway through this and will finish tonight and post up some more pictures.

The end of the Kröte construction is in sight... but the end of the build is a long way off!

Cheers,
Ian

As mentioned in my last post above, the smoke dispensers are now fixed to the head. Using the PVA attached ones as a basis, I traced a curved line on the other side and then fixed the dispensers in place. I then used the same template on the other side to ensure symmetry. I added wiring from lead wire and a ‘socket’ from a small length of styrene tube.

Next step of detailing was the main body and legs, as well as reinforcing the feet as protection from sci-fi athlete’s foot... For the most part this would be adding a number of bolt heads, the odd detail and piece of pipe work, but I’m intrigued by Steve’s idea of adding some stand-off armour. So, first of all, here is the body with the kit spring tubing trimmed and fasted, the kit pipe work added, the last of the kit details fixed and the addition of a number of bolt heads (sliced hex rod), pipes (lead wire) and other nurnies (styrene sheet and bits from the spares box).









All very straight forward, but (aside from armour) does this need anything else?

Regarding the stand-off armour... There are a couple of places that this could make sense without blocking off a lot of the details. The first is on the front of the belly as this looks rather exposed and the second is somewhere on the legs. The armour itself could be mesh (i.e. like WWII Russian bedspring armour), plates or slats. I’m going to start on the belly armour and have a think about what this could be...

Before signing off for the night, one last photo showing the figure I’ve sourced for the dio – many thanks to Steve R for help in identifying this!



Cheers,
Ian