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Sunday, January 30, 2011

Scratch Built Megatron Figure



Ran into this gem of a video at youtube. Its a year or more old but still very relevant. The video shows how to make a non transforming Megatron figure.


Scratch Built Megatron Figure

In the video he showed the materials he used to shape it. Basically Wave Epoxy putty (the grey one) and Tamiya Polyester Putty (the yellow one)or more commonly known as Poly Putty . Not sure what the other materials are though because the characters are hard to read for me from that resolution. Also not shown were the styrene sheets and off the shelf polycap joints.

Polyester putty is similar to the one used in the Plamo Tsukurou video on how to make a garage kit figure where it is a two part putty. Once you mix the two halves you only have a few minutes to shape it in place before the putty hardens. The good thing about the putty is that once it is hard you can still whittle it down with the use of an x-acto knife or a file.

From the technique shown the parts made are cast in Poly Putty then shaped down by means of x-acto knives, files, scribing tools, etc.

In the latter part of the video he compared both legs and found out that they weren't of equal length and shape, so he had to spend time in cutting down the longer leg and reshaping it to make it to equal length and similar shape.

Polyester putty is similar to the ones used as body fillers when re-painting and shaping automobiles. I heard of some modelers who use this instead of the ones sold by model kit makers because they are cheaper (a small can will cost about $3). Problem is that it is a tad bit harder and courser so they have to dilute it in thinner. But of course thats what they say. I'd suggest trying it out first with a small piece because you don't know how the thinner will react to the poly putty. The worst is that it can combust and burn your house down. So take extra care when trying this technique out. Then again, you can go the safer route and just buy the tamiya & wave putty *snicker*

Oh and before I forget, the fumes of the body filler are toxic, I'd recommend a good protective mask that can properly filter out the fumes. The ordinary medical face mask will not do.