Fixing Blog and Mechs

I started these RAFM Heavy Gear conversions 10 months ago, back when the after effects from getting shingles was still bothering me. But, as life would have it, I forgot about them. After, I started painting the Mk4 Ogre I decided to slap some paint on these too. 

Then, after reaching this point, I realized I'd not actually finished adding all the details to them, which meant stopping working on them to fix the omissions.

Doh! Don't you hate it when that happens? 

And, to add insult to injury, I discovered that blogger no longer seems to support hashtags. So, I had to go through all my tags and remove them, so as to allow my blog to sort posts again, which still seems buggy.

In this case, no longer sorting by date.

And yes, I've logged out. Logged back in again, with a verification code, and my directory of posts is still not sorting by date.

It is what it is.

Bad Dog Marine Command Mech

And the final macro shots of my RAFM conversions. This is Tachikoma's CASE-2XC Mod 2 command Dog variant, loaded for Bear from Ghost Dog.

The Mod 1 variant only has one hard-point on the backpack. So, if I need to field that version I just swap the body from one of the standard CASE-2XC Dog's. 

Run Tachikoma, run, side view. 

 

 

And from the otherside, still running for her life.

 

And, the respective magnetized sub-assemblies, laid out to show how the model comes apart.

And as always, catch you on the bounce. 

Bad Dog Army Communications Mech

And continuing my promise to my friends here are another set of macro shots, showing off my RAFM conversions. 

Here's an Army CAS-3-Mod-2 Ape 4CISR mech: Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance.

Front view.  

Three-quarter rear view.

 

And, again here's how all the parts are magnetized, allowing me to have different poses to use as a reference for a book cover artist.

Catch you all on the bounce. 

Bad Dog Air Force Security Mech

And keeping my promise to my friends about posting macro shots of my RAFM conversions, here's the rebuilt Air Force CAS-4CP, meant to control a whole bunch of security androids as used by Ferretti in my story Ghost Dog.

Total bad ass side view. 

 

 

 And rear view.

 

And, here it is showing all the magnetized parts, which allow different poses for a book cover.

Catch you all on the bounce. 

Bad Dog Army Combat Engineering Mech

 

I promised some friends I'd post some macro shots of my RAFM conversions. Here's an Army CAS-1-Mod-1EV Ape, engineering mecha.

Rear view. Towing cables to go.

Below side view.

And, here shows all the magnetized parts, which allow me to take pictures of different poses for reference for a book cover.

 Catch you all on the bounce.

Combat Armor Groups

I had a mega photo shoot, which despite my best intentions, I still managed to forget to take some different angles on some of the models. Anyway, after so much time has passed, here they are.

Below, starting from left to right. 

My original CASE-2X conversion, running light with just a basic load-out. Main weapon is a 20x170 mm M41-AC230 autocannon, with under-barrel 40x53 mm Mk 30 grenade launcher. The left arm mounts a NATO 7.62 mm M240LC sustained fire machine gun.

Next is the CASE-2XC command variant, loaded for Bear from Ghost Dog. This adds a shoulder mounted 20 mm M21-A8 gauss rifle, and carrying a three pack of 70 mm MGR-170 Direct Fire Missile's to the basic load-out.

And the last CASE-2X has a shoulder mounted heavy-indirect-fire pack with a 15 pack of 140 mm MGM-240 Precision Guided Missile's, as mentioned in Bad Dog, which mounts a 12.7 mm GECAL Rotary Autocannon.

Model sans an arm, because I forgot to paint it, Oops. And below, again from left to right.

The rebuilt CAS-3-Mod-1 Ape weapons specialist with a M75 80mm lightweight high-velocity recoilless autocannon, a M134 GAU-2B/A 7.62 mm minigun on the left arm, with a shoulder mounted 15 pack of 70 mm MGR-170 Direct Fire Missile's. Espera's load-out from Strike Dog.

Next is a CAS-3-Mod-1 Ape with a basic load-out with a 20x102 mm M26-AC autocannon, and a shoulder mounted pack of four 70 mm MGR-170 Direct Fire Missile's

The kneeling CAS-3-Mod-1 Ape is communications variant with a M47-Mod-1: 40 x 53 mm Automatic Grenade Launcher (belt/drum fed). I might add a shoulder mounted NATO 7.62 mm M240LC sustained fire machine gun at some point. As and when I get round to it.

And finally, a CAS-1-Mod-1 engineering variant. It has a M121A: 120 mm Heavy Mortar for demolition work. I'll put up some close-up shots soon.

Catch you all on the bounce. 

Not Dead; Just Resting

Okay, it has been (time-wise) a country mile, since I've posted anything on a regular basis. What can I say, life sucks!? That, and setbacks. First was the unfinished mini-gun arm for one of the previous batch of CASE-2X Dogs.

Second being the missile pod mounts. The problem was the cast metal pods drooped.

Can't have one's missile pods drooping so, after much procrastination, I came up with another way of mounting them with magnets, which involved order some more parts too. I need to add Milliput to fare the pods to the magnets to finish them, but the end is in sight.

Hence the delay in getting around to doing the work. I've also started a couple more combat armour Ape suits conversions.

And, there's more to come. I've been beavering away, and have a bunch of stuff I need to take glamour shots of. This includes some NAC laser towers and turrets, the finished Russian quad mechs with decals, and more.

 So, watch this blog. Catch you all on the bounce. 

Big Buster Mostly Finished

I've mostly finished the rebuild CAS-4CP model. It still needs a coat of gloss varnish before adding decals, and then afterwards I will need to spray matt varnish.

I'm so glad I've finished this rebuild because this rebuild has been a bit of a slog.

I think the added bulk really adds to the feel that the Buster is big, much bigger than the conventionally sized Ape and Dog combat armour suits that the Army and Marines use.

Kneeling Combat Armor Suit Mostly Finished

Mostly finished meaning that I need to spray some gloss varnish and then add decals and then spray again with some matt varnish.

So, this is the third Special Forces CAS-3-Mod-1 mech finished for my Combat Armor Suit Detachment Alpha  that appeared in my second novel, Strike Dog.

The remaining three mech models for my Special Forces unit are waiting some TLC on my workbench. As they say, watch this space.

OMWB: Frustrating Big Buster Rebuild

This is what I've been working on for the last month, with additional delays due to new glasses and general life events getting in the way. I wanted to improve the fit of the torso by seating the magnets better.

However, the first delay was waiting for more magnets to arrive.

This model is one of a pair I originally built as reference for the artist I commissioned for the cover art for my novels. So this build served a dual purpose.

 

I also wanted to take the opportunity to refit and upgrade an earlier conversion with ball joints. Adding ball joints appeals to my inner nerd. 

 

Shock horror, it did not go well. There was much buggeration with the old two steps forward, one step back. But, challenging setbacks are an opportunity to improve.

The other part of the rebuild was changing the backpack and pop up missile pack using parts from a RAFM Kodiak I'd acquired.

 And here it is. Looking totally bad ass even if I say so myself.

But, another mishap occurred when drilling the attachment points for the ammo chute (not seen because, duh!), when the drill bit broke. So, still a work in progress.

It is what it is.

OMWB: CASE-2X Version 3

Above is my third CASE-2X Mod 1 variant standing pose mostly completed. I say mostly because I need to restore detail lost from the conversion. Delayed by illness impacting my ability to work due to the pain in my wrists.

It's a bitch.

Again, the model is poseable. So the torso twists, the arms and head can move using magnetized ball joints. 

Though I've yet to assemble the missile pack the model is largely complete.

OMWB: CASE-2X Kneeling

 

Still feeling a bit rough from Covid, so this is just a compilation of pictures taken so far with this project, which by comparison, made the conversion I did for the Hunter running pose seem like a piece of cake.

There was just so much fettling to make the pose work.

When one cuts a casting apart to rebuild it, what one finds is how much is wonky with the sculpt. Nothing is truly square or symmetrical, and well this just makes everything more difficult.

Nowadays, with digital sculpting this would not be a problem

However, digital sculpts can end up looking lifeless, which takes a really good artist to add life back into the finished product.

Also, for this conversion I wanted to mount a gauss rifle, as described in Bad Dog.

So, I assembled some parts to make a nice chunky, but not too oversized model. I used a Rapid Fire Bazooka from the Dream Pod 9 1/144th range as the base on which to mount  a combination of original RAFM weapon parts.

As before, there's still some detailing work to finish this conversion, which is delayed by my ongoing infection leaving me a bit ragged around the edges.

Still, I'm pretty pleased with the repose.

OMWB: CAS-3-Mod 1 Kneeling

After gathering a bunch of a parts I eventually got around to assembling my kneeling CAS-3-Mod 1 Ape. I changed out the yellow part in the picture above for another for this conversion.

After drilling to magnetize the torso, I found that the body couldn't turn because it interfered with the raised plates on legs. Hence the photo on the right showing how I rebuilt the parts so that the torso would clear the plates, which I really shouldn't have had to do because this was sculpted as a kneeling Gear.

So, I bit the bullet and re-sculpted the lower torso top, and corrected the mismolded lower torso.

Finally, with that corrected, I could finish the conversion. As you can see I've added some stowage.

I have some old RAFM weapons, quite a few in fact, but some of the weapons are ridiculously large. Hence the substitution of the new Heavy Grenade Launcher from the current Dream Pod 9 1/144th range.

I decided to make the torso on this version a recon specialist variant inspired by the Ape suits that in my novel Strike Dog.I used a part from the current Kodiak from Dream Pod 9.

My plan is to make six mechs given that each half of the detachment was a mirror of the other. So, this model represents either Sergeant Mary Lewis, communications, or Sergeant Miguel Sanchez, communications from my novel Strike Dog.

Combat Armor Suit Detachment Alpha 5136

    Captain Anthony Downey, detachment commander
    Master Sergeant Campbell, operations and team sergeant
    Staff Sergeant Morales, combat engineer
    Sergeant Mary Lewis, communications
    Sergeant Schmidt, medical
    Sergeant First Class Frank Radoslovich, weapons

    Chief WO1 Andrew McAdams, assistant detachment commander
    Sergeant First Class Thomas Nguyen, assistant operations and intelligence
    Staff Sergeant Julia King, combat engineer
    Sergeant Miguel Sanchez, communications
    Sergeant Daniel Robinson, medical
    Staff Sergeant Juan Espera, weapons

And yes, this means I working on three more CAS-3 Ape conversions.

Still some final detailing to finish, which is going be delayed because after three and a half years of avoiding catching COVID19 I've tested positive. To say I feel ill only scratches the surface, and I can't remember being this ill in over forty years.

Guess it sucks to be me.

WIP: Still Rebuilding and Magnetizing

Back here I started work on magnetizing models with ball joints. The extra flexibility for poses and alternative weapon loadouts from magnetizing is very alluring for someone like me. 

It allows me to have lots variations with only a handful of models.

Useful when one is converting long out of production miniatures, like the old Heavy Gear models from RAFM. But, it can be quite time consuming too. As is the case when the rotation magnets for the ball joints on my large Buster conversion turned out too wimpy to hold the arms firmly enough.

So, I ended up ordering some medium sized X-Wing rotation magnets from Green Stuff World. Hence the lack of progress while waiting for the items to arrive.

Then when they arrive one has to remove the old small magnets, and then re-drill larger holes for the new magnets etc., etc. It's a thing. A process that involved a lot of cursing.

Now moving forward. Catch you all on the bounce.

WIP: Magnetizing and Rebuilding

I finished the above model way back here, but I wanted to improve the arm joints, magnetize the weapon hardpoint, and rework the centre magnet to hold the torso to the legs better (more depth with deeper magnets).

Not only that, but updating the model will allow me to change out backpack missile pack.

You can see below (click to embiggen) the new recessed arm magnets, and the ball joints that allows for a wider range of movement and posing.

You may remember I broke the original model, which you can see here. Below on the left is the original build, and on the right the rebuilt comms array for the command variant of the CASE-2XC Dog.

So, slow work is slow, but it is what it is when one's joints ache.

Catch you all on the bounce.

OMWB: CASE-2X Version 3

I plan to do little other than magnetize the third Marine combat armor suit. Since the magnets have arrived (earlier than expected), I've advance all three models on my work bench.

So, left to right: a kneeling RAFM Heavy Gear Desert Shark Hunter; next my work in progress on the kneeling conversion of a Jager (lots of sculpting still to do; and on the right the standing Jager, which will only have the backpack modified to meet my needs.

That's all for now. Catch you on the bounce.