Icarus's blog: "Hurts to watch."

I won't say I spent most of yesterday building parts from scrap

because that would be a lie

No.
I spent MOST of yesterday on the phone...

I'm seriously gonna start telling people any phone call over 30 minutes may result in me putting in my headpiece and returning to what I was doing.

So

this step

I took two solid four sided columns (think an elongated cube) about .50 inches on its sides. Hacked it off at 8mm, cut a 45* angle on the tips of both sides
and cut the column in half

... and I said to myself "man this is the start of a great wing, or fin, or ... booster"

in fact if I laid them side by side I could do all kinds of interesting back structures

I could even fan em out

but

that wasn't the idea

anyway, so I decided to fix the struts upright (after hours of deliberation and repositioning) adjacent to the backpack, between the shoulders and neck.

I then put the cut-off triangles on the back of the upright columns to create a more interesting geometric shape

and THEN

I got the INSANE idea

to hand file

...

hand sand

the bottom 3 fourths of the structure into rods.

y'know what would've been
oh
say

1,000,000,000 times easier?

Glueing the top portion of my colums to an appropriate diameter rod or tube

which I have.
Lesson learned. Good practice anyway.
I shaved the rods at the base so they'd erganamic better with the backpack... I dunno I still might not be done

then I used model glue and affixed the triangles, and the rods to the backpack
I'm
PROBABLY
going to drill a few surfaces in the cubic shapes to give the appearance of thrusters at the top.

big emphasis on probably.

maybe vents on the back
oh

and I'm planning a macro booster on the back
which is going to involve probably crafting a half-tube into a box (cut a tube in half, lay it cut-side flat on the surface, cut the top to an angle, place a flat surface on top of the angled surface, cut an angle'd surface at the bottom so the force has somewhere to go instead of back into the unit and explode >>)

oh

while I was drilling and attaching rings to my broadsword

the tip broke
AGAIN

looks like I've got a ringed machete now

I figured out a better way to make rings
and I figured that on a 1/144 this was probably too small and too delicate for the full process.

I'll be glueing a holster to his hip for the device
plan is still to barb his heat-rod and incorporate it into the display.

so

I still have backpack work to do
surface mods and scrap building
I still have to build jets for the legs
still have to mod the shield
probably need to make a crest and attach it a few places.

don't drink my tea
it'll probably kill you.

...
I could totally put a grenade launcher in the shield.
oh
snap.

.... that may require sketching.And a new problem emerges

this thing only snugs into one side of the arm, the side that isn't very articulated
basically

the arm is a hinge instead of a rotating hinge like on the mastergrades
I can't rotate the forearm AND hinge the elbow
so if I articulate the elbow to where the arm is bent and the shield is pointed forward, the shield is on the underside of the forearm.

... not as cool looking at the gatling shield bent at the elbow and pointed forward on the gouf custom.

I could cut a grooove on the other sides of the forearm so the shield fits into those grooves...

could

sure

the gouf was always designed as a close quarters ground assault unit

I don't design single minded units though.

Look at my mechs in Armored core 4.

A high-speed threat at most if not all ranges.

Enough armaments and resources for Limited or prolonged engagements.

Hordes or duals.

This guy has to keep up with three high-speeds in coordinated long range to close range attacks.

That could be one of two things
too much work
or effing sweet.

Really it could be both.

oh

and pictures later.

I hate doing four things just to upload 6 pictures.