Post by alexb on Jan 3, 2018 20:10:57 GMT
I figured I'd repost the Brutish Dog Build....including the actual finish.
As a reminder, this is the BanDai Brutish Dog, from the Japanese cartoon, Votoms. Except for what I read on Wikipedia I have no idea what this cartoon series is about. The only reason I know about it is that Gary built one over on the Worx. For full disclosure, this was built as part of a group build over at Model Geek.
The kit is listed as 1/20 scale and includes a seated pilot and a standing figure. It's a snap-together kit. It has a cockpit. It's molded in many colors and intended to be a toy. The joints are poseable and the detail looks pretty nice. The kit comes with a nice full-color instruction manual. There's some background info but it's all in Japanese...which I do not read. In spite of the laguage thing, the instructions are easy to understand.
I'm going to build it as a 1/35 scale mech so it can be used with 1/35 scale figures. It will get a new cockpit, new weapons, and a new storyline. I think 1/35 fits the mech better. At 1/20 scale, it really it cramped and the interior isn't really realistic in terms of drive and power components.
I'll clean-up the build a bit to reduce the number of pictures.
So without further ado....
Lots of bits and pieces and even with the changes...most of them will be used. An interesting thing is that BanDai molded parts of a couple of the sprues different colors.
The cockpit required changes to go from 1/20 scale to 1/35. The kit's seat was way too large. I gave it a new floor and commandeered a seat from the spares as a mock-up. The chair is from an old 1/32 scale Revell AH-64 Apache.
The cockpit interior sidewalls. These include actuators for the main hatch.
I decided to use the Apache seat. I trimmed off the armor plates. I scratched up a base. The seat was given shocks from a Trumpy BMP-1. The control sticks are actually parts of the recoil mechanism from a Tamiya 75mm pak. The seat will be worked and reworked a few times during the build.
The interior inserts were pretty bland so I tried to spruce them up a bit with some styrene. These will be reworked as the build proceeds.
I shot them with a coat of rattle-can gray primer. I liked the way it looked so I decided to use the gray as my base color. I went ahead and sprayed as much of the parts gray as I could. The interior surfaces were drybrushed using IJN Metallic Interior Blue. To me, it looks different...alien-like.
Cockpit mocked up with torso sides added. I added some armrests with buttons. The control sticks are too far forward and will be reversed later on so the pilot can reach them. The seat cushion will be reworked and cleaned up.
Arms basically built per kit's instructions. The nebelwerfer styled canon and hook/claw are the only weapons included with this variant. The open slot on the nebelwerfer is for a magazine, but I don't know what it feeds. he gun tubes are too large of a caliber for any rounds the magazine could hold. I'm upgrading its firepower. As an aside, the gun tubes are rifled.
The arm with the hand could hold a weapon...and some kit variants come with them. The hand is pose-able. I have plans here as well.
Legs. Pretty straight-forward. The thigh and calve panels cover a decent bit of internal detail. This kit has alot of molded on detail that could be really showed off if one wanted to do a maintenance scene. The legs are fully poseable. I'll remove the foot guards and the retractable spike things on the feet. The spikes may be a focal point/visual in the cartoon but they (as well as the claw) serve no purpose for what I am using this kit for.
Hip/pelvis unit. Not alot there to talk about, but I will use this dead-spot to point out that the joints are a sort of poly-styrene and allow the joints to move and stay in place. Overall, the engineering and fit on this kit is pretty tight.
Main hatch. I added some vision blocks so the pilot can see when buttoned up. There's a dash with added controls. The head has some detail. I added more. The inside of the visor recieved some as well. The lenses will probably be lef off. I think they are too large. The downside is that the mount is captured by the visor's backplate. I had to glue this in place and it won't budge.
Things are starting to come together. With hatch open.
And a shot of it just standing there. You can see where the lenses are really too large. The posture is sort of funny looking. Some changes coming up.
The first addition of firepower is a pair of gun pods for the torso. These were made from optional main guns from Heller H35s. The housing are armored radio boxes for early StuGs.
Arming the arms. The handed arm got a laser assembly to its forearm. I used bits from the spares and dressed them up a bit. The initial plan was to have 3 lasers. The large center weapon was a heavy laser. The smaller flanking lasers were pulse weapons. Later, I snip off the center laser and just go with the two smaller lasers. The claw is still on, but it gets removed and replaced with something. The bars on the upper arm panels is just to break up their flatness and give them some detail.
The footsies got their spike things removed. The circular parts look to be where pivot points for the foot would be so I added hubs to infer that there's an axle there. I'll remove the armor plate...it doesn't look good and it gets caught on the foot.
Almost there...maybe. I added the backpack. The backpack and bending the legs slightly helped the posture and gave it a more aggressive profile.
Ready for paint. I masked off the inner mechanisms using plastic wrap. I was able to wrap them, then place the panels with no problems. The rest was taped. I used rattle-can gray primer. Three coats.
Painted and dried and posed with a T34-85 for scale. I'm liking the gray. I think I'll keep it overall gray and not worry about a second or third camo color.
More firepower. Taking a page from Mechwarrior, I decided to add rocket pods to the backpack. I cheated and used some 1/35 scale Panda Huey pods from the spares. The mounts come from bits from the spares but there's alot of extra suspension parts from a Trumpy E25 in there. The idea is that the mounts are universal and weapons can be changed out. Later, I might try to redo the rocket pods...maybe squared pods or have rockets on one mount and something else on the other. I actually have a nice single rocket pod from Trumpy's LAV-AD kit.
I added lift points to the backpack and rocket pods. I tried to dress up the pods a bit...they aren't that good. I added some detail to the backpack.
The gun tubed arm always struck me as a bit odd...the rifled tubes with the undersized magazine. With the claw removed there were some mounting holes. I decided to mount a gun there and use the magazine slot for ammo for it. I came across a 20mm gun from an old Tamiya Marder IFV. I fit perfect in one of the claw's mount points. I used a plastic zip tie for the ammo feed belt. The other mount point was fared over with styrene. Styrene strips were added to infer a seperate champe behind the guntubes for ammunition. I figure this could be used as an anti-aircraft weapon or against softskins at range. Sorry for the blurriness.
A shot at the added gun and backpack with rockets.
Back to the other arm. I snipped off the center laser. I used stretched sprue for power cables. I figured the lasers would fall in to a MG/close-in defense role...so we have layers of protection and offensive firepower. You can also see the feet with the plating removed. I also added some detail to the toe area.
More paint time to cover those last additions. It's a huge difference for its look.
Weathered, washed, and decals added. I used some of the kit's decals for stuff that they probably were never intended for. The triangular insignias are German unit markings turned sideways....15th Panzer Div.
More changes. I couldn't leave well enough alone and boogered-up the decals. I had to replace them with modified 14th PD markings, forming three diamonds. I liked the old one better but I'll keep this version for now. The circled diamond insignia was added as well. I'm not sure what it was for but It's something added. I think it's too much and I don't like the placement, but I'll leave it as is for now. It just shows that not all fiddling is good.
More fiddling with stuff. I began work on the pilot. Some issues sort of showed themselves so I began addressing them...so it's positive fiddling. Control sticks were re-position to be within reach. I added some more detail to use up some empty space. I think it makes the cockpit more crowded, but in a good way. I raided the decal box and added more to the interior.
Also, I added a odd-looking bit from the spares to the underside of the hatch.It's just for some added detail and explains that recessed panel on the hatch's exterior.
The pilot. This came from the Master Box PinUp set. I scratched built some torso armor. She was modified from standing to a seated position. I gave her boots using strip styrene. I used a Dragon Vietnam era helicopter pilot's head. I added strips to the helmet and enlarged the earpieces to change the appearance. I went with blue skin because she's an alien.
I don't really like this figure but I needed it to finish the campaign build in time. I do have plans for this mech and I'll change it out for that.
And that's the end of this phase of the build. The mech will be displayed in a mech bay so the interior can be shown. It's part of the Vampire Alien Ladies '47 theme. I really enjoyed the build and it was refreshing to get away from the normal. That said, I'm going to step away from blue skinned vampire ladies for a bit. It's too easy to get fatigued on a theme....or just overly fiddle with it.
As a reminder, this is the BanDai Brutish Dog, from the Japanese cartoon, Votoms. Except for what I read on Wikipedia I have no idea what this cartoon series is about. The only reason I know about it is that Gary built one over on the Worx. For full disclosure, this was built as part of a group build over at Model Geek.
The kit is listed as 1/20 scale and includes a seated pilot and a standing figure. It's a snap-together kit. It has a cockpit. It's molded in many colors and intended to be a toy. The joints are poseable and the detail looks pretty nice. The kit comes with a nice full-color instruction manual. There's some background info but it's all in Japanese...which I do not read. In spite of the laguage thing, the instructions are easy to understand.
I'm going to build it as a 1/35 scale mech so it can be used with 1/35 scale figures. It will get a new cockpit, new weapons, and a new storyline. I think 1/35 fits the mech better. At 1/20 scale, it really it cramped and the interior isn't really realistic in terms of drive and power components.
I'll clean-up the build a bit to reduce the number of pictures.
So without further ado....
Lots of bits and pieces and even with the changes...most of them will be used. An interesting thing is that BanDai molded parts of a couple of the sprues different colors.
The cockpit required changes to go from 1/20 scale to 1/35. The kit's seat was way too large. I gave it a new floor and commandeered a seat from the spares as a mock-up. The chair is from an old 1/32 scale Revell AH-64 Apache.
The cockpit interior sidewalls. These include actuators for the main hatch.
I decided to use the Apache seat. I trimmed off the armor plates. I scratched up a base. The seat was given shocks from a Trumpy BMP-1. The control sticks are actually parts of the recoil mechanism from a Tamiya 75mm pak. The seat will be worked and reworked a few times during the build.
The interior inserts were pretty bland so I tried to spruce them up a bit with some styrene. These will be reworked as the build proceeds.
I shot them with a coat of rattle-can gray primer. I liked the way it looked so I decided to use the gray as my base color. I went ahead and sprayed as much of the parts gray as I could. The interior surfaces were drybrushed using IJN Metallic Interior Blue. To me, it looks different...alien-like.
Cockpit mocked up with torso sides added. I added some armrests with buttons. The control sticks are too far forward and will be reversed later on so the pilot can reach them. The seat cushion will be reworked and cleaned up.
Arms basically built per kit's instructions. The nebelwerfer styled canon and hook/claw are the only weapons included with this variant. The open slot on the nebelwerfer is for a magazine, but I don't know what it feeds. he gun tubes are too large of a caliber for any rounds the magazine could hold. I'm upgrading its firepower. As an aside, the gun tubes are rifled.
The arm with the hand could hold a weapon...and some kit variants come with them. The hand is pose-able. I have plans here as well.
Legs. Pretty straight-forward. The thigh and calve panels cover a decent bit of internal detail. This kit has alot of molded on detail that could be really showed off if one wanted to do a maintenance scene. The legs are fully poseable. I'll remove the foot guards and the retractable spike things on the feet. The spikes may be a focal point/visual in the cartoon but they (as well as the claw) serve no purpose for what I am using this kit for.
Hip/pelvis unit. Not alot there to talk about, but I will use this dead-spot to point out that the joints are a sort of poly-styrene and allow the joints to move and stay in place. Overall, the engineering and fit on this kit is pretty tight.
Main hatch. I added some vision blocks so the pilot can see when buttoned up. There's a dash with added controls. The head has some detail. I added more. The inside of the visor recieved some as well. The lenses will probably be lef off. I think they are too large. The downside is that the mount is captured by the visor's backplate. I had to glue this in place and it won't budge.
Things are starting to come together. With hatch open.
And a shot of it just standing there. You can see where the lenses are really too large. The posture is sort of funny looking. Some changes coming up.
The first addition of firepower is a pair of gun pods for the torso. These were made from optional main guns from Heller H35s. The housing are armored radio boxes for early StuGs.
Arming the arms. The handed arm got a laser assembly to its forearm. I used bits from the spares and dressed them up a bit. The initial plan was to have 3 lasers. The large center weapon was a heavy laser. The smaller flanking lasers were pulse weapons. Later, I snip off the center laser and just go with the two smaller lasers. The claw is still on, but it gets removed and replaced with something. The bars on the upper arm panels is just to break up their flatness and give them some detail.
The footsies got their spike things removed. The circular parts look to be where pivot points for the foot would be so I added hubs to infer that there's an axle there. I'll remove the armor plate...it doesn't look good and it gets caught on the foot.
Almost there...maybe. I added the backpack. The backpack and bending the legs slightly helped the posture and gave it a more aggressive profile.
Ready for paint. I masked off the inner mechanisms using plastic wrap. I was able to wrap them, then place the panels with no problems. The rest was taped. I used rattle-can gray primer. Three coats.
Painted and dried and posed with a T34-85 for scale. I'm liking the gray. I think I'll keep it overall gray and not worry about a second or third camo color.
More firepower. Taking a page from Mechwarrior, I decided to add rocket pods to the backpack. I cheated and used some 1/35 scale Panda Huey pods from the spares. The mounts come from bits from the spares but there's alot of extra suspension parts from a Trumpy E25 in there. The idea is that the mounts are universal and weapons can be changed out. Later, I might try to redo the rocket pods...maybe squared pods or have rockets on one mount and something else on the other. I actually have a nice single rocket pod from Trumpy's LAV-AD kit.
I added lift points to the backpack and rocket pods. I tried to dress up the pods a bit...they aren't that good. I added some detail to the backpack.
The gun tubed arm always struck me as a bit odd...the rifled tubes with the undersized magazine. With the claw removed there were some mounting holes. I decided to mount a gun there and use the magazine slot for ammo for it. I came across a 20mm gun from an old Tamiya Marder IFV. I fit perfect in one of the claw's mount points. I used a plastic zip tie for the ammo feed belt. The other mount point was fared over with styrene. Styrene strips were added to infer a seperate champe behind the guntubes for ammunition. I figure this could be used as an anti-aircraft weapon or against softskins at range. Sorry for the blurriness.
A shot at the added gun and backpack with rockets.
Back to the other arm. I snipped off the center laser. I used stretched sprue for power cables. I figured the lasers would fall in to a MG/close-in defense role...so we have layers of protection and offensive firepower. You can also see the feet with the plating removed. I also added some detail to the toe area.
More paint time to cover those last additions. It's a huge difference for its look.
Weathered, washed, and decals added. I used some of the kit's decals for stuff that they probably were never intended for. The triangular insignias are German unit markings turned sideways....15th Panzer Div.
More changes. I couldn't leave well enough alone and boogered-up the decals. I had to replace them with modified 14th PD markings, forming three diamonds. I liked the old one better but I'll keep this version for now. The circled diamond insignia was added as well. I'm not sure what it was for but It's something added. I think it's too much and I don't like the placement, but I'll leave it as is for now. It just shows that not all fiddling is good.
More fiddling with stuff. I began work on the pilot. Some issues sort of showed themselves so I began addressing them...so it's positive fiddling. Control sticks were re-position to be within reach. I added some more detail to use up some empty space. I think it makes the cockpit more crowded, but in a good way. I raided the decal box and added more to the interior.
Also, I added a odd-looking bit from the spares to the underside of the hatch.It's just for some added detail and explains that recessed panel on the hatch's exterior.
The pilot. This came from the Master Box PinUp set. I scratched built some torso armor. She was modified from standing to a seated position. I gave her boots using strip styrene. I used a Dragon Vietnam era helicopter pilot's head. I added strips to the helmet and enlarged the earpieces to change the appearance. I went with blue skin because she's an alien.
I don't really like this figure but I needed it to finish the campaign build in time. I do have plans for this mech and I'll change it out for that.
And that's the end of this phase of the build. The mech will be displayed in a mech bay so the interior can be shown. It's part of the Vampire Alien Ladies '47 theme. I really enjoyed the build and it was refreshing to get away from the normal. That said, I'm going to step away from blue skinned vampire ladies for a bit. It's too easy to get fatigued on a theme....or just overly fiddle with it.
