Junk Mech

August 25nd, 2005

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So in line with my desperate attempt to be a jack-of-all-trades (and master of some?) I decided to build a model of a mech out of garbage. Now I've seen some damn fancy scrap mech building in my day. When you're done visiting here, check out this stuff, which I think is mostly kit-based but with lots of customization.

Anyway back to nerding up the website. I collected a plethora of junk from around the apartment while we were moving. I picked up some odd bits here and there just by keeping my eyes open. But the important thing is that I spent no money on this except for glue. Lots and lots of superglue.

Here you can see some of the items I used to create the gun. It ended up being quite a bit longer than I had intended but there's a lot of good detail on it.

Here's the front of the main body.

I spray painted the whole thing black. The theory was that when I spray painted it the matte grey, the back underneath would act as a faux shadow. If I only sprayed the grey from above, but made sure to get everything black, the mech would have shadows at the natural overhangs and creases. I think it worked out okay.

Head detail.

Hand detail. These took quite a while to make. You know the things on patio screens that hold the individual blinds? The fingers are those, cut in half, and then creased very gently with a pair of wire clippers to give the knuckle bends.

Back shot.

Glory shot!

Not exactly Patlabor quality or anything, but I think it's pretty cool. Hopefully the Gundam and Macross enthusiasts in my readership will appreciate the effort that goes into this sort of thing (hint hint).

I'm debating whether or not I have the skill and time to finish a paint-scheme. I'm certainly open to suggestions on a colour scheme for it. I tend to prefer a more natural Patlabor or Ghost in the Shell look over the cartoony bright colors of the Gundam crowd.

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©2005 Carl Huber and any guest authors. May not be reprinted elsewhere without permission.