Battletech: N-Scale Hatamoto-Chi

[paulson games]

I'd asked Okko on the LOTB forum to do a comission for me as the batch of Thunderbolts mechs has left me with an itch to do some more N-Scale stuff. A lot of the older designs which I really like aren't available in that scale, so that meant getting a custom sculpt done.

The parts arrived today and needless to say I was blown away with the detail and couldn't be happier. It came out awesome and I'm super excited to finally see it in person. Made almost entirely from epoxie sculpt it has a distinct ceramic like quality to it. The exceptions are a couple small Koto bits and the lasers are made from brass rod.

The sword was one of my ogre dachi swords I'd shortened it slightly and cut the handle so it'd fit into the space Orkko had made in the hand. As it's sort of a add on I wanted to get everyone input as to if it looks appropriate scale of if I might need to tinker with the size a bit.

The model measures just over 80mm measuring to the top of the crest.
(about 70mm without the crest)

The parts break down is currently 9 parts:
Head
Torso
R/L arms
Left Arm PPC
Lower body
Katana (2 parts)
Right Hand

The lower body will likely need it's legs seperated from the hips for casting which would take it up to 11 parts. I suspect I may also need to seperate the head crest and possibly the shoulder pads, which would potentially take it up to 14 pieces.


Anyways onto the pics.

[mangozac]

Humanoid mechs aren't my thing, but this guy has certainly done a good job with it! I'm amazed how crisp everything is despite being made from Apoxie Sculpt (rather than a lot of styrene).

[Vaaish]

Yeah, he has done a fine job with the sculpting. I think some of the proportions are a little awkward like the vertical height of the hips making the waist appear very small and the shape of the head and calves or the size of the knee plate.

I also find the decision to break the foot odd. There doesn't seem to be anything on the foot to indicate it would bend at that point naturally and the smaller scale version seems to move with the articulation at the ankle while the entire foot is "stompier"

[paulson games]

Now that I've been staring at the model for several hours of time I'm also spottinga few areas that could use some very minor adjustments. I still think it's a top notch sculpt job and IMO those minor issues do nothing to take away from the work.

When compaired closely with the metal model the leg proportions are a bit more stubby, and the right arm is slightly to long as it reaches well past the hip. I'll probably make some minor corrections once i have extra casts to work with as I plan to extend the thighs slightly and increase the length of the armor skirt

Still very happy with the model overall.

[Vaaish]

THe stubbyness of the leg proportions is an optical illusion created by the size of the knee plate, the shape of the calf, and the placement of the skirt lower on the model as well as shorter.

More specifically, the calf gets wider at the middle on the metal version while it gets wider at the top on this sculpt. That makes the lower legs seem thin by comparison. If you compare the knee on the metal with this one, you can see that those circular bits are pretty huge. That makes them cover more of the thigh and combined with the skirt creates the illusion that the shin is far longer than the thigh.

The also appear too short because you mind puts the waist at the top of the armor skirt when in reality that is more the location of the hips with the waist being a good bit higher than the top of the skirt.

I think if you extend the height of the skirt up to where the waist actually is and reduce the size of the knee the mech would look much more "correct."

[paulson games]

Here's a shot of the very first test cast for the torso and arms. It needs a bit of clean up work but the resin is still really soft so I need to let it sit for a few more hours before I can get rid of all the mold lines.



The hip piece was a nightmare as there are so many angles and cut in areas I wasn't sure that I'd be able to do it as a single piece. I'm going to have to run several casts off before I'll know if it'll hold up or not as there some pretty thin mold pieces in order to make the armor panels and I'm worried they might pinch and tear.

I'm hoping to have the rest of the parts molded by monday, more updates coming soon

[mangozac]

[paulson games]

Small update with legs added. Last batch of parts is currently molding and should be completed tomorrow.

[blind pig]

No matter whether or not you like the models, that is some nice sculpting and some great moulding of a technically challenging shape.

I'd like to see the moulds to be honest.

Bloody well done!

[paulson games]

Yeah the sculpting pretty much blew me away, the detail is very sharp. I have a devil of a time trying to do mechanical parts and he made it look so easy. I was also blown away by the fact that he sculpted the model in under 5 days. I'm hoping to work with him again on some more fan sculpts

I'll get some shots of the molds shortly (they're being used ATM) it wasn't anything elaborate just a puzzle of figuring out how to rotate and angle the piece so I could vent it without damaging too much of the face detail.

Anyways here's pics of a completed cast






A total of 12 parts: (uses 4 seperate molds)
Head
Helmet Crest
Torso
L/R Arm
L/R Shoulder Pad
Hip
L/R leg
Left Arm Laser
R Hand & Katana

[Munkey Joe]

I do not like Battletech.....


but this is very nice. Ace work bud.

[mangozac]

Looks great! The casting is top notch as usual and it's funny how once cast in single tone resin a model looks much better than the master!

[paulson games]

I've been casting like crazy all weekend trying to get 40 of these done, just a little over half way there.

I tinkered a bit with my test cast as I'm planning on painting it up. I lengthened the left leg by maybe a 1/16th of an inch which helped get rid of the very slight lean. Shaved the elbow joints a bit so the arms don't have quite as vertically and have a bit more natural look angling outwards from the body a few degree. Also shortened right wrist slightly and adjusted the angle that the sword is held at. Not huge change but it helps the mech look slightly more natural in stance.




For painting I'd intitially thought about doing it in seventh sword of light colors which is basically solid red with maybe some black but I'm thinking that might be a bit plain. I'd remembered seeing this gundam a while back, do you guys think would it make a a good color pattern to follow?



Here's a really rough photoshop mock up

[mangozac]

I think the colours work well, so long as you keep the tones quite brown as in the 3D render.