EBASENET - It's all about modeling

HG 1/144 Gundam DeathScythe Hell Custom /
2004 Bandai Action Kit Asia Cup (BAKAC)

Posted by Whitebase : 4th November 2007, 1:20 am

This is the ‘work in progress’ log for the 1/144 scale DeathScythe Hell Custom I did back in 2004. The original concept was to build all 3 versions of the DeathScythe in a diorama to be submitted for the 2004 BAKAC Competition. But… as with all my other works, I took a little bit longer than anticipated, and I only managed to finish one, in time (barely) for the competition.

As with all my models, I always plan out what I need to modify, by first deciding on a pose. This is done by temporarily sticking the parts together using blue tack. I decided on a leaping / charging strike pose for the DSHC.

I started out by doing some basic detailing on the front, back and side skirts. The back skirts were originally 1 single piece, so I separated the parts and rejoined them using a spring to allow individual movement. The springs were also used for the side skirts and also the front skirts. In case you’re wondering the ‘springs’ were made by manually coiling a fine wire around one of my drill bits. The cavity in the front and back skirts were filled up using epoxy putty, and the additional detailing made using pla-plate. Back then I didn’t have access to after market detailing parts, so the rivets and ‘minus molds’ in the skirts were scratchbuilt using epoxy putty.

Because the pose requires the torso to be twisted, I decided to separate the body to 3 segments, following the original design of the model. This is my third attempt in doing torso modifications. This time round I tried something a little more ambitious by making the center vertical piece movable as well. Shown here is the initial part separation and test fitting, after the internal plastics were hollowed out using a router.

After attaching ball joints inside the torso parts, it can now do this.