Monster and Defender

[HWR MKII]

These are 2 completed models i have had but never had good pics of. Until now ENJOY! The Monster is the ARII 1/160 kit and the Defender is the IMAI 1/72 kit. Both built from the box, The only exception is the extra detail added to the surface of the monster.

[Dax415]

Good job! Haven't seen completed destroids in a while.

[Valk009]

Nice job on the Monster!

Btw, are those 1/72 Hase VF-1's in the background? I see the one on the right seems to have gone through some kind of custom job (missing some body panels)

[Die, Alien Scum!]

They look great! The muddy feet on that Defender is a real nice touch! Keep up the awesome work!

[Gabe Q]

Nice job on the Monster!

Btw, are those 1/72 Hase VF-1's in the background? I see the one on the right seems to have gone through some kind of custom job (missing some body panels) 

325944[/snapback]

I think that's the Ultimate Detail 1/48 scale valk in the background.

Great job on those. Your productivity is amazing. You just keep cranking 'em out, don't you?

[Guest Bromgrev]

Have mercy! My two all-time-favourite mecha in one helping, I don't know if my pleasure centres will ever be the same again ...

[jadefalconguard]

Whoo nice, now just wait for the 1/72 Monster (BTW I noticed one of you Valks is missing his wheels and hood ). Just would love to find the old ARII kits

[HWR MKII]

Valk, both the VF-1s in the background are the 1/48th UD ones Im waiting on a decal sheet from devin so i can finish them.

Jade, the wheels and canopy arent on the Strike Valk because i dont want too many snappable bits on them when i do the decaling

D.A.S. the mud is easy to do. I use a acrylic medium mixed with tamiya OD and stipple it on with a wide brush. I use the same method on my 1/35th armor as well.

Im still looking for the other destroids in 1/72 scale. I will be getting mikes new monster Im suprised that destroids dont get more love on here. They are just as fun as Valks.

[Grayson72]

HWR, thanks for sharing, when did you build the Defender?

[kazuki]

Cool dude. A little more details would have been better. More great kits man!

[HWR MKII]

Grayson, I built it back in december it was an early christmas present from my wife

Kazuki, What other details would you like i can take more pics

[Grayson72]

Grayson, I built it back in december it was an early christmas present from my wife

Kazuki, What other details would you like i can take more pics

326017[/snapback]

Oh I thought it may have been an old one, I noticed some seamlines but that model has got some tough places to get at.

Edited September 5, 2005 by Grayson72

[HWR MKII]

Unfortunately the kit was partially started when i got it, and i had to leave some seams because the plastic was actually shattering with the slightest amount of pressure, I think the guy kept the kit in an outdoor shed where heat and cold exposure made the plastic brittle. The hips were the worst. One crumbled and had to be rebuilt, so i did the best i could considering the age of the plastic. If i could get a new one or a Tomahawk i would be able to handle the seams better but this one tied my hands. It didnt even come with decals i had to hand paint all the markings.

[Grayson72]

Well you did a great job then, I can't believe the markings are hand painted, very impressive. I posted pics of mine a long time ago, it was heavily weathered.

I actually found your buildup of this thing, what happened to the diorama and the little Hummers you bought?

Edited September 5, 2005 by Grayson72

[HWR MKII]

It fell through since i couldnt find a good way to replicate water. I still have some ideas but i need the 1/72 monster first

[Grayson72]

Buy a model railroading magazine, those guys know how to do water like no one else.

[promethuem5]

Those both look great. As for doing water, get yourself a bottle of Woodland Scenics Water Effects.

[honneamise]

Unfortunately the kit was partially started when i got it, and i had to leave some seams because the plastic was actually shattering with the slightest amount of pressure, I think the guy kept the kit in an outdoor shed where heat and cold exposure made the plastic brittle. The hips were the worst. One crumbled and had to be rebuilt, so i did the best i could considering the age of the plastic. If i could get a new one or a Tomahawk i would be able to handle the seams better but this one tied my hands. It didnt even come with decals i had to hand paint all the markings.

Thanks for sharing these great pictures, HWR MKII!! The decent colours and the weathering look perfectly "real" and it seems really useful to have a lot of experience with armored vehicles when tackling the destroids!

Concerning the cracking plastic, I had the same experience with a Gunze Dorvack Cangrid kit which was perfectly stored and with the parts still in sealed bags! I bought it in the late 80s so it spent most of its life on my own shelf.

When I attempted building it I wanted to open some intakes, rescribe panels etc. but the main body cracked with the slightest impact of my hands! I had to build it very carefully and mostly out of the box to avoid any more damage but of course the fiddly legs broke several times during construction.

Now it can stand on one leg but falls over easily. Each time it does the feet break so I need a little diorama where I can glue it on to provide a better stand.

At the time I built this I started having concerns about the long-time-durability of polystyrene. I guess it has something to do with the softeners moving out of the plastic over the time.

Will all kits get like porceline after some decades? I hoped my Cangrid was an only example of what happens when bad plastic is used but your Destroid proves there are more kits with these problems. On the other hand, I have several much older kits which are still perfectly sturdy.

Here is my Dorvack Cangrid Harbla. I did not like the silver/gold colour scheme so I went with silver/blue/red. My girlfriend forced me into a shopping mall one day and I saw this scheme on a pair of shoes. My first thought was "how awesome must that look on a mech" - and of course it had to be a real strange looking one! :DThis is how it turned out.

[Guest Bromgrev]

Thanks for sharing these great pictures, HWR MKII!! The decent colours and the weathering look perfectly "real" and it seems really useful to have a lot of experience with armored vehicles when tackling the destroids!

Agreed, I think it's best to treat valks as aircraft and destroids as tanks when it comes to weathering. Muddy feet and rust stains look great on destroids.

My girlfriend forced me into a shopping mall one day and I saw this scheme on a pair of shoes. My first thought was "how awesome must that look on a mech" - and of course it had to be a real strange looking one! :DThis is how it turned out.

326156[/snapback]

The metallic red on your Cangrid looks fantastic! Not sure how it would look on a pair of shoes, though ...

[honneamise]

Thanks for sharing these great pictures, HWR MKII!! The decent colours and the weathering look perfectly "real" and it seems really useful to have a lot of experience with armored vehicles when tackling the destroids!

Agreed, I think it's best to treat valks as aircraft and destroids as tanks when it comes to weathering. Muddy feet and rust stains look great on destroids.

My girlfriend forced me into a shopping mall one day and I saw this scheme on a pair of shoes. My first thought was "how awesome must that look on a mech" - and of course it had to be a real strange looking one! :DThis is how it turned out.

326156[/snapback]

The metallic red on your Cangrid looks fantastic! Not sure how it would look on a pair of shoes, though ...

326177[/snapback]

Yeah those shoes...I would have felt sorry if my girlfriend had bought them

By the way sorry for posting these pics here, in the morning I was so confused I thought this was the "what is lying on your workbench" thread instead of a dedicated "monster and defender" thread.

Now here is one closer to the topic.

It is a 1/35 Defender, the sorry little guy next to him is a 1/100MG GM from Bandai. The Defender needs refurbishing and a new paint job, but it is at least BIG.

[Viceland]

And where did you get that 1/35 Defender might I ask??? What am I saying, you probably scratchbuilt it, right?

[jadefalconguard]

1/35th scale....... where did you get this little fellow Me want one BTW nice work on that kit

[HWR MKII]

How much ya want for the defender? Or i could refurbish it for you .

People had mentioned they wanted more pics of completed models and a few threads had been started to show them so thought id post my own If anyone else has COMPLETED destroids feel free to post them here. We can make this the dedicated destroid thread

Edited September 6, 2005 by HWR MKII

[honneamise]

Well to be honest this is just a cardbord model. A friend and I wanted to make a movie with walking mecha and stuff blowing up on 8mm - that was in 1989!

We had already made 2 short films that cost the lives of a 1/100 Tomahawk, an Armored Valkyrie and several Zamac mechs (at the time we had never seen more than the first two episodes of Macross so we mixed it all up).

For our third film we wanted something huge for close-up-shots and detailed explosions (we did NOT want to kill more of the IMAIs because they were already getting rare at the time). So I scaled the 1/72 IMAI up (don´t know if I just doubled all the measures so it might be actually 1/36) and built it out of cardboard. The thing was built with frames which hold lots of little blow-away panels to get some cool destruction effects, the guns are aluminium and could be loaded with explosives from the rear, the radar dish turns with a little motor and the "searchlights" were of course lighted. The "rounded" edges were made of evergreen tubes to take away the paper feel of the model. All joints move to allow stop-motiom movement of the Defender.

We were almost finished and did some test shots only to realize that our model landscape was too small for this monster! Then we began to study/work and we never got the time to further carry on with the project - only the model remains and some weird little 8mm movies - we plan to get them digitized one day to preserve them before they fade too much - hop it´s not too late for this!

[kazuki]

Kazuki, What other details would you like i can take more pics

Oh, what I meant was more details such as panel lining & such. Given the size of the Destory, the arms are pretty big with lots of space for extra details & accessories.

Think Metal Gear Rex.

[HWR MKII]

Actually both models from the box are almost 95% line art accurate so they dont need much more in the way of detailing. I just added little things to the monster to make it look a little more tank like. Both were fun to build and had no major issues aside from the seams not always lining up, but you get that with early 80s kits. If anyone can get their hands on them i highly reccommend them.

Im still looking for the others in 1/72 scale but havnt found them at a non insane price. Ill take any construction medium, plastic, vinyl or resin. If anyone has one especially a tomahawk hidden away please let me know.

[honneamise]

I fully agree that the IMAI 1/72 Destroids are in fact very good models despite their age.

But the ARII-manufactured Tomahawk is the dark side... , the legs are much fatter and somewhat squatty although they should look like the Defender´s, the details are crude and the whole thing is very toy-like. Features like openable cockpit and shoulder-mounted missile bays are there but it is all too clumsy and toyish to excite a modeler!

I think the best way to get a reasonable Tomahawk is to use the legs and lower torso from the Defender and detail the hell out of the crappy parts that remain. On the other hand that will cost you a fortune considering today´s prices so we might depend on a reissue (Bandai SHOULD own the molds!!) after all....

[Gabe Q]

We should tell The Cap to make some 1/72 destroids. I'm sure the demand is there. I think that would be better than a reissue destroid.

[Grayson72]

Speaking of the Cap'n where's he been?

[Mechmaster]

Nice work on the destroids HWR MKII, I like the Defender's muddy feet. Here are some of my destroids, the Spartan and Tomahawk are the Imai 1/100s, the Defender is the Imai 1/72. I built all of these nearly 20 years ago. Among the items currently littering my workbench are the two Nichimo 1/200 Defenders, awaiting completion.

Other destroids in my collection include the Imai 1/72 Spartan, Arii 1/100 Defender and Imai 1/200 Monster all of which require repairs and repaints. I recently picked up a 1/72 scale Tomahawk and Spartan on evilBay.

Honneamise is right about the Arii Tomahawk, the proportions are pretty bad. I was wondering how I was going to sort it out but now he has said it the answer is obvious and I will be picking up another Defender as soon as possible to produce a hybrid model. I'll just go beat myself with a stick for not thinking of that myself.

Edited September 7, 2005 by Mechmaster

[nightmareB4macross]

Very, very nice work indeed. Kudos to all!!!

[HWR MKII]

Nice work Mechmaster! I didnt realise how small the other scales were compared to the 1/72 scale one!

If the captain were to do a 1/72 scale series of destroids i would be on it like a fat kid on a cupcake. Like the battle pod he could easily make other variants based on the same legs. All he would have to do is master 1 set of legs for 3 of the destroids. And then make the top parts from the waist up over time. Provided he makes a Tomahawk first

[nightmareB4macross]

Nice work Mechmaster! I didnt realise how small the other scales were compared to the 1/72 scale one!

If the captain were to do a 1/72 scale series of destroids i would be on it like a fat kid on a cupcake. Like the battle pod he could easily make other variants based on the same legs. All he would have to do is master 1 set of legs for 3 of the destroids. And then make the top parts from the waist up over time. Provided he makes a Tomahawk first

326536[/snapback]

Hey I thought you were a model guy not a toy boy!! You just described Takatoku's 1/100 Destroid Converion Kit.

[HWR MKII]

Same idea but for modelers. Im lookig at it from a cost saving point of view. Whats easier? He has to remake the same legs for each destroid OR He makes one set of legs and then the 3 torsos seperate. It would make it easier for anyone who would master the parts for kits like these. Whenever you order a kit you would get a full destroid it wouldnt be a conversion kit. Plus these would be 1/72 scale MODELS, not toys.

[nightmareB4macross]

Same idea but for modelers. Im lookig at it from a cost saving point of view. Whats easier? He  has to remake the same legs for each destroid OR He makes one set of legs and then the 3 torsos seperate. It would make it easier for anyone who would master  the parts for kits like these. Whenever you order a kit you would get a full destroid it wouldnt be a conversion kit.  Plus these would be  1/72 scale MODELS, not toys.

326542[/snapback]

Boy, you modellers sure are touchy.

Hey thanks, again for the building tips. They sure are helping.

Still, I whole-heartedly agree, one set of legs to be used for all three destroid would be very cost effective.

Edited September 7, 2005 by nightmareB4macross