Neuspotter state

Here's the state of my Neuspotter right now. I've not touched it since the last plamo meeting in december 2009. Spent that disastrous night fixing mistakes I made (would you believe I glued the arms mounts upside down? Had to pry them out and attach them again!)

During the night before the meet, I air brushed a dark grey as a base color, then followed by dark yellow on the top surfaces. I tried hard to find out the 'original' color of the Neu in the Ma.K encyclopedia, but not really sure what it is. Anyone have any ideas?

Close-up on the Neuspotter, I love the head!

I've just watched Color Modulation DVD on loan to me by my bro maxwinamp. This influenced my way I airbrushed the Neuspotter. However, I do think the shadows are a bit too harsh, this first try.

A back view of the Neu, showing the exaggerated shadow effect.

Side view, I've mounted it precariously using a wire until a block of wood.

The pose which I like. I will probably go over the paints with other colors before I start weathering it. Comments and criticisms encouraged!

Neuspotter continued

Sorry for the lack of updates! Finally able to sit down and download the pictures from the camera... My SD card encountered some read issue and I lost quite a few photos (including my own Neuspotter during the meet)

Here are the ones I recovered, just before painting during the eve of the meet...

I mounted it on a wire on styrofoam and used a spool of wire as weight to hold it down.

Sorry for blurry pics.

I studied the Ma.K Encyclopedia carefully and added wire parts to replicate the original scratch build by Sensei Kow. I tried to be as faithful to the original shape as possible. I replaced the plastic parts with wire which looked better.
Here is another wire part I replicated from wire that just snaps onto the kit's arm. Its not part of the kit but in the original build.

I tried to rush painting the Neuspotter for the meet (as usual) but just managed to lay the base tone down with some shading done. Will post new pictures of its current state very soon. Stay tuned..

BTW 2010 is the Revenge of the Ma.K! I just started building the Krote, Gans & Gustav together since Christmas... There is a Ma.K meet (first time ever) organised by m workshop in March by Bernard aka StoneV, check it out here


and I wanna make some exotic kits for the meet...

:)

Neuspotter WIP 4

Sorry for lack of updates!
This week my progress has been very slow as I've been sleeping early putting my kid to bed (I usually fall asleep in the process)
Primed and checked some parts...
Now important tips, when doing anything with the Neuspotter head (Oskar,Krachenvogel,Gans),
Sand, prime and check the two halves first before adding the details! Don't be like me, add in all the details then prime and found that the main seamline is not clean (see the second picture, seamline in the triangle) Gotta think of some way to clean that up...


Next, the wires for the bulb. From the instructions, they were supposed to go thru the 2 holes behind and down the main pipe. But from the original picture and design, it went thru the smaller tube in front.

I decided not to light the kit up cos its too cheesy and after researching on the internet and books, decided to plug the wires into the pipe as per original design. I enlarged the hole in the smaller cylinder in front (where my thumb is). I will close the two holes in the back with some spares.

The decision not to light up the kit made it easy for me to glue the bottom 'memory unit' shut and epoxy a wire to hold the kit. No need to build the battery holder in the bottom.


This should not be visible when my vignette is done.
Onto the arms...These are sanding nightmare as the parts had alot of mold circles in places where there are details and the fitting is terrible...



Almost finished building this kit.. Hope to paint it soon!

Neuspotter WIP 3

Sorry for the lack of updates again, been overtiming at work (is there such a word?) and of course, tons of housework before I can even do my models. Anyways after a couple more hours on the AG pods, they are almost done and I've added the main spine to the kit. Primed to check for problem areas and sure enough, there are many spots to clean up.
The wires for the sensor light bulb caused me to be stuck for a while as Sensei Kow's build (and picture) shows the wires going thru the smaller pipe instead of the main pipe, BUT in the kit instructions, they go down thru the main pipe and thru the back, the smaller 'pipe' is a solid piece of rod. Let me think about how to proceed...

Sleepy man...

Neuspotter WIP 2

Tiny bit of progress today...
Mostly sanding and fixing problematic parts, like the two thruster bells...
After 1hr of sanding the two halves of the thrusters (khaki ones on the left), I decided to use the new WAVE Snake Eye's (off white ones on the right). Incidentally, the thrusters are the same ones for the Fireball, strange, considering the Neuspotter is a Strahl unit. But don't think too much for Ma.K!

Cut off the attachments and stick them to the Snake Eye's, I feel so proud of myself :)


Next, the most difficult part IMHO, the anti-gravity units.
All of us Ma.K fanatics know that they are actually made up of 2 Star Wars AT-AT necks (ERTL/AMT kit)
Sanding nightmare!

I used a combination of needle file, pin vise, back of my modeling knife, and some 600 sand paper to get rid of the major seamline running full length along the part. A tiny bit of putty for where there are holes.
The brush is for clearing the dust so that I can see if I sanded enough.

Test fit. After 1 hr of sanding, I've only finished one side of the anti-gravity unit...


That's all tonight folks, good night!

Neuspotter Started!

While I study the weathering using oils and color modulation from the DVD maxwinamp passed me (thanks so much bro!), I decided to quickly carry on with the Neuspotter which I took out sometime back but got stuck. Started before I got really sick on Sunday...

This kit has the most wires and multimedia I've ever seen!
Even a light bulb is included, though no battery was found (there was one kit with a battery given inside, but I've sold that away.)
Its an old kit, 20+ years old, so the molding is nothing great to write about.
Lots of TLC is needed on each part, but I enjoyed the building process.
Pictures below...

Head unit

Upper body

Lower body

Place them all together now...

I am thinking of the standard tea/green color for this guy, and will try out color modulation on it. Hope to finish it by December for the small diorama meet-up at m-workshop.

Nitto SF3D Neuspotter NS465 Review

Introduction
The Neuspotter is my all time favourite Ma.K kit. I don't know why, but I dig any Ma.K kit that uses the Neuspotter head unit (Krachenvogel, Oskar, Gans, THAT A, THAT B). That's a bad thing, because all of them are very expensive! :)
Anyway this kit which I won over at Yahoo Auctions Japan is an S.F.3.D original kit, old and opened. Its missing the camo card, which made me very angry. Even though I am not a camo card collector per se, I had expected the full kit considering the price I paid for it. Guess I need to be more careful next time when bidding.
The box is old and very brown, lots of character, with a little bit of stain (coffee?) here and there.

Now with the review...

Description
In March 2883, the Shutoral National Defense Force ordered the Weapon Development Service to produce a high power driverless reconnaissance weapon. However, development and production were far behind time owing to a change for the worse of output of antigravity equipment. It was at the end of September, 2884 that the Shutoral forces actually began to produce the driverless reconnaissance weapon with fine computer, seeker, and senor for reconnaissance capacity and silence in moving by the front, and each forces demanded to arrange the new weapon. However, the number of production of P.K.A. was prior to that of Neuspotter. Therefore the actual arrangement of Neuspotters was limited to a few superior forces. (H. Ichimura)
Chassis Nos................4001-
Crew....................................0
Weight (tons).................0.89
Length (metres).............1.65
Width (metres)...............2.04
Height (metres)................4.5
Engine.........................Dora NS465 a
Speed(km/hr).................230
Range(km)....................2,300
Radio............................FuG43 n
No armament
Armor(mm)..............20-50 Tungsten+10-20Special Heatproof Ceramic Armor

Details
Scale: 1/20
Type of material : injection molded, multi-media
Number of parts: ?
Decals: yes
Instructions: yes
Overall quality: Very good, little to no flash, although I find the head unit details a bit soft, but that's me...
Overall accuracy: Accurate
Date of release: unknown
Release price: unknown

Pictures
box front

box back

Neuspotter boxbox opened and contents

Neuspotter sprue A (head unit and 'urgent' boosters)Neuspotter sprue B (anti-gravity units which are actually 2 Star Wars AT-AT necks, and air filter)

Neuspotter sprue C (communication pipe, cylinder and misc parts)

Neuspotter sprue D (base memory unit)
and Figure sprue (Eddy Amsel, his stick is in 2 seperate parts, I don't understand why)

multimedia (wires, springs, light bulb, battery attachment), water slide decals and clear base

instruction page 1

instruction pages 2 & 3

instruction pages 4 & 5

instruction pages 6 & 7

instruction page 8

Thoughts & Comments
Before having this kit, I had always thought that thing poking out of the head unit is a machine gun or laser, but from the box back, its a 'Biovital Research'. So other than the scissors unit on one arm, this unit is basically unarmed. Such is Ma.K, units are under-armed.
Love this kit, I just wish it wasn't so expensive so that I can build a dozen of them and place them everywhere in my house... Its quite humorous looking, especially with the kid Eddy Amsel poking a stick at it. I don't know the story behind it, but the picture on the front of the box brings a smile to my face. :)