Hazel Update - the lower legs again...

Once all of the epoxy and primer had a chance to set, I went back and did a series of test build on the Abdomen and the Legs, to see how all of the parts fit, I did notice that the thruster pack was not clearing the rear of the adbomen so I had to raise the height of the Hazel's Torso mounting plate so that it would clear. This time none of the parts needed tape to hold themselves together, but the legs are still very wobbly.

Hazel's Abdomen





After test fitting all of the parts for the legs, I decided to get off of my lazy ass and rebuild the piston rods for the leg struts. The other struts were to short, every time I extended the rods they would fall out, so I had to make them longer. Making the ankles move normally is not possible with this model, there is to much weight to support, and not enough surface tension to hold everything in place. I also found out that the leg plates for the lower legs had lots of surface holes in them, so I had to fill in the holes and resand and putty the area so that it looks right.

Hazel's Legs also looked to bare after I did the test build, so I have to add some extra detail to the ankles.

Lower Legs

Hazel Construction Update

Being short on cash during the 4th of July holiday, I spent the weekend priming and working on the model. I finished priming the parts, so I assembled and glued the Torso and Abdomen of the Hazel, everything fit together for the most part. I had to sand down the insides of the side walls so that the base plate for the Hazel's neck will fit onto model. The hardest part was getting the two halves of the primrose unit to line up and fit onto the mounting plate. But otherwise the construction process went well.

Surprisingly the hardest part was getting the Abdomen parts to line up and fit together, I neglected to sand down the brass rods, all of the primer thicked the rods so that they did not fit inside properly. But after some sanding and filing the parts fit together fine. After all of the primer had a chance to set, I glued the rear section of the Hazel's abdomen together.

I am very happy that I was able to assemble the Primrose Unit, I was really worried that I would not be able to glue the Thruster pack to the Primrose Unit. I am not going to glue the remaining part of the Primrose Unit to the cockpit since I still have to paint and assemble the cockpit.

Torso Parts...



Abdomen Parts...


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It's been a while since I have updated this thread, I was on vacation in Euroope for two weeks, but after I got back to town I started to prime all of the parts that I have finished.




I used Automotive and Surface primer to cover the parts, still have more parts to cover, then I have to let the primer set before I do any more work on the model.

Here are the photos from my trip.

Lisbon, Portugal London, UK Stockholm, Sweden
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I am making progress on the Ammo units, I glued on the outer layer of each of the ammo clips and beveled the edges of the ammo clips. But I did run into some alignment issues, and had to reglue the styrene plates so that they line up, otherwise I am finished with the ammo cips themselves. Now I have to build the motorized arms that control the two clamps that attach to the Hazel's Hips.




On Saturday, I spent the day cleaning up the parts that I had already constructed, I added the copper wire that simulate the Hazel's lighting on top of the tomohawk, and drilled out the holes in the sub-arms that mount the fingers. But I did have a close look again at the drawings in the Gundam Quel model, after some debate and thinking I decided to correct the angel of the hazel's hip unit. I had to use a disc cutter and cut off the extra styrene and make the bottom of each hip unit angular and not flat. I later added some extra detail for looks.




Well, that's it for now...
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I spent the weekend working on the internals for the hip, and some of the other details around the primrose unit. The main thing was adding the pipes and control cables for the various electronic components in the hip, and the two ammo carriers on each side of the hip, I used copper wire and aluminum tubing for the cables and pipes.


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Ever since the last update, I have been hard ar work on the joints for the shoulders. In order to make the shoulders sit properly on each side of the Hazels hips, I had to build a joint for each of the shoulders. The two joints will allow the shoulders to move outward not just front and back motion. I am not going to make a set of 90 degree articulating shoulders, just about 45 degrees, which will allow the arms to rest on each side of the hips with the two ammo clips attached to each side.

I also worked on the detail for the neck, after glueing the brackets for the side plates around the neck, I added the support rod for each side.




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I have been busy adding the surface detail to the all of the Hazel's parts, I added the two mounting bolts that attach the supplimental armor on each side of the shoulder. a brass rod was cut into pieces and then filled flush with the surface. I added the two access panels which allow the maintenance crew to remove the front ankle armor, and added the two access panels for each of the hip sockets. In both situations, I cut and glued a piece of scrap styrene to the surface.

I still have to go back and add any additional access panels and covers to the other parts




Most of my time and energy has been focused on detailing the cockpit, I built the LCD Screens and the Cockpit Chair from scrap styrene, and went through my parts box for the rest of the cockpit components. I still have to add the wiring and tubing that run along the walls and ceiling, but otherwise I am making good progress. I found a 1/35 scale seat for comparison, I got the dimensions correctly, but I was really amazed at how small the cockpit really is. I am not to worried about making the components accurate, it will be very difficult to see most of the detail anyways. with all of the other parts surrounding the cockpit.

Besides the wiring, I still have to build the center console and the two control sticks that the pilot uses.








Head

I know it's been a while I have updated the thread, but I am still working on various pieces of the Hazel, I went back and added detail inside of the tomohawk on the hazel's head. This part normally illuminates. I went back into my scraps box and found several pieces of styrene, and later I will use some copper wire to simulate the lighting tubes that run through the channels.



Cockpit

I also worked on the cockpit, I added the rest of the detail to the roof and side walls, I used various pieces of left over model parts to simulate the various control surfaces. I also used strips of styrene and copper wire to simulate the wiring for the various control surfaces, I am not going for accuracy since very little of the detail is not going to visible.



Beam Saber

Another thing that I did was build the beam saber, I used a styrene tube as a base, then filled in one end with Milliput Putty, and wrapped the tube with 2 long strips of stryene thicken the tube and let it dry. Later I had to use putt to fill in the uneven surfaces created by the glue used.

The hazel's beam saber has a antenna so I used a two pieces of aluminum tube to create the antenna, on the other end, I used a piece of the barrel from a Panzer IV Tank to create the front of the Beam Saber. I went back to several books and images and found out that the Bean Saber sits at angle, I used some scrap styrene to create the tilted platform that the Beam Saber rests on the back pack.



Hip

Inside the two cavity on each hip they contain the various pieces of machinery that help control the legs and thrusters inside the abdomen. I used various pieces of model parts left over from other model projects to build all of the components in the below photo.



I had to stop for a while, I took a trip to Toronto to visit some relatives there. Below is a photo of Toronto's newer city hall, it was used as the back drop for the Umbrella Corporation's Racoon City HQ.

Hazel's head test assemble - 3rd round...

I am back hard at work on the head, I had to insert the pins and rods needed to mount the head onto the neck and the two antennas onto the side of the tomahawk. I also started work on the 4 explosive struts on each side of the hazel's neck that keep the Hazel's head mounted onto the primrose unit, You don't see these parts in the models, but they are visible in the cover illustration for the AOZ book.




Now that I am done mounting all of the rods and pins, I did another test assemble.



I am making progress, but not the kind of progress I thougth I would...

What we have been waiting for!

I spent some time today test building the Hazel, I have completed most of the repairs to the parts, and I inserted some rods into the primrose unit to provide some support. Now the cockpit does not tip over any more and fall off on to the floor.

I still had to use tape to hold the model together, but it is not drooping to one side like before. On the other hand, I will have to correct the angle of the arms, they are drooping forward. I did not put the lower arms on, I am going to have to build two joints for the elbows. I was hoping that the arms would be able to rest comfortable in a forward position, but the subarms are in the way.



I added a piece of styrene to the one of the legs, but it is not enough, this really annoys the hell out of me. How could I have miss judged the height of each part of the leg. This is why the two legs still look funny, one of the legs is still short. I am still finding cracks in all of the leg parts, the parts definitely move jiggle around more than they use to.



I am so happy, the model actually stood still with all of the parts and it did not fall over. :D



Well, enjoy everyone... :-)

We all have been waiting for this moment.

The Big Crash...

I hate Friday the 13th...

I was trying to do a test assemble last night, but the Hazel fell forward off of my table and on to the floor, the two front armor plates and the leg struts are all broken... :( had my back turned and did not see what happened, but I did hear a loud boom, and saw all of the pieces all over the floor of my apartment. :( was hoping to do a complete test build, but now I have to repair the damaged pieces, and check all of the other parts. Most of the parts are not damaged, but I can hear things rattle inside of the leg parts... :(





I am still going to press on with the Hazel, but I need to do some repair work...

Hazel test assemble...

I have been hard at work on the Sub-arms and the joints for the front side skirts since the last update, The one issue that I ran into for this part of the construction was that I built the two joints that connect the two front skirts to the hip to thick, so I had to sand down all of the parts. Another issue I ran into is that the mount that connects the two sub-arms to the abdomen was to short, so I had to make it taller and longer.



You can see here that the side mount is much taller than before.


Here is a shot of the two front skirts and the joints.


I finally cut and glued the brass rods for the sub arms, here is a shot of the completely assembled subarms.


Ok, I attempted my first test assemble of the Hazel, I got as far as assembling the entire lower body minus the sub-arms and the slide mount. I ran in to a few problems along the way which has caused me to stop the test assemble in mid construction.

The problem is that the knees wanted to keep bowing outwards, and the ankle joints had to much movement. This also contributed to the knees wanting to slide outward. I am going to have to put extra rods in the hip and knees to prevent unwanted movement in the abdomen. Right now the abdomen has a tendency to side to either the left or the right; with out extra tension in the joints and some extra support, the legs will fall over. In several of the photos, I used a wine bottle and my cellphone for a size comparison. On top of everything else, I made the 4 piston rods to short, so when the legs are fully extended back, the rods will fall out of the strut housing, you can see this in one of the photos, the rods have fallen forward.

I hope that next time, I will be able to do a full test assemble, I was not surprised that all of the pieces did not hold together this time. But I am happy that I tried, now I know that I need to work on making the knees stronger and add extra support to the hips.

Here are a few photos of the test assemble effort.


Another issue that I ran into is that the back thruster flaps are to long, on top of that, all of the holes that I drilled for them are useless. So now I have to shorten the flaps and drill new holes. :( This is why I did not add the flaps to the rear of the legs.


As you can imagine, this beast is huge, I was shocked as to how massive this thing is after I completely assembled the feet, legs, and abdomen. Despite all of the problems, I am happy that at least I am on the right track, all of the pieces fit, and there were no major flaws in the design.

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The Hazel construction update

I have not forgotten about this thread or this build, I have been busy working on the surface detail since the last post. I went back to work on the Tail unit, and glued the top plate to the rest of the tail unit, I used some strip styrene underneath to re-enforce the top plait, I spent some more time filling and sanding down the seams. I have also been working on the abdomen as well, I have been working hard to get all of the pieces to fit properly. I went back to the hands, lower legs, and added detail that I needed to make the parts stand out more, this included the Primrose unit, I added the slots for the two front lights, I also went back to the two front armored skirts and added some detail to them. I have not decide if I am going to keep them like that or not. The other big thing I did was dress up the hands and added some parts for a german tank model to dress up the wrists.





The biggest task was to get some serious work done on the sub arms, I had to move the connecting joints that attach the Sub-Ams to the abdomen to the back top corner instead of the center, again I checked the plans and drawing that I created and realized that I had drilled the hole in the wrong place. I also added the Y shaped seam that is on each of the Sub-Arms and the support struts on the bottom, I decided to use thin styrene to construct the struts since they will not be visable one all of the parts for the Sub-Arms are assembled.

I also added some re-enforcing struts on the top and back to each of the connecting joints, I also started work on the armored covers that go on top of the rollers that connect the two Sub-Arms to the Abdomen. I still have to build the fingers and the motor for each of the lower arms.





This past weekend, I bought the brass rods that I needed, and cut them to the length that I needed, I also drilled out the connecting holes for the rods. I have started to glue the rods to the Abdomen and the thruster pack, since I am only test fitting the parts at this point, I am not going to glue all of them now.



After long last, I have test fitted all of the pieces for the body, I had to build a extra part so that I can connect the cockpit to the Hazel's body. But this is not a issue, I am not designing the Primrose unit to transform. The head looks kind of funny, but that is because I added a piece of plastic inside to help the head line up with the neck. As you can see below, the project is starting to come together. Yes, the hips look wider than the primrose unit, but I have checked everything, and looked at several photos to be certain. the Hazel's Primrose unit is suppose to look much smaller than a normal torso unit.



I still have a lot of work to do, I am not done by a long shot.
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It's been a few months now, I have been hard at work on my hazel the past few days, I got side tracked a little bit. I was busy playing Tomb Raider Underworld, if anyone has played the previous two games, the story is very interesting since it ties the previous two games together.

I have been hard at work on the front leg struts, I started out with left over styrene tubing, it's probably plastruct, but don't hold me to it. I have had it for a while, and I don't remember the brand, but I have been using brass rod to build the internal part of the shock rods. Since there is a gap between the brass rod on the inside and the outer plastic tube on the outside, I had to use some aluminum tubing that I had to fill in the splace.



All I did was role the aluminum tubing under a Xacto Knife a few times, and the short piece of tubing will break off. I had to use a hand saw to cut the plastic tubing to the desired length and then sand it down flush. All of the pieces had to be super glued together.



Here are the two completed sets of leg pistons, I know that the exact length may be off, but the most of the front struts will be hidden from view. you will only see the bottom portion of the support struts anyways. I did not build the rear struts because there are two hosed that run the length of both legs in the back. I am following the drawings of the Gundam GM Quell, since the Hazel and the Gundam GM Quel shared the same basic leg design, with the position of the front and the rear leg, both sets rear struts will not be visible.



I was going to construct the two ankle joints from scratch, but since I had a few extra scrap parts left from the arms, I decided to recycle the remains of shoulders in the construction of the ankles. Along with some styrene strips, Brass rods, and Milliput putty, I have finished the anke joints.



In the second photo, I have super glued the rods to the top and bottom of the ankle joint. There will be a 3rd rod that joins the two halves together.



Here is a test assemble of the entire internal foot unit and ankle joint. I have build the two sockets that the 2 foot thrusters will sit in.



I still have some extra filling and sanding to do on the ankles, but otherwise I am almost done.

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More sanding, and more updates...

It is another week, and it is time for a update, I have been having a difficult week at work, everyone including yours truly has been in a rotten mood. So it is time for some stress relief, and time to work on the rest of the Hazel that I have neglected. :meh:

Upper Leg unit

After repeated sanding, the exterior joints of the outer shell became very weak, so I ended up having to re-enforce the outer shell with milliput putty. While I was at it, I glued, filled and sanded down the other wall of the interior portion of the upper leg. Once done, I glued on the front armor skirt support stopper. The Gundam GM Quel has one mounted onto the top of each leg, I am guessing the thing prevents the armored skirt from slamming into the leg when the Mobile Suit is moving. I also drilled out the hole where the socket joint for the legs will connect to the legs to the abdomen.



Arm and exterior plates

I have also been working on the arms and the lower legs, I added the exterior detail to the outer surfaces, so far I have worked on the lower arms and legs, plus the primrose unit. This photo shows you the work that I have done for each of the parts. I have cut the general shape of each plate then I glue it on, then sand and fill in the seams around the corners. I also ran into a problem. The .10 styrene is to thin, as a result, it is warping when I glue down the sheets to the parts. So I have not choise but to fill and sand down the cavities that are left behind. This is why I have putty applied the lower arm as shown in the below photo.



Primrose Unit

I spent the previous 3 months or so working on the legs and other parts, it is time to give the primrose unit some attention, I started by building the front door for the cockpit, and the exterior detail for the cock pit, and the wings of the primrose unit. I used styrene tubing, and thin sheet styrene to build the exterior detail. I have been following the photos and drawings that I have, but since all of the primrose units built were all slightly different, this will give me some leeway for the details.

I have added the two slots for the wing lights, what I found is that I over sanded part of the wings so they look crooked. I had to correct the angle by sanding and filling the gap that remained after I glued the new piece of styrene. Now, both primrose unit wings are the correct shape, I worked on the two wing mounts that the anchor the wings to the abdomen. As you can see in one of the photos below the anchors attach to the back of each wing.

There is still more sanding and filling ahead for me.



High Speed Power Unit

I also had to work on the High Speed Power Unit, this time I had to create the support struts that go on the front and the back of the power unit. I cut tube styrene, and used some thin sheet styrene to create the support struts, and the nozzles at each end of the Power unit. I had to extend the length of the rear side walls with some scrap styrene and putty, once the putty has set, I sanded down the rear to obtain the desired shape. The two thruster nozzles were harder to create than I first thought, I had to repeatedly sand and cut the styrene to obtain the desired shape. The other remaining task was to create the internals of the Power unit. I am going to simulate the internal mount that attaches the Power Unit to the Thruster Pack, I turned the Power Unit over to give you a idea as to what I am planning. I



Also, on the maintenance crew unis, I had a look at the last episode of Gundam 83, I saw that the maintenance crews for the Titans wore the same grey uniforms that the EFSF wore. I guess I am going to have to watch Z Gundam and and see if there is a difference, I know that Orange is for Anaheim Electronics.