Knee Armor, Continued As you might remember, in WIP #2 I’ve started reworking knee armor, as I hated the original crown shape. Initially I went with a rather spiky design, reaching much higher than original piece. Once I finished both legs, I realized I didn’t really like the result. Those big spiky knees looked like something from a fantasy game with bad art direction. I filed them down to smaller, flatter shape.

Next up is adding some details. In the process of reshaping knees, I also erased some panel lines. As of now I’m not yet sure if I’ll scribe something new in their place. For now, inspired by Freedom 2.0, I decided to add some forward-facing thrusters on the lower knees. Decided on using big, rectangular ones from MS Thruster 01 Builder Parts set, as they contrast nicely with a smooth, curved armor. I’m not sure why I decided to cut out part of the knees where they’d sit, rather than simply filing it flat. I think I just wanted to try the technique, as is the case with most of the mods on this kit. It allowed me to angle them downwards some more though, so that’s a plus. I used AB putty to blend them with the armor. While at it, I also drilled small holes in each thruster frame, so I could easily remove inner part for painting later.

More Leg Mods Once knee armor was done, I felt it was time to spice up the back of the legs by adding some verniers from 1/100 MS Vernier 01 Builder Parts. I decided I’ll try to use those yo-yo shaped parts – that way I could snap them in place just like the original piece. First, I needed to glue both halves of the base, as there were no pegs holding it together. Next up I cut off the yo-yo and reshaped the base using some leftover styrene pieces and AB putty. I needed to make it more rectangular to actually have the verniers pointing down. With that done, only thing left to do was adding a ball joint for the vernier to snap on. Rather than gluing on entire joint, I cut off the round base and drilled a hole for the peg to sit in. Otherwise verniers would end up too far out, making them look weird. Downside of this solution – shorter peg somewhat limits the articulation.

And here’s the finished mod. I really like how the verniers are mostly tucked under the armor, popping out just a bit.

While we’re on the subject of leg mods, you might remember I’ve extended the thigh frame (I described entire process in WIP #2). Because of it, thigh armor would no longer fit, as the back half was sitting much lower and pushing out front piece. I got around the issue by cutting off a fair bit of it, creating some cool armor separation in the process. There was still a matter of exposed seam line on the back of the leg though – something that was originally covered by back armor. Since I kept both halves of the thigh separable, even after the extension, I couldn’t just remove the seam using glue/putty. So rather than remove the seam, I decided to add detail, just like I did with the head. I glued a strip of styrene on one half of the thigh and cut it to match the shape. Added some vents from the MS Thruster 01 set for extra detail.

Rebalancing Balance of the original kit was somewhat alright, but with all the extra plastic and putty I added to it (not to mention the sword), I felt I needed to lower its centre of gravity. To do this, I used a product I found while browsing some online RC store – Liquid Gravity. It’s like tiny metal ball bearings that easily fill various cavities. Quite heavy too. Apparently they’re not made of lead though. I poured some into the heels, toes and the frame piece that connects them. Used CA glue to cement the stuff in place. There is definitely a noticeable difference. With all the extra weight in the feet, Barbatos Lupus seems much more stable on the desk.

While improved balance is appreciated, I hate how the claws filled with ball bearings and CA glue looked. Sure, feet will be on the ground most of the time, so it’ll be hidden, but it kept bothering me. I closed up the bottoms of the claws with 0.5mm pla-plate. While at it, I did some minor reshaping with AB putty, making them a bit more round. Also extended claws on one foot for some asymmetry. Figured I’ll leave some surface imperfections in – it goes well with the suit and should help weathering stage a bit.

Shoulders I really like the Tekkadan logo cutouts on the shoulders. It’s a great detail, which, sadly, has no place in my custom Barbatos Lupus. Filling up the gaps turned out to be rather easy, though slightly tedious. I started out by applying excessive amount of epoxy putty, just to make sure it’d get into all corners. Once dry, I scraped and sanded off the excess. Afterwards – a couple rounds of basic / dissolved putty, sanding and priming, until the surface was smooth. Filled shoulders looked great in black primer. Still, inspired by N.Maker’s GBWC 2017 entry, I tried to cut a new design into them. Didn’t really like the results I was getting and in the end settled for having both shoulder armors filled smooth. They’ll make a good surface for some decals later on.