It's tempting but I really like him as a complete figure. Besides, most of the custom work is just generic metallic with only a few details picked out. I think the partial skeleton thing would be a little underwhelming when most of what's revealed is just the same metallic grey. If you look at that arm pic, you can see there isn't a ton a variety - I've been looking it over and trying to decide what to do about that.

Thanks! I was surprised just how easy it is to get good results with the dry brushing. Dab a bit of paint into the brush, then just swirl it around on a paper towel until it's not leaving anything behind anymore and then just go nuts on the plastic parts. I added the shader and then did an even lighter coat of dry to give it more of a dirty worn look, but still, it was shockingly quick and easy. Then it was just a matter of picking parts that I wanted extra accents on and detailing them until I was tired of it. And dry brushing a few other areas with a brighter silver for contrast.

One thing to keep in mind, if you're going to paint them on the runners like I did, is is going to affect how the pieces fit together. Mostly it just tightened up some joints I didn't want tightened but silicone oil straightened that right up and, aside from the broken piston, it was never a problem.

 

The same exact thing happened to me. I still have no idea how it's supposed to fit in the back.

 

Nice! Really appreciate how you detailed the problem area's you came across while building this. I already have some silicone oil to help with the parts you mention that tend to seize up. Will need to get some glue for those parts that dont stay together. That dry brushing did a lot to bring out the details. I have never did it before but will have to look into since those results look so good.

 

@Snaku how many hours a day were you able to devote to this for your build week? If I can manage 1 hour a day, it might get done in a week...or 4? lol

 

4-6 hours and I think I did a 10 hour day on Sunday. Didn't really keep track. I also didn't do it every day, and the paintwork added to the time it took me. 1 hr/day will probably take you 3 weeks or so.

 

Got mine today! I'm off to my man cave..

 

See you in 3 days.

 

How hard would this guy be to disassemble? That's how I like to paint assemble and then disassemble and then paint. Are there any parts that just will not come back apart?

 

Huh, randomly just got a shipping notification from ShowZ.

Guess they had extra stock?

 

ShowZ has been very weird with their shipping lately. Supposedly an order of another item I had made shipped on the 13th of this month but didn't leave anywhere till the 19th, and just didn't update till the 22nd. And it still hasn't gotten to me.

 

Hey, as long as I’m getting it before October I’ll be satisfied.   Maybe they had some people cancel or more stock arrived than they thought?

Definitely going to be excited building this though. And thanks to everyone on the feedback of the build. Now I know what to look out for. Not sure I’ll oil any parts but I may selectively sand certain contact points.

 

ShowZ waits 14 days for you to make the full payment when it's ready. So they probably opened the stock up to the next people in line after some of them failed to make the full payment.

 

Anyone here receive their kit and build it yet besides @Snaku? I like seeing others photos and thoughts on it.

 

I'd like to think those who have it are still working on it.
And I'd imagine most who are able to afford it don't exactly have the time to be able to build it in under a week.

 

I've put in about 16 hours now into the build and it has been fun. My only complaint so far is that the head can be a bit gappy. It took extra effort on my part to get all the pieces to sit flush. Here is an example of how it looks on the box art. Notice the gaps around the face and above the forehead?


Also if you've watched PvP's review, when you flex the arms then unflex them there are some moving parts that can get stuck so you will constantly have to fish it out to fully stretch the arm.

Here's some progress shots of my build. I love the telescoping spine, by the way.

 

I lubed the non-load-bearing joints with silicone oil and I find it much easier to get his arms unbent now. When I go to unbend them and it gets to the point where the front of his bicep is still stuck down inside, I put my thumb right on the bottom of that part and pull down and that pops it right back out.

Also I think I mentioned it in a previous post but I glued his head together. It came apart too easily when I'd go to pivot it. I don't find his head overly gappy (except for that little part at the front of his crest that I lost  ). It looks intentional to me.


Also, I don't think I mentioned it before but I painted his eyes with a metallic blue.

[Edit] Decided to snap a few more quick pics to show the detail (the model's detail but also some of my paintwork). I want to reiterate that I really didn't put a ton of paint on him. Most of it was dry brushing which was quick and easy though still a little time consuming owing to just how many parts there were. Something like 40 runners with between 20 and 40 parts each (there were a few exceptions but still, lots and lots of parts). Then I just picked out a few details here and there.



I'm particularly pleased with the matrix chamber and I don't think the green parts really came through in my previous pics so here it is again along with his abdomen where I painted a couple of rings or whatever gold and I hit those two vertical sections to either side of the center with a little more silver to give it more contrast. I still need to go back and paint the inside of his chest doors - I did all the dry brushing on the runners and mostly just on the one side since almost everything was facing the same way but those parts have the paint in toward the windows leaving the inside of the doors bare. Also apparently I forgot to paint the gold accents on one side of the matrix  



I don't think I really did much on the back of his torso but you can see the problem piece - the middle red spine piece that I could never get to go in on both sides and that ended up cracking when I kept trying  



Mixed up a flat brownish black for the serpentine belts on his arms (looks like I missed a spot - that's what I get for waiting until he was assembled and it was hard to reach) along with a few various metallic colors. Also painted the lights on his shoulders silver.



I'm particularly pleased with how the color on the V shaped parts of his knees turned out. I wanted them to be kinda bronze colored but I also didn't want them to jump out at you too much. Also any parts that had springs I would go over them with a brighter silver to help them stand out. I wanted to do something fun with the cables on his inner thighs but everything I could think of would've stood out like crazy. I might just go back and hit them with black - I have a black paint that comes out looking very plasticky and would look pretty good as wire/cable shielding.



A few different shades of bronze accents on his thigh. I really like how the dark lightly dry brushed parts in his hip skirts look surrounded by the bright silver parts. Also I painted a dusty color on the tire treads but then it was too much so I went over it with nuln oil (matte black shader) and it pretty much undid what I had done. You can still see a little bit of color variance but you have to really look for it. I'll have to give the tires another go some day and see if I can get them to look a little more like he might've been driving on them.

 

Still waiting for payment request

 

Your order might have fallen into the October batch. I would recommend paying the balance now so you're secured for any additional units they get.

 

Yes, do that. ShowZ? They prioritize based on when you made full payment, not when you put in the initial order, so if they didn't have enough for all their pre-orders in the first batch, they would've sent to those who paid in full and let the rest wait for the next batch.

 

Yup exactly. ShowZ will only request payment for a batch if there are extras still available after prioritizing everyone else who's already paid in full. I pre-ordered a bit later than others, but decided to just go ahead and pay in full since it seemed like the batches were not keeping up with demand, and I got mine shipped last week. Waiting for payment request works when the batch is large enough or if people haven't paid in full yet, but this kit is in pretty high demand (especially since ShowZ offers it at much lower prices than many other competitors).