Shield Widening

I’ve continued the work on replacing the back-side detail of the shield. This time, I decided to follow a suggestion from “Cecil” on the Gundamofficial forums, and build the outlines of the raised areas with styrene strips, and fill in between with polyester putty. The advantage of this approach are that I can build straight edges more easily than by cutting and filing 1mm plate. The disadvantage is that it becomes harder to follow the pattern and there are the putty steps to be done. I used 1mm x 1mm strip, and glued my pattern to the back of a .3mm plate. Unfortunately (and I can’t figure out why or how this happened) despite trying to follow my pattern, some very strange issues arose, and I wound up playing certain things by ear after correcting the glued strips. I’m hoping it’ll look alright after I clean it up a bit. If not, then I may do this portion of the work over again. While I was applying the poly putty for the shield back I also applied some for the shield front – certain areas needed a bit more filling, especially the bent part of the shield.

My Doro Doro is in really sad shape. I think the last time I used it before the Zaku project was when I made either the V-fin or the feathers for the Wing Zero – back in February, probably, and the can was apparently never closed up properly. The stuff has little chunks in it now, and it’s not properly thin unless thinned with Mr. Color Thinner. It may be time to get more.