So today I'm talking about fabrication. One of the major features of the Gundam Epyon is its ability to transform from mobile suit mode:
to a twin-headed dragon style mobile armor:
I used a series of styrene tubing I built up a central section that would pass up through the assembly, and then glued a section of 1/4" styrene block into the space behind it. This combination provided a solid base to firmly attach everything together and effectively remove the entire transformation mechanism.
There were 2 other sections that I chose to make non-moving, the elbow joints. See in the standard model the elbows are made by joining 2 pvc joint pieces so that it will have a 2 axis range of movement. While this is nice, it doesn't help for this project. So I went to work building replacement joints that would be glued into place.
I started with segments of 1/4" styrene blocks and drilled out holes to accommodate the mounting pegs of the fore arms. I then passed segments of tubing through the upper portion of the blocks that would match the mounting holes in the upper arm. I added some groove slats to the back side of the sections to add some visual detail. With the parts glued in place, some paint finished the fabrication.
This gimmick is carried over to the model itself and is managed by way a
splitting hip/waist assembly. As far a gimmick trick it's a nice setup,
but for my purposes it creates some issues. Specifically the risk of
the hinge joint causing the electrical connections to be broken after
assembly of the model. So I had to address this by either gluing the
hinge shut or reinforcing it. I elected to do both:
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