Still in the middle of a rather large build, I needed a break and wanted to work on something else. Nothing too big and/or time consuming, and preferably a different subject matter. It was during the weekly visit to the good ole dollar store (which are now frantically stocking every conceivable nook and cranny with Christmas merchandise), that I stumbled across a "DIY Snow Globe" kit, and that got the mind racing.
It's a heavy duty plastic 4" diameter ball with a plug and screw on "cap". Ship in a bottle came to mind but that has been done enough, so I began to think of something unique. It's a snow globe, but does it have to be snow? Going through many Anime books, I came across an illustration from the series "Dougram: Fang of the Sun". I had found my inspiration!
I had seen this many years ago, in one of the many Dougram kits I have collected since the early '80s. Funny thing was that I never saw an episode until a few years ago (RIP KissAnime), and was surprised that the first episode began with this image. The series ran from 1981 to 1983 with a total of 75 episodes. The mech designs are among my favourites, and were designed by Kunio Okawara, who also has done many other robot series such as the Gundam series, Votoms, and Layzner. That CV barely scratches the surface! Luckily I had a 1/144 scale Dougram kit from Nitto, but it didn't know what I was going to do it.
As usual this series was heavily merchandised, and many models and die-cast replicas were available. Some may recognize this by it's American name as Zoltek. Back in 84ish when robots were becoming quite popular in North America, Revell got the rights and repacked alot of the 1/48 and 1/72 Takara Dougram kits as Robotech Defenders, which was nice as they were cheaper than buying the genuine imports. FASA also rebranded some 1/144 Nitto kits for their Battletech line, this time it was renamed Shadowhawk. Even small, they were nicely detailed kits.
So I set about assembling the small parts not worrying about articulation as this was to be a static model. And the one primary factor in all of this project was that nothing could be water-based. Super glues, epoxy, and paint could only be enamels or lacquers.
You get the idea how small this model will be. The access hole in the globe is only 2.25" diameter, and should stick up somewhat from the plug. Now trying to build a 3D model from a 2D illustration is not always easy, as I am sure the artist was obviously not aware of the limitations of the model. It was like Sir Lancelot trying to do Yoga... Pieces had to be removed and modified, and I had to have the mech sitting up a bit on a rock. Eventually it all came together.
The green disc below is tooling foam, and was to carve in the rocks and terrain. I also attacked the model with the Dremel and removed chunks and created gashes and battle damage. It is now prime time!
Dry brushing was used to augment the rust and weathering on the mech. I also mixed in some fine sand with the paint to create the texture. Sand was also epoxied to the base and sand applied. The base also got a good dose of dry brushing too. Almost there...
It was now time to put it in the globe. I read several ways to do the interior liquid, but that was only for snow. Wanting to use real sand, and not some glitter or such, I tried several grades until I found one which wasn't too fine that it stayed suspended, or too coarse where it just drops. The sand also had to be washed thoroughly as it had lots of dust and impurities in it. Distilled water was used with a small amount of glycerin to hopefully slow down the grains. It took seven attempts to get it right!
A wooden base a "plaque" finish the job. To seal the threads I used plumber's teflon tape; so far no leaks!
I was surprised to see how much the water filled globe magnified the model inside. It amplifies it by almost double, and shows the extra work and detail.
Not exactly the winter wonderland for this time of year! Merry Christmas everyone!
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