Given my usual glacial building pace, this was an extreme challenge!

The idea, devised by Homo Ferratus, had only three rules:

1. You must use 1 Ping Pong ball!
2. You must build it within 1 hour!
3. Don't cheat, watch the time! ;)

So, I ploughed through my sprues and bits and gathered a few things that might come in useful ...

After a manic 45 minutes cutting holes and randomly gluing on parts, then shooting some white primer on, I had this:


The final 15 minutes were spent waiting for the primer to dry and quickly brushing on a Games Workshop wash (Gryphonne Sepia). Once my time was up, this is what I had:




Not too bad for an hour I thought!

Later on, I went back and adding some more decals and ID stripes and here is the final thing:



I also came up with some background for it:

Wächter Orbital Surveillance Drone

Deployed in NEO and Lunar orbit, the Wächter is an AI surveillance drone utlised by the SDR to watch for Mercenary troops and vessels. The Mercs spent a lot of time hunting these drones down, first in modified AFS patrols and later with Fireball and Fireball SG hunting teams.

The Merc success rate in disabling the Wächters was very high, and the assembly and deployment of replacement drones was too much of a drain on SDR resources to enable them to be replaced quickly enough to be an effective deterrant to Merc plans on the Moon and surrounding space.

More images can be found on Flickr. Forum threads discussing this build can be found at SFM:uk and the Maschinen Krueger forums.

Not the song by B. Bumble and the Stingers mind you, but an AI hovertank employed by the SDR to hunt and destroy Mercenary SAFS troops.

This is a 1/76-scale kit (the only official Ma.K kit at that scale sadly - there are some garage kits but they are very hard to get hold of) which consists of the Nutrocker itself (with photoetch wide-band antenna) and an in-scale SAFS (teeny tiny!).

I managed to pick this one up for a fiver on eBay and figured, as I was getting peed off with lots of sanding and filling, I would quickly knock it together to get me out of the modelling blues.

The paint scheme is simple. I first assembled everything (using stretched sprue for the thin antenna) although didn't glue the turret to the main body. Everything else is out of the box.

I then primed using Halford's Matt Black (it's all I had to hand at the time) and then did a light base coat using Vallejo Light Blue Grey. I then masked out the camo pattern using Winsor & Newton Artist's Latex Masking Fluid and applied the mid colour, GW's Codex Grey. Once that was dry, I masked off some more patterns with the latex and applied the dark colour, one of GW's foundation paints (the name escapes me at the moment, I think it's "something" Granite).

I then peeled off all the latex (which was very therapeutic) and rubbed any flaking edges with a cut-down old toothbrush.

Gloss coated with GW 'Ardcoat and applied decals. The numbers and elephant are from a 1/35 Tiger kit and the SDR Sun Wheel is a homebrew decal using Roggenwolf's insignia design (I want to tie all my SDR stuff together and this is a good thing to use - thanks to Roggenwolf for letting me use it).

Once the decals were dry, I put some satin gloss on (GW again) and then used the Promodeller dark wash on it. Worked like a dream, as long as you follow the instructions on their web site. Once this was rubbed in and off, I put on some of their dark mud round the bottom.

I then gave it a flat coat (Dullcote) and used a Tamiya weathering stick and some MIG pigments to simulate the dust and dirt that gets thrown up around the skirt as it hovers.

This will eventually be part of a large diorama, but I haven't thought that far ahead yet - I just wanted to finish something!

More pics on Flickr

I put this together during the Bay 37 build so took the odd ten minute slot to finish it off.

This is a prototype of the AFS used by the Mercenary Forces in the Maschinen Kreiger universe, it existed only as a sketch in one of the books until Jason Eaton created the kit master for the IHYC and sold a limited number during the Japanese Wonderfestival earlier this year.

Anyway, I choose to finish it off in the civilian colours, as it reminded me of the powerloader from Aliens, so I used a mix of yellow and ochre acrylics for the base colour and simply weathered and washed it.

Need to do more work on my face painting, but I reckon it's done ... for now ...

It's not up to Jason's standards, but here's my HUWS:


More pics can be found here: http://flickr.com/photos/26399668@N03/2613726207/in/photostream/

Thanks!

Need more practice on my face painting methinks ...

Playing around with Photoshop tonight using directions from www.myinkblog.com.

A very nice effect that I think I'll use again on some of my other model photos when they're done.

Well, it didn't get first place in the SFM:uk Group Build, but imagine my surprise when my Bay 37 diorama nabbed the top slot in the Mecha Model Comp Maschinen Kreuger online competition.

The results table can be found here, but to summarise, the diorama received 24.67 points overall with the following comments:
I shall be enjoying a drink or two to celebrate my first ever competition win!

Some progress on the news legs for the Hundespinne. Essentially using parts from the Scopedog arm, with other parts from the Uchikoma legs and a 1/72 Tiger (plus some styrene tube).

Now I just need to assemble three more ...

Yet another ongoing build, this started off with the cockpit from a 1/20-scale Scopedog and will eventually become an experiemental walker for the SDR. I see it as a prototype for the Sturmkafer (which is a design I love, but is almost impossible to obtain).

The pilot's head is a resin one and the canopy is from a Hughes helicopter. The last picture shows the start of the engine block, taken from a 1/35 Flakpanzer kit.

Here are some pics of the Meteor in situ with a Fireball SG.

Managed to get some time today to progress this build. Basically added some more cabling to the back pack, assembled the arms and legs and shot some white primer on to have a look.

Lots of seams to fill and the pose to finalise before I start painting!

This is my second Polar Bear, "Long Walk".

Essentially a stock build, with modifications to the left hand (to make it grip) and a new right hand (built from another left hand). The rocket carrying tubes are scratchbuilt from the filters from a 1/35 Tiger tank kit, with styrene tubes and channel.

The snow is a product from Games Workshop, which worked quite well. I brushed some Future on the suit to make the snow stick to parts of it. I also attempted a winter whitewash, although I'm not convinced it worked too well.

Still, you live and learn!

Well, the Group Build is over and the group have cast their votes and the winner is ... not me! :D

There were three of us that all got 4 points, so the admin's vote was given to CFX for his creativity. All the entries can be found here.

Anyway, here's some pictures of my finished diorama, "Bay 37".

Just a quick update, I've finished the new camo and have gone over with a fine grade sandpaper to simulated scuffing and wear.

Removed all the cabling, as I plan to replace these with some better ones I recently picked up and given everything a gloss coat ready for decals.

No pics yet, it looks really weird with the gloss coat, so I'll wait until I dullcote it.

The 2008 SFM:uk Group Build is currently going strong.

Several of us are using the WAVE 1/20 kit of the AFS-CD Type Polar Bear from the Ma.K. universe as the base of the build.

The rules are simple: do anything you like with the kit!

I chose to create a "split suit" - basically modifying the kit to represent a suit in maintenance mode, opened up to show the inner workings and pilot. This will eventually be shown in a diorama of a maintenance bay of some kind.

Anyway, enough of the talk, this is where I am currently up to with the split suit:


Still lots to do and not much time left to do it in! Wish me luck!

More information and a build diary for this can be found over at SFM:uk.