Well, this wasn't really done in haste, I just didn't have a "kewler" catch phrase to put. Anyways, at this point, I had to keep the torso and waist frames assembled, mainly because It takes time just to unscrew, disassemble and reassemble the darned thing while I was making modifications overall. It kinda limits my movements, but that's easier to work around than having to unscrew parts and them dropping by accident. I've sometimes spent 30 minutes or more searching for a very small screw, which lead me to another time saving idea.
But I digress. My story WIP is playing catch up to my actual progress and I will try to have the two in synch within the next few days or so.
The Front
I have tried to use much of the stock parts and simply modify them mainly because of their connectivity to the frame. I started by modifying the groin guard to make it look as similar as possible to the MG DSH's.
I'll be putting a clear part over that window later on.
Next, I used the entire base frame of the front skirts, and except for a few peg repairs, it remains mostly unmodified. Conversely, the leng of this part is already proportional to that of the MG, but I didn't want to cut or modify it any more than I have to, so, I decided to build the skirt details around it. I modified the top (blue) part of the skirt armor and ditched the lower (white) part altogether). Having done that, I took some liberty changing the design a bit, at least on the proportions and thicknesses of the edges, especially since the skirt armor (both front and back) are already "thick" to begin with. I had to work around that, since I wanted to keep the connectivity as much as possible.
The Back
In direct contrast, I've only used the central part, plus the top sections of both the frame and armor for this, and built everything else from scratch. I separated the single back skirt into three, kept the middle section for more modifications later, then continued to trim the remaining pieces till I got what I needed.
I then added connectivity to the modified parts by drilling holes and adding pegs correspondingly. To keep the holes aligned, I drill one part, clip on the second and third parts, and use the holes on the first part as guides. I used a 2.0mm round beam for pegs, and a 1.8mm drill bit for the holes so I can make adjustments, enlarging the holes later on during fitting.
At this point, I was thinking of making the armor of the back skirt thick enough for me to apply a triangular cross section by shaving of one side at an angle, but after my adventures doing that with the Turn X and Raptor, I finally managed to simplify the process by cementing 1.0mm beams and placing a bent piece of 0.5mm WHIP over it. The beams hold the apex fold of the bent WHIPS. Ive done this in less than 30 minutes, whereas cementing sandwiched and carving them into shape would take much more time with inconsistent surface.
Double clips are handy, not only in aligining parts being drilled together, but especially in holding cemented parts together as they cure. Whereas previously, I would have held this part for as long as the cement is curing and letting go when it no longer pops out of bond (which is probably stupid of me to have been doing then, and one of the reasons why I work slow), I can now simply clip them together and let them cure while work on a different part.
The Side
The WZC's Side Skirt is a two piece assembly (with a polycap in the two piece frame which I cemented permanently). It has no similarity whatsoever with the DSH's side skirts except maybe the pointy part, so this entails major surgery like that with the arm shield mod.
I separated the armor into two sections each having connective parts to the frame. I've also modified the frame, shaving some material away to fit the modified armor pieces. The side skirt is actually similar in shape and form with the arm shield, so I built around the the modified shapes of the separate sections. With the new technique, I can now avoid having to shave parts into shape, especially triangular ones with subtle curves. The part isn't fully completed even now since I'm still deciding whether to keep an incidental detail. More of that later on, with a post dedication to detailing.
Next: Breaking a leg...
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