The Dragon Ronin Astray Part VIII

More Skirts

Done with the skirt's removable armor. Will still add details later.

 

The side skirt adapter. Like most of the modifications I have done, I found it better and easier to build new attachment adapters for the modifications rather than modify the original part mainly because i can customize my build.

I got a few Koto (ball and) socket joints which so happened to fit quite nicely to the side skirt ball joint and built an adapter mechanism for the side skirt armor. The main part swivels upward and the secondary part (the one protruding fro the middle stays in place when attached to the ball joint. I'm thinking double armor, or, the middle part can hold the beam sabers hilts. Either way, it will have a functional purpose.

Test fit, with the skirt in normal (left) and "Dragon" mode (right).

 

 The side skirt inner frames.

 

did the usual bristol-board-template-before-cutting-pla-plate technique for the armor. I've read in a catalog a Lil's that these are actually described as "heat shrinking plastic plates."

Applying heat would definitely make it easy to bend, but, as soon as it cool the material would harden, making it difficult for me to do any further bending. I'll stick with heatless bending for the meantime.

used 1mm beams for lining/frame and held the bent piece with a piece of tape. The resulting bond is sturdy but still flexible enough for any adjustments.

The middle armor.

Test fit. I've decided to cement the individual armor to its designated frame instead of making it removable to simplify the build. The frame/armor parts are still removable as whole units.

 

 

The Dragon Ronin Astray Part VII

Heads Up (and Ears Back)

A rough sketch of the planned head armor mod (done during class as my students are working on their projects), reminiscent of the traditional samurai head gear.

 Adapter for the head gear...

 

The adapters alone won't be able to hold the planned extensions, so, i used the extra pair of clear parts to mount the extensions permanently. As of now, i've temporarily used the clear ear parts, since the notch of the other white ear also broke off (a structural flaw for me, since it can't withstand normal handling during assembly and back).

As usual, I cut templates out of bristol first as a guide for the plates. I used 0.5mm for these mods.

Test fit.

 

head modifications is 85% complete. I've added inner frames to the plate molds for strength and added layers to the back/base of the helmet, and thickened the tips of the "ears."

Modified the collar and reduced its height to give the head free movement after the modifications.

 

The Dragon Ronin Astray Part VI

Light 'em up!

Part of the mod is making the beam saber light up with a modified 5mm bright white LED.

I modified the saber's hilt to fit 3 of the smallest batteries I could find (got a 30 pc set of different sizes at Japan home).

Additional small modifications on the saber hilt guard to fit the LED.

test fit and powered up.

 

The battery pack. Still figuring out the connection though.

The stock LED mount of the PG Astray. After much consideration, I realized green is an inappropriate color for the Ronin build aside from the fact that the stock LED is rather weak. I also tried replacing the stock LED with a superbright white, but, the single LED makes it look as if the Ronin is cross-eyed (even with the stock), so, I'm customizing a dual LED mount for it. It will be powered externally via a custom backpack, hence eliminating the need to disassemble the back of the Ronin's head just to turn the power on or off.

For a clean, solder-less connection, I used 1.0mm Kotobukiya springs to connect the LEDs in series, which will need two CR2016 batteries (for a total of 6V, same current supply). I could have connected the two in parallel using only one battery, but, I realized that the power drain would be too much for a single battery to handle. LEDs shouldn't be powered beyond their rated voltage, but since the LEDs are in series (hence, their combined rated voltage is also 6V), it wouldn't really pose too much of a problem.

Test fit.

The Dragon Ronin Astray Part V

Skirts are not just for the ladies

While thinking about how to do the other armor parts, I started working on the skirts.

At first, I thought of a fold-type articulation (which is more logical if you think about it), but, this is Gunpla after all. So, I thought of an expanding skirt instead.

I dug out my stash of runners and got a few T-sections. After assessing the situation (since i won't be making it foldable), I made C-joints by dado-jointing two T-sections and later cutting off the excess.

i simply estimated the pivot length i needed by matching the adjoining plates and slightly sliding them on the designated slide side. I cemented "guide" rails to keep the slide aligned.

Voila! It works just as imagined it.

 

Having customized the main skirt, I found it necessary to customize the red waist guard to allow maximum movement.

I used the red ABS runner of the Astray for this modification and pieces 0.4mm.1.0mm styrene sandwiched together. I noticed that most ABS runners melt and bond relatively slower than styrene, so I had to apply more pressure and allow a longer curing time than usual before I do any further adjustments.

I also made peg adapters for the skirt with white PS runners and sandwiched styrene plates. I could have simply cemented the peg adapters to the primary skirt, but I got another OC attack and made it removable with a soft slide-lock mechanism, just in case I do decide to make a smaller version of the skirt without the gimmick. The main skirt can actually stand alone (the parts are removable) once the top armor is placed.

Test fit: The waist guard mod, and the skirt peg adapter.

Test fit: The extending skirt. (edit: the x/— marks are identifiers)

 

I managed to squeeze building the waist guard. I'm running low on pla plates (gotta get me some soon), so I basically use the small scraps as economically as possible. Instead of sandwiching whole plates, I used 1mm beam instead. I used the same shape, the bottom slightly larger than the top part, and used a strip to fill the gap, beveled to the angle between the plates. Then I filed it smooth.

This is still not final, but I think I'm gonna leave that gap open.

 

The Dragon Ronin Astray Part IV

The Chest Vents

I actually like the chest vents on the 1/100 Astray better than the PG's, so I customized something similar for the Ronin. The pics should say it all.

The "difficulty' I had with this mod is that stock vents didn't offer anything in terms of a guide, since it's totally different from the NG version's vents. So, i had to build the vents separately from the socket/adapter that will connect them vents to the chest frame. I later did a dry fit and made necessarily size adjustments.

Test fit.

 

I realized I actually get more work done when I do certain sections at a time instead of trying to finish one section in a go (when I get OC, I tend to spend a lot more time THINKING of how to do certain things than actually doing them, especially when the build is actually more complicated that i have planned it one paper). As I'm doing one part, I'm already thinking on how to do the other (don't ask me how i do it, even I don't know).

The Dragon Ronin Astray Part III

Prototyping dilemmas

Progress is slow because of this weather, but I managed to get a few things done. I've finished making the second armor attachment that simulates the forearm muscles. Since the second one was the symmetric mirror image of the other, it took me a bit longer to make.

Now I need to make another pair for the other arm.

The layered armor/shield: the design looked good on paper, but I came across a few problems while building it, the main one being it's too bulky for my taste, so I had to rethink the design. This won't go to waste though, since I may use this for the shoulder armor.

The redesigned Arm shield. I bent beams and plates and used the custom armor as a mold for the main frame. The beams will serve as thr framework for the layered armor.

Looks better, I believe. The top of the frame latches on to the custom armor, but I will still have to make a socket for it to secure it on to the arm.

 

 I was going to finish the one of the arm shields first before making the other one when I realized I will have symmetry problems later on, so I scrapped that idea and started on the other shield.

For this, I used a strip of styrene and a 2mm beam for the framework. Styrene is flexible enough to be bent into shape without heating (pla plates also becomes "softer" with narrower strips), though I am careful with over bending since these materials do have a critical breaking point.

I cemented it section by section, allowing the strip to settle on to the beam, and bent it according to the shape of the prototype. I overbent it a little and secured the end with tape. This method will help hold the bent shape as the cement cures.

After the end frames have cured, I worked on the main frame work. Beams can be easily bent into shape and will hold that shape once the other parts of the frame have been attached.

End to end alignment check.

 

Bristol board. Gotta love 'em for their handiness in prototyping.

I used the bristol board as templates for the Arm Shield. I used 0.5 mm styrene sheets. Though easier to bend, 0.5mm springs back more readily than 1.0mm sheets, depending on the shape and area. To keep their bent shape, I lined the edges of the sheet with 1.0mm beams, bent into shape. The beams also gave the illusion of the armor being thicker than it actually is.

Much like the frame, I allowed a slight overbend and secured the tips with tape while the cement cures. Once cured, the cement allows the part to keep its bent shape while keeping some of it's springyness, which I also exploit like a snap on mechanism on at least one layer.

Test fit.

  

Now for some more bristol board fun.

I posted this earlier.

While letting the arm shield settle onto shape, I started working on the rest of the layered armor. This one goes on the crotch guard. Unlike the rest of the armor this is a one-piece but made with 5 separate parts. I've shaped parts 3-5 slightly differently from each other.

When assembled, this will have a "snap on" mount and the pieces will be cemented together like this.