By VinceHoffman
Feb 04, 2016
Welcome to Part 2 of my 3 part Gallery posting. So as the title suggests, this build was an effort to dial up the game-accuracy of the official HMB Scarab model. I'd initially planned to buy two Scarabs and mash them into one larger model, I decided against that after a visit to a fellow SBF member's home exposed me to just how large the stock model was. So while the stock model is likely only 50-60% of the size an H3 or Reach Mega Bloks scaled Type 47 Deutoros Scarab model should be, I think most folks will decide it is large enough.
There isn't much to say about the upper legs that the pictures don't adequately get across. Suffice to say I sprayed a can of "stud begone" all over the legs- LOL! I added details like the pivot point where the upper and lower legs meet at right angles. Then I completely redesigned the hinged armor segment towards the bottom of each leg, The large curvy clam shell parts pinned to either side were discarded. They looked cool but didn't contribute to the model's game accuracy one bit. The hinges were repurposed and re-oriented to allow the rebuilt armor segments to dangle properly and be easily "blown off" in mock battles.
I messed around with foot design alternatives to the ugly stock foot design A LOT. Originally I considered repainting the long 2x16 tapered purple slopes used as the gun barrel in the Covenant Tyrant AA gun build. This was the way that MB should have went, just moulding parts in the appropriate color if you asked me. Anyway, I was trying to avoid having to color match and brush paint that large a part so I continued experimenting. I thought I'd hit the jackpot when I came up with a design using the 1x12 slopes from Cauldron Clash on edge along with some stepped 2x2x2/3rds axle bloks. This approach appeared to allow a lot of backset of the feet relative to the leg above which was also great. But while the build worked, it wasn't as stable as I wanted. There was enough leverage on the skinny slopes that it resulted in an unacceptable (and somewhat scary) amount of slop at the joint where the slope was pinned by the pair of the aforementioned axle bloks. Well I decided that I REALLY LIKED the visuals of this design. So after a brief bout of soul searching, I cheated. Out came the slow set cyanoacrylate glue and I glued the slope, two axle bloks, and 1x4 plate which formed each complete foot together. Hey MB should have come up with a better foot design. Had they really wanted to hit it out of the park, it would have been a set-specific new mold. They didn't, so I made a custom part. IMHO the new foot design looks WAY BETTER even if it isn't perfect.
To wrap part 2 up, I added the three emplaced Plasma Turrets that were missing from the model. But instead of using the stock tripod bases for this weapon, I came up with a custom fixed mounting base. My fixed emplacement design offsets the turret buying some more room on deck and allows the turrets to be aimed up or downwards as well as rotated.
Continued in Part 3...
There isn't much to say about the upper legs that the pictures don't adequately get across. Suffice to say I sprayed a can of "stud begone" all over the legs- LOL! I added details like the pivot point where the upper and lower legs meet at right angles. Then I completely redesigned the hinged armor segment towards the bottom of each leg, The large curvy clam shell parts pinned to either side were discarded. They looked cool but didn't contribute to the model's game accuracy one bit. The hinges were repurposed and re-oriented to allow the rebuilt armor segments to dangle properly and be easily "blown off" in mock battles.
I messed around with foot design alternatives to the ugly stock foot design A LOT. Originally I considered repainting the long 2x16 tapered purple slopes used as the gun barrel in the Covenant Tyrant AA gun build. This was the way that MB should have went, just moulding parts in the appropriate color if you asked me. Anyway, I was trying to avoid having to color match and brush paint that large a part so I continued experimenting. I thought I'd hit the jackpot when I came up with a design using the 1x12 slopes from Cauldron Clash on edge along with some stepped 2x2x2/3rds axle bloks. This approach appeared to allow a lot of backset of the feet relative to the leg above which was also great. But while the build worked, it wasn't as stable as I wanted. There was enough leverage on the skinny slopes that it resulted in an unacceptable (and somewhat scary) amount of slop at the joint where the slope was pinned by the pair of the aforementioned axle bloks. Well I decided that I REALLY LIKED the visuals of this design. So after a brief bout of soul searching, I cheated. Out came the slow set cyanoacrylate glue and I glued the slope, two axle bloks, and 1x4 plate which formed each complete foot together. Hey MB should have come up with a better foot design. Had they really wanted to hit it out of the park, it would have been a set-specific new mold. They didn't, so I made a custom part. IMHO the new foot design looks WAY BETTER even if it isn't perfect.
To wrap part 2 up, I added the three emplaced Plasma Turrets that were missing from the model. But instead of using the stock tripod bases for this weapon, I came up with a custom fixed mounting base. My fixed emplacement design offsets the turret buying some more room on deck and allows the turrets to be aimed up or downwards as well as rotated.
Continued in Part 3...