Appleseed XV8 Battle Suit Final Design...hopefully.

This is the design I can never seem to leave alone. Last time around I showed you a prototype of the suit and things were looking good. All I had to do was make a mold for the back and I was done. Well I got the mold done and started casting parts and it just didn't feel right. So out came the knives, saws and greenstuff. Here are the results. I lengthened the torso and used an XV9 pelvis since it was faster then reworking my scratch built one. The missile stalk was added because it fit better there than on the arms. I am going to stick with them only being on one side though. It looked too much like the Broadside with it on both. The one in the picture is glued on but the final will be magnetized. I have a 3rd one that I am working on cleaning up fully to make new molds for I can get the 18 suits I need finished with minimal cleanup needed on each one. The current molds I have been using have been pretty rough and the venting on them isn't the best so I get allot of bubbles. I may use that time to make some additional changes to the lower leg and foot. The XV9 ones look really good and I do still have a few of those laying around.

Landmate Redesign

Since my Forge World order finally came in decided to jump back on my open projects starting with the Appleseed Landmate battlesuit. I kept the leg design from the original suit  but after doing a few cast of the pelvis and torso I just wasn't happy. There are a few details that I should have cleaned up on the master and the backpack never really worked out correctly when all the pieces were assembled. Either way it was time to rebuild. So here is the next version.

The new version is using the curved chest plate from the FW Shas'o R'myr's personal Battlesuit and in place of the normal jump jets I went with 1 central one from the prototype suit. I am still making additional changes to the design though. So I am looking at stretching the body like with the prototype. The shorted body is a little too round without it. Keep a look out for the next update.

Another project I threw together is new objective markers. I still have my old scenic ones but they are all on 25mm bases so rather that deal with complaints from players I cast up a few of these. 

I used another FW part for these, Shas’o R’ala's shield from his XV-9. They are molded as one piece and already textured so all I need to do is prime and paint them. I used a cheaper rubber for the mold and it is dying fast so I if I get 8 cast I will be happy before it completely falls apart. Better to find out on a less critical mold though. 

Next time I will hopefully be slinging some paint and showing off some results. 

Appleseed XV8 Mold Making

Made some molds of the Appleseed suit build and the mold turned out ok. Venting this mold was tough because their were so many spots that could trap air. Each pour involved me adding having to go back and revent the mold in a new location and switch from a plain pour to injecting the resin into the mold. So I have a bunch of parts that will be used for damaged suites.

WIP - The return of the Appleseed Landmate

After a month of stalls I have finally picked up my Appleseed Landmate design and am pushing it forward. The last one you saw was the blue prototype. This one is on a completely new design. I wasn't completely happy with the torso and jetpack on that one. They still were too boxy and the triple jet was neat but didn't fit the theme. The second issue was the arms. The were a little too short. Finally the head, it is still headless but I have a plan now and onece my greenstuff shows up I can get to scuplting. Here is a preview.

partially completed suit

Redesigned suit legs. Still working on the leg vents/jets.

pelvis and waist 

Base arms, still working on the hands.

Torso made from a modified FW XV-88.

Appleseed Test Fig

I decided that I needed to push forward on this project and decided to paint my prototype instead of using it to make molds. There were a few places that were taking too long and with the new XV-9 being released I am leaning towards using one of those for the base fig.

For the paint job on this project I tried something I haven't used before. Duplicolor has a paint called Metalcast. It is a candy paint that is designed to give an anodized finish. This seemed like the perfect match to the experimental suit from the film. The paint comes in several colors and I am eying the yellow and green colors for my Black Reach marines. This is a fun spray to work with. Candy paints will definitely test your spray technique on larger pieces but for figs in this size it is very easy to control the depth of the color and end result.

I am still working on building the head. I have found a couple of designs that I like so the wait for a head shouldn't be much longer.