Customized Zoids

Since the crystal horn dye went so well, I thought I’d do my Molga (I went with the Genesis color scheme). It did not go as well. The body halves warped a little, and the greys are darker than I wanted, but it still looks kind of cool. Last three pics were taken on a light table.

I did this one by using fabric dye. Mix a box of dye in a medium saucepan, bring to a simmer, throw the pieces in, and stir.

Note: If you have a gas range, I would avoid this technique like the plague. You can’t get an even and predictable heating area and run the risk of melting pieces beyond repair!

This is my first paint/bash custom, and I call it Scout Tiger. I didn’t like the color or lack of decent gun that Guntiger had, so I got to work. I’m going to say that it has battle damage, because the damn metalizers kept coming off on the edges (probably overzealous buffing).

This is Helcat MK-II, inspired by a custom I saw on Yahoo Japan. It was my first foray into masking. I didn’t take any pictures of those mistakes. I had to do some cutting and such to get the hatch for the gunner seat to work. It opens and closes, but not smoothly.

This was commissioned by my special lady, who wanted a pink zoid that was still boss. His (her?) name is either Lady Redler, or Redler Stardust (see #8). If you think yellow paint is hard to work with, try using pink sometime! (Maybe if I had used a white primer…)

I entered this in Phenotype’s Zoids Forum Contest in February 2006. The initial darthing took forever, because there were just so many pieces to paint. Stickers were a grueling undertaking as well. Also, I did a lot of cutting and drilling. I got the idea from Pheno’s Proto Giga page, where he wished it had more of a prototype feel. This said to me: coil springs! Also, all the preview pics for Proto Giga showed shiny armor, not the dullness we ended up with.

I am continuing the time honored tradition of cramming zoid parts into Pokémon windup kits. Here is the first known Pokézoid: one, two. A couple years later, (Darth) Tres Wright made his own Pikazoid, then upped the ante with a Venuzoid. Around this time, I picked up a Porygon kit, thinking that would make an excellent addition, then proceeded to sit on it for five years until I finally acquired some skills.

I started out with a traditional “whitehead” cockpit, until I realized that the Starrior one (with modifications) would be much better. (Poor Starriors—I keep raiding them for parts!)

Here, I have “corrected” the odd wide stance that the front legs had (pic). I did this with much hacking and slashing. As a result, it is permanently in dragon mode, but I didn’t like deathraser/parablade in these colors anyway. Also, I replaced the blox pieces in the neck with some better matching ones from the limited translucent blox set.

I started this in the fall of 2005, then set it aside because I didn’t think I could paint during the winter. Turns out I could have, but then I got massively sidetracked. Now I can’t paint in the summer (too humid!), so I’m putting this up “in progress”. I gave him all new weapons (the CP-01s required hell of cutting to work), new hands, and added some details here and there. I am also trying something new with the photos, because it was too hot to shoot outside, and I was too lazy to set up my backdrop, but I didn’t want anyone seeing how bad I need to clean up my living room. Now taking bets on whether I ever finish this or any other customs…

I took the clear pilot from my holotech Megaraptor and painted him clear orange, to look like a Micronaut Time Traveler figure. I’ve wanted to do this forever, but until recently there were no clear pilots.

I did what I could in the short time I had for the contest, but after that I started looking at it again, and thought about how to fix the things I was still unhappy with. First, I made “dino-accurate” hands by removing the thumbs. I went on a quest for a good three fingered replacement, but it was not to be, so it has tyranno-type hands. Then, I saw WIKD’s custom Giga, which had little guns all along the tail. I decided I would have to do this myself. WIKD sent me some spares, and they worked like a charm. Last, I never liked how Giga’s arms looked like they were flailing madly, so I tried to fix that. I’m almost there…

I’ve been doing this one off and on forever (I work slow these days). Who knows when I’ll paint, so I present this one “in progress”, with bonus “making of” pics. The main thing holding me back was what to do about the wings, but then I tried out Savinga’s blades and was finally happy. A bonus with the blades is they make the bee look like a living Prozen Knights bee logo.

I’m not sure if I ever finished this. The build’s done, but I’m really unhappy with the paintjob, because pink is the most difficult/uncooperative color to work with. I’m also unhappy with the fact that it has fallen off the shelf and broken SEVERAL times. Like it’s against the law to paint one of the king badasses of zoids in these colors.

The Gojulas HT I got recently came with another clear figure for me to color. This time I went for the yellow Time Traveler, since I’ve been digging clear yellow a lot lately. This time instead of paint, I used a Sharpie for the yellow, and Gundam markers for the white/silver. The damn white kept absorbing the yellow, though, so this one’s a bit messy.

TWO DOWN, TWO TO GO!

Recently I discovered a set of stickers for giving Zakus shiny mono eyes. Turns out they also make good raptor eyes. To add to the effect, I drilled a hole in the head, and put a piece of fiber optic inside, so light could shine through. Another quick and dirty mod is to use the tip of a mechanical pencil for the gun barrel in the mouth.

I’ve wanted to try this on my Holotech Spinosapper’s saws forever, but was afraid of messing up. Then I found a backup. I think I did ok, even though it doesn’t look so hot up close. At least the effect was as cool looking as I had hoped. To add some contrast to the Hammer Rock, I borrowed part of a red clamshell cockpit.

After seeing these strange pilots in an auction, I wanted to see what was underneath the chrome of my own Robo Strux pilots. Along the way I discovered that a little bit of acetone (nail polish remover) can make a gold pilot silver (pic #1). A lot more plus some scrubbing will strip the chrome off—mostly. There are some tiny bits that won’t come off no matter what. I also think the acetone stained this guy a little.

Underneath this one is the milky semi-opaque plastic of the Ghost Zoids, but I’m not sure if that’s the case for all RS pilots. Plus, I stripped an OJR pilot long ago, and it had pink plastic underneath, so who knows what’s under the various other releases’ chrome pilots.