Me and the weekend modeling warriors always wanted to do a Mech mod. The next best thing from a scratch-build is a kit bash… getting parts from toys, surplus kit parts and what-have-you to build something original. In this exercise, the imagination (and yes, budget too) is the only limit.

For this build, the base figure was a 1/60 Mechwarrior Destroid Tomahawk toy lovingly donated by Cho Caruncho from his office desk. We also went around the office and asked for old toys, scrap plastic, etc to come up with our spares bin. The guys also brought their model kit spares to the house to come up with a common resource from which to build this monstrous mech…

In Progress Photos

We started this build around May. The first part was actual planning. What parts to take, which toys would form the base for things such as torso, head, arms, legs, weaponry. This called for a meeting sponsored by beer and chips! Hurray.

Inspiration for this was actually “Rook” from the game, Demigods. We wanted a really BIG mech with lots and lots and lost of weapons capable of tackling any threat from land, air or sea. The goal was to “mechify” Rook… whatever that means. Sigh. We assigned 4 different people for various parts. I would tackle the torso, Alex would build the arms, Keith would build the legs and Niel would build all the weapons and armaments.

So much for planning. Keith and I ended up doing the thing due to some schedule conflicts from our partners… 2 dudes is still a “group build”, yes?

Ok… so the base figure was the Tomahawk mech. Other toys and parts gathered were from an 1/144 Seravee Gundam, Bionicle toys, old Gundam parts, old tank parts, a Transformers Decepticon Dropship,  and a lot more. See if you can figure out the parts from the build

Let’s go into the initial build

PART 1 PUTTING IT TOGETHER

Here’s a look (below) of both our spares bin which housed a lot of old toys and old model kit parts…. this is the “treasure box” where anyone involved in the group build can take parts

From the spares, I took a couple of old Gundam thrusters and glued them to the back. I also ripped the bottom section of the tomahawk to separate the torso. I added details from old bionicle toy parts and gundam parts to make engine parts.

Meanwhile, I had to some putty work for the Tomahawk guns since I didn’t want any screw holes to show… here’s a before and after of the putty work (below)…

Now it’s over to Keith to do the legs. The feet were from the original Tomahawk. Keith added “balancers” to even out the weight. The middle portion (knees) were from a 1/144 Seravee Gundam model and the upper thighs were from the Transformers Decepticon Dropship legs. We loved the articulation. Ball joints from Bionicle and Zoids were added to give it more movement options. Keith finally sealed it with Waterstop and the thing is ready for painting.

A couple of weeks later, the thing was standing on its own (below)

Now it’s time to apply primer and prep the model for paint. The paint scheme is heavily-rusted construction Yellow with a lot of battle damage and scarring.

On to the primered kit…

Laying out all the parts above for 1 final check…. The missile turret is from the Transformers Toy.

Weaponry – Here’s an inventory of our weapon system and where we got ‘em

• 105mm Arm Rail Guns – from the original Tomahawk
• Leg Missile Batteries – original Tomahawk
• Shield Gun – from an old Gundam 1/144 kit (thank you, Jeff!) I forget which model. Some bionicle parts were added and a scratchbuilt turret for final detail.
• 60mm Belly Cannons and Gatling – from a Zoid and Bionicle weapon part
• Missile Turrets (not shown) – Transformers

More photos of the entire build are here in my Facebook Album.

Next post, I’ll go into more details and tackle the various painting steps. Should you have any questions, feel free to just comment below.

Thanks!