More progress done on the Archer.

More progress done on the Archer.

I scavenged a couple of leg joint pieces from a kit I had lying around. It's got the articulation I would like and also has just the right distance between shoulder joint and elbow pivot, per the drawings I'm using.  It does not have shoulder-lift articulation pieces, but I can modify that with either a ball joint for the socket or just setting it in the angle that I want.  The MWO mechs do not have that vertical lift, so it would not be inappropriate to do the same with this, but as I've mentioned in previous builds, I like the dynamic poses.  So, I'm not sure yet. I also need to do the upper arm shield, but that shouldn't be too difficult, as it's mostly armor plating covering the shoulder joint. 

With that said, I then got cracked in on the lower arm.  The main housing is done and prepped, now I have to add the detail plates and the medium laser housing before I pour the mold.  Of course, that leaves me in a quandary; do I attach the ML housing to the arm, or leave the arm as-is, and cast the ML separately, leaving the possibility to add a large-laser or small-laser housing?  Considering, I'm making this for me and not as a kit, it makes sense to just put it all in at once.  Besides, I'm not molding the upper arm piece, at least not at the moment.  If I were to, I'd need to pick up another of the kits from which I scavenged them.  But maybe there's this little piece of me that would like the options.  I'll probably do it separately, just because. 

I also need to create the hand pieces.  Those will come.  I'm half tempted to go to shapeways or order a gundam hand and just fiddle with the parts, but then, I could probably do the fist easily enough with just 3mm sintra pieces.  The one thing I'm struggling with a bit is whether or not to bisect the hand off the upper arm, and then cast the whole thing that way, but I'd rather not.  I think I'd prefer to have a way to set the hand in as an inset plug to the armor of the lower arm. 

Finally, detail.  See, this is where I still am not familiar enough to know what to do.  I want to scribe in panel line detail, but I always seem to get that either too fat, too thin, or all wibbly-wobbly.  I will try a bit on some test pieces, but perhaps with a good knife and patient hands, I can get something positive.  I've tried a dremel, but it goes all over the place.