Vanguard Conversion Commission

One of my clients contacted me to help him finish off a conversion he was working on. Michael wanted his Vanguard warjack reposed to resemble this illustration by Andrea Uderzo:

 

 

Mike had already cleaned the parts and reposed the halberd arm, replacing its pistons with brass rod. That's where he turned the model over to me.

Here's the final result:

 

 

I puttied the shoulders to accommodate the new positioning. For the midsection, I cut apart the pistons that make up the Vanguard's waist and pinned them back into place with a twist to angle the pelvis and add a slight turn in the upper torso. To turn the head, I needed to remove the neck post and resculpt it off to one side. The new connection point for the hose under the Vanguard's chin was made with a bit of styrene tube that the hose plugged into.

 

 

Surprisingly, getting the left leg up on the trench wall didn't require any modification to the knee and pistons other than flexing it to get as much bend as I could. The right leg, however, needed to be completely reposed to extend the 'jack up to its full height. The top piston was cut and rotated to the top of the knee hinge. The lower piston needed to be replaced with thick bras rod. A little sculpting was required to repair the joins. I also cut and repositioned the attachment points on both feet.

 

The base was actually the last part I worked on. Once I figured out how high the left leg would be, I modeled the mound with Aves Epoxy Sculpt and then detailed it with basswood strips and ballast. The sandbags were also sculpted from Aves.

 

Michael was really happy with the finished model. If you would like to commission me to tackle a conversion idea that you have, shoot me an email at robhawkinsart@gmail.com or message me on my Facebook page, The Rob Hawkins Hobby Blog.

'Til next time!