Cyborg Cicada/Copter

I've always wanted to do this but in 1/35 scale and instead of this chopper I wanted to do an American Cobra/Dragon fly thing.

I decided for my first go round I'd do it in 1/48 and use a Fujimi Huge500 chopper and mod it into a Cicada cyborg thingie.

I've managed to get the right main wing done 3 more to go.

I'm retaining the rear rotor and the skids.

I want the wings to be positional, in order to accomplish this I opted to use shoulder and hip joints from a dollar store toy. They'll be installed in the holes in the fuselage. I graft them into the fuselage with sculpting epoxy.

You can see one ball joint attached to the wing. You may also notice I cut a U shaped notch in one of the sockets. I did this so the wings could be tucked in.

Well that's it for now.

Thanks for checking it out.




I used .065" and .020" rod for the wings.

Some progress this morning. I traced the first completed wing structure over the actual wing picture to give me a secondary guide, I want the wings to be similar in appearance.

Very cool project. Thanks for posting this one. I will follow it to the end.

Very cool   I'll be watching this also

Wow, stunning to come upon this! The creativity is astounding! Thanks for a jolt to the brain, this is one I'll follow!

Thanks guys. This morning I built the second main wing and tonight I was able to get the first secondary wing built, I also mounted the sockets for the main wings. Way more pins required to build the secondary wing.

Second main wing still pinned.


First secondary wing being built.


Both left side wings


Main wings in sockets


Lots left to do, kinda looks goofy right now. I'm sure it'll come together in the end though.

Well that's it for now see ya soon.

Thanks for looking in.

  Extremely interesting !!!
This'll be COOL !

Ditto what Clay said.

Thanks guys, it's been fun and challenging so far.

Well now this IS different. Wouldn't want to meet it in a dark alley!!!

Now that's different- and great work too. It's the Hughes OH-6 fuselage isn't it?

LOACH meets cicada>

Chris

Thanks guys.

I'd post it in the group build but I fear it would just be another group build I join and never finish so I'm going to post it up here.

It is definitely different. I have a vision in my head, not sure if it's going to come out in the end.

webby, yup it is a Hughes, can't remember exactly which version but the 500 denote was on the box art.

So I started the last wing this morning, all the pieces are pre cut so assembly should be pretty quick. I've added a visual feature to the rear of the fuselage, this will be cover with a very thin layer of Apoxie Sculpt to soften the look and blend it into the fuselage.

My idea for this fantasy creature/build is it's a living ever evolving cyborg. It starts out as a normal inanimate object and a living mutated bioengineered cell is fused into the structure. It then begins to over take and grow into the structure but it only mutates what it needs.

I haven't quit decided what it's purpose would be but I'm thinking the scale will be 1:1. I have a couple of ideas along the line of agriculture purposes, either to help with pollination or eradication of pests. If I go the eradication rout it will have weapons of some sort. If I go the pollination rout I'll have to do some extensive research and learn a lot more then I know to make it visually feasible.





Thanks for looking in.

Coming right along, I am enjoying this build very much.

Thank you all for your interest in this far out build.

Wing assembly is now complete. I'm still not settled on what type of covering I'm putting on the wing but I want some type of translucent film over them. I was thinking of the window weather skrink film, but I think it will just deform the structure, they're pretty flexy.

Do you guys have any suggestions?

I'll post pics later tonight once I get some more progress on the body.

Thanks for your input.

I think something like Saran Wrap. Then maybe shade it in a few places with an airbrush and some silver paint. probably an Acrylic Craft paint thinned way down. Not sure how the Saran Wrap would take to a poof can paint or a paint thinner.

Gary suggested the same thing, I'll try it on a mock up piece first, thanks for the suggestion.

I just had a bit of a mishap I rip apart one of the secondary wings pulling it from it's socket. At first I was  , but in the end not to much carnage. I was able to repair it in less then 10min.  happy dance.

I also spoke to my neighbour who's an artist/sculpture/caster he said he thinks there is a clear liquid product out that when the wings are dipped into it and removed will span the structures and achieve the look I want. Of searching I go.

Broken wing.


Some pics with the wings installed.



The organic transformation has begun.  

Not sure how far I'm going to take the skin thing, but I'm happy with how it looks so far. Sticking with the living organism theme I decide to go with a coral look skin idea. This little creature absorbs oxygen and moisture through it's skin via the little holes. This is now at the stage of design and build, I have absolutely no idea where this is going to go next.

001 

Bit more done tonight.

I'm really flying by the seat of my pants here and just trying new things, I've never worked with this axopy scult before or done much "sculpting" so I'm relying on my wits to get me through this build.

I may have a solution for the wing film issue. I'm going to try my hand at vacu-forming clear packaging over the wing structure.

On the subject of wings, my fear has risen that I was going to have trouble getting the wings in the sockets without eventually breaking them. In an attempt to take these pics with the wings in place I snapped one of the main struts in half on the main wings. It's since been repaired but has left me wondering what I'm going to do come final assembly. I may have to settle on mounting the wings in a fixed position.


I tried a few ideas for eyes and settled on these.



We'll see what tomorrow brings.

Thanks for following along.

I seem to be remembering that model RRs have a plastic liquid they use to glaze windows. Brush it on to span the opening and it dries clear.

YES that's it!

The stuff used to make a fake stained glass effect.  

Damn and I was just at Michaels yesterday, oh well good thing they're only 10min away.

Thank you so much Geezer, you sir are awesome!

That's one big eyed bug!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I like it.001 

Finally got the eyes pretty much done, they'll be painted once I get to that stage. They're not symmetrical but they're as good as they're going to get considering I was only messing around with the idea of using these when I first installed them. The screen is from a dollar store strainer.






I've also made some progress with the wing film. Still in test mode but the liquid glass product seems to be working so far. I still need to do one more test run to see if I can get it to setup on an embossed surface and still remain attached to the wings once it dries and the wings and the film are removed.

Thanks dogfish. I'm afraid the only resemblance to a Cicada now is the wings, I thought these type of eye would be more striking, it' been a crazy fun little build so far. The one you caught what colour were they. I've seen some images of some crazy colours. Up here I've only seen the colours of the one I included in this thread.