This is the
Bandai 1/48 Hobuggy from the Xabungle Anime (whatevs) that I rescaled to 1/35. This is what the assembled kit is supposed to look like:
Not very detailed compared to the box top. I wasn't going to call mine a
Ho buggy, either...
I added to and modified the kit from the start of the build. I opened the rear of the fan cover and added the two engine pods from a Tamiya Hughes 500 egg plane. I used some Eduard mesh to keep FOD out of the blades. Early on it looked like this:
The gray bit is an intake or vent from a Gundam add-on parts kit:
For some reason, I decided to start painting at this point - the build still had a long way to go! The Ho
ver Buggy still looked a bit off, so I experimented adding a tail (a Matchbox 1/72 Ju-188 wing) and a silver cover for the fan engine. The figure is a happy Russian soldier from a Zvezda motorcycle kit. The headrest is half of a drop tank. The foot pedals are from a Trumpeter 1/35 scale Modern U.S. Army CH-47D Crew & Infantry kit :
Diziet is not impressed:
Neither was I. I took the tail off and realized what was bugging me was the engine cover, so I replaced it with a part from an AMT 1/200 US manned rockets kit. The landing skids were very simple and sagged under the weight of the model - I moved the nose skid to the rear, so that the model could at least stand without the stand:
Here it is, mostly finished. The landing gear is made from several kit parts, including the ubiquitous Gundam parts - in this case a spring, which I coated in CA glue to approximate a rubber boot or cover. The gear is pinned with paper clip sections:
The headrest is part of the fuselage of a 1/72 plane, with the cushion made from a third of the seat cushion from the old Glencoe Airjeep, sanded to shape. The bicycle seat is from the same Zvezda motorcycle kit (it comes with a spare) that provided the test pilot. The seat back was scratchbuilt. The seatbelts are from the Eduard Gama Goat PE set. The eye decal (and most other decals on the kit) are leftover decals that I've printed on my ALPS over the years:
The display is a UV resin raft generated to hold the model supports on my 3D printer. The fluorescent decal is from the Airfix Jet Provost. 20-02 is the month and year I built this kit:
I'm still working on a figure. I used the Zvezda figure as a "test pilot" to get an idea as to where to put the foot pedals and headrest:
This second figure is posed to climb into the cockpit. He's a Frankenstein mix of body parts that will need a lot of work before he's presentable:
The Hoverbuggy is pretty well worn and used - I still have to come up with a back story.
Thanks for looking!
