1/35 "Ingram 2" Patlabor - Part 3

 Time to do some work on the cockpit area even though a lot of it will never be seen again J.

The seat comes in 3 parts with the rear bulkhead details moulded on the main part.  I used Vallejo Grey primer for a base coat.

The rest of the seat & bulkhead were highlighted in Vallejo U.S.Grey (71.047), Fire Red ( 71.084), Black (71.057) & Plate Mail primer.

The side walls of the cockpit were sprayed with Grey primer, then 3 coats of Exhaust Manifold. To try & represent the display screens I used  “Ammo Of Mig” Crystal Green (A.MIG-092), but in the pictures it just doesn’t show the deep colour it gave.

The cockpit was screwed together as in section 24, where the poly caps & some small parts were fitted.  Please pay attention on how to fit parts D10 & D9 as they need to go in before you screw it together.

They need to go on the inside of the cockpit horizontally to click in place then gently rotate them so they sit upright.  The side pods of the body (D21 & D22) were sprayed the same way as the cockpit & the arms (D16,D17,F1 & F2) in Plate Mail primer. These parts then fit onto what now has become the body of the Ingram.

 The completed flip down screen (F9 & F10) were primed, then painted in U.S.Grey. This time I brushed some Aluminium (71.062) first into where the screen should be & when dry used the Crystal Green. As you can see this gave a much better result.    

The final part for now on the body was to lower body panel B37, which has been sprayed with the White primer & the grey rubber boot that should have gone on the waist.  The reason I fitted it here was there are 2 pegs it has to sit on at the front of the body & I could see it was easier to get these fitted first then place the lower body panel over the boot to lock it in position.

I am still not happy with how these rubber parts look even with the seam lines taken out & I wish there was a way to totally remove the mould lines & not ruin the detail.