Xiaot Super-Maneuver Armored Walker C.A.T.-01

[mz3]

That's a longass title...

Here's the reason my Zero, Zaku and Panther have been getting little to no attention the past few weeks. I built this kit about 6 weeks ago (however long ago it was)and couldn't decide how to paint it. Then after I painted the grey green on the belly of the Zero inspiration hit hard!





Every piece has a base of mr super metallic 2 Titanium 2. I accidentally bought 2 bottles of it, it's not a color I use for larger projects. So I figured why not. Then hairspray. The blue is tamiya sea blue and the grey is the same grey green from the Zero. I couldn't figure out a color for these parts. They come white and I definitely didn't want to do that, not on this. I had already painted the blue and was looking for something different to use. The bottles of blue and grey green were set next to each other and it just hit me like a ton of bricks!




Chipping like normal. After the main chips were worked with water and cotton tips, I bounced a set of tweezers off the paint. I learned that from a youtuber and it works great for actual scratches and small chips.





The black parts are mr color metallic black. There's details picked out with tamiya dark copper. The eyes are mr super metallic chrome silver and tamiya clear orange. The red "things" on it's forehead are chrome silver and testors tail light clear red.

Still painting the weapons. It has swords I'm trying to do up in a traditional samurai sword style. And huge claws that are almost done. It also has a tail, but the wire is white and doesn't look paintable, so I will replace it with something else.

I don't usually like have this many threads going, but I figured this kit was interesting enough to post. It a Chinese company. I can't find any info about the story, if it's a manga/anime. Anytime I type in the words all I get is website with these kits for sale.

Weathering will be standard oils and whatever comes to mind.

[Medicman71]

That's really cool! Looks great!

[chromdome35]

That looks f’n awesome!!!! Well done.

[Leon]

That is really cool looking!

[deafpanzer]

Way too cool! I am not sure if it is appropriate to say 'cute' cause I am sure she is very deadly dangerous too.

[Real G]

An armored battle cat? Now I have seen it all!

Gary: “A Lamborghini limo that turns into a plane? Now I’ve seen it all!”

Spotswood: “Oh? Have you ever seen a man swallow his own head?!”

Gary: “Ummm…. no.”

Spotswood: “Then you HAVEN’T seen everything! And neither have we.”

[robbo]

I do like these builds so watching with interest

[406 Silverado]

Looks great to me MZ and all the efforts you put into the paint and weathering brought this to life bud. Funny how a totally different build has influence on another.

[Real G]

A good call on the alt colors, definitely upped the reality factor. I was going to ask where the armored kitty came from, but I went back and read the first post. The Chinese companies seem to be coming out with original mecha these days.

[mz3]

Thank everyone.

Sept 4, 2023 10:09:26 GMT -5 deafpanzer said:

Way too cool! I am not sure if it is appropriate to say 'cute' cause I am sure she is very deadly dangerous too.

Like a normal cat.

G, I have 2(maybe 3, I have to check the 3rd one, it might be japanese) kits from different Chinese companies. I haven't started them yet, but I opened and inspected them. The quality of everything is really good, borderline great. The boxes, the plastic, instructions, even the bags the runners come in. And the reviews of these kits all say the same thing, that they are amazing kits. Little to no fit issues, high quality ¡¡¡WATERSLIDE DECALS!!! One has built in LED, a battery provided and a cloth cape.

[dupes]

Is this from a series?

The chipped Titanium 2 looks pretty sweet. May have to give that a go!

[mz3]

There's a series of kits, there are 3 of them so far. This one, a yellow one with a bow and arrow and a red one with a large sword and spear(I think). They are all basically the same kit with small differences. As for anything else, like a manga or anime/tv show, I can't find anything.

[mz3]

Kitty got a tail...






I used 3mm mesh wire. I tried to paint the wire it came with, but it looked horrible. I also really like the mesh detail. I also added the same wire around the waist. There were plastis rails with no detail. Lame.

I also added a few decals...






I might add a few more. I don't want too many on. The kit has 63 decals. It looks way to busy with all of them on. I didn't want to gloss the whole kit, so I just used the old wet Future-decal-wet Future technique. Yes I still use Future. I'll go over each decal and chip where needed. Then either drybrush or spray a bit of the underlying color to fade them a bit. I kind of don't want to spray a topcoat on, I like the difference from the flat paint and the sheen from the Titanium. But I need to coat it the get oils on. I might do a satin and try to avoid the Titanium when I get to the oils.

[mz3]

Forgot weapons...





Claws are done except for weathering. The swords were painted with testor gloss black last Wednesday. I set them aside to dry for several days. Last night I sanded the blades to make them smooth. I'll spray the first dark color tonight or whenever. Then use some liquid mask and spray on a ligther color. I'm hoping to get the 2 colors to be similar but also have a distinct difference showing. If that makes sense.

[Leon]

This is coming together nicely MZ!

[buddho]

This is soooooo cool.🤓

[mz3]

Swords...






The blades are a coat of mr color burnt iron then titanium for the lighter color. Then a light coat of the burnt iron to blend the titanium in. Then gloss. The small one may get repainted, I damaged the paint a little bit at the base of the blade. I'm hoping to sand it then cover it with a drybrushing. We'll see.

[mz3]

Last pick of shininess...


Doing oils today.

[deafpanzer]

Now you have made made Fred a very happy man... looking real good by the way!

[buddho]

So cool!

[mz3]

Dirtyyyyyyyy...








So, I always intended for this to be a pretty dirty kit when I was finished. For stuff like this I like to go just a bit overboard.

I also wanted to reacquaint myself with some techniques I used to use. This one is one of my favorites. Basically let oil paint sit in a cup for a few days. The pigment starts to congeal making clumps. You have to watch it, if you let it sit to long it will completely dry up. But the clumps of paint make for some very easy weathering. I used to do this on armor builds. You basically slop it on, let it sit for an hour or so, then clean/blend/move the paint like normal oils.

[deafpanzer]

I love dirty stuff!!! One nice thing about weathering is that you can easily remove excessive pigments once they are dry. Looking forward to see it cross the finish line!

[mz3]

Especially with oil paint. You can get all kinds of great effects with them.

Some pics...











I'll be finishing up with some AK grime, oil and fuel stains premade stuff. I'm not really a big fan of them but they work and I have them.



Blades are almost done. I need to sand them down, again(!), because the topcoat keeps drying kind of rough.

[406 Silverado]

Coming more and more to life with every update. I don't see myself building a Gundham but I do enjoy watching you and Neal build these. LOTSA good building and weathering tips.

[stikpusher]

That’s some excellent weathering work! You have done a great job making this look well used and worn.

[mz3]

More... ... .









I went over some random areas with some nato black to help the dirtiness. I then sanded those spots randomly and scratched at some of them with a toothpick. Almost done with this one. Finish swords, oil stains/streaks and I'm think about trying to splatter some oily gunk on it to simulate slicing and dicing some enemy units. We'll see on that one.

[ogrejohn]

Such fine weathering!

[Medicman71]

The weathering looks great!

[mz3]

Alright, final touches going on...






I used some premade Mig engine oil and engine grime to get more dirtiness. Then a grey filter/wash on the blue parts for dust. I'm not a huge fan of the premade stuff, but it works and I have it. Then went over most of that with black and/or brown oils to color them up a little. All these bottles of mig and ak stuff are old and don't really work the way they used to.




Then, I went heavy with the engine oil on the claws. I'm trying to make it look like it just slashed another machine. I used my cat as inspiration for this part.

I brushed on the engine oil last night and worked it in a bit with enamel thinner. Then today I splattered it on. I will probably splatter some on the kit tomorrow after everything else has had some time to dry a bit.

[deafpanzer]

It keeps getting better and better every time you post an update. Keep up with the great work!