Hitachi Construction Mech

This is based on a model I saw on Twitter by a Japanese modeler called "Surume0407". I really liked it and wanted to try to build my own version, but while the use of the Hasegawa excavator kit was obvious, I wasn't so sure about the robot parts. I'm a bit of a Gundumb in that department. The excavator kit was snagged locally on sale, figuring it would be a fun build regardless if I attempted the kitbash or not. 

Sometime later, while looking at pictures of other peoples models (a hobby in itself) , I recognized some of the major bits in a photo of a Gundam 'Graze' kit. and with that I was off to the races.

The chassis was 3D printed in polystyrene. It took a few tries to get proportions that I liked. This shows the underside, the white tubes are the attachment points for the rear legs.

The feet are 1:35 tank wheels and some styrene tube. 5/32" was close enough to 4mm that it worked ok with the Gundam polycaps. I had to add some Tamiya putty in some cases to fine tune the fit.

I squared off the armour with epoxy putty to tone down some the obvious Bandai styling.

The extension for the rear counter weight was modeled in Fusion 360 and printed with PS filament.

I also scratch built a new piece for the shear to match the size of the one on the claw and to make room for the Gundam ball attachment.

The manipulators were made from a combination of the 1/144 scale leg and arm parts.

The main Gundam torso was glued to a printed styrene bar that fit into a channel in the chassis. This is what the manipulator arms attach to.

Here are most of the parts laid out. Ready to be primed and assembled.

primer...

A lot of the original Hitachi parts are not glued to make painting easier, so everything is a bit precarious at this stage. All of the Gundam points of articulation are still functional, making posing this thing rather difficult. (Much respect to Mr. Ray Harryhausen)

To be continued....