Together with the previously-built (also for him) Robby the
Robot:
they make a nice pair that I hope will entice a smile from
him, from time to time, when he looks at
the shelf or display cases.
The Robot B9 (Lost in Space TV series robot) is made by
Moebius Models, and it is a much, much, much better product than the
just-mentioned Polar Lights Robby.
WARNING: see highlighted text bellow -at the time of starting to paint-.
(Pros and cons summary at the bottom).
WARNING: see highlighted text bellow -at the time of starting to paint-.
(Pros and cons summary at the bottom).
It is also bigger, being 1/6th scale, rendering quite a
chunk of robot, very tall and somewhat heavy.
The parts' count is large, the moldings are clean and mostly
sound. A few sprue gates are oddly-located and rather thick. The parts come in
group bags, thus protecting them. You get the usual styrene, some parts like
arms and legs are molded in an accordion-type somewhat flexible plastic; a few
photoetched grids, certain amount of clear parts, decals and large instructions
complete the package. The assembly instructions are not bad, but commit the
usual sins: uncertain location for some items, obscure line/dot/broken-line that
go from a hidden place to another hidden place and other references and
diagrams only clear for the writer; not very accurate depiction of parts, and
the most stupid (and common) of all instruction's mistakes: depiction of very
small parts with very small drawings, sometimes letting you guess the position,
which side, where, etc. of/for the said part.
This is a model for an experienced modeler; not necessarily
for expert modelers, but surely not
for beginners or entry level modelers, or modelers that want no complications.
You will have complexity here.
The cost of this kit is relatively high. The sheer amount of
plastic, size, and mostly fair quality justifies it, though.
I think it is a fair representation of the TV series robot,
although watch out, because the robot went through modifications during its
long life, in that show and other TV shows as a guest (same case of Robby).
There are two things that annoy me about the engineering of
this kit: the first is possibly an unsolvable problem: the clear bubble head
comes as upper and lower halves, whilst the TV robot had no visible seam. I
plan to "glue" the parts with Future (clear liquid acrylic, floor
polish, etc) in order to make the seam inconspicuous. The other issue is the
seam running in the middle of both "feet", which is a pain in the
back circuit to hide, and this could have been solved with a different parts'
breakdown engineering approach.
Since the manufacturer already provides photoetched parts,
one really wonders why didn't they provided other, more much needed parts (like
inside the brain, panel fronts, etc). The answer is simple: other companies
offer you these parts for a price; whatever this is a side business, I don't
know, but adding those other metal parts to the fret already present would have
added only peanuts to the cost. Mysteries of the kit industry.
To start with, wash everything, clean the mold seams and
sprue attachments marks, you know, the usual with injected kits.
Many parts require painting before assembling, and therefore
some masking will be in order for some sections. Try to work cleanly and
preserve the surfaces smooth, since metal finishes easily reveal blemishes of all sorts. Some of the clear parts need transparent/clear coloring, some require
masking since are only partially translucent.
As with other projects, I started gathering references and
color shots from the TV series to keep things accurate.
Most certainly not a weekender, but seems to be a nice kit. I'll
add comments as I progress on the assembly.
quite a bit of large parts:
The feet are assembled, but the side covers are left unattached until painting is done. The seam that runs in the middle is annoying and will surely require repeated puttying and sanding:
I decided to fabricate thin "plates" to cover that hideous joint and avoid all the fuss, annoyance, time and dust that puttying and sanding those seams would have created. Thus from .010 styrene sheet the plates were cut, tailored, pre-curved and tested:
Using very thin adhesive they were carefully glued in position:
Back:
Both feet covered in matter of minutes instead of dealing with several sessions of boring filling and sanding:
The parts are washed once more and then prepared to be airbrushed:
Danger, Will Robinson!!!
I have read an online review of this kit in Amazon. That customer was extremely pissed because the oily residue of the de-molding agent prevented the paint to properly cover the kit's parts' surfaces. So I dutifully washed, scrubbed and rinsed the parts...to no avail. After airbrushing many of them I stopped and noticed that the paint will start to pool, areas of plastic will start to appear, etc. The tell-tale signs of greasy de-molding agent residue. I had before this problem -after carefully washing parts, the paint won't adhere-, with a ICM kits and other obscure Eastern European spawns.
Once I noticed the problem with the Robot parts I had to stop, and since I was using enamels I had to clean all that mess on the parts with paint thinner.
A lost afternoon and the frustrati-O-n-Meter needle in the red area.
I can't even begin to tell you how much I commented on the venerable and honorable ancestors of the Chinese manufacturer and the employees that selected or authorized the use of that particular de-molding agent, plus the quality control people here in the US.
De-molding (or release) agents are part of the injected styrene molding process, normal for any kit so produced. So all kit parts have to be washed, preferable before starting the build and after the sub-assemblies are ready to paint.
But this substance the Chinese are using, is either discarded engine oil or pig fat.
It just won't go away easily, apparently.
I wrote to Moebius customer service who replied immediately and are taking that issue to the production people.
Meanwhile, no matter what you do, the residue will remain if the parts are only scrubbed with detergent, paint thinner or alcohol.
I did not want to use harsh chemicals (like lacquer thinner alone) to avoid altering the finish or melting the smaller parts.
So I went for the Alclad primer (which is kind of harsh) and that did the trick, even if here and there tiny spots of residue will still hinder good coverage.
Now, normally, if I have a good, already cleaned surface like the one on this kit, I just go for the enamel, and it always works...unless you are building this kit.
This kit prevents the use of acrylics, they will just pool, so gunky, oily and crap is the coat of release agent.
So Alclad it is, provided you exercise due caution using it.
Pity such a good kit is marred by a bad choice of release agent that prevents -no matter how hard you scrub to clean the parts- good paint adhesion.
I wrote to Moebius customer service who replied immediately and are taking that issue to the production people.
Meanwhile, no matter what you do, the residue will remain if the parts are only scrubbed with detergent, paint thinner or alcohol.
I did not want to use harsh chemicals (like lacquer thinner alone) to avoid altering the finish or melting the smaller parts.
So I went for the Alclad primer (which is kind of harsh) and that did the trick, even if here and there tiny spots of residue will still hinder good coverage.
Now, normally, if I have a good, already cleaned surface like the one on this kit, I just go for the enamel, and it always works...unless you are building this kit.
This kit prevents the use of acrylics, they will just pool, so gunky, oily and crap is the coat of release agent.
So Alclad it is, provided you exercise due caution using it.
Pity such a good kit is marred by a bad choice of release agent that prevents -no matter how hard you scrub to clean the parts- good paint adhesion.
Here some parts already primed with Alclad gray primer:
More parts are airbrushed with Alclad primer and some are in stage two (after overnight drying time), gloss black base coat:
As you can see there are quite a number of parts, and some are not even in the photos, besides the clear parts, which are many and require a different treatment (clear gloss bath):
Different hues of metal paint are airbrushed. This is a large model, so large quantities of paint will run through the airbrush. Have an adequate stock of paint at hand:
Painting advances again combining different metal hues. The claws are painted gloss red as per instructions:
Some sub-assemblies are readied:
All clear parts are bathed in acrylic floor polish:
The lower torso transparencies and grids are in place:
I lost part 44, so had to fabricate equivalent to match lower part:
Brain sub-assembly:
Torso lights in place:
General view of components, mostly a matter of putting them together now:
The building blocks start to come together:
This thing, at 1/6th scale, is quite huge:
More design flaws are encountered:
The "knees" are just very feeble little slabs, that kept coming apart over and over again:
A type of jewelry glue that is useful for some parts. Dries clear:
Mounting the "rods". As you can see you get one spare of the long and short types:
The "brain". Actually more appealing (and possibly smarter) than the brain of many persons I know..:
Some weight in place to properly make the "accordion" set. These sort of flexible parts are difficult to deal with. They seem impervious to normal types of glue, and do not seat evenly where they are supposed to. In this case the two injected parts between the accordion must be glued together through pins and sockets, but nothing will fit (due to the accordion behavior) unless you put a weight until the glues sets:
The arms accordions are supposed to somehow snap in place, since the accordions have a ridge (and a key to help with positioning). Well, they DO NOT snap in place. So you will have to use some kind of glue (perhaps epoxy) that may be able to attach the reluctant material of the accordions and won't make a mess of the area:
Programing "bay" has a sliding cover (watch out when you glue everything not to get that part stuck):
The summary
Pros:
-Very appealing and popular subject
-Parts well molded and detailed, clean appearance and
definition
-Overall good fit (but there are some very annoying
exceptions)
-Nice amount of parts that make the build fun
-Good subject representation, very accurate impression
-Fair price for what you get
-Presence of decals, P.E. parts, very nice clear parts
-At 1/6th scale, big size for those so inclined
-Torso and head freely rotate, programing bay has sliding hatch
-Extended/Retracted arms option (have to chose one)
-There is a "soil sample probe" that extends from one of the legs. You can pose it in various forms
Cons:
Cons:
-Abhorrent mold release substance used at the Chinese
factory, almost impossible to be properly removed, jeopardizing painting and
good finish (read review)
-Flawed "accordion" parts (read review)
-Instructions that look good, but have some obscure points
and can be confusing
-Very poor solution at the "knees", with feeble
parts that easily come apart/brake
It seems to me that now that much technology is available to
make better kits, no real modelers are apparently involved, and solutions that
may look great on a computer screen/program DO NOT WORK in real life. No matter
how marvelous your computer abilities may be, if you are not familiar with REAL
MODELING materials, procedures, techniques, at the end the final product is
compromised.
I believe this kit (and many other new products by other
manufacturers) are not really properly tested by competent modelers before
going into full production. And that is very sad, and ends up marring an
otherwise excellent attempt, where you can see that the will was really there
to make a great product , but ultimately half-fails due to the problems cited
above.
Yes, you can still make a good model, IF you are a good
modeler. Otherwise....
