architect-mouse-studios

[architect-mouse-studios]

City Patrol

Kitbash with custom paint job.

About ten years ago I made this desert camo trio of a Mobile Worker, a heavy artillery suit, and a more mobile, er, mobile suit. It actually won first place in the 1/144 category at OMS 2019. I recently discovered that there's another competition happening next month, so I thought it was time to resurrect the stalled sequel project.

Making camouflage patterns is something I really should do more often, because it's a lot of fun, trying to make sure that a shape continues across multiple surfaces at multiple angles.

For instance, the way the shoulder merges with the body, or the gun merges with the arm and shoulder...

...while the same gun also lines up with the butt plate when it's holstered...

...and with a different part of the torso when raised.

Despite being a literal tank, I imagine the Mobile Worker as being a light and maneuverable spotter for the mobile suits.

By far the most interesting piece of the trio, however, is this fella. He's a kitbash of the Astaroth Origin, Kampfer, Gaplant Hrairoo, Barbatos Lupus, and Beguir-Beu. Blimey that's a lot of words my spellchecker doesn't like.

I really like the amount of different things the Astaroth Origin's shoulder thingies can do. They can be used as extra guns...

...or as a shield.

I'm not sure this was intended, but I really like it.

Especially once you add the rifle's sniper extension; the whole thing looks like a massive turret, or an MT from Armored Core.

It's also not intentional, but that rifle extension lends itself very easily to looking like a sword, too.

The original plan for this build was for the melee weapon to be this lance, but the sword/sniper rifle works a lot better IMO.

I drilled some holes to install wires in the kit, to keep the flight form from getting out of alignment. After years of messing around with the idea of making this build but never actually starting on it, the Astaroth's joints got a little droopy.

There's something really elegant about this flight form; I'm a little surprised there's never been anything else like it.

The many thrusters also give you a really clear mental image of how this thing would maneuver.

In retrospect, it's kinda funny that the Gusion and worker are straight builds with limited functions and poses, while the Astaroth has pieces from half a dozen kits and an absolute mountain of different things going on.

A fun demonstration of camouflage patterns lining up over multiple pieces. All of this is focused on the right shoulder pylon, and every shape outlined in red is made by multiple overlapping pieces. Yes, these were all intentional.

[architect-mouse-studios]

A word on vacuum-forming

A few months ago, fellow F-Zero-racer-creator alphaej turned me on to this excellent new means of creating clear canopies for scale models, and I figured I should lay out my process somewhere in case folks were curious.

This chonky piece of equipment is a vacuum-forming machine. You know how lots of products come in hard plastic packaging that's formed in a specific shape around them, like pills or batteries? This is how those are made.

The top bit with the red knob is a heating element, which softens and melts a thin piece of plastic sandwiched together by the two pieces of metal below it. Below all that is where you put the molds--properly called "bucks"--of what you're trying to make.

After a minute or two of being heated, the plastic starts to droop like this. Then you use the red handle to bring the whole apparatus crashing down onto the bucks and simultaneously hit a switch that starts sucking air down into the machine.

This is a different kind of vacuum-forming machine but the process is more or less the same. The air between the buck and the plastic is sucked out, making the soft plastic conform to the edges of the buck, creating a mold.

Before and after.

For modeling purposes, this technique is not always ideal, because the mold it creates will never be as sharply defined as a 3D-printed piece. See how all the edges are a little softer and more rounded?

However, it is INCREDIBLY useful when it comes to making clear pieces. 3D printing clear pieces is often a labor-intensive process. Without going into it too deeply, resin printing always has small imperfections like layer lines and divots left behind by supports. Usually, sanding and priming is enough to hide them, but when the piece is meant to represent a glass canopy, every flaw is magnified a hundredfold and takes a great deal of effort to hide.

A vacuum-formed piece, on the other hand, will be crystal-clear every time, and only requires a couple minutes to make.

And if you have a printer available, making a buck for your canopies is pretty simple: just take your canopy and scale it down a little bit to account for the thickness of the plastic.

The pieces on the right took a fraction of the time to make as the ones on the left, and look 100x better to boot.

If you, like me, have been frustrated by the process of printing clear pieces, I highly recommend giving vacuum-forming a try. A machine like mine is less than $100 on Amazon. :)

[architect-mouse-studios]

Sonic Phantom

Commission; modeling, printing, and painting by me. Files available here; prints available here.

This is as good a time as any to talk about my thought process when making something like this. It's probably due to the number of Bandai model kits I've made, but I always try to make separate colors separate pieces. It saves an enormous amount of time when I don't have to repeatedly paint, mask, paint, mask a single piece, and then I butterfingers it off the desk and have to make a new one. So for the most part, every color in this thing is a separate piece.

Some stuff obviously needs to be hand-painted, like the number registry and black trim outlining the cockpit, but keeping everything as separate pieces makes it go together way faster.

Fun fact: since the Sonic Phantom is piloted by a magically reincarnated skeleton (or something?), it has no controls in its cockpit. It's even like that in-game.

This is the first thing I designed with vacuum-formed plastic in mind from the get-go. I'm still getting the hang of it.

Oh, here's another fun fact: despite only having one engine, for some reason the Sonic Phantom has two engine FX pieces side by side in-game. There are other single-engine racers with the correct number of engine glows, so I'm guessing someone made a typo in the code and assigned it the wrong one. Or maybe this too is Skeleton Magic.

With these and the Blue Falcon and Black Bull, I've now made a little over 1/10 of all the racers in F-Zero GX. At the rate I'm going (about one a month) I'll be done in about three years. :P

[architect-mouse-studios]

Iron Tiger

Commission; modeling, printing, and painting by me. Available for purchase here; files available here.

When I accepted this commission, I thought it was going to be a little more difficult than previous F-Zero racers. I was right, but not for the reasons I expected. I thought the tricky part would be the stripes, but it actually turned out to be the texture.

The Iron Tiger has a fairly distinct kind of texture on its iron plates; it looks much more worn and battered than the other racers. Instead of recreating this weathering with paint, I thought it would be more accurate to model the scratches directly into the .stl files.

This was accomplished in Blender's sculpting mode, using a free asset (thanks, Blenderkit!) called Industrial Scratch Brush. It gave me basically exactly what I wanted, and was easy to apply to entire pieces at once.

If that canopy looks a little cleaner than normal, there's a good reason for that! I've acquired a new tool in my arsenal: a vacuum-forming machine. You know how the packaging for pills has each pill in its own little blister? Same idea, only I can 3D print a mold in the exact shape of a cockpit window and get a result that's much much prettier than the 3D-printed transparent pieces I've been using up until now. It's a little difficult to photograph, but it's significantly easier to see through in person. I'll make another post on that, I think.

The four racers I've designed so far!

[architect-mouse-studios]

Blue Falcon with Magnetic Levitation

Commission; printing and painting by me. Blue Falcon model by AlphaEJ; stand model by Kevin Collins.

This scifi gizmo is a DIY magnetic levitation unit; the client requested that I modify his friend's Blue Falcon model to make the levitating disk fit inside it and make it float!

Fun fact, this project was inspired by and uses the same stand model made for this maglev build by Kevin Collins, which in turn uses his modified version of my Prime 2 Gunship. The chain of artistic inspiration is always fun to see happen in real time. :)

While this particular Blue Falcon model already had an empty space in its underbelly into which the disk could fit, the real challenge ended up being making the thing balance correctly. A print this big weighs enough that it will droop at an angle if the maglev disk isn't at the precise center of gravity.

Figuring all this out took a lot of iterations, because if I made the nose as light as possible, the center of gravity would shift toward the back, and the placement of the magnet would have to be changed as well.

Fortunately, attempt #6 got it balancing correctly.

For the base, I first tried to print it myself, but it ended up being warped and consumed a lot of resin, so I figured I was better off taking it to someone who knew what they were doing. I contracted @thads3dcreations to print this for me, as he had the experience and equipment necessary to print it in FDM. It turned out fantastic!

The funny thing about this build is that in photos, it doesn't look particularly impressive; even when you can see the gap between the ship and the base it looks like it easily could have been edited.

In motion, however...

[architect-mouse-studios]

Blood Hawk

Commission; modeling, printing, and painting by me. Files available here; painted prints available for purchase here.

Update: A few months after first making the Blood Hawk, I made some updates to the colors and model to make it more game-accurate. Most of the photos in this post are going to be replaced with newer ones.

It will never not be funny to me that Captain Falcon's racing machine is a badass space jet, while Captain Falcon's evil clone's racing machine is basically just a car.

It's easily the smallest of the F-Zero racers I've made, yet it has the biggest cockpit by far.

The client didn't request an HD version for this one like I'd made for the Blue Falcon and Black Bull with all the extra details. The cutscene version in the game is only ever a vague blur in the background anyway, so it would have had to be completely speculative anyway.

[architect-mouse-studios]

Pikmin 1 & 2 Onions

Modeling, printing, and painting by me. Available for purchase here; files here.

This one's been a long time coming. I've been trying to figure out how to make these guys work for several months now; the model was easy enough to make but the legs kept getting bent because of their angle and the weight of the body--even though the body is hollow and extremely light.

In the end, my solution was to put a small amount of mounting putty under each foot to keep them from sliding out from under it.

One of the fun parts about making new Pikmin things is that I get to take photos of them in my friend's yard, which is very Pikmin-core, for lack of a better word.

[architect-mouse-studios]

Black Knight Armor for 30 Minute Fantasy

Armor modeled, printed, and painted by me, for use on a Rosan Knight frame. Files are available here. Currently no plans to sell these, but if you're interested, let me know.

This project started as "well, I already modeled the Black Knight's sword a few years ago, so let's use 30MF parts to make We Have the Black Knight at Home," but it quickly spiraled into "well I can also make that piece... and that piece... and that piece..." I even ended up remaking the sword from scratch, because my modeling skills have come a long way since 2021.

I didn't bother remaking the legs/feet/torso because they were close enough to the Black Knight's original design already, and they don't draw much attention compared to all the other stuff.

"I would prefer it if

i̶̞̟̼̬̜̩͓̾͐͛̏͛͂̍͛̓̎̆f̵̢̣͎̖̬͖̘̳̹̬̜̩̘͙̿͊͌̈̅̌̈́̇̃͂̍͜͝͠ ̴̧̨̱̬͓͍̟͙͉͙̖̱̲̞̂̀͐̀͒͑͘͝y̴͚̥͔̠̻̿͌̔͛́̓̊̈̚ͅo̸͇͎̞̖̺̗̥̜̓͒́͂͘u̸̦͌̅̈́̾̈͐ ̵̨̢̹̝̙̹͔̉̌̓ṳ̸̀̋s̸̖͍̮̹̼̖̫͎̟̥͈̋́̓e̴̩̖͈͖͂͛̌̓͑͗̓̒̈͘ ̵̝̜̥̯͔̣̫̹̻̜̮͉̞̻̲̎̋̈̐̋͌͠a̴̡͚͉̣̲̭͛̀̀̓̏͒̒̚͜ ̴̼̺̜͖͕̟̭͈͖̈̄̽̏͊͐̽͋̕͝͠͝ṁ̵̨̯̫̻͔̘̮̫͙͈̯̯̹̹̲́̐̆͛͋̍̏̀̽̅͘͝ô̵̢̮̳̬̖͚͎r̸̡̨̜͙̱͖͎̭̮͆͋̓ę̸̯͔̓͗̏̒͆̔̇̎̍̅͘̕ ̴̡̤̲̍̈́p̶̛̛̣̆̐͆̚͝ͅr̴͕̳̮̞͆̓̀̾͒̑̅̓͋̈́ơ̵͈̬̺̣̹̩̼̝͇̭̓̑̈́͆̆͜p̸̺̞͍͎̈́͌́́͐́̐͋͑͆́̈́͆ȩ̷̨̛̞͇̜̬̝͎̫͕̤́̎̎͒̔̈͗̈̀͌́̈́͜͠r̶̰͙̱̆́̀̉̇̂͒̍̀̓ ̷̗̪̺̲̥̂̀̈̀ẉ̸̹̞̺̩͍̗̋͂̒͒̽͊͆̋̽͐͝͠e̴̝͕͛͊̓̀͠a̷̢̧̛͓̮͇͙̥͈̞̘̪̘̳̭̿̿͌̅͝͝p̶̞̦̳̳͔̞̼͓̯͕̯̩̈̈́ͅơ̸̹̭̒̍̎̐̀̈́̅̍͋́̋ṋ̶̢̪͔͔̟́̌̓̓̌̀̍̆̌̊̀ ̵̨͚͂́̆̈́̏̈̓̈́̓́̉ş̵̫͉̫̤̜͕̤͌̄̊̕o̷̝͊̂͒͑̈́ ̷̨̬̜̘̖̙͔̞̣̀͒ţ̶͈̮̬̣͚͕̫̥̫͖̹̬̏̔̍̅́̓̈́̅͠ḣ̷̢̧̛̗̤͕̼̳͓̘͙̦͉̈̒̅̓͑͛͛͘͘͜ȁ̸̜͖̥̦͚̲̤̗̽ẗ̸͔̙̞͕͉̬̮͕́͋̒̊̊̀͜ ̵̭̰͚̘̞̣͇̞̩̬̒͐̿̈́̎͋̆̐̈́̕͜ͅI̶͎͚̳͇͗ ̷͖͉͖̔̑͗̽̃̅͝m̶͔͙͚̤͔̟͕̻̼̩̐̅̈͌̾̈́͑͋̏̈͝͝i̷̮͙̒͝ģ̸̢̛̛͈̤͕̲̈́͋̀̿͌̂̉̒͗͐̉̀͘ͅh̸̢̨̦̤̠̭̟̪͕̑̍̔͛̾͌̄̊̊̃̑͘ť̷͈̱͉͕̮̈́͂̂̆̏̏̈̍̄͑̽̽́͘͜ ̵̢̛̮̗̘̩͈̟̰͚̬͎͍̒̔͑̂́̈̐͂̕̚̚͘s̸̬̓̾̈́́̊̒e̶͔̺͓̙̫̪̼̲̽́́ĕ̸͈̠͖͊̈́̾̿̔͋ ̶̧̢̯̥̬͔̖͚̺͇̣͍̞̉̇́̿̐̈́̏̀̊̈́y̴̩̖̱͇͂̆̓͊̌̿̆̈́̈́o̶̧̫̪̖̖̟̝̰͓̞͇̲͚̾̔̅̉̈́͂ǔ̷̳̘̝̼̳͈͕̲̠̫͖̥͚̟̓̆͋́̉̌̾̏̍͒͛ ̴̣̉͑ả̵͍͉̘̥̗͍̙̥̟͙͎͕͐̾̐͒̌̉̆́̀̀ţ̵̨̨̛̦̠̻̥͚̯̺̫̺͆̎̆͋̃͗̊̂̚̚ͅ ̴̧̧̢̨̦̰̩̖̳̞͊̓̂̿͠͝y̸̲̦̞͍͑͛͊ō̶̧̱͉̘͉̯̣͇̠̬̏ͅu̸̡̧͎̞̪̟̅̓̋͗̍̊̎̍̈́̓͐͘r̸̙̙̖͖̋̆ ̶͖͛͌͗̿́͌̐̔̄̈́̾̚͠ͅf̸̤̙̰̟̽͐͊́́̃̏̈́̇̽̒̌̍̾̚ų̷̪̯̓͆͂͌͋̏l̷̰̘̟̲̻͈̖͎̟̠̾̀̓ͅl̴̛̳̺̖͕̘̊̒̅̊̊̅̋͗̄̽̊̕͝ ̴̧̰͙͌̒̑̈̂̈͠s̵̖̈́̀̿ţ̴̡̥̩͚͎̟̘̪̱̗͇̝̫̈́̈́̃̔̾̾̽͌̅͌́̕̕ͅŗ̵̢͉̝̘̺̰̮̖̙̥̝̺͔͖̈́͒͋̀̌̈́ë̷̝̯̫͕̩͕̪͖͉͖͓́̈́̌͛̑͛̾̿̈́͒̔͂͘̕n̵̡̧̨̨̯͉̮̼̙̟͉̝͓͗̓̄̈́̃͂͛̐̃̀̑͜g̴̡̡̲̰͇̬̲̝̭͉̑͆͋̅̚ͅͅt̶̖̤̊̐̓͌̄̅̌̕̕͘ͅḧ̵̛̗̝̱̞͓͈͈́̌͂̍̏͝,̸̡̹̳͓̦̹̣̼̺̳͍̻͓̑̈́̈́̉̊ ̵̛̲̬̞̗̜̘̺͍̱͉̤̬̅̈͋̈́͐͒̅͆̌̓̕͝Ḡ̸̜̝̜̝̹͆̎͗̏͑̅͛̓͗͗̇̔͝ḙ̸̛̼̂̑̅̏́̀̋̏n̴̥͉̮͇̏̄̽̋̽̎̽̄̆͘ȇ̶̪̝̞͔̜̝̬͍̦͕̻̇͂́̀̑̈̊̚͜͜ŗ̶̪̫͚͕͔̞̜͔̟̗͎̜̘̽͌͒̔͜a̵̛̩͇̮͉̟͒̊͆͐͑͆͛̌͠ĺ̶̢͔̲̠̫̣͚̘̙͓̱̪ ̴̨͇̮͚̗͔͕̩̭̠̙̬̈́́͋͜G̸̘͕̅̀̈́̈́̀͊͐̏̈́͋̅̓̐͘ä̷͔́̃̉̀̀̂͊͝w̷͕̪̯̮̣̗̼͓̩̓͌̂̚ą̶̣̙̻́̀͂͋̈́̓̀ì̴̛̙̇͋̿̓̚n̷͉̆͊̉̉̅̈́̔̈́̍͝,̶̳̳̳͚̪̖͂̆́͑̇̂̀ ̵̡̜̤̗̭̗̠͋͑̄̂͑͆́̔͊͝Ṛ̴̛̣̖̜̻̥̙͚͔͛͆̈́̉̓͂̇̚i̸̡̻̗͙̞͍͔̞͇̝̓̑̋͌̇͊͐́̐͜͠d̵̺͎͓̬̊͆͗̇̊͋͋e̴̡͖̱̘͉͋͆̆̾͆͂̅̂͋͛͛͛r̸͍̹͙͖̞̭̟̮͌̎́̓̔̇̈́͑̓́͌̚͝ ̸̠̣̘̬͗̃ö̶̧̮͉͓̮̖̳́̑̃͝ͅf̸̘̪̝̺̦̠͇̙̦͙̆̇̔̉̑̓̈͆̈̂̉͗͜ ̴̨̨̰͎̣̪͇͍̱̬̯̊̋́̇̿̏̓̇̒͒͝ͅD̴̞̼͎̰̜̱̦̘̯̺̘̱́̉̅̑̋̍̎͆͛͜͠ͅͅa̶̝̙͙̼̓̇̂̏͑̾̂͝e̴̡̮̱̭̭̜̽̐̑̀̀͌͑͊͝i̶͇̫̮͒̀̽̕ǹ̴̨̧̛͍͕̟͎͒͒̔̃̈̋̋́̔́̓̏̎.̷̼͕̝̗̤̩͙̲̟̮͕̙̎͒͠ͅ

-Black Knight, FE9

I nearly made a custom cape to recreate the Black Knight's iconic pose, but then I realized I suck at modeling fabric. Hence also why the bit around the neck is so much simpler in my version.

I made a slightly longer wrist joint to allow him to pull off this pose: the pose right before the Eclipse skill activates.

Alongside the Daein General build I made a few years ago.

[architect-mouse-studios]

Thrasher 2.0

Modeling, printing, and painting by me. Files available here.

When I made my Thrasher model a couple of years ago, it was because someone said they'd be interested in buying one. That ended up being the only one I ever made, since it wasn't long after that CCP gently requested that I stop selling stuff based on their game.

I'm not a particularly big fan of the Thrasher, but I've been trying to complete a cabinet of every individual thing I've modeled, and this was the last thing on the list, so while I was at it, I made a couple minor improvements.

First and foremost, the antennae are thicker and less prone to breaking... though that didn't stop me from breaking a couple anyway.

I also tried out some new methods of painting and weathering. I don't know if I just didn't do a great job the first time or if the model's textures have been updated since I made my files, but my old one doesn't quite have the same color palate as the one in-game.

Those damn solar panels keep getting misaligned, but if anything it adds to the Minmatar charm.

The full Eve roster, plus that Banshee because it needed to go somewhere. I'd really like to do another Eve ship at some point, if only because my modeling skills have come a long way since I made these and they make me cringe when I look at the files up close. But in all probability, I won't have time to do that for quite a while.

[architect-mouse-studios]

Black Bull

Modeling, printing, and painting by me. Prints available here; files available here.

As before, I made the in-game version and the high-detail version as seen in F-Zero GX's cutscenes. While the Blue Falcon's HD version mostly just had extra panel lines, Black Bull has some more interesting changes.

The in-game version has these roughly-textured armor panels on the main body, but in the cutscene version, they're smooth.

The HD version also gets some greeblies and what looks like a piston engine, which I just love. It's so silly. Along with the red details on the side, the in-game version looks almost untextured by comparison.

There aren't really any good shots of Black Bull's cockpit interior in the cutscenes, so I did a bit of extrapolating based on how Blue Falcon's looks.

I spent a long time tinkering with texture brushes in Blender, but ultimately discovered that the best way of creating this effect was to simply isolate the panels, subdivide them a few times, hit Select>Random, and scale the random vertices out a little bit. For something you'd want to animate or render, this is a horrible method of doing this, but for a 3D print, it's perfect.

When I started this project, I had no idea how BIG this guy was going to turn out to be. I make basically everything in two sizes: palm-sized and shelf-decoration-sized. At the latter scale, the Black Bull is eight inches long, and despite my best efforts to hollow it out and reduce weight, it feels like you could kill a man with this thing.

It also dwarfs the Blue Falcon in every dimension. Out of curiosity I looked up the stats, and Black Bull weighs almost 3x as much as Blue Falcon, with a body strength rating of A. That tracks!

[architect-mouse-studios]

Hemoxian Tastier

Straight build with custom color scheme.

Oh boy, buckle the fuck up folks. I got a lot to say about this one. This is genuinely one of the best model kits I've ever made, especially relative to its price, and especially especially considering it wasn't made by Bandai. For $100, you get:

One robot (MG size and quality)

One robot dog that can become a gatling gun and can also have its legs used in like five different ways

Two pistols

Two rifles

Two knives

Four lightsabers (also every weapon can be used in like four different ways)

Two FX pieces for each gun (6 total) and two for the swords

Four pairs of hands

Eight photoetched metal visor options

An LED unit for the head

A massive display stand that can store almost all of the above, and has half a dozen posing options of its own, and also comes with a gooseneck flexible metal stand arm

A cloak for the robot, which is poseable thanks to wires in the fabric

A background diorama display

A blueprint of the robot and dog (forgot to include this in the photos)

All of this, for $100. Did I mention that nearly every part is undergated, and the snap-fit is Bandai-tier quality?

And oh man, the engineering quality. Bandai's HG/PG Evas have trained me to groan when I hear the words "rubber parts," but this kit uses rubber in some really cool ways. Many of the red accents in the legs, arms, spine, etc. are rubber, and they're laid out in such a way that they pull other pieces around when moving, or let pieces smush together without damaging the paint. It's very clever.

And speaking of clever, the hands! Instead of swapping out weapons, there's one set of holding hands for each weapon type (gun and blade), and the hands have the handles built into them. So instead of pulling a hand apart and putting something new in it, the whole weapon disconnects from the handle and you can just swap it for something else.

Also, P I S T O N S.

I repainted the whole kit other than the parts that already had a metallic coating, but I stayed mostly faithful to the original. I just didn't care for the blue and the clear parts.

The weapon rack can rotate down inside the stand to make way for other attachments.

This good boy has about a dozen options himself.

For one thing, he can carry any of the weapons.

For another, he can turn into a giant fuckoff gatling gun.

Or, if you're so inclined, you can turn him into an extra set of limbs for the robot.

The robot--whose name is apparently Tastier; don't ask me, maybe it sounds better in Chinese--has a whole bunch of different options for his visor. I know 5 and 6 look similar, but I promise they're different.

Other than the extra arms and his regular hands, he also has weapon mounts on each arm. I didn't think to do it while I was taking photos, but he can carry eight weapons at once. ._.

The rifles can break open like this; it reminds me of what energy weapons do when they overheat in Halo.

The real star of the show, however, is this cloak. Holy crap, this thing is cool. Giant robots with capes look silly, but this guy is just a guy in armor, and "guys in armor with trenchcoats" is a sorely underrated aesthetic. Kinda reminds me of Helldivers, though I've never played that.

The wires in the cloak let you easily pose it and make it dramatically blow in whatever wind you desire.

I'm not at all experienced when it comes to this kind of miniature photography, but I still think it looks cool as hell.

Even with 30 photos, there's still so much I haven't had space for. The fact that the pistols have functional slides, for instance. Or the fact that the cloak has back holsters for them. Or the way the stand arm works.

It's just... it's cool. It's really neato. Perhaps even spiffy, as they say.

[architect-mouse-studios]

Halo 5 Banshee

Modeling, printing, and painting by me. File available here.

Another experiment with Turbo Dork color-shifting paint. It might not be 100% game-accurate, but I love how this turned out. It almost looks like a glitch.

[architect-mouse-studios]

Figma Fusion Arm Cannon

Commission; files available here. Available for purchase here.

The core can be swapped out to recreate Missile mode.

[architect-mouse-studios]

Jehuty HD

Straight build with custom color scheme.

Yes, the stand says "Anubis" despite that being a different kit entirely. Don't ask me why.

I used TurboDork color-shifting paint for all the shades of blue on this kit. Since it's already kind of an otherworldly design, I thought it would be fitting.

To my amazement, the kit can actually stand on its own two feet once you unfold them. Barely.

I originally wanted to use fluorescent paint for the Tron Lines all over its body, but the fluorescent paint interacted weirdly with the TurboDork, and I had to abandon it.

And yes, that really is what the flight mode looks like. Again, don't look at me bud.

Other than the color scheme, the clear ring with its floating bits are the only difference between the normal and HD versions of this kit.

It won 2nd place in the Other Mecha category at IPMS Mid-Valley Madness!

[architect-mouse-studios]

Kryptonian Rocket

Commission; modeling, printing, and painting by me.

The most challenging part of this commission was making a model out of something that's drawn differently in basically every reference image I had. Sometimes those engine struts are straight, sometimes they're angled, sometimes the whole shape of the ship is different... cartoons from back then didn't have the highest budgets.

I kinda had to pick a "canon" design and ignore everything else. Thankfully it worked out alright.

[architect-mouse-studios]

Dread Gunship V2.0

Updated design using the in-game model as a reference. Modeling, printing, and painting by me. File is available for download here; prints available for purchase here.

So, two years or so after I made my initial model of the Dread gunship, I discovered that someone had ripped the in-game model. Considering I built my first one based on blurry screenshots before the game even came out, this was an interesting opportunity to figure out how good of an estimation I'd done.

Left: new. Right: old.

All things considered, I think I did alright, but I have to admit that the actual design is a lot sleeker.

For instance, the protruding vents (?) on the top rear of the hull. In my version, they stick out quite a lot, while on the original they meld into the design much more smoothly. The engine also looks a lot cooler.

Of course, the ripped model didn't include the detailed textures, and most of the shots of the ship in-game are still under moody dark lighting, so I still had to speculate a lot with the rear and underbelly.

One major improvement over my first draft was that this time, I made the wingtips detachable, to let you swap between modes without printing a whole new ship. If you still want the old model, it's still available on Thingiverse, but the new one is better in pretty much every way.

[architect-mouse-studios]

Ecto-1A

Commissioned work; straight build with custom color scheme.

This was an interesting project, because I'm relatively inexperienced when it comes to model cars. My previous experiences have been pretty miserable--lots of fiddling with nearly-identical pipes and wires that don't even properly connect to where they're supposed to go.

There was still a bit of that here, but it wasn't nearly as bad, mostly because this kit doesn't require you to build the engine, and all this junk on the top is way more simple than it looks at first glance.