"Schnabeltier" Build Up

 This model started out with no particular design in mind and no sketch was made.The large plastic Easter egg was used for the main body,four of the small eggs were used for the nose,tail and antigrav pods,one each side.
I used blue tack to first put the parts together .Then I cut the tip off one the eggs  for the tail and nose.The same was done for the anti grav pods.

The two red and white fishing floats were cut in half with a razor saw and the red halfs were glued to the top of the Easter egg.Tail, nose and pods were glued on and then all were filled in and blended with bondo automotive filler to the rough shape.The clear plastic base from a toy computer mouse was added on top as well.The lighter was cut down and inserted into an oval shaped hole in the base of the nose egg.The piece on top of the nose is a section of a front fender of a toy motorcycle.Two different sizes of hemispheres were added to each side ,one of wood and one of acrylic plastic.Then all was blended using epoxy putty.

Looking at the picture above you can see why I named it the Platypus.
 
Next a tail pipe was added that was made from a large pen barrel with a piece of 3/8" styrene tube inserted into it.The green part on top of that is a leftover piece of the lighter that was used as the front intake.

The intake scops on each side were made from oval shaped pen barrels that were cut down and the white parts of the fishing bobbers were cut in half and added tothe back of the pen barrels to fair them into tail piece.All of this was then blended in using epoxy putty and sanded smooth.

The Excimer laser cannon was was made from a plastic cap from a pen.On the bottom of he cap a circular opening was cut across using a sanding drum in a Dremel tool then a piece of 1/2" styrene tube was glued in.A "cylinder Head" was constructed using a disk of styrene sheet with the fins made from styrene strip,and detailed with pieces of styrene rod and tube.This was then glued into the tube.On the oposite side an acrylic hemsphere with a 1/16" hole drilled for a mounting pin was glued in.The front part of the cannon is a half of an ovaled shaped wooden bead.I give any wooden parts a coat of Crazy Glue to seal them so they wont suck up the paint later.The fairing for the power cable was also made from an oval shaped wooden bead.Once again everything was blended in with epoxy putty.

A piece of 1/2" styrene tube was glued onto and blended in with epoxy putty to the side of the body of the vehicle for mounting the cannon.
After filling and sanding small areas and imperfections with automotive spot putty a coat of gray lacquer based automotive primer(Decanted from a spray can) was applied over all  with an airbrush.This is the best part of the construction for me as you really get to see the shape and form that the model is taking on.

More to come......