Barbatos Build Off work in progress part 1

For those not in the know I'm currently participating in a Barbatos themed build off with my buddy Saitnism! He and I are each tackling a different variation of the Brabatos Gundam from Iron Blooded Orphans.

I chose to build the 6th form of the Barbatos Gundam, this is the final variant of the Barbatos from the first season, and the mobile suit features from pretty serious upgrades.

My goal for the build was to enhance the base kit by incorporating parts from other Barbatos variants, pla plating and modifying the base kit.

Work started with the chest.

I cut out the notch at the bottom of the chest and reduced the amount of material to either side.

New panel lines were scribed into the chest. This created the appearance of a top 'lid' to the armor.

The fins on either side of the armor were sharped.

Time to hack out the junk marked in red.

Side by side comparison.

I used a scriber on the back leg to enhance the panel lining channels.

Same goes for the calf armor.

Remove the over hanging material to sharpen up the design considerably. 

The next area enhanced was the shoulder armor. This version of the kit has hugely over sized pieces of armor I first started to cut them down to be at bicep height.

Symmetrical now.

I also cut down the side shoulder armor from both the bottom and the top and added some scribing.

The shoulder joints were modified by cutting the ball joint out and re-positioning it a few mm higher on the joint. This lowered the overall height of the shoulder armor by another 2-3mms. The joint was reinforced with a steel rod for stability.

I don't have a before photo, so here's a stock photo of the kit to compare it to.

Notice how the shoulders are as tall or taller than the head. Not a great look.

 

I added a bit of pla-plate to the top of the codpiece. Let's call this version of the Barbatos version 1.0.