Model kit project: 1/144 HGUC GM Cannon - 04

Update 04 - Legs for days.

I got to know these legs very well over the course of a week, while I worked out how much plastic needed to be cut away and which sections needed to be left intact.

It looks so simple if you look at it from far away and only from this angle 

Since both the shin armor and the GM leg structure on each leg consist of a left and right half, I approached this by fitting and gluing each side to their adjoining armor piece. Gluing the resulting halves together will be saved until final assembly. The inner legs would still be able to hold it all together while slight adjustments would be handled through putty and sanding.

The anatomy of the Bell Bottoms.

The lower shin and ankle sections were thin and narrow, so they fit inside the shin armor without much interference. The calves on the other hand needed to be cut down to the edges of the knee joint and support structures.

Didn't the original Cinderella feature the step-sisters shaving their calves to fit into some clothes? I might be recalling that wrong.

Even then, the width of the shins was the bigger issue, as the leg armor isn't much wider than the standard GM.

"I'm done buying this mobile suit pants, he keeps shredding the cuffs like this every dang week. Fine, I'll just have to drop him off at the North American front with ruined pants, then! You can deal with it this weekend!" -The point in the project I realized I needed to take a break and get a drink.

The plastic holding the knee joint onto the calves was hardly more than an index card in thickness after all the material I took off the legs.

Probably for the best I didn't become a dentist; I'm a little too haphazard with the Dermel.

To help hold the legs together and bond them to the armor, I prepared a cheap alternative to modeling putty which is simply polystyrene shavings (from the model kit itself) and plastic cement (which melts plastic on contact). The red and white shavings are small enough to simply break down into a pink paste once coated in cement and stirred.  It won't be seen from the outside so I applied it zealously to fuse the inner frame into a solid lump.

No it is not chewing gum, I already tried that.

As I proceeded to the other leg I also took care of transplanting the GM's ankles onto the GM Cannon's shins, replacing the old, simple design with the modern 'divided circle' joint seen in most Federation mobile suits.

When you're relieved to finally finish an item only to realize you have to do it all again on a second item.

The results ended up with some small gaps and minor alignment issues but nothing I wasn't expecting.

A leg, or a major award?

 That still leaves the matter of extending those cuffs down by at least a quarter of an inch. They will have to be cut off and extensions crafted using extra styrene, but I'll detail that next time.

"These JNCOs are the best-fitting jeans I've worn since my first growth spurt!" 

Stay tuned.