Model kit project: 1/144 HGUC GM Cannon - 05

Update 05 - Leg extensions.

As I didn't take a ton of photos of this process I realize some might be out of order, so bear with me here. I believe one of the legs had yet to be fitted into the shin armor when I cut off the cuffs to extend it. On
 the inside of the armor I glued strips of polystyrene to create an equidistant gap.

I wish my dress slacks were this easy to patch.

For the first armor piece I had made the cut flush with the cuff itself, thinking that would make puttying easier to blend and hide the gap. It ended up making the sytrene strips and the cuffs more difficult to glue together, as there was less of a lip to adhere to. So I cut the other three a quarter-inch higher as seen above.   

Figrue 5b - cross section of the bone, muscles, ligments - no wait.

The putty I used is a two-part epoxy known literally as Green Stuff. It comes with a blue half and a yellow half in a taffy-like strip, and once you knead them together it solidifies within a few hours. It holds detail well and can be sanded, so I smush the stuff into the gap on the shin armor and smooth its surface flat with some basic sculpting tools.  

Oh great, did I just gave my GM Christmas stockings?

It manages to cover up the ankles so mission accomplished. There are some high spots and low spots I can putty and sand later.

Well, the stripe isn't as dorky as the high-waters, but what about those bright-red slippers these Federation Mobile suits are always wearing?

I remembered the back skirt plate had these hooks for holding the cannon's spare 240mm ammunition packs. While waiting for Green Stuff to cure I cut these pieces out, traced the backs of them onto the new armor plate, and Dremel'd those spaces out so they could be glued in place.

I miss video game rentals at movie rental stores. This has nothing to do with my project, I just didn't know where else to say it.

More gaps are left behind to putty later.

It's a butt-plate. There, I said it.

The mostly-assembled model with the ammo packs in place.

No idea how the rockets in the backpack are supposed to work with all the stuff in the way, but I didn't design this mobile suit I'm just replicating it.

I assemble the arms and give every modification at this point an assessment before I begin the task of filling in most of the gaps (especially in the legs).

Oh, it's a robot? I thought I was building an army tank or something.

I've still left off the antennas, visor, chest vents and hands for various reasons but they can be easily attached after sanding and an initial later of primer. Finally, after all that, will be a brief pass at sanding and priming again to remove any remaining flaws before I can start painting. More updates to follow in the meantime.