custom Zoid: Plesiosaur

 This is the story of my 13th Zoids custom.  (completed May 2007)

After my 12th custom Zoid (Fire Horn) in November of 2005, the darth itch was satisfied for about a month. However during the 2005 Christmas holiday, the urge struck again. This time around, I was inspired by a custom that Mike Hogan shared with the Zoids community at the 2004 Zoidcon, comprised of Redler, Brachios, CP-04, and CP-06 "rudders". (See picture on the right). So I located some spare kits and began the insanity again...

Motivation

One of the primary goals of my customs is movement, so from the start I wanted to provide some kind of neck and head movement. I found this to a major challenge, since wind-up motors are a lot more fussy about smooth linkages than their battery-powered counterparts.

After much planning and experimentation, I decided to attach the Brachios cam to the Redler motor, then modified the Brachios linkage to fit within the Redler body shell. Bits of sprue were shaped and attached to keep the link in place and also provide motion via a bent jumbo paper clip attached to the Brachios neck.

Neck

This picture shows the neck in progress. I had to make some cuts in the Redler body shell and neck shroud to make room for the linkage. I also had to add some retainers on the body shell to help guide the linkage as it moved fore and aft.

Head

I had to make a number of changes for the head, including:

• • change angle of head mount

  • change angle of jaw

  • shave down Brachios head

  • trim Redler head

  • trim Battle Cougar cockpit to fill back of Redler head

  • add cheek fins

Feet, Fins, and Boosters

This picture shows the foot, fin, and booster modifications, which were pretty straightforward.

I actually did the right front and right rear feet first. At that point, "Real Life" kicked in, and I set aside this project for over a year. I resumed in April of 2007 and at that time, finally finished the left front and left rear feet.

Leg Armor and backpack

This picture shows the major components assembled together. I initially mounted the rear leg armor using a bit of sprue attached to the upper mounting hole. For the front leg armor, I shortened the lower mounting hole, then drilled each front leg and inserted a bit of sprue. Later on, I discovered that the rear leg armor was positioned too low and interfered with the boosters, so instead I used a mounting scheme similar to the front leg armor.

The backpack is formed from two BrachioZilla pieces, trimmed and joined together.