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 Leggo My Flightpack!
I wanted to create a flight pack for this custom , and in keeping with the anime-inspired motif , I needed a flight pack that was small and certainly less cumbersome than the pack I had bashed together for my Robot Killer . I had plenty of leftovers from a Lego kit that I had purchased when I was constructing my dog armature and decided to see what I could assemble with these pieces . I did not have a set in stone design , but I did have a basic visual idea of what I wanted , which merely required a small bit of effort on my part to assemble the various bits and pieces into a flightpack configuration that fulfilled the firm ideas that I wanted to achieve : A . That the flightpack have wings/arms that could raise and lower . B . That the wings/arms end in engine pods .  Lucky Kit-bashing  The benefit of having a mecha kit to scrounge pieces from meant that the hard part of getting the pack to look like a mechanical construction rather than a set of blocks was a consideration I did not have to worry about . In addition , the variety of the pieces I had to choose from meant that I was able to add some details I had not originally conceived . Case in point , the transparent green " safety lights " on the tops of the engine pods . Little details such as these are not necessarily something that has to be there , but their inclusion does add a bit of " authenticity " to the pack , since most things that fly have signal and warning lights on the extremities to improve the object's visibility in the air .  The Flight Pack Cradle and MAS
Kissy's flight pack cradle was a fortunate lucky idea , inspired by a whim . Originally the Mag Hammer holster from the CG Alternative Harley figure , its shape and color scheme just fit the bill for the pack cradle perfectly . The belt attachment points on the holster were placed perfectly to enable me to connect it to the breastplate , plus the belt attachment at the very bottom of the holster will provide an attachment point for a hinged armor plate to protect Kissy's posterior . I used the Dremel to cut a round hole into the holster to accept a magnet , which serves to anchor the pack to the cradle in an attractive and simple method .  With the basic construction completed on the flight pack , all that is left to be done is some final detailing using whatever model kit parts I happen to have lying around , and a finishing prime and paint op for the pack . In the future , if I decide to upgrade the pack with a different version , the Magnetic Attachment Sysytem provides simple interchangeability .  Kreating Kissy's MAS : Magnetic Attachment System
If there was ANY justification to my outrageously expensive expenditure of money to purchase Funtoys' Armour Core prototype , it was my introduction to MAS ; Magnetic Attachment System . This simple and effective method of creating ultra high tech appearing attachment points for armor and weapons for figures has come to be an often used method on my futuristic customs . Neodymium magnets are in abundance at eBay and come in a great variety of sizes and shapes to allow tremendous flexibility when it comes to application . Most of the magnets I use are actually ones I have accumulated over time from various sources , be they jewelry clasps , tool clamps or Magnetix toy kits . Magnets are just 50 percent of the MAS , the other half is the attachment plate , which should be steel for optimum strength of anchoring . Kissy's most problematic MAS plate was the attachment point for her breastplate . This piece had to serve not only as a functional piece but also needed to have a visually aesthetic appearance since it would be prominent when the breastplate was removed . My solution to this was to utilize a picture frame hanging plate as pictured . The teflon ring was removed , and the wing flanges cut off . A dremel was usewd to cut in the notch details and to bevel and smooth the edges . A round etching bit was used to drill in the concave indentations at the endpoints of the breastplate emblem . Keeping It Clean and Simple  For the attachment plates on Kissy's arms , I needed a thinner steel plate , and to this end I was able to use the tension springs from a picture frame . Pliers were used to bend the steel to shape , and was hammered to shape the tighter curve on the forearm plates . Again , the dremel was used to carve out the notch details at the ends of the plates . The clean simple lines of these plates have just the right amount of visual interest to retain an appealing look even without the armor plates attached .  Magnet Placement : Size IS Everything!
Considering that Super Sculpey was used to create the Armor for the Kissy Kustom , the armor needed to be a little bit thicker than what could have been achieved were I set up to cast in resin or vacuform plastic . This meant that the design of the armor had to accomodate not only visual appeal , but also enough thickness to allow placement of the magnets while maintaining strength . Most of the magnets I have are 1/4 inch magnets from Magnetix kits , although I did have a few 1/8 inch neodymium magnets which were particularly useful for the breastplate and forearm armor which was thinner than the shoulder armor . Once the armor plates were created , I dremeled out the holes for magnet placement and cemented the magnets to the armor .   | CoolGirlCustoms | WildRoses | CoolGirl Collection | CoolGirl Collection2 | CoolGirl Collection3 | TheToysmith | CoolGirl Collection4 | CoolGirl Collection 5 | CoolGirl Collection 6 | CoolGirl Collection 7 | CoolGirl Collection8 | Kill All Robots CyberHuntress | CoolGirl Collection 9 | CoolGirl Collection 10 | Bad Amy | Buckaroo Betty | SimpleDetails | CoolGirl Collection 11 | coolgirlHQ | Cool Girl Comics | Cool Girl collection 12 | KisaragiKustom | AlternativeCutey | coolgirl_collection9 | DX-Style Yuni | DX Style Sanchez | Cool Girl _Akiko Fuji | CG Gallery | Samurai Figures | Cool Girl Collection13 | Cool Links | Triad_2 | Playscale ResourceCenter | Sword and Sorcery | | ReelArts Blue Bulleteer | Shocker Toys | Cool Girls | Triad Toys | KiniKomix | KiniKomix2 | Custom Action Figures | eBay Auctions | AppleseedTribute | Macross Valkyrie | Planet of the Apes | Horse Sense | WeaversUpholsteryToo | ToyBiz_Iron Man | Dirty Pair | On Display | The OTHER Gorby | Obitsu | | Return Home | Updates | The Archive | Gorby Site Map | Geeb-O-Rama's Model Workshop | Geeb's Toy Box | Geeb-O-Rama Goodies | Movie Madness | World Of The Bizarre | Cool Beans | |
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