[Robot movie] The leading actors

These robots are the leading actors that appear in my UGC movies, the Miners' League.


With them completed as planned, although there are many works left before the day of release, it is safe to say that I've just turned the corner.

They are going to fight hard soon. But now, seeing them stand together, I feel my heart is full.

* The Miners' League : is the title of a real-robot movie series produced by Andy Kim. The Season 1 consists of four short movies of robot-combat, and will be released in the first half year 2008 at Andy Kim' blog[ blog.andyone.com (English) and http://www.andyone.com/ (Korean)]. All of them are noncommercial movies that everyone can enjoy.

[Robot movie] The Miners' League : Armorblood

I've now finished two robots of the four that are to appear in my UGC movie, the Miners' League. The other two are supporting actors, which are non-human type walking combat robots called 'Hybrid.' I'm going to work on it next week. There are also other works to start such as a stage(set) for the robot combat.

Name : Armorblood

Material : Aluminium

Height : 40cm (about 15.7 inches)

Producer : Andy Kim
Production year: 2007

Description : The robot is one of the main actors that appear in a series of UGC art movies called "the Miners' League Season 1". It is actuated by 18 motors, and able to make as various actions as grasping with fingers. It can also be operated by a remote controller. The name of the Korean robot pilot in the movie is 'Hun'.

* The Miners' League : is the title of a real-robot movie series produced by Andy Kim. The Season 1 consists of four short movies of robot-combat, and will be released in the first half year 2008 at Andy Kim' blog[ blog.andyone.com (English) and http://www.andyone.com/ (Korean)]. All of them are noncommercial movies that everyone can enjoy.

[Robot Painting 4] Coating

After the weathering process, you need to use a spray-applied coating liquid in order to protect the surface and keep the weathering marks, decals, and the like.

As for Armorblood, I didn't used decals. Instead, I used masking tape to make a white sign on the chest. The tape should be taken off before the coating.

The picture below shows a gloss coating liquid.

Apply the liquid on the surface after disassembling all the parts, and wait until it drys up.

[Robot Painting 3] Weathering

The 'weathering' means a process of artificially wearing and coloring the robot surface in order to create the physical disintegration or chemical decomposition that occurs as a result of exposure to wind, rain, humidity, etc. This is probably the most interesting and profoundest part in the painting processes. That's because you can always create your own version of weathering with your imagination. Besides, it doesn't need any expensive tools; the most popular one is pastel. Just scrape it off with a knife to make pastel powder, and rub it over the surface where weathering needs, that's all.

How graphically it will be described depends on your power of observation. The more characteristics and colors you can find in real weathered objects, the more chances you make it look real.

In the chest below, I've created dust and oil stain on the surface with light gray and dark gray pastel. Also, I've made a burn with black, gray, brown, and orange color.

In addition, I've ground every edges of a body part with a nail file to create some wearing marks, and also given outlines of dust around them with dark gray and brown.

Likewise, I've given various weathering effects from rust to bullet mark to the other parts of the robot body and the armor.

[Robot Painting 2] Enamel painting

I used spray enamel paints(dark red and gun metal) for the robot body. It is cleaner and more time-saving to use spray paints than to brush every parts with enamel paints.


Nonetheless, some delicate parts such as fingers need to be brushed one by one. In order to use enamel paints as below, you have to mix it with thinner in the ratio of 5:5 or so.

After the painting work finishes, you can also decorate your robot by putting up decal on the body, or giving more colors to express damages and weathering on the surface.

[Robot Painting 1] Groundwork

Painting a robot is not as easy as it sounds. It is a hard work that needs delicate craftsmanship.

The picture above shows the things I bought for the job. I had to buy more goods afterwards. From the upper left, it shows a top coat paint, aluminium plates, a metal coat paint, enamel paints, brushes, a marker pen, a masking tape, and a decal.

The work begins with disassembling the robots into parts.

Then, paint the metal coat(metal primer) on the aluminium surface.

After the metal coat drys up, paint the base white(lower left above) on the surface.

Then, plaster epoxy putty in order to close cracks on the surface(in linking parts, etc).

Before painting a color enamel, cover all the parts which other colors should be applied to with masking tape, etc. Then, the groundwork for painting finishes.

Assembling 'Armorblood'

The robot that has been made so far is the second humanoid called 'Armorblood'. As you can notice in the name, it has somewhat cruel temperament originated from its anger. So, you may think it is an evil character. But, it's not. There is no simple dichotomy of good and evil in my work, just as there is no such in the Korean philosophy.

Now, the painting process will begin.

[Robot Armor 5] Head

Finally, we make the last part of the robot armor.

It begins with 1T plane cut as below.

Round the figure so that it fits over the robot's head.

Then, using 0.2T aluminium, make a horn of an isosceles trapezoid with a rectangular bottom.

Make two pieces with same size, and two pieces shorter than the former.

Stick the horns to the 1T aluminium frame.

Lastly, close the upper side of the frame with 0.2T aluminium.