Krankenschwester

The design of a Strahl AI began in the Fall of 2007. I decided that I wanted to base it off the idea of a battlefield medic, and thought the German word for Nurse was neat sounding, as it's also very very close to translating as "Sick Sister", which sounds a little mysterious and creepy. I started putting model parts together, and drifted in the direction of some of Kow's Robot Battle V design aesthetics, and some of the sketches he has done where the AI has an elongated head.

Based off of a Jo-Hann Torino car, with two Monogram Stinger drag racer bodies and a tank's upper deck.

The bottom used two Trumpeter P-40 models, which are grossly expensive, relative to the rest. Much like the Native Americans using all of a Buffalo, I plan to cannibalize the heck out of those P-40 kits.

In fact, the wings were immediately pressed into service.

From the front, I started to see the general direction this would go, and how I could incorporate manipulator arms.

The back end of course just cried out for an engine!

Dr TaK was greatly amused to find I used a medicine bottle to form the main head part on the "Nurse AI".

I also used the main body from an exquisite Japanese Zero kit, which was bundled with Model Graphix Magazines in November and December of 2007. You can see the putty start to fill out the gaps in between kit parts.

More putty work.

And still more.

The head was worked on, with the left side being sculpted and finished before the right side was puttied over. It's still not symmetrical, but it's not supposed to be. I will have a nice eye cluster in the central trench. There are also brass rods inside the side "turret mounts" that nest nicely with the guns, which are not pictured here.

A sketch was made at this stage, to see if I liked the direction I was headed in. It's just a doodle, but it did help me in deciding to add hemi caps to the front sides of the main body.

I gave the whole thing a coat of Mr. Surface 500, so that it will look as if the main components were cast in metal! This will make the final model look even stranger/otherworldly, and will nicely contrast against the more mechanical parts which are placed on the design form here on out.

Some clean up work still needs to be performed on the underside.

So far, so good!

The gray primer also helps to visualize the overall form, as it's an even tone now. Of course, this has to be done sparingly, as each primer session would not only make plastic welding much more difficult, but would also add a layer of paint and lessen the sharpness of the parts underneath. This was moot at this stage though, since I was stippling on the Mr. Surfacer.

An engine form was made from various plastic and cast resin bits. This drops nicely into the engine bay, and will be left outside of the model for as long as possible, for ease of painting.

It sits inside nicely.

Fitted the lasers to the side of the head this evening, and worked some more on the engine bay.

I'm digging it.

Seems to be working for me, so far. Crimped the brass rods on the lasers, so they can swivel/stay in place now.

See?

Various major components.

This shows you how I made the engine itself.

Other side.

The two sides you don't see!