One of my latest finished projects was the 1/144 HG Kampfer for a discord build off hosted by The Built Sideways podcast.

This build centered on my current worldbuilding project, which involves a hivemind entity called “The Prisma”.

“The Prisma is a dubbed title for unknown, virulent parasitic entities that consume and terraform environments to enable further growth. The name is given to the variety of colors spawned by these entities”.

For this purpose, the Kampfer was reimagined more as a biological mech rather than what it was in the Gundam series.

In the past, I used Mod Podge dimensional magic to texture the kit (along with hot glue and beads). This time I decided to switch it up and use UV resin. I can’t say I’m a huge fan of this change. It does have its benefits as the bumps are harder to break off, and you can control the resin better. I’m just not fond of how more intensive it is, which was partially my own fault.

PPE is always a must with resin. Glove it up and mask it up. Then it’s making sure it’s cured all the way. I made it difficult on myself and had to hold my UV cure station awkwardly instead of buying a UV flashlight.

I will try getting a smaller UV light and seeing how it works.

Next, I decided to mutilate a Petit beargguy head. I used a pair of nippers to take chunks out of the head and went in with the 3D pen to create the tree/vine-like details.

The idea for this was to be similar to a mushroom. The growth out of the head would produce airborne spores, which would land on a surface and produce spore sacks.

After the head was done, I painted the models using rattle cans. It was a blend of Rust-Oleum, Montana gold, and Tamiya cans. I don’t get to paint as often with cans or my airbrush out of politeness to my neighbors beneath me.

Using the UV resin, I added some goop to the finished models. This was done by mixing black paint with the UV resin.

The base was just random foam pieces that I sealed with Mod Podge and topped with aquarium gravel before painting.

To make the spore sacks was pretty simple. I took an old pop-it toy and filled it with the UV resin. Then I let it cure until it was mostly solid. USING GLOVES, I popped them out and finished curing under my UV station. It was glued to the base after painting.

The final step was gluing down some colored lichen and making a small UV resin coating on the base for some G O O P.

The story behind this is that the Kampfer would be considered a “Spore guardian”. A Spore Guardian would guard a spore garden. The sacks grow, inflate, and either burst more infectious spores or a sticky liquid that carries a large portion of infectious material. The original spore tree will die and slowly break down to feed the spore sacks and material growth.

The number of these guardians differs with the size of the gardens. This is a smaller one, so it patrols the area, keeping intruders at bay. The role of the Spore Guardian varies by planet. Variants of this form exist.

Our guard is holding an enemy that is definitely not a leftover space marine.

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