WIP: SAFS Snowman (Ma.K kit by Wave)

Moving on to the next thing!

So while I get my photography area re-re-situated, I'm moving on to the next kit. I've never built a Ma.K kit, and their design has always been mildly intriguing, so when I saw the SAFS Snowman, and its very entry-level price point, I had to get one. But of course, knowing me, it couldn't be "as is."

When I first saw the kit, it looked like something else that I couldn't quite place, until my son started playing Mario. That's when it hit me that it was reminding me of Bowser's clown ship at the end of Super Mario World for the SNES.

Image from Super Mario World wiki, I claim no ownership of this image

I guess its something about that nose being orange, and the black eyes and smiling mouth? I dunno. Regardless, making a Bowser-themed Ma.K kit was what I wanted.

I started off by finding a good small Bowser that would fit inside of the smaller-than-I-imagined cockpit, and went with this guy I found on eBay. I also removed the legs and snipped the tail off so he'd fit better:

From there, I had to patch the hole where the pilot's head goes in the cockpit. Easy stuff, just cut a small piece of sheet styrene out and glued it to the bottom:

I then spent my Saturday afternoon building up the kit in small sub assemblies. I was mostly building without gluing, trying to see where the logical divide between building as much as possible while still allowing for paint. I settled on two halves for the body, the hatch, and each limb as a good place to keep the build.

With the legs, I had to be patient and build each "shell" and use the glue to remove the seam line, then assemble the next portion, and so on. Here's where I was by the end of the day...mostly built, a few seams left to file down (especially on the feet), and held together with gravity and friction, and ready for primer next.

Thanks for looking, stay tuned as I keep building this out!