1/10 Scale Borderlands Claptrap Model (Shutdown Pose)

Hello Travelers!

It has been a Veeeeeery long time since I've posted a new thread (University shenanigans and such) but I finally have a project I've been working on the side that I can log.

It's no secret that I'm a fan of Borderlands, and during uni term an opportunity presented itself to me to make my own Claptrap; I jumped on it without hesitation.

However, this is not the Claptrap I am writing about, no this is a separate model entirely. (If you do wanna see that moel I'll link it)

A little back story: During the early stage of planning uni-Claptrap I modeled him in Rhino [I can 3D model now since last time] To work out dimensions, scale and testing; this model had all the important bits, like a body and an eye but not much else. I 3D printed it at this stage to present as a maquette but it had no use after that.

Fast forward a couple months and it's still just on my desk, collecting dust and taking up space... but I can't bring myself to throw it away. I never considered turning it into a finished model but it's a great foundation to work off, so I caved and got to work.

Here's the 3D print, untouched and only support structure has been cleaned up. He's missing a ton of parts (again, this was just a test model) but I can fabricate them well enough. He was printed at roughly 1/10 scale (I never quite nailed his 1:1 size) out of PLA.



The approach I'm going for is his cowardly, hiding 'shutdown pose', with his arms and wheel tucked in and his side panels closed. It seems silly to just make another identical but smaller Claptrap (Plus it's a lot easier than remaking arms :lol)



Before anything, the pesky print lines had to go. A couple coats of filler primer and 120/240 grit sandpaper make a good duo.



Follow that up with some Squadron modelling putty for the deeper print lines. The putty sands like silk and fills small grooves like they were never there.





Now we get to make parts. I chose to start with the side panels, using 5mm Sintra and 1mm Styrene that slot into the sides. The excess was trimmed flush to the body and capped with more 1mm styrene to make the top tabs. These beauts slide on and off their sides, perfect for paint when I get to that stage.









The front mudguard was made with the same 5mm Sintra. I cut a rough pattern of the mudguard, stuck it to the body and shaped with files and sandpaper.





That's what I got so far. There's a couple pieces left like the back mudguard and the antenna box, I'll be making those for the upcoming days. I'm still toying with other parts (I might make a retracted wheel) but we'll see how progress goes.

Until next time...

I'm upgrading my life-size Clappy soon, so watching your thread with interest for any tips
Looking great so far!

Scapey Life-size Clappy you say? What kind of upgrades? Ooh and how big is it? I never figured out his full size myself :lol

More stuff! The side skirts are made from 2mm SIntra. An advantage to using Sintra this thin is it carves away with no resistance, no need to score and snap like Styrene.





The top box/grill/vent thingy was made with more 5mm Sintra as a base. This piece has a gradual taper, so I carefully trimmed off as much as I can with a utility knife and cleaned up with sandpaper. On top of that I made a 1mm Styrene window thingy to add wall thickness to the top. This area has a row of vents but I'm skipping that; they are way too small to make well by hand :lol









The next piece is a real pain at this size. I used more of that 2mm Sintra to cut a frame and wedged a piece of 1mm in the centre. Again, this insert has a row of vents but I'm skipping them.





Same as the front mudguard, I made the back with once again, 5mm Sintra. Same procedure: Pre shaped, outline cut, glued on, further shaped, edges blended, bada boom.





That's almost all parts done! The front tab still needs making and I'm debating this piece on the lower back whether I should bother making it at this scale; tiny plastic parts are not fun to work with by hand!

I'm also probably gonna skip the antenna; I imagine a Claptrap unit would retract it to keep a bandit from ripping it out, lemme know what you guys think...

Lastly there's the issue with the eye. It's still rough with 3D print lines that I can't really sand out, I might try brushing on a thin coat of epoxy but I don't wanna screw it up. We'll cross that bridge when we get there I guess.

Until then...

I'll get dimensions tomorrow - Originally, he was built as a costume for my son, then he became a backpack to hide the big-ass amplifier I used for my Krieg... Then I found a perfect tyre for him, so he's become a static display - And when I get round to it, the card-and-foam body is getting scrapped in place of laser-cut steel

https://www.facebook.com/wastelandw...007104062796/1622702161093288/?type=3&theater

https://www.facebook.com/wastelandw...007104062796/1622702157759955/?type=3&theater

Scapey That's real dope man, transfering to metal is a real sweet upgrade :thumbsup I got a few mods for my main Claptrap I'm working on myself... But this thread isn't about that :lol

Back to the model!

It's been hot as balls in England for the past couple days so I've been recharging in the sun and throwing paint here and there, but before I started on main paint he needed re-priming.





If you wanna paint anything yellow (and there's a lotta yellow here) a white base coat is your one stop shop. Lucky for me, I had some lovely Tamiya spray to base coat with. I intentionally under sprayed the white, leaving just some of the grey primer peeking through; this will leave a nice effect for the stripe.



If you look carefully at Claptrap, he has tons of colour on him so my approach was to do lots of thin washes with slight variations of yellow. The stripe and the black outline were taped off.







For extra variation, I splattered light drops of brown, grey and white around Claptrap, focusing on the feet. Over time I built up the brown around the feet; he kicks up a lotta crap in the wastes of Pandora.



The yellow is done and the rest is mainly black. For now, I've painted the front and side parts black and the eye is painted with Tamiya Hull Red.



The extra pieces got a build up of Tamiya Rubber Black and Titanium Silver.





That's mostly it for Claptrap. Justa bit more black, some colour for the labels, a colour scheme for the eye lens and his front tab and I think that'll be a wrap.

Until then...

Update!.. and probably the last one.

After painting the front of Claptrap, I kinda screwed up and the black paint seeped under the tape... It was a mess, so I had to repaint the bottom half of the front... again. It doesn't look that much different which is suppose to be a good thing, but man it took some time to get it right again. This is the reason why it's been 4 days instead of 1. :facepalm Oh yeah and I stuck all the odd bits on.



For the labels, I just went with a coat of blue and red. I may print the graphics at a tiny size and overlay them, but that's just something I'm not fussed with at this time. I painted the eye a glossy black, trying to emulate a reflective lens, though like the labels I may come back to it and tweak it; I'm not 100% on the final outcome.



The last piece for this was the front tab. I had thought about adding it earlier before painting but I wanted that area open to paint around the base of the eye. I made the tab with good 'ol styrene, scraped the edge with a blade to get a bevel, glued it on, blended the seam with more paint and recoated with clear. Came out pretty decent.



And for kicks, here's a snazzy pic of Claptrap altogether.



That about wraps up this little project. If it wasn't obvious enough, there are still small details I may tamper with in the future [waiting to get back into uni so I can use their workshop :lol] but for now he's done and he'll live on my table. From what it was before [basically a waste of 3D printed space], I think I did pretty good with it, and it didn't cost me a penny so an even bigger win for me.

Hopefully I'll share more stuff on the site in the foreseeable future, I'll have to see what comes up. I'm sure when/if BL3 comes out you'll see me around again

Until next time...

Love it! Certainly on my list of projects to do soon.