Little Green Man Prototype Build, Part 11, Belt and Laser Pistol

The model needed more trim. I added a chrome Monokote trim belt.
The wrap took a few tries, it was hard to get it under the hands.

The belt looked plain so a buckle was added.
The base was a scissor cut piece of 100 lb. white card stock.
The center of the buckle was another piece of chrome Monokote.
EDIT: In the kit, the buckle is an oval shape.

The back of the model didn't have enough detail.
What good is a spaceman without a laser gun?

This gun was drawn up from images found online.
The lower image shows how it will "tuck" under the belt.
It won't really go under the belt. The center strip is cut out and the image is glued on the top and bottom of the chrome strip.

Little Green Man Prototype Build, Part 10, Big Mouth and Eyes

The mouth decal is tall. Before soaking, it's best to pre-cut in two at the small tic marks printed to the side of the decal. The decal separates at the nose cone and body tube joint.

When designing a possible kit, many changes are made in the prototype before the kit design is finalized.
The decal cut joint ended up about 1/8" lower than I had first drawn up.

EDIT: On this first prototype build, I set the lower half of the mouth first. It is actually easier to align both pieces setting down the upper, smaller half of the mouth first.
The lower half of the mouth is positioned first, centered below the eyes and up against the end of the body tube.
I'm tempted to say: "Bwa-ha-ha-ha!
The big mouth is a focal point of the whole design.

The eye covers were cut out of 110 lb. printed card stock and set in place with a glue stick.
Even the glue stick gives a strong hold one the eyes, even over the green paint.

Little Green Man Prototype Build, Part 9, Paint and Fingernails

White undercoats were sprayed.
Two separate coats, light sanding between coats to remove any glue boogers and rough areas.

The Key Lime Green Rustoleum paint followed.
No masking, just a light green overall. The decals and decor pieces will make the model.

I should have made the fingernails on water slide decal paper.
For the prototype they were cut out of blue trim Monokote.
It was hard to get them to the right oval shape, some were very small.
(In the kit these will be water slide decals) 

Three nails were cut for two hands, six in total.
(In the kit the hands will have just two fingernails) 
12 more were cut for the four nails on the three feet.

They were places on the tip of my hobby knife. Nothing was burnished down until the spacing was right. It took a few tries to get everything in place.

Little Green Man Prototype Build, Part 8, Ears and Antennas

The small ears are glued 3/4" up from the bottom of the nose cone shoulder on either side of the eyes.
Some primer was removed down the root edge glue line.

"Test" eye covers were set in place with a glue stick.
These will be printed on 110 lb. card stock on the finished model.

Antenna holes were drilled by spinning a small diamond file.

The antennas have to be soft and flexible, you wouldn't want a hard spike on the nose of a model.

Pipe cleaners could work great for this. We called them pipe cleaners when I was a kid, now they are called "Chenille Wires".
For the "ball ends" of the antennas, turn the pipe cleaner around the top of some needle nosed pliers.

The inside wire of the pipe cleaner inserts and stays in the small hole drilled earlier. They'll be glued in place after the model gets it's final green color coat.
One antenna is curved and bent to the side. The antenna on the right is straighter. Why? It's just more cartoon-ey.

The antennas were pulled out and the eye covers removed.
White undercoats were applied.

Little Green Man Prototype Build, Part 7, Nose Weight and Nose Plug Assembly

The screw eye is turned into the nose plug circle until the thread line is almost gone.
A glue fillet is added to both sides.

The clay is pressed into the drilled center of the nose cone.
Look inside the nose cone and you can see the glue line around the edge for the plug and screw eye.

Press the plug into the hole and into the glue line.
Recess the plug inside the hole to allow for an additional fillet around the edge.

Looking ahead - 

I found an old can of Key Lime Rustoleum Painter's Touch. This is an old label before the 2X was added. This same can has got a lot of use over the past few years. It was used on the Franken Goblin and Elevate 11 models.
There is plenty of paint in the can, a perfect color for the project.

Little Green Man Prototype Build, Part 6, Arm and Eye Gluing

The small arms were glued on just above the two front fin legs.
These were set back to the halfway point around the tube, at 180 degrees.

The eyes were a different story.
The larger eye goes to the left of center. The top of the oval is almost even with the top of the nose cone.

Set each eye on the nose cone and lightly trace around with a pencil.

For a flatter gluing surface, the gluing area is sanded flat with 220 grit on a sanding block. Don't sand all the way to the sides of the drawn oval, keep the flat sanded area inside the line by about 1/16".


This flattened oval makes a larger gluing area and allows the flat eyes to better sit into the nose cone curve.

The eyes are glued on.

Note the top of both eyes are turned out. The right eye is set slightly higher than the base of the left eye.

Little Green Man Prototype Build, Part 5, Fin and Feet Gluing

The three fin lines were drawn and the primer sanded down for better adhesion.
The fins are even with the rear of the tube.
To make positioning easier, the pencil line was extended around the end of the tube. A line was also drawn down the middle of the leading and trailing ledges.
The middle fin lines were simply matched up to the line on the body tube.

To be sure the fin height was the same, a wrap of masking tape was rolled around the tube after the first fin was glued on.

The feet were glued onto the outside edge of the main fin leg.

The "toes" were turned out from the heel end.
The inset picture shows the angle of the glue line.

The launch lug is glued to the root edge of the back third leg.