A Bot And Its Dog

The 'box' art for this kit.

The 'box' art for this kit.

Here is a very nice little kit I picked on eBay that I call “A Bot And Its Dog”. I chose this name in a nod to the post-apologetic science fiction novella called “A Boy And His Dog” by Harlan Ellison which was made into the 1975 film of the same name starring Don Johnson. The setting & characters for the model (as I envision it) is generally the same as the film but that is where the similarities end.

This resin kit is from China and is roughly 1/16 scale with the robot standing about 5 inches tall. The kit is very well cast with no flash to speak of. There were seam lines on the robot's legs but those were quickly dispatched with a file.

The kit had about thirty pieces and if I had a complaint about this kit. It would be that there were no instructions. Fortunately, the seller provided a few pictures on his eBay page which I downloaded and printed out for reference. If not for these photos, I'd still be struggling with the assembly trying to figure out what went where.

Click for a larger image.

Click for a larger image.

To add a little more life to the scene, I decided to light the robot. Initially, I was going to use fiber optic cable but the route from the robot's eyes to beneath the base somewhere to a hidden light source was too torturous. I ended up drilling out the bot's head from below to accommodate a blue LED and ran its wires down through the torso and legs by drilling a 1/64 inch channel to feed the wires to the base where the battery would be hidden.

I used a CR 2032 battery to power the bot eyes, the advantage of which was that I only had to grind out a shallow pit in the under side of the base to accommodate the battery holder. This allowed me easy access should I have to replace the battery at some point. I mounted the on/off switch in the rear of the base out of sight though it looked a lot like the debris cast into the base so I wasn't that concerned with its appearance.

Face off with a snake.

Face off with a snake.

I pretty much followed the color scheme as shown of this kit on eBay although I went with the paint/salt technique to bring in a much more corroded appearance to the giant robot hand. See Tip #28 in the Hints & Tips area on my web page to get a detailed description of this process.

I also added some debris here and there by placing a few vines, dead leaves and mouse bones (yes, mouse bones) scattered about. The art for this kit shows the robot and dog staring at a butterfly. I didn't have one so I used a snake instead that I made out of epoxy clay. It's on top of the giant hand though a bit hard to see in the pictures.

This is very nice kit but I wouldn't recommend it for the beginner simply because it didn't have any instructions. If I could make a wish to improve this kit (aside from providing instructions), I'd like to see it in 1/12 or even 1/6 scale format. In any case, it was fun to build and will make a fine addition to my ever growing collection. 3/14/20

Close up of the robot. Its eyes are much bluer than this photo Suggests unfortunately.

Close up of the robot. Its eyes are much bluer than this photo Suggests unfortunately.

Front detail shot. Click for a larger image.

Rear detail shot. Click for a larger image.

Side detail shot. Click for a larger image.

Latest comments

18.07 | 20:43

Speechless, And I am really speechless.
Incredible work. I am glad we could provide you with a grail

11.07 | 11:41

Great job down to the last detail!

10.07 | 16:36

Thank you, Addis, I estimate it took me around 100 hours to complete.

10.07 | 12:24

Terrific work...must've taken quite a while for you to complete...very good detail!!

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