[TUTORIAL] 1/100 Barbatos Head LED mod

I've finally managed to transfer most of my model building stuff into our new place but majority of my tools and all of my kits got put into storage. So I decided why not get a kit and start a new project.

I saw the 1/100 Barbatos 6th form from an online shopping site and though I initially didn't like the mech designs of the IBO series, it just grew on me. And since I was really itching to build some gunpla, I went with it.

I won't be able to do a proper review of this kit since I most likely be modding this as I build.

For starters, let's focus on the head. Of course I wanted to light up the eyes but unfortunately, the eye parts are molded in solid green plastic.

I won't be able to use that eye part since it's unable to pass light through. So I'll just have to make my own clear eye pieces.

I start off by cutting the eye piece in half. I will be needing the top portion since that is where the pegs are to connect the fave to the head.

I then glued the face pegs to the face, making sure the positioning of the part is exactly where it would be if the the eye parts were not cut off. After gluing the pegs, I needed to make the substitute clear eyes. I wanted to do this as quickly and easily as possible so what I came up with was hot glue.

After cutting off the original eye part, there was quite some space left where the original eye pieces sat. so what I did was I filled it up with hot glue, making sure that there would be some glue flowing from the eye sockets. Once the glue has cooled, It's just a matter of cutting/ trimming the glue to the appropriate size so that it would still fit in the head.

Luckily the head part had plenty of space inside that there wasn't much issue planning the wiring.

As shown in the pic, I just placed a 3014 SMD LED right behind the clear eyes. I also drilled a hole behind the head to pass the wire through and hide the wiring.

Once that's done, it's time to test the part. the hot glue did an amazing job spreading the light through the eyes evenly. Though there would seem to be some light bleeding from the edge of the face plate, I believe the armor pieces could hide those light s effectively.