“The Enforcement Droid, Series 209, is a self-sufficient urban law enforcement robot. 209 is currently programmed for urban pacification, but that is only the beginning.”

I was too young to actually see Robocop in the theaters, but I have a vivid memory of seeing the ED-209 in a magazine that discussed the upcoming movie. For the longest time, I actually believed that ED was Robocop, and as much as I might have been disappointed to find he was a somewhat inept, I thought the design was really cool. Decades later, I decide to start modeling again and he was on the top of the list to acquire.

Horizon made Vinyl kits, something I had relatively little experience with, having only put together a few superhero models years back. A bit of research, a few forums visited and I got some useful pointers that assisted in the buildup. The end result is a really great looking Droid ready to take Robocop down.

Overall, the detail is pretty good and accurate to at least one of the shooting models. And as it turns out, it’s very close in size to that shooting model to say that this suck is Studio Scale if you want. But (there’s always a but) a few details were grossly simplified, the back leg rails and missile launcher. I cut out the excessive vinyl on the back leg and used sheet styrene to create the insides. As well I added a long screw which represented the method the upper body could rise up and down on the rails (the model is molded in standby mode). The missile launcher tubes and missiles were cut off and completely scratchbuilt from thin aluminum tubing and sculpy. Other details were added, such as the black hoses on the top of the head, various cables, wires and details on the elbows , missile launcher and between the toes, and various bits were inserted into the mouth too. The last bit was details on the underside of the shoulder armor

I mixed my own paints for the main colour, and airbrushed that on. Then I masked off the canopy and painted that a semi gloss black. The guns were semi gloss black then dry brushed in steel. I airbrushed aluminum metalizer on the elbows, legs and leg rails. Again, I ended up creating my own decals from what information I could decipher from the movie screencap, in other words, I made a lot up. Before coating the entire model in a semi gloss, I enhanced the details, grooves and edges with charcoal dust

This really helped the overall look and matched the screen used models very well. Finally, before final assembly I detailed the look of scratches and worn paint with aluminum paint.

The final assembly was a bit of a hassle, mainly because, for one, you have to heat the parts to fit them together, second, you’re best off to fill the shapes so that, over time, the vinyl doesn’t distort, droop, sag, whatever. I filled the arms with newspaper, attached them to the elbow and those to the main body. Then I fitted the waist, thighs and back leg rails before I injected this assembly with Builders expanding foam. I also filled the remaining feet and toes with the stuff. That I let cure for a couple of days then cut off the excess (and boy, was there excess!) before attaching the final parts.

Image: Back view

Image: Backside closeup

Image: Arm detail

Image: Missile detail

Image: Gun detail

Image: Leg detail