WIP : Nitto 1/20 PKA Gustav Pt. 1 – Construction
Time to thin my SF3D/Ma.K stash! This is a PKA Gustav from Nitto when Maschinen Krieger was still known as SF3D. It has since been superseded by a snapfit release from Wave. While this is definitely showing its age with its 1980s engineering and fit, it’s a multimedia kit: it includes brass rods, wires, springs and brass mesh to detail the kit up. But it’s so old school it can’t even hold it’s one accesory, the Panzerfaust. 😛
Unlike the Wave kits, this one doesn’t come with the pain in the ass rubber joints. They are instead solid pieces like Gunpla without the fabric-looking covers. The limbs are attached via polycaps but aren’t really poseable: the arms swing and you can bend them slighly. I decided to make the covers with epoxy putty with the folds molded using the flat end of a Tamiya paint stirrer. Since I had some spare epoxy putty left, I also added cushions to the seat and headrest.
Due to how it’s designed, I have to build up the full interior before closing everything together. The majority would be in shadow but the pilot will need some decent painting done as I was planning to leave the visor open. Interestingly, the pilot has access to a PDW in the form of a small sub-machinegun inside the suit. It’s molded with the magazine separate and they are attached to a plate which fits to the back of the suit. Once the pilot is attached this whole piece can’t be seen.
As for the pilot, it took me 4 attempts before I managed what is seen here. It’s definitely not great, but it’ll have to do. I’ll just make sure people see it from 3 feet away.
The legs flop around even with the polycaps and are really only holding a walking pose due to the careful bending of the brass rods that are inside the springs. The instruction indicates that the clear piece on the chest can be wired for an LED (not included) but I replaced this with a Kotobukiya round mold. The original included copper wire running under the chest piece was replaced with easier to bend lead wire. I also added 2 round molds on the chest as small added details.
This kit has some very obvious seamlines which will need fixing and once that’s done, I’m ready to paint.
Upcoming : Super Minipla Beast King Go-Lion
Official pictures of this upcoming toy/kit are now online. Each lion will be packaged in its own box with weapons and a stick of chewing gum. They can then be combined into this 18cm tall Super Robot.
The proportions of the individual lions look off to me but Go-Lion itself looks brilliant. And it seems to be quite poseable too. Amazing! Even better is that it’s probably the cheapest route you can take right now to own a combining Go-Lion.
Coming in August @ 5,292 JPY. More pictures on Hobbysearch.
Upcoming : Good Smile Company Moderoid Godmars
This was unexpected but very welcome. A new Godmars model kit is coming! It looks like there will be part swapping involved depending on what mode the modeler wants to achieve. It’s simpler and probably more sturdy this way as it will feature a lot of articulation.
This is coming in August @ 7,500JPY. More pics in Hobby Search.
Completed : ‘Cover Fire’ – Bandai 1/35 Tactical Armor Type 17EX Shinden
Gallery 1
Gallery 2
Build Report
Kit Info
Brand and Kit Number: Bandai 954034 and Masterbox 35193
Media: Injection Plastic
Markings: Various
The Subject
A Tactical Armor (TA) is a bipedal combat machine with artificial muscles featured in the anime television series Gasaraki. The Type 17EX Shinden is an improved model of the Type 17 Raiden manufactured by Gowa Industries. It features better armor distribution and more importantly, a much improved battery system that allows it to operate for up to 36 hours per charge. However, the strain and stress inflicted on the pilot has not been reduced and has proved to be unsuccessful to overcome.
Info from Gasaraki Wiki
The Kits
In 1999, to support the anime television series, the Shinden was 1 of 3 Tactical Armor kits issued by Bandai. The kits were on-par with any of the Master Grade Gunpla kits of the time in that they featured: complete snapfit build, decent poseability and molding that was crisp and detailed, a plethora of weapon options and even boasted 2 figures (1 standing, 1 sitting). For 2018 though, the kit is showing its age with its lack of attempt to hide seamlines and the decent albeit limited poseability. However, these are still great kits with excellent representation of Shinki Aramaki and Yutaka Izubuchi’s mecha designs.
The Masterbox ‘Under Fire’ kit is the continuation in the series of US infantry figures in a modern warfare setting. The kit comes with 4 figures that when placed together tells the story of soldiers providing cover fire while a wounded soldier is being tended to. Each figure comes with its own weapons and pouches which by and large can be swapped around depending on the modeler’s preference. The molding is quite good with nice folds on the uniforms although there are prominent mold lines that need cleaning up. More importantly, the faces are well done and convey the emotions of the figures well.
Build
I’ve had the Shinden snapfit together for close to a decade already by the time I restarted it. I’ve always wanted to place it in a vignette charging along with some soldiers but I was intimidated with painting figures and the Shinden didn’t look right placed in a running pose. When I saw Masterbox’s ‘Under Fire’ kit it gave me the idea to replace the SAW gunner in the kit with the Shinden providing cover for the wounded soldier. The soldiers would be hiding behind some sort of cover and the setting would be in wacka-wacka-kistan with a desert/semi-arid location.
Through the years, I’ve slowly worked on the Shinden by filling the hollow areas in the armor with epoxy putty (a mistake in hindsight) and fixing the prominent seamlines. The joints have held up relatively well and while one leg is slightly loose, it can still hold the final pose I had in mind. The kit comes with various weapons for the arms and I went with the chain gun and rocket launcher. The only modification I did on the kit was to replace the open palms with closed fists modified from the Bandai MS Hand 01 set.
The figures required some minor cleaning up of mold lines and filling of gaps with putty. Otherwise though, they fit well and look quite dynamic.
Colors & Markings
Since my Shinden is set somewhere that’s not in Japan like the anime, I figure I can go crazy with the color scheme and markings. The scene is to be a semi-arid place so I went with a desert scheme. To break the monotony of having the mecha, figures and base in brown, I mixed in a dark bluish gray color for the Shinden. One of the shoulders was painted in red as a unit indicator.
The figures are painted in colors of my own making but it resembles a desertized tiger stripe camo. In a call out to my old Crossfire airsoft team logo, I added some red inverted triangle patches on the shoulders.
Finishing
The Shinden was given my by now standard weathering treatment of chipping with acrylic paint. Meanwhile, oil paints were used for washing, filters and streaks. I have to conclude that I really botched the seamline fixing as there are still visible ones in various spots. There’s just too many of them in this close to 2 decade kit.
The figures were washed with Army Painter Quickshade which were very effective in popping the details of the folds of the uniforms. This was my time painting whole figures and I think I did a decent job although my work on the faces still needs work: they lack the finesse of the great work I see on the ‘net.
The Base
The base is cork on balsa. The look of the environment was based on the 2001 film Black Hawk Down. The main cover the soldiers will hide behind is meant to look like a part of an aircraft fuselage that has broken off. I made this with plastic plates and various pipes, I and round beams. I also added a PE mesh piece and made other wreckage from plastic plates. Making the base look damaged and grimy was definitely fun.
The Build Log
> Part 1 : Construction
> Part 2 : Painting the figures
> Part 3 : Painting the Shinden
> Part 4 : Weathering
> Part 5 : Basing
> Part 6 : Basing
Number 2 of 2018
WIP : Bandai 1/35 TA Shinden Pt. 6 – Basing
Work on the base begins with gluing the cork pieces together with a hot glue gun.
Then I layer the surface with Vallejo Thick Mud – Light Brown. While it’s drying I pressed in a mix of small rocks from Woodland Scenics and my garden. I cut an Evergreen plastic tube in 5mm long pieces and pressed into the groundwork to simulate spent shells ejected form the Shinden’s gun. Logically they’d be ejected further out but ‘artistic license’.
Once the groundwork has cured, I preshaded with Model Color Raw Umber. Model Color Iraqi Sand is then sprayed over this.
Then the fun begins with gluing the wreckage pieces into place.
Once dried, I weathered all the pieces with more of the Vallejo Thick Mud. This was thinned so it doesn’t look as pebbly.
Then, more weathering with filters, washes and streaks with oil paint were done. I also gave the ground a light drybrush and added tufts of grass in random spots.
The shells were handpainted Game Air Brassy Brass.
Up next is attaching the figures and Shinden, slightly weather them further, and I can call this done.