One of his more bizarre designs is a mech first created for Z Gundam, the Baund Doc. Not your regular anthropomorphic style, this one is almost bird-like with spindly arms all atop a saucer. There are many variations, and the style evolved into another mech for his "Dragon's Heaven" OVA called a Gampf.
I have wanted to build one for quite some time; there were many false starts and delays over the years. After the snow globe diversion, I resurrected the concept. I just had to find the right parts. Luckily I had in my possession a previously enjoyed Slave 1 model (thanks Joe!), which would make a suitable saucer. The rest of the parts would be liberated mainly from two other Bandai Gundam kits, a Jamru-Fin (from ZZ Gundam), and a Hygogg (from War in the Pocket). But I could not bring myself to pick and choose the parts, so instead I scavenged what I needed from the greeblies box; tank parts and other models from way back. Copious amounts of dollar store bits also made it into the mix.
So in this jumble of bits and pieces are acrylic shapes, and parts from several kits, mostly some old Dorvack suits and early Gundam models. So no new models were harmed in this venture! There are also toy parts and (very weathered) ping pong balls. Those were used under the saucer.
I kept the underside detail to a minimum as it would only be seen from the sides. An acrylic scoop was used to house all the upper parts. (I was surprised to see that other modelers making variations of this mech also used the Slave 1 saucer as their base...)
One final test assembly. The left forearm (with the claw) is actually a handle for a mini driver, and of course there is the customary Zaini egg. And now it's Prime Time!
The model went through many changes over the weeks. The original intent was for it to have that massive bulk of tanks under the saucer as in the concept sketches, but after the attempt it looked like crap, so I went more Gampf than Baund-Doc. First it was going to be spacey, then ground based, then spacey again. Eventually I settled on a ground based unit, and decided to make it part of the "North Africa: 2042" scenario I started way back in 2015. As the Tortoise was a British unit, I made this a German machine. But it is much larger, the Gottesanbeterin!
The model is built to 1/72 scale, and the design has strayed quite far from the original Kobayashi concepts. It is more Dieselpunk now, and ready for some future desert combat!
The "Gottesanbeterin", or Preying Mantis, is a mech from the fictional "Neues Deutchland". It skims above the ground (using rediscovered 20th century technology from the "Haunebu" projects), and it rips and tears at enemy armours with the heavy claws.
With a crew of three, and only the one main gun, this unit relies on other smaller support mechs for defense. (Not built for this diorama unfortunately, but maybe soon...).
Painting was done using primarily Krylon Ultra Camouflage rattlers, which are becoming hard to find these days. Two basic colours for the base coats and then mostly Tamiya acrylics for the accents.
As before, I wanted to keep the weathering to a minimum as I doubt this monstrosity would have been (will be?) made using iron and other metals. I used pastels to accent and put a fine layer of dust on the model. After a few salvaged decals from other German kits, I layered on some camo netting to help hide it from the other guys...
So the title of this posting, (Flammkuchen Freitag!), is roughly translated to "Pizza Friday". End of the week is usually rewarded with pizza, especially around here. And even in North Africa 21 years from now, nothing has changed. But how do three hungry fighting men in an armoured mech get pizza way out in the desert? You have it delivered of course!
So remember, there is always time for pizza. And don't forget the pineapple! Have a better one, readers!
