Flammkuchen Freitag!

Yet another project is complete!  This one started out, with all good intentions, to build a mech based on a design from modeler/manga artist/anime creator Makoto Kobayashi.  Long time visitors to this site know of my admiration for this individual.  Check out his other work; there's lots of it out there!

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!

I had this 1/72 Kettentrad kit from Hasegawa around for quite some time, so I thought this would make a good delivery van.  Now it takes awhile to get pizza out there; no thirty minutes it's free.  But in the near future the pies are shipped in thermal stasis boxes; as fresh as the day they were made!

My wife told me today, "That is the weirdest model you have ever built..."  And I agree!  So much that I plan to do a proper Baund-Doc someday.  This time the spacey version sporting the tank farm underside.  Here are some more nice blue sky beauty shots:

So remember, there is always time for pizza.  And don't forget the pineapple!  Have a better one, readers!

Hiya!

Welcome back, readers!  Tonight's second ship is the third one constructed, and compared with the rest of the "fleet", this one is unique as it's design is quite different from Mr. McQue's usual fare, but ironically it is the one closest to one of his sketches.  I think I saw it on Instagram or Twitter or somewhere, but liked the unorthodox style and configuration.  No name given to the boat, just a friendly greeting from the captain, "Hiya!"

I liked the clean lines of the hull, compared to all the mechanical "guts" dangling below.  It had the impression of being a submersible rather than an open deck ship.   Off to the parts boxes for the usual scrounging rituals!

The basic hull is just an acrylic scoop from the frequently visited dollar store,  trimmed and modified, and then a cowling from an aircraft model for the conning tower.  Because of the organic shape,  rounded greeblies  were preferred.

The ship had to have some reason or commercial intent so I added the "roof rack" of which I could place cargo, tarps, etc.  The main booster is just an inner wheel hub from a long dead truck kit.

For the guts underneath I used motor blocks, other boosters, and coil springs.  There are even some architectural model parts in there.  Once satisfied, it was Prime Time!

All other ships in this series were distressed and weathered by dry brushing, pastels and washes.  But for this I was going to use the hairspray chipping technique with multiple layers.  As the model is only 3.5" long, it was easy to apply water based paints to the hull (still haven't got that airbrush working!).   Base coat was as above, followed by hairspray, a neutral grey, hairspray, and finally a military yellow green.  After a few days to let it dry I chipped away with satisfactory results.  

After chipping, washes, dry brushing, and pastels were applied.  Metallics for the underside  and some red accents here and there.

Final details include 2 N scale "sailors", craft chain, and some cargo & tarps.  

Think out of the five ships in the fleet, this one is my favourite.  I like the smooth lines of the hull juxtaposed with the chaotic machinery underneath.  There is also a hint of "Makoto Kobayashi" as well.

For the final shot here is a view similar to the original concept sketch.  Thanks again for the inspiration, Ian!

Next time, the Tofu Tower gets a delivery!  See ya!

Gunpla - Kobayashi Style

I have been a big fan of Anime for many years, first being introduced in the '70s to a show called "Star Blazers".  Since then its been pretty much out of control, with acquiring many kits from dozens of series.  The franchise know as "Mobile Suit Gundam" began way back in 1979, and still continues today.  Luckily Bandai has no problem with churning out plastic model kits of the many machine variations, so Gunpla (Gundam Plastic) was born.

In the early 80's I became aware of an artist, Makoto Kobayashi.  Not only a manga artist, he is also a master modeler, concept artist, and mechanical designer.  His distinctive style is easily recognizable, most notably in his distorted and bloated mechs.  His work can be seen in many series.  The Marasai, Bound-Doc and The-O in "Z Gundam", his own "Dragon's Heaven", machines in "Venus Wars", and "Last Exiles" to name only a few.  His many models have been seen in "Hobby Japan" magazine, as well as individual publications such as the "Hyper-Weapon" series and "AS Wars".  Rather than do a full bio I encourage you to pursue his work further; there are ample sources all over the internet.

So with Kobayashi on my mind, I looked for a suitable kit to convert and settled on a mobile suit from the 1989 OVA Gundam "War in the Pocket", the MS-18E Kampfer.  Actually a spacey mech, I decided to make it more down to Earth and put it in a desert environment.  So then it was many nights of scrounging for the perfect shapes, and altering the model accordingly.  I wanted this to be a walking battleship of the desert.  Eventually this evolved...

The finishing began with a basic coat of khaki from the Krylon Camo line.  A nice series of paint which dry quickly.  So far it has not harmed any of the plastic I have used and you can paint over it with both acrylics and enamels from several sources.  Thus was created the MS-18SK Desert Kampfer "Schildkrote": 

More guns than it can handle, but I use the philosophy of Jayne Cobb.  Start with the biggest gun and work your way down.  Schildkrote translates as turtle.  I thought this very apt because of the nice chunky appearance.  All of the large form shapes are acrylic scoops, spoons and tongs.  Thank you kitchen aisle of the dollar store!

The "radiator" on the back-pack is simply an acrylic honey dripper.  I carefully cut one in half, then quartered it.  There is also the other half under the rear "skirt"; not easy to see in most of the shots.

Any of you long term visitors may be wondering, where are the customary Kinder eggs?  They too are under the rear skirt but not so visible either.  After primary painting and accents, weathering was achieved with good ole pastels.  For the final display base, scenery materials, sculptured foam, and some dried Sedum heads for the sparse foliage.  In hindsight, it probably would have been a good idea to put some figures or vehicles in for scale, which is 1/144 by the way...

This is definitely not the last of the Kobayashi-influenced mobile suits.  As if it isn't enough, there are also the works of other artists such as Kow Yokoyama (SF3D), and Kazuhisa Kondo.  All with their unique styles.  Retirement cannot come quickly enough!

North Africa - 2042

Can I still post..?  Yes, it has been almost a year!  But a very eventful year....  So when I was able to start modeling again, I began with the usual narrowing down of a concept.  I have wanted to do some over-the-top style mobile armour from the Gundam universe for some time.  A machine inspired by such units as the Neue Ziel or the Big Zam.  For the base model, I needed something chunky and adaptable, so I dug out yet another old Bandai kit from the "Dunbine" series, a 1/48 scale Drumlo.  Which combined with other kit parts and many sweet shapes, became this:

You may notice that the scale is a little off now.  As the project progressed, and the waffling began, the armour went through several changes in both concept and scale.  Eventually the model shrank from 1/550 to 1/35, and very far away from the Gundam universe.  The final finished piece is now the NA-HAAG-39 desert mech, "Tommy" Tortoise:

Or if you want the long version, the Neo-Albion Heavy Amoured Ambulatory Gun.  Based on an idea of yet another desert conflict some 30ish years from now, I also wanted to keep a familiar WW2 theme.

The name is based on the Heavy Assault Tank A39 Tortoise, which the British were developing near the end of WW2.  It only made it to the prototype stage, but once the model took the final shape, the name seemed very apt.

I had seen the camoflauge netting used on many armour models, and was keen to try out something new.  I thought it worked well for the first attempt.  Simple cheescloth soaked in a 50/50 mix of water and the acrylic paint, allowed to dry flat and then cut and shaped as desired.  I think I will be doing this again....

I'd say about 50% of the Drumlo kit made it to the final model, but many of the parts were used not according to the kit plan.  Also in the mix, are several sweet shapes of various sizes, 6 toothbrush holders/protectors, some cut flower tubes, and the current record of 4 kinder eggs.  The figures are Tamiya assembled against instructions.

Modeling is all basic techniques.  Acrylic and enamel paints, and dry brushing and pastels for weathering.  Since its a walking machine, and probably made from "future" materials, I avoided the use of iron based construction so therefor no rust this time.

The concept behind the mech is of course as a walking gun, but it also has a missle launcher on the opposite side.  The gattling cannon is laser guided to conserve ammo (I am assuming limited resources here...).  The Tortoise can also skim along the ground, hence the rear thrusters for forward motion, and jets under the legs, feet, and "shoulders".

Unfortunately, many of these details are hidden under the "shell" and camo netting.  But I know its there...

The Tortoise has one main pilot.  Right now, the Neo-Albion lads are taking a bit of water break and having a look round.   Yes, I'm positive it's water....

Not the best of views, especially if your the other guy...

Another satisfying project for the case.  I hope it won't be another year before the next post!  Until then, "Keep Calm and Mech On!"