Weekend update (Windows and robots)

So I tried Windoze 10 for a couple of days, and while there were a few nice features, my overall feeling was that the new OS was half-baked shite. Actions were laggy, the ability to customize seemed very limited, and most importantly, trying to transfer to, or access files on external drives was severely impaired.

Long story short, I rolled Microsoft's unwanted install of Windoze 10 back to 7. Here are some more reasons why Windows 10 sucks.

Happily, restoring the old OS was painless so I was able to get quite a bit of modeling done on the weekend. The first thing I worked on was my Comanche Battle Suit with flamethrower. What I noticed about these models was that they seem to have high lead content, and they were slathered in mold release agent.

The softness of the metal made cutting the fuel tank off of the arm very easy. I mounted it to the hip girdle of the battle suit, and re-positioned the hoses. There was a smaller third hose from the center of the fuel tank to the arm, but I just removed it altogether because it would have been too much trouble to sculpt an additional length of hose to cover the increased distance between the two locations.

I thought about making the nozzle of the flamethrower smaller, but then figured why not have a giant over sized nozzle?

I'm going to have to rebuild the upper portion of the right arm, but after that the model will just need painting.

I was also able to complete my conversion of a Robot Soldier to a Robot Gardener. First, I used my heat gun to soften the arms and re-position them.

Then I cut off the spikes from the arms. The left hand was also cut off and then re-attached rotated 180°.

Finally, I used wood glue and Woodland Scenics Fine Turf to create the moss on the robot's shoulders.

Comanche Battle Suit

The Comanche Battle Suit comes from the Secrets of the Third Reich wargame by West Wind Productions. I liked the look of the Comanche because of its diesel-punk aesthetic and also for its similarity to the Koubu from Sakura Wars.

The Comanche is described as a battle suit, but looking at it, I have a difficult time seeing how a 28mm figure is supposed to fit inside it. Then again, it is also described as a light mech, so maybe it is not operated by someone inside the armor. In any case, I believe that it fits much better with 1/72 scale figures than 28mm figures.

There are three different versions of the Comanche: the following models are the .50 HMG mounted version (US-SOTR14) and the flamethrower version (US-SOTR16). A bazooka and assault pod mounted version (US-SOTR15) also exists, but I don't own one.

The models come with the national identification symbol cast on the front of the hull, but I plan on removing it from the models. It just seems like kind of a bad place to have a big white star.

I don't particularly care for the layout of the flamethrower either, so I'll modify it so that all the weight is not distributed to the right side of the model. I'm thinking that the fuel tank would be better off fixed to the back.

For one of the suits, I hollowed out the interior so I could display it with an open hatch.

A comparison of a Koubu, a Comanche, and a Colossus.

The Comanche in the above picture is fitted with two arms, but they cannot rest at the sides of the suit. They need to be placed either to the front or the back of the body. To see if I had other options, I tested a pair of Chaos Space Marines Lightning Claws to see how they would look on the model.

I'm thinking that in general they look pretty good except for the spikes. For the actual finalized models, I'd probably attach some Power Fists instead of the Lightning Claws though.

Patlabor

Patlabor is an anime/manga series from the late 80's depicting the adventures of Section 2 of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police. I think that many people thought the series was boring, but I liked it because it was not flashy, and portrayed the Labors (giant robots), their operators, and maintenance crew in a rather mundane way.

In April, Patlabor: The Next Generation begins as a 1-cour live-action drama. The finale will be a theatrical release in 2015.

The costumes used in the live-action series are different from that of the original animated TV series.

Anime vs Dorama

At first, the muted colors of the new uniforms seem more "realistic", but after thinking about it for a while, the bright yellow vest actually makes more sense than the new design.

Ayame (photoshopped) vs. Erina

After all, if you were hanging around a bunch of lumbering giant robots, wouldn't you want friendly pilots to notice you so they don't step on you by accident? Even in real life, most of the motorcycle officers I see around town are wearing high-visibility safety vests when on traffic duty.

Obviously as with any successful giant robot franchise, many toys and plastic models of the robots exist. The plastic kits are primarily in 1/60 and 1/35 scale, with a couple of 1/72 kits of the Hannibal released by Kotobukiya back in 2008.

But who cares about the Hannibal? The iconic machine in Patlabor is the AV-98 Ingram, and the closest thing to a 1/72 AV-98 is from Kaiyodo. The figure below is the AV-98 Ingram 1 "Alphonse" (Revoltech Yamaguchi No. 10) operated by Noa Izumi.

The height of the AV-98 is given as 8.02m which scales down to about 11.1cm in 1/72. The toy itself is 11.8cm, so it may be too tall, but some of the features like the 37mm revolver cannon are underscale (closer to 1/76).

In any event, I'd say that it's close enough for what is essentially a fictional object (if you don't count the 1:1 prop that they use for the live-action show).

The figures in the picture below are the theatrical movie versions of AV-98 Ingram 1 (Revoltech Yamaguchi No. 042), and TV version AV-98 Ingram 2 (Revoltech Yamaguchi No. 014).

Step out of the car with your hands above your head.

Other Patlabor Revoltech figures include the AV-X0 Type Zero, various versions of the Brocken, Type J9 Griffon, and the very hard to find Helldiver. I believe all of the figures are box scale, so they may or may not be in scale with the AV-98s.

Red Blok

There are a lot of games that I don't play, but do buy the miniatures from. AT-43 is one of these games. I became aware of the AT-43 miniatures because of Paolo Parente's involvement in some of the initial design work for Rackham. The similarities in designs are particularly obvious for the Red Blok faction, and the Soviets of the Dust Universe. The armored soldiers of the Red Blok use the Kolossus powered armor. I thought that these would work very well in 1/72 as larger powered armor suits. There are four major types of the Kolossus, three of which are shown below.

Dragomirov Kolossus (RKATR21) with Gauss gun and RPG launcher

I don't particularly like the RPG launcher with the rocket peeking out from the barrel of the launcher. I'll probably drill out the end of the barrel so that the launch tube resembles that of a nebelwerfer. Also, why have such a limited use weapon on this type of machine at all? The RPG Kolossus (with a pair of RPG launchers) is especially questionable, since it would be almost useless after it expended its four rounds.

For some reason, the Dragomirov Kolossus units were very poorly assembled. I had models with arm joints that couldn't move, front plates that flopped around, and even one with a missing arm.

Spetsnatz Kolossus (RKATR17) with dual flamethrowers

Strielitz Kolossus (RKATR18) with machinegun and flamethrower

I felt the red-brown color used on these units was atypical of Russian war machines, and more like German red oxide primer. There's a snarky part of me which suspects that the color was used so that there would be no confusion that they indeed were part of the Red Blok. Also, why are they marked "KOLOSSUS" and not "КОЛОСС?" Why label your armor this way at all? Were T-34s marked "T-34" on the side of their turrets?

Anyway, here is my rendition of the Колосс with some partially finished modern Soviet NBC figures from Elhiem. I plan on using the non-com version of the Kolossus as the basis for all Gauss gun armed units.


I took off the flamethrower from a Strielitz Kolossus, and replaced it with a Gauss gun. I painted the Kolossus green, and then went over it with a black wash. I used a white wash on the original decals to give them a slightly bleached look. Russian turret numbers from Archer were then applied to the sides of the hull.

The size of the Kolossus also matches quite nicely with the Pro-Hobby Koubu from my previous entry. I can picture a WWWII scenario for the August Storm campaign involving Soviet powered armor against Japanese powered armor.

Koubu in... um... Desert Pink and Kolossus in Russian Green

I just wish that they would sell these as unassembled kits and save me the trouble of having to take them apart...


Some of the pieces will make a good start as the basis for a KV-47 scratch build project, or this really cool conversion by Haibane.


I think this will be my last post for the year. I don't know how other wargame bloggers manage to get so many entries written. I was aiming to make a post every two weeks, but struggled at times to write even one a month. However, I guess if you average my entries I did in fact exceed my goals.

Happy Holidays to All!

– EY

Sakura Taisen

The Sakura Wars RPG debuted back in 1996, and has spawned anime, manga, novels, models, figures, toys, a dedicated gift store, a café, musicals, and a movie.


The game is half tactical RPG and half dating sim, with a storyline set in a steampunk version of Taishō era Japan involving the conflict between the bishoujo of the Imperial Assault Force in their Koubu (Spirit Armor), and the power armored demons of the Black Sanctum Council.


Pro-Hobby (Icom) released a set of diecast 1/60 scale Koubu of the Imperial Assault Force in 2004. It was a rather strange move, since the Sakura Wars franchise didn't have a place in Pro-Hobby's extensive line of 1/144 military and N-scale train products. Four Koubu were produced (starting with product code 003, so at least two others were probably in the works) but the complete set was never finished. I'm guessing that at ¥3,500 each, they were too pricy for most collectors. I picked up Sakura's Koubu when they first came out, and only recently purchased two additional Koubu at a much lower price.

Despite their scale and the dimensions given in Sakura Wars Steam Military Factory, I think these 1/60 Koubu look pretty good with 1/72 figures. In my opinion, the look next to 1/72 figures is fairly consistent with the appearance of the Koubu in the manga and anime.


From left to right are Sakura's Koubu (PROPT-003), Iris's Koubu (PROPT-004), and Kanna's Koubu (PROPT-006). There is an additional black Koubu for Maria (PROPT-005). The Koubu are brightly colored, and resemble members of a super sentai team more than military vehicles. However, given that they fight demons from the netherworld there's not much to say about the appropriateness of the colors, though Sakura's pink Koubu and Iris's Koubu with a bow tied in the rear are particularly cute.


If I ever get any more of these models, I'll paint them olive green as shown at the 統合軍造兵 Arsenal.

As a side note, after almost a decade and a half, the first translated version of a Sakura Wars game - Sakura Wars V ~ So Long, My Love - will make its appearance in North America. I think the game was initially announced by NIS for late 2009, but it has now moved to early 2010. Versions will be made for PS2 and Wii platforms.

Destroid Spartan

I received this package on Friday, and had been looking forward to getting it. These Imai Destroid kits in 1/72 have been offered at close to US$100 on eBay so I have been trying to hold out for a Bandai re-release for quite a while. I saw one for sale at a price that I considered reasonable, so went ahead an bought it.


Upon opening the kit, I was filled with a sense of nostalgia. I purchased my first Imai Macross kits back in high school. I think they were only US$8 or US$9 then, but it seemed like quite a bit of money. I wonder if the glue still works?


After stroking the plastic a little, and scanning the sprues, I started to build some of the parts. First were the hands.


Then the shoulders. Unfortunately, the doors to the missle pods are molded shut.


The locator pins for parts 49-50 and 51-52 will have to be cut off for this to be aligned correctly.


The crossbars at the rear of the shoulders should be glued only after dry-fitting the inserts. If you cut off the pins to glue these parts, they will be a little off, and the inserts will not sit properly in their positions. Some filing and will be necessary as well.

This kit has moved to the front of the queue for me, and everything else will have to wait for a while.