Showing posts with label surface vessel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label surface vessel. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 1, 2016

White Elephants

Sometimes when an impressively large model catches my eye, I have to take a reality check and think about whether there is any point in owning the thing.

Here are a few items that gave me a moment of pause before I decided not to buy them.

1. Kyoshinhei by Good Smile Company


This figure represents a God Warrior from the Studio Ghibli short film produced for a 2012 exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo.


Giant God Warrior Appears in Tokyo posted by f711513007

At 50cm in height, the figure is impressive, but I have to say that it would be well under it's actual 1/72 height as represented in the short.

The figure is still probably very undersized compared to the original God Warrior as presented in Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.


Scale issues aside, the final price with shipping would have been very high, and there was the very real possibility that the model could have sustainded damaged during shipping (polystone resin is not the most durable of materials).

2. Colossal Titan Coin Bank by Bandai


This PVC figure represents the aberrant type 60m Titan from Attack on Titan.


The Colossal Titan at 60cm, is even taller than the God Warrior. It is actually 1/100 scale, but that's something I would have been willing to overlook with regard to a fictional flayed giant.

3. Flower-class Corvette by Revell


Even now, I often contemplate buying this kit, but at 85cm in length I wonder where I would store it. The pool might be an option, but I couldn't keep it docked there all the time.

4. U-Boat Type VIIC by Revell


I would seriously consider a waterline U-boat since they could be used for gaming every now and then, but at 93.3cm long, the type VIIC and the even larger type IXC submarine (106.3cm) are just really big.

I suppose that the kit could be converted easily enough to a waterline model, but that seems almost like throwing away half the kit.

5. Skipjack-class Submarine by Moebius Models


As with the U-boats, I would definitely consider a waterline model of the Skipjack for an Ice Station Zebra scenario, but at 106.7cm, the full hulled kit is a monster. I believe that this model is also sold in Revell packaging.

6. Gato-class Submarine by Revell


Yet another submarine. This time the 132cm long Gato-class sub. If I were to have bought this model, I would have been tempted to get two. One built up in the standard way, and one built up as the USS Sea Tiger from the 1959 film Operation Petticoat.

Balao-class submarine

However, I probably would have been bothered by the fact that the subs used in filming were actually Balao-class submarines, while the USS Seadragon which reputedly operated in red primer color for a time was a Sargo-class submarine.

7. C3-type Cargo Submarine by Lindberg


Lindberg went out of business, but the kits are still being produced by Round 2 LLC under the Lindberg brand name. The model is 148.6cm long, and comes with four Kaiten manned torpedoes.

8. Saturn V Rocket by Dragon


There was a time when I was really interested in getting the 1/96 scale Revell Saturn V, but by the time the Dragon version came around, that desire was a distant memory. At 153.7cm tall, I'm not sure if there is a commercially produced 1/72 kit that is larger than this one.

In closing, I'll have to admit that at times I look at my existing piles of lead and plastic and wonder what the point of it all is. However, finishing a project no matter how small, or getting to play a game with newly painted miniatures always brings a sense of satisfaction, and puts me back to the proper hobbyist perspective.


Thursday, January 21, 2010

Tokubetsu Kougekiki


Indoctrination, propaganda, and fanaticism paved the way for gyokusai (玉砕) - a term derived from an old Chinese aphorism that went along the lines of it being better to die as a shattered jewel, than to live as an intact tile. Kamikaze Images is a good resource for more information on this topic, particularly from the Japanese viewpoint.

As the war situation became more desperate for Japan, this type of thinking lead to the development of a number of special attack (tokko) weapons to carry out suicide missions. The majority of them were not used, and of the ones that were, most were militarily ineffective. The Special Attack Weapons (特別攻撃機) set produced by Boford Japan, was released back in the middle of 2007, and replicates some of these tokko weapons in 1/72 scale.


Nakajima Ki-115 Tsurugi (Toko1)



Comments: Plastic parts. The wings look undersized, and are about a scale foot too short.

Nakajima Kikka (Toko2)



Comments: I'm still kicking myself for not getting the MPM Kikka while it was still in productions, so I don't have anything to compare the size of this version with. The body is made of plastic, with an overscale copper aerial. It may be a bit too long. The wings also look undersized, and it has ugly giant hinges protruding from the wing surfaces. The model comes with a detachable bomb, and working landing gear in the wings, but not for the nose. There are no bays for the wheels to retract into, so they protrude from the underside of the aircraft.

Yokosuka MXY-7 Ohka (Toko3)



Comments: Plastic body. Comes with model of engine. Thick, ugly overscaled sights. Scales out very nicely.

Kaiten Type 1 (Toko4)



Comments: Comes in two pieces. The forward section is diecast metal, while the rear portion is plastic. The model was put together so that the rotation of the rear section is a bit off. It is overscale by about a foot, and noticably longer than the Fine Molds Kaiten.


Kaiten Type 4 (Toko5)



Comments: Comes in two pieces. The forward section is diecast metal, while the rear portion is plastic. Possibly a couple of scale feet too short. I could not find a reference for the length.

Kaiten Type 10 and Type 92 Torpedo (Toko6)



Comments: The forward section is diecast metal, while the rear portion is plastic. The front of the torpedo is improperly attached so it appears bent. The torpedo does scale out nicely at about 23.5 scale feet, but I could not find a reference for the length of the Type 10.

Shinyo Type 1/Maru Ni (Toko7)



Comments: Plastic body. Comes with model of propeller. Scales out to about 15 feet long, but I could not verify if this is the correct length.

Shinyo Type 5 (Toko8)



Comments: Plastic body. Comes with model of Nambu 13mm pistol. Length scales out well, but may be a tick too wide.

There is also a secret figure which is a 54mm miniature of a fukuryu (伏龍) diver with pole mine, but the set I purchased did not come with it.

Ultimately, it's better to live as an intact jewel. 
At least one of these pilots was just 17.