Necrophidius

The Necrophidius is one of those bogus pseudo-undead creatures that were so common in the Fiend Folio. The illustration shows it as a huge fanged skull mounted on a ribless vertebral column, but the text seemed to imply that the construct was a regular skull atop the skeleton of a large constrictor snake.


I always had the the impression that the Necrophidius moved about by means of levitation, rather than slithering along the ground because of these illustrations. Certainly no normal snake would be able to manage these postures, and levitation could also explain its ability to move about without making a sound.


Shown below are a selection of Necrophidius miniatures. The first miniature is the Citadel Death Worm (Fiend Factory FF7-1), followed by the Nekrophidian (Black Tree Design M161), and the Death Worm from the Lich Mage and Death Worm set (RAFM 3735).


The Citadel miniature is identical to the Fiend Folio illustration, while the RAFM miniature is probably closer to the written description of the Necrophidius (in that the vertebrae are not grossly over-sized). The BTD miniature differs because it has a serpentine skull instead of a humanoid one.

I use these miniatures as undead, since they are animated skeletal constructs, which in my game are created through necromancy. I do allow the possibility for magic users to animate skeletons without using necromancy, but why go through the trouble of digging up a bunch of old bones when you can animate material that is more easily obtainable?

萱場 かつおどり

かつおどり by pixiv artist cana＠非地デジ化

The Kayaba Katsuodori was a Japanese concept plane of WWII. It is usually described as a ramjet interceptor armed with two 30mm cannon. Fantastic Plastic translates katsuodori as "energy", but I personally think the name refers to Sula leucogaster. The Katsuodori was supposed to take off powered by four solid fuel booster rockets, accelerating until it achieved the necessary speed for the ramjet to function. Due to various technical issues the plane never got off the drawing board, and the project was shelved in 1943. More information about the Katsuodori can be found at Hikoki: 1946 (under "Other Aircraft").

There are two models of this airplane that I am aware of, both in resin. One is from ANiGRAND Craftswork in 1/144 scale, and the other is from Unicraft Models in 1/72 scale.


The Unicraft box art is very attractive, but I was totally disappointed by this kit. There are supposed to be 15 resin parts and a vacuform canopy, but I only received 13 parts (I'm missing a pair of wheels).


The parts are cast in a hard orangish resin with very rough and irregular surfaces. All the parts have air bubbles in them, and every piece is covered with flash, particularly the ill-defined cockpit opening which is practically sealed by the stuff.


I don't think I've ever encountered a resin kit as awful as this one. Unicraft bills their kits as "for experienced modelers", but I think they have "experienced modeler" confused with "miracle worker". It will probably take so much effort to make this kit into a decent looking model that I was wondering if it wouldn't be easier to learn how to use a CAD program to create a 3D model and just have it printed out at Shapeways... except now I find out that tomorrow (Dec. 14), Meng Models will be releasing a 1/72 injection plastic kit containing two Katsuodori for half the price of the Unicraft kit!

絶望した！ Unicraft に絶望した！

Diecast Police Cars

Diecast cars are frequently used for gaming, but the market is dominated by box scale (with no indication of the actual scale), 1/64, or 1/43 scale models. Hongwell, Yat-Ming, Real-X, and Furuta make 1/72 scale cars, but they are not particularly easy to find. Oxford makes 1/76 scale cars, but they don't always look right for the fanatically scale conscious.

Matchbox of course was once the king of box scale diecast cars. Most of the cars are marked with the actual scale on the bottom, so it is possible to find some appropriately scaled cars for use in 1/72.

One type of car that Matchbox seems to like making in ~1/72 scale is the police car. Last week, I had to stop by the local megamart to pick up some cars because I saw that the 2011 line had a Highway Patrol 1978 Dodge Monaco.

Anyone remember this show?

Matchbox Dodge Monaco Police Cruiser (MB53) 1/71 scale


The car scales out nicely, though they are using a modern low profile lightbar instead of the proper older model lightbar, and the roof is black rather than white. I bought one model, but I want to get a few more of these.

Matchbox Crown Victoria Police Interceptor (MB54) 1/70 scale


These are older Matchbox police cars. I'm not sure if the markings are for actual police cars, but what I really want to get are the Highway Patrol and El Segundo PD versions of this model. The only problem I find with these models is that they sit too high (even for 1/70 scale). The 2011 Matchbox Crown Vic is a taxi (as Ford decided to discontinue the CVPI) so was not used in this post.

Matchbox Ford Police Interceptor (MB49) 1:70 scale


This car is the successor to the CVPI, based on the Ford Taurus. I had the misfortune to drive a Taurus many years ago, and it had awful driving characteristics. They must have made some major improvements since then to be able to use it as the basis for their new police interceptor. Fargo PD has adopted this vehicle. I'm not sure if the Sheriff markings on the other car are used in reality. Again, I think these models sit too high for their scale.

Maisto Police Car


This car is from the Maisto Fresh Metal line. It does not have a scale, but is roughly 1/69 scale by my estimation. It is loosely based on the 1998 Cadillac Seville, and bears a generic front grill because of licensing issues. Unlike the Matchbox cars, the Maisto cars have suspensions like lowriders, and sit about 5mm lower than the Matchbox cars.