First Model of 2018: Jovian Chronicles Pathfinder Alpha Resin Kit

The turn of the new year saw me working on the DP9/Fusion Models Pathfinder Alpha. It was meant to be fixed-pose, but I can't leave things well enough alone, so I delved into my box of joints and made this one fully articulated. As with all mods, this proved to have its own issue. Namely, that it wasn't made to be jointed. Assembled stock, you'd be alright. I wasn't doing stock. 

As such, there's no room for well-anchored sockets and things to nestle naturally flush. The upper and forearms are too stunty, ditto the thighs and lower legs, so it was a choice between things being sticky-outy and being well anchored. The third alternative is smaller joints, but they're not as solid, and quite frankly I didn't want to spend the extra money. The objective here was to use what I had, so I did. Color wise, I chose to go with a weathered look in Anaheim Electronics colors, as this thing would be getting sandblasted by micrometeorites and bits of flying metal all day long, probably. So...

It has a waist now. It can even angle forwards and backwards (and side to side; it's a ball joint)  so as to crouch. 

And a neck. It can look up and down now. 

The left leg comes with an open hatch for beam saber storage and a beam saber (unlit) hand. I closed the hatch (open ones always break, in my experience) and stowed the hand. It also came with a base I didn't need, so I didn't even bother to paint it. A Bandai Action Base is more appropriate now, anyway. I mounted the sensor dish differently from the directions as well; this is more as per the first (Moscato) version. 

There is no big hulking appropriately proportioned Wyvern, so here's an MSIA Dom model for scale. 

Now its feet aren't paddle-flat, courtesy of the superfluous backpack panels I turned into foot bits. Thanks to the ball-joint ankles they still have quite a range of movement. 

The beam rifle's pointy stock had to be snipped, otherwise the mecha couldn't hold it well; the pointy bit would have to be on the inside of its elbow or the arm would have to be ramrod straight. So, a bit of a snip an some filing were needed. While overall not a bad design, it does add weight to the tiny ball joint I used for a wrist. Luckily it's a fairly light piece of resin, so it holds. Also, you can position the hand and arm so the loading force doesn't slowly pull at the joint, so overall it's a win.

Technical review points: as a kit it's simple, solid, and  actually made of good resin. If you like mecha in general and Jovian Chronicles in particular and aren't a picky bastard like I am (quite frankly, I prefer the Moscato-designed 1st gen exo armors), chances are you'll love this.

This model is for sale (or trade for classic RAFM Heavy Gear/Jovian Chronicles minis). Email me if you're interested. Otherwise, it'll be on eBay by Monday 1/15/17.

EDIT: This model has been sold.

WIP: Another mecha resin garage kit.....

This thing has actually been painted and is curing after being matte coated in the cold January sun, but I thought I'd give you some pre-color WIP shots. This is a Pathfinder model from Dream Pod 9, fitted with leftover joints from my bits box. I prefer the old John Moscato design, but I thought I'd give this one a whirl. 

I wish the legs were 30% bigger and the side torso vent bits higher (hmm, could've cut and reset those, I guess) but oh well.

A Million Variations of Viper....

So as you can see from this compilation of the plastic works of the late Nate "nnenn" Nielson, there are A LOT of alternate Viper color schemes to choose from. Almost.... no, not almost, there ARE too many. In the coming weeks, I'll select one for the resin kit and go from there. The reason I'm not painting the kit stock colors is simple; the highly collectible Revoltech will be coming in (yes, I caved) and the two will stand shoulder to shoulder. So, the kit will need to not only reflect its Gradius forbears, but also its ZOE incarnation. 

Sigh. 

I, Dolores...

Resin kits are a tremendous pain in the ass.


But, I'm getting ahead of myself. 


As you may or may not have figured out, I'm a tremendous mecha-head. Two of my all-time favorite games are Zone of the Enders and ZoE: Anubis for the PS2. They're high-speed, kickass 3rd person mecha-combat games from the same crew (sort of) that brought you the Metal Gear Solid series, and the designs are simply amazing. The producers made several half-assed attempts to expand the series into other media. That brings us to this tragedy:

I bought kit before I saw the series, and lord, the series ain't good. It's a lighthearted farce that makes a mockery out of an otherwise very serious game universe. That big trucker fella on  the right? He spends the series driving that pink mecha in the back. The pink mecha? She has an AI personality laughingly made to resemble a 12 year old japanese girl. 


I am not kidding. 


It made me very sad. 


Brave lil trooper that I am, I watched the entire series. 


Later, I had to cleanse my brain by watching the grittiest episodes of the Band of Brothers series. 


I will leave it at that.


Anyway, because the ZoE protagonist mecha, Jehuty, is my grail kit (more on that in another post) and Dolores isn't a bad design at all, I quickly jumped on the chance to buy a pair of kits from a recaster on the cheap (and I mean CHEAP). They came like this:

Also, because I like toys, I decided to articulate as many of her joints as humanly possible with aid of readily available (and really, really cheap) ball joints from Kotobukiya and Wave. Let me tell you, if you love drilling and power tools, then take on a project like this, because you'll do a lot of it. Just be sure to mask up, because resin dust will kill you. In addition, Dolores' original paint scheme was... well.... hmmm...

So I took it upon myself to change things up a bit, and added a lot more black and crimson:

This was a fixed-pose resin kit, so there was some sanding and green-stuff remodeling involved, primarily around the knees, hips and torso. She's jointed in the neck, shoulders, upper arms, elbows, hips and knees. I wanted to joint the wrists, but they were just too slender to cut into and joint. In fact, I ended up having to repair them with some fine metal rod (aka paper clip). I ended up with a kit that is, quite satisfyingly, posable:

Although those knee joints give me pause. I may have to hunt down hardier ones in the near future. 

That wire base thingy holding her up is $4.50 and sold in packs of 2 from Hobbylink Japan, which is where I also purchased the joints. I'm rethinking the decision to leave her wings black, and may paint those pink so they accent her engine nacelles. Yes, those are double-ball joints. They have amazing articulation and hold up quite well. 


Anyhow this was such a fun and satisfying project that I may do this to other things not meant to have joints, like 40k kits. If you're hobby-inclined and like a nice involved project, I recommend trying it yourself. Word to the wise, though, do your drilling somewhere well-ventilated and wear a mask to keep the dust out, because it's very fine and will get in your lungs. 


Happy Thanksgiving, people.