The O

Paptimus Scirocco's the O is one of the more recognizable mobile suits from the Zeta Gundam anime series, and is a really solid, iconic design. Boasting a large, overpowered beam cannon, heavy armor, and high mobility, the O was far from ponderous or slow, and boasted a set of sub-arms under its skirts, making it a formidable hand to hand opponent as well. 

So, having a bunch of spare parts in hand, I built it as a Heavy Gear. 

The legs are from a RAFM Grizzly that came in a sealed blister with no torso. The torso, backpack, and arms I had on-hand from a RAFM Spitting Cobra since the late 1990's. The skirts are missile pod doors from Alternative Armies. (as is the head bit)  You can actually order bits from them via email, and the AA staff is friendly and very easy to work with. I, of course, got more than just a few doors. More on that later. The sub-arm sticking out is from an old RAFM Stone Mason gear mini. RAFM's quality control was atrocious, so this blister, which was missing parts in the old days, became just spare parts. Those bits on the shoulders.... I forget where they came from, but they looked like folded-up sub-arms to me, and bulked up the shoulders satisfactorily.  

That backpack is from the Spitting Cobra as well. Those thrusters on the butt? A Silent Death fighter. As with all Heavy Gear minis of the period, it's really served well by bits broadening the shoulders so you can more solidly attach the arms to the torso. 

The O traditionally carries an enormous beam rifle, but this one turned into something slightly more mundane. That gun is two plastic heavy bolters mated together; I debated for a long time whether to include the clip and make it a machinegun, but as it has a port for ejecting spent casings, I found a suitable bit for one.

Happy Monday, people. 

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.