What will be the next Ma.k kit from Hasegawa?

After the recent release of the excellent styrene rendition of the 1/20 GrosserHund, that will keep Ma.k modelers busy for some time, I am wondering what the next Maschinen Krieger kit from Hasegawa will be. This is of course only the realm of pure speculation for me as I don’t have any insight on the plans of Hasegawa, but nevertheless, considering the recent history and the designs in the genre, let’s see what the options are.

First of all, Hasegawa has never released a manned suit (the likes of SAFS or Melusine for example) and I don’t believe they will any time soon. This seems to be a segment already well covered by Wave and 3Q and there doesn’t appear to be a large enough market for multiple kits of the same suit. The same goes for the other designs that are currently in the portfolio of 3Q and Wave (Krote, Super Jerry, Gans, Hornisse and their variants). So I don’t think they’ll go for one of these designs.

Second, all previous releases from Hasegawa cover a subject that was never previously released in Styrene (at least in that scale) and that was very popular and with great versions produced by the Garage Kit industry. Think about the Falke, previously released in resin by Futch and Rainbow Egg, The Lunadiver and Nutrocker (Nutrcracker) available from D3Works and the latest GrosserHund again from Rainbow Egg. It is true that Hasegawa never did a simple copy of the resin version (think about the slightly different hull shapes of the Nutcracker or the size and shape differences of the GrosserHunds), but they probably took inspiration from those versions to better understand the design and details of the model and to get ideas on the engineering of the kit.

So what will be their next pick?

I believe it will be a design that has never before been released as Injection kit, one that has proven popular at Wonderfest in its previous resin incarnations, one that can fit in a reasonable size box and that is not priced at a point that will make it too expensive for most to purchase.

In my opinion some possible candidates that fall within the above criteria are

• the 1/20 Gladiator, (iconic Ma.k design, previously released by Bomvol Und Zionel and by another GK producer that I don’t remember the name of),
• the 1/20 SturmKafer (a resin kit of this great design was made by Love Love Garden),
• the 1/20 Dollhouse (there are a few of versions of this and the most recent release was done by the GK vendor Saikido)

I am afraid that the Konigs Krote and the other large walker: the Camel (two dreams of many Ma.k fans) may be out of the plans: they are both very large and considering the recent trend of both Hasegawa and Wave to revise the size of their models to be a bit larger than the previously released GK versions, these seem unlikely to sit within reasonable sized boxes and within an affordable price-range.

I would also leave out of the candidates the 1/35 F-Boot (GK from T.H.A.T) and the 1/35 Elefanten (there is a fantastic resin version of this currently available from Rainbow Egg), but for different reasons. The former one is not as popular a design as others (Gladiator for example) while for the latter Katoo San recently released a new variant and I believe that Hasegawa won’t step over him on this (but they may reach an agreement and who knows? )

Other designs are also possible, some less, some more popular than others. One of these is the Eggeater in 1/35 scale to counteract the Lunadiver, however I am not aware that any garage kit of the Eggeater in that scale was ever released.

These are obviously only speculations based on my personal views and I am just as curious as many Ma.k fans to see what Hasegawa will come up with for their next Ma.k Kit. Only time will tell.
Thanks for reading!

Rappoon completed!

It’s been a long time since my last post and in the meantime 2011 has come to an end. I have quite a bit of Ma.k to catch up to and my first post for the year is about the Rappoon I’ve been working on for a few months and that is finally completed! Here is a short diary of this build.

After the construction which involved the bashing of the Raptor from Modelkasten and the Nitto Raccoon, I ended up having to chose a pose for the suit. Given that it is a reconnaissance unit I decided for posing the Rapoon as if it was pointing its finger indicating an enemy target. After the pose was more or less decided,  I built the joints. I used Apoxie Sculpt for the purpose and as usual for me, they turned out a bit to oversized for the scale.

The suit was then sprayed with a dark brown basecoat from a rattle can and then the first colour (the light green) was applied with a brush. Painting of the light green was done in thin, successive layers and to give a bit more interest to an already complicate looking suit, in a way to let the basecoat be somewhat still visible. The second colour in this camo scheme is the RLM-75 Grey and again this was applied in thin layers. The id markings are in sky blue. All the paints were either glossy or semi glossy which allowed for direct application of the decals. Now, talking about decals, one mistake I made was to use the old Modelkasten ones that came with the Raptor Kit. Unfortunately old decals tend to turn quite yellow and appear to be much thicker than new ones so the results on the model were not particularly exciting.

Once the decals had dried overnight, I moved on to wearing out the paint by means of a 3M superfine abrasive sponge. The sponge seems to work better than abrasive paper for this purpose. It follows the shape of the suit in a much gentler way than the paper and the scratches are not too deep.

Next, I went about doing pinwashes all around the suit using oil paints (mostly Burnt Umber) and when these were dry, I sprayed the suit with a coat of flat paint.
The final weathering included some yellow and ochre oil paint filters on the grey areas and pigments from the Tamyia Weathering sets.

Some more images of the finished Rappoon

Sentinel – 1/16 SAFS Space Type Fireball Unpainted Version – Review

A few months back, Japanese producer Sentinel released a completed “Action Model” of the Fireball in 1/16 scale. The Fireball is the first version of the Space Type of the SAFS. It is easily recognizable because the rocket engines, fuel tanks, tubing and the rest of the space propulsion system are all external on the back of the suit.

The original Fireball from Sentinel was poseable and both the hood and the body were openable. It sported the classic skull color scheme and came with a female pilot. Apart from being a quality “toy” what attracted the attention of many Ma.k Modellers was the fact that the Fireball was moulded in ABS which is a type of plastic that can be painted with standard acrylics or enamel paints.

After the first run of finished Fireballs (which I missed out on), Sentinel released another, very limited issue of the raw, unpainted suit. The new issue doesn’t include a pilot and is completely black, in the colour of the ABS it was mouled in. Aside from that, all the other features of the Fireball have been retained: openable hood and body, poseable joints, option of open or closed fist manipulator.

The box art is quite nice and somewhat unusual, it is not in the classic Ma.k style, with the manilla colour background to the illustration. I like the box and I think that its graphic design and the picture of the suit work well. The box has a front cover that opens like a book to reveal its content.

What more could we ask for, than a beautiful blank canvas ready to paint on? Well, one thing for sure: a set of decals to apply to the painted suit! But of course, Sentinel and Kow Yokoyama thought this through and the suite comes complete with an good decal sheet in 1/16. The sheet is complete enough to allow covering the suit with all standard markings, however some unit logos in scale would have been a nice addition.

The 1/16 version of the Fireball is quite big compared to a 1/20 suit.

The details on the mould are pretty good although there are stil some visible seamlines that do require cleaning if you want to achieve a good result. Still, probably a quicker option than building one from a kit (if there was one ).

One point to note is that I couldn’t find an easy way (didn’t try too hard, I must admit) to remove the front part of the body to make it easier to reach the details of the interior when painting. The hood and parts of the rocket plant also don’t seem to be removable (without breaking them off, that is). This makes it harder to clean the seamlines from the piping and the engine bells.

Genzo Ihara of Drunk Dog didn’t really care too much about taking those pieces apart: he removed all the rocket engine parts and converted the Fireball to a earthly SAFS which he then brilliantly painted.

Kow Yokoyama instead didn’t modify it much and made it into a Snowman-Fireball

The price tag for this suite is not on the low end of the scale, and I am not a great fan of action models, but I think that being in 1/16 scale rather than the smaller 1/20 and being is fully openable makes it worthwhile. This particular, unpainted version is cheaper than the full, painted one and it will please the modeller that wants to render it in his own painting style.

Wave 1/20 Super Ball – Review

I’ve been lucky enough to get a hold of a Super Ball, the latest, limited edition Ma.k kit from Wave and here is its review!

In its essence, the Super Ball is a Snake Eye with SAFS (or standard Fireball) hatch, with a Raptor laser and with an extra sensor on the torso. As the story goes (from the back of the box), the production of Snake Eye could not keep up with the demand because of the long time required to produce the new Indirect Optical System. So the Optical System from the SAFS Fireball was mounted on what was otherwise a Snaek Eye suit. The resulting Super Ball was not as good as the Snake Eye in searching for enemies, but it was “perfect” in all other aspects and had a more pore powerful laser. It kinda makes sense and it adds some rationale to an already cool looking suit.

The question some may have is: did we really need a new kit to build a suit that can be easily made from other existing models? Technically not, but there are two good reasons to buy this kit. First of all, to kit-bash a Super Ball you would need a Wave Snake Eye and a Nitto Fireball (either kits are pretty rare and expensive to source) plus a Raptor laser gun, hopefully from your spares box. The second reason is that the Box-art, Camo Card and decal sheet are in themselves sufficient to entice many Ma.k fans (including me).

Most Ma.k kits are not very easy to get. Unless you are in Japan you can’t simply to your local hobby shop and expect to find them (and if you do, it is normally not at reasonable prices). Most of the times, the only way to buy Ma.k kits is from online shops like Hobby Link, Ami Ami, Hobby Search etc. But this kit is particularly difficult to source if you are not in Japan because it was only available exclusively (for shipping within that country only) by mail order from the Post Hobby shop. I had to get it through a proxy service and I was lucky to get my order through early as it quickly became unavailable even from that proxy. I hope that this type of limited editions doesn’t become too common with Ma.k as the demand for the kits is there and it looks a bit weird that such limitations on the distribution channels are put in place.

• Maker: Wave
• Release Date: 28-05-2011
• Type: Injection moulded styrene
• Sprues/Parts: 7 main sprues from the Snake Eye and SAFS, one (retooled) from the Fireball, four small sprues with the laser gun and the hatch parts.
• Decals: provided: all new sheet.
• Camo Card: provided (5 colour schemes illustrated between the card and the box)
• Price Range: Yen 2730 at release
• Availability: Limited edition, only available via Post Hobby within Japan (not distributed to the usual Online hobby shops)

Box and box-art

The box is in a beautiful retro-style that resembles the old SF3D and Ma.k kits from Nitto. It is an unusual take on the packaging: of late, we’ve seen many beautiful boxes that have the classic manilla colour but with a more modern take on the styling (See the 3Q Hornisse or the Krote as examples). Also new is the title of the series: Ma.k in S.F.3.D. which is already in the title of the book by Max Watanabe, but that was never before on a kit.

The box is really big, to contain all the sprues it comes with. It is double the size of an old Nitto Fireball box.

Sprue details

The box is quite full and contains all the sprues necessary to make a Snake Eye with sprues from the SAFS and from the previously unheard of Wave Fireball. The parts are all white except for the joints sprue which is dark grey. Overall you get a lot of plastic for the money and after a build you are left with a lot of parts for the spare box.

SAFS Sprue A - Torso, hand and right arm

SAFS Sprue B - Legs and feet

Snake Eye Sprue K - Back and sides

Snake Eye Sprue L - Engine bells and pads

The engine bells are the ones of the Snake Eye: in  one single piece and with minimal seamlines.

Snake Eye Sprue J - Pads and Radars

Hatch and Laser sprues

As is typical for Wave kits, the Super Ball doesn’t come with multimedia parts (springs, wires etc.). Joints and power pipes are all made of PE and will therefore be a bit hard to paint on. If you plan to sculpt the suit joints and to use springs or other alternative for the power pipes, then this will not be an issue at all.

Joints and pipes sprue

The Fireball sprue is not the one from Nitto: it carries the Wave label and it seems like a whole new tooling.

Fireball sprue M

The kit contains one pilot head which is the same that was included in the Snake Eye kit and that is of really good quality with only minor seam lines to clean.

Pilot Head and helmet sprue

The Camo card is in the typical Ma.k Style.

The Decals are beautiful. I like the shark mouth and the 8-ball. There is also the more classic Skull to choose from.

And at last, the instruction sheet.

Conclusion

This is a bit of a difficult kit to come about and the same design can be built by using parts from other models, but if you have the chance, just grab one. Whether you are just going to  collect it or you are planning to build it, i think there is value for you in this one. Being mostly based on the Snake Eye and SAFS the kit is bound to be really quick and easy to build and just very well engineered.

 

New Build: 1/20 Rappoon

This build is inspired by the Rappoon on the cover of the Ma.k Modelling Book by Kow Yokoyama. It consists of the bash of a Nitto SF3D Raccoon with a Modelkasten Raptor. I am using sensors, exhaust and limbs from the Raccoon and the body, feet and lower legs from the Raptor.
I am trying to retain, untouched, all the Nitto SAFS sprues that come with the Moka Raptor and using all I can instead from the Raccoon sprues. It turned out that Nitto were very lean in the box content (which explains also de difference in size between the thin, old Nitto ones and the thick Wave ones of recent times). The main sprue for the SAFS and the Raccoon are actually different and there are a number of parts, especially the SAFS exhausts, that are missing in the Raccoon. So some scratchbuilding will be required.

Unfortunately the fitting between the hatch of the Modelkasten Raptor and the body was very poor. So I ended up casting a copy of the hatch from a Wave Raptor. Not nice, maybe, but helpful.

Most “sophisticated” rework i did on this suit is the right hand that was reshaped with the index finger straight in a pointing stance.

Next up Joint sculpting and full test assembly.

Maschinen Krieger Graphix – Book Review

The latest book to cover the Maschinen Krieger universe: Maschinen Krieger Graphix is a collection of articles from the issues of Model Graphix magazine from February 1999 to December 2001. The articles range from individual model builds to event reports like the Ma.k World expo in 2000 and cover a wide variety of subjects.

• Title: Maschinen Krieger Graphix Vol.1 1999 to 2001
• Author: Various
• Publisher:
• Release Date: April 2011
• Language: Japanese
• Pages: 256 (This book is thick!)
• Format: A4, Mostly colour, soft cover with sleeve. Back-to-front (bound on the right side) like most Japanese Magazines
• Price: 3700 Yen.
• Availability: Available from most online hobby stores (as of early may 2011)

This book is a collection of articles and as such it should be taken. The only common thread across the whole volume is the subject of Maschinen Krieger. Articles are collated in the order they were originally published and are not grouped by logical theme (e.g. individual Ma.k designs, contests, interviews…). Having said this, the wealth of visual and, for the Japanese reader, textual information contained in this book is remarkable. There are a number of Ma.k designs by Kow Yokoyama and models that are not present in the Encyclopedia or covered in other publications on the genre. Because of the nature of the original content the book contains also fan designs and interesting insight on moments in the history of Maschinen Krieger, like an article that covers the 1/1 scale SAFS or Kow Yokoyama’s modelling studio, or fascinating images of model shops completely full of Ma.k Kits.

My favourite article in the whole volume is the one covering Kow Yokoyama’s full scratch build of the original 1/20 Lunadiver Stingray, with many photos covering each steps. Simply fascinating!

Another great model covered in the book is this rendition of the Sand Stalker:

While the quality of the pagination is very good, at times the image quality is not up to scratch. Some of the photos, especially on the older articles, are blurry and the colours are out of balance and a bit bland. On the more recent articles instead, the quality is considerably better.

The back-to-front binding format takes a little time getting used to and shows that the book retains very closely the original format that appeared in the Model Graphix magazine over the years.

The book covers some interesting dioramas featuring kits that have become extremely rare over the years. Articles cover construction painting and the whole spectrum of the Ma.k modelling activities.

A design previously unkown to me: the Zwei. Looks really Ma.k, but I don’t even know if it is from Kow Yokoyama or from a Fan.

A really useful features of the book has to be the alphabetic index of designs and models split in Mercenary Army and Strahl Democratic Republic. Beware that some designs are not covered in the index though.

Conclusion

I must admit that at first I was a bit perplexed with this book. Its seemed like a messy collection of almost unrelated topics and the back-to-front binding didn’t make navigating them very comfortable. Within a couple of days of picking it up and putting it down, though it started to grow on me to the point that now I really like it. There are so many interesting and unusual designs, both from Kow and from fans, kit and scratch-builds and moments in the life of Ma.k that make this book a must have for the fan of the genre.

Ma.k in SF3D by Max Watanabe – Book Review

This is the first book by renowned Japanese modeller Max Watanabe on the subject of Maschinen Krieger. It is a book for modellers and covers the construction and the painting of three classic subjects of the genre: the Lunadiver Stingray, the Super Jerry (Gigant Floh) and the Falke. A number of variant of each model is built and painted in the book showcasing Watanabe’s own painting style and techniques and a number of awesome colour schemes. To be precise the volume displays 5 versions of the Lunadiver, 4 of the Super Jerry and 7 (seven!) of the Falke.

• Title: Ma.k in SF3D Vol.1
• Author: Max Watanabe
• Publisher: Hobby Japan
• Release Date: March 2011
• Language: Japanese
• Pages: 130
• Format: Full colour Paperback with sleeve, 297x210mm (A4)
• Extras: CD-ROM with all the images of the book
• Price Range: 2800Yen
• Availability: Sold out on all major Hobby sites as of 12/04/2011. Available on some auction sites.

Even if the models seem to be built mostly straight out of the box, the book covers some interesting techniques like a really good approach to reproduce weld beads. It also shows various figure modifications. The book main focus, though is on the painting, showing airbrush and weathering techniques and some exotic products used to achieve effects like cracking in the paintwork.

Max Watanabe’s style is characteristic for the colour depth and for the bold washes that produce dirty looking models with very high contrasting panel lines and details. I really like this style because it reminds me of what some modellers were doing back in the eighties on armour and aircraft subjects.

The book is printed on gloss paper and the quality of the images is excellent. There are many full page images that really bring out the details and allow for close study of the models.

The text is mostly limited to small fragments to complement the images to describe the various techniques, but not being a Japanese speaker, I can’t really comment on the quality of such text.

It is quite evident by his presence in many photos that the collaboration with Kow Yokoyama for the creation of this book was very important. Max Watanabe and Kow Yokoyama have very different styles when it comes to paint Ma.k models and of course one would be driven to think that Kow’s, mostly hand painted style, is the “right” one for Ma.k. Well, in his book Watanabe focuses mostly on the use of the airbrush to create awesome colour effects and the look of the resulting models is to me Maschinen Krieger without any doubt. The coverage given to airbrush techniques allows the book to fill a nice spot left by other publications on the genre, that covered building and painting using mostly the hand brush approach.

A nice extra provided with the volume is a CD ROM that contains all (or, at least most) of the images printed in the book.

I really like Max Watanabe’s book. Even for the non-Japanese reader like me, just looking and studying the images is a source of inspiration and of information. I am already waiting for the follow up to this Vol. 1

UWAZ Finished!

After almost 10 months of interrupted work I am happy to call the UWAZ (Unter Wasser Arbeits Anzug) finally finished!

The main progress since the last post has included weathering, painting the figure, assembling the clear parts.

Weathering has been quite interesting this time around because I did it all with oils thinned with Windsor Newton Liquin Original. I first of al l sprayed
the model with a gloss coat from a rattle can. This layer turned out rather semi-gloss and I thought it looked good like that. Pinwashes with oils closely followed and then highlights and filters with with Windsor Newton oils diluted with Liquin.

Liquin Original is an interesting product by Windsor Newton that was recommended to me by the guys at the art shop. It has the consistency of a gel and thins the oil paint increasing its transparency and shortening the drying time (to about a day or two).

First of all I took some of each colour from the oil tubes and placed them onto a piece of  absorbing cardboard. I left them like that for a couple of days to let as much as possible of the linseed oil absorb into the cardboard. I then started the highlights by mixing a small amount of colour with a large amount of Liquin, something like 1 part colour to 5 or more parts of Liquin, and, using a small brush, put a small drop of the mix in the center of the area that I wanted to highlight. Then with dry, clean brush, I pushed it around creating a very thin, transparent colour variation on the base colour. For more intense colour variations, I applied several layers always trying to blend in at the edges (which is extremely easy to achieve with this type of technique).

For highlights and worn out paint I used directly a white. For general filtering, any colour can be applied as long as transparency is controlled. If you make a mistake, just rub it away with a little bit of Liquin.

The clear window was smash-moulded out of clear plastic from a toy packaging.

The head is the standard Nitto head that comes with the Fliege kit and that has very little detail. It wasn’t exactly the easiest to paint. Anyway it was done using Vallejo acrylics.

Some more imagesvof the finished model seen from the top (to highlight the wiring and the propellers) and from the back.

Hope you like this.

Thanks for viewing.

UWAZ Base

The base for the UWAZ is done. It is supposed to represent an old rusted buoy that the suit will be standing on.

I started with a round plastic container for hand cream. I cut it to the desired height, then rendered it flat by means of a disc of styrene. The weld beads were made out of milliput. The rings are made with bent brass rods.
Texturing was achieved using Mr. Surfacer 500 and Mr. Surfacer 1000.

Painting and weathering was all done with Acrylics, mainly Vallejo.
The two initial coats were black and Leather brown. A large number of colours went to produce the final result: a variety of browns, Yellow, Orange, Red, Olive Green, White and Black.

3Q 1/20 Hornisse Review

The Hornisse is one of the two flying vehicles (the other being the Fledermaus) used by the SDR that were originally released by Nitto in the 80′s in the SF3D Original series and again in the 90′s in the Maschinen Krieger series. It is one of the classic Ma.K designs and in 1/20 scale it is a fairly big kit to build.

The basic design of Hornisse looks very similar to the Fledermaus, with short wings, landing skis and five rocket engines (four that provide vertical thrust and one at the back for forward motion). The main difference between the two vehicles is that the Fledermaus has a cockpit for a human pilot, while the Hornisse is instead designed to accommodate a PKA-HO suit (which is also provided in the box).

Given the availability of the Nitto kits especially in Japan, the Hornisse hasn’t received as much attention from the Garage Kit industry as other Ma.k designs. The only other version that I am aware of is the recent 1/76 resin kit by Tenbowkissa.

Kit Data

• Maker: 3Q – Wave
• Release Date: January 2011
• Type: Injection plastic with multimedia parts (springs, rubber joint covers, photo etched grills)
• Sprues/Parts: 7 large sprues for the main parts and 4 small ones for figures and clear parts
• Decals: Provided
• Camo Card: provided (5 colour schemes illustrated between the card and the box)
• Price Range: Yen 4000-5500
• Availability: standard online retail channels

Box and box-art

The box art is unmistakeably Ma.k with a nice painting of the model by Kow Yokoyama. The style of the box is that of the other 3Q releases of the last year and a half (See Kauz, Fliege, Melusine and Krote). The box is just slightly larger than the old Nitto Version, to allow for the extra sprues and it includes also a completely new Camo Card and new Decals.

The bottom of the box shows three more colour schemes and has a text that describes the Hornisse operative history.

Sprue details

The Hornisse is a rather complex kit requiring in practice the construction of two full models: the PKA suit and the aircraft itself. The two can be modelled separately or with the PKA “sitting” on the vehicle. There are 11 sprues in total including figures and  clear parts.

The wings and fuselage of the Hornisse (and of the Fledermaus) have in my opinion a really great looking shape and offer a large surface for painting and weathering. There is enough detail to avoid boring, empty, flat areas, and at the same time the model lens itself to be painted with interesting colour schemes. For example it would be nice to see one painted in a digital camo scheme.

The level of details is very good and is the same as in the old kits. Unfortunately, same as in the old models are also the engine bells which are provided in two halves rather than in a single piece. The engine bells are fairly big and are a key feature of the design: they will surely require some attention during construction in order to remove all the seamlines.

The sprue containing the landing gear and other details:

The front part of the fuselage with the housing for the PKA, plus weapons and other parts:

The 3Q version is largely based on the Nitto kits, but there are some variations. New sprues allow to build a structurally stronger version of the landing skis and most noticeably the two Panzerfaust attached at the tip of the wings.

PKA limbs plus the two panzerfausts:

The PKA torso, armour plates, engine, seat and other parts:

As is now tradition with 3Q releases, multimedia parts are provided and include PE grills, springs for tubing, pipes, rubber joint covers for the suit and brass parts for the antennas.

The 3Q Hornisse kit comes with two pilot busts and two heads one with a hat and with a helmet and seem of good enough moulding quality, but not as good as the recent one from the Wave Raptor or SAFS

Decals, Camo card, Instructions

A beautiful sheet of all new decals is provided with the 3Q Hornisse:

The Camo card is provided in classic Ma.k style and illustrates 5 different colour schemes. As usual one side of the card is in black and white and the actual colours of the schemes must be taken from the back of the box

The instruction booklet is 8 pages long and describes the process to build both the PKA and the Hornisse:

Conclusion

Long time Ma.k fans know what to expect from the Hornisse from the old Nitto kits. 3Q improved on the original Hornisse on three main points: first of all the stronger landing gear, then the two Panzerfaust and lastly, all new styrene that should make it easier to build. All this in a beautiful new package.

Thanks for reading!