HT-01B Magella Attack tank 1/400 resin scale

 The next models finished from the MechaTop samples I received, are two of the main battletanks of the Principality of Zeon: the Magella.

This tank, that can split of it's top as a plane if needed, was a serious force on the battlefield to be reckoned with.

 

But their biggest drawback was that their top couldn`t turn, so while the 175mm cannon has a high arc for visibility, the whole tank needed to turn to adjust it's aiming angles.  

 

 

The tanks have been painted in the traditional Zeon greens, like the Zaku's and such for example, with dark greys for the metallic parts like the front machine gun array.

 

 

Gamewise, they cost about as much as a Zaku I and other older models, so these are some great (and cool looking) bulking out units for your force.

 

 

 

And they will be in the next game I`m going to play, in an effort to try and grasp the rules some more.

Turn A Gundam 1/400 scale gachapon

 Time for another gachapon gundam to be added to the pile for MechaTop and the likes, and this time it is the mighty Turn A Gundam.

While a rather weird anime at the time of airing compared to the Gundam series before it, especially before the "dots are connected" with all the suits having same looks but different names, this was a pretty good series.

And that Moonlight Butterfly effect...

So, that of course meant I had to have a "moustache gundam" in the collection, and this is one of the Pepsi bottlecap figures of which I own a stack.  Painting of those sorts of models is pretty straightforward, as they don't have that much of a dynamic pose going on, so with my two tones sort of painting this takes about a week of on and off short sessions in the evening to complete.

Now, let's put the White Doll on the field of battle!

MSM-04N Agguguy 1/400 scale gachapon

 Time to show off another completed, repainted gachapon model in 1/400 scale for MechaTop, and it is one of the ZZ Gundam suits this time.

And for some reason, I end up with a heap of aquatic suits finishes, probably because their often comical look subconsciously attracts my attention...

The Agguguy as said debuted in anime during the ZZ series, and looks like a bulked out version of the Acguy aquatic mobile suit, of which it is a development.  His bulk comes from his heavy armour, and was designed for close combat with it's main armament of dual heat rods.

There weren't that many build actually according to the lore, as their construction plant was destroyed by Char early in the One Year War, to some ended up with the Tigerbaum colony civilians as seen in ZZ.

The model itself was fun to paint, as the big plates allow for some smooth and easy painting, yet the end result gives a unified, solid look.  And the brown is a welcome change after the usual frequent colours of either white / blue / red or mostly greens for most mobile suits from the Universal Century.

Maybe one day I should run a force of only aquatic suits in a game of MechaTop and see how that goes...

M353A4 Bloodhound Hover Truck 1/400 scale resin model

 The next set of figures I painted up from the MechaTop sample pack I received a while ago, it is the tiny hover trucks.

Containing two in the set, these are really tiny models about 1.5 centimeter in length and a centimeter wide, so that is some serious tweaking to be done on them.

While basically three shades of grey, these weren't that uberhard as such to paint though, just needed some attention on putting which grey where.

The tanks itself first debuted in the 08th MS Team series, and have been seen often in Gundam series eversince.  On the battlefield, they are generally support vehicles, lightly armed and armoured, and will make nice convoy objectives and the likes in games.

The detailing of the casts was perfect for that small scale, with even the turret gun visible on the tiny trucks, so top notch stuff.

Now to get on to the next project!

MSZ-010 ZZ Gundam

 The titular suit from the anime series of the same name, this bulky successor to the elegant Zeta Gundam is the next gachapon to roll off the painting table.

Now to be honest, I wasn`t that really a fan of the suit or the "good guys" in the series, but it did have some good storyline wrap ups.

The model itself is another soft plastic by Bandai, and I didn`t get the barrel stretched though even with the hot / cold method.  Luckily, it is not THAT noticeable when the model is on a table between scenery and all so I`m good with it.

Following the usual colourscheme of a titular series Gundam, this one had a lot more details though, with all the small exhausts on it's legs in different colours, so it took some finebrushing this time round.

But he turned out pretty okay for gaming, now to get all those ZZ bad guy suits painted in the coming weeks.

MechaTop stat cards for Super Mecha Champions

 Awrightey, I completed the three model kits I acquired of Super Mecha Champions models, and went about making some stat cards to use them in a game of Mecha Top.

Now, these mecha are in general smaller than a Gundam ranging between 6 to 10 meters, and not to high techy in most cases, so they are kind of like cheap grunt units with some added specials to make them unique.

Though I didn`t label them as Unique, in a game you can theoretically have 100 times the same mecha in play...

Please be forgivefull for the not always crisp outlining of the lettertypes and statlines, it was a Paint effort and I`m no graphical designer or such, just an old bloke with a slightly less older computer.

The first card I created was for Caramel, the cute and not so cuddly, cannon hoisting teddybear mecha.  I tried to recreate the game feel by giving it two different types of long range guns, and some heavy plate for protection.  

The second mecha stat card made was Arthur, one of the two starter options in the game and basically just a knight with a big sword.

 

 

The third mecha that came out in a kit is also the most expensive one points wise, as Hurricane, who can transform in an attack plane, is as such tech level 2 and with some expensive traits. 

 

 

So that's the three models all statted out, and if I wanted to field the SMC team, it would cost me 1425 points for the mecha, leaving some playroom for pilots and skills to tinker around with and get to an 1800 standard game force.

One of these weeks I got to arrange a solo game and see how they fare!

Gundam 1/400 resin Type 61 tank

 And here we have it, the first models painted of the sample box I received for MechaTop back in february: two Type 61 battle tanks.

The mainstay of the Earth Federation ground forces, these tanks are tiny in 1/400 scale, as they rightly are so next to 18 meters tall Gundams of course.

They have been cast in resin, and the STL's will be part of the upcoming second Kickstarter they are planning to launch, which is great news as they would be very hard to find otherwise.  The detailing on the little tanks is perfect for a model of about 2 square centimeters after all.

Colour scheme wise, well, they are what they are, grey tanks, so no flashy paint job on that part though.

Now to eagerly await the kickstarter, back it and then contact one of my buddies with a resin printer for some mass-printing...

RX-78GP01 Gundam Zephyrantes 1/400 scale gachapon

 The first gachapon for MechaTop I finished this year, it is a variation of the original Gundam, the RX78GP01 Zephyrantes.

Piloted by Kou Uraki, this Gundam was the main suit of the Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memories series, a 13 episode series linking the original Gundam to Zeta.

 

A bit of an upgrade aimed at ground combat of the classic RX78-2, he differs a lot in tabletop looks due to the white and blue instead of red shield, giving him a totally different asthetic.

The figure is as usual one of the many 1/400 scale gachapon I own, repainted for the tabletop to look better then the bland one tone scheme the soft plastic figures come in.

 

 Painting of these models always goes rather smooth, the panels usually being the hardest part on them, bar of course the (not always totally succesful) trick of hot water cold water to try and unbend parts that got deformed from being stuck in a plastic ball for a long time.

 

 

But that is the first one for this year's batch completed, now to keep the momentum and start on the next model soonish!

Super Mecha Champions Arthur (mini-kit)

 So, with Caramel now finished bar basing, it is time to start building the second of the kits of the Super Mecha Series.

And that is Rom's knightly mecha, Arthur.

 

Containing three runners of parts, a sticker sheet and the instructions on the inside of the cardboard packing just like with Caramel.

 

So we start with first building the central torso.  Normally, a sticker goes on the faceplate, but as I don`t like stickers at all, that will be painted afterwards.

As the two arms are then build, I opted for the version with the drawn sword instead of a closed hand, when the sword would then be mounted on the back of the model.  The other arm incorporates the transparent cloak, which will be fun to paint around afterwards *not*.

Next on the assembly are the legs for the mecha.  As I glue some of my parts (joints tend to loosen over the years), I first tried out some poses before deciding where to add some glue, and the position he will be placed in at the end when all is pieced together.

 

 

Now, with the body and all limbs ready, it is time to assemble him onto a base.

 

 

This makes him now ready to get painted.  A predominantly white mecha, that means the biggest sections where base coated in Cold Grey from Vallejo. 

Next, the other base sections where done with either Vallejo Black, or Vallejo Magic Blue.

And then came the hardest part.  Arthur has a lot of gold detailing, not present on the model, so using a 000 brush these had to be added with Vallejo Tinny Tan for the base.

This wasn`t the simplest of painting jobs on the smooth plastic armour platings, but it turned out okay if you ask me.  And in the second layer, I can start covering up some little things of those lines where needed, which is Sky Grey by Vallejo for all the parts that will become white.

That being done, it is time to do the other parts second layers, with Dark Rubber (Vallejo), Hawk Turquoise (Vallejo) for the blues and Brassy Brass (Vallejo) for the golds.

That making his second layer complete, it is time to start the touch ups in the third and final highlight.  The first and main colour herefore is Vallejo's Dead White.

Then the other areas are lighted in, respectively with Electric Blue of Vallejo, Necromancer Cloak of Army Painter and Bright Gold by Coat D'Arms.

So that is the model painted, now to do the "for now" basing, as well as adding a coat of AK matte varnish to the model.

And so Arthur stands ready to take the battle to the enemy in MechaTop, as I`m working out a stat card for the game as well.  But that is for a later post!

Super Mecha Champions Caramel (mini-kit)

 After running a poll on my Instagram, the public chose Caramel to be the first kit of the Super Mecha Champions line I obtained to be build and painted.

So I duly obliged, and sat down to building first and foremost this mini-kit, containing three small sprues as you could see on the unboxing of the set I did a while ago on YouTube.

Of course, after studying the instructions and the parts first to get a rough idea of how it would assemble, the clipping and occasional glueing (I always do that for joints etc, as I don`t repose afterwards anyways) began.

The set is build in a series of sequences, and then at the end put together.  So first we had the top section, the main body, the arms and the legs.

These are then put together to form our cute little teddybear mecha.

So, that being done, it is time to get painting.  As usual for things I paint, I went for my three tone style, starting dark and lining colours upwards.  Note, I also based him already on a round base, which will be build on in due time onto a MechaTop suitable base.  

With Caramel being a beige yellow in colour as such, that meant I would start with a darkish beige basecolous, Dark Sand from Coat D'Arms.

Next the grey and brown areas where put in their first layer, respectively with Black from Vallejo Game Colour and Oak Brown from Army Painter.

The final basecolours are for the head, as well as some small details like lamps and such.  The head began with Orange Fire from Vallejo and Cold Grey from Vallejo, while the lamps had a bit of Intense Blue from Vallejo and Red Brown from Coat D'Arms, concluding as such the first layer of the model.

So on to layer two, and the colour I dread most: yellow!  And the torture device in question is Gold Yellow from Vallejo.

 

Once this was done, the other sections where also provided with a second coat.  This was done using Black Grey from Vallejo, Hairy Brown from Coat D'Arms, Blood Red from Coat D'Arms and Heavy Orange, Sky Grey and Magic Blue, all from Vallejo as well.

 

 

With it's second layer done as such, he is starting to look the part, and a gazillion timer better already then the flat plastic colouring he came with originally.

 

Onwards then to the third and final layer!  This was of course started with more yellow, in particular Sun Yellow from Vallejo.

For the other areas, this was all third toned with the following colours: Necromancer Cloak by Army Painter for the dark grey areas, the brown was done with Vallejo Flat Erath, and the detail parts with Gold Yellow for the head, Electric Blue for the lamp, both by Vallejo, and finally Coat D'Arms British scarlet for the fist guns.

All that remained now was using black and orange, both from Vallejo, to add the Kuma on the belly plate as I didn`t want to use the sticker.

With the paintwork now complete and the model varnished, it is time to go to work on a base. For now, I'm basing them on smaller round bases, but as I learned on their sote, the second Kickstarter will come with smaller scaled bases (apparently even the 5cm size I use for my gachapon models), so that will be revisited in the future for sure.

But here is Caramel, in all his cute teddybear glory:

These little kits are actually great fun to build and paint, also because I really enjoy that game for more then a year now.  I just hope they will bring out the other mecha as well eventually!