Gunpla: The MS-05B Zaku I

When you think about it, the original Zaku has a decidedly inglorious service record. It was five years old before the the war kicked off, and was supplanted by the Zaku II almost completely. This relegated the old version to second line duties, which saw it participating in the atrocity and new form of war-crime that was Operation British. Then the war turned against Zeon, so the Zaku Is were sent to replace losses, which gave the design a chance to do something actually honourable, outdated as it so obviously was by then. Actual characters piloting one tends to signal an impending tragedy. Let's talk about Captain Gadem.

Gadem was a character whom was appeared in episode 3 of the original Gundam TV series, but conspicuously absent from the movie version. A captain of a Papua class supply ship, Gadem is responsible for approximately 90% of the fandom love for the Zaku I, his fighting style resulting in the design choices for this kit. To spoil a 40 year old TV show, Gadem had the misfortune to run into the titular Gundam. His ship destroyed while attempting to resupply The Red Comet, Gadem charged his unarmed Zaku I in rage-fuelled attempt to even the score, ignoring warnings to stay clear. The result was as sad as it was ballsy, as while he was clearly a better pilot than Amuro was at that point in his career, Gadem died almost immediately. Still, nobody could take that shoulder barge from him.

When Bandai does a kit, and there is a definite scene for it to replicate, they sometimes will go that extra mile. The Zaku I has the mobility and hands to replicate that suicidal charge, and thus ends more articulated than the HG Zaku II. It also has a similar number of accessories to that kit, and while your mileage may vary, I like them more. Case in point is the shoulder shield, a hallmark of the Zaku design that would present only circumstantial protection due to its size and mount. Here it goes on the forearm, with added spikes, so it would actually be of use in a scrum. Factor in the ability for model to stow all its weapons, and you have a very complete package.

What criticism I have arise from the relative age of the kit versus its subject matter. Its not that great for seams, and while it has really nothing to apologise for on the colour/sticker front, it does feature the usual "loose Zaku axe in the wrong plastic" issue. As builds go it's not bad either, the only issue for me was the head suffering from my clumsiness, but hopefully, you can't tell. Oh, and I don't like that weird should pad thingy. It's hard for me to fault, TBH, and while it's as definitely not as elegant as say a 30MM kit, or anything like as sturdy, it holds its own against them.

You know, this is better than the Zaku II.

Plamo: My 30 Minute Missions “Jungle” Alto (+ Weapons & Armour set)

Most of my articles are written in advance, and thrown in a pile for publication on a Sunday. Some days I do well, and come up with several, thus saving me for those days when I'm not fit to write. Everything I put here either is an expression of creativity, or an attempt to manage my assorted neuroses. Or both. That said, if I'm happy with something, it gets bumped up the list. Like today's subject: another 30MM Alto with armour add-ons and a bigger gun that I was quite pleased with.

Now, the Alto Weapon Options are functionally similar to the Portanova's, although the design motifs tend more towards bullets, blocks, and swords. The high point is undoubtedly the assault rifle part with its under-slung grenade launcher, which is probably the most direct upgrade. This put me in mind of of modular guns like the FN SCAR, so I went "tacticool' and added the rounded sight and a side handle. Melee options are less of my cup of tea though, and while I initially liked the knife, it needed a better grip and a storage option. I'll probably return to those bits in my next Alto build, but what I ended up doing was breaking out the big choppa I'd previously on the yellow Portanova, this fitting the theme which had settled on.

I'd opted for the green Alto & Close Combat armour set, as a deliberate contrast to my previous 30MM projects, only for another idea to strike. Camouflage. A style of painting I have always dismissed as a boring pain in the arse. As an Ork player the concept baffles me so much as to when I painted Kommandos, I did them in High-Vis jackets to satirise the concept. (Ask your average urban explorer. It works!) Then the tumblers in my brain clicked together, as I remembered the 1986 film Predator, and the Catachan Jungle Fighters, and it was on. Surely, there is nothing sillier than a 18 metre mecha in a stealth paintjob, like an unironic Robo-Rambo? The question just was: how does one camo? Figuring this one out was tricky, but my Google-fu is strong, and if there's a lazy way, I will find it. I modified the technique found here, and the result was a pleasing success. Not perfection, but I know the next one will be better. Here's a how-to.

You will need

Sticky tack, aka Blu Tac, and possibly masking tape

Three spray paints in the colours you want

A safe place to spray, i.e a large cardboard box, outside.

1) Assemble the parts you wish to camo, making sure any joints are not subject to spray.

2) Transparent parts must be elsewhere.

3) Lightly spray with your darkest colour, and leave to dry.

4) once dry, attached a few blobs of Tac to the parts. Don't be neat, you are trying to break up straight lines.

5) Now lightly spray with your medium colour, and leave to dry.

6) Once dry, add more tac in a hodgepodge fashion.

7) Then spray with your lightest, or main, colour, and leave to dry.

8) Now the fun part, gently remove the tac.

Job done.

RPG Mini-Review: The Mecha Hack

Like a lot of people, because of you-know-bloody-what, I've been trying webcams lately. No, not the kind you pay for. Nor the ones you charge for. In your dreams, BTW. No, the ones where you play a game. A Role Playing Game. No, not that kind of roleplay. Let's start again.

So, in my latest attempt to stay sane, I've been running online RPG games. And because its me, it involves giant robots. Its a little side interest of mine that's been bubbling away in the background for decades. I've wanted to play a giant robot RPG for years, but never found someone to run one, other than me, so I've ended up collecting a few rulebooks. The most recent thing to catch my eye was today's review subject, The Mecha Hack. This, as I understand it, is a modified version of “The Black Hack”, a bare-bones take on ^5th edition Dungeons and Dragons. That sounds like the Kevin Bacon game, but what The Mecha Hack does is take possibly the most fundamental RPG mechanics, I.e. going into a dungeon and wrecking face, and apply them the matter of piloting a robot and wrecking face. You can build a character in 5 minutes, a party in 30, have the outline of a scenario in 10, and have couple of fights in 1 hour. Baddies are boiled down to an attack and a life bar, for example, and you get a huge great list of them. And there's a great many charts to help. You can have a campaign up and running in an afternoon. Its pretty elegant stuff, although I did run into a few oddities and “oh, they mean that” moments as I adjusted to things. The most obvious is that you “roll under”, but the most significant of these is that games treats man and machine as the same thing mechanically. Well, you do get a pilot type and a chassis, for 16 combinations, but the former is mainly a special rule for the latter. The word I want to stress here is “minimalist”, you don't get a lot, but you get what matters. And possibly the greatest name generator chart in human history.

Now, this means The Mecha Hack is not a deep experience. Not only are most things abstracted to an extreme, so replicating some styles of robot is hard, the rules do not cover events outside of combat. Well, there's half a page or so on that last point, but its not the kind of game that walks you through a character's history as you create one, or deals with social matters. That's gonna be a deal-breaker for some, although I suppose you could hybridise this with Fate/Fudge and come out OK. My personal opinion though is that the best bits of any RPG session is when players improvise something, and the absolute worst is when you have to spend a long time working out if something out is rules legal. This lack of depth is not a bug, its a feature. The thing about keeping things this simple is that it doesn't take much to make it interesting with a few tweaks. This has freed me up to concentrate on the stuff that's fun about planning/running a game; world building, endless references, stupid jokes that only amuse me, and developing scenarios for people to play. This simplicity has also proved a boon for online play, as there's no infrastructure needed beyond the video call. Using tactical maps would require something like Roll20, of course, but otherwise its gonna stuff you have as a gamer. And once players get into it, there's plenty of meaningful decisions to make in combat. That said, my only problem with system is that the abstract movement can be hard to visualise in my head, so maybe maps are a good idea?

So, to wrap up this mini-review, The Mecha Hack is a good bit of inexpensive fun. If you want to get gaming in a hurry with minimal fuss, I can recommend it. Especially if you decide to take “inspiration” from things like Pacific Rim and Gundam.

Gunpla: The RB-79 Ball twinset (HGUC)

For varying reasons, I'm rarely drawn to the "heroes" of any given Gundam series. Yes, you have a overwhelming technological advantage, well done. That's not exactly great for drama, is it? I'm definitely more for the unusual, the mundane, or expendable. Hitting all three categories with force is the RB-79 Ball, presented here by a High Grade Twinpack. A civilian construction vehicle hurriedly adapted for combat, the Ball was deployed in huge numbers by the Federation to help with their Mobile Suit problem. These tended to die horribly, but if we're honest, an actual vehicle being in space combat probably would look more like this than a giant robot.

To give a proper defence to the Ball, I'm gonna step outside the weebish world of Gundam, and into the even more EdgeLord setting of Warhammer 40k. Think Star Wars, but filtered via a Heavy Metal album, and everyone is really evil. Including the anime inspired faction. 40k is a miniature wargame, one which seems to be actively maintained these days, thank Christ, but not necessarily a deep one. A good example of this is a useful-but-reductive of habit of many players, whom break out the probability calculations to judge a unit. Often this is on a cost per kill basis, and commonly called "mathhammer". Not a bad tool, but one that only judged a models ability to trade injuries. One of my favourite unit to field was the diminutive Gretchin, goblin-looking blighters whom were objectively terrible fighters. They weren't there to kill stuff though. They were there to do stuff like catch bullets, hold position and generally frustrate the enemy, while my actual troops did the heavy lifting. The Ball occupies a similar niche, although you can make the argument its good at hit & run. Yes, it's an armoured coffin with an ignorable cannon, but while you're dodging that in your fancy ass Gelgoog, a GM just flanked you.

Why am I going on like this? Well, its that or make endless testicle jokes. What's the kit actually like? Well it's like the Loto set, but without the crippling balance issues. A pair of balls are obviously a much simpler build project than the Lotos, not to mention your average individual MS, but it's basically perfect for what it is. Assembly is good for a lazy Sunday evening, with no drama. Or stickers. Or polycaps. It doesn't hurt to do some panel lines and thruster detail, but colours are ideal. There is even a weapon variant to mix things up, a twin cannon more usually associated with with the orange K type variant. There is also a stand for each, which is nice. A few minor criticisms could be made, the stands are the same plastic as the main body, rather than transparent, and the twin guns lack something for their sensors. Mind you, its very hard to complain when everything goes together this well.

Most of my blog articles feature things only of interest to me and maybe three people whom are likely to read this. This article, even more so.

Gunpla: The RX-121-1 Gundam TR-1 [Hazel Custom]

A key appeal of Gundam is a kind of Military-Industrial Techno-Porn. Its all about giant robots being treated with a level of seriousness otherwise found in model railways and armchair historians. Or maybe its more like reading one of those technical manuals they write for Star Trek. Gundam universes tend to be pretty good at treating their robots with consistent realism, or the appearance thereof. Probably the pinnacle of this is the manga/photo-comic/design-series Advance Of Zeta, an in-between series set just before Zeta Gundam. This features a bewildering number of prototypes and variants, some of which are named for the rabbits from Watership Down, AKA that cartoon/novel that traumatises British kids every bank holiday. Today's subject is the Gundam TR-1 [Hazel Custom], which as far as I can figure is a is a weird case of things coming full circle, design-wise.

This iteration of the Hazel, as mentioned there's many variants, is immediately notable for detail and chonk. It's got a fairly intricate design for a high grade, and this is largely achieved by plastic colours, with stickers being used in acceptable places like sensors and badges. This is nice. Said detail comes from the extensive upgrades the Hazel featured, bulging out from an otherwise slender frame, adding serious girth below the belt. It's a GM that got upgraded so much it became a Gundam again, like an attempt by computer enthusiasts to turbocharge an office PC into a bitcoin rig. While proportioned like a man wearing half a robot costume. The bottom half, mainly. For reference, here's a picture of the base machine, the GM Quel, as drawn by the same artist. 

This gives the Hazel what can only be called "a look", but not a bad one. The third thing you notice though are the assorted little details that have not been colour separated, and TBH, the original mecha designer was clearly self-indulgent in this area. No, we need not red finger tips. Nor thrusters in more than one contrasting colour. Said colour should also be burnt metal. Life is too damn short for such things. Even without that it's an involved build, with plenty in the way of seam lines and inconvenient places to cut parts from their runners. While certainly pleasing to the eye just assembled and stickers applied, paint would be mandatory for Hazel fans to do those details and hide a few sins. I am aware of the hypocrisy of saying all this after the Zaku 2 incident. Possibly this design is better suited to a larger price bracket, but being too ambitious is hardly a sin.

I'm much happier with the range of motion, though. There's double-jointed elbows, shoulders that tilt forward, and dramatic bends in the legs. The rest of the articulation is decent, and while nothing is exceptional, everything seems to be there and solid. Accessories certainly aren't bad either. The rifle comes with spare clips, if purely decorative ones, and while you get only the one beam saber, there's a dedicated hand for it. There is, surprisingly, two different shields. The logic behind this is seemingly one of Advance's technological "missing links" between regular mobile suits and the more unusual Titans prototypes, giving us a disposable shield with a rocket engine. Well, I say logic. Strapping a fuel canister to something that catches bullets seems somehow unsound to me. It is possible to mount this on the backpack though, so no harm done.

The tone of the write up is admittedly flippant at times, but don't let that fool you into thinking that I don't respect this model. I'm no expert, but I think Bandai brought its A game to this at the time, being great for 2005,  whichs adds up to pretty good for now. That said, I would not recommend this for a beginner, or for someone like myself whom wants a more casual time. I'm just not fond of fiddly detail at this scale. However, I'd like to come back to this when I'm confident that I can do it justice.