Plamo: The 30 Minute Missions Cielnova (Dark Grey, + add-ons)

OK, you know how it is. You get money for your birthday, so you indulge in something you wanted without thinking too hard. Hence, a new 30 Minute Mission kit.

 

There's no getting around it, the Cielnova is unusual, or as one mutual commented “baggy trousers”. The top half and bottom half seem to come from different machines, and the accessories are a pistol and a radar disk. All conspire to make for a somewhat awkward look, and possibly my choice of colours don't help. The influence of the Portanova comes mainly in the legs, these taking "interlocking plates" motif to greater extremes. The arms by comparison are long and thin, with offset elbows. It's head and torso are also simpler and proportionally smaller than the Portanova. It's still an easy a build as 30MM kits are, although I found myself having minor issues with polycaps that hold things together. That said, a good pose comes very easily to this thing, as the arms are quite unrestricted, so you can do the James Bond pistol thing. The armour sets for these both add and detract from the unusual proportions. These bulk out the upper body, but add a really big hand for asymmetry. That's both more and less conventional than the Rabiot. I went for the "defensive operations" set as it has a knightly motif going on, with an opening visor. Beyond that, I didn't I have a plan for that beyond complementing colours.

What I ended up doing was more-or-less the same approach I took with my first Alto, using black paint to smooth the differences between parts. I realised that it was possible to bodge some adapter pegs from sprue leftovers, thus allowing me to stow the pistol on the lower leg. After playing around for a bit, I decided to dump the pronged section of the shoulders, and glued the sensor gubbins in their place. Feeling that dakka was needed, I applied a spare weapon from the Loto kit. Detailing was then applied with grey and sepia markers. I seem to have inadvertently created Gundam Seltsam in monochrome, but that's got some style. If something is strange, you lean into it. You don't try and make it normal.

WIP pictures for reference