Plamo: The 30 Minute Missions Alto (Ground Type, Olive Drab)

Its been far too long since I talked about one of these, and I'm currently having to self-isolate, so here's a bonus post!

The ground type represents a relatively straightforward variation on the Alto, although one that edges a bit close to Frame Arms territory should you opt for tank heelies. Seriously, see here. Most of the new parts are there to provide new lower legs plus feet, and a set of modular tank treads. As a project its as much fun as as any 30MM kit, but using these proved to be a touch less elegant than I would have liked, as it's hard to use all the components at once. The new feet can't ride the treads directly, you'd have to use the adaptors from the arm shields, which is an inconvenience. There's also a wee bit of a visual disconnect between the chonky-boy leg bits and the otherwise skinny frame, but nothing major. These kits are all about customisation, after-all, and one hopes for these gubbins to be separated out for a future re-release. Meanwhile, you get an absolutely gorgeous bazooka as armament, which overshadowed any nitpick I had. And if you are wondering, yes, you could build this as a stock Alto, although this kit omits the usual backpack and weapons. Here's a quick picture of the straight build.

What I ended up doing was simply replacing the feet with the treads, which meant removing the balljoints, but I think it works well. You could drill in new sockets for the polycaps, but that's the kind of delicate and precise work I'd want a spare set for. I decided to break up the olive drab a little with shoulder segments left over from an earlier project, and gave it a spare blaster as a secondary weapon. I found myself was working towards a Dom Tropen sorta vibe with this; its great to have a massive bazooka, but that's a liability up close.

This also ended up as something of an experiment in panel lines. I used a grey Gundammarker for the majority, which came out nice and subtle, if hard to photograph. The guns were done in a unipin fine line black, which helped the details pop. I think each played to the strengths of the plastic, and you'll see more like this in future blog posts.

 

 

While probably the least involved 30MM project I've done in a while, I'm rather proud of this one.