Gaslands: Blue Team

 

Well, it seems I'm in this for the long haul, in top gear and no doubt other vehicular metaphors. AKA a hyper fixation, as, at time of writing, I have bits on order and maybe fourteen cars in the boneyard awaiting work. Today's subjects were mainly done over a weekend, and intended to mirror Red Team. As I hadn't had much luck sourcing buggies by this point, so I ended up making two moreregular cars, but with an eye towards different techniques and builds.

The first, "Blue Swede Shoes" was a Hot Wheels Mod Rod toy, which looks a bit like a buggy, but it is a bit on the big side. Maybe call it a Performance Car in game terms? With this, I didn't bother with a ram ,and largely kept the lines of the toy. I managed to squeeze some mesh into the rear window, built up the roof a little, and armoured the wheels with bigger hubcaps made from tokens. I didn't need to do much with the engine block, so I added in a strip of granny grating to add some symmetry, while the gun is scrap plastic wrapped with leftover mesh. I got a bit clever/careless here with the texture though, seeking to exploit the interaction of super glue and baking powder for a rust effect. The end result speaks for itself, but the glue went everywhere, and I had to scrape a lot off. I should just mix up some paint, next time. 

 

The provenance of "Stone-washed Jeen’s" is unknown, this being an unlabelled charity shop find. I think it was meant to be a version of the old Ford GT40 line, but I'm no expert. Here I decided to go for an armoured appearence, but again trying to keep the basic look of the vehicle intact. Its very easy, and fun, to simply layer a car with bits and call it armour, so that's what I did. But also took it a step further with the wire mesh, so the driver could see out of each compass point. The gun meanwhile was integrated into the windscreen with another plate, a touch I'm very happy with, but thinking about it, I seem to have assumed a right-hand drive here. The ram meanwhile was made from the bits on the end of a cable tie, and I used the baking soda on this car too.

While these are both experiments, I'm quite pleased with them, especially in the realms of painting. I hadn't consciously chose to do this, but I realise that blue and rust are on opposite ends of the colour wheel, and that's really helpful to the look of `em. I normally just choose blue because of Deathskulls, but Vallejo Deep Sky Blue and my weathering really pop together. I'll probably stick with that, going forwards.

Up next: ummm, let’s wait for those bits...

Transformers: Kingdom Core Class Soundwave is Something That Exists

 

The 1984-1986, also 1990, Soundwave toy

I've been wanting an excuse to talk about the modern "core class" Transformers toys for a while. These replaced the rather good Battlemasters, and the often non-good Micromaster twin packs. In terms of overall size and complexity, the Core class is comparable to the old "legends" class last seen in Power of The Primes, although given that they use 3mm fist holes I'd also point at the small toy + micromaster sets circa 2013. Now, I'm predisposed to like Transformers of this type. I like small toys that you can easily fit in a pocket, easily fit in a budget, and easily fidget with on a desk. There is a pleasing simplicity to such things. However, one thing I'm less inclined to like is how the inevitable has happened. Rather than being the domain of small chaps, we had the likes of Optimus Prime right out of the gate. Yes, that was exactly what we needed. Another Prime, another Megatron, and another Starscream to repaint to buggery and back. And within five minutes of Earthrise too. I exaggerate, but not by much. Seeing characters like Iguanus and Spike are a welcome bit of variation, but we've also had two Shockwaves, I have both because I am a sucker, and are in the process of getting new Dinobots. This is not to suggest that these are bad toys, mind you. But with the amount of redundancy going on, one wonders if this is brand consolidation, a lack of imagination, or a just a means of securing trademarks.

What does this mean for Soundwave then? Well it might mean a few things, but he's got his own baggage. Soundwave is subject to exactly the same "daddy, what's a cassette player?" issue Blaster is, please consider this to be a partner piece, but as he's a much more prominent character, he's had a few more tries. What's weird about this presently there is indeed a modern tape version, the mould mate to the Siege "flying brick" iteration, but that seems be locked behind an exclusivity agreement. As it stands, the Core class version may very well be the only easy way to get a "classic" Soundwave in recent years. Other than that, you'd have to track down a Titans Return version, or hope for Studio Series to do a new mould, like they did with Ironhide.

Let's mix things up a bit, and start with the robot mode. This more than anything is the bit they had to get right, and I think the designers probably focused on it. When it comes to a basic likeness, we are in the realms of functionally ideal for the size, although there is a tension here between budget and looks. There's a few avoidable cavities here, like the back of his head. I wonder if he was meant to have a panel for transformation purposes, but it was cut. Soundwave does have both his gun and shoulder launcher, a luxury on a toy this size, if both being hollow too. These also store on his legs, each with a dedicated port, and can actually stay there during conversion, a nice touch. What makes the accessory situation here remarkable though is that the tape door actually opens to reveal a non-converting Laserbeak in tape mode. This is made from the same translucent plastic as the door, but is lavishly painted on one side. Again, more than they needed to do, welcome, but with an obvious cut corner. Articulation meanwhile is adequate to good. There's effective use of ball joints, and while the waist is omitted, he's actually got moving skirt armour, so the buttons don't limit the legs. So, yeah, pretty good robot mode for the price. 

 

 

Putting him into tapedeck mode is where we start running into weaknesses that can't be solely attributed to the budget, and to put this into context, I'm gonna talk about the original 80's version for a bit. Generally speaking, 80's Transformers haven't aged too well in the areas of articulation and conversion. It was early days, the technology wasn't there yet. Once you get into late G2 and the beast era, you start seeing more toys with ball joints and posability as a desired aim, and they hold up. Articulation, transformation, budget and the balance between those three is a solved problem. Soundwave was one of the rare exceptions in that his conversion scheme allowed for some articulation, and if you followed that scheme, and just put joints in the obvious places, you’d have a nicely posable toy. Also, the idea of a tiny Soundwave has already been done. Takara's Smallest Transforming Transformers version shrunk down the toy to a height of two inches with very little functional loss. So, the designers had the advantage of good source material, a previous attempt that took it to the edge, and most importantly, the forgiving requirement that he turn into a box. Behold. 

 

Yes, those are his little tosey-woseys sticking out of the top. Seriously guys. So close, and yet, so far. I don't know what the thought process was here, but I have my suspicions. Here's the thing, if you spin the feet 180 degrees on the ball joint, so heels become toes, the foot sticks out exactly as far to the front as the normal way. It's undetailed, but you are loosing nothing in the ankle by doing this. Was this the original idea? Just have those panels spin around and form the feet?  Did someone decide to make the feet look better at the last moment? Or was something cut in favour of his accessory count? I have no proof, but if someone told me that was the case, I'd believe them. This is a crying shame, because otherwise, it's ideal. The altmode has been harmed so the most forgettable bit of the robot form can look better.

 

My point? Only that Kingdom Core class Soundwave is something that exists. And while he's a bit of a frustrating near miss at times, he has still managed to stay on my desk...

Gaslands: Red Team

So, I've adopted this Gaslands as thing a new project. It's something seems more or less ideal for me from a modelling perspective. Rusty cars of the road-warrior style is only half a step from Orks, after all. Its also something I can do relatively cheaply, sourcing much from the bits box, while still offering a new experience. So, I intend spend a few weeks working on a hypothetical "starter set" of four cars, before moving onto tosomething more involved. So, here's red team.

First up, a modified London Cab, "Uber Crimson". This was a Mattel car from a pound shop, due to its obvious potential as a modded taxi. Here I tried to keep the distinctive lines as much as possible, adding only a modest ram up front, a small bit of exposed engine, and squeezing a gun into its roof light. The back end is slightly more built up, with a couple of plates and a hand wrapped spool of wire. I did however make a silly mistake here, I neglected to fill a horizontal gap along the door panels, which I ended up fixing after the main colours were done. I also attempted to paint the headlights, but the detail wasn't sharp enough. It is possible to strip the original paint off toys like these, which likely would have helped, but you'd need power tools to dismantle them first... Maybe later. I tried out AK Blood Red for the paintwork, while the base metals are Citadel Brass Scorpion over a brown undercoat. It came out pretty good, after everything.

 

 

In order to properly pronounce the name of the other car, you need to approximate the accent of the recently departed actor/comedian Leslie Phillips. "Ding Dong" is a ancient Corgi Jaguar XJ-S, a car first sold circa 1975, the toy could easily be that old. It was a 5 for a quid charity shop find, and tbh the idea of a Jag driving around the post-apocalyptic wastelands, battered but still classy, has a certain appeal to it. There's probably still golf clubs in the boot. This was a somewhat more involved build, with a more elaborate engine block scratch built from scrap plastic & tubes. The machine gun was much the same, but I used a length of wire and a bead for the barrel. I could adjust its angle before finally securing it, and I'm quite pleased with it as a method. Then came the ram, plating, and rooftop sawblades. Because if you're gonna deface a classic, and go punk, you commit to it. Overall, it probably came out a little too punk, but I’m happy with the result. 

 

Of course, after doing this, I realised the starter scenario in the rulebook requires a buggy, not two regular cars. Whoops. So, I’m probably gonna have to come back to this team and paint one up… Assuming I can find any of the damn things...

 

Up next: Something blue.

 

Transformers: Legacy Evolution Comic Universe Tarn is Something That Exists

 

The Cover to MTMTE #7

 

While not without its faults, the More Than Meets The Eye comic series is a highpoint for Transformers media. Fan-turned-writer James Roberts brought both a British sense of humour and a political eye to what was a fairly novel idea at the time. The war was over, what happens now? For the characters of MTMTE, it was go off on a quest, with a tone somewhere between Red Dwarf, and that run of Justice League: International everyone loves. The comic would do a lot of worldbuilding that stuck, and would endear itself to the LGBQT community with Chromedome & Rewind, whom were unambiguously married, and others. However, as often happens when people passionately love something that goes on to challenge preconceptions, you'll find a lot of very strong opinions about the comic. Some justified, some merely masking a distaste for representation and change in general. Roberts’ use of characters like Ultra Magnus, Megatron and Getaway provoked endless fandom spats that still rumble on today. My personal take is that things started to go off the boil with the Lost Light rebranding, and I got rather impatient with the series treading water and shuffling some of my faves out of the roster in rather unsatisfactory ways. I. E Tailgate. I think what we all loved were the character dynamics, whereas Roberts got more interested in big picture stuff of his own creation, as IDW was getting ready for a continuity reboot, so things suffered, but I will die on a hill for the good bits. Also: shout-out to Anode and Lug, good to have you ladies along.

 

 An early panel of "Tarn" and the hateful sadists of the D.J.D

So, where does "Tarn" fit into this? Well, he's a concept that would be as edgelord as fuck in the hands of another writer. He leads the Decepticon Justice Division, a team of codenamed sadists whose job it is to enforce discipline on the rank and file. Their modus operandi is to work their way down a list of offenders, torturing these poor bastards for a prolonged period, before killing them in the messiest way possible. Several of the group transform into torture implements, and are quite capable of brutalising almost anyone you care to name. While horrifying on several levels, if you step back for a moment, and think, another layer presents itself. The D.J.D are fascist try-hard cringe. A bunch of murderers given licence by a political philosophy to kill folk, and grossly ineffective at their implied role as military police. This was entirely the point, as their spotlight issue demonstrated. "Tarn" is the king of cringe mountain, although this was not immediately obvious. He was the subject of much fan theory, as Mr Roberts was a writer fond of laying plot seeds that would sprout years later. "Tarn's" given name was not stated, and he wore the Deceptcion badge as a mask. It wasn't clear who this dude was, but he was scary, could literally talk people to death, and he was positioned as a peer to Grimlock in the realm of brute force. There were also a few characters currently AWOL from the story, so people had their theories. People got a little upset when these theories proved to be wrong, not least because Roberts liked red herrings too. Who "Tarn" is wasn't a mystery to the characters, just the audience, because who would want to talk about such a person? I wouldn't want to acknowledge that I knew someone whom joined the fecking Spanish Inquisition with a gun in one hand, and a management textbook in the other. It's more about what he is. And what he is, is Kylo Ren before Kylo Ren was a thing. "Tarn" is deep down a pathetic fanboy, but that does not make him any less dangerous to those around him. The guy is bad news personified. 

 

Let's start with the tank mode, and the related matter of transformation. What is basically amazing here is the extent to which the art has been replicated in plastic. This is a comment very applicable to the robot mode too, but the tank mode is where you'd expect them to do a Jhiaxus, and phone it in. MTMTE often forgot about transformation, so it would not have been a shock if they did so here. Not least because "Tarn" had a highly distinctive alt mode with six sets of tank treads, two fixed guns on the hull and a twin cannon turret, him being a Captain Trying-too-hard even in this sense. It totally would not be a surprise if "Tarn's" natural altmode was something much more mundane. But no, the tank mode is, as near as it makes no difference, spot-on to Alex Milne's character model. Now, this is pretty great, but it's not perfect, as it's a got a few little things that invite nitpicking. First off, the hands are visible at the back, a downer that I don't have an obvious fix for, but I'm willing to forgive. Then there are the treads, which lack rolling wheels, something you don't miss until its not there. I can only assume that these were cut on budget and parts count grounds, which stands out given the attention to detail and the lavish paintwork throughout. An awful lot here is purple translucent plastic painted over with more/different purple and metallic highlights, which looks gorgeous. No kidding, they made this pretty. Functionally, it's a fairly typical post-Siege vehicle mode, with the 5mm ports nicely integrated into the sculpt, with the turret & guns based on the same system, and a soft tab that can hold the assembly straight. The transformation meanwhile is simple overall, but with complications in the upper body. It's the tread assembly that is the tricky bit, getting them retabbed and such is a marked contrast to the legs that largely go where you'd expect. Also, there is a case of Visible Head Syndrome. Those nits having been picked, I have to say they did fine work with the tank form. Because, well, it's doing a good job with difficult source material. And then there's the robot mode.

The robot form is where it all comes together, and damn. It is, as near as it makes no difference, perfect. The nitpicking does however come back, "Tarn" generally being so good that any weakness becomes glaring. Overall, the proportions tend towards the lithe, and this has led to people calling him flat. Another way to describe it would be "kibble-free", as everything integrates so well, but I do see where people are coming from on this. "Tarn" was depicted as a fairly hench sort of guy, with the toy definitely being wide at the shoulders, and big of feet, but otherwise not fully capturing that hench-ness. Of course, we can easily chalk this up reality getting in the way, or, and I think this fits "Tarn's" fundamentally try-hard vibe, we can assume that this is a skinny guy in a muscle suit, trying to look more intimidating. That is exactly the sort of thing he'd do. Another visual point of interest is a reported similarity in some details to Alex Milne's most recent character model for Bludgeon, a fellow tankformer, and Decepticon rather famous in comics. If this foretells a future retool, colour me interested. Meanwhile, there is a lot of paint over translucent plastic, and some easily missed light piped eyes.

 

So, with the visuals on point, what's it like functionally? Generally pretty good, with a few touches that go beyond the brief. "Tarn" has all the legacy standard joints, with opening hands, which are always fun. Due to how the transformation works, the legs end up with notable freedom, those chunky feet helping with balance, and you can unclip the knees for more movement. The arms aren't quite as good, as this is where the tank tread design meets Hasbro engineering. They have enough, don't get me wrong, but an additional swivel at the shoulder would have been nice. Its almost as if having a bunch of tank treads for arms is a cool-looking but slightly impractical idea? "Tarn" and the D.J.D in a nutshell, that. The twin fusion cannon, as mentioned, also gives you a few options for use, with alternative long-barrelled and backpack configurations. So, he can definitely do more than stand there and look intimidating. A good robot mode. 

 

 

My point? Well, I have several beyond this toy actually existing, when many thought it never could. Looking at this toy, I am reminded of the feeling I had with Combiner Wars, in that a lot of third party items just got put on eBay. If you collect actual Transformers, i.e. robots that become other things and can (theoretically) be found at retail, this is immediately the best "Tarn", and probably the best one we are ever likely to get. Yes, you could go for one of the third party options, but you maybe aren't getting more for your money? Or an actual toy? Yes, there is a model kit and Super7 version if you want licenced merch, but those don't transform. But if you want an actual Transformer? I have good news, they did a fine job here. Also, as the lengthy preamble implies, "Tarn" is an important-if-cringey character in the Transformers fandom, so it's good that they tried, and even better that they succeeded.

Kitbash Experiment: A Gaslands Car

 

OK, a bit of context. Gaslands is a game system that's been on my radar for a while, and still haven't played. The basic idea is post-apocalyptic vehicular homicide. Your Mad Max's, say. Or your Deathrace 2000's or Carmageddon's, and so on. It's notable for being a miniatures game with no actual miniatures. Rather, you are intended to raid the toybox for some matchbox cars, ready your bitz box and go to town. There are some official models, "friends of Gasland" releases, 3d prints, and etsy, but these came later, and weren't mandatory. Suffice to say, the concept had some appeal.

Rather than jump straight in and overcommit, I am prone to hyper-fixations, I decided to start with a single prototype. Hot Wheels are of a different scale to what I'm used to, so some restraint was needed. I did some research too, the Bill Making Stuff channel is a good resource here. I then hit the local pound shop and got myself a little car. A two seater one with an exposed engine which was pretty much on brand. I then proceeded to dress it in cable ties, rivets and offcuts, the sort of thing that gets leftover from other projects. I made the gun from a bit of old cotton bud, a bead, and the end of a cable tie. Meanwhile, the windows were covered with a wire mesh from Halfords. I suppose that’s only appropriate.

 

The main issue I had with this build was adhesives, followed by detail being lost during painting. I'd tried to hot glue the wheels in place, which was a silly idea in hindsight as the hubcaps weren’t solid, and glued myself to the car approximately 50 bazzilion times. Really, Richard, how many decades have you been doing this sort of thing? You can probably still see evidence of that in the pictures. I'll do better next time. Painting was a matter of drybrushing and stippling, with me mixing a metallic grey and a red from craft paints, while details like mesh were picked out in silver. This gave a good overall effect, but the side exhausts didn't come out super well. People seem to have really liked it though, and this was quite a nice way to pass an evening.

 

So yeah. Probably gonna make a bunch of these now.

Transformers: Siege Decepticon Mirage is Something That Exists

 

The 1984 Mirage toy

Now, I freely admit that a lot of my purchases as a collector come down to "because it was cheap". I'm not a completionist these days, and I make periodic attempts to be financially responsible. I do like a bargain though, and I will happily roll the dice on something if I've not tried it before. Hence today's subject, a repaint nobody asked for that I found for less than retail at a Toy Fair.

The 1990 Barricade toy

So, who is Mirage? Or possibly, whom? He's of an old money background and possibly a closet centrist. Mirage is one of those tier 2 Autobots that kinda faded into the background of the cartoon & other media. He's definitely been around, as there is demand for a dude who can turn invisible or some such, is kinda shifty, and is also a F1 car. He's the sort of fellow they go to when they are doing an assortment and they want a bit of variety, and the obvious go-to for high end race cars. If you've got a F1-themed Transformers toy it would be weird if it wasn't called Mirage at some point. Not a great character, I feel, basically a "that guy" at the end of the day, but he could be more. As to why he's a Decepticon in this case, what the thought pattern was here, I'm unsure. The rather bland Netflix cartoon, it's not an anime, don't be daft, justified this as a disguise he used in one scene, as well as the basis for a few crowd fillers. The wiki points out a similarity to IDW's take on the Micromaster Barricade, although that entire situation is a bit confused. Purple is the Decepticon colour, so the logic may be as simple as that, but calling him Decepticon Mirage is so massively uninspired as to make me think it was a placeholder that stuck. Even if we assume Dragstrip, Barricade, and such were off the table, there had to be a better name somewhere. As such, I will now refer to this toy as "MorBot", which certainly was not the intention, but I think is valid given how out of the box Legacy has been of late. 

 

The 2016 Rescue Bots Rescan MorBot toy

I've just realised that this is the third Netflix Siege toy I have A) written about and B) been markedly discounted. Bloody hell. I'm not sure if that's vindication of the line or not. 

 

Anyways, the vehicle mode. I'm gonna make two observations here that I've made before, in that it's not an especially alien alt mode, and it's doing some legitimately good work here with the paint. None of the purple or blue-gray on MorBot is actually plastic, it's all paint and I'm still surprised they go that far. It's the same basic idea I use when painting Ork vehicles, go dark and dull for the basecoat, and you avoid the edges when painting a brighter colour to suggest wear. This is a marked contrast to the previous two uses of the mould which did not attempt battle damage at all. While clearly a good-if-subdued paint job, the effect is undermined by the back end, which stuffs the arms under the rear spoiler, above a cheating robot mode chestplate. It's kinda hard to avoid looking there TBH, it gives the impression of a car with two front ends, and it's got the only Decepticon badge. Otherwise, the car form is pretty functional, rolling well and featuring the Siege era focus on weapon ports. There's only two ports, buts it's exactly what it needs, and they are well placed. It fulfils the brief, and generally looks great as long as you don't stare at the bum end. There has been 5 iterations of this mould so far, BTW, and so far none of them have swapped out that chest plate for something less dumb. It seems like an obvious thing to do... 

 

Transforming to robot mode is a game of two halves, with the upper body being very simple due to how the arms store, but there's a lot going on with the legs. It's a somewhat finicky process, but MorBot side steps the problems of his predecessors by not using any translucent plastic in his construction. As alluded to above, the scheme is completely different from G1 Mirage, even as the faux kibble chest and head sculpt try to evoke that version. As for the robot mode? Well, I'm not gonna mince words, that head is gorgeous. The paint work is really nice, and, yes the general look screams "Decepticon". Whereas the vehicle mode was built for speed, this robot tends towards the wide & powerful. The transformation also reveals a few more 5mm ports, so he can make good use of his three weapons and maybe combine with Brunt. On the downside though, the lower legs end up messy from behind, as most of the vehicle form is crammed in there, also meaning there's not that much you can do with the feet. With the play pattern being strong, but the transformation being on the weak side, I'm inclined to say this mould itself probably sits on the mediocre end of Siege, although I wouldn't be surprised if MorBot ended up being the best iteration of it. Between paintwork and the abandonment of translucent plastics, it's a quality makeover. 

 

My point? Only that Decepticon Mirage is something that exists. And that his name is dumb.

Gunpla: The RGE-G1100 Adele (Bandai, AGE HG)

 

One of things about taking a break from the anime fandom is that you end up with a few gaps and blindspots. When this applies to a shounen ninja franchise or the latest fan service delivery system, often the same thing, that's not a problem for me. The anime industry is often cyclical and juvenile, which is why people so often burn out. But then you realise an entire Gundam series failed to register, and modern stuff seems to reference it. Gundam AGE is that series for me, and from a conceptual standpoint, maybe that's a shame. AGE is very much a generational epic, following three successive protagonists and their family robot. It's an interesting idea, although from what I've been able to gather the execution wasn't great.

 

So what is the Adele? Well, its very much a GM equivalent. Its based off the AGE 1 Gundam, and is a watered-down version for mass production. This sort of thing happens a lot in the franchise, because god forbid a mecha with that name ever be less than unique or mundane. Or indeed fit the technical definition of a prototype. Anyways. With The Adele, I kinda want to slap the writers for almost, but not quite, justifying this trope. The AGE 1 is not so much a singular machine, as a housing for an expert system that creates weapons. Even if the Federation had been able to copy that, its not something that your average pilot needs, so it's not a shock that the Adele wouldn't have it. This is more a copy of the high performance robot bits, even going so far as to retain compatibility with the "wear parts", extra components you'd think would be budgeted out. So the Adele is shaping up to be a pretty good machine, yes? Drastically better than the ill-famed Genoace, which has a worse reputation than even the Leo in the "exploding grunt suit" leagues. Well, maybe not. It took them twenty-five years to get this designed and deployed. A quarter of a century. Granted, Gundam shows often have ridiculously short development times, and this setting has a thing about banned technology, but I have to ask what they were playing at. The answer is probably that the writers just advanced the timeline, and didn't consider the implications.

When viewed purely as a kit however, the Adele is quite well-regarded, because it is literally the AGE 1 with new parts reflecting the visual differences. While obviously having an older polycap style construction, this is a good thing as Bandai designers usually bring their A game to the hero mecha. While nothing leaps out as exceptional, its all quality with a good level of colour separation and minimal stickers. Then again, I inexplicably found myself short of the "1" polycaps, prompting a brief search for spares. Either something was mispacked or mislabelled, I dunno. On the plus side, while there is not a full AGE 1 in this kit, there is an awful lot of one, including two extra beam sabers and the front end of the original beam rifle. Another thing of note is that while it's got this very GM style space helmet head, it's actually got a face underneath it. This isn't an Easter Egg either, most of the sticker sheet is dedicated to it, correcting it from white to grey. It's a welcome touch, something really they didn't need to do, so I tried painting that face. Unfortunately, actually seeing it through the visor is tricky, it's just too opaque. So I broke the visor.

 

The thing about AGE era mecha design is that it has a very clean, concise, and colourful look. Its not that they’ve gone simple for ease of animation, although it wouldn’t be a surprise, its just that its on the other end of the axis from Iron-Blooded Orphans and more recent UC productions. As such, my usual approach to weathering perhaps wasn’t the obvious choice, and the broken visor puts it into GRIMDARK territory. Mind you, I do like how this came out.