| YT-1400E modified freighter-surveillance craft "Nubian Dream" |
Nubian Dream is a heavily modified YT-1400 series freighter in service with Rebel Alliance and New Republic Intelligence service. The YT series are one of the fav among private freighter captains and smugglers for it's higly customizable hull. As a result, Rebel Alliance operated a handful of these freighters as courier and suvelliance crafts, often disguised as oridinary cargo vessels. The surveilliance variants are usually packed with custom sophisticated electronic eavesdropping and surveillance packages in hidden compartments. Onboard early warning system and hyperdrive have also been upgraded to the latest standard. Usually it can outrun nearly all of the Imperial vessels; but in case it couldn't, the craft is also equipped with a self-destruct sequence to prevent sensitive equipment from falling into Imperial hands.
The Kit
The base kit was the Millennium Falcon that came with the MPC Rebel Base from nearly 3 decades ago. Since the detail is somewhat lacking with the original Falcon. I detailed up the hull with new sensor dish and junk parts. Top & Bottom turbo laser battery was always replaced by the laser turrets from 1:350 Starblazer Yamato. Perhaps the biggest let down was the hyperdrive exhaust, literally just a lank plastic with no detail whatsoever. I replaced the blank plastic with wire mesh which looks a lot better. The hull was then primed, and give several washes of light gray acrylic. Then weathered and sealed to complete the process.
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| Sky Saber courier craft |
The fifth installment of the photostory props. Protagonist's surprising air support during attempt to escape from being captured.
The Kit
The base kit was a 1:144 Sky Saber from the kids-oriented anime Emergency take off!! Saber Kids.ail-up. Sky Saber itself is a snap-fit kit with sticker panels. I stripped all the stickers, cleaned up the surface and glue everything in place. Then rewokred the nose section and gave it a low-vix paint op. Weathered with pastel and selaed it with matte clear to finish it off.
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Original kit with sticker panel details. |
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| Villain's attack helicopter - AH101 Salamander |
The fourth installment of the photostory props. Antagonist's air asset during attempt to capture the lead protagonist.
Completely fictional attack helicopter based on several real life counterparts.
The Kit
Front halve of the chopper was a Revell 1/71 Ka-58 stealth helicopter(essentially a re-packaged Zvezda kit). It's an unique design, but not my cup of tea. I extended the fuselage by scratchbuilding a new tail section from junk parts. Primarily a heavily modifed 1:48 Hasegawa F-16C tail stabilizer, fuselage of 1:72 DML WW2 German He-162 fighter, wheels from 1:35 Merkava MBT and lots of apoxie. Main rotar/shaft housing and forward sensors, weapon pylons were cannibalized from Iteleri 1:72 AH-64D Long bow Apache. Engine pods were modified from the same He-162 fighter's twin engines. Gatling was from Kotobukiya Hannibal labor kit. The end reult essentially defeated the stealth properties of the helicopter, but in return having a much more conventional, aggressive look.
Revell/Zvezda Ka-58 kit |
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Early wip stages |
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AH-101 Salamander |
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| lPowered suit Hannibal MkII |
The third prop in the photostory project. It's supposed to be part of the antagonist's powered suit team send to capture the lead protagonist and her comrades.
The Kit
The base kit is a Kotobukiya 1/72 Patlabor universe JGSDF military labor. I repainted iwth a urban camo scheme, replace thegatling with particle beam turret. Weathered with pastel.
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| Powered suit GNX-III |
The second prop in the photostory project. It was a 1/144 kit, but in the plot it's 1/72 scale along with Hannibal MkII.
The Kit
It was a Bandai 1/144 Mobile Suit GNX-III from Gundam 00 series. Painted with low visibility scheme and weathered with pastel.
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| Crusher Joe universe hover BMW saloon |
Briefly seen in the opening sequence of classic OVA title Crusher Joe, the BMWs were used by gangsters to hijack a hover transport with precious cargo. The transport repelled with its own internal weapon, and one Bimmer was knocked out of the roadway subsequently.
The Kit
The base kit was a 100 yen mini kit back in the mid-80s. Pretty simple kit with not many parts; mainly chassis front/rear bumpers, speedbrakes & spoilers. Aside from filling the seams with apoxie putty, I also scratchbuilt the side/roof spoilers with styrene. Then gva it a full repaint and detail-up.
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| Villain's favorite black helicopter |
Your TV and movie villains' favorite air asset when pursing the protagonists out in the open air. So anyway, this little chopper is one of the props in an upcoming photostory. I really don't want to use a civie Huey coz it's a rather dated and overused bird even though the diecast model is available everywhere, plus it doesn't really fit into a near future environment where the story is taking place. Fortunately I spotted this Fastlane/ New Ray Coast Guard Agusta A109 at local Toys "R" Us on clearance, it's contemporary design would fit perfectly with the plot. It needs a complete makeover, but that's where all the fun is.
- Crew: 1 or 2 pilots
- Capacity: 7/6 passengers
- Length: 42 ft 9 in (13.04 m)
- Rotor diameter: 36 ft 2 in (11.00 m)
- Height: 11 ft 6 in (3.50 m)
- Empty weight: 3,461lb (2,000kgs)
- Max takeoff weight: 6,283 lb (2,850 kg- 3,000kg (depending on version))
- Powerplant: 2× Pratt & Whitney Canada 206C or Turbomeca Arrius 2K1 turboshafts, 567 or 571 hp (423 kW or 426 kW) each
- Maximum speed: 177 mph (154 knots, 285 km/h)
- Ferry range: 599 mi (521NM, 964 km)
- Service ceiling: 19,600 ft (5,974 m)
- Rate of climb: 1,930 ft/min (9.8 m/s)
The Kit
The base helicopter is a reworked Fastlane/New Ray Coast Guard Agusta A109. I took it apart, filled the seams with Aves Apoxie and gave it a full repaint with Kryon flat black. I also added new windows(cut from packaging blister) to the main cabin doors since they were lacked in the original setup. All the markings were from two decades old Microscale F/A-18 Hornet and B-Club Gundam decal sheets. After the markings were sealed, a couple passes of Citadel bolt amour washes were applied to the hull to give it a heavily used look.
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| 『ふしぎの海のナディア 』: Nautilus |
The main mecha in NHK anime series Nadia: Secrets of the Blue Water. Originally being built as a starship. Using 19th Century technologies, Captain Nemo restored and converted the ship into a submarine instead. It was heavily damaged during the battle with Neo-Atalantians' sky battleship and eventually sunk. The ancient Atlantians' super starship Red Noah has numerous vessels of the same class onboard. Nadia was onboard one of those when she escaped from the doomed Neo-Nautilus. After the escape, the ship was scuttered in Japan Trench. (link)
Official name: 2nd generation interplanetary sublight starship Eltrium
Developer: M78 Nebula aliens
Original built year: Light Calendar year 7692
Modified by: Survivors of Taldisos Kingdom
Launched: June 21st, 1888
Main propulsion:
Particle Annihilation Engine
Length: 152m
Displacement: 12,000t
Max. speed: 108 Knots
Armament: Missile/guided munitions launch tubes x8
Anti-torpedo defense system
The Kit
Tsukuda Hobby 1:350, soft vinyl kit, painted with acrylic and weathered with pastels. Aftermarket photo etched railings and brass wires were added to the bridge superstructure.
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| 『サブマリン 707』: Submarine 707 II |
During the 1950s, many commercial shipping lanes and navel vessels were attacked by the submarines of secret society know only as "U". Japanese ships were not immune from it.. Defense ministry thus activated an emergency allocation plan by adding a 1900t class attack submarine to the budget. The new 1900t boat was a larger and improved version of the 1650t Asashio class attack subs, designed for ocean patrol and picket duties. Meanwhile the Americans have developed submarine-borne weapon systems along the line of Regulus Missile System. During UN's emergency session on the crisis, Japanese and US governments have reached a consensus on their mutual interest that resulted with the 1900t class armed with the missile system in final development phase.
Because of the new requirements, the design has to be significantly reworked until it has surpassed 2500t mark.
The news of U's about to build its latest UX class attack sub has forced both governments to install Thunderoc underwater attack rockets and vertical launch SUBROC systems therefore pushing the tonnage ever more and decreases the vessel's overall performance under conventional power.
For that reason, the propulsion was switched to nuclear-powered, and US government has agreed to provide the reactor. At this stage the ship's spec was nearly on par with Skipjack class subs. After commission the sub trans versed to America to have the missile systems installed.
The Kit
TSUKUDA HOBBY Soft Vinyl 1:350 707II, painted with acrylic and weathered with pastel.
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| 『SeaQuest DSV』 |
UEO seaQuest DSV 4600 is the main titular submarine featured in the science fiction television series "seaQuest DSV".
The vessel is the brain child of Captain Nathan Bridger who designed the boat in the early 21st century, however, Bridger left the navy 3 years before construction on the ship was completed. Upon its completion, seaQuest was the largest submarine and deep submergence vehicle ever constructed, measuring 307.1 m from stem to stern with a crew of 88 military and 124 science personnel. The ship could travel at speeds up to 160 knots (295 km/h) and was propelled by twin fusion reactors. The seaQuest was coated in a genetically engineered bio-skin that remained completely inert against (most) marine bacteria and organisms with a crush depth of more than 9 km of water. The ship is equipped with a complement of standard torpedoes, as well as nuclear tipped SLBMs (believed to be named the Triton II), intercepts, sea to air missiles, state-of-the art laser banks, as well as a specialized "grapnel torpedo" which, when fired, would impact a target and allow the seaQuest to tow or retract.
The ship was also equipped with a series of WSKRS (pronounced "whiskers"; Wireless Sea Knowledge Retrieval Satellites); small sensor probes that were remotely controlled by the ship's sensor chief. The WSKRS codenamed "Mother", "Junior", and "Loner", served as the "eyes and ears of seaQuest" and could relay telemetry data back to the ship miles away. In a pinch, the WSKRS could also be used as an emergency power supply and could be reconfigured for communication purposes. A special "Hyper-Reality Probe" was also part of the seaQuest's arsenal which allowed the operator to manually control the probe and conduct delicate repair operations or investigate various anomalies. The ship's communications buoy could also be detached to enable contact with surface bound vessels.
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Vessels comparison chart Courtesy of Fosnez
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The ship was also equipped with a series of sea launch shuttles, as well as a series of speeder shuttles, a series of sea crab-class vehicles and eventually, a specialized, high-speed, one-man submersible named The Stinger by one of the designers, Lucas Wolenczak. In 2032, the boat was equipped with two high-speed spector-class sub-fighters; high speed submersibles capable of engagements up to speeds approaching 300 knots (554 km/h), comparable to (but not equal to) the Lysander-class sub-fighter engineered by Deon International.
seaQuest featured an emergency override called the "Dead Man's Codes"; in the event that the ship's crew was incapacitated or dead, the codes could be used to bring the ship to any location on the globe by remote. The helm control has the final authority over the boat's course (Episode: "And Everything Nice"). The UEO Secretary General kept one set of the codes while another set was flash-fed into the computer banks and scrambled at random intervals.
Originally designed as a purely military vessel, the seaQuest underwent a refit in 2017 following the Livingston Trench Incident and the signing of the United Earth Oceans Organization charter.
The Kit
Revell 1/600 (1994) injection kit. Painted with medium grey, followed by Testor titanium on top. Once the paint was thoroughly dried, the titanium layer was lightly sanded away so that the medium gray layer was once again revealed on all the raised features, and yet the the recess pattern still retained the titanium colour.
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| 『海底軍艦轟天号』: Kaitei Gunkan Gotengo |
The Gotengo (Roaring Heaven), also known in the West as Atragon, is a submarine battleship that has appeared in several tokusatsu films of Toho Company, Ltd., beginning with Atragon (1963). It was first conceived by author Shunrō Oshikawa in his 1899 novel Kaitei Gunkan ("Undersea Battleship"), of which Atragon was a 1963 adaptation produced by Toho Studios. The submarine is heavily armed and armored, but its trademark tactic is to ram and sink enemy ships. In cinema, the submarine is easily identifiable by the enormous drill on its bow, a feature conceived by for the feature film; it is also notable for being able to burrow underground and fly.
The Kit
It was a motorized Otaki kit from around mid-80s, I discarded the motorize features and converted it into a full-display model. Repainted and mounted on a custom base.
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| 『ジャイアントロボ -地球が静止する日』: Giant Robo |
The lead protagonist mecha in the 1994 OVA ジャイアントロボ THE ANIMATION -地球が静止する日(GIANT ROBO THE ANIMATION -THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL）.
Spec
Affiliation: International Police Organization
Height: 30m
Weight: 1500t
Output: 108,000 hp
Max. flying speed: 545 km/h
Prolusion: Nuclear
Armament: Backpack rocket bazooka
Shoulder missile launchers
Chest multiple mini missile launchers x2
Waist 80mm Sponson Cannon x4
Chest wire anchors
Pilot:
Kusama Daisaku
The kit
Kaiyodo soft vinyl kit. Repainted with acrylic and metallic bluffer,; weathered with pastels.
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| 『SF3D』 |
Background History
The story is set 880 years in the future. Events primarily take place between the years 2882 and 2886. A nuclear World War in 2807 destroys most of Earth's population, and renders the planet uninhabitable. About 50 years after the destruction, the Galactic Federation (details unknown) sent an investigative team to determine the condition of the planet. They discover the planet has restored itself to a natural paradise and begin the process of sending colonists to populate Earth. The colonists prospered on the reborn Earth. Cities and towns are eventually reformed, but this growth attracts the attention of criminals, AWOL soldiers, political criminals, mercenaries, terrorists, and other people who had decided to leave civilized society, who began to make their way back to Earth as a suitable place for refuge. The Colonists had no real form of government to deal with the problem other than a few local militias. The GF, concerned about the civil unrest and the Colonists forming their own independent government, gave the Strahl Democratic Republic (SDR) the right to govern the planet. The SDR's hard handed tactics to restore order; travel restrictions, hard labor camps for the unemployed, etc., created great resentment amongst the Colonists. The Colonists create the Earth Independent Provisional Government and declare independence from the Strahl Republic. The SDR immediately forms a puppet government and attempts to quell the uprising. The wealthy Colonists hire the mercenaries to form the Independent Mercenary Army. They attack the SDR forces and the war for independence and the control of the Earth begins.
SAFS
Super Armoured Fighting Suit (SAFS) was designed to counter the threat of Nutrocker hover tanks. The laser-resistant ceramic armour shell was fully sealed and equipped with passive sensor system. Main armament includes a heavy laser that can easily penetrate Nutrocker's hull. SAFS also features an emergency pilot escape system that with eject the front and real hull during bail out. The design has become so successful that many variations and battlefield modifications were developed; thus becoming one of the Terran Independence War's most versatile combat system.
The Kit
Yellow Submarine prepainted 1:35 pre-painted SAFS & Melusine. I modded the pilot heads from various anime and comic character keychains.
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PKH 103 1a Nutrocker
Nutrocker is an unmanned hover tank designed to defeat regular Armoured Fighting Suit (A.F.S.). In reality, it was a hovertruck wrapped with ceramic armour that can repel AFS's laser blast, and armed with a high power IR laser canon. It's devastating power over the AFS on the battlefield has earned its nickename of "Peanuts" from the Merc AFS pilots, that's probably where the name Nutrocker originated from.
The Kit
Original Nitto 1:76 kit. I've been rebuilding it again and again in the past two decades. Nearly threw it way, but glad I salvaged it. Optional sensors and rocket pods are from junk parts bin; railings and antennas are modded from brass wire.
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