Wednesday, March 13, 2019

Marui 1/144 Best Collection - ARMORED WALKER

Oh yes..... U do see it right: It's Marui, and yes, not any battery operated airsoft gun, but a spring powered sci fi kit.

Best is, this looks like some bootleg. Well, since the absence of any Star Wars logo, typeface; I wouldnt call it a bootleg. However, the design of the walker, even the small flying objects in the background of the boxart, u cant deny they look quite close resemblance of AT-ST and snowspeeder.

This is what happen during the 80's in Japan and lets refresh our memories of how Japan rose to a super power by reverse engineer others' stuff.






Overall, this is a very simple kit. As usual it does come with some toy element: a spring powered wind up motor which the walker can actually walk.

For my side, I just add up a little bit of details, especially on areas that look kinda empty to me. I the motor in it though probably i will not play with ti at all after i have had painted it.

Also did a small vignette on a wooden block. Snow terrain. I was trying to do melting snow that is quite icy n wet on the ground. but as usual, i think i have had overdone with the powder snow. Besides that, I realize the way i paint, it is extremely difficult for me to capture interesting colors on photo

Anyway the side panel of the box where advertisement s, I saw another AT AT like walker.... just couldnt find it though....

Below are some photos of the completed work:







Arii 1/20 6WD Off Road Machine Series - STRONGER



This is an Arii's kit that really got me when I was young. First, the diagram they have on the box looks really canggih and pro (XD). Second, it's a 6 wheel drive; though the motor only pulls the 4 back wheel; but still, how cool s that? Third, n most importantly, after saving pocket money for months, n finally get myself one from Fajar supermarket near my house, build it immediately and found that it didnt move!!!!
I tried to figure out at that time why it didnt move but failed.

Years later, finally i got myself another box of this series, from ebay with a cut throat price. It's slightly different from the one I got in the 80's as this looks like a Europe country release. Anyway, the runner and design r identical. So my challenge this round is to find out the reason.
 



Yes, again, when do it OOB, the car doesnt move again. This round I finally pretty much confirm the reason behind it: the main reason being the gear ratio.
(Of course, before that I had eliminate other possible cause like fitting accuracy of the parts, extra plastic flashes, rough surface, and I did oil the moving parts too.)

With such gear ratio, a normal low torque FA130 motor will have no chance to move the the car. If I changed it to a 2 wheel drive, it still can move on a flatland while stop at the smallest obstacle or bump. For 4 wheel, definitely no chance.

After I have changed it to a high power, low speed motor, situation got slightly better, but still nothing even come close to a "Off Road" vehicle.

I even pump the motor with extra voltage (9V), it did improve, but again, that's not what i really want.

Unfortunately I didnt have the right size of gears to replace the original. So I guess my mission for this project is considered half accomplished: at least I manage to confirm the root cause of my failure in my previous build during my childhood.
 

So finally I have changed the thing into a 2 wheel drive; since mostly I wont even play with it after I have had done painted it.

The rest is just a standard build, sand, correction, prime, paint process. Just a side note: I really love the stickers in this kit. They r actually plastic stickers n not paper, which means using water with detergent is possible; which is something really useful in handling self adhesive stickers.

 









Crown - Jinchoge Fragrance Table Fan Model


 Frankly, I was laughing when I was photoshooting the completed kit and editing the photos.

Yes, is a blurdy table fan where I took photos of various angle, trying to capture the details, playing with shadows, highlights, white balance, saturation etc......

Basically this is a model kit of a table fan, by the manufacturer Crown. Well, there's definitely a company named Crown that produced plastic model kit in the past, just that I am not sure it is the same company that produces real table fans n other electrical appliances today.

Original boxart. I always love the hand drawn box art.

 Pretty simple kit. As usual, besides the plastic model, it does come with other extra gimmick: Here's a FA-130 motor and even some fragrance beans, which I assume is the aroma of Jinchoge.


In fact, they even give quite some extra fragrance beans, which is for the customer to change when the fragrance worn out. How thoughtful XD
For the picture on right, yes, with just 2 very some n loose pegs, plus the thin plastic has warpped, the assembly is actually tougher than i expected.

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So here it is, lemme share with you the view of a scale down plastic fan (can really spin n blow wind) from various angles. Enjoy! XD




Last, the fan in motion. Wah, very interesting!!!