Super Armored Fighting Suit Prototype

Kit:

This is a pretty straightforward conversion to the 1/20 Wave Luna Pawn. The build utilizes a resin conversion kit from Zionel Western Bis which was available at Wonderfest 07 and for a brief mail order. The kit contains 20 gorgeously cast resin parts, which includes a pretty close sculpt of the main creator Kow Yokoyama. The assembly requires some surgery to the Wave parts but nothing serious.

A review of the resin kit can be found here: SAFS Proto Review

Kit Build:

I was inspired by the running Raccoon in the B.D. Manual to create a more dramatic pose with this AFS. The appendages were assembled per my usual method of trimming the alignment pins and any features for the kit joints. The arm and leg halves were glued and once set were packed with epoxy putty. Once the epoxy cured, holes were drilled and .093” solder wire was glued with super glue. The appendages were posed and joint covers were sculpted with epoxy putty.

The missile launcher tube is scratch built from styrene and option parts. The thumb was cut off and repositioned to actually hold the tube. My first attempt to keep the hand and tube separate failed when I tried to glue the finished tube to the hand. The paint on both parts was ruined, so I striped the finish off and glued the hand to the tube with liquid cement. This created a little more work with painting later on, but in the end it would have been less work to do this the first time, something to consider next time.

 A hole was drilled deep into the contact foot and leg and a piece of 1/8” brass rod was fixed with superglue. This would be used to hold the legs while painting and as the anchor for the base.

Paint:

The model is painted with Vallejo Model Air as the base coat and Tamiya Acrylics for the blue color markings. This was the first time I has airbrushed with Model Air. I was pleased with the quality of the paint which was pre-thinned in the bottle for airbrushing. The O.D. base was highlighted with lighter shades mixed with Khaki. Once the base paint had cured, I applied Gunze Mr. Mask Sol Neo with a torn piece of sponge to create the ragged edges. The areas were first base coated with white and then a custom mix of Tamiya acrylic paint was applied for the blue.

The whole model was clear coated with Future Floor Polish. Not only does it provide a glossy surface for the decals, but it provides an excellent protective shell for the base paint. Decals were applied from various sheets, some from the new Wave Polar Bear.

Finish:

I faded the paint with an application of artists’ oil paint. Small dabs were jabbed onto the model and these dabs were blended in with a #6 brush dipped in clean Turpenoid. Each time I dipped the brush in the thinner, I touched it to a paper towel to wick off some of the thinner to prevent me from flooding the surface and washing away any effects of the faded paint. I used more yellows and red and sepia to help warm up the base color and focused this on areas that would receive more light. I then used black, blue and sepia in shadow areas of the figure to help add some contrast to the finish.

Paint chips were first applied with the Khaki over areas that would receive wear as it crashed around the rubble. I used Vallejo Camo Black Brown to represent areas that chipped down to the bare metal. The bottom of the raised foot received extra attention with some drybrushing and sponging of the paint for the numerous small chips. I used an airbrush to apply a heavily thinned mixture of Tamiya Black with a few drops of Flat Brown to post shade some of the panel lines and darken up the areas around the engine exhaust. The final wet item was a few select applications of Vallejo Clear Gloss to simulate fresh fluid or grease leaks around the power pipe connections.

The entire model was give an overall dusting of heavily diluted Tamiya Deck Tan to simulate a buildup of dust and a little bit extra around the feet and legs. I felt the Deck Tan looked closer to rubble dust than my typical use of Tamiya Buff. I then went back with black and sepia oil paint straight from the tube. I used a small brush and applied small marks around some of the panels and especially around the exhaust area. This helped to define stains and spills better and add some points of interest to the model.

I wanted this suit to look like it was in an urban combat environment, so I didn’t build up thick globs of dried mud, but the applications of dust help the dirty used look. I used an artist’s silicone brush to rub ground graphite onto the bottom of the foot and around the exhaust area. The exhaust was first painted a rusty orange with acrylics and dusted with pigments.

Figure:

I substituted the Kow bust that comes with the kit. He’s grinning and that didn’t work out too well with a dramatic running pose. I chose to use the bust that was included with the Luna Pawn kit, as I had seen a couple of very good paint ups of this figure and wanted to give it a shot too. The bust, really just a head and collar, is painted with Vallejo Acrylics. I feel I am getting better with each bust. Thank goodness, but I still don’t paint them often enough to be good at it yet. The eyes turned out better on this one than any of the others so far. A good part of that is the quality of the sculpting and having eyes that are defined in the first place. Having well defined features helps greatly with the quality of the figure, and we are all familiar with the quality of the Nitto figures.

I chose early on not to add any armored glass over the front of the visor. It probably should have one to help with battlefield scanning lasers and shrapnel and dust. But a windscreen would just limit the visibility of the pilot which helps to add some humanity to an armored suit. I like to treat the suit models as more of a figure model than a static armor model.

Base:

The base is a plaster cast base for 120mm figures. It was mounted to a wooden block to add height to the piece. The sides were covered with styrene and sanded, primered and painted smooth. Any gaps with the plaster base were filled with epoxy putty and extra debris was added to round out the scene.

It was hand painted with acrylics, given a wash with thinned artist’s oils and drybrushed. The display was given a light dusting of very thin Tamiya Deck Tan to mute the contrast and blend the scene in. It was then dusted with MIG pigments Urban Rubble Dust along with various other pigments for some variety to the dust and dirt.

This is a nice variation of the standard AFS model. I like the greater mass and would welcome further AFS MK1/MK2 variations.