Dorvack +++ 1:24 PA-36G "Nove Attacker" with Gatling gun

Dizzyfugu · June 22, 2020, 12:29:24 AM

Dorvack +++ 1:24 PA-36G "Nove Attacker" with a CW-18A Gatling gun and MM103 'Wrist Racate' launchers (Kit conversion) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

Some (real) background:
Special Armored Battalion Dorvack (特装機兵ドルバック; Tokusō Kihei Dorubakku) is/was an anime series with 36 episodes, aired from 1983 to 1984 in Japan and also in Hong Kong roughly at the same time.

The year is 1999. The Idelians, whose colony-ship has been wandering in space for tens of thousands of years, are nearing exhaustion. Their sole hope is to settle on the nearest habitable planet: Earth. Soon after their arrival in orbit, they launch an invasion, landing a large attack force in the Alps.

The Earth Defense Forces valiantly fight in their powered armor against the enemy, but with little success. Only one unit is able to inflict significant damage, the Special Armored Battalion Dorvack. Under the command of Colonel Takagi, Masato Mugen, Pierre Bonaparte and Louise Oberon fight to defeat the invaders. They are equipped with special variable mecha that are able to convert from rugged all-terrain vehicles to humanoid forms – one of the first cases of "transformer" style robots. Furthermore, Powered Armors (so-called PAs) – looking much like deep sea diving suits, which inspired the later Ma.K. series – are frequent tactical ground unit equipment of Earth's forces and available in a wide range of designs.
The show was essentially a showcase for the toy line released by Takatoku. The mecha designs were created by Katsumi Itabashi and Nobuyoshi Habara, while the models were made by the model company Gunze Sangyo. The plot was kept simple but filled with high levels of animation and action. As a "real robot" series of the Eighties, it centered around quite realistic military action and plots (much like the contemporary series Gundam, Macross or Dougram – Fang of the Sun).

Dorvack +++ 1:24 PA-36G "Nove Attacker" with a CW-18A Gatling gun and MM103 'Wrist Racate' launchers (Kit conversion) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

Dorvack +++ 1:24 PA-36G "Nove Attacker" with a CW-18A Gatling gun and MM103 'Wrist Racate' launchers (Kit conversion) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

The kit and its assembly:
This Dorvack Powered Armor was actually inspired by a Kotobukiya mecha weapon set from their Modelers Support Goods (MSG) range – a hand-held three-barrel Gatling gun. Since the PAs carry a wide range of such weapons, including a similar but rather clumsy gun that comes with the Aoshima PA-58N "Halk" kit set from 2008 ("Gatling Smash"), I thought that this would make a good combo?

I initially planned to outfit a small PA-58N with this weapon, but I underestimated its size – and I eventually switched to a considerably more massive PA-36 "Nove" as the carrier. Digging through the stash I found a surplus Aoshima PA-36K "Berlon" kit – a "Hyper Dorvack" variant of the basic PA-36 with extra parts, and from this basis the idea of the PA-36G "Nove Attacker" was born: a kind of missing link between the standard PA-36HD and the slightly over-the-top PA-36K with its heavy weapons and the additional arm segments.

Therefore, the PA-36G became a retrograded "Berlon" version. The extra arm segments were left away, together with the four particle beam weapons attached to them. However, I included the new lower arm parts as well as the wider lower legs, which are technically spats that are added around the original shanks. The square replacement feet were taken over, too.

Dorvack +++ 1:24 PA-36G "Nove Attacker" with a CW-18A Gatling gun and MM103 'Wrist Racate' launchers (Kit conversion) WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

Dorvack +++ 1:24 PA-36G "Nove Attacker" with a CW-18A Gatling gun and MM103 'Wrist Racate' launchers (Kit conversion) WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

Beyond this basis some detail changed were made. As a cosmetic measure, the air hoses that run openly over the right shoulder were replaced with free-standing cables – a small detail but it improves the look of the model. Instead of opening the air intakes on the shoulders for the jump jet in the back (normally highly recommended), I used parts from the Berlon's shoulder lasers to add dust filters. The jump jet exhaust on the back was covered with a piece of perforated plastic, hiding the ugly seam that runs through it.
The Berlon's huge "sensor mask" was only used in part, and the respective opening modified to take the new visual sensor unit. A cable plug was added under this unit and I added a faired conduit on top of the hull. Small things, but they change the look away from the standard PA-36 hull.

A major change was an experiment with twisted legs. OOB, all the Pas have a rather stiff stance, and I tried to create a more dynamic pose through cutting the thighs horizontally and gluing them back together slightly canted outwards. Not an easy stunt, because this required some serious PSR.

Dorvack +++ 1:24 PA-36G "Nove Attacker" with a CW-18A Gatling gun and MM103 'Wrist Racate' launchers (Kit conversion) WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

Integrating the Gatling gun was not easy, though. First of all I had to attach it to the model's hands – and I was lucky to find suitable hand donors from other PA-36 kits: one that perfectly fits over the gun's handle, and another one that holds a stabilizing grip. Both could be mounted in a fashion that hold the big weapon in a pretty natural way!

A further hard nut to crack became the gun's ammunition supply. Sure you can add such a weapon to a mecha model, but what would it be without sufficient ammo, esp. a Gatling gun? The MSG set comes OOB with just a small clip that could probably hold only 5 shots – not convincing. I rather considered a belt feeding system, and already wondered about how to scratch it, when I found out that Kotobukiya offers, beyond the Gatling gun, also a matching flexible ammunition belt with a drum magazine!

Dorvack +++ 1:24 PA-36G "Nove Attacker" with a CW-18A Gatling gun and MM103 'Wrist Racate' launchers (Kit conversion) WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

Dorvack +++ 1:24 PA-36G "Nove Attacker" with a CW-18A Gatling gun and MM103 'Wrist Racate' launchers (Kit conversion) WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

I settled for this convenient alternative, even though I had to order it from Japan on top. But the result speaks for itself, even though I omitted the massive ammo drum (which I was not able to integrate in- or onto the bulbous PA-36 hull) and rather went for an internal magazine supply. A proper place would have been somewhere on the right side (where the Gatling gun is held), but the air hoses on that side made an additional external port fishy, and the ammo belt – despite of consisting of movable, single elements – was not flexible enough for a proper connection. Therefore, I placed the ammo supply on the left side of the hull – not 100% logical, but this was the only feasible option. For the belt's attachment point, the rear left flank was modified behind the shoulder, with the OOB connector from the MSG set subtly integrated. The whole conversion looks very natural!

A final addition became the small "Wrist Racate" missile launch tubes on the left lower arm – a personal invention, but already installed on an earlier Dorvack PA. These consist of simple square styrene tubes, filled with AMM-1 missiles from an Arii 1:100 VF-1 fighter kit. They match well and add to the PA's gruntiness.

Painting and markings:
This was settled very early, before building started. As mentioned above, I initially wanted to use a PA-58N kit for this build, and wanted to paint it in red and black, similar to the OOB PA-36K "Berlon", even though with a more dull red tone.

With the switch to the PA-36 kit, I wanted to get little more away from the "Berlon" scheme, so I changed from pure red to a wine red (Humbrol 73), later even shaded with Humbrol 58 (Magenta), resulting in a purplish finish, which suits the PA well. For the black sections on the legs and the upper hull I used Revell 06 (Tar Black), which is not a pure black but rather a very dark grey. The ball joints were painted with iron metallic (Revell 91) and the box under the chest became white, as an eye-catcher – even though the massive Gatling gun (painted in dark grey, Humbrol 67) blocks views.

Dorvack +++ 1:24 PA-36G "Nove Attacker" with a CW-18A Gatling gun and MM103 'Wrist Racate' launchers (Kit conversion) WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

Dorvack +++ 1:24 PA-36G "Nove Attacker" with a CW-18A Gatling gun and MM103 'Wrist Racate' launchers (Kit conversion) WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

The kit received a thorough black ink washing, even though this is hard to recognize due to the rather subdued colors, plus some serious dry-brushing shading, for a worn and dirty look.

Markings/decals come primarily from the Berlon kit, I just replaced the original white tactical code numbers with yellow ones, for more contrast to the purplish body.

After a coat with matt acrylic varnish on the hull and semi-gloss varnish on the joints' metallic parts the model finally received some mineral pigment dust, esp. around the legs and the lower areas.

Dorvack +++ 1:24 PA-36G "Nove Attacker" with a CW-18A Gatling gun and MM103 'Wrist Racate' launchers (Kit conversion) WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

Dorvack +++ 1:24 PA-36G "Nove Attacker" with a CW-18A Gatling gun and MM103 'Wrist Racate' launchers (Kit conversion) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

Dorvack +++ 1:24 PA-36G "Nove Attacker" with a CW-18A Gatling gun and MM103 'Wrist Racate' launchers (Kit conversion) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

This conversion looks simple, but integrating the Kotobukiya Gatling gun into the PA-36 was not an easy task, esp. as a handheld weapon and with the need to install the ammunition supply somehow and somewhere. This worked well, IMHO, and the Gatling gun does not look oversized in the PA-36's hands – esp. with its bulkier Berlon optional parts on the arms and the legs. The leg experiment was only partly successful, though. While the stance has been changed into a more dynamic pose, the hip joints lack space for further movement, so that the modification could not be fully exploited. Future PA builds might exploit this concept further.

zenrat · June 22, 2020, 02:47:07 AM

I love this. It puts me in mind of an armoured Minion.
Well done Dizz.

Dizzyfugu · June 22, 2020, 03:24:59 AM

Quote from: zenrat on June 22, 2020, 02:47:07 AM
It puts me in mind of an armoured Minion.

LOL, yes, there's something to it.

PR19_Kit · June 22, 2020, 05:23:38 AM

Most of the backstory is waaaaaaay over my head, but the modelling is brilliant!

I keep looking for grease nipples on all those ball joints however....

Dizzyfugu · June 22, 2020, 10:17:14 AM

A late addition: fake box art for this "kit".

Dorvack +++ 1:24 PA-36G "Nove Attacker" with a CW-18A Gatling gun and MM103 'Wrist Racate' launchers (Kit conversion) - Fake box art by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

PR19_Kit · June 22, 2020, 11:23:08 AM

I can see you're really getting into the box art stuff Thomas.

ChernayaAkula · June 22, 2020, 12:48:50 PM

Lovin' the fake box-art stuff as well.

When they said power armour, they weren't kidding.

buzzbomb · June 22, 2020, 04:03:41 PM

Nice work.

both a BFG .. AND... big boots

Box Art is a treat as well, nice tweak.

Jacques Deguerre · June 25, 2020, 05:20:37 AM

That's really cool! I built a couple of these back in the 80s and always thought they were neat little models.