PAM-48Y "Spatha", fictional German Bundeswehr use (Ex Dorvack)

[Dizzyfugu]

It's Friday and time for another SF whif model.

Again, let me take into the weird but very inspiring world of anime - esp. the "real robot" genre - and let me provide you with some background info about the kit's "origins": the Dorvack TV series from 1983/84.

Here's a promo trailer, 3:24 long: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83zAgmf48Ds

This typical 'real robot' series was on air just for a short time, and it was apparently not a huge success. But it offered cool designs, which, among others, heavily influenced the later Transformers. And there were the bulky Powered Armors, "PA" for short.

But what is/was it all about? The year is 1999 (then). The Idelians, whose colony-ship has been wandering 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 against the enemy's powered armors, but with little success. Only one unit is able to inflict significant damage, the 'Special Armored Battalion Dorvack'. They are equipped with special variable mecha (designed by Katsumi Itabashi and Nobuyoshi Haraba), that are able to convert from rugged all-terrain vehicles to humanoid forms - and with less flashy Powered Armors, which come in various models and guises and which have been inspiring modelers around the world for 25 years now.

These little PA kits have a huge inspirational potential, since their design is IMHO as timeless and clean as Shoji Kawamori's Macross VF-1 Valkyries from the same era. I guess they also had a huge impact on the Ma.K. series of models? And you can do so much with them! E .g. convert it into something like this:


1:24 Ex-Dorvack - PAM-48Y "Spatha" (fictional German Bundeswehr use; kit conversion/scratch-built) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

This actually is the rest of my first ever Dorvack PA kit, 25+ years old and saved from a rather desperate wreckage state. Anyway, the original PAC-48 "Guardian" kit (see at the end) was only useable in parts. The plastic had suffered from a bath in brake fluid to get rid of the old paint crust, making the ancient polystyrene even more brittle. Consequently, many hull sections had to be cut away or replaced with plastic sheet or replacements, and the kit ended up as a thorough conversion - rather Frankenstein-style. And in this poor state it stood for years among the other, pretty and finished PA kits, staring at me and waiting for an idea and a revival.


1:24 Ex-Dorvack - PAM-48Y "Spatha" (fictional German Bundeswehr use; kit conversion/scratch-built) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

This finally came spontaneously when I browsed literature for interesting camouflage paint schemes and stumbled across the current German army summer uniform. Its cammo scheme is rather complex and consists of nothing less than five colours. It is a very effective paint scheme for forest and heath areas, since it blurs contours through the strong colours contrasts and the mottled colour fields.

With such a Bundeswehr theme, I decided to leave the "inner" Dorvack universe with this kit and rather build a "What if..." model: how would a PA in real military use in 2020 look like? I already did this some time ago with a Patlabor Brocken (soon to come...), and the result was ...exciting!


1:24 Ex-Dorvack - PAM-48Y "Spatha" (fictional German Bundeswehr use; kit conversion/scratch-built) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

Hence, I modified the kit with plausible details. Parts came from everywhere: the smoke dischargers come from a vintage Dougram F35 Blizzard Gunner, the sensor turret was built from HO scale supplement pieces from a Cornerstone set. This set also donated the cooling grates on the PA's rear sides. The new jet propulsion system's intakes are actually exhausts from an Italieri AH-1W in 1:72, the jet pipes come from a horrible 1:72 F-4 snap-fit kit from Heller - after 20 years I found some good use for them... The whole right arm had to be built from scratch, the missile launcher as main armament also comes from the aforementioned Blizzard Gunner kit in 1:72 scale.


1:24 Ex-Dorvack - PAM-48Y "Spatha" (fictional German Bundeswehr use; kit conversion/scratch-built) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

With the Bundeswehr theme, I made up a new designation for this PA model: the PAM-48Y "Spatha" – the "Y" suffix is a reminiscence of German army vehicles' license plates, the name "Spatha" has nothing to do with Spartan warriors, it is actually a term for a German straight sword blade, a cavalry weapon.


1:24 Ex-Dorvack - PAM-48Y "Spatha" (fictional German Bundeswehr use; kit conversion/scratch-built) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

For painting I settled on five Humbrol tones. Since I could not find concrete reference numbers for the original uniform colours, I had to match with photographs. I finally came up with:

- Humbrol 95 (Concrete, a greenish yellow tone, currently out of production, though)
- Humbrol 78 (Cockpit Green)
- Humbrol 62 (Leather Brown, RAL 8032)
- Humbrol 149 (Forest Green, FS 34092)
- Humbrol 33 (Black, RAL 9011/FS 37038)

This is also the order of application - if you take a close look at an original German uniform, you will find the colours arranged in layers above each other, from the lightest to darkest tone, mottled, but with clearly defined edges.

Application was less difficult than expected, everything was done by hand with a small brush. A wash with thinned black ink followed, decals followed. Those came from the scrap box, tactical markings were taken from an aftermarket decal sheet from TL Decals. More ageing was done through dry painting with grey and ochre tones, plus some rubbing with grinded pencil mine. All of this was sealed under matt varnish.
As final cosmetics, dry painting with shiny silver on some edges and some splotches with water-based colours that simulate dust were added. At the feet, I also added some white glue to this mix and blew some filtered sand/dirt onto the feet, in order to simulate a mud crust.

All in all, not a highlight of model kit building, rather saving what was left.
But considering the fact that the basic kit is almost 30 years old, worn and revamped for two times, the result ain't bad 



Finally, as a benchmark, here's a pic of a raw PAC-48 how it actually looks like (without paint, though)...


Dorvack diorama project: Battle on African plains (inspired by Ep. 14) - PAC-48 WIP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr


From: http://www.mechaworx.com/ImageGallery/dvmk006.gif

[PR19_Kit]

WHAT is that Thomas??? 

Not being into the sci-fi thing I can boggle at the modelling and yet don't have a CLUE what it's all about. 

[ChernayaAkula]

A mech in Flecktarn!  That's just inspired! 

[Dizzyfugu]

WHAT is that Thomas??? 

Not being into the sci-fi thing I can boggle at the modelling and yet don't have a CLUE what it's all about. 

That's the mind-boggling world of Japanese animation (anime), and stuff from the great "real robot" era in the early 80ies. Not the junkish kiddy stuff, rather animated SF warfare with a serious undertone.

Dorvack is just one of these series, but rather exotic and forgotten. Pace was slow, it did not catch the audience like the Gundam or Macross saga. But the mecha designs were great and inspiring for a lot of other more known things. In Dorvack, for example, transformable vehicles hit the screen, much earlier than the Transformers (actually, some Dorvack designs were "stolen" and built the base for the Transformers universe).

Anyway, I had several anime phases, mostly mecha, when Revell released Japanese robot kits under thier "Robotech" label and some authentic kits hit the shelves around here - mid 80ies.
Before I started whiffing and building aircraft kits again (two years ago, I guess), I did a lot of THIS stuff, even some whiffy conversions like this one here (or the small Valkyries posted in another thread).

Some "colleagues", partly OOB, partly built from TV series benchmarks, partly fantasy conversions 

Dizzyfugu's Dorvack PA cabinet - status Oct. 2011 by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

[NARSES2]

I never realised just how many kits of this type of genre were available  Sheltered life I suppose although at my age I wouldn't have been exposed to the genre in my formative years. Was all Rag, Tag and Bobtail back then 

[Dizzyfugu]

Ah, only seven of the sixteen PAs in the cabinet picture are "authentic" (even though, since the pic as taken, two more kits based on a TV apprearance have been added with a diorama)...