SEE Type 8-FF 'Florian', a Fire-Fighter Labor (Mecha); pics @ p. 5

[Dizzyfugu]

Hmmm, one GB submission is never enough, so I take the opportunity to convert one of these...  




Anime is certainly not everyone's business, but it has a lot to offer. This "Brocken" comes from a TV series called Patlabor, one of the classics - and I'd recommend it for anyone who is curious but does not want girls in sailor-fuku, explosions all the time or mind-bending martial arts.

The charm of the Patlabor universe is that these vehicles exist (these are no robots, except for rare cases there's a pilot inside) in everyday life. When the series was conceived in the 80ies it was a near-future setting in the nineties - SF, but VERY down to earth and "realisitc". The movies are very good, too, but they are insofar a bit difficult to watch because the characters are not introduced, and the movies have a darker, more serious tone than the series. But especially the second one is actually a political thriller which is very up to date, in time sof terror instead of open warfare.

The 'Labors', how these vehicles are called, are more or less special duty heavy machinery, e. g. for construction, loading, hazmat handling. They are also employed by the police (hence the title of the series, Patlabor, which circles around a police unit which fights labor crime) and by the military. The Brocken is one of the dedicated military designs. It actually comes from Germany, hence probably the plate mail armor design. I am not certain if its name, Brocken, is the German word for hulk, or the mountain close to the inner German border in FRG/GDR times, because the Brocken was designed to patrol and protect this border - the Cold War was still part of the series' script!

Here's a personal conversion I did with this kit many years ago - a whif, actually, in contemporary Bundeswehr colors and some other mods:

Patlabor +++ 1:60 Schaft Enterprise Europe Type-7B/2B "Brocken" Military Labor, West-German Bundeswehr/Heer use, 1999 (modified Bandai kit) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

Anyway, this 1:60 kit will some modification and will be transferred into non-military use. Had this idea on the agenda for a long time, and now is a good opportunity to finally realize it.



Direct link to the finished kit: http://www.whatifmodelers.com/index.php/topic,40775.60.html

Patlabor +++ 1:60 Schaft Enterprise Europe Type-8FF "Florian One" Rescue Labor, prototype proposed to the Tokyo Fire Department, 1999 (Whif/modified 'Brocken'Bandai kit) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

[PR19_Kit]

Anyway, this 1:60 kit will some modification and will be transferred into non-military use. Had this idea on the agenda for a long time, and now is a good opportunity to finally realize it.
Stay tuned...

Somehow I don't see that in a Lufthansa scheme.............. 

[scooter]

Anyway, this 1:60 kit will some modification and will be transferred into non-military use. Had this idea on the agenda for a long time, and now is a good opportunity to finally realize it.
Stay tuned...

Somehow I don't see that in a Lufthansa scheme.............. 

Deutsche Bahn, then

[Modelling_Mushi]

Anyway, this 1:60 kit will some modification and will be transferred into non-military use. Had this idea on the agenda for a long time, and now is a good opportunity to finally realize it.
Stay tuned...

Somehow I don't see that in a Lufthansa scheme.............. 

For some reason the thought of Angela Merkel either being in control of one of those or inside drivign it seems all to plausible and natural ... 

[Hobbes]

Anyway, this 1:60 kit will some modification and will be transferred into non-military use. Had this idea on the agenda for a long time, and now is a good opportunity to finally realize it.
Stay tuned...

Somehow I don't see that in a Lufthansa scheme.............. 

A heavy haulage or construction company scheme maybe?

[Mossie]

Hmmm, one GB submission is never enough,

For some of it's too many!

Never seen this one before, I love it.

[Dizzyfugu]

I see I got the crowd hooked  . There are actually a ton of "real" Labor designs - Shoji Kawamori, one of Japan's most famous meche designers, is behind them, the man who also created the beautiful VF-1 Valkyries for Macross.

For some inspiration, take a look at this list - it also shows the scope of miltary and civil use of these vehicles:

http://mahq.net/mecha/patlabor/patlabortv/index.htm

[Old Wombat]

I could see it as a fire-fighting vehicle, an oilfield fire/explosion/emergency vehicle, a nuclear emergency vehicle or a deep sea operations vehicle.

[Dizzyfugu]

I could see it as a fire-fighting vehicle, an oilfield fire/explosion/emergency vehicle, a nuclear emergency vehicle or a deep sea operations vehicle.

Good guess! It will become a (German?) alternative to this...



Instead of a Fire Bomber, this one will go into direct melee - with some suitable, special equipment. 

[Weaver]

What I want to know is why this super-high-tech 30-foot high mech was carrying a perfect scaled-up replica of a Walther MP sub-machinegun, complete with cocking handle, sling swivels and iron sights.....

[Dizzyfugu]

It's German - from a Japanese designer's point of view, though, and a potentially unedicated audience that just knows clichés!

Anime is full of such weirdo things. Ever wondered waht Douglas REALLY worked on when they designed the F-110/F-4?

[Weaver]

It's German - from a Japanese designer's point of view, though, and a potentially unedicated audience that just knows clichés!

Thing is though, that gun isn't a cliché. There's nothing quintessentially German about it, like a Luger, an MP-40 or a Heckler & Koch MP-5. It's just a relatively obscure, technically unremarkable* SMG, from a company better known for it's pistols, that sold moderately well for a while but ceased production in 1985. I'll bet anyone who isn't some level of gun nut has no idea who makes it or where. My suspicion is that the designer just looked through Jane's All The World's Guns until he found something German he like the look of... (or maybe it's the association of Walther with James Bond: "hey the PPK's kinda weedy actually; what else do they make?")



*It has a over-hung solid bolt that's an interesting alternative to the more common Uzi-style, but that's about it.

[zenrat]

Yeah, i'd have given it a schmeisser mp40.

[Weaver]

Yeah, i'd have given it a schmeisser mp40.

Off-topic fun fact: Hugo Schmeisser had NOTHING to do with the MP-40. It was actually designed by an engineer called Heinrich Vollmer and produced by the Erma company. It was given the "Schmeisser" moniker by allied troops because he was famous for designing the MP-18 and they just assumed this must be another one of his. Ironically, Schmeisser spent much of the war trying to undermine the MP-40 by coming up with pointless alternatives.

[Dizzyfugu]

Funny what discussion an anime kit can create? 

BTW, things move already forward. The good thing about this more modern mecha kits is that the mould engineers and the kit designers eventually had mercy with those-who-build-the-stuff and designed the kit in a way that you can assemble segments, pant them separately and put them together. Older kits do not offer this luxury, so beware if you want to build one. 

Another unique feature of the Patlabor mechas is that they are basically an endoskeleton, over which textured (wrinkly) silicone sleeves are put, and then the outer shell, as a kind of exoskeleton is added. This has pros and cons. On the good side, these silicone parts are flexible and cover areas where you normally see joints, holes or ugly plastic parts. On the down side: you can hardly paint the stuff, and OOB it looks pretty bleak. The Brocken comes with medium grey parts - so I try my best with thinned, dark grey acrylic paint as a kind of wash that settles in the wrinkles.

Body work also started. The head will be completely new/scratched, the cockpit section (in the breast) will be new, too, and I try to figure out how I can mount a CO² tank on the back...
Additional search lights, water cannons, maybe a winch and (he he...) an extandable hydraulic crusher on the forearm, when knocking on the door simply does not meet the situation.