by Neil Gremell
Scale: 1/20
In this scene, world war whatever continues
across a desolate and barren earth. An Axis fighter, older and more
seasoned, has gotten "the drop" on an Allied fighter and taken out his
opponent's weapon with a single shot. After that, little was left but to
finish off - wreck - the younger, somewhat green Allied soldier.
The Axis fighter has a newer, up-gunned armored suit, while the Allied
fighter's equipment is older and has been repaired at least once (eg. his
right arm has been totally replaced). Ironically, both sides purchase their
suits from the same manufacturer, located somewhere in the Far East...
With apologies to any who subscribe to the SF3D mythos.
The kits were purchased from the Starship Modeler store and showed up
promptly. They are well-engineered and go together so easily that one could
even put them together without any glue. There are a lot of vinyl parts - of which I
am not a big fan - which can be trying to clean and paint. I used krylon
for plastic as a primer followed by Tamiya spray lacquer so that I could
clean off any subsequent overspray easily. I didn't get the best adhesion,
but the vinyl isn't very visible in the end. On the plus side, the use of
these parts means the figures remain completely re-poseable even after they
are finished.
The moldings are crisp and clean, although there isn't a ton of detail. The
faces are a little on the soft side but are pretty big, so that they can be
painted up nicely.
I followed my typical military model techniques; Tamiya acrylics; oil paint
and mineral spirit washes; pastel highlights etc. The figures were easy to
finish and weather in bite-sized sub-assemblies.
An extensive decal sheet is provided (lots of spares as I used very few) as
well as a selection of crystal-clear face shields which I left off for the
photos.
![[SSM's 15th Contest: Wrecks]](rex.jpg)
