I’ve been showing off blazing white prints for the last few posts, and I thought it was time to finally show off the detail of the Bounce Tortoise design. The WSF Polished prints have some surface texture to them, and the detail is not razor sharp, but I could not wait any longer to try painting one of these guys. This is a PBT-0xx print as shown in Adventures in Shapeways Part 2, before some changes and tweaks were made to the detail and size. It was still a blast to paint.
This 1/60 scale PBT-000 Bounce Tortoise print is not for any higher purpose or machination, I simply wanted a stainless steel print of my power suit.
In Adventures in Shapeways Part 3 I discussed the 1/60 scale Bounce Tortoise print. Today we’re going to discuss the larger, more Deluxe Bounce Tortoise in 1/35 scale, again shown next to a 1/35 scale Scopedog, and a 1/35 scale Maschinen Krieger suit.
In Adventures in Shapeways Part 2 I showed off the very first test print of the Bounce Tortoise power armor. A new shipment came earlier this week with much more exciting prints.
I know I’ve been quiet for the summer, but I finally have new things to show, but I think you guys are going to like them. In my last Adventures in Shapeways post, I showed off some basic modeling and print tests that were just a way for me to get a handle on making something on screen and having it show up at my doorstep. Now we’re into real designs, starting with the PBT-0XX Bounce Tortoise prototype. Power armor in the Starship Troopers, Dorvack, and Machinen Krieger tradition is one of my favorite things. With the infinite possibilities afforded by CAD, I decided to start with a power suit.
B-Club is the specialty item arm of Bandai. B-Club makes PVC character figures, model detail parts, soft vinyl toys and kits, and more. They’ve released numerous reissue Bullmark kaiju vinyl toys, but have also released soft vinyl model kits over the years. At some point, B-Club released a line of 1/75 scale kits of mecha from Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket. I don’t really care for the miniseries, but I like the machines in it quite a bit. When I learned about the line, I knew I needed to start tracking them down. Soft vinyl robot kits are a strange breed, but I love them. I wrote along, indulgent thoughtpiece about vinyl robot kit in a review over on CollectionDX. Go there to read lots of words, and scroll down for more and bigger pictures of the finished Zaku.
I received some test prints from Shapeways of a quick bot I threw together teaching myself Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 5 CAD software. I used these guys to get a sense of how some on-screen details translate into plastic. I also had some problems with the largest (and most expensive) print that I’m going to report back to Shapeways.
These are just a test, but there’s more PRS 3D printed goodness in the pipe, so keep your eyes peeled!
The Microman Bio Mechanic suits were model kits released at the tail end of the original Microman line and reissued by Romando in the 90’s. You can read a thorough history of them at Microforever, but the sparknotes version is that they are chunky, rugged snap-fit battle armor kits for Microman figures. This one started out life as the tan and brown Desert Filtered type, but I was on a blue kick when I airbrushed it a while back. Microman is a pretty veteran toy franchise, so I went heavy with the weathering as if this unit had been there since the beginning.
The Robot Spirits Den’an Gei review got a lot of traffic last week, so I thought it’d be fun to start posting links to my reviews over at CollectionDX as they go up in case people don’t check there too often. I usually cover Glyos vinyl releases, 3A stuff, Iron Man, and real robots. Maybe over the weekend I’ll through and put together a review links page, since I have done a lot over the last couple of years. This week I posted a pair of sponsored reviews:
Bandai Robot Spirits MS-07B-3 Gouf Custom
Bandai Robot Spirits Gundam AGE-1 Normal
So, I wrote this review for CollectionDX without realizing that we’ve already covered this figure. I didn’t want what I put together to go to waste, so I figured I’d post it here for my own edification.
Prometheus Rising Studios 