maschinen krieger- FUTCH FACTOR 1/20 Sirene Panzer "Sp Wagen" ZA-603 - The Kit

If you dig this design and are going to buy one Ma.K. Garage Kit in 2018, then SIRENE should be the one you get. Order HERE.

I'd be out a kidney...

Resin Ma.K. kits have come a long way. Not just as in production quality, but their availability to folks outside of Japan. The majority of licensed Ma.K. GKs normally come from Japan and South Korea. These licensed GK Kits traditional debuted and were only sold over two days at Japan's winter and summer Wonder Festivals. In recent years, some have become available through mail order directly from the GK producer, JP hobby web retailers like HLJ.com and through brick and mortar Japanese hobby shops after release at Wonder Festival. I went the days when the only way I could get my hands on a JP WF licensed Ma.K GK was to buy it from a private seller on Yahoo Japan. After shipping and proxy commissions, typically I would spend three times more than what the kit sold for at WF. It was a very expensive venture then.

The SIRENE is the latest licensed garage kit to come from an American based GK producer. You don't have to wait for Wonder Festival to get it either. This beauty is from the Garage of FUTCH FACTOR. 99.9% of the model is based on Kow's design/build. FUTCH has been producing some of the most iconic Ma.K designs in resin for at least 10 years, all of which can be seen HERE.


What's in the box...

But first, rather let's look at what is to the kit's box being the packaging is part of a Ma.K. kit's charm. The box art is straightforward and clean. The kit's parts come packed in a nice flip top box which is the packaging of choice for high-end GK producers. The cardboard is strong and has a nice weight to it. The strength of the box combined with ample interior bubble wrap protects the parts ensuring a smooth transit for resin. A bonus for kit collector because it will store well.

The first thing I notice upon unwrapping the resin is how crisp a cast the kit's parts are. Futch's kit is up there quality wise and hangs with kits produced by HexaModels, Love Love Garden, Rainbow Egg and WHP (aka Workers Holiday Party).

Part organization: resin parts are nicely separated in packets.

Clean resin casting- I anticipate doing very little part cleaning.

Nice directions. The layout is thoughtful, the steps clear and the kit's parts are well drawn and easy identifiable.

True to old school Ma.K kits, an assortment of multimedia parts of resin, metal springs, rod and wire make up the kit. The kit even comes with lens for the turret sensors.

My Two Cents.....

I've bought many Ma.K. GK resin over the past six years. Most of the kits require many hours of work to build because of casting quality issues, warped resin or parts from styrene donor kits are required to complete the build. While those kits are fun, if you want to get to painting or spend time personalizing your model and still want a big boy build, then this is the right Ma.K. GK kit. Good thing for resin addicts it's available now here.

Thanks and congratulations to Futch for completing and making his kit available. A big thank's to Kow for creating the SIRENE and blessing Ma.K fans with supporting Futch's release of it.

maschinen krieger - 1/20 F-BOOT - Sanding down and building up the hull

Working on this hasn't been easy since I need to do most of the work on it out of doors because there so much dust is generated when sanding.

First step was to sand off all the details from the hull. With a hand held power sander. Yay!

I bought a bucket of Aves to resurface the hull so I can get my version  closer to Kow's.

Sanding.....

Sanding.....

So, mine is some what different from Kow's and the D3 1/35th kit which I'm also using as a reference.

And on its own I dig it and feel it's a pretty good version.

Next, more Aves and more anding! Woot Woot!

Past Posts: maschinen krieger - 1/20 F-BOOT - Introduction to Project

maschinen krieger - Zionel Western SAFS Prototype 1.

An oldie from WF.

First few coats of white over metallic base and Copic marker ink for the "yellowing" effect.

Note: ID numbers/letters are decals added prior to white paint. They were white, then I used a Copic market to make stain them blue.

maschinen krieger- built and ready to go

Just a few builds that had to wait while I worked on Transformers Combiner Wars preludes.

film/animation work - Transformers: Prelude to the Combiner Wars.

Hasbro Studios and Machinima are about to release the animated adventure Transformers: Combiner Wars in August 2016.

At the end of March, I was recruited by buddy, Gaku Inada (INADA STUDIOS) to scratch build buildings and destroyed structures for use in a four part prelude series, Prelude to the Combiner Wars. The first installment airs June 28th, 2016. Under Gaku's creative direction, pretty much all my modeling time and efforts went into helping create the environments the characters the viewer sees move throughout while telling their story. The four-episodes will prime fans for the full series, conveying to them the current state of Cybertron and Caminus from each of the four character's points-of-view. 

Gaku provided me with his concept sketches, which I did my best to follow. I created the miniature structures with styrene rod, tube, card and basic detailing products from Plastruct, Evergreen or Tamiya. I bashed Star Wars, Gundam, ship, aircraft, Saturn, Mercury and nuclear rocket kits to for their shape, structure or surface details. I hear the guys at Hasbro where pleased with my work and will take the builds on the road to display at various comicons they're attending to promote the Transformers reboot.

The models were shot using a digital camera seated on a dolly. After, the images were digitally enhanced and added to the animated sequences. Gaku wanted the cartoon’s environments to have a certain level of perspective and movement; a particular nuance he was after not achieved solely by using CGI to an environment. He believes integrating actual miniatures into the CGI production adds to the overall visual depth and sense of movement within the characters' world.

Check out some of the chatter onTransformers: Combiner Wars- Entertainment Weekly (www.ew.com) , Ad Week (www.adweek.com) and Super Hero Hype (www.superherohype.com)

Prelude to the Combiner Wars airs 06/28/16. Catch it on Machinima's FB page  ,

Below is a taste of some of the structures I built for Cybertron's environment. Once the films are released, I'll post structures for Caminus, the animation stills from both Cybertron and Caminus focusing on the structures in the film, the structures I built and sketches Gaku provided me to work from. 

Test shots

Above: Priming and basic wash

Above: Entrance to dead city

Below: Dead city interior towers 2-6

Mecha Rock