| Manufacturer : |
Takara |
| Scale : |
1/35 |
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This Scope Dog was built long
time ago, when I had enough enthusiasm to build something different from
others. The original kit only had the upper part of the cockpit
details, so I scratchbuilt the seat as well as extra details for the
side panels and the hatch based on the official design sketch. |
| One of the main features of the
Armored Trooper is its knee mechanism, which drops as shown for a maintenance, and
it also works as a sock absorber when landing. The 1/35 scale kit omitted this
feature, so I made the links with plastic sheet.
A conversion kit is available today.
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The pilot figure is included in
the kit, but it only had the waist and above, so I used Tamiya's
military figure to make a complete one. Then I made the seat, and
control levers. The console has pivots, and it can be moved
forward just like the official drawing sketch. |
| Original 1/35 kit had a lot of
features for the price of the kit. I didn't have a guts to make the
camera assembly for the Scope Dog, but the Strike Dog model that I made
has a separate camera turret. Although the model was stored
carelessly, it only suffered a missing handle on the torso. |
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Other than those modifications
on the leg and cockpit, the kit was built straight out of the box. I
didn't change the proportion as I thought that the kit captured the look
of this dorky looking humanoid tank very well. |
| I used Gunze's Mr. Color lacquer
base acrylic paint to paint the kit. Both dark and light green
were custom mixed, and sprayed by the airbrush. Strong flash of my
camera made
the color look light, but it's actually much darker. I picked up
many hints from the
military models in various magazines, and I hand painted
the scratches and paint chips. Clear resin was used for the camera
lenses, and it looked nice back then. I didn't know about MV
lenses at that time, but now they can be used to represent the lenses. |
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The standard kit came with the
back pack, but my energy ran out when I completed the main body, so it
has kept unpainted and stored in a junk box.
I only completed two Votoms models, and this Scope Dog was made when
I was fifteen years old.
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