Armored Core - SUNSHINE-L

[urumomo]

A friend of mine gave me this - He didn't have interest in it , evidently .
I figured of all the kits in the stash that will never get built , being a gift , this shouldn't be one of them .
Let's see what happens with it . I'm in the mood for some weathering .

Look at all the plastic ,

 

[urumomo]

 

[wjbrandel]

Looks interesting. Looking forward to seeing it built.

 

[Jim62]

It appears you need to be very careful building this considering the warning in 4 different languages on the box. Look forward to seeing it finished.

 

[the Baron]

It appears you need to be very careful building this considering the warning in 4 different languages on the box. Look forward to seeing it finished.

I wondered, too, about "Core". Do they mean, "corps", as in a body of troops or military unit? Or, do they mean that the mecha is integral to a larger weapon, which is built around this one? Or is it like classic instructions in kits from Japan or China, back in the day, that sometimes left us scratching our heads.

 

[urumomo]

core
/kôr/

noun

The tough , central part of various fruits , containing the seeds.
"quarter the pears, remove the cores then slice again into wedges"


Wikipedia : " operating large robot combat units known as Armored Cores at the behest of corporate and private clients. "

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armored_Core

 

[urumomo]

 

[Wolf Star]

Metal......Gear......?
!

 

[urumomo]

LOL - I'm not a gamer .
To me it seemed like Mech Warrior but you can fly around faster or something .
The game play I've come across on YT is less than inspiring

 

[urumomo]

Right out of the gate .
First step in the build .

Notice anything wrong with the piece on the right ?

That broken off chunk wasn't in the plastic wrap , so it was gone before it was bagged .

Well ,
at least it's hidden for the most part once complete ..

Oh , wait

guess I gotta scratch it out
One day I'll build a kit that just goes together .
One day .

 

[urumomo]

Yikes !

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fr...0.l1313&_nkw=armored+core+sunshine-l&_sacat=0

 

[BeebleBrox]

Cool kit!

 

[urumomo]

Maybe

Hopefully no more surprises ,

1 mm and 1/2 mm styrene , plus 1/10 mm clear sheet for that tiny , raised panel on the interior side -- finished with Tamiya lacquer putty . Then some knife and chisel work for the exterior details :

Roughed -in
Then pushed up against the good one to sand it to the identical profile ,

 

[Quaralane]

Yikes, but that some small work there

 

[Deleted member 11187]

Maybe

Hopefully no more surprises ,

1 mm and 1/2 mm styrene , plus 1/10 mm clear sheet for that tiny , raised panel on the interior side -- finished with Tamiya lacquer putty . Then some knife and chisel work for the exterior details :

Roughed -in
Then pushed up against the good one to sand it to the identical profile ,

View attachment 87579View attachment 87580View attachment 87581View attachment 87582

Excellent recovery.

I'd been making spruce glue out of it already.
Very interesting project.

 

[urumomo]

I hope you wouldn't be melting it down over that !
Gonna try and get it assembled by the end of the weekend .
Haven't decided on a paint scheme yet .

 

[Thereal9thdoctor]

A friend of mine gave me this - He didn't have interest in it , evidently .
I figured of all the kits in the stash that will never get built , being a gift , this shouldn't be one of them .
Let's see what happens with it . I'm in the mood for some weathering .

View attachment 87394View attachment 87395


Look at all the plastic ,

I wanna get an Armored Core mech kit. I LOVE the games.

The guy who designs the mecha for these games is the guy who created and still oversees and designs Macross. He also designed the original Optimus Prime toy.

 

[urumomo]

I was not familiar with this universe at all .
This mech seems to have a different aesthetic than the others - judging from Google Images .
More rectilinear in form .

 

[Thereal9thdoctor]

I was not familiar with this universe at all .
This mech seems to have a different aesthetic than the others - judging from Google Images .
More rectilinear in form .

View attachment 87611View attachment 87612View attachment 87613

Basically, its like the old late 80s/early 90s film Robot Jox. People pilot these robots in arena combat, though they are also used by the military. The games mostly focus on the arena stuff, with occasional military missions.

This fits with the designs in macross evolving. Shoji Kowamori started designing the Veritechs based off real aircraft(mainly F-14s), then realistically designed them to turn into robots. Over the years as the shows have continued he has made them more and more implausible and the overall design style gets quasi organic looking now. Though the aircraft modes still look more or less plausible.

This may be a mecha from the earlier games considering it looks a bit more grounded than the photos you posted.

Nothing beats his designs for the original Macross though.

 

[urumomo]

Another Kotobukiya Armor Core kit :

 

[Thereal9thdoctor]

Another Kotobukiya Armor Core kit :

View attachment 87624

Btw I could be wrong but I think you can mix and match parts from these kits together like you can in game.

 

[the Baron]

core
/kôr/

noun

The tough , central part of various fruits , containing the seeds.
"quarter the pears, remove the cores then slice again into wedges"


Wikipedia : " operating large robot combat units known as Armored Cores at the behest of corporate and private clients. "

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armored_Core

That really doesn't answer my question, though, whether someone who isn't a native English speaker created the story and mistook "core" for "corps". I suspect that's the case.

 

[urumomo]

It does and they didn't

 

[Thereal9thdoctor]

That really doesn't answer my question, though, whether someone who isn't a native English speaker created the story and mistook "core" for "corps". I suspect that's the case.

Core refers to the cockpit. Armored Core means the cockpit is armored with the robot body covering it.

 

[A robot from space]

You're doing a stellar job fixing those issues. I'm used to building mecha kits and I've never seen issues like that from any of them. Is it potentially a bootleg unknown to your friend?

 

[urumomo]

Heh
That ain't a bootleg . If it is , it's one super high-dollar copy .The bootlegger spent more reproducing it than Kotobukiya did manufacturing the thing .
Stuff happens .
It looked to me like that piece broke off right out of the injection mold . There are no stress marks that you'd expect to see if you were to snap it off the cold styrene .

I don't see any other deficiencies in the sprues .

 

[urumomo]

Arms and legs are assembled .
Primed with alkyd so I can rub off the acrylic color-coat with isopropyl for weathering /chipping effects :

The head is the next step .
I'm curious why they molded the pivot ( G11 , G12 ) in two pieces .
You can see they had no problem molding those other , essentially identical parts , in one piece .( 8, 9 and 10 ):

 

[urumomo]

I can't get past this thing having an outdoor grill as a major component of the chassis .

 

[Thereal9thdoctor]

I can't get past this thing having an outdoor grill as a major component of the chassis .

View attachment 87749

That way if they crash, ready made way to survive. Just kill local animals, and BOOM, grilled leezard fo dinnah!

 

[Wolf Star]

I can't get past this thing having an outdoor grill as a major component of the chassis .

View attachment 87749

It's the little things to keep up crew morale.