Zentreadi Battle Pods - 1/200 Scale

1/200 scale Regult Tactical Pods from Nichimo

 The Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge is underway! If you want to see a lot of really cool figures in a great diversity of scales from a wide variety of periods and settings, I suggest you go check it out.  Check often - the submissions come in fast and furious - I don't know how Curt keeps up.Anyway I will share my submissions here too once they have had a chance to percolate a bit on Curt's blog.  I hope the other Fawcett Avenue member participating in the Challenge (Byron, Dallas and Kevin H) do the same!

My first submission was a pair of Regult Tactical Battle Pods, the main mecha used by the Zentreadi aliens from the anime series Macross (recognized more commonly in North America as "Robotech").  These are 1/200 scale multi-part models sold under the "Nichimo" brand many years ago, now available these days in isolated Ebay lots.  Six or seven years ago, long before any Kickstarter panhandling, I started piling together enough of these kits to play games of Macross with the gaming group here in Winnipeg.  They are not great models - they have to be screwed together (WTF !?!) so you have to fill those holes with putty.  But they look the part!  These models are about 4 inches tall.

The screw-holes on the backs of the models have been filled with green stuff prior to painting

 I've loved the Macross series - complete with its bonkers notions, whacky plot with rather large holes, and terrible, terrible "pop music" - since I first saw a few scattered episodes as a teenager.  Back then "GI Joe" and "Transformers" were popular cartoons, and in those shows nobody ever got hurt.  Along came this show with very cool animation, amazing mecha, and a plot that routinely killed off major characters (and also half the earth's population, ultimately).  It was quite a contrast! Robotech was WAY better than the lame North American "action" cartoons.

This screen-grab gives a rough idea of how the Zentreadi pilot is supposed to "fit" into the pod...

While of course the premise of Robotech/Macross was (and still is) preposterous, the themes from the show - duty, freedom, loss, homesickness, coming of age, friendship, love, and the question of what is really "human" - still resonate even when you watch it today.  I found the recent re-do of Battlestar Galactica shared many attributes with Macross (although BSG fans may hate reading that). I will toss a few episodes of Macross on when I'm painting from time to time. And although Macross fans rigthfully take many barbs for the awful pop music angle to the show's plotline, I don't take them too seriously.  Especially from people who in turn believe any comic, cartoon or show with a character like "Wolverine" is somehow good for anything.... :)

The alien mecha from Macross are beautiful.  With the reverse articulation in the legs, artful curves, the Regult pods fit the bill perfectly for alien bad guy soldier mecha.  They are armed to the teeth, elegant, maneuverable, funny-looking-but-cool-looking, and easily blown away by the dozen by the heroes of the TV series!  In the series, these pods were about 70 or 80 feet tall, piloted by 50-foot-tall expendable soldier-clone Zentreadi soldiers. The aliens would attack with an approach that made the Red Army appear spartan in comparison, and clouds of these pods would lead the assault, getting mowed down by the ace human pilots in their own super-cool variable fighter mecha. 

Ready for action on the gaming table

It was a lot of fun to collect these models from Ebay and paint them.  I haven't painted one in years, and these two had been sitting forever, primed black.  I figured I would clear them off the pending desk (I literally had to dust them off) as a way to recognize the expansion of the Analogue Challenge into the sci-fi realm!

Stay tuned for more entries! And go check out what others are painting - it's pretty awesome.  Byron has already completed some really, really nice WW1 stuff...he might share it here too...

Battle Report - Robotech 1/200 Scale

The life of a Veritech pilot in the Robotech universe.

Last night we played Robotech in 1/200 scale, using a slightly modified version of the Lord of the Rings rules system from GW (yes - we use those rules for everything, even futuristic mecha combat, right Brian?).  The game, hosted by Dallas, was a chance to do a practice run on the scenario I will be running at PrairieCon in Brandon this weekend.  Here is a report with some photos of the game.

The alien ranks.

The stoic Destroids await their fate.

The scenario is set on Mars.  SDF-1 has landed at the abandoned Mars base to try and pick up supplies, and has become trapped by "gravity mines" while the Zentraedi lead an ambush.  In this game, a group of RDF mecha are trying to hold the attacking aliens back. 

The Zentraedi have 8 turns to knock out the five Destroids AND get at least five of their battle pods to exit the far side of the table. The Zentraedi start the game with 16 pods, including one ace pilot in an Officer's Pod, three light missile pods and one heavy missile pod.

The RDF detachment has five destroids - three "Raidar X" variants, one "Excalibur" variant and one "Gladiator" variant. The destroids are supported by a pair of VF-1A Veritech fighters that will enter the game on turn two.

Dallas and Dave V. took command of the Zentraedi, while Brian and Mike F. played the RDF side. The Zentraedi would start the game with priority in turn one, and after that both sides would roll a D6 to determine priority.

Zentraedi Commander leads the way.

VF-1As arrive in figher mode.

Alien pods advance through the base.

The modifications I use for the LOTR rules engine allow the mecha to be whittled away by the fire of the various weapons - although in some cases (like the cannon-fodder battle pods) the "whittling" doesn't take long.  But in "close combat", any damage scored immediately destroyed the opposing mecha.  The "close combat" is not intended actually represent blows landed by the arms/feet of the mecha, so much as a point blank hit by one of the various hugely destructive weapon systems used by either side.  It also gives the Zentraedi players an incentive to swarm the opponents, as they did in the animated series, as opposed to approaching the matter as a complicated gun fight.

What could go wrong?

No problem - we've got this under control.

The game was a real blast. The Destroids fell back in the face of the overwhelming alien numbers, trying to use their firepower for as long as possible.  The VF-1A fighters made a decent entrance, and shot up some aliens, before Mike opted to use them as a means to hold up the Zentraedi Officer's pod, which was a tough and hard-hitting customer thanks to its ace pilot.

All together now...

The VT pilots give the "Guardian" mode a try as they engage the Zentraedi's ace Commander.

The Zentraedi lost four pods on the approach as both sides traded shots, while one of the Raidar X's went down to alien shooting.  In one sequence Brian managed to use the heavy particle beam cannons of the Excalibur to blow away two alien pods, one right after the other.

The Destroids are swarmed by the Zentraedi assault.

Once the Destroids' backs were to the wall, the game got very, very interesting as the close fighting began.  Mike's Veritech fighters did very well against the ace Zentraedi Officer, but he was too much for them in the end, particularly as extra Zentraedi pods showed up to finish off the brave (but, keeping with the spirit of the series, expendable) VT pilots.

The Zentraedi Commander finishes off the last Veritech pilot.

The Gladiator is swarmed under by Zentraedi pods.

Raidar X - not long for this world...

Dave and Dallas swarmed the thin line of surviving Destroids, peppering them with fire and hammering them in round after round of close assaults.  The Destroids held out bravely, repelling assault after assault.  Gradually the last two Raidar Xs and the Gladiator were destroyed.  Only the heavily armed Excalibur remained.  Dallas and Dave realized victory was in their grasp - they sent five pods off the table to meet the first part of the victory condition, and set in with two turns remaining to destroy the surviving destroid.

Never tell him the odds!

Brian's "6" holds off the Zentraedi!

Brian, however, lived up to his "never tell me the odds" billing, and the Excalibur incredibly managed to hold out!

No worries for this Destroid...

Victorious Excalibur stares down the enemy!

Final result was a partial win for the Zentraedi, and a big-time promotion for that Excalibur pilot!

A very dramatic ending for an outstanding game.  Everyone really played in the spirit of the sides they were representing, and it made for a very good battle.  Thanks to everyone who came out to play, and a big thanks to Dallas for hosting.  We'll see everyone in Brandon this weekend!

Zentreadi Roll Call - 1/200 Sci-Fi Models

The gang's all here....

A few days ago a poster on TMP asked me to post some pictures of my 1/200 Zentreadi stuff for Macross.  This TMP member, "The Black Android" has been doing some pretty cool Robotech/Macross stuff of his own.  Since I was called out, I had to answer - so here are some pictures of my Zentreadi mecha.

My Zentreadi force includes 10 Tactical Pods (Regult "Soldiers"), 3 Light Artillery Pods (Regult "Light Missile Carriers"), 1 Heavy Artillery Pod (Regult "Heavy Missile Carrier"), 1 Scout Pod and 1 Officer's Pod (known in Macross-ese as a "Glaug").

Light Artillery Pod fires clouds of "small" missiles.

A Regult "platoon".

Heavy Artillery Pod - launcher with four heavy warheads.

The models are 1/200 scale, although as several commentators have noted, notions of scale are really malleable in the Macross universe.  The Zentreadi are really big, bigger than humans, but still small enough to fit into their battle pods, which are also really big, but not that much bigger than the human mecha they fight, which are still bigger than humans too but not as big as the Zentreadi.  Got it?

Scout pod - unarmed, equipped with all sorts of sensors and other e-warfare goodies.

The models are almost all from kits sold under the "Nichimo" brand, but I have also seen them on EBay under other, strange, brand names.  I generally prefer the Nichimo versions, because you get two models in the same box.  They are actually meant to be screwed together (you get the tiny screws) so the legs and (where applicable) arms can move, and somehow mounted on your wall in a plastic bubble (I'm not making this up). 

The Glaug/Officer Pod is the top fighter on the Zentreadi side in our games.

Back view of the Glaug.

These things are bloody impossible to find on EBay these days...I'm glad to have one.

The only non-Nichimo models are two plastic "Gashapon" Tactical Pods that I sprayed back and re-painted.  They look almost identical to the others.

Size comparison - a Tactical Pod with a GW Kasrkin Imperial Guard figure.

I used super-glue instead of screws, filled in the recesses with green stuff, dispensed with the plastic bubble, and mounted them all on 60-mm round bases from GW.

Size comparison - a Tactical Pod beside an armoured VF-1J battloid (also a Nichimo kit).

The models came with decals, but they looked a bit dodgy, so I painted all the markings on by hand.  Since Zentreadi tactical markings are mostly random scrawls of an alien language, it was a good solution.

Zentreadi review on the painting table.

These guys have seen action a few times on the Fawcett Avenue gaming table, and have also seen action for the past couple of years in demonstration games at PrairieCon in Brandon, Manitoba.  I'm a huge fan of Robotech and Macross, and it is always a real treat to haul these out for a game once in a while.

It's great to see other gamers out there on TMP working up their own Macross projects, complete with rules and even new sculpts of their own (!) given how hard it is to find the models these days.  Check out "Mech Dude's Blog" for a really detailed effort.

For my part, I still have a few boxes of these things in my basement, and I even have a couple of assembled and primed battle pods somewhere in the "pending" pile.  I may add more pods at some point, but have found in the games we have played that this force offers plenty to shoot at.