Sphinx

[Bryan Krueger]

This kit first came out in 2011. It's about time it seems the light of day.

This is the Rainbow Egg 1/35 resin Sphinx. There are not a lot of parts except for the missile launchers so it's a pretty straightforward build.The kit missile tubes are a little warped and have a seam running down both sides so I decided to scratch build replacement.

I added a few items to get a sense of how large this this is.

[Bryan Krueger]

Here is the status of the build as of today. The tubes were a major hassle. I fabricated 4 different fixtures to cut to length, drill locating holes, scribe groove, align groups of two then another to align groups of 4. It took several nights and a bit of super glue debonder.

Primed with Tamiya rattle can spray primer. It needs a good sanding with 800 grit to clean up for painting.





BTW, the missile tubes on Kow's original build were color pencils.

[Philipp Gross]

I can see where they got the name

Really nice work, especially the launcher tubes. I always struggle to cut pipes at a right angle.

Philipp

[Vincent Power]

That is a very interesting build Bryan. Where do you find all these things?

Vincent

[Bryan Krueger]

Philipp - Thanks. Since I needed so many, I made a simple fixture of a larger diameter cut to length and capped one end. I placed the smaller tube in this, held a micro saw against the edge and rolled the smaller tube until it was cut most of the way. I then snapped the score and cleaned up the edge.

Vincent - Thanks! Most of these resin kits are super rare and hard to find. This time I was lucky and found a guy that had a year old for-sale listing, Made him an offer and he was glad to get rid of it.

[Raoul Kunz]

Ooooh ! Very nice - I really love the "down-to-earth-but-in-a-sci-fi-kind-of-look" feel of the whole MaK designs... what I mean by this composite monster concept is that they look sci-fi at the same time as "kind-of-realistically-ugly" .
And quite a whopping brute so be sure ².

I'm more of a Gundam fan in the "mil-sci-fi-designs" settings but their stuff that isn't mecha (and sometimes even those) is definitely done more in a regular late 20th century / early 21st century military hardware design .

Looking forward to how this will eventually look... I mean I know it will be awesome, but I'm waiting for the specifics .



Best regards

Raoul G. Kunz

[Bryan Krueger]

Raoul,

Thanks. Kow designed the SF3D/MaK stuff to be the antithesis of Gundam and Macross which were very popular at the time. he has a very specific style that has been mimicked over the years. The suits and vehicles are very much about the design and less about the weaponry. Take the Sphinx above. A massive complex autonomous hover tank with a weapons load smaller than what an 8 wheel Russian truck carries now. It's a nice dichotomy.

[Philipp Gross]

I never thought about this particular aspect of MaK before...quite interesting

I wonder, is there any detailing underneath?

Philipp

[Raoul Kunz]

I dug up in my mind (took a while) what exactly MaK strongly reminds me of: Armoured Trooper Votoms!
It has the same down-to-earth-utilitarian look of hardware (they're also deployed en masse, almost like infantry in the Great War, just a little better since they endure maybe some five minutes longer in battle than the poor bloody infantry before being reduced to a bullet riddled corpse container ) =>


Also roughly the same time frame, showed up in the 80s as a reaction to the whole super robot mecha shows .
I wouldn't be surprised if one inspired the other in one way or the other .

Anyhow, looking forward to the Sphinx !


Best regards

Raoul G. Kunz

[Bryan Krueger]

I wonder, is there any detailing underneath?

Philipp

There is and it's a shame it will never be seen because it's nicely done. I haven't even bothered to primer the bottom.

Raoul.

Yes, Votoms! Another of the early gritty style mecha designs. Votoms is another of those model series that lends itself to customization.