Phantom Labor in 1/60

Honestly, I don't know much about what the model is supposed to represent. The box describes it as an "experimental stealth combat robot". Good guy or bad guy, I got no idea.

My initial idea was to have it in a hanger bay/science lab setting, with a little scale control panel nearby and spotlights inset into the floor shining up at it to give it a sinister aspect. When I was putting all that together however, I realized the base would cost 3 to 5 times as much as the kit itself...so instead I went as cheap as possible, and mounted it on a piece of PVC pipe that cost $3 at Home Depot.

The model cost $8, the base and incidentals were around $5, and the WF '05 contest entry fee was another $5, for a total of around $18 to $20. That's got to be one of the cheapest awards ever.

The figure is exactly 6 inches tall, and the base is 4 inches wide by 3 ½ inches tall, so it's just a bit over 9 1/2 inches (when you figure in the sheet styrene end caps).

The most tedious aspect of the build was all the seam work. All those compound, complex curves had to be perfectly smooth, otherwise they would be plainly obvious. I had to sand off the detail on the sides of the neck, and then replace it w/ cardstock cut to shape and detailed w/ a Waldron punch and die set. You can kinda see it in the second and third pictures.

Masking it was no picnic either.

In the end, I liked the results. I hope you did too.

Thanks for the feedback.

Oooo!  My Favorite labor!  Thanks for sharing! :)

Just finished watching the series lately.  Slow to start, but it was really funny. :)

m@

Hey! Someone who can tell me what this thing is.

So can you help me out? What is this thing, and what does it do? Is the paint scheme I chose anything close to correct?

Cosmic J wrote:

Hey! Someone who can tell me what this thing is. So can you help me out? What is this thing, and what does it do? Is the paint scheme I chose anything close to correct?

Here are a couple of links that give descriptions.

http://www.animecastle.com/showproduct.aspx?productid=114860 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patlabor

Here's a YouTube Video...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2v6Gy6_pm3s

It seems to be some sort of Anime character. 

Thanks kirk! All this mech-suit stuff is beyond me. At least now I know what PatLabor is:

Anime action/adventure crime drama, set in Tokyo. "Labors" are mechanized suits used to do work; simliar to the cargo loading suit in Aliens. PatLabors are "patrol labor" robotic suits used by the police to combat "labor" crime and criminals using "labors." Good versus evil, hero vs. villain. 

Good guys win, no one looks Japanese and everyone has eyes that are too big. :)

Not a problem, You know, there's so much out there these days. You can't keep up with everything. There are few Anime programs that really interest me, but only a few. I'm going to have to check this out. I like to do varied genres and eras and have just recently got into the Mecha and Gundam thing. I'm still a casual observer, but I'm getting more interested.

That's all I need, another interest! LOL. 

dahut wrote:

Thanks kirk! All this mech-suit stuff is beyond me. At least now I know what PatLabor is: Anime action/adventure crime drama, set in Tokyo. "Labors" are mechanized suits used to do work; simliar to the cargo loading suit in Aliens. PatLabors are "patrol labor" robotic suits used by the police to combat "labor" crime and criminals using "labors." Good versus evil, hero vs. villain.  Good guys win, no one looks Japanese and everyone has eyes that are too big. :)

Watchmann wrote:

Be sure to watch it in Japanese with the subtitles on.  The voice acting is much better in Japanese. :)

If only I could totally understand it.LOL

Let me know if you need that space Cosmic. 

Watchman:

Be sure to watch it in Japanese with the subtitles on.  The voice acting is much better in Japanese. :)

I rented ‘Patlabor' on VHS when it very first came to the states, on that first wave of Anime that came after "Akira" was in theaters. (It was the subtitled version, but back then they all were.  )

Unfortunately, the subtitles were in this weird yellow color, and more than half the time they were unreadable, so I only saw about half the first episode.

Dahut:

Good versus evil, hero vs. villain.  Good guys win, no one looks Japanese and everyone has eyes that are too big.

Hmmm. I think you've just described 90% of all anime...

KTM:

Here are a couple of links that give descriptions. http://www.animecastle.com/showproduct.aspx?productid=114860  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patlabor Here's a YouTube Video... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2v6Gy6_pm3s It seems to be some sort of Anime character.

Thanks KTM, those links were actually pretty informative. I would not have guessed that there was a Patlabor entry in Wikipedia.

The anime drawings don't really look like the model, too rounded. Apparently, the ‘eyes' on the head are actually lasers. I had no idea.

Thanks all.

Very impressive work!

SciFiTraveller wrote:

Very impressive work!

Most impressive!

A truly fine piece of work!

Do you know if there's a 1/35 version of it?

Thank you very much gentlemen. You are very kind.

I'm glad that all of you took the time to really look at this model. It's deceptively plain by design, and I'm delighted that so many seemed to 'get it'.

Again, thank you.

u-boater asked:

Do you know if there's a 1/35 version of it?

Not to my knowledge, but there are other kits in this series that have been done in 1/35. Some of them are pretty cool.

In 1/35, this guy would be about 12" tall. That sure would have made painting the 'face' easier.