Eco-Pla Mk.II - Gallery

Big plans for this guy.  This is the "Silver Fist" version, using the HG ANA Gundam's hands.  Weapons and backpack were donated temporarily to the GM Quel.  Full gallery is here.

Perhaps my new favourite 1/144.  When I'm done with it I'm sure it WILL be my favourite 1/144.

Ebon Enforcer - The Saga Continues

Decided to enter this into the HLJ contest because I couldn't get anything new done in time. Here is the story of the upgrades.  Please see here  if you don't know the first part of the story.

As the battle with the Federation forces continued and with mounting loses on both sides, the Ebon Enforcer was forced into a more supportive role in battles as opposed to it's' standard role as an escort / long range detection unit for VIP's.

Through many vigorous sorties this Sinanju was put through it's paces and while completing all of it's missions successfully the results were less than satisfactory. The PsyCo-RPX system proved to be too taxing on the pilot and on the actual mechanics of the suit itself resulting in increased damage and deterioration of the frame material.  This happened particularly in exposed joint sections and in those places where the design of the suit itself wasn't that strong, specifically, small connecting rods that linked armour parts to each other or to the frame itself.

Because of this, the suit was sent in for repairs no less that 12 times resulting in a suit that performs suitably lower than baseline specifications. The left elbow assembly had to be entirely swapped out in a field repair and was never properly replaced due to time restraints, lack of parts and available resources.

However, before the problems with this Sinanju came to surface, special weapons for the unit were already in development. By the time the Ebon Enforcer project was discontinued the new weapon systems were online and ready for testing.

The primary and most noticeable armament upgrade is the bazooka. This bazooka has an extra powerful scope for extremely long range targeting. The real gem of the design however lies not within the bazooka itself but within the shells. Conventional nuclear and atomic weapons were banned under the Antarctic treaty but these shells are an experimental and highly classified new weapon known as a "LUMP" which stands for "Localized Ultra Magnetizing/Polarizing" shell. The LUMP's, in short, cause anything metallic within a 100m radius to be pulled towards the point of detonation. Each LUMP is a 'double' explosion, the first irradiates the local area with negative ions and the second explosion creates a ultra dense positive ion epicenter held together in a Feynman QED field.

This, in theory, would cause all mobile suits/armour within a given area (with allowances for distance, mass, velocity and direction) to either be immobilized, or slowed significantly. This would enable a secondary unit to pick off the suits with relative ease.

The shell amount is limited to 5 in the magazine and one in the chamber. Each shell costs roughly as much as one Geara Zulu unit.

The second upgrade is the main camera which is no longer a main camera but a highly powerful optical laser weapon. For the laser weapon to work all 3 cameras (2 on the bazooka, 1 on the rifle) have to be used for targeting. The range is unknown but the weapon has been shown to be capable of punching through a battleship's hull at a range of 500 meters in ideal conditions. Many miniaturized cameras for the 360 panoramic cockpit monitor have now been placed in numerous strategic positions around the mobile suit itself to substitute for the loss of the main camera.  All zooming and targeting function are now done through the weapon scopes.

Laser power is fed from the main power line, thus enabling the pilot to use up their remaining energy reserves in a powerful blast or be most conservative with many short low powered bursts.

As of yet both weapons have yet to be used in actual field combat.

MSN-06E - Ebon Enforcer

Started around Christmas. Finished yesterday.

All major operations on this kit are now completed.

Here's the write up.

Notes:

1. Very sturdy kit. Joints are stiff and well fitting. Maintains poses well.

2. Be careful when separating the fingers. Use something VERY sharp and narrow otherwise you may screw yourself like I did. The bottom two fingers of the right hand need to be glued in place.
3. Insane amount of details on this kit. I couldn't tackle them all but hit about 80% of them.

4. TOPCOAT, TOPCOAT, TOPCOAT. If you're going to spend all that time painting, topcoat the damn thing! And do a thorough job. Multiple times. I didn't and the gold chips away constantly. Especially if you're posing it a lot. Blah.

5. Modifying the arm to incorporate the shield assembly was the best thing I did for this kit. SIGNIFICANT improvement.

6. Repaired/reinforced backpack/wing elbow joints. Katoki's design was too weak and both part broke on me!

7. If you are SEARCHING for places to put decals and the answer doesn’t come to you immediately because you've already put about... 200 on already, just stop. Let the decals go. You can use them for another project.

Comparison:

Hard to compare this to anything in a 1/100 or MG scale. It out classes anything that I've seen or built myself. It's PG quality in 1/100 scale. Considerably larger/taller than any MG or 1/100 scale MS that I’ve seen with my own eyes. I think only the RX-0 and RX-93 come close.

Concept:

Originally I was going to go for white but then I realized that the decals wouldn’t show up at all so I went the opposite way with black. I had this... dark angel image in my mind when I first saw it. I decided to stick with black and gold for everything to really accentuate the gold trimmings.

Story:

Model # MSN-06E, officially known as the “Black Sinanju” but commonly known as the “Ebon Enforcer”. Nicknamed the “Double E Anti Gundam” by Neo Zeon soldiers, it is a play (or mockery if you prefer) on the ZZ Gundam which, Newtype ace, Judau Ashta piloted to infamy.

This prototype Sinanju was made primarily for the continuation of research on “Newtype Psycommu Technology”. Militarily, it serves as a defensive escort for ships transporting people of extreme importance. It does not see much combat because of the already heighted security around such ships.

The gold plating is an experimental hybrid liquid-polymer enhancement/upgrade of the full psycho frame employed in the MSN-06S Sinanju and the RX-0 Unicorn Gundam. This plating enables the pilot to operate the suit with increased mental 'awareness' of the battlefield.

Preliminary experiments done with non-Newtype subjects resulted in various trauma ranging from mild headaches to death.

Newtype pilots fared better but often described the experience as 'overwhelming'. Extensive mental conditioning and training is required to fully utilize the system. Inside the suit the pilot can feel hostiles at extreme ranges and can neutralize them before they ever become a threat to ship being defended.

The PsyCo-RPX (Psychic Communication Receptor Polymer - Experimental) is applied in a way similar to a proton exchange/electrolyte membrane except with embedded microscopic PCR’s and without the incorporation a membrane electrode assembly. This process is time consuming and expensive making this suit entirely unfit for mass production.

Because of the random phenomena occasionally caused by psycommu systems used in especially heated battle situations, this Sinanju never sees any frontline combat.

Inspiration:

My imagination I guess.

Conclusion:

This kit is demanding and not for beginners. It pushed the limits of my skills and forced me to learn and try new techniques. It was a very rewarding experience and I learned a lot about modeling in the process but... I'm definitely ready to move on. It was almost too much for me and I felt like giving up a couple times.

I'll have to tackle this kit again, later on down the road, to fix a couple of minor problems that happened during the photo shoot but right now, it is functional and I am quite satisfied with what I’ve done with it.

Even though I tried to do things 'perfectly' I couldn’t in the end and no matter how great it looks standing in one place... once you move it around the paint is going to fade a bit in certain areas.
The adult in me says “It’s a model and you spent a lot of time working on it so just don’t touch it and admire your work.” But the kid in me says... “It’s cool and it’s a toy and toys are meant to be played with.”, and if I think about it... I’m doing this BECAUSE of the child in me... so I won’t be entering him into any modeling contests but I am definitely going to enjoy playing with him for the years to come.