Sunday 29 April 2012

Review and Modelling Guide: G.O.T Mobile Turret from Antenotici's Workshop

The G.O.T Mobile Turret by Antenotici's workshop was originally meant for their 28mm scale figure line but I saw one at Salute and just couldn't resist such a characterful model. I decided that it would make a good 'superheavy' for my 15mm Autosentia and fitted in with the spidery walker theme started by the GZG drones I had already. Plus its one badass looking motherfucker. Seriously.


Preparation:

The model is resin and generally very well cast. The resin is considerably stronger than less brittle than some kinds I have comes across and I can only hope the rest of AW's resin vehicles are made from this material. I washed the components in hot soapy water a few times to get rid of mould release and grease as per the instructions included in the blister.
The model had a few very small air bubbles and most of these were located in generally unseen areas. The only major holes which required urgent attention were on the top of the main leg pieces. Some filling with green stuff and superglue solved the problem. The model had quite a few mould lines and imperfections on the smooth carapace areas but all these required was a little filing and gentle shaving with a craft knife. Overall, considering the size of the kit, this took about an hour or so.

Customisation:


I added a few bits and pieces such as guitar string aerials, extra sensors, pipes and an optional heavy flamethrower turret on the underside attached with small magnets. You can see these in the pictures later on.

Assembly: 

This is a fairly difficult kit to build and this is worth taking into consideration if you're thinking about buying one. There are very few pictures of the model around and I had to use renders from the AW blog for reference as some of the parts could fit together in a multitude of ways. Some detailed instructions would be a great boon in the blister. I used blue tac to dry assemble the kit and to get an idea of what went where then had at it with the glue. The result wasn't as good as I would have liked, the legs came out quite asymmetrical and needed to be more splayed, but considering the complexity of the multiple joints I think it came out ok.
The legs come in four pieces. I used this bottle top as a rest to make sure the model came out level. Which it did thankfully. 
 The Result:


Here are the fruits of the one and half hours it took to glue together. It ended up looking a little drunk and the legs aren't how I want them but they'll do - all attempts to undo the superglue with various solvents failed.


This weapon looked a little plain so I added a cable. You can see the belly flamer here alo. It was made from an imperial guard heavy flamer, a tau stealthsuit jetpack and some guitar wire. 
Various aerials I added to the strange circular recesses on the top rear which had no discernible purpose. 
I reckon the pilots on the second bottle of scotch. 
The minigun assembly. This was a tricky beast and the ammo feeds line up really poorly. I managed to bend and coax them into shape eventually after much staring at the various renders for direction.  

As you can see, the stance should be wider. D'oh!

Looking at the wrong end of the heavy flamer. This is not a nice place to be... Also,  I added the small sensor lens on the nose. 
Yeah, the pilot is definitely drunk. Oh wait, no, its a 'dynamic' pose. Yeah, thats it. 
Conclusions:


Pros

  1. Design - Seriously badass looking kit with great smooth lines and a menacing presence. 
  2. Resin - This type is quite strong and not as brittle as some. Still not as good as plastic. Glad its not metal as assembly would be even more of a nightmare, and it'd weigh and cost a ton. 
  3. Nice joints - the parts are well crafted and fit together very well for the most part. This could have been much worse. 
  4. Customisable - There's some nice scope for adding bits and bobs like aerials and making the kit look just how you want. 
  5. Badass - Did I mention this is a huge robotic space spider? Nice to see something which isn't 'modern abrahams or merkava put 100 years into the future'. 
  6. Price - A good buy for the £13.50 it cost. 
Cons
  1. Cleanup - Small number of air bubbles and mould lines but the size of the kit means this will take some time. 
  2. Assembly - The lack of any instruction and limited reference material makes this difficult. The joints fit together extremely well but this is only half the battle of getting the thing in the right pose. 
  3. Fragile - This can't be avoided but this thing is going to be a bitch to store and trasport, more than a little pressure will probably see joints snap. Also, the minigun barrel is very fragile. 
Scale Photos:


A few pictures with some 15s I had on the bench to give you an idea of size. I think superheavy just about covers it. Not quite a titan but definitely a worthy adversary.





It'll probably be a while before this guy sees paint as I need it to stop goddamn raining so I can spray it. Paint hates resin without primer. Also I don't want to mess it up so I'll practice the techniques and colours on something else first.

Hope this review was useful and inspires you to pick up this great model from AW.

Adios.






6 comments:

  1. Damn fine kit. Looks badass indeed. Know what you ea about the Merkava clones.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This might be useful! (Sorry for the delay!!!!!!)

    http://www.antenocitisworkshop.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/mobile-turret-instructions.pdf

    ReplyDelete
  3. You hit the nail on the head, Samulus - menacing is the perfect word to describe that model!

    I really like the touches you put on it like the cable and aerials - what did you use to make them out of?

    I can't wait to see these painted up!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Cables are guitar strings (32 gauge) and the aerials are also guitar strings (11 gauge) heated with a lighter and pushed into the resin.

    ReplyDelete
  5. That's a great idea, I'm gonna have to order some guitar strings! They're a really nice touch.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thank you so much for writing keep up like this.
    7 micro niches

    ReplyDelete

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