Hi guys, this is a long post, so if you want to read it, you might want to go get a cup of coffee!
I built up the next two Nova Respublik vehicles so I can paint them for display and put the items up for sale, and I'm really pleased with how quick and painless they were to build up. I thought I'd post a few pictures of them as a little preview before I begin painting, just to show what the bare bones kits look like when you get them. This is a warts and all review (yes, I am insane enough to review my own kits), just to let you kow exactly what you are getting, but IMO the warts are small (and let's face it, every multipiece wargaming vehicle model has them) and JBR's cool designs are definitely worth working around them!
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Here are the two kits, built up. On the left is a Marka, one variant of the Darling Little robot series, on the right the Hedgehog (Yozhik) Heavy APC.
The Hedgehog is a variant of the Red Banner series, and uses the same final drive lengths. The hull is modified so that a squad can be carried in the back, and the vehicle is covered with FFG plates that give it its distinctive look (and name). It carries a turret with a 30mm autocannon, and two multi-purpose missile launcher tubes which can be loaded with either HE seeker missiles (for anti-aircraft work) or the heavy anti-material Spook missile.
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The kit went together pretty well. The only real cleanup it needed was to remove two resin pou vents, one from the back of each final drive piece. Like the real world APC design that inspired it, it has large add-on armour on its sides, and I noticed that this makes it best to assemble both side pieces at the same time -- the final drive length and the armour pack. This is because they both nestle into each other as well as the hull side, so if you just attach one, the attachment of the other might not be spot on. So what I did was put the cyano on the final drive length, attached it, then very quickly put the cyano on the armour pack and neslted it in, getting the right fit of tracks, armour pack and hull all together. It was pretty simple, especially as the cyano does not cure instantly so you have a little time to fool around with it. I noticed that the armour pack might need to be bent just slightly to get a flawless fit onto the top of the track length, but I was lazy and didn't bother. You might want to of course! To do it I think you'd just bend it a little, get a dry fit, then adjust as necessary, and finally glue in place.
The turret went together really well. I like the way that the missle rack is configured -- the launcher barrel tubes have little brackets on the back that go into the main mount, and these give you a good sense of where the barrels should be set in. You just have to add one barrel, let that cure, then stick the other one next to it, checking to see if they are lined up ok. I found that the glue cured slowly enough that I had time to fool around with it. Once it was perfect I let it cure, then put some more cyano on letting the capillary action pull it into the gap, just to strengthen it. I let it sit for a half hour and from then on was manhandling it with no problems.
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Two things to note -- the turret is metal and the hull is resin, so the pieces shrank at different levels in the mouldmaking process and the turret needs to be filed to fit. This took about two minutes. Another is that the rear platform on the turret does not clear the starboard armour pack, which sticks up too much. I suppose you could file it down to get clearance, but I didn't bother, because even if I'm playing a game where turret positioning matters, the offset is not too bad. YMMV.
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Overall I think the turret looks fantastic assembled, very Russian with all the stuff hanging off of it. The vehicle is pretty awesome, squat and solid, and I'm looking forward to painting it up, probably in a sand over olive green pattern, to be used by a desert planet dictatorship (just as the Arab countries often used Soviet kit from the 50s on, and painted sand patterns over the green factory coat of the vehicle).
On to the robot. First some background to explain the name and design sensibility, which I will italicise if you want to skip it.
Darling Little might sound like an odd name for a warbot, but they are so-called because they are designed to protect and support the infantry as mobile heavy weapons platforms. As sentient robots they are accordingly cybergendered female, as the Nova engineers have determined that female gendering leads to a more protective nature. This has been borne out by experience and observation -- for instance the Federal DIMOG Mark 3 is a sentient robot gendered male, and although it is much more aggressive than the Darling Little series, it also is less concerned about supporting the Federal infantry, seeking to go its own way in the destruction of enemy units, and at times even commits Blue on Blue attacks -- not purposefully, but also without much concern for the friendlys in the line of fire. For this it is not liked by the Federal infantry, often called by them the "Berserker" because of the frenzies into which it falls when in combat. (It is also called by them the "
" and the "Mother.") Accordingly it is not often used in an infantry support capacity, its intended role, being used instead to engage enemies that human forces might be reluctant to combat. The Federal troops continue to rely instead on the crewed DIMOGs and their tripod mounted heavy weapons for close support.
On the other hand, the Darling Littles have been judged a great success, much loved and appreciated by the Nova infantry, and in the Neo-Russian language females, when referred to with affection, are often called "darling little ___________," hence the informal model name. (The official name is something revolutionary and patriotic, but virtually no one uses it.) This name has been earned by the spunky and caring little robots, which fiercely defend their charges and will at times, though sentient, place their chassis in the line of fire to protect the soldiers. (Conversely, Nova scientists have noted, with fascination, that the Darlings often develop rivalries with human female Nova infantry and are less protective of them.)
The Darlings come in three main types, rocket barrage, anti-material, and rapid fire support. Rocket barrage has twenty 150mm HE rockets, antimaterial carries eight Spook heavy anti-material missiles, and rapid fire mounts two 30mm autocannons. Another Darling Little is heavily modified as an ammo carrier bot, and can mate with any of the above to replenish their ammo.
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I decided to build a Marka, with its distinctive rocket barrage weapons mounts. Marka was a Russian (and is still a Neo-Russian) female name, and it was also chosen as a salute to Mark Hannam, the blogger of Dropship Horizon, who inspired this robot series. The thing basically fell together, the only care I had to put into it was making sure that the first three legs lined up more or less ok (the legs go into a ball socket so have some degree of posability). Then for the fourth leg, I put glue into the ball mount, put the leg in, and put the model on the tabletop, letting the fourth leg just find the table on its own. As it turned out all four are flush on the table, but even with just three I think it would still be a good stand-alone.
As this thing is a sentient warbot, John and I decided it should have sort of a face, formed by the search array as the "eyes" and the binocular targeters as the "mouth". If you don't like that, you can just assemble the darned thing backwards! Notice in the second picture above, of the rear of the bot, that it has a very machine-based look, and that can be the front of the bot with no problem.
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John was very clever about these designs -- note in the above pics that you can swap the Darling head and the Hedgehog turret. I think it might be a cool idea to put a robot turret on the Hedgehog, though I'm not quite as sold on the Hedgehog turret with legs! To me I don't think it looks like it has enough room to process information etc (to be "alive"), but once again, YMMV. If you're going to use the Darling head on the APC, it's best to be conservative and glue the weapons pointing sort of straightish, as there's not a huge amount of clearance.
Anyway, as usual it's saturday morning and I have a ton of order packing to do. If I have a chance this weekend, I definitely want to prime these two and get the base coat on. Also have to finish the Cheetah ALSV and the Battle Class Federal Heavy Crusier, as I dropped the ball on both of those as they neared completion in the rush to get the Red Banner tank out for you guys.
Hope you enjoyed!
