And now for something completely different....
For me, anyway! This is an RX-78-01(N) Local (North American Type) combat robot, or mecha, from the Japanese cartoon series "Gundam". According to the Wiki site, he is 18 meters tall, manned by a single pilot in a torso cockpit with visibility provided through cameras and sensors mounted in the head. Armament is a shoulder mounted auto-cannon, a hand held heavy machine gun, and a beam sabre able to defeat enemy armor. Thrusters in the mecha's backpack, which replaced unneeded space flight equipment, provide mobility under water. This particular model was built from surplus parts from the RX-78-01 in the American Southwest, so he is black instead of the white previous models.
https://gundam.fandom.com/wiki/RX-78-01%EF%BC%BBN%EF%BC%BD_Gundam_LocalType(North_American_Type)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gundam
This is the Bandai kit in 1/144 scale. I got it in a box full of other kits that came from an estate sale, and immediately pulled it out so I could build it later. Took a little longer than I thought, but it was worth the wait. It's a snap together kit, but there are a lot of parts and the engineering is pretty impressive. Numerous poly caps allow the arms, legs, head, torso, feet and weapons to articulate. No painting was required, but I did add some painted in details on the guns and parts of the 'bot itself. He stands about 5 inches tall. Learning that he was built in a desert region of North America, and being from the Southwest desert myself, I decided to embellish a little bit by adding the Texas flag to the shield, an idea I swiped from the artwork on the Star Fury fighters of "Babylon Five". Weathering was by drybrushing and a dark gray wash.
This one has to go on a base of some kind, I'm just trying to figure out some sort of post apocalyptic setting in which to display him. Any ideas would be welcome. It was a really fun, no stress build that has me looking forward to another one!
Jamie, very cool. I built five of these some 15 or 20 years ago, and recently stumbled across them in some storage boxes. I was tempted to pitch them, but thought that they would make excellent action figures for the youngins. None of them were done up as well as yours, of course, but you're right, a neatly engineered kit that just needs some paint attention. Love the Texas theme!
A nice looking robot, Jamie @jetmex
Not into those mechs myself but I have to say that you did a nice job on this one.
Great job on this "different" subject, Jaime! Sounds like a lot of fun to build one, might try one some day!
I barely know what this is,but It looks great!
I didn't know much about it either when I started! There are all sorts of websites for fans of this genre and it appears a lot of them really get into it. But it was a really fun build that allowed me to use a little imagination to personalize it a bit.
Well done Jaime, I love Gunpla, don't get them much where I live though. You've done a great job on yours. Well done. Like the addition of the Texas flag.