Soltic H8-RF Korchima Special

While I have not watched too much of Dougram, I have been a big fan of the designs for a while - I am sure many of us in the English speaking world probably saw these as part of the Battletech/Mechwarrior franchise (a discussion that is a rabbit hole in and of itself). This Max Factory kit was on  deep discount and I had a gift card so I decided to give it a try! The kit itself is about the size of an HG Gunpla when completed and contains similar part separation and construction. This kit won a 3rd place prize in the Mecha General category at Southern California Gundam Model Competition put on by ThoseGundamGuys.

The kit was painted and weathered using the salt chipping method, where water and salt is used as a barrier layer to chip the paint realistically. The kit interestingly came with both Gunpla style stickers as well as waterslide decals - the kit decals were used along with a couple leftover Ma.K decals. It also surprisingly came with a metal spring for the weapon's power cable!

The design of the head is probably my favorite part of this design - it's a bit like if a Zaku and a news helicopter had a baby. Kunio Okawara was absolutely on fire with his 80s era designs at Sunrise and this is really emblematic of his style: solid and sturdy with very blocky limbs. My friend Tom provided me with the resin display base for the kit - it isn't scaled for 1/72 but it looks good in context!

I really enjoyed this kit - I just wish the Max Factory Dougram kits were a little less expensive and were easier to get! Time to actually give the show a complete watch... sooner or later!