Akira 3

The vehicles so far.

Being an urban environment there needs to be plenty of vehicles, either in use in the game or as set dressing.

I've bought plenty of die cast toy cars from Japan around the 1:48-1:56 scale and have dirtied them down a bit but these will be for set dressing only. The main vehicles so far are below but I've got plans for some serious police hardware (think Patlabor) and have a couple of plamodel kits for them.

The first police tech is an oop walker from Antenocitis Workshop (I fortunately managed to get hold of a second one). The paint job is based loosely on Patlabor but I need to get a Japanese police star to go on the front, probably 3d printed. It's quite possibly a bit dirty but with the project being slightly distopian I figured it didn't matter that much.

The second walker is I think from Micropanzer and is painted as a military test piece but has been stolen by a separatist group (or something similar, haven't quite decided yet).

There's also a SWAT van, or it might be a private security firm as I haven't added any decals yet. I was challenged to light it up which in the end turned out to be quite fun. There's also an Antenocitis' smart car that wasgoing to have a swish red and gold paint job but the masking liquid reacted with the paint and so I had to rescue it by doing a beat up, rusted version; I think it turned out quite well.

The last vehicle is a bit of silliness in the form of a 'Girls und Panzer' tank (I've got two but no photos of the second one). The tank is 1:48 but I was surprised as to how small it is. The colour scheme is made up as I'm not copying the anime directly, just using it for inspiration.

That’s it for the one being for this project, there’s plenty more to show but I want to move onto my large VSF project, “Japanese on Mars” along with other commission work.

ttfn

Akira 2

Express way.

One of the larger features of the Japanese urban landscape is the raised expressways that wind their way through the cities. Of course this is a good opportunity to get some serious level changes on the board.

The board is made up from 300mm x 300mm lasered squares and the expressway preferably had to fit this. Each 'section' is supported underneath with a concrete stanchion (made from chemiwood) and has two roadways on top, each side has one way traffic.

The intention is to have lights both underneath (in a limited capacity) and on the expressway itself. I do have some photos of the top lit up but I can't find them at the moment. The road surface is medium grit sandpaper and everything else is either lasered or made from chemiwood.

ttfn

Akira 1

To keep you going until a proper commission post early next week here is something for the first block of flats for my Akira/manga/anime project (done a few years ago but it's good to get it down).

The Japanese cityscape is quite different to what I'm used to and with having an interest in anime, manga, plamodel and wargaming it seemed only right to start a project including them.

As I tend to concentrate on the terrain aspect of any project the first thing to tackle was a simple block of flats. The vast majority of Japanese buildings are built separately from their neighbours (an earthquake damage prevention measure), even the very large ones so they lend themselves to being build individually.

I've got several thousand and photos of the buildings in urban japan now and picking a generic looking block of flats was fairly simple (lots of them look very similar). First off was to pick a decent floor size and start drawing. The flats are about 190mm x 120mm which seemed to be the best compromise. One of the intentions is to have accessible interiors and so each floor is removable. All the figures are based on 25mm and there'll be a separate blog post on the figures and vehicles at a later date.

The walls are lasered and consist of two layers stuck together which helps joining the corners and sticking in the window frames.

Below is a rough sequence of the build for the first flats. The outside is complete but I'm still working on the shop interior and internal walls for the flats. I'm still actually debating whether having removable floors will be game friendly. The other option is to have floor plans for each building on the side of the gaming table and figures are placed on them instead... It's still up for debate though.

The shop is lit with led strips and there is some progress on the shop interior but not really enough to show at the moment. I've also started on a basement bar but since starting I've changed the arrangement of what the buildings sit on (again, more on which later) and there's still quite a bit to do on it both on making it fit the new arrangement and actually finishing it.

ttfn

Better late than never...

Happy New Year to everyone :-)

Got a bit busy before Christmas and have been away over the holidays but regular service should resume in a week or so.

In the mean time here are a few pictures of a 28mm scale Japanese wajo from the Imjin War that was made a few years ago. I'm afraid the pictures haven't been edited as I've only just found them again.

ttfn