SEA-WING COMPLIMENT
The real power behind the Gallant Mariner is not its massive size, nor its heavy artillery, its gravity cannons or even its ballistic missiles... its the sea wing. The wing is a compliment of 78 Zoids, all carried within the Mariner. They function as fighters, interceptors, defense platforms and recon units. They allow the giant seahorse to extend its reach by a thousand kilometers in hundred directions at once.
RMZ-101 Sea Saber (x70) – Sailfish Type – Sea/Air Interceptor – lateral hangars
The primary combat Zoid of the RBZ-1000 Gallant Mariner sea-wing is comprised of 70 RMZ-101 Sea Saber class interceptors. The Sabers’ dominant mission is to strike targets on land, in the air or submerged, while keeping the Gallant at a safe distance. Their secondary role is reconnaissance or local defense. Suspended within the port and starboard hangar bays, the Gallant is capable of deploying the entire sea-wing in under 3 minutes (2 per side every 10 seconds, spaced to avoid possible collisions). The Sabers are held by launch arms which keep them fueled and powered. Additional mechanical systems encapsulate the cockpits to allow pilot entry and egress despite the hangars being flooded for undersea launch operations and can re-equip spent ammunition in under 30 seconds. Recovery requires the bays fully opened and submerged; the docking arms draw the Sabers into their moorings automatically.
RMZ-201 Sledgehammer (x7) – Hammerhead Shark Type – Marine Assault – forward hangar
The RMZ-201 Sledgehammer is a variant of the old RZ-33 Sledgehead. Equipped with a pilot station and an Electronic Warfare Engineer, it has also traded its vertical launch missile systems for integrated ECM pods and powerful countermeasures systems. While still a very capable assault Zoid, the Sledgehammer’s first priority is to help the Gallant elude detection and defend it from foes that approach closer than the 50 kilometer “safe” zone. The 7 Sledgehammers are held in the bow hangar bay where they may launch horizontally or vertically, with the bay partially opened. While launch is rapid and all 7 Sledgehammers may enter action in 1 minute, recovery requires more time and the full extension of the bay door.
RMZ-304 Akyna – Whale Shark Type – Tender/Minesweeper - head
Moored within the underside of the Gallant’s huge head, the Akyna is its ever present companion. The RMZ-304 spends the vast majority of its time as a tender, shuttling cargo and assisting with maneuvers in tight quarters such as a military port of call. It is just as capable a defender with modular minesweeping, ECM and weapon pods fitted into any of its 3 bays. The Akyna also serves as an escape vessel, capable of evacuating 100 crew.
ARMAMENT
The Gallant Mariner is a fully loaded battle platform with as much firepower as an entire Zoids battleherd. Despite a vast array of weaponry, the RBZ-1000 is not designed as a front line fighting vehicle. Rather, it relies on its sea wing of interceptors and attack Zoids. The Armament entries are divided into the Mariner istelf and the sea wing.
Sea Hammer Missiles (x4) – tail-tip, 240° arc
This weapon is identical to that carried by the RZX-610 Sea Saber and the RBZ-31 Akyna tender; range of 50 kilometers and a warhead capable of destroying a hardened target up to 200 tons. Equipped with an intelligent guidance system.
Stormshark Torpedoes (x8) – 2 lateral batteries, forward arc, turreted, 90° vertical rotation
Heavy torpedo utilizing an advanced guidance system to deliver a high-yield, armor piercing warhead capable of destroying a 300 ton Zoid or foundering a ship up to 100,000 tons. Range is 50 kilometers. There are 4 tubes per torpedo battery mounted to either side of the primary torso intake. Each tube carries a rotary ammunition magazine of 5 torpedoes.
CP-10-g Long Range Cannon (x14) – head: 2 batteries of 3 guns, 360° vertical arc. Torso: 2 batteries of 4 guns, mounted laterally, mounted above bay door mechanisms, 180° vertical arc
These cannons are virtually identical to those mounted on back of the Gojulas Mk2, but built within heavily armored housings and redesigned to function with an at-station operator or remotely via the command bridge gunnery deck interface. Each gun has a range of 14 kilometers and is capable of severe damage to virtually any common field unit.
Burke M5-g 180mm Cannon (x6) – shoulders, 2 batteries of 3 guns, 180° horizontal arc
The M5-g has an improved charge time and extended range of 6 kilometers over the Burke M5. Though designed as a light naval support gun, the Gallant primarily uses them for aerial defense. Each barrel has a 4-second rate of fire but alternates with the other two cannons for a continuous barrage. A hit will shred virtually any aerial Zoid.
KAC-90 90mm Automatic Cannon (x2) – torso, base of neck, 200° horizontal arc, 90° elevation
A pair of Khauffman KAC-90 cannons were built into a hardened turret and mounted atop the chest of the Gallant as both a support weapon for deploying Sledgehammers from the forward hangar bay and as a point defense system. Each gun has a cyclic fire rate of 12 rounds per second, using sabot ammunition stored in an internally mounted magazine. The gun battery has 5,000 rounds per gun; enough for a 7-minute screen of continuous fire.
Seafire 125mm HVP Gauss Cannon (x1) – torso, base of forward hangar, 200° horizontal arc
A primarily defensive system comprised of a number of technologies, the Seafire Hyper-Velocity Projectile Gauss Cannon fires solid-fueled guided armor piercing rocket rounds through a magnetic coil accelerated barrel. Though it has a rate of fire of only 1 round per second, it seldom misses a target at ranges between 500 meters and 4 kilometers, surfaced or submerged. The weapon was designed to destroy incoming torpedoes but is capable of targeting less maneuverable Zoids as well, punching through a unit up to 40 tons and tearing gaping holes in heavier ones. The explosive heads are not designed to obliterate Zoid but to compromise a moderately armored hull, resulting in destructive compression.
HCPC-LB (x1) – head, beneath jaws, fixed forward arc
The Hyper-Charged Particle Cannon-Large Bore, is not a weapon of staggering range (a mere 2 kilometers) but of daunting breadth. It is designed to ensure an impact with a spray of charged particles that covers an area up to 200 meters in diameter. Smaller Zoids may fall apart as thousands of tiny holes penetrate their entire structure; larger units will find armor virtually useless, sensitive external systems ravaged and canopies compromised. Due to the great mass of the Gallant and its virtually limitless power supply, the HCPC-LB can be fired every 60 seconds throughout a battle.
Skyburner Reactive Plasma Ballistic Missile (x6) – torso, medial rear, between thrusters, fixed
The Gallant’s “final option” weapon system. The Skyburner is a tactical missile with range of 750 kilometers. The warhead causes a chain reaction between protons that essentially converts matter in the 4 kilometer blast radius into a super-heated lightning storm. It will melt rock into obsidian, vaporize atmosphere, detonate ammunition, crumble structures, destroy electrical equipment and essentially annihilate anything in the target area. Use of this weapon requires the command codes of the three senior officers aboard the Gallant.
“Squall” Anti-Torpedo Defense Battery – tail, forward mount, 180° arc.
This heavily armed turret employs a pair of magazine fed undersea rocket launchers on each side. The tubes may incline 90° each within the turret which rotates 360° and repositions with the tail’s positioning for an enhanced arc of fire. The system detects incoming rounds, torpedoes, missiles, mines or Zoids and looses a precision hypervelocity rocket into it. Each magazine carries 300 rounds of armor piercing ammunition.
400mm MAVPAC (x2) – torso, laterally mounted, forward arc, fixed
These huge weapons use powerful magnetic fields to hyper-condense and “spin” an array of particle beams into a lethal beam. Effective range is over 25 kilometers, and at that range no target tested has withstood a single pulse. Even fully submerged the MAVPAC delivers full damage at 8 kilometers.
500mm Gravity Cannon (x2) - torso, laterally mounted, forward arc, fixed
Based upon the Ultrasaurus mounted system used long ago, this monstrous weapon is fully integrated into Gallant Mariner. Both barrels fire as a single unit and can crush a Whale King or Deathsaurer outright within 4 kilometers. The cannon uses a vast amount of energy and the Gallant Mariner is helpless for 5 minutes prior to and after firing, relying entirely upon its compliment of Sea Sabers and Sledgehammers for defense. If used in conjunction with the MAVPAC, the systems function together to create a blast of super-energized, condensed gravity accelerated particles that can punch through 500 meters of solid rock at 50 kilometers distant. The combination has never been used afield, but tests confirm that one shot can cut through a dozen Iron Kongs seemingly without loss of effect.
HISTORY
It had been a millennia since the Bluefire Event that annihilated most of Zoid kind, but not even a decade since the newly formed Zenevas Imperium had renewed hostilities long forgotten. Gaen Lirius, fifteenth king of Helic, had acted quickly to build a defense to attempt to hold Zenevas at bay, but to no avail. Forced to retreat across the Akua Sea to the Eastern Continent, Lirius gathered every resource that could be brought to bear against the enemy. After four years in exile, Helic was preparing for a return to retake its homeland. The strategy was to control the seas, destroy all military ports and supply lines, and strike inward against the Zenevas forces entrenched there. Lirius needed a Zoid capable of spearheading the invasion, and a rare and terrible survivor of the Bluefire Event would be the key to the invasion.
The Gallant Mariner represents the establishment of a new age on Planet Zi. The first of the new Royal Battalion Zoids, the RBZ-1000 stands as a symbol of the power wielded by the young Kingdom of Helic. The massive seahorses were intelligent, brave and extremely robust. The military adaptations have created a monument to war, yet king Lirius hopes that the Gallant will crush all resistance only to bring back to the world the peace it had known before Zenevas’ assault on the kingdom.
CAPABILITIES
It is said that the natural form of the Gallant seahorse can reside on the floor of even the deepest sea trench. The RBZ-1000’s adaptations reduce its functional depth to only 2 kilometers. Its great size ensures a top speed of 40 knots empty and 35 knots fully loaded. The Gallant is essentially a submersible carrier. Its armored skin protects more then 5,500 tons of cargo in addition to its own ammunition and enough stores to feed its crew of 301 personnel for almost two years. By flooding its lateral doors with air, they can be used as enormous pontoons and can lift the upper third of the Gallant completely out of the water, allowing the Zoid to be used as an ocean going command tower. With only the crest of the head exposed, units up to 200 tons can alight on Gallant’s head mounted landing platform in order to resupply at sea or exchange crews for command or intelligence. The Gallant also has a sizeable docking bay beneath its head. This port is large enough to carry a 2,640 ton RMZ-304 Akyna, which it uses as a tender vessel. The Gallant Mariner is equipped with little in the way of ECM systems, but has abundant situational awareness, scanner and communications technology to assist in its role as a floating command center and theatre base of operations
DEFENSES
Though a daunting Zoid, its size ensures the Gallant is an easy target. Its first line of defense is to rely on its Sea-Wing, a combination of 78 Zoids deployable as a screen against attacking units. Secondarily the Gallant can use its advanced tracking and sensory systems in conjunction with its impressive array of weapons; even its main gun batteries can be turned against incoming missiles and torpedoes if it is pressed. Finally, the entire Zoid is encased in an average of 2 meters of high-strength composite alloy. While this armor may eventually be breeched by conventional weaponry, it is designed to preserve the Gallant while surfaced long enough for its Sea-Wing to eliminate the enemy threat.
"Encoded to all commands: Gallant is go. Repeat; Gallant is go. Secure link datasafe access is granted as of 0730, Royal Helic standard time. All CSOs are authorized 15 minutes for receipt, decode and acknowledgement. SFO response is required by 0750. All secondary commands stay on station and await instruction. Any officers failing response for any reason by zero-out await contact by the RSOC. Congratulations, gentlement. Well done. That is all."
With this transmission, the world of Zi was about to change ... forever.
CUSTOM ENTRY: RBZ-1000 GALLANT MARINER
This is actually a custom I had in mind for a long time, ever since I accidentally acquired a third NJR Barrigator (having been led to believe it was a built OJR by the photos). For months it sat on my shelf and I wondered what I could build out of it. I kept coming back to the head, but it was so recongnizable that I moved on to other things. Finally I saw a picture online of a spiny seahorse and was struck all at once by how this animal was graceful and elegant yet seemed dangerous and noble. Yet I wanted to do more than just create a Zoid seahorse... I wanted to do something I have never done before.
After making a number of sketches I decided to design the model on an entirely new scale. The Gallant Mariner is 1/2100; an undersea aircraft carrier armed with 77 attack Zoids and enough firepower for close range engagements. This wasn't so much a matter of wanting to create something really huge, but to bring Zoids more in line with what we have currently in naval warfare. In reality, as massive as this Zoid is, it is smaller than a World War II aircraft carrier.
I hope you enjoy viewing this model; I certainly enjoyed building it.
"The time for fleeing and hiding is over. We have sought peace. We strived for understanding. We gave our lands that our people could survive, and now Zenevas seeks to push us into the sea! Into the waves we shall go, yet not to cower before the deeds of evil men. We shall make our stand upon the endless waters, and the Serpent shall rue the day his scales ever touched the soil of Helic! The order is given... strike back! Strike hard! Drive them back from sea to sea, and take back the lands of our forebearers! Strike now!"
-Declaration of War, Gaen Lirius, fifteenth king, Kingdom of Helic
RBZ-1000 GALLENT MARINER
Built For:
Manifest - BMZ Contest 2007
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Okay... there really isn't any more.
GALLANT MARINER
Chassis: Seahorse
Power Plant: RBZ-1000 (Royal Batallion Zoid, Class 1000)
Primary Mission: Marine Theater Domination
Secondary Mission: Command Center
Crew:
Officers: 12 (minimum rank requirement: Admiral)
Enlisted: 280
Statistics
Length: 165 meters
Width: 72 meters (doors closed)
Height: 492 meters
Mass:
Displacement: 135,000 tons
Full Compliment: 139,740 tons
Performance
Speed: 40 Knots
Crush Depth: 2 Kilometers
AI-2 PROFILE
The most modern AI-2 system known on Zi resides in the super computer built into the Gallant Mariner's brain. The enormity of the animal form, with all of its intricacies, all but assures the requirement of a true mind for optimum control. Mariner’s personality is almost arrogant; the creature was one of the mightiest animals on Zi. However, there is a cool, calculated methodology behind its thought processes that tempers the AI-2 into an excellent command presence. Mariner is cool enough to rely on its sea wing and is strong enough to willingly stand toe-to-toe with an entire enemy division.
SUMMARY
The Gallant Mariner was created, truly, for one purpose; to take a new territory and to never allow the enemy to take it back. Thus far the performance of the RBZ-1000 has surpassed this expectation. Each Mariner is such a task to build that a number of innovations are created for each new machine. The Mariner has so quickly entrenched itself as an icon of Helic’s new might, the kingdom is preparing to build the fleet to six units: RBZ-1000 Gallant Mariner, RBZ-1001 Valiant Mariner, RBZ-1002 Stalwart Mariner, RBZ-1003 Fearless Mariner, RBZ-1004 Noble Mariner, and RBZ-1005 Dauntless Mariner.
RMZ-304 AKYNA
True to the nature of large naval vessels, and especially with the enormous vertical dimensions of the Gallant, it is often a necessity for smaller units or "tenders" to assist them. Tenders act as tugs, supply boats, crew transports and, in the case of the Akyna, minesweepers or assault craft. As a seperate Zoid the Akyna needed its own profile. At 114 meters in length and 2,640 tons, Akyna is half the length and one third the mass of Whale King, but the model is rougly 1.5 times the size of a pilot. Its details include "labels" (scratchy white marks!), vertical launch missile tubes, fore and aft topedo tubes (painted, not drilled unfortunately), helic insignias and yellow eyes deep inside the head. The Akyna docks within the Gallant's head between a pair of mooring clamps. The fin penetrates a slot capped by Gallant's nose horn. You can see flood lights and windows painted within Gallant's cranial bay.
BY LAND & SEA
A comparison of the Gallant Mariner model next to Paladin to offer a sense of scale. Ironic, that Gallant outweighs Paladin by 139,200 tons! I wanted to create a new Helic paint scheme that I could use across the models for my AoW story; the colors were chosen to appear realistic, military, and to honor the OJR line. Seeing the two together really helps to solidify that the color choice was the right one
SEA-WING
Zoids: RMZ-101 Sea Saber: 70
RMZ-201 Sledgehammer: 7 RMZ-304 Akyna: 1Crew: Pilots: 78
EWO’s (Electronic Warfare Ops): 8 Support Crew (Akyna): 3CONCEPT
To your left is the image that really sparked the idea to build a seahorse; the form had the advantage of simplicity in that it had no limbs, but the complexity of... having no limbs! What to do? I struck upon the idea of a carrier based on the actual seahorse's carrying of its young in a stomach pouch. Fine and dandy, but I knew I would need more than that to really make a splash. I started with the body first, as the head was really a no-brainer... I had a Technozoids Armored Gator that was in bad shape (and with two of his legs stuck to Angstmorder, my Guylos angler fish). The body of the gator left two large openings in the sides and wheels started to turn. Side mounted bays? Maybe. Before I dove into the build, I would have to get the torso working. Above you can see the shoulder brackets for the lateral launch bays and the forward launch tubes. I decided to change my design for the forward bay to a single row of launch tubes in favor of mounting super-heavy weaponry in the pre-made gaps on either side of the torso pieces (seen at center). With the use of my last Elephantus ear, a hinge allows the forward armor to swing up into place, and the gravity cannons (made with the posts for the 'Gator's legs!) hold the bay closed.
THE BUILD
And so it comes to this. I hope that this overly lengthy and bandwidth chewing site will provide you with some ideas that will help you create your own custom designs and stories. Allow me to take you on a tour through the process of the construction of Gallant Mariner, from inception to presentation.
FORWARD LAUNCH BAY
To create the forward bay door I used a pair of Killer Dome inner claws... highly modified. The two were planed together, puttied and sanded like mad with jeweler sandpaper. After they were assembled I decided to chop off the huge hinge and use my spare Elephantus hinge, which was smaller and easier to work with. The details within the bay were a trick I knew I would be using a lot on this model. I photographed my Sledge Head and digitally painted it into my new Helic color scheme, then created a digital runway in Photoshop. The shark launch tube labels were cut and inserted into each of the 7 bays, which were created of sheet pollystyrene. To give you a sense of scale, check out the picture bottom center; each runway is not quite as wide as a small Zoids cap!
THE HEAD
It seemed like such an easy idea at the time! After playing around with the Armored Gator's skull a while, I decided it was the wrong shape and too identifiable. I chose to use the sleek jaw of the Gator instead. I had intended all along to use the Ultrasaurus body clip as a bridge on something someday, I figured this was as good a model as any! This feature also solidified the size of the Gallant; the six vertical slots would be 2 to 3 stories tall, and the bump becomes a 2 story tall conning tower! But the mouth was giving me fits. A seahorse has a very distinctive mouth... what to do? In this case the lower jaw was the tail end of the smallest cannon found on a Mammoth (trust me, it wasn't mine, and it's completely toast). The upper jaw was the problem. That's the complely sanded down, hollowed out, square support peg from a Deathpion's tail. Any gueses to those four blades over each eye? Close! That is the sprocket from a Zabat's pullback motor. Oh, the eyes themselves are a Diablo Tiger-B's plastic ammo pellet, sawed in half twice, smoothed, and inserted into a dremmeled socket. You can see a test fitting for the Akyna in the center photo.
LATERAL LAUNCH BAYS
Sorry for such a big montage... My screen is always at max resolution. :) Hopefully you don't have to scoot around too much! These are the key to the whole build... if the lateral launch bays don't work, there is no point in building the Gallant at all. How to get 70 of my Sea Saber custom inside a Zoid just under twice its size? How about we crank the scale up... to 1/2100! Okay, to do this we need some innovative parts use. I have these Post-It sticky flags I use for marking training manuals at work, and they come in these nifty little plastic containers (by little, I mean about half as wide as my thumb). They have a cool smooth shape, perfect for a hydrodynamic surface. I Cut one in half and what do you know? It fits perfectly in the Gator's body shell! That gave me a door cover that is also a huge, clear window! I'll need that to show of my little suprises inside. Tracing the covers, I had to create the bays themselves out of sheet styrene. The stuff I used comes molded with in scale siding for electric train scale houses. I chose this material because I knew I would need the details to convey a better sense of size; smooth features simply wouldn't look like a Zoid the size of a battleship. Below you can see that I fitted the Post-It covers with red ratchet slides from a Hasbro Seismosaurus. That plastic doesn't melt with solvent, so I used Loc-Tite. I cut and sanded my styrene panels to exactly fill the indentations in the Post-It covers... I was very pleased with the results
Above you can see my labels for the 1/2100 launch bays. Okay, these were a nightmare! It took a full day to shoot photos of my Sea Saber, Photoshop them, shrink them down at 600 DPI and manually draw the umbilical system. The bay itself was rendered in Bryce 3D and the font is the one I am using for my new story line; Zoids: Age of War. I have blown up the side and front views of an in-bay Sea Saber so you can see it more clearly. The side views were printed and cut out with a stencling x-acto knife, then folded in half to produce a two-sided model. These were then glued to the background image showing the front of the Sabers in the bay. This allows the viewer to see the Sabers from the front and from the side. If you noticed the "32" on the Saber umbilical above, each of them are numbered, in order, 1 through 70... Sabers 1 through 35 reside in Alpha Bay, on Gallant's starboard side, and 36 through 70 are moored in Beta Bay on his Port. Additionally, I painted the front of the paper sails black to mask the paper edge and finished off by painting all of the little swords with Testor's flat bronze enamel to match the original. So, just how small is 1/2100? The picture on the lower left shows the Alpha Bay Sea-Wing over a centimeter ruler... the picture on the right shows them next to my Sea Saber custom. That arrow is pointing toward a bonus I made for myself... a complete 1/2100 scale Sea Saber... not a half like those mounted to the model. 3 solid days of work totalling about 20 hours. I have no life. :-)
THE TAIL
I had decided long ago that my spare 'Gators would make something cool with all of thos tail bits, and seeing the seahorse photo brought them instantly to mind. The challenge was that seahorses have completely prehensile tails... and that the 'Gators' tails were hinged the wrong way! I've had an old 'mech model called "Dredge" for years, and I always knew he was destined for Zoid fodder. I did a count of 'Gator parts and Dredge joints... I was one shy! Still, I could fake the last one... right? So I carved up ol' Dredge and his green body parts formed the tail and base neck joints. Except that blasted tail tip looked all wrong. I needed to make it smaller and more flexible. I took two decorative caps off of Dredge and cut the last Baragator tail segment in half, then used tube styrene to scratch build a hinge. While doing this I also managed to cut the Armored Gator tail tip in half... this became the front end of Akyna. My fake joint became a real one, and Gallant can curl his tail completely around!
FINAL CONSTRUCTION
These shots were taken right after I finished the body work, adding the thrusters, fins and missile silos. It was just before I decided to add the long spine-fins you see on the final model, as well. At first I thought the 'Gator fins would be fine for that, but afterward I realized Gallant needed the blades to really look dangerous... and he does! FYI, those pink test spines are Killer Dome's eyes. I don't recommend sanding them... even with my resparator they emit a scary plastic smell that is likely dangerous. You may also notice that I fixed another challenge here... the stand. Originally I didn't know how I was going to make that work... without limbs the Gallant would lie on the table! The stand has a fork cut into the tip that hooks just under the Evil Pegasus parts (left over from my Blazewing custom) and locks around the lowes fin of the Barigator's back... the three bottom Baragator fins tri-sect the gap under the Pegasus parts and make it look like a 4-nozzel thruster when the stand is removed.
RMZ-304 AKYNA
Akyna came about when I split the Baragator tail segment and noticed the tip looked like the front of a whale. I had a tiny helicopter (one of those little guys you get with Japanses lemon chewing gum) and sized up the tail... perfect! I hacked everything apart and built some fins and had Akyna within an hour. BUT, what do do with him? I hated that Gallant's head was hallow. Oh, boy. It looks simple, but I had to cut two slots in Gallan't noggin for Akyna's fins! Further, the foot pedals from the 'Gator cockpit could be cut to lock the little guy in place. Finally I built a roof for the bay out of sheet styrene and added some details using Ultrasaurus parts. "Akyna" is Russian for "shark". The name was cool but the form wasn't aggressive looking... I also didn't want a mini Whale King (though it really does look more like a killer whale!) so I made it a whale shark. If I had cut the tail fin off and created flukes, maybe I would have made it an orca, but, hey, it's only an inch long, okay? :-)
FIRST PRIMING
Admit it, even when your build goes well most customs look like a mess of parts, glue and putty until you prime them. It was at this moment when I finally saw Gallant emerge. Here is when I though I had a contender. Notice that he has no shoulder joints yet, nor the sensor dome his neck. Both of these had to be added after the priming was complete; painting the joints was not the issue, it was getting primer on the clear bay covers. As for the sensor, I really wanted to let the unpainted gray of the plastic shine in contrast to the matte paint. I would also like to point out here that the Barigator tail section making the neck is filled in with that strip-detailed styrene. This was the first build I actually filled in the back of every piece; every gap, every uneven surface.
FINAL PRIMING
All systems are go for final paint detailing. I dedided to use the same technique I did to match Paladin, using the primer as the base coat. The color and texture is very military and heavy looking. The sensor is now in place on the neck... you can see how it shines against the matte gray, even in this small shot.
CUSTOM LABELS
I really want to mention the labels before I let you get back to your life. At the top you can see the actual label set I printed to customize Gallant. To make it seem like a huge Zoid, I needed some super detailed, small labels. I hope you feel I succeded. You can see the RBZ-1000 classification label on my thumbnail at left, and that each of the launch bay labels is uniquely streaked and grimed up. I also spent a few hours creating the Gallant insignia. I really love how it turned out, strong and regal looking, ready to defend his charge. I also incorporated my personal Helic insignia in the design as I decided to leave the old TT Zoids world behind so I could persue new avenues of creativity with my own stories and without the past of a line that deserves its own universe. I will still be building on Planet Zi... just not the Planet Zi folks know.
CONCLUSION
Well, my overkill web pages are getting longer! Thank you for spending an entire day reading down this far... it took me a few days to get here myself. :-) Perhaps one day I will post a bit about my new Zoid world and link all of my custom sites and concepts together. In the meantime there is only one last order of business... to give credit where credit is due....
CAST
Armored Gator
Body, Head, Akyna Body, Torso Cannons
Baragator
Body, Tail
Mammoth
Lower Jaw, Tail Defense System
Deathpion
Upper Jaw, Tactical Missile Tubes
Ultrasaurus
Bridge, Shoulders, Head, Akyna Hangar
Zabat
Brows, Blades, Torso, Stand
Diablo Tiger
Eyes, Sensor Dome
Elephantus
Forward Hangar Hinge
Killer Dome
Forward Hangar Armor, Blades
Evil Pegasus
Torso-Fin
Pterasu
Tail Armored Cargo Holds
Black Rhimos
Thruster Skirt
Elephander
Primary Thrusters, Shoulder Hinges
Dark Spiner
Head Spikes
Grounchar
Primary Intake
CP-11
Primary Vertical Thrusters
“Dredge” Mech
Neck & Tail Joints
Post-It Flag Holders
Lateral Hangar Doors
HMS Hood
Head Turrets, Torpedo Turrets
HMS King George
Torso Turrets, Guass Cannon
Battleship Yamato
Shoulder Turrets
Micro-Copter
Akyna Tail
Polystyrene
Armor, Blades, Hangars, Torso Paneling
Hangar Launch Tubes, Vents
Special Effects Unit
Kodak EasyShare V530
Photography Unit
X-Acto
Works on thumbs!
Dremmil
X-Acto's really big brother
Iwata HP-C
Works on fingernails!
Thomas Air Compressors
Soundtrack
Epson C84
Custom logo printing
Adobe Photoshop
Custom logo design
Bryce 3D
Hangar Bay rendering
Testor's
Works on Shirts!
1st Place Winner
Zoids Manifest 2007
Custom Contest
