A pair of Ma.K Falke Pk.85

[Amaurosisbrown]

Finished up the two Falke I’d been working on over the past 5-6 months. I’d been oblivious to the Maschinen Krieger (Ma.K) world until stumbling upon various builds on Britmodeller, particularly from Pete in Lincs and a few others.

The Ma.K story started in a Japanese hobby magazine in the 80s.

The overview to this universe is the post-apocalyptic aftermath from a 29th century World War. The Galactic Federation tries to rule and rebuild planet Earth, while plucky mercenaries try to win back control. It’s a story as old as time (when will the Fascists ever learn?).

The mercenaries used captured and repurposed Federation military equipment. The Ma.K kit’s available are mostly Armoured Suits, walking tanks and anti-gravity aircraft. The design of these pay homage to WW I and 2 machinery, and the livery is biased toward German insignia.

Enough of the waffle, and things you already know, here’s some photos.

 

The Falke PkF.85 was an aircraft the mercenaries developed from captured anti-gravity technology. 

One particular Ma.K. developer, Kow Yokohama, developed models of the various Ma.K crafts and suits by kit-bashing.

 

The original kits that Kow used for the Falke are still easily identifiable; the booms are from P38 Lightnings, the main fuselage is from a Honda S800 car. Various tank parts make up the fiddly stuff. And most famously a Yakult bottle was the basis for the jet engine and table tennis balls are the anti-gravity pods. I can’t be the first person to write the words: prebiotic ping-pong propulsion. 
 

 

The Hasegawa 1/20 kits I bought were a good price from Japan, but the shipping was pretty steep. Next time I’ll fly there and pick them up in person. 

I’ve loved that anything goes with these kits. I added extra plumbing for the engine and underside. There’s fuse wire and bits from F1 engines. There’s even a shovel from a Sherman.

 

I opened up as many of the vents as I could. And also a bit of battle damage, with a cooper pipe exposed.

 

Also added are something that I feel would still be present 800 years in the future. It’s a feature I also added to the Space 1999 Eagle Transporter I made…

Navigation Lights. Red and green lights are required on aircraft and boats today, so why would that change?

 

Weathering the Falkes (Falkii) was good fun. It was a combination of all the techniques I wanted to try; salt, sandpaper, washes, pastels. 
Rusty engine parts was something I hadn’t tried before.

 

I had seen a flat-bed truck IRL that was about as weather beaten as you could get, except for a bright shiny red fire extinguisher 🧯 on the back of the cab. I immediately painted the tank on this Falke the same. I imagine it’s a pressure vessel of some sort, replaced after each flight to power something crucial.

 

The pilot is tucked away in his cockpit, and gets no natural light. I had great fun painting the cockpit and adding a few extras. You may note the ejector seat handles are still black and yellow.

 

Even before I had ordered the kits I had decided to veer away from a militaristic paint job. My idea was that the mercenary mechanic in charge of painting a few of their Falke squadron wasn’t concerned with camouflage. They had stumbled upon an 800 year old manuscript showing strange, ancient vehicles. These colourful car’s liveries would look great on their Falke. 

They would have had little idea that we were blessed in the 1980s by 200mph rocket ships battling for 24 hours at Le Mans. And they looked wonderful. Some were bedecked in the design of ciggie packets, others resembled bottles of booze. The New Man Porsche 956 was sponsored by a French jeans company. Once I decide my inspiration would be Group C, it became a tough choice to narrow down which design.

 

The Silk Cut Jaguar XJR 9 is a stunning livery, and the car shape mimics the Falke design. I’m super happy with the New Man yellow/black Falke above, but I’m not so sure the Silk Cut works as well. Very quickly I realised what a b*ll ache it was to mask up.

 

Again, I’ve added extra engine pipes. The rear vents have been opened and grills added.

There’s a bonus headlamp visible in the above photo.

I also had my first go at foiling for a bare-metal panel. I could have made that smoother.

Once again, my creations are best viewed from about a metre away.

 

And again the obligatory Nav lamps. These mercenaries will still discriminate against the colour-blind.

And a better view of the new headlamp.

The internal cockpit colour I was aiming for was ‘USSR nuclear power station control-room’.

For both Falke I wasn’t quite sure how I wanted the anti-gravity pods to look.

The New Man Falke got gloss black and the Silk Cut got Matt black.

I’ve not permanently attached them, so I may redo them.

Maybe something like TIM from The Tomorrow People?

 

Anyway, that’s enough. Thanks for looking. Thanks for the kind words during the build.

 

[Yg Models]

nice color scheme & weathering on both of them

[Pete in Lincs]

8 hours ago, Amaurosisbrown said:

 I can’t be the first person to write the words: prebiotic ping-pong propulsion. 

I think you are. So well done you.

That's a fabulous result on both of them and I'm glad to see you've taken to the genre and added greeblies all over the place. 

The only limits are the spares box and your imagination! I hope you have a good trip to Japan to reap more Kreiger.

Be sure to post your work. It's a treat to see.