Last post, I declared that the inner frame of the Astaroth was complete. That was a lie. Turns out I missed a few pieces, and that I had the torso on backwards. Woops!
Here’s the really complete frame, which hardly looks different. Still!
For the second night of building, I moved onto the weapons. First we have this combat knife. Which is … a knife. It has some nice little details, but I doubt anyone can notice them when the blade is in the hands of the model.
Next is the rifle. It is made of only two pieces, and it lacks any sort of gimmick, like a scope or a stock. It is about as generic as a plastic gun gets.
Finally we have the Demolition Knife, which is clearly the highlight of the whole kit. The knife is deceptively simple to build, but that doesn’t take away from its cool factor.
And no, it isn’t just cool because of how big it is. That’s actually the least interesting thing to me. What makes it cool is that it can fold up into a more compact form for storage. The upper half of the blade is on a special kind of hinge that has a bit of leeway. Check out the image below to get an idea of what I mean:
This is what allows it to fold up flush against the bottom half. There’s also a notch in the top half that fits into a slot in the bottom half, to secure it while folded. Overall, the Demolition Knife is one of the most clever bits of engineering I’ve seen in this hobby.
Also, the Demolition Knife is really big, taller than the mobile suit when unfolded.
Overall, this arsenal might appear disappointing, but as far as I can tell, the Astaroth uses all three of these weapons in the manga, so this is actually an accurate loadout. Really, the only weapon that’s disappointing is the rifle. It’s just a little too basic for my liking, and this makes it feel like an afterthought.
Side Thoughts
- The left arm has a hand on top of a hand. In addition to its normal manipulator, this big chunky fist is strapped onto the wrist. I read someone who says its supposed to help hold onto the Demolition Knife. Whatever the case may be, it’s kind of cool.
