Muv Luv part 2: Grappler BETA kit
Last week I showed off a mech model kit from the visual novel/ anime Muv Luv. This week I have another entry from the ML franchise, this time the BETA grappler. The BETA come in many different “flavours”, much like the arachnids in the starship troopers films or the “Blue” in blue gender. The grappler is a common type of BETA that is too large for infantry to engage (hence the mechs).
Most of the miniatures I feature here arrive arrive as a single casting or else are part of a sprue, however this model was part of a more limited run and seems to have been cast by hand, similar to soft vinyl toys. This figure is supposedly made from PVC but it is not as pliable as this description may lead you to believe. I’m sure a chemist could tell me all about different types of PVC and degree’s of cross linking, but all I know is that the plastic is certainly softer than most polystyrene.
Unlike last week’s Shiranui, the BETA grappler is produced by Volks, a company that is probably more well known for their ball jointed dolls as well as their luxury toy lines. Though no scale is listed, I would guess that it is somewhere around 1/100, so it is considerably larger than the 1/144 Shiranui. Assembly was somewhat troublesome as the thick PVC is full of odd angles and is very dense, making starting with a hobby knife difficult (not to mention dangerous). Instead I used kitchen scissors, followed by my side cutters to remove excess casting until each piece could be dry fit. I used my hobby knife to trim the pieces to a close fit.
A quick google will tell you that super glue (aka CA- cyanoacrylate )glue doesn’t work on PVC. This question is most often asked in reference to PVC kitchen pipes. I found that CA glue worked perfectly well with this kit.
As you can see from the above images, I used acrylic caulking to fill in the (sizeable) gaps between the front and rear sections of the claws. Before application I thinned the caulk with a few drops of 70% isopropyl alcohol. Using a paperclip, I pushed the mixture into the crevice and stippled it lightly to somewhat mimic the existing claw texture.
After a quick coat of white primer I colour matched the blue parts back to their original dark cyan/navy and then proceeded to give the white areas a liberal application of Reikland Fleshshade, which I immediately wiped off the raised areas with kitchen roll. This still stained the white a fair bit, but I don’t consider it to be a problem and it brought out the fold details quite well.
As you can see, he’s a pretty chunky lad.
That wraps up the show and tell nicely I’d say, but I will also upload the instructions that came with the kit. Partly because I don’t believe they are available elsewhere and partly because this kit is fairly rare, being a “campaign reward” of some sort for Volks (repeat?) customers, so along with this article, it may help you decide if you want to bid for it if you ever see an unbuilt kit on an auction site.
