Paul E. C. Keefe Jr. (retired): "Cold Love on a Hot LZ"

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The story via a merc's visual display.

The old Nitto S.F.3.D kit from the 80s. I built several back then and it is still one of my favorites. Nitto SF3D was the predecessor to the Maschinen Krieger (Ma.K ZBV3000) of today. The series was the brainchild of Kow Yokoyama.

Reworking the head with knife and file. I cut in sharper details and softened the face. The eyes are better delineated and the mouth opened more.

I drilled out the visor eye pieces and replaced them with aluminum tubing attached with gap filling Zap-A-Gap cyanoacrylate glue.

Adding the upper body. All uniform detail filed off. Refining the face as female.

Using pink Super Sculpey for skin and to achieve the female form.

Super Sculpey mixed with acrylic gray paint for the uniform and straps.

Adding gray to the Super Sculpey eliminates the translucent appearance of it's unbaked state making fine detail easier to see and to sculpt.

Test fitting the bust within the suit.

"Bird's eye view".

Adding detail from styrene.

I've also continued to refine the sculpted detail.

Test fitting with detail added.

Flipped around the back rest, then detailed it with styrene. The holstered PPK is sculpted from Super Sculpey mixed with acrylic gray paint.

The head rest was not flipped but removed. The plastic rods holding it above the backrest were removed and holes drilled out. Wire, only glued to the backrest replaces them. It can now be raised and lowered.

Again test fitting the bust. Styrene added to detail her chin strap.

Additional interior detailing with styrene. An ammo pouch made from Super Sculpey, with styrene Velcro tabs. A hole is made in the front of the suit to accept a fiber optic bundle to illuminate part of the control panel.

The control panel is mounted outside of the suit as the result of battle damage. Aluminum tubing serves as a frame for a tactical display and the conduit for the fiber optic bundle that will illuminate it.

First try with .010 thou. fiber optic strands. Too small not enough light.

Second attempt with .040 thou. fiber optic strands. Much better.

A new larger tactical display is needed to accommodate the larger diameter strands.

The fiber optic strands pass through a conduit made from aluminum tubing.

Test fitting

While the lighting worked, I could not come up with a design for the remainder of the tactical display that I liked. I removed it to start from scratch.

Here is a HUD/ tactical display made from a transparent green plastic knife. I redirected the fiber optics into the lens in the helmet's visor.

Again room light will illuminate the fiber optics, and causes the cut edges of the HUD to faintly glow.

Tacked together to determine pose. She is using an interior wing support (paper for now) from her downed Hornisse as a crutch. She is dragging her right leg. A piece of solder stands in for her outstretched exposed right hand/arm as she cries ''Nicht schießen!" "Don't shoot!".

Started on the internal wing support/crutch, rescribed panel lines in the wrist and articulated the manipulator.

Test fitting.

Adding detail to the ''crutch''. Making an electrical wire bundle from white, black, and red stretched sprue.

More detail to the crutch.

Test fitting.

Just about finished detailing the pilot.

A wire armature on which to sculpt an unarmored replacement right arm.

Test fitting.

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Dress rehearsal.

Finishing the left arm.

Interior detail.

Now to paint her.

Another dress rehearsal.

The suit's right shoulder is damaged. More interior detail added.

I made a 'floor' for the upper body.

The waist can now pivot.

A "rubber'' foot sole from .040 thou. sheet plastic.

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A pair of ''Panzer Panties'' to hide the gap between the top of the legs and the upper body. Made from Elmer's Wood Filler and styrene.

Working on a redesigned tactical display to be fitted to the kit's control panel.

Painting the interior surface of a piece of clear plastic. This will be the display screen.

The display finished. Attached with black, red, and white stretched sprue serving as wires. All interior parts glued in place. The interior painted black and the two halves of the upper body glued together with plenty of gap filling super glue. Now the exterior can be painted.

Leutnant Hitomi König ?

Painting. Based in a dark gray. A foam sponge is used to apply a medium gray.

Finished in white applied as with the medium gray to produce a 3D falling snow camouflage pattern.

The arms are painted and attached as is the Hornisse's internal brace used as a crutch. A severed power cord attached to the (now useless) right leg.

More battle damage, some additional detail, and decals.

Surprisingly the old decals (30 years?) were still usable with a little persuasion. A wave Ketzer provided additional decals. Two coats of Solvaset was used to ensure proper adhesion. Golden Fluid Matte Medium thinned with water and mixed with a small amount of Tamiya Flat Base X-21 was brushed on each decal to seal them.

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Sculpting the groundwork.

Using a mixture of Super Sculpey mixed with gray acrylic paint and Sculpey Firm.

Real rocks can be used to add texture.

Groundwork painted. The grey area of the suit given a couple of green washes.

Finished photos.
"Cold love on a hot LZ"
Leutnant Hitomi König, a shot down Hornisse pilot limping home through "No man's land" in her battered Panzer Kampf Anzug HO. She holds up her right arm in desperate defense as she shouts "Nicht schießen!" "Don't Shoot!". She has walked into an ambush.

She has removed the suit's (anzug) right arm. It was damaged in the crash. A structural support from the destroyed Hornisse serves as an extemporized crutch.

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A plasma bolt has hit the right knee turning the protective knee cap into molten metal fusing the joint and spraying the surrounding area. The right hip reticulated skurzen has been damaged and the power cord severed.

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The damaged display shows that both the right arm and leg are inoperable. The left arm and leg are showing signs of being over stressed. The tactical display shows her as a green pip in the center surrounded by five red enemy pips.