A Game of Chicken (Area 88)
The finished model:
The scene:
After crashing in the desert, Rocky is rescued by a band of Bedouin. During his time with the tribe, he earns the respect of the Headman, and quickly falls in love with his beautiful and mysterious daughter, Sara. However, the peace of this romantic interlude is suddenly shattered when Sara is unexpectedly gunned down by the Anti-Government Forces. In his anguish, Rocky decides to take matters into his own hands by jumping into a Jeep and entering into a deadly game of “chicken” against… a T-62 tank.
Check out the original manga scene from Chapter 009 “The Horizon of Anger” here:
The story:
It’s probably because Area 88 was the first manga series I ever read, but almost each and every one of the first 10-12 chapters seem iconic to me. If you look at my build list, the bulk of the projects come from either the very beginning of the series, or the end. I will admit, I was always a little surprised that Rocky’s reaction to the death of a woman he barely knows. I mean, jumping into a Jeep to face down a Soviet-made tank unarmed… uhhh… okay. Still, it certainly makes for a memorable scene. It also didn’t hurt it’s chances of making it into my Area 88 1/144 Project that the scene depicts something other than airplanes.
The kits:
- T-62 (by Kami de Korokoro)
- Willys Jeep (by Bregun)
The build:
Of course, building something other than airplanes in 1/144 scale poses some challenges. The main one is that there aren’t that many “kits” to choose from. Luckily it does seem to be a bit of a “scale of choice” for table-top war gamers, so there were some gashapon and the like available. Maybe not kits, per se, but something to use as a base. Still, I really had to hunt for the T-62, which seemed strange to me. I’m hardly an expert on armoured military vehicles, but the Soviet T-62 doesn’t seem to be a particularly exotic subject. But, for whatever reason, it doesn’t seem to show up in any of the mini scale armour sets.
I did finally get my hands on a pre-built no-name offering off eBay from Hong Kong, but after it arrived I was less than pleased with the quality. That led me on a chase to find the Kami de Korokoro resin kit (some assembly required). It wasn’t easy, but I did get my hands on one in a neat little hobby shop in Tokyo. The victory march was short lived though, upon closer (après purchase of course) inspection the quality was no better, and maybe worse than the no-namer. There were serious resin bubble and warping issues. It took all my patience and skill to just get the damn thing put together!
Luckily, on the other side of this build, the new 1/144 Willy’s Jeep from Bregun is a little beauty. It’s immaculate, although the photo-etched 1/144 steering wheel is TINY!
Without the need for LED lighting for afterburners or tiny DC motors for propellers, I thought this build was going to be the easiest of my Area 88 set. The challenge was really with the base. First off, I needed to find room on the base for a tank, a Jeep, and some sand between them, and still be able to show the “page from the manga” motif that has been the signature of this project. To that end I chose the squarest of all the wooden bases (okay… upside down coasters!) I had in the stash, and used my tried and true “angel clay” for the sand. Then I added some cotton for the blowing sand. Sounds easy enough, but using an airbrush to paint cotton (even after it’s been coated in cheap hairspray) isn’t easy – well, unless you’re going for the “matted soggy clump” look.
There wasn’t much room for any other detailing, but I was able to squeeze out some clear bits for the Jeep headlights, and the crowing touch was the 1/144 scale photojournalist camera. It’s the tiny black dot in the sand that you missed seeing the first time around. If you’ve read the manga pages above though, you know it’s somewhat the point of the whole story, so I couldn’t very well leave it out, right?
I think, all in all, it turned out all right, but feel free to tell me how you feel.
