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This is a S.A.F.S. (Super Armored Fighting Suit) from the Maschinen Krieger ZbV3000 (Ma.K for short) science fiction universe, created by Japanese artist Kow Yokoyama in the 1980s. He created it for the Hobby Japan magazine and designed and scratch built/kitbashed a series of powered armor suits, drawing inspiration from mainly German WW2 armor/aircraft, the American space program, and other existing sci-fi properties like Blade Runner and Star Wars. A story editor and graphic designer collaborated with him for it and they also made up a storyline to accompany the models he built. Over the years, various Japanese model kit companies have released kits under the Ma.K name, with the two most recent being Wave and Hasegawa.

This kit is made by Wave and is in 1/20 scale, which makes it stand about 4-1/2" tall to the periscope on the back. Being a powered armor suit, there's a pilot that goes inside and the hatch on the top can be opened to show them (I opted not to do this). It's also has limited articulation and can be posed in various ways, which is cool. I textured the entire model by painting it with Tamiya Extra Thin cement, letting it soften the plastic, and then attacking it with a stippling brush I fashioned from an old round tip brush. I added some weld beads with green stuff to all the various parts attached to the body, made pipe clamps out of strips of Tamiya tape hardened with liquid super glue for the red pipe, and made some angle brackets out of strip styrene for the power pack thing on the back. For the aerial, I used part of a Tamiya 1/35 scale M4 Sherman aerial mount with a piece of steel wire for the antenna. These additions can be seen in my gallery if you're interested.

For painting, I wanted a worn, lived-in look to the paint so decided to go with hairspray chipping. After a black primer, I gave everything a coat of Vallejo Metal Color Steel to simulate the base material (cast steel). I applied hairspray and then a layer of red oxide "primer" using AK Interactive Rotbraun (AK717), then another layer of hairspray, then the main armor color using AK Interactive RAL 7028 Dunkelgelb aus.44 (AK714), another coat of hairspray, and then Tamiya IJN Grey (XF-75) for the countershaded camouflage before chipping everything. I added the decals and used a hobby knife to damage a few of them if they were placed on chipped paint. I added a basic pin wash with some enamels before sealing it in with matte varnish and going to town with various oil paints using a technique called oil paint rendering. I finished it off by giving the exhaust a rusted effect using some pigments and acrylic matte medium.

Comments and criticism is welcome as always!

its a lovely bit of work, and looks like it could be part of an elaborate diorama