Sunday, August 31, 2014

Strike Witches


Strike Witches was the creation of Shimada Fumikane (or is it Humikane?) who is probably the most well known artist associated with the mecha musume genre, and probably the military mo-e genre as well.

In roughly the same time period that Strike Witches came out, Wings of War: The Dawn of World War II was released. This tabletop game re-implemented the rules system popularized by Wings of War: Famous Aces for use with WWII era aircraft.

Combining Strike Witches and Wings of War seemed like such a logical step, that two doujin games were made in response. One being Wings of Witches (KASU ver.), and the other Wings of Witches (CUTE ver.).

I played a bit of Wings of War, and liked the system enough to consider making maneuver decks for use with 1/72 scale fighters and 65mm Strike Witches, but almost immediately gave up on the idea as being too time consuming. It was also a problem that there were no 65mm Strike Witch figures.

The first problem was addressed by Adorable Rocket, who introduced me to a homebrew version of the FlightPath system for use with petites. The D&D version of the original rules are available free from WizK!ds Games.

The second problem has yet to be adequately resolved. In fact, the only figure I own who wears a striker unit is not even an actual Strike Witch, but rather Konata Izumi cosplaying as Yoshika Miyafuji.



Like most Niitengo figures, the head and body are smaller than that of Nendoroid Petits (particularly early ones like Miku).

The only other SD Strike Witch figures that I could find that were close to being 65mm are Mame figures made by Liquid Stone.




The Mame figures stand about 70mm tall, and have proportions similar to early Niitengo figures. The most glaring difference between Mame figures and Nendoroid Petits is the length of their legs.

I purchased the figures individually, and am missing Eila (who seems to be rather difficult to find outside of the set). I believe there is also a secret figure, which is a witch Neuroi (the only figure in the set to be wearing striker units).


X-11 Witch-like Neuroi

In order to make an actual Strike Witch, I swapped Konata's head for Miyafuji's. Unfortunately there is no way to support the figure, since the socket for the stand was in Konata's hair.

完璧

Some other figures which I am interested in getting:

SD Sanya & Eila Set (Phat Company) which was a Chara-Ani and Comptiq exclusive. I'm not sure how big these figure are compared to other petites.


Nendoroid Petit (or at least that's what some vendors claim - looks more like Niitengo to me) version of Mio Sakamoto (12 yr ver.) that came with Strike Witches Zero 1937 Fuso Sea Incident Limited Edition (Kadokawa Comics Ace).


Good Smile (or Toy's Works) needs to make a complete set of petite witches in striker units!


Friday, August 15, 2014

65mm Gaming

As part of a new project I'm working on, I've decided to start cataloging my collection of Nendoroid Petits and other super deformed (SD) style character figures.

Most of my figures are Nendoroid Petits, so the typical figure is 65mm tall. Other brands of SD figures have different heights and proportions, however I am lumping all of what I consider to be roughly compatible figures under the category of 2.5" (or 65mm) "scale" :P.


I first became interested in these figures as references for sculpting because they had a minimalist level of detail that still managed to portray the character in a convincing manner. Later on, when Super Dungeon Explore was released, I started thinking about using these figures for gaming purposes.


After all, with millions of these figures sold throughout the world, what do people do with them? Can they be content with having the figures just sitting on shelves and taking part in the occasional photo shoot? Why not give them more purpose as gaming miniatures?

Anyway, I'll probably just start with posting comparison pictures of the various figures, and add material on my gaming system when I get them better developed.


みくみくにしてあげる♪