Weekend Plastic Modeling by Taiyuki, Voice Actor! Vol.5 With just a little work, you can get a very satisfying finish! I made "Time Dotabatan"!

When you are a working adult, you tend to have a lot of plastic models piled up in your busy life. ...... In this series, Yasuyuki Tai, a voice actor who loves robots and plastic models, takes on the challenge of building plastic models on your behalf!

The concept is "even busy working people can make it this far on their weekends off. There are only two rules: bare bones assembly and a production period of one to two days!　If you read this series, you will surely find the plastic model you want to build.

So, "Weekend Plastic Model Making by Voice Actor Taiyuki! The 5th issue of the series has begun!

Part 5: Time Dotabatta!

Attention all you high school girls out there!
Following the "Time Mecha-Button " that appeared in "Time Bokan," BELFINE has released the "Time Dotabatan.

Many of you may have a strong image of Belfine's figures. In fact, I myself have a lot of figures that I want to have, such as "Tsubasa Kazenari Tenpu Zan Ver." and "Kuroyukihime Bunny Ver." (I am chronically short of money). All of the figures have been produced in such a way that there are no gaps in the space, and the poses are wonderful to match them!

Belfine is such a great company, and the "Time Dotabatan" is the second plastic model they have released, following the Time Mechabuton that was released in 2016. It has been a while since it was released, so some of you may have already enjoyed it, but this time we will once again build and introduce this kit!

First of all, the package.

It features a clean white background with a nostalgic illustration of Time Dotabattan. The "Min-kore" in the lower left corner stands for "Minna no Anime & Manga Collection," and it seems that BELFINE will be releasing more character kits in the future. We are looking forward to it!

On the side, there is an introduction to the Time Dotabattan setting and the kit's gimmick. It seems that it is also possible to store a small mecha. The scale is 1/100; it might be interesting to line it up with a character kit of the same scale.

Next, the kit contents. Transparent runners, white runners, green runners, poly parts, water transfer decals, and instruction manual. What a surprise, no glue is needed for assembly!

To reproduce the color scheme as set, some of the clear parts and white runners need to be painted.

A painting guide is included in the instruction manual. This time, I would like to go a little further than usual and paint some of the parts to complete the project.

Each part is relatively large, so you can assemble it as you go.

The joints between parts also look natural as panel lines. The division of parts is also ingenious!

Even the distinctive legs have parts that fit together like a lid, so there are no exposed flesh holes.

Here is the figure assembled without painting. You can take it as another color, but if you want to match the package illustration, you can see that the antennae, eyes and surrounding area, and belly need to be painted. The small mecha made of clear parts needs to be painted as a whole, but for this project, we will only paint the dotabutton. The assembly time up to this point is about 40 minutes. It is not likely to take even a beginner hours to assemble.

Let me introduce the gimmicks.

First of all, Shactlin can be stored in the front hatch.

The rear hatch is rotatable and can hold a helibotaru inside.

The Shactrine and Helibotaru come in stowed and deployed forms, respectively.

The tentatively assembled model is ready to be painted, so some parts are not fully assembled, but the underside of the model looks like this.

Replace the bottom hatch with the caterpillar parts to complete the "caterpillar form.

The simple design of this nostalgic caterpillar form. It would be better to paint it in a color that is more appropriate for the model.

Another form, the flight form. Remove the wings from the back,

The front and rear legs are extended backward and the main wings are inserted.

Attach the wings again to complete the flight configuration.

The legs stretched out with a "peep" are cute! The legs stretched out are cute. They are more like aircraft than mekabuton.

Now that we have enjoyed seeing what gimmicks they have, we will now apply the partial paint. In the instruction manual, there is "brown...dark earth 80% + bottom color 20%", but if you are buying paint just for this painting, it is one way to buy a color close to your image. Therefore, we selected "Brown FS30219" for the brown color this time. In addition, clear yellow and clear orange are colors often used for character models, so you may want to take this opportunity to purchase them.

Decals will be applied as well. I didn't know until recently that when decals are dipped in water, only the printed portion floats.... I always used a design knife to cut the decal to the very edge of the margin....

When you turn the decal over and float it in water like this, the water soaks into the base paper and you can check to see if it has penetrated properly.

The decal size is perfectly accurate!　Since the green parts will be unpainted, I smudged them with Tamiya's Smudging Black before applying the decals.

Except for the clear parts of the cockpit, I combined them with the painted parts. I also used Tamiya's Sumiiri-Black for the painted parts. But if I leave it like this, there is a possibility that the decal may peel off when touching each part. So I sprayed "Top Coat" to protect the decals and the paint film.

This time, I used "Premium Top Coat Matte" of canned spray.

It is a relatively new topcoat, and although it is difficult to explain in words, it is different from the previous matting and removes the gloss in a good way.

By the way, when I paint, I use tools like the ones you see here, but for a long time I used only "eyeball clips. There are other tools that can be used in place of the modeling tools, so I think it would be a good idea to try various creative methods.

After applying decals, partial painting, and topcoating, Time Dotabattan was completed again!　I did not spray the topcoat on the clear parts because I did not want to make them cloudy. The parts that need painting can be painted without dulling the color because they are molded in white. I could have thought of another color without painting, but I feel relieved when the color is close to the one used in the play!　The base of the back legs is supposed to be green, but we decided not to paint the green part this time, so it is painted brown. But it does not look out of place, does it?

Strong hind legs! The smudging made each part clear, and spraying matte topcoat made it look less toy-like.

The figure is able to land on the ground with only the holding power of its feet, without touching its belly to the ground. The structure of the main body is simple and the number of parts has been reduced to make it lightweight!

As mentioned above, the decals are highly accurate and do not stick out from the position to which they are attached, nor are they insufficient.

The range of motion of the hind legs. The knees and ankles can go this far, although they are reverse-jointed like a grasshopper.

The base of the hind legs are ball-jointed, so they can be rotated without any problem, and as you can see, the angle can be set to a comfortable stance.

The front legs have the same range of motion as the rear legs.

The caterpillar parts should be painted green, but this time they are painted in one easy gunmetal color. Black iron color may also be good. It is more atmospheric than the pure white color, isn't it?

So, this is the caterpillar form.

When the hatch is opened in this form, it looks like a mobile base.

Next is the flight form. The wings are in the same color as before.

Since the figure is in flight form, I wanted to try flying it, so I took this photo with the stand hooked to the part where the caterpillar is connected. The background gives the impression of flying!

BOOM!

The back legs fluttering backward is a distinctive and interesting feature of this aircraft, isn't it?

I also tried to assemble by intuition the parts of Time Geicoats, which will be completed by combining them with the parts of Time Kwagattan, which will be released at a later date. Perhaps the correct assembly diagram will be published in the Time Kwagattan section. I am looking forward to its release!

Finally, two shots with the "Time Mechabuton 55th Clear Edition" (painted), which was released exactly one year before the release of Time Dotabattan. Dotabatan is somewhat linear, while MechaButon is curvy, and even though they have such different charms, they are able to be the main mecha of the same series. And yet, despite their different appeal, they are both able to be seen as main characters in the same series, and it is surprising that there is no sense of incongruity between the two.

The "Time Bokan" kits, including the Time Mecha Buttons, have a small number of parts and are easy to assemble, so if you are interested, please feel free to give them a try!

We look forward to introducing Time Kwagatan again when it is released. Dear BELFINE, we look forward to your future "min-kore" lineup!

Thank you very much for taking the time to read this to the end!
See you soon!

Product Information

■Time Dotabatan

Price: 5,000 yen (tax not included)

Specifications: PS&PE assembled plastic model

・ 1/100 scale

・Length: approx. 150mm

Manufacturer: BELFINE

<Taiyuuki Profile

Voice actor born on October 6, 1977.

He has appeared in "Toukendanbu-ONLINE-" Sousan Left Character, Tarotachi, "Bungo to Alchemist" Haruo Sato, "Yume Oukoku to 100 no Ojinsama" Latria, "The 3rd Super Robot Taisen Alpha: The Last Galaxy" Quavray Gordon, "Beast Armored Attack Dancuga Nova" Johnny Barnett, "Super Robot Life Form Transformer Prime" Foil Jack, Beacon, "Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Destiny" Chen Jian Yi, and many others.