by Allison Cottreau

The Tachikoma is a four legged light tank used by Section 9 from the series Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. It can operate under it's own AI, or it can be piloted by a human operator, during the course of the series they are seen piloted by the main characters, including Batou and major Motoko Kusanagi.

The kit itself is the Wave kit, when I purchased mine from the Starship Modeler store, I did so with the intention of building it to reflect the look of the Tachikoma from the all CG opening sequence of the series as opposed to the cell shaded look as seen in the series itself. In the CG opening the Tachikoma is a deep, glossy, almost like a deep blue chrome. I knew this would be a very difficult if not impossible look to fully reproduce especially in a small scale using paints.

I attempted to create the look using several layers of paint and much polishing. I began with a base of Tamiya Neutral Grey as a primer, I wet sanded this and every succesive acrylic layer to produce the smoothest finish possible, otherwise I would not get the look I wanted. Once I was satisfied with my primer coat, I painted the model Gloss Black, again with Tamiya acrylic, and again wet sanding and polishing to a high gloss, nest came Alclad polished Aluminum for a metalic base. Testors Model Master Purple Pearl was next followed by multiple coats of Tamiya Clear blue, again wet sanded and polished, finally came a few coats of Tamiya clear. The bare metal bits were painted it various shades of Model Master Buffable Metalizer paints. These parts were then buffed using a rotary tool with a rag wheel.

The kit went together beautifully, the only problem I had was losing one of the "webshooters" that are the sides of the drivers compartment. I had to rebuilt it using a spare bridge dome from a polar lights Enterprise and bits of sprue. The one on the right side is the rebuilt one.

Image: Front view

Image: Left/front

Image: Left side

Image: Top view