By Wunji Lau

This is a model of the Gundam GP03 Dendrobium mobile armor, built from the Bandai 1/550 scale kit. It appears in the last three episodes of the Gundam 0083 OVA series, as a last-ditch superweapon to counter a Zeon fleet. The Dendrobium actually consists of two vehicles. The main vessel is the Orchis, a warship-sized weapons platform consisting mostly of engine and armaments. The second vehicle, the Stamen, is a high-performance mobile suit that serves as the Orchis' control cockpit, as well as being a superior fighter-class unit in its own right.

The Dendrobium carries a wide variety of weaponry. The main armament is a huge anti-ship beam cannon; although the mount has limited traverse, the Dendrobium's maneuverability is such that the gun can be quickly brought to bear on even small, fast targets. For close combat, the Dendrobium has deployable claw arms. The remainder of the armament is stored inside the two dorsal modular weapons containers, and consists of a mix of missiles, demolition mines, and hand weapons (like bazookas and rifles) for the Stamen. For defense, the Dendrobium is equipped with heavy armor, a beam-deflecting I-field and decoy flares.

If the Dendrobium has a weakness, it is human. The ship has no living facilities, and with only a single pilot, combat efficiency drops of severely after only a few hours of mission time. Even so, in the Gundam 0083 OVA, its exhausted and inexperienced pilot manages to singlehandedly clear a path through an enemy fleet including warships, mobile suits, and a crazed ace pilot in a top-of-the-line mobile armor. Few, if any, units in the Gundam universe have caused so much damage to military targets in so short a time; its relatively small size (200 meters in length, counting the beam cannon barrel) merely reflects its singleminded purpose for existing.

The model represents the initial test version of the prototype, before it was shipped to Anaheim's La Vie En Rose test facility for field trials. Unlike the final version, which could only be controlled via the Stamen unit, the test unit has a two-seat cockpit, for use in testing the docking maneuvers and for added versatility. In addition to the two main weapons containers, the unit also has a third hardpoint along its spine; this hardpoint can support fuel tanks or additional weapons pods.

The paint job is a test scheme, using a breakup pattern to foil surveillance photos and image-enhancement routines; the main gun is painted to suggest an antenna array instead of the massive nuclear-powered symbol of male insecurity that it really is. The Stamen is painted in an orange and gray test scheme instead of its final white and blue combat trial scheme.

Model Construction

The port weapons container was sawed open and filled with papier-mache, which is light and fills spaces nicely. This provided structural support for the three open bays, which were shaped out of the papier-mache with sculpting tools and allowed to harden. Three bay doors were filed down to an appropriate thickness and fitted with plastic tubes for the hydraulic arms. The weapons (a missile cluster, an anti-installation missile, and a beam machine-gun) were scrounged from unused parts and the bits box. The front cockpit, dorsal hardpoint and fuel tank also came from the bits box.

The rear pods were modified to slide open; I added sensor and comm arrays to one, and flare/chaff dispensers to the other. The sensor arrays are two separate pieces that plug into the open pod. The model was painted and washed with a combination of Tamiya sprays and Testors enamels, weathered with pastel chalks, and festooned with self-made decals, printed onto decal paper by my trusty inkjet.

Image: Detail, port side

Image: Engines

Image: Closed up