PK-40 Fledermaus (1985)

Scale: 1:20
Initial Release: 1985
Medium: Polystyrene
Kit Rarity: 2

About the Design

The SF3D collection was arguably the most ambitious series of original sci-fi model designs ever produced.  Based on a series of photo-illustrated articles by Kow Yokoyama, Hiroshi Ichimura and Kunitaka Imai that ran in Hobby Japan magazine from 1982 to 1985, the models were of various "battlesuits" and fighting vehicles used in an imagined war between rebellious colonists and a fascist government for control over a war-ravaged Earth several centuries hence.  All the SF3D kits had a not-so-subtle Teutonic style to them, as if Nazi Germany had been able to extend WWII into the 21st Century.

The Fledermaus (German for "bat") was one of just two aircraft in the SF3D universe.  (The other, the Hornisse, was a modified Fledermaus fearing a battlesuit carrier in lieu of the traditional cockpit.)  A small one-man fighter designed for low-altitude ground assaults, the ship enjoyed VTOL capabilities thanks to its four oversized (and highly unaerodynamic) rocket thrusters.

About the Kit

Nitto's SF3D kits were all excellently engineered and molded, and came complete with brass-etched parts, springs and rubber tubing for extra detail.  Due to a legal squabble, the kits went out of production in 1986, but were subsequently released by designer Kow Yokoyama under the name 'Ma.K. ZbV3000 Maschinen Krieger' in 1999.

This "Fledermaus"  was built from an original 1980s issue.