It's been a while but I couldn't resist photographing this one and showing you straight away as I had been anticipating it for a while! This is the 1:48 scale Ryu walker from Dust Studios, and it is the first of the Japanese walkers. The photos are on grid paper with the main lines measuring 10mm if anyone is interested in working out the size.
Anyway, onto the review. I pre-ordered mine and it was shipped to me from Hong Kong, with the rather basic box wrapped in bubble wrap, and then packing paper over that. Unfortunately there was a bit of damage on the box, but the main thing was the contents were fine. I have ordered from Dust Studios before and not had a problem so I am prepared to give them the benefit of the doubt this time around. The painted models are in much sturdier boxes padded with foam, so maybe it is just the kits in these softer boxes.
Inside is a folded sheet with the instructions, and the kit divided up into bags with the full frames, and a box for the other components.
Here is the full contents of the box. You can see the base comes in two pieces, along with a pack of generic decals for the Japanese army, and a card for use in Dust Tactics.
The instruction sheet also comes with sample paint schemes that describe which theatre the walker of that colour scheme is operating in.
Onto the frames themselves, these are the standard frames for the German medium walker. There are two and a half frames, here is the first, consisting of the body:
The second frame is the leg components.
And the third half frame is the feet.
Here is a closeup of the feet with a better shot of the details.
Next are all the loose components. I am unsure if these are plastic or resin... they have a smell of plastic, but feel like resin, so it could be some kind of mix. These come bagged in the separate box inside the main packaging.
Even though they are separate, there is still spruing present that need to be clipped and cleaned before the pieces can fit together.
I am very impressed with the casting, even these armour plates, which are extremely thin, have no warping or other deformations.
And also included are the cabling, done in a black rubber so they can be flexed into place if necessary, though they are cast with the bends in the appropriate places.
So there you have it, my first Dust model kit, and most likely not my last. I'm very impressed by the details and casting, and so far, it looks like an extremely fun kit to build from the pieces. The only downside was the crushed box, but as I said, nothing was damaged inside.
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