Hasegawa 1/20 Falke Antigravity Armored Raider Pkf.85 Kit First Look

By Michael Benolkin

First Look

Maschinen Krieger (Ma.K.) is a science fiction genre that was started in the early 1980s under the banner of SF3D by Japanese artist Kow Yokoyama and was published for a few years in the Japanese hobby magazine Hobby Japan. While many of the science fiction and fantasy kits that are produced in Japan are based on one or more anime (Japanese animation) television and movie series, or at least as a manga (Japanese comics), SF3D was created out of a series of scratch-built futuristic combat vehicles and armored suits. At the time, Nitto produced a series of kits based upon Kow's designs. When a copyright dispute arose in 1985, Hobby Japan dropped the series out of their magazines and Nitto discontinued the kits. Since that time, companies like Modelkasten, Wave, and Brick Works stepped in and continued the genre under a new banner - Maschinen Krieger (Machine Wars). You'll note that while Ma.K. is supposed to take place roughly 900 years into our future, the vehicles, uniforms, and even names/designations are inspired by World War II Germany.

I remember seeing various armored suit kits in the past for the series 'Maschinen Krieger' (Ma.K) but they were usually from specialty hobby companies, but when Hasegawa threw their hat into this ring, it was time to take a closer look. Their first entry into the Ma.K series is Pkf.85 Falke that is a subsonic raider that features an anti-gravity lift system and a more conventional forward thrust propusion system. This single-seat fighter is also endowed with a big gatling gun. The resulting subject looks like a cross between an A-10 Thunderbolt II and a Star Wars Snowspeeder.

The kit is molded in olive drab styrene and presented on five parts trees, plus a sixth tree molded in desert yellow containing the parts for the two crew figures. The instructions contain universal assembly drawings with captions in Japanese and English.

One of the unique features of the craft is the lack of windows. The pilot can evidently see through the technology and sits inside the armored shell. The kit has a hinged cockpit hatch, so you can pose the cockpit open and closed (movable). Also movable are the stabilator/airbrake paddles.

The kit features two optional crew figures, one seated for inside the cockpit and one standing.

The decals are provided for eight different subjects that are illustrated with the two full-color data cards included in the kit. The color schemes are inspired by a mixture of German World War Two aircraft and armor camouflage, so you can certainly improvise with other variations and combinations and armor and aircraft schemes to render a Falke for your tastes.

This is a nice looking kit and I've seen some interesting builds online, including one modeler who replaced the solid dome cockpit cover with a more contemporary windscreen and canopy. Since this is a subject out of the anime universe, you have few people who can tell you that your model is inaccurate!

My sincere thanks to HobbyLink Japan for this review sample!