As in previous years we are in Agliana for Hellana wargame convention. The same trip to Tuscany from the early hours of the Sunday morning to the night, with a pause for the highway stop dinner. All is done to live another wargaming experience together with our friends from every corner of Italy. Look at the categories tag for other editions.

The classic DBA tournament. I prefer to play with other games during a convention, so even this time I only supported my DBA community with photos and friendship.

A Russian view with snow. And Italian and Soviet soldiers.

A WWI naval battle with an interesting use of cotton to built clouds!

When railway modelling in HO scale meet wargame in 20mm scale: a WWII fight in Germany.

Bigger scale and bigger building. Another WWII delicatessen.

Using Comitatus rules to build a battle at the Roma’s gates.

This playable scenario displayed a view of the Porta Ostiensis near the ARSM club headquarters. This scenario recreate a specific Gothic War event.

A new presence in the convention was the Gundam Italian Club. I’m an orphan of eighties too.

Some models, even if the better one was the Zion vessel!

I did my duty with a couple of Ferrum et Gloria scenarios. This one was an opportunity to test the “duel rules” and to have a fight secutor/scissor versus retiarii. An experience to make some tweaks to something. Then some people wished to buy the rules, but I’m still writing them, pity. Now I’m a little distracted by this convention period because we will have “La storia per gioco” and “Dadi.com” in the following weeks, but I’m very involved with the rules writing.

I’m a comic reader before I could reader: I watched only images at that age. Another Romics edition in my city. A big business because from this year we will have a spring and an autumn edition. And this time the organisers thought to add more trains for the location, the same nowhere place among ex-swamps.

I understand why I came all the times to this kind of fairs. It is not only comics or sparse game stands, it is principally about girls. Here you can watch lots of young and very beautiful females in their best age. Half-naked females with imaginative dresses. Exhibitionism is the rule. It is called cosplay… Sometimes the situation is really embarrassing. Among girls that practically wears bikinis with some fabric variously added, one of them with one D size bra on put herself on all fours on a car to show better her boobs to a crowd of males.

As I always say, this is a place where to show your costume, and your corpse. Everyone take photos of everyone, it is an infinite play of images based on fantasy worlds better than crude and monotone reality. Mine was a really fast trip, I stayed only 5 hours inside the fair on the 4 days duration. So I didn’t take lots of photos. You can find more on Flickr.

This time among cosplayers I noted more male and female homosexuals than usual. Some famous drag queens played to this costume thing too.

More sex talking. This Japanese statuette impress me. Only 110 euro to have a sex slave on a bookshelf of yours.

Something more polite and childish. My partner in the trip while is buying a Spiderman nice puppet.

In the very old times you cannot find a Gundam model, they were a chimera. Now the usual wall of models, everyone with their price tag made by post-its.

Another fair view. Some gadgets around and the upper entry of one of the 3 pavilions used for Romics.

I have to show even some comics, otherwise you could think that there weren’t comics in a comic fair. Here my partner while is buying from the author a comic that I don’t like at all about a fat panda… Instead I bought a Belgian/French school comic about airplanes in the WWII. I have got a better style of life…

The next appointment for comics is in autumn here in Rome and a month after there will be the Lucca madness. Instead, wargaming speaking, the next appointment is Hellana, this Sunday. I will be present with Ferrum et Gloria.

Gundam anime started a new kind of Japan giant robots genre. I am a Gundam addict and I like a lot these mechas. I think that in Japan the Gundam modelling is not a hobby, it is a cult. As every year, an Italian vendor of the Gunplay circuit set out some displays with his Gundam models. It is like a army museum…

Zaku design is the perfect mecha design. These old style mobile suit are just classics.

MS-09R Rick Dom, the original concept of bulk Zeon mobile suits. The others born from here.

A winged model. Under all these things there is a Cyclops mobile suit

Later Zeon mobile suit with the German helmet style head. Great!

Variations. That one on the left is weird but tasty. The other one is a sniper.

Slimmer models are by Earth federation. This one has got huge fuel tanks.

Less fictional and more military mobile suits by Earth Federation.

A samurai Gundam. It come from Japan…

If you like Gundam you can think to go to Japan to have some coffee in the Gundam Café. Have you understand? Yeah, a place where you can sit and talk with friends, surrounded by the epic deeds of giants robots manned by soldiers. It is a bit far, but it is the Gundam Café!

The video shows a nice place, a little weird, but with an appeal on anime fans. If you look better, you can find that this place is not so nice, it is only a café with a LCD showing a Gundam video on rotation, a couple of glass cases with some plastic models out of the box, a cappuccino with a Haro sketch made of chocolate on the top (instead of the usual and more romantic heart), and some dishes with an uninviting appearance (toasted bread with oil and herbs and tomato sauce as side, and so on…) but with very little Gundam decorations. They could do something more. Viewing this longer videos you can better understand the topic.

A theme restaurant built on a license so strong, but weak on the realisation. I can save to myself the trip to Japan. The best customised thing is the loo, where you can have a private Gundam experience. Last note: the loo is Federation for men and Zeon for women. Look here.

Men (Federation)

Women (Zeon)

In change of a lot of visits to Ganesha Games fighting arena inside Sergio’s home, Andrea came in Rome the past Sunday to a playtest session about Samurai Robot Battle Royale. The last time we tried the rules adopting a Go Nagai perspective, using heroic robots with a lot of fantastic weapons. It was Mazinga Z (aka Mazinger Z, aka Majingā Zetto) versus evil robots. This time I wanted a more military feel, using Patlabor universe mechas. They haven’t weird weapons but only guns and rifles. It is a challenge to write rules that you can adapt to all kind of robot fighting. Maybe it was too early, because I wanted to put in the middle a giant monster (the number XIII, an experimental biologic weapon in the Patlabor anime) using Mighty Monsters rules, to test the compatibility between the two rulesets. Instead we try to adopt the military feel with Gundams and Zakus! I have a big collection of these little gashapons, so it was time to see them fighting in the name of Zeon (I dislike the Federation side…)! Some tweaks were made and all seem fine, but we are still in a initial development stage. But we are on the right way.

If you don’t know Gundam you can stop to read here. But if you like human manned giant anthropomorphic robots made in Japan you can understand me. I think that mecha design for Zeon side in Gundam series is the best. And Zaku is the best mecha ever. Well, there are other Zeon’s mechas and less primitive designs than those used in the first seminal anime, but the essential form of all mechas is a derivation from the Zaku features.

I like the modernisation of this mecha style, especially when they made them more huge and chunky, so I thought that the new proposal of ThreeA for a Zaku toy was a great thing. I’m a big fan of this toy maker and its robots created from Ashley Wood comics and paintings, but this time I’m perplexed. Zaku is a perfect design to me, instead the ThreeA version is really another thing. A bad thing. You can see here a preview about this toy. The worse part is the head, so small and without the monocle. Zaku is a Cyclops!!! Not my cup of tea…

It is Gundam, do you know? The giant white robot that fights against Zion…

A view on a wall of model kits, almost all from the Gundam world.

The Gundam world support earthquake victims in Japan.

Zaku II is the definitive mecha. Enough said.

More photos took in the New Kit Generation Community Lucca Contest 2011.

A space port.

A huge quantity of Gundam models were in the fair. There was even a special stand where you could see a lot of model in showcases. A paradise for a Gundam fan like me.

At the end, if you want there is even a real size Shia Aznable’s helmet. In Japan there are plans to build a real size Zaku II, so this helmet could be useful…

Another post on modelling. This time we are going to see some mecha.

Patlabor was a great anime (and comic) on mecha. They are showed as normal vehicles for everyday life. So the police utilise them for crimes perpetrated by mecha. You can read stories about police officers with special vehicles, with fun and clever moments. These models are among my favourites. Recently I bought some Patlabor gashapon to set a scenario for the upcoming game about giant robots from Ganesha Games… Samurai Robots Battle Royale!!!

Some models in the Groog competition showcase.

A view on some resin models by a very little Italian company, 3Evan.

I have almost bought this resin mecha for 45 euros at the end of the fair.

A model in the making. Some people were sculpting models and statuettes at this stand.

Another mecha maker, Luca Zampriolo. He is very influenced by the Kow Yokoyama’s Ma.K world, so he published an illustrated book with his works as they are part of a world. I bought the book, it is very intense. But his resin models are too much expensive for me.

A design inspired by Mechwarrior and similar kinds of mecha.

Here you can find the best of his design abilities. He reminds me of Kazuhisa Kondo and his work on Gundam world. Under this mecha there is a Zaku II, it’s clear. And a Zion sign is on the chest! It’s called Garbaldy and it is not the Galbaldy of Gundam world. 175 resin parts, 50 made.

One of his works in the NKGC competition in the Japan Palace. It is called Schnabelgun, and it seems as another Zion’s mecha gone bad, a MSN-04 Sazabi precisely! 80 resin parts and 30 copies only.
More on Gundam world on the following post!