Quentin Tarantino.

One of favourite directors, screenwriters etc. of all time...Tarantino movies are unique. I just loves the dialogues, the chemistry and the interplay of the scenes, brutal but peppered with dark humours. His movies borders on personally much hated "torture porn" genre but generally not to that extreme, as Tarantino's works are more slanted towards the spagetti western, grindhouse, 70s blaxploitation and Hong Kong's Shaw Brothers and 80s kung fu plus gangster type genres. He also has a knack for engaging, for the lack of better words, actors and actresses whom are used to popular but have fallen out of newer audiences mind. From Reservoir Dogs (the Mexican showdown is taken from Ringo Lam's City on Fire) to Kill Bill Vol. 1 and 2, and the recent, though not as on par as his previous releases, Inglorious Basterds. Tarantino's works transport us to a world of violence and un-relentless energy of which I laugh and snigger at things and actions which I am not suppose to. And that's what makes Tarantino special.  

ThreeA x BBiCN ~ WWR : Punter Bot Sniper.

 

 "Certainly there is no hunting like the hunting of man, and those who have hunted armed men long enough and like it, never really care for anything else thereafter." ~ Ernest Hemmingway.

One shot. One kill.

A (mis) interpretation :

Name : Richard "Ricky" Boateng.

Alias : The Ghost.

Age : 28 years old.

Affiliation : The White Dingo Team, 10th WF "Jungler" Infantry Division; III Corps; Second Army; Oceania Southern Expeditionary Army; Terra Coalition Armed Forces.

Rank : Chief Scout Sergeant.

Std. Armaments : "Exitus" 12.7 x 99mm sniper rifle x 1; "Exitus" .45 auto-revolver x 1; Ghillie suit x 1; Cybernetic implant telescopic sight x 2, cardio rate synchroniser x 1, enhanced hearing x 2.

A month after the One Week War, 1939. The Terra governments were caught off guard by the blitzkrieg tactics by the Ecclesiarchy of Mars army. Orbital defence satellites are shot down, which follows lightning quick descent upon Terra with supporting fire powers from thousands of Martian battle cruisers and heavy destroyers, bombarding the orbital defence networks, as well as taking out strategically important military and communication sites. Hardly recovering from the shock of the space colony drop upon the Kowloon district of Sino City Two, Eastasia and Perth district, Western Aus Republic of Oceania, majority of the Eastasia and Oceania Protectorate sub-sectors are occupied within the next three months by the Martians.

Besieged and surviving Terra Planetary Defence Force retreat within the thick and dense jungles of Indochina and surrounding Australasian Islands. But the Martians, utilising the bi-pedal Bertie and Dropcloth warbots infantry divisions, gain tactical  advantage over the Terrans, whom are still deploying out of commission BOB and existing Harold series, of which are unsuitable for jungle terrain, lacking mobility and speed to effectively confront the fast moving divisions of the Martian warbots. 

The Council of the High Lords did not rest on their laurels, and striking a deal with the Rothchild Corporation, as well as pooling their global military resources together to launch a total war against the Ecclesiarchy of Mars armies, the Terra Coalition Armed Forces, bolstered by the warbots supply by the same mega corporation which equally provide the same war machines to the Martians through its numerous subsidiaries, begin to initiate a series of continuous defence and counter-strategies to regain back lost sectors.

While majority of the human soldiers, although great in numbers, are considered expendables and worst, such as in the Northern Afrikan and Western Front, where they are nothing but "meat shields" for the warbots, elite groups comprising humans do exist.

One of these are the establishment and commissioning of  the warbot sniper groups. They comprise of specialist infantry soldiers trained and equipped with sniper rifles or other long-range, high-precision firearms. They often work alone or in small teams from concealed locations. As well as training in the use of sniper rifles, the most effective snipers are also trained and adept in camouflage and infiltration. The battlefield role of dedicated snipers is assassination of warbots as well as enemy commanders and other high-profile individuals. They have been proven to being an effective way to demoralise and frustrating enemy troops, not to mention damaging their command structure to a certain degree. Snipers, whether as a small group or even a lone sniper can hold back the advance of an entire enemy force many times their number, pinning them in cover. Snipers are cybernetically implanted within their eyes with powerful bio-mechanical telescopic sights that allows the wielder to fire at an enemy weak points and distant foes with extreme accuracy. The cybernetic sight also enable them to scan on a wide spectrum to pick out heat and energy sources over long distances. Their cybernetically enhanced sense of hearing enable them to monitor the enemy's communication channels, and comes equipped with concentrated food and water cartridges for extended operations. Snipers are also equipped with the ghillie suit known as Camo Cloaks, which enable them to imitate almost any terrain. A Camo-cloak are hooded cloaks composed of a mesh backing woven with thousands of ribbons of colour shifting and light-absorbing material, weaved for its durability and ability to help hide the wearer. The Camo Cloak is coated with an absorbent material called Cameoline which takes on the colouration of the surroundings giving the wearer a great deal of individual concealment and when used by elite stealth experts such as Chief Scout Sergeant Ricky "The Ghost" Boateng can give the wearer near perfect concealment. On the battlefield, snipers take up their positions hours, or even days before a battle commences. This gives them time to both find a spot with the best concealment, lanes of fire, and to survey the battlefield's surroundings. Concentrated sniper fire can throw enemy units into confusion, as they begin to take casualties without knowing where the fire is coming from. Relying on stealth rather than brute force, snipers slip behind enemy lines, gather intelligence, destroy strategic targets, and capture or assassinate key enemy commanders, then fade away before the enemy has had a chance to react.
They are armed with long-range and high-precision firearm of  known as sniper rifles, mainly used for assassination of warbot such as Dropcloth and Bertie. Sniper rifles are specially coated, rendering it invisible to most sensors and scanners. It is flashless and equips with noise suppressor, allowing the weapon to be used without giving away the sniper's position. The sniper rifle is also equip with its own telescopic sight, which serves to re-inforce the cybernetic sight of the sniper, allowing them un-precedented pin-point accuracy and greater distances when zooming in onto an enemy target.

The White Dingo Team, lead by Chief Scout Sergeant Ricky "The Ghost" Boateng is the ultra-specialists in both covert operations and jungle/forest warfare. They are noted for its stealth and reconnaissance abilities being almost uncanny in nature. The White Dingo Team have been known to wait in a position for as long as two weeks before taking a shot. Their intense training enables them to pick out a single target even amongst roving hordes of enemies on the battlefield.  They are masters of the art of patience and the perfection of marksmanship. These stoic snipers are conditioned and being trained to the point that they limit their vocabulary only to words that are useful for their profession, cutting off all emotional attachments to other humans so that they will never hesitate to eliminate any target. This makes other troops to view them with great fear, hesitancy and occasional hatred for they perceive the White Dingo as lacking humanistic values.

They utilise an advance form of sniper rifle known as the Exitus Rifle with a much longer barrel for increased range and accuracy. However the barrel makes an Exitus Rifle up to twice as long as a standard sniper rifle and thus difficult to use in close quarters. As such, each members of the White Dingo Team is also issued with an Exitus autorevolver. Each Exitus Rifle and corresponding Exitus autorevolver is customised to the specifications of each members of the team and is capable of firing over tremendous distances with incredible accuracy thanks to an advanced cybernetically implant telescopic sight and cardio rate synchroniser. Utilising specialised explosive tipped ammunition constructed from heavy-gravity alloys, the Exitus Rifle is capable of penetrating nearly all forms of known warbots and vehicles armour. These high-powered customized sniper rifles are feared by the Martians for its ability to take down even the most heavily armoured infantry with a single shot as well as taking the head off an enemy warbot with one well-placed shot. With its long barrel, integral recoil compensator, and under-barrel bipod, the Exitus is an incredibly accurate and well-balanced weapon. It is also comparatively light, considering its extra long length and size. The Exitus Riffle is made from an alloy known as plasteel.

The barrel requires replacement every 20-50 shots depending on the power setting and cool-down time. For this reason, the Exitus is outfitted with a "slide-lock" barrel, which is easily locked and unlocked from the weapon's housing.

The White Dingo Team is the most famous (infamous to the enemy) Terran sniper group and is primarily feared in the jungles warfare of the Pacific Rim battle theatres sub-sectors. Their leader, Richard "Ricky" Boateng aka "The Ghost", currently holds the longest recorded sniper kills at 3,500m and confirmed kills of 205 warbots and 30 Martian deacons.  

The success of the White Dingo Team eventually comes to the attention of Cardinal Lord Hannibal Rex, who oversees the Martian military operation on the entire Pan-Pacific Sector. A massive bounty is placed upon the entire White Dingo Team, as well as dispatching a team of the Ecclesiarchy own elite, group of assassins, the Death Cultists from the Officio Assassinorum. The Death Cultists are known for their sadistic taste in torturing their targets before despatching them.

After numerous attempts, the Death Cultists finally tracks down the White Dingo at the Solomon Islands sub-sector where only Boateng survives after delivering a shot directly through the leader of the Death Cultists assassin still remains, known only as the Apache, own rifle scope, hitting him in the eye, killing him.

In the end, it is technological progression, the increasing usage of machines over humans and methods of counter-sniper that slowly reduces the number of sniper groups. Some are totally de-commissioned.  Eventually Boateng is honourably discharged. With a new identity, his current whereabouts is known only to his superiors who fears that an individual with such formidable sniping skills, he may be recruited by rogue factions. Worse, some whispers that Boateng is already dead, intentionally executed for the same reason mentioned.   

Chloe & Dylan ~ Self Assemble Dinosaurs.

Esther got this book which comes with cut outs to make three cute lookin dinos for the kids. Chloe and Dylan was kinda agit when Esther got them involved in the process at first but when it comes to gluing it all together, she took over, much to the chagrin of the two precious.

ThreeA ~ WWR : African Def Freiheit Heavy Bramble Mk 2.5

Ritterlich im Kriege, wachsam für den Frieden.

A (mis) interpretation:

Category type : Warbot.
Unit type : Mass production heavy support warbot.

Model type : Heavy Bramble MK2.5.

Manufacturer : The Rothchild Corporation.

Affiliation : 9th "Freiheit" Heavy Panzer Division; Afrika Korps; Panzergruppe Afrika; The United Kingdom of Afrika Armeegruppe, Terra Coalition Armed Forces.

Height : 7 feet.

Weight : 3500kg.

Armour type : Super hardened ceramic steel composite alloy.

Armour thickness : 150mm; Plates 130mm.

Powerplant : Quad turbo BRINK supercharger diesel engine.

Std. armaments : Tiger Sauer - AUNTY JACK rocket launcher x 1; Multi-spectrum scanners; Long range sensorium; Target acquisition system; Task Intelligence (T.I.) ver. 2; Heat-dissipating radiator backpack.

The Heavy Bramble Mk 2.5 (occasionally also referred to as a Mk 3), warbots come into prominence during the Seige of Tobruk, 1941, in the Libyan sector, United Kingdom of Afrika by the Ecclesiarchy of Mars forces as part of their North Afrika Campaign two months after the launching of Operation True Faith, securing considerably large sectors of Eurasia and Eastasia in the first year of the Great War or the Great Crusade as the Ecclesiarchy of Mars calls it.

The United Kingdom of Afrika anticipates the Martian forces to concentrate on the battles in Eurasia and protectorate borders of the Republic of Middle East. It is also lulled into a false sense of security by the Amon Line, a line of impenetrable walls which separates both nations, and stretches from Mauritania to North Sudan sectors. It is heavily fortified with a wide range of defensive measures to deter invaders. The Amon Line is built during and after the end of the Ten Years War against the Republic of Middle East. The High Lord of the United Kingdom of Afrika, the Führer Idi Amon, takes great pride in the fortification, equating it to the impenetrable walls of ancient Troy, making the Eastasia's Great Wall and Eurasia's Iron Curtain pale in comparison. It takes a considerable sizable amount of the nation's military budget to complete it, thus holding back the nation from further modernising its military forces.

The Ecclesiarchy of Mars sees the strategic importance in securing Northern Afrika sectors, and if were to be successful, the major bulk of its armies would eventually link up with those fighting on the Western Front. They would have be able to establish a defensive perimeter and the supply line drastically shortened across Eurasia, and move on against Oceania primary industrial sites and hive cities. If Oceania were to fall, the Reds Army would be able to set a defensive perimeter across Eurasia.

As the armies of the Republic of Middle East stubbornly holds on, as well as the Eurasian campaign on-going, Ecclesiarch Boniface impatiently orders immediate attack and invasion upon North Afrika. Idi Amon, comfort in his palace within the capital Eko Lagos City, is confident, and held back any deployments to re-inforce the beleaguered Egypt Sector of the Republic of Middle East. Bulk of the armies would be assigned to manning the Amon Line instead. Many of the Afrika divisions lack necessary equipment and cohesion, although battle hardened veterans from the Ten Year Wars are accounted amongst them. Majority of the warbots employed are out dated siege artillery BOB and the reliability plagued tactical support Harold FS.

The Ecclesiarch of Mars read the situation well, and ensures his armoured divisions are well out of the Amon Line guns and cannons range. At the same time, these ground forces move around the line as the fortress wall is not continuous. Carriers from the captured Site 2 colony, begin to launch drop pods carrying thirty divisions of warbots and infantry forces onto the border of Libyan sub-sectors. Within three days, Idi Amon forces are surrounded and annihilated. The Terra Coalition Armed Forces then mobilises a defence army  to defend what left of the sub-sectors, comprising mostly of Oceania Expeditionary Force, supported by several garrisons from Europa and Republic of Middle East as majority of their forces are being tied down on the Eastern Front.
Faced with a potential total invasion of his nation, Amon put aside any past differences and mobilises a total war across United Kingdom of Afrika. Every one, from a fifteen year old teenager to an eighty year old grandmother, are recruited. Self-appointing himself as the Supreme Commander of the nation Armeegruppe, he re-establishes the Panzergruppe Afrika, which was severely depleted after a series of political blood purges, with the Afrika Korps spearheading the liberation of Tobruk . He also secure a series of warbots from the Rothchild Corporation, under a series of complex bonds and financial loan schemes, and immediately deploy them to the defence and liberation of the northern sector.

An upgraded version of the current Bramble series warbots are deployed to liberate first Benghazi, and then Tobruk, of which the besieged Oceania force has stubbornly held for eight months under the legendary field commander, Morshead with just two armoured and five mechanised infantry divisions from the Aus Republic II Corps , comprising Bertie MK1 and Harold FS. The garrison of Oceania and Middle Eastern infantry armies also fights bitterly to hold the fort. The Martians deride them, calling them "the poor heretic desert rats of Tobruk" through their religious propaganda broadcast. With their typically dry wit, the Australasians reclaimed the name as a badge of pride, even going so far as to strike their own unofficial medal bearing the likeness of a rat.
Their fierce defence, particularly that of the Aus Republic 7th "Battleaxe" Armoured Division, tithers on the brink of collapse when re-enforcement comes from the Afrika Korps. The first to arrive is the 9th Panzer Division comprising entirely of the Heavy Brambles MK2.5. Aptly named the "Freiheit" Division, the warbots give a much needed relieve to the besieged forces.

Idi Amon does not waste time to fuel the political propaganda, hailing the failure of the Martians' Siege of Tobruk as a sign that the Afrika Korps would not give up and gives all the credit to his Panzergruppe Afrika, calling them liberators. The truth is, without Morshead and his forces resiliency to hold on to Tobruk at all cost, the entire sub-sector would have had lost to the Martians. The Northern Africa Campaign would continue however, until the defeat of the Martian forces at the pivotal Battle of Moskva-Petrograd in Eurasia a year later. 

Designated as the Heavy Bramble MK2.5, but occasionally also referred to as MK3, the Heavy Bramble is very much the same as the standard Bramble MK2 with several upgrades. The MK2.5 have thicker armour, greater mobility due to an improved twin BRINK turbocharged engine as well as upgraded T.I. system and sensoriums. Their arms and fists are desinged larger in order to carry the massive AUNTY JACK four barrelled rocket launcher. They are programmed to specialise in the area of siege warfare but eventually proves to be one of the most versatile warbot deployed for its time. The Martian Bertie MK1 proves no match for the new Heavy Bramble series warbot.

The Heavy Bramble MK2.5 is standard issued with the formidable AUNTY JACK four barrelled shoulder held rocket launcher. Heavy Bramble warbot is also known to resort to hand to hand combat if no weaponry available or exhausted, using its massive hands to punch, crush or tear its targets apart. In the battle field, they are usually supported by a platoon of Square field intel and surveillence mobile platforms. The Afrika Defense model is also equiped with heat-dissipating radiator backpack to adapt to the desert climate of the battle theatre. The Heavy Bramble foregoes the Bramble MK2 standard issued GUSTAV 50mm assault-cannon but is known to use it or any other forms of weaponries lying about in the battle fields.

The AUNTY JACK carries incendiary rockets. Each rocket is equipped with the melta warhead, a heat-based weapons which work by sub-atomic agitation of the air. Targets on the receiving end are heated to the point of being vaporised. Upon impact, the melta warhead would release highly pressurised pyrum-petrol gases with a two part injection system which forces the gases into a molecular state, which will vaporise just about anything in seconds. An armoured enemy target would be reduced to molten slag. The incendiary rockets can also be replaced with high explosive anti-armour warhead.

The weapon is meant to be fired from the right shoulder, and can be fired from either a standing, crouching, or prone position. It has a trigger mode to facilitate firing all four rockets at once, not just one at a time. After firing, it can be reloaded with a clip housing four rockets. It can be used against both air or ground targets. Many Martian drop pods re-inforcement are shot down enroute to the space harbour of Tobruk.

The rockets itself are unique in that they are guided weapons with an on-board artificial intelligence, known as a "logis-engine."  Sensors in the missile's nose transmits information on the target and surrounding environment to the logis-engine, which guides the missile in flight by manipulating its stabilising fins, allowing the missile to match the target's movements and avoid obstacles.  The missile's warhead is an impact fused shaped charge, designed for maximum armour penetration. Other instruments include an internal gyroscope for stable flight and a small battery to power the sensor and logis-engine. These "hunter-killer" rockets technology would eventually be developed further, serving as precursor and basic template for the development of the evolutionary SMRTGUN assault rifle issued to the Caesar series warbots.

The successful contributing factor by the Heavy Bramble MK2.5 in the siege and liberation of Tobruk leads to its widespread popularity, and months later, all Seven Nations would adopt it into their various army groups to battle against the Martian forces. It should also be noted that rogue and terrorist factions have also secured and converted their own groups of Heavy Brambles. The Ecclesiarchy of Mars twin rings of defence around Phobos and Deimos are largely protected by legions of the Frateris Militia's own Heavy Brambles.

...............................................................................................................................

I would have love to get the NW N.O.M. version colourway instead or a J.E.A. but opportunity to actually see the size of the box changes my mind. Local custom would have bled me to death as well as the asking price and availability of those colourways in the secondary market. So I bite the bullet and got meself this version instead locally from a nearby toy shop calls Robotica Toys for a reasonable, within budget price, thus also saving shipping costs. The Heavy Bramble stands at about 14 inches tall, but the shortfall in height, say, compare to a Caesar, Zaku, Arnstrong or even the elusive Large Martin or Bertie Mk3, it makes up for it in its sheer mass. Just like Mongrol. It gives you a perception of BIG. It is wide with huge arms. But here lies the problem of the design - the skinny legs and top heavy body. It comes with a biggest weaponry I have ever got as a casual toy collector, a massive four tubes rocket launcher made of pure, solid vinyl. And its heavy. It took me nearly an hour just to ensure the bot doesn't topple over, which it did several times, to the point where its right skinny leg popped off, but luckily being made of vinyl, can easily put back on. But over time, the more I pose it, the joints got more floppy and floppy. Finally I got it right. Also, watch out for the flaps at the back of the launcher. All it takes is one mistake and a fall, and off it comes out, as per warned in little note which comes with the set. I managed to glue it back nicely though. This colourway, a retailer exclusive, must have been not so popular amongst the fans as it must have been in the box for a while since most of the weathering has started to fade abit and I notice some of the weatherings are still abit wet amongst the crevices. I air it for a while, but lacking real estate to display it, I placed it back into the box once more. Time to get space for these warbots. Not to mention there's the Tumbler and Batpod on it's way...