The strategic battle suit IV series continue here in their red and black world. This is HAVOC-DISSECTION IV, unit for missions with more heavy-set objectives. It is equipped with an ion-axe for havoc and a neon knife for dissections; it's a large knife.
This MOC is around three months old. The hair is also bit different in some photos. The weather was not on my side. (I photograph outdoors. We have a garden. The garden is nice.) First is was very cold, and cold means the joints (brick joints, not mine) don't work properly and limbs fall of rather than bend, so posing is frustrating. On the next two sessions my perish was the wind, which made HD-IV fall of the set-up and get wrecked. On second time one of those balloon panels lost their clip used for the connection with the sausage, and as I don't have a spare, I just redesigned the connection with some plate modifieds. I wonder if people not reading this even notice the difference; some of the earlier photos were good so I'm posting them anyway. I ended up having lot of shots as the weather was quite good during the final shoot; there are some indirect sunlight in some of them, creating dramatic effects. The new hair connection is better, as the sausage one was rather luck-based and fell off a lot. Otherwise this is a surprisingly sturdy creation - I have actually got a bit better on that subject. The feet are just quite small, so the centre of gravity leaves it easily in even slight breeze. But here we are now.
And the MOC? It began with the legs, as things like this usually do. They're quite simple ones, and feature more TECHNIC than the previous ones. I wanted to use those Glatorian ankle guards. They're cool parts, one of my favourite Bionicle parts. They have good shape and useful, mundane connection points; something can be actually built inside them without any interfering pegs or axles (like on those Nuva shoulders). I've used them as dragon's scales, for example. Here they are knee armours, which is sort of inverted original use. I also like how the boat stud joints under them work with the 2x2 dished underneath; similar but not identical shapes. Red handlebar pieces make me happy too. The feet, with their signature raven wings (I've restocked), feature a compromise design due to lack of red 1x2 curved slopes alias the baby bows. At least the spikes make sense on this more aggressive variation.
The skirt was more challenging and too many tries. I think the roof triangle slopes (excellent old pieces) were there quite early on, but the first composition was different. The front was open, and there wasn't any red; they were just some black panels. It didn't work; it lacked the feel. I made couple of those red-rimmed isosceles triangles and connected them to 90 degrees with five fantastic tube pieces. The triangles are nicely graphical; they have sort of retro-futuristic look on them. The tubes are more modern, and give a feeling of stretching leather or some synthetic material connecting the armour plates. I feared they would be impossible to get on the right angle, but new-ish cool "plate, modified 1x1 rounded with handle" saved the day. Such a versatile piece; The same is used on the new hair connection. Front panel consisting of dinosaur tail pieces finishes the skirt; it remind of the tube pieces on the sides by pattern and looks a bit like a tied loincloth. The is quite wide and has obviously feminine feel on it while still leaving plenty of room for movement of the legs.
The torso lower torso uses same wedge slope parts than the two previous creations of this series. The sides are red to continue the colour stripe of those tubes on the skirt sides. The chest armour is quite lot like the first version used here; it had sort of wings that went over the shoulders, but they were bound to be removed to leave more space for the hair. The armour uses the tube pieces again, and has similar look than SOAR-SWIFT IV's. This is bulkier though, and covers more space. It again reflects the battle-ready nature of the character and matches the wider skirt design.
The arms are further developed from the previous model. They're nicely sturdy, a new thing for me; arms of RADIANT-EXERT IV and, for example, Do-it-yourself-Seraph, were hell to pose with. I'm also very much like the little emblems on the upper arms, made of couple of modern plume pieces. I'm sure I'll use that detail in the future. However, some compromises due to lack of aforementioned red baby bows (and boat studs, too) are done here. The arms are asymmetrical, which is not a bad thing per se; I though the left right arm would be "battle arm", as it has a bulky armour and a trans-pink Clickits bit to control the energy flow (right?). The fingers were those Exo-Force originating robot arms at first, but their bulkiness and length fought with the overall elegance, and fingerless gloves were utilized in it, too. I hope those skeleton arms would be available in other colours than tan and white more widely; the black ones are such rare and expensive, and there isn't any good substitutes. Bar holder with clip just doesn't do, even if the hole in the end is ignored, it looks too short and stubby. The right arm is similar to previous model of the series, except for the 1x3 curved slope, which features a sticker; no idea where it from, but it fits the attitude of the character, as a little personal tweak on the suit. There will be more of that in the future.
The idea of using the balloon panel pieces as the hair was there from the beginning. I have four of them, not enough for a balloon, but enough for a wild wide hairdo. Dark orange is such a beautiful colour, too. I though it would be really hard to make the rest of the hair work with this rather limited colour, but it turned out very good; the basic structure is similar to SOAR-SWIFT with those angles side bangs. I wanted to have a some sort of visor; it was two angled baby bows at first, but I ended up using one of those car spoiler parts for a unique shape. There's also high-tech earphones and some antennae for communication.
Then there are the tool of trade, i.e. large, axe-like polearm with ion-thin blade and the neon knife. I said I began with the legs but honestly I think it was the axe. I made some lecture sketches of it and made a version of the blade near after moving here in November; the first version was more pickaxe-like but I tweaked it so that the blades form two squares. The two holes connect to the holster in the back that can also hold the knife, made of a Belville door. Unlike the shield of RADIANT-EXERT IV unit this one doesn't include glitter. Similar swords were used on General Killjoy in 2014 but this one features sturdier connections, using old thinner type of 1x1 plate modified with ring, which is of same width than the door.
-Eero.
