Dunbine Mecha Thread

[Calubin_175]

I was thinking of buying a book for Dunbine, but didn't know which one to get if I want the best mecha info available.

What really baffled me the most was the carrying capacity of the 4 major Aura Battleships. It appears that they can hold their entire faction's mobile units while being escorted by a great number of Aura Ships.

It appeared that each ship was about 700m long, with each Aura Battler being approximately 8m tall. In the major battles, the deployment scenes seemed to suggest approximately 50+ units per wave, which is almost the 100 MS count of the Delaz Fleet and The Sleeves. Perhaps the conflict in Dunbine was about the same scale as that of Zeta Gundam, approximately 500 MS per side.

What I liked about Dunbine mechs is that there weren't too many unique prototypes. Only the Billbine was a one-off machine and the Dunbine a prototype. Even higher tier machines such as the Leprechaun and Vierres, which started off as prototypes piloted by a major character, were eventually mass produced and mixed in with the grunts in small numbers. Same applied to the state of the art Zwarth and Wryneck, the latter which was intended to fill in the low role in the high-low mix of the two, hence was seen more often than the former. I could say out of the antagonist mechs, only the Bastole remained a prototype and assumed that the few seen in the later arc were also treated as such. There is also the notion of upgrading existing designs instead of being replaced by a totally different design. The Drumlo got upgraded and even in the Playstation game, it had a proper successor machine rather than the Virunvee.

Eventually the development of Aura Battlers stagnated with the Zwarth and Wryneck as the designers turned to large scale Aura Bombers/Fighters for higher fire power and speed. Though they're called as such, they perform more like a high speed Mobile Armor from First Gundam and being at least 22m long, they do dwarf regular Aura Battlers.

Another type of weapon would be the Wing Caliburs, a support aerial craft made for Aura Battlers similar to the SFS Dodai Ys from First Gundam. I liked the fact that since Aura Battlers can fly already, the wing caliburs only serve to heighten their flight speed or to carry a damaged machine. This is certainly different from UC where if an MS loses their SFS, they would completely lose their flight ability. I much prefer the way how the GunEZ used their SFS, which was only for long distance flight. Additionally, wing caliburs can hold their own in battle provided it has a pilot, unlike most Gundam SFS even when they're manned.

At the beginning of Dunbine and even towards the middle, mixed arms tactics was common, so the battles weren't just limited to the humanoid Aura Battlers, but also the aircraft Aura Boms. I also learnt that Aura Battler were orignally designed to fight wild beasts before the war between humans escalated.

Zeta Gundam's mass produced machines paralleled some of in Dunbine, with the Hizack being the Drumlo and the Marasai/Barzam being the Virunvee. As Dunbine had three prototype units, the Gundam Mk-II also had the same number.

[balofo]

There's a recent Sunrise Artworks Dunbine mook that contains all mech lineart uncleaned.

[Calubin_175]

I've got that one on order already for the purpose of visuals. I am not sure whether Entertainment Bible or Dengeki Data Collection would be good for proper mecha info.

I also have Izubuchi's Aura Phantasm on order.

[balofo]

Well, there's also the HG manuals if you can find legible scans for them. There are some here http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/list/689/0/1

[doghunter1]

Zeta Gundam's mass produced machines paralleled some of in Dunbine, with the Hizack being the Drumlo and the Marasai/Barzam being the Virunvee. As Dunbine had three prototype units, the Gundam Mk-II also had the same number.

Don't forget the Newtype Powers. Hi there giant beam sabre.