SAFS Split Suit

The SAFS – Super Armored Fighting Mk1 suit first appeared in the December 1982 issue of Hobby Japan. The SAFS has been an icon of the SF3D/MaK genre ever since. The basic SAFS became the basis for numerous variations such as the Fireball, a space version, the Achillies , a combat engineer armor, and the more advanced SAFS MKIII Raptor.  I’ve always had a fondness for the basic SAFS and it was time to give this classic another build. I also decided to test myself by building this as a split suit version with a pilot suiting up.

The basic pose is based on a series of modified 1/35 Yellow Sub toy SAFS by an unknown Japanese modeler. He had a series of four individual SAFS progressing from open without pilot to pilot climbing in, pilot suiting up, and pilot enclosed. This series of models was later used as an underlay for a series of sketches shown in the MaK Encyclopedia  Vol. 1. I chose to model the particular moment the pilot is placing his arm into the armored sleeve. Weather this is ergonomically possible is still up for debate, but I prefer to think of the pilot’s arms in the suit arms and not bunched up inside the SAFS torso.

This particular build is based off parts from the spares bin, hence the Fireball shoulder, hip, and knee armor. The interior padding is based upon a combination of resources and doesn’t accurately copy any of them but is more of a representation of them all since most of the padding won’t be visible once the pilot is installed and the suit is semi closed.

The pilot is made from a mannequin of Tamiya 1/20 pit crew body parts with a head from the new SAFS. All clothing was sculpted with Duro Green Stuff Epoxy Putty. The figure was painted entirely with Vallejo acrylics. All of the gear is sculpted from epoxy putty and painted with Vallejo. The base is a cast block of plaster and painted with Tamiya and Vallejo. The supplies are from the Hasegawa Mercenary Figure Set and the spares bin. I used a combination of oil based washes and filters and straight artist’s oils for the weathering. MIG Productions pigments were used to dust up the suit once it was attached to the base.

The build diary can be found here: SAFS Open Suit