[Review] 30MM AC6 Schneider Nachtreiher/40E Steel Haze

30MM Armored Core VI Steel Haze Review

Kit info

• Name : 30MM Armored Core VI Fires of Rubicon Schineider Nachtreiher/40E Steel Haze / V.IV Rusty
• Brand : Bandai Spirits
• Original Price : 3,850 JPY
  
• Release Date : 2024/09
• Link : scalemates, download instructions [.pdf, 14MB]

Story

STEEL HAZE is a blue, dark blue and grey lightweight bipedal Schneider NACHTREIHER AC. It wields both outdated BAWS guns and advanced VCPL energy weapons, with a burst pistol and a laser slicer on its arm units, and a plasma missile launcher and a RANSETSU rifle stored via Weapon Bay on its back for use in a double trigger build. Its build is based upon building ACS strain via steady pressure from both kinetic and plasma damage in order to employ its laser slicer to deal excellent damage.

Rusty is confident a JUGGERNAUT cannot keep up with its speed, and it is powerful enough to destroy a combined platoon of 55 BAWS MTs and the AC LIGER TAIL.

[Source : Armored Core Wiki]

What's in the box (sprues and other parts)

A1 (x2) : New tool sprue for Steel Haze [Multicolored]
Contains parts for symmetrical limb parts.

B1 : New tool sprue for Steel Haze [Dark Gray]

B2 : New tool sprue for Steel Haze [Navy]

C : New tool sprue for Steel Haze [Brown]

D : New tool sprue for Steel Haze [Brown]

OA : New tool sprue for Steel Haze [Gray]
Contains parts for MA-J-200 RANSETSU-RF burst rifle.

OB1 : New tool sprue for Steel Haze [Gray]
Contains parts for deployed state of Vvc-774LS laser slicer and Vvc-703PM plasma missile launcher.

OB2 : New tool sprue for Steel Haze [Gray]
Contains parts for MA-E-211 SAMPU burst handgun and collapsed state of the laser slicer.

OC : New tool sprue for Steel Haze [Clear blue]
Contains parts for blade parts for the laser slicer.

Detailed Parts & Build (Main unit)

Head unit (Nachtreiher/44E)

The head unit is composed of four parts and is somewhat simpler in construction than the Nightfall. Additionally, it is somewhat smaller in size.

Core unit (Nachtreiher/40E)

Core unit has massive parts count of 23. It has remarkable detail and color separation out of the box but if you panel line or even paint it, it'll look much better I presume.

Arm unit (Nachtreiher/46E)

Each arm has whopping 22 parts. There are also optional back of the hand part with 3mm holes in it. (Not pictured here)

Like Nightfall, the arms don't use any C-joints except the shoulder armor. So it's stability is excellent.

In fact, joint on the shoulder was too firm I've ruined on of my shoulder joints posing the mech while taking pictures for this review. The affected part is pictured in the upper center (brown parts). Specifically, part A-10. If you feel that the shoulder joint is too stiff, I recommend slightly sanding and widening the hole of part A-15.

The surprising thing is - as you can see here with shape of the part A-12 - that the wrists have NO articulation. It doesn't even rotate on it's axis.

Legs unit (Nachtreiher/42E)

Waist/hip part is somewhat simple in construction but not lacking in detail.

Unlike Nightfall, (which used 3mm hole on the legs, and 3mm pegs on the hip) hip joint uses hole on the hip, and ball pegs on legs. So you can't swap out only the legs with Nightfall or other 30ML series kits.

Each leg is composed of 23 parts. (I forgot one part here, the part for the calf.)

Legs have three joints, one at the hip, one at the "knee", and another (well actually it has two joints for articulation, but let's say it is a set of joints) for the spikey part jutting behind the hip. According to armored core canon, one more joint is present (right below the knee, these would technically be ankle joints if you consider these legs are like those animals with digitigrade locomotion.) but it is non-functional in this kit.

I got the picture of the calf part I forgot later.

Booster unit (ALULA/21E)

Boosters have simple construction of two parts per each side.

They fit into 3mm holes in the back of the core unit.

Steel Haze with all the parts assembled.

Detailed Parts & Build (Accessories)

MA-E-211 SAMPU (Burst pistol, right hand)

The weapon's default position is the right hand but you can of course use the left hand or even use left back mount to store it on the back.

Vvc-774LS (Laser slicer, left hand)

4 parts make up two sub section of the weapon. The collapsed blade itself and it's mounting hardware.

The mounting is done with 3mm pegs into holes in left arm's wrist. You'll have to swap out back of the hand with the part with a corresponding hole in it. 

(You can also use the back of the hand part on the right hand but right wrist doesn't have 3mm hole, so it'll be quite a shallow mounting point, making it impractical unless you drill a hole in the wrist.)

The collapsed form of the slicer can also be mounted on the right back mount.

Deployed form of the slicer has two clear parts for the laser blade part and 6 frame parts.

Mounting hardware is shared with collapsed form.

Vvc-703PM (Plasma missile launcher, left back)

The launcher itself has 5 parts and an additional joint part is also used.

Back mount uses a frame part. (Part OA-6)

The weapon mounted on the left back. The kit doesn't give you corresponding frame part for the left side so you can't mount it on the left side. But if you have another mech with right mounting frame part, you can flip out the joint part OA-7 and change the orientation of the mounting point.

MA-J-200 RANSETSU-RF (Burst rifle, left back)

Burst rifle itself is made of 6 parts and you need 4 parts for the mounting point for the weapon. 

Well I mounted the weapon upside down in this picture. You can also store the burst pistol or the collapsed laser slicer instead.

You can obviously let the mech hold the rifle on the either left or right hand.

Articulation

The arms have somewhat better articulation on its elbow joints than the Nightfall. It can extend fully straight to 180 degrees and bend to about 70 degrees. (Nightfall's arms could only extend to about 135 degrees.) 

The upper arms can rotate on their axes at the joints with the shoulder parts so you can point the hand somewhat freely.

The wrists don't have articulation. Not even rotation on their axes.

Thanks to it's slimmer profile, the arm can lift all the way up to 90 degrees to the side in the shoulder joint. 

The Steel Haze has digitigrade style legs and it's knee has somewhat limited articulation. They can extend to up to about 90 degrees and collapse almost fully. It's ankle joints are not articulated. (Note that by ankle joints on the digitigrade legs I mean those right below the knees not where toes meet the long feet.)

Toes of the legs can move somewhat limited range front to back. They can also swivel from side to side somewhat. 

These would be feet if the kit has plantigrade locomotion but in this case those are actually toes. There are sole-like structures on the back, but they are serving a purely mechanical function rather than mimicking any specific animal anatomy.

Compatibility between 30MM AC6 kits.

Well the kit still retains general compatibility with 30ML series discussed in my Nightfall review. There are some caveats though.

It uses different connection between the legs and the "waist" part. Nightfall uses pegs on the waist and holes in the legs so you can fit most 30ML legs onto the waist part. But Steel Haze uses sockets on the waist and ball joints on the legs. So you'll need some sort of adapter to use 30ML legs on the waist.

The head is very small and the core part has very small room for the head as a result. Most 30MM heads will fit just fine but most 30MS heads will have problem because hair parts will interfere with the core unit. 

For more detailed review of compatibility between AC6 kits and other 30ML kits refer to my Nightfall review.

There are only two 30MM AC6 kits released so I'll mainly compare between those two. Two kits are very similar in height although I'd say Nightfall has somewhat more bulk.

You can easily exchange body parts between both kits. (Remember, traditional "waist" and "legs" parts are considered one unified frame unit in AC universe so you swap out whole lower part rather then only the legs.) As customization of the mechs are core element of the AC series gameplay I'd guess this compatibility will be maintained even with future releases.

Weapons are also exchangeable between AC6 units with minor caveats. For example, the Nightfall's pile driver has some additional parts (mainly hydraulic pipes) integrated into Nightfall's left arm, so while you can swap out the weapons itself, those support part will remain on the original mech.

Image Gallery

"Standard" form according to the manual.

Laser slicer is quite massive when deployed. Too bad the blade part doesn't react to UV lights. (Yes, I've tried it.)

Here you can see the Steel Haze reaching for its burst rifle on its back.

The mech can still hold the rifle with on its left hand while the slicer is still attached to the wrist.

Conclusion

This is Bandai's second release of 30MM Armored Core VI kit (well technically two kits came out simultaneously but I reviewed it later so...) and having built two kits put things more into perspective. 

I lamented somewhat lacking compatibility with pre-existing 30ML kits in the Nightfall's review but after trying some rudimentary customization (meaning I swapped some parts around) with two AC6 kits, the intention is more clear behind AC6 line up. 

It is apparent that the AC6 kits are designed with customizing Armored Core with various body parts and weapons within AC universe first and compatibility with pre-existing 30ML kits are somewhat secondary it seems. I'm not saying the compatibility is lacking. While it lacks various 3mm holes and pegs all around the body often found in other 30ML kits, you can still make very creative custom mechs if you get to it I think. 

The Steel Haze armored core itself has great detail and color separation, on par with previously reviewed Nightfall while having it's own distinct design. The more dark color scheme compared to Nightfall exude more "bad ass" vibe and its more slim and muscular body parts is also quite attractive.

After highly recommending previous AC6 kit, Nightfall, I have to risk sounding like a broken record and also recommend this kit. Straight out of the box, the kit impresses with its exceptional detail and sturdy construction. Moreover, the potential for customization, especially when integrating this kit with upcoming AC6 kits and the existing 30ML range of model kits, only reinforces my recommendation.