Zaku Minelayer

September 28, 2008 at 9:54 pm | Posted in Master Grade | 3 Comments
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Introduction

The 2nd MG I bought since arriving in Japan. After seeing all those tempting photos of the MG Zaku Ver 2.0 in hobby magazines, I knew I had to get one. But instead of getting the plain MS-06J/F types, I opted for the minelayer version. Part of the reason was the minelayer backpack could be fitted on the MG Gelgoog as well, and as an added bonus, I got a free bazooka when I bought it from Toys R’ Us.

Materials & Methods

Like the MG Gelgoog, this was a straight build with no modifications other than the weathering effects. This time though, I decided to paint the whole kit. I bought some spray cans with different shades of green and hand painted some white parts on the head. Painting the minelayer backpack was more of a hassle because it required a lot of masking to separate the dark green and steel colored parts. Battle damage was carved out using my penknife, painted with silver and finally added a dab of black weathering pastel (Tamiya) around the damaged area. Weathering and panel lining was done using flat brown+black enamel wash.

 

Results

Here’s some pics of the inner frame for starters…

And now for the main course…

 

Discussion

Unfortunately I found some parts became brittle and some even cracked after I applied the enamel wash. I’m not sure of the exact reason for this because I used the same method on the Gelgoog and no cracks appeared. Other than that I had no major problems with this kit and quite pleased with the results. Thanks to Mr Mark Setter, the waterslide decals I used came off nicely, with minimal silvering effects. Maybe, just maybe, I’ll buy another Zaku II (or it’s 195734848729 variants) in the future.

 

Supplementary Figures

And finally here’s some extra pics I took for fun…

(Yes, I know I’ve been watching too many samurai movies lately)

Mass Production Gelgoog Ver2.0

August 2, 2008 at 10:23 pm | Posted in Master Grade | 3 Comments
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I’ve noticed that I’ve been lacking Zeon monoeye units in my collection. Well this is the first step to fix that problem. My initial idea for this kit was not to paint it, but to apply some weathering and battle damage effects. I did however sprayed the inner frame with Mr Color Dark Grey spray can. I painted some details on the inner frame using Tamiya enamels and used wash method using flat black enamel for the panel lines. So here’s some pics of the inner frame first:

It was a real shame that I had to cover the inner frame with the armor. So much of the details like the ass and leg thrusters would be obscured from view. Even the eye slit was so narrow that you can hardly see the monoeye. Anyway, I decided to make a rough surface on the knees, foot and shield to add some weathered feel to the kit. The method can be found on the How-To section.

After putting on the last piece of external armor, I proceeded to giving it a full-body wash using a mix of flat brown and flat black enamels to give both panel-lining and weathering effects. Then I added battle damage using my penknife (I’m too cheap to buy another hobby knife). I used some pics from Dengeki Hobby magazine as reference on where to place the damage effects. Nothing major, mostly scratches and bullet damage. Then I painted chrome silver onto the damaged parts followed by a little bit of black to add some sense of depth to the damage.

The next step was my favourite, adding decals. The dry-transfer decals that came with the kit were not impressive, especially the huge words ‘Principality of Zeon’ for the shield. I only used a few of them and the rest I used water-slide decals I got from the Shizuoka Hobby Show. I added minor scratches to the decals to further simulate damage. And to top it off, I sprayed with flat Topcoat.

Overall, the design and details in this kit is awesome. Now comes the bad points. Too many parts in the inner frame adds a lot of weight to this kit, which in turn makes the joints loose very easily. The legs are particularly heavy, and the polycap joints in the groin can’t hold the weight when posing with lifted legs. Second, I was dissapointed it didn’t come with a backpack like previous Gelgoog MGs. Nevertheless, it was a fun build and worth my yen.

EDIT(8/19) – Added new pics with the minelayer backpack and bazooka I got from Toys R Us

Freedom Gundam

March 4, 2008 at 6:14 pm | Posted in Master Grade | 2 Comments
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This model was another put under the category ‘build n forget’. After months serving as a dust collector I decided to give some Justice (pun intended) to this kit. Several color schemes were considered (e.g. pink Rouge Freedom, salmon pink Char’s Freedom, military green freedom) before I decided to replicate the color scheme from this image:

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Unfortunately I ran out of dark grey spray can, so I went to Tamiya and the closest color they had was mica dark blue. Also bought a can of mica red paint. The only noticeable modification was to the shield. Out goes the red thing in the middle and gaps were filled with epoxy putty. Also took the liberty to remove the beam rifle cover. [sarcasm] Did I mention how fun sanding & filing the wing beam cannons were? [/sarcasm] Also, I broke the white V-fin not once, but twice. Hopefully the glue stays on this time.

The most enjoyable part building this kit was applying the decals. I used dry transfer decals along with some Seed & Strike Noir water slide decals. Thinking about where & how to place them was somewhat gratifying. The spray paints used were glossy and in order to protect the decals I needed to apply some topcoat. Unfortunately only flat topcoat was available so I had to forsake the glossiness of the red & dark blue paints.

Please forgive the long rant for this might be the last MG I’ll be posting in a while. So then, enjoy the pics…

free_01.jpg free_02.jpg free_06.jpg

free_05.jpg free_03.jpg free_04.jpg

free_08.jpg free_09.jpg free_13.jpg

free_10.jpg free_12.jpg free_15.jpg

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