Gundam Origin Head Display Base

September 24, 2014 at 18:05 | Posted in Other scales | Leave a comment
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This head display base came with the October 20111 issue of Gundam Ace magazine. It’s based on the RX-78-2 design from the manga Mobile Suit Gundam : The Origin. The whole thing came as white plastic, so painting is necessary. I didn’t modify anything except for sharpening the v-fin.

After priming the entire thing with dark grey surfacer, proceeded to paint it with Full Armor Gundam colors, i.e green, orange-yellow and gray. The internal part that made up the vulcan cannons and side vents were painted with gunmetal. For the eyes and camera sensors, I attached a reflective sheet (Hasegawa Mirror Finish) and handpainted clear yellow for the eyes and clear blue for the sensor. After adding some decals I finished it off with flat topcoat.

From my personal viewpoint, I don’t find this Gundam Origin head very ‘handsome’. My favorite RX-78 head design has to be the ver. Ka. Another disappointing thing is that it doesn’t come with a stand. There’s two holes at the back but I’m not sure if it is compatible with existing stands. Anyway, it will make a good paperweight.

 

 

 

RG Full Armor Gundam

January 26, 2014 at 18:06 | Posted in 1/144 scale | 3 Comments
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Introduction:

Like the Dwadge, this is a resin c.o.v.e.r kit, where resin parts are glued on top of a base model. It’s originally meant for converting the HGUC RX-78-2 ver.30th, but I used the RG RX-78 instead since they’re quite similar.

Materials & methods:

Unlike the Dwadge, this Full Armor Gundam cover kit has a lot more parts, and they’re smaller too. So while the parts are soaking in detergent water overnight, I proceeded to assemble the RG RX-78-2 Gundam.  After trimming excess resin parts, I did a test snap-fit of the resin parts to the assembled RX-78. Basically, it should look like this when attached to the HGUC Gundam kit.

Although the HGUC Gundam ver.30th and the RG version are aesthetically very close, the fitting of the resin parts are quite far off. I had to do quite a few modifications to the RG kit just to attach the resin parts properly using superglue. Even then, some parts just won’t fit nicely together so I just plugged whatever gaps with some epoxy putty.

The resin’s original color is cream, so obviously priming was a necessary step. The biceps, thighs and upper chest were sprayed with Light Gull Gray while the rest of the body is sprayed with MS Deep Green (Gundam Color Spray). In keeping with the RG theme, I decided to add another hue to the green parts so I did some masking using Tamiya tape and sprayed another layer of Olive Green. The orange parts were handpainted with enamel paints and the weapons were sprayed with Tamiya Gunmetal.

Panel-lining was done with light brown enamel paint and then I applied some dry-brushing & weathering pastels to the feet for some light weathering. The decals I used were mostly from the MG Full Armor Gundam set, plus some random warning decals. And lastly it’s the compulsory layer of flat topcoat.

Results:

Discussion:

Since this is a recast kit, the quality is not that good. Some details are lost & parts don’t fit too snugly. Added to the fact that it’s meant for the HGUC kit, my attempt at using the RG version turned out to be quite a challenge. A lot of pre-planning and masking was employed (plus copious amounts of super glue & putty). The only resin parts that I didn’t use were the feet, which came as a single resin block whereas the RG feet had 3 divisions. I thought it was too much work so I kept the original RG feet.

The kit also tends to lean and topple over backwards because of the heavy backpack. I couldn’t attach this kit to Bandai’s action base because the original part at the back was replaced with a resin part so I used a flexible wire-based stand for mid-air poses.

I’m quite impressed by the RG Gundam kit, especially the splitting armor at the thighs. Leg and elbow movement is very good, but I still couldn’t make a nice kneeling pose. The front skit armor tends to pop out though, just like the RG Zaku.  Also, because the feet were quite small, thus having less surface area, the kit felt a bit unstable when standing upright.

In the end, I find that the finished product still looks presentable, but some parts still look a bit rough. I’m also not satisfied with the combination of the two hues of green that I used. But what’s done is done..

Shizuoka Hobby Show 2010 (Part I)

May 24, 2010 at 11:55 | Posted in Events | 2 Comments
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Yep, it’s that time of the year again. My yearly pilgrimage to Japan’s biggest hobby show. I finally get to add some new content to this blog which has been lacking lately :p

So again I’ll split my coverage into 2 parts; the first will be the new products by the various vendors and companies, and later I’ll post builds by various modeling circles. So first off is the Bandai section and the major headline of the day: The-O will be released as an MG kit. This is based on a survey among the Japanese on the most wanted MG kits. The-O actually won 2nd place, with V2 Gundam and Double-O Riser placed 1st and 3rd respectively. Actually I’m quite surprised V2 was the most wanted MG kit, since Victory Gundam has already been released, I’m quite sure Bandai will release the V2 eventually. Same goes with the Double-O Riser.

Anyway here’s a pic of the prototype The-O; it’s quite huge actually. Expect to see more photos in the coming months.


Also on show are the samples of what’s coming along the MG production line. First up is the Full Armor Gundam. I have to say it doesn’t really appeal to me, coz Bandai went with the retro look of their recent RX-78 ver2.0. If the design was more to the Ver. Ka or the various resin kits, then I would’ve been sold.

Then there’s the Musha Gundam Mk.II. Great news is the gold parts will come as they are; all bling-bling, not like a certain St**ke Fr**dom. Surely a must have for those who already own the red Musha Gundam.

Victory Gundam fans rejoice (or despair, depending on your wallet). Next MG release will be the V Dash with new parts and loads of weapons. To be released separately will be the MG V Core Booster ver. Ka which you can combine with your existing plain ol’ Victory to become the the V Dash version. Also comes with the weapons and probably an extra display base.

Next is Bandai’s latest series of model kits, termed Real Grade. It’s the size of a 1/144 HG and comes with the internal frame akin to its MG counterpart, but without the nice details. Supposedly superior in flexibility and posing ability compared to the standard HG. First release will be the RX-78 and following that will be Char’s Zaku (surprise, surprise).

At the High Grade section there’s the already released models like Gundam X, G Gundam and ZZ Gundam. Also seen was a Gunpla Starter Set with the RX-78 and Zaku II together in one box, probably similar concept to the older HG RX-78[G] and MS-06J kit from the MS 08th series.

But what really got me salivating was the (probable) release of kits from the Unicorn series. I say probable because they’re not officially announced yet and the models on display were just ‘reference exhibition’. If they really do release the Sinanju and Delta Plus, they’ll definitely be on my shopping list. The Geara Zulu (Angelo Sauper type) also looks interesting, but according to the novel it will be in a nasty pink/purple color. It seems the only confirmed release is the GM Kai.

Some mechas from Gundam 00 will also be released as HG kits, though I’m not too familiar with these. Probably some sort of MSV or something. Next to it were the kits from the Gundam Seed MSV which look rather frankenstein-ish.

The Gunpla Pro Shop section offers balls, two actually. I’m not too sure of the specific details but you can easily find out from your favorite gunpla gossip blog.

Also available were resin conversion kits:

The new release from the Figurise series will be this Kamen Rider. Also seen was a prototype of Luffy from One Piece but I didn’t took any photos of it. Some new Evangelion kits will also be released, probably  in conjunction with the release of Eva 2.22 movie.

I also took some pics of some Keroro-pla, for those who are interested:

Moving away from the Bandai section there were the usual stuff like these Airsoft guns from Tokyo Marui.

And some pics from the Yamato booth:

And finally some uncategorized random pics from random sections. I actually wound up back at the Bandai booth after walking around in circles.

And so that’s it for this year’s Hobby show. I didn’t buy anything this year, except a kebab for lunch. I was hoping to find some Hasegawa Macross kits at a nice price, but all they had were some boring ones, probably leftovers from last year.

Part II can be found here.

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