MG Nu Gundam Ver.ka

February 1, 2023 at 15:19 | Posted in Master Grade | Leave a comment
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Introduction:

I purchased the MG Nu Gundam ver.Ka not long after its official release a few years back. After the initial hype had died down, I realized that I didn’t like the proportions that much. Specifically, the torso is too short, and the faceguard too long. I naively thought that I had the time and skill to modify those parts, but apparently I had neither. So my solution to the problem was to throw money at it; in this case I bought a resin modification kit online.

Materials & methods:

The resin kit contained replacements for most parts of the outer armor. The waist, wrists, and lower legs required some modification to the inner frame. Since I don’t consider the wrists and lower legs to be problem areas, I left them alone and used the original plastic parts. The resin parts were of good quality; the details are well defined and the parts fit well. But of course super glue was still necessary.
I painted the inner frame with Mecha Surfacer Super Heavy, with some color variation added using Gunmetal, Copper, and Starbright Duralumin. For the outer armor, I used the following paints:

  • White parts: mainly Gaianotes Neutral Gray I; Neutral Gray II and III were used to add variation to some parts
  • Dark blue parts: Gaianotes Prism Blue Black
  • Orange & red parts: Orange-yellow & Red madder, respectively

After putting on decals & panel lining, I gave the white parts a flat topcoat spray and the dark blue with Semi-gloss topcoat.

Results:

Discussion:

In addition to the body proportions, I wasn’t too happy with the fin funnels. Especially when all 6 were connected and attached to the backpack. They’re just not secure enough and fall apart at the slightest touch. That said, the kit comes with a stand for the Nu Gundam and all 6 funnels, but I must have misplaced them as I was moving from Japan. I had to make do with my old Action Base stand, and it was kinda tricky getting the poses because the the fitting wasn’t too good.

The shield also needs a redesign. It’s attached to the back of the forearms and the only way to make the shield face forwards is to rotate the entire arm. That somewhat limits the poses you can make with the shield attached.


Overall, the resin kit has greatly improved the proportions & details on this MG Nu Gundam kit. But in hindsight, I could’ve saved myself time and money by waiting for the RG Nu Gundam instead. That kit has way better proportions than the stock MG version.

Guntank Mass Production Type

December 5, 2020 at 16:46 | Posted in 1/144 scale | Leave a comment
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Introduction:
The Mass Production Type Guntank served mostly as a plot device and victim to the Gouf Custom. Maybe that’s why it never got an official kit. I purchased this resin conversion kit at the C3 hobby show several years ago so now is the time to properly build it.

Materials & methods:
The work in progress can be found here.
Before painting the resin parts, I sprayed a layer of Gaianotes Multiprimer for better paint adhesion. After that, I gave all parts (resin & plastic) a layer of Mechanical Surfacer Super Heavy. The colors used are as follows:

Head/cockpit: Gaiantotes semigloss white
Body: Mix of navy blue + intermediate blue + white
Torso: Mix of red madder + german grey
Arms: Dark gray (1)
Cannon & backpack: Gray FS36118
Tracks: Black, followed by Mr Metal Color Dark Iron

After panel lining with black enamel and adding decals, I sprayed a layer of semi gloss topcoat. Next I added the following weathering effects: dirt smearing using Mr Weathering Color, dry brushing with enamel silver, and a small amount of paint chipping using Gundam marker.
Then I sprayed a layer of flat topcoat. The final step was actually adding some reflective sheets on the head/cockpit. I used Hasegawa Clear Blue Finish layered on top of Mirror Finish.

Results:

Although the articulation’s improved, there’s not too many dynamic poses I can make

Discussion:
The Guntank was never the most articulate mobile suit, but if I built this kit according to instruction, it would’ve been a proper brick. The resin parts for the arms and cannons have no range of movement, hence the reasoning for the modifications I made.
The parts count was fewer than previous resin kits I made, so it’s not an incredibly complex build. But it was kind of fun figuring out how to improve this kit and add details to it.
In hindsight, using foil stickers for the cockpit wasn’t a good idea. Because of the curved surface, the sticker ended up getting a bit wrinkled. Perhaps painting a blue candy coat would’ve been better.
So this is the last of EFSF Mobile Suits for my 08th MS Team build. Next up are two Goufs…

Guntank Mass Production Type – Work in progress

November 29, 2020 at 13:29 | Posted in Work In Progress | Leave a comment
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I bought this resin kit from the C3 Hobby show a few years back. It’s a conversion kit, so a HGUC Guntank is required. I thought this build would simply involve sticking resin parts to the HGUC kit, but it wasn’t that simple.

Head:
The resin head (or cockpit) didn’t come with the twin antennae. So I glued a pair from Wave option parts to the side of the head.

Body:
The cannons (more on that later) were meant to be permanently glued to the resin body. But I wanted them to be detachable for easier storage later. The shoulder part holding the cannon was a solid chunk of resin. I used a 6mm drill, chisel and ultrasonic cutter to gouge out an empty space, shown by the pink shaded area below.

To attach the cannons, I glued a plastic peg from the HGUC Guntank kit, indicated by the blue arrow above.

The arms (resin part) were also meant to be permanently glued to the body. But I had other ideas. First, I drilled a 3mm hole on the body, shown by the blue arrow:

The backpack was also a solid chunk of resin. It has a lot of smooth, empty surfaces, so I added some details using parts from a tank kit.

Cannons:
The resin kit did not include a complete cannon; you’re meant to combine the plastic HGUC Guntank cannon with a small resin part. But I made my own cannon by combining parts from the IBO weapons set (MS Option Set 1) and the HGUC Guntank:

So now the cannon can swivel up and down, and can be detached from the shoulder.


Arms:
The kit included resin parts for the deltoid, biceps and elbows, and were meant to be permanently glued together. So I decided to replace them with Leo NPD parts. I replaced the ball joint with a 3mm plastic rod which will be inserted to the 3mm hole on the resin body that I drilled earlier.

The biceps and elbow joints were also from the Leo NPD, while the rest of the hand cannons were from the HGUC Guntank.

Tank part (lower body):
The abdomen was also a solid chunk of resin. The front of the tank part was covered by another piece of resin. I added some extra details using whatever parts I had lying around:

The same for the back of the tank:

A slab of resin part covers the side of the caterpillar track. Some plastic HGUC part (red line below) had to be removed before attaching the resin part:

So here’s how it roughly looked like, before I added some extra detail parts:

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