Gunpla: Gale Strike WIP II March 2, 2010
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Shortish update here of the work I did on this kit over the past few days.
Firstly I did a lot of work on the backpack, and have this more or less finished other than sticking in the beam sabre handles by the neck. Took a few photos of WIP on the engine nozzles to give a basic idea of how I work:
Sorry for the slightly blurred pic on that last one…my camera doesn’t like extreme-close-up too much xDD.
I finished up on the wingsaws too, and put all of this together onto the kit. Took some pics, enjoy ^_^.
As I’ve noted earlier, it’s an impressive beast. I like it a lot so far and it hasn’t given me too much gip in terms of seam removal or modelling. There are some issues toward the back of the kit with seams and parts not quite fitting properly, but they’re minor. Really happy with this so far!
Gunpla: Gale Strike WIP I February 27, 2010
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Hey guys and girls,
First (and admittedly fairly large) post WIP/Review on the Bandai Seed vs Astray 1:100 Gale Strike, which I’m customising to my own colour scheme.
First things first, how’s this kit for colouring?
Well, so long as you’re okay with the colours it comes in, you could build this kit straight out the box and be reasonably happy with how it came out. The kit is big, coming in at about 19 cm tall, only a few cm off of the completed height of the Zeta MGs. The kit comes cast pretty much in it’s intended colours, packing stickers for the facial details and optional decals, which I’ll be leaving off my custom cos honestly, they’re a little busy for my tastes. I only clocked one part that’s the incorrect colour, which is very very impressive for a Bandai ‘production line’ NG like this.
It’s worth noting that the kit’s ‘white’ parts are in fact cast in what can only be described as ‘pastel lilac’ which may not be to everybody’s tastes. Hell…someone less charitable than me might even say that this kit is cast in pink.
Constructionwise? Well, mine is not yet completed, but there have been minimal causes for concern. The make/break on these larger kits is normally the tricky multipart heads, and I haven’t got that far yet. The primary issue I’ve had is a couple of pretty dodge gaps in the Wing Saws, and on the extended nozzle the back thrusters attach to.
Price? Well, pretty good. I picked mine up off of the good folks at Model-Direct in Hong Kong via Ebay, and the price was good, at £25.00 all in. That’s like…what…2 rounds at the pub? I think that’s a deal really. You get a nice fat chunky kit with a lot of character and a larger than life look for that price, and I’ve been suitably impressed that when the opportunity arose I snapped up a cut-price Vent Saviour from the same range for £15.00 over at HLJ.
Enough chit chat on the kit’s standards anyway, you all want to be seeing pictures I’m sure. I’m not one to disappoint. Pics on this hop around a bit as A: This is my first proper WIP thread I’ve run here and I’m a little shaky, and two, well…the battery life on my camera is maybe not all it’s cracked up to be, and I’m damned if I’m gonna wait a whole day of charging not building me damn kit.
First of the legs, in my custom scheme with a coat of Folkart Plaid Matte Acrylic. This stuff is the business, far better than the ‘Matt’ Clearcote I’ve used in previous kits from Humbrol which is firstly NOT MATT IN ANY WAY SHAPE OR FORM *ahem* and also has the habit of making your kits look like foot high Games Workshop miniatures due to it’s slightly unhealthy shininess. The Plaid’s water based so doesn’t screw up a brush quite so fast which is frankly genius, and dries with a tasteful shine that’s a little light reflective but generally slight and doesn’t overpower your paintjob.
A note that as the Folkart Plaid is waterbased, you must be very careful when moving from a light area to a dark area as the colours WILL smudge across. Clean your brush before doing this and take on new varnish. Or end up with a streaked paintjob on your hands.
Custom paintjob is using Citadel Fortress Grey(light grey), Necron Abyss(internals/dark blue), Enchanted Blue(light blue) and Golden Yellow(orange, seen later), along with Formula P3 Greatcoat Grey for the darker greys.
Megadeth CD purely for height comparison…and my own damn amusement. Don’t judge me xD.
Chest is a nice easy build. Not a lot of motion on it aside from the shoulders, that can come about 45 degrees forward, and wiggle up and down a bit too. Not tons, but some. You can also kind of see the bizarre off white that the main plastic for the kit comes in to an extent.
Same parts, finished with varnish and panel lining. As you can probably see, the Gale’s got a really nice minimal kind of lining. Using a Staedler 0.05 Pigment marker for the panel lines. Vastly preferable to the Gundam Marker option. Check ‘em out if you can.
Just a quick shot of the leg internal unpainted to give you an idea of how this kit works inside. ^^.
Sorry about the large jump here, camera bombed out on me and I was damned if I wasn’t carrying on while it was having a tizzy.
That’s it for now, more soon I hope ^_^
00 Raiser WIP August 30, 2009
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I know I know…kept this one kinda quiet lmao.
I’ve got half (well, more than half as the Raiser craft is far less complex than the 00 Gundam part of the set) way through my 00 Raiser Gundam set. The 00 Gundam is built. A lot of teeth gnashing around the issue of keeping the paint on the joints at the elbows, but overall I’m pleased with how it’s going.
If there's a 'biggest shoulder pads' award going, this dude just won it off Spandau Ballet with ease lol
It’ll look a bit less stark in non-flash lit pictures. I’ve painted it with a mix of Formula P3 paint (from the dudes who do the Warmaster fantasty battle game) and my standard issue Citadel Foundations and normal Citadel Acrylics.
Went for a mix of a kinda ‘animation colour’ take on the kit, as I hate the stark white all Gundams are as gunpla in comparison to the classier more brooding greys they use in the cartoons. Aside from the Nu lol…which is very sexy in white. I’ve downtuned most of the colours accordingly to keep things looking consistent.
Mostly armless August 27, 2009
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So, mid final build, my Enact’s left arm snapped. No photos for now, cos my camera’s charging (still xP) but that’s the state of affairs.
Angry that a fairly pivotal part like an arm was so poorly built as to still be hollow despite the part that broke being all one part? Yep. Down and out? No.
Converted the kit. It’s now intentionally single armed, as if it had the arm cut off mid battle and the engineers patched it up. Looks kinda cool. No huge, seared battle damage, just a cauterized plastic stump xD.
Starting the 1:144 HG Enact August 24, 2009
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I’ve been working on the HG Enact I scored last week off eBay. It’s a really nice kit, and surprisingly big for the 00 series. It’s skinny and scrawny but quite tall and elegantly designed. Just thought I’d upload how I’ve been doing so far:
Thankfully, coming on only 3 sprues, the Enact is not a complex kit like my last 3 projects.
The kit's standard colours are a fetching mint green. I've got a plan for this kit though to eventually paint it a more complex multi-tone monochrome scheme.
First build before painting to get an idea of size and scale. The seams were very easy to take off this kit and it's cooperated very well. I really recommend it to other builders.
Christine pic! August 22, 2009
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The saga continues…this is now the fourth time posting this xP. Why you mock me so Christine! xDD.
Butter wouldn't melt in her mouth. Honest.
Christine the Neo mid-stage WIP August 22, 2009
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I was able to dig out a pic of ‘Christine’ mid build before her extras were built and painted and her decals were applied. Enjoy xD. Or she’ll come getcha lol. This was before she decided to shed half her V-Fin.
This may look nearly finished, but you don't know the half of it rofl.
The late-August stash August 22, 2009
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So, I picked up a few things this month to keep me busy:
1:144 00 Raiser and AEU Enact
That’s from the top down, a 1:144 Designer’s Colour 00 Raiser double set and the 1:144 AEU Enact Demo Colour.
Unbelievably I scored the both of them for the equivalent of about 35.00 GBP. Given there’s plenty of places that’ll happily charge that for the HG 1:144 00 Gundam Designer’s Colour without the 00 Raiser pack, I was chuffed to say the least. And the Enact looks smexy xDD.
1:100 Neo Gundam ‘Christine’ August 22, 2009
Posted by bunshinsaba in Gundam Models.Tags: action figures, anime, customs, gundam, gunpla, manga, nicknames, old school, scale models
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I’ve been working on a 1:100 Ungraded Neo Gundam for the past month or so. On and off. I built and reduxed parts while I was housesitting for one of my family, and then started painting last week. I’ve dubbed her ‘Christine’. Why?
Because I’ve been a victim of sod’s law on this project, and because I’m a huge horror nerd and I felt like Arnie Cunningham at several points on this kit. If it could have gone wrong, it went wrong. I had to constantly redux the white paint for her clean finish, varnish didn’t dry up properly ending up with me stuck to her when I went to panel line, and at one point, half the V Fin crest just fell off her head xP. I wasn’t anywhere near her when that happened…she’s been a harsh mistress xDD. Luckily I was able to comfortably refit the part that sheered off in the night.
Funny thing is is that after finally completing it (I’ll upload photos as soon as my camera is recharged and I have time, but in a manner befitting Christine, the moment I finished up on her the camera crapped out) I realised something, unlike a lot of my gundam models where it’s a case of me loving the build but being very much like ‘display and leave alone’ with the finished article, I love Christine to bits. I love the fact that aside from me downtuning the paintjob on the cannon and core-lander a little so they look more metallic, the paintjob is nigh on box-perfect. I love the fact that when I put on her decals, instead of me tearing them off in disgust at how obvious they were over the paintjob like previous decal applications *cough* MG God Gundam *cough* they look okay, and even feel subtle, not over the top and garish. And that little AFX Anaheim logo looks damn fine.
If Christine is the only Gundam I put together before I go back to work in a week and a half, I’m cool with that, cos despite everything she came out great ^^.
