Gundam Plamodel Thread IV

[mikeszekely]

DAMN! Today is not my day! I lost one of the yellow blade parts that goes on Exia's collar area. I had it in my fingers and was ready to clip it on and suddenly PING! off it goes into some unknown area of my bedroom. And knowing my dog, he's gonna find it first.

Oh, that does suck! I dropped a ton of pieces of Destiny on my floor when I was working him... like probably over half the kit, at one point or another. But I was lucky I was able to find them.

BTW, the HGUC Gouf Custom I ordered came. It was fun building it and it doesn't look too bad, but after building all those RG kits it looks a bit dull. There's only two decals in the entire kit; a red dot over the eye and a red dot over the scope on the wrist gun. There were also spots, like the thrusters on his legs, that could have used more parts, and overall the kit needed better color separation. But again, that's comparing it to RG kits. I'd like to do a few more HGUC kits to see how it compares to those.

[Hikuro]

Yeaaaahhhh I gotta look around the bedroom, it's somewhere around the desk area I know it....but there's tons of boxes and bags surrounding it I'll have to go thru as well.

SO to make myself feel better over the collasal F up I took a long drive this morning and I picked up Hi-Nu GPB Colors which I'm kind of pondering if I should customize that entirely, new paint colors and all that stuff.

And I picked up Shenlong EW Ver for the Wing collection...2 down, 4 to go.

[Hikuro]

Sonavabitch I found it! It was stuck to some insulation tape I use to fit my AC stuff into the window. WOOT! Torso is complete!

[mikeszekely]

Yeaaaahhhh I gotta look around the bedroom, it's somewhere around the desk area I know it....but there's tons of boxes and bags surrounding it I'll have to go thru as well.

SO to make myself feel better over the collasal F up I took a long drive this morning and I picked up Hi-Nu GPB Colors which I'm kind of pondering if I should customize that entirely, new paint colors and all that stuff.

And I picked up Shenlong EW Ver for the Wing collection...2 down, 4 to go.

Good find!

You may recall I found a 1/144 Wing Zero EW at a Barnes and Noble of all places. Well, Deathscythe was always my favorite, so I wanted the D-Hell from the same series. Lots of online retailers saying they'd have them maybe in September. A few sellers on Amazon had them, but with tax and shipping I'd been looking at close to $30.

My wife wanted to go to a Chinese place for lunch, and since it's real close to the B&N, I figured I'd pop in. Maybe they restocked, since I got RG Destiny and RG Strike Freedom there. Worst case, they had a few kits from Gundam Build Fighters.

First kit I lay eyes on: 1/144 D-Hell EW. $15. Needless to say, I'm a happy camper.

[Hikuro]

Good find!

You may recall I found a 1/144 Wing Zero EW at a Barnes and Noble of all places. Well, Deathscythe was always my favorite, so I wanted the D-Hell from the same series. Lots of online retailers saying they'd have them maybe in September. A few sellers on Amazon had them, but with tax and shipping I'd been looking at close to $30.

My wife wanted to go to a Chinese place for lunch, and since it's real close to the B&N, I figured I'd pop in. Maybe they restocked, since I got RG Destiny and RG Strike Freedom there. Worst case, they had a few kits from Gundam Build Fighters.

First kit I lay eyes on: 1/144 D-Hell EW. $15. Needless to say, I'm a happy camper.

It's always nice to find a kit you want somewhere close versus waiting a week.

This particular hobby store is over priced, I mean it can be a rather significant over price from not only online, but closer retailers of the same name. They had a RG GP-01 for 42 dollars, I bought mine from a closer retailer of the same name during t he holidays for 15 dollars cheaper. I almost wanted to go up to the guy and say "Really dude? You do realize the Wilsonville location had this same kit for 15 less? And the other variant of it for 11 less? Hell, Amazon is selling it nearly 20 less." But...nah.

Full Armor MG Unicorn there was 130, another store had it for 90....I mean k'mon

They DID however have a MG EX(S) Gundam, that 1/144 I built back during the 4th, and I ALMOST picked it up...but it's a transformation kit and well, Bandai's design team back then wasn't exactly solid on transforming Gundam AHEM DOUBLE ZETA COUGH COUGH!

[Nekko Basara]

Grats on finding that piece!

I realized as I was handling it that somewhere along the way one of the yellow intake pieces in the "backpack" portion of the GP-01 fighter had gone missing. For anybody building it, just glue those suckers in - there is no reason for them to be so loose (unlike the ones on the chest, which are reversible by design).

Mk. II is started, but I'll warn that I am slow

[Hikuro]

I finished everything on my Exia.... I used every single freaking sticker I could to put all the detail and realism as possible!

Legs and head are super solid..........and that's about it! I'm kind of scared to touch it really, I don't want things falling off...namely anything that holds a translucent part to it! Which....out of all those pieces the shoulder straps were the easiest.

There are:
2 clear parts for the head (Yet no silver reflective sticker) you have to bend them and hold them in place while you put the final 2 parts of the side of the head in place.

2 Clear Parts for the shoulders connecting to the bicep sides.

2 Clear parts for the forearms, 1 for each arm.

4 Clear parts for the legs, 2 on the upper thigh, 2 on the lower leg. These two were the most difficult next to the head.

2 Parts for the torso, 1 on each side, which you have to squeeze and hold together while you put the other armor parts on.

It's a nice looking kit, but unless something really wow's me in the future, I don't think I'll be buying another AU Real Grade kit. I have zero interest in any of the SEED models...I wasn't much of a fan of the Strike or the Destiny, and I"m not really into the retools of the other Exia based kits.

I'll just stick to UC, and hoping for Nu Gundam, Double Zeta Gundam without a core fighter block unless it's seperate like the RX-78-2, and maybe even a Physco Gundam.

[David Hingtgen]

RG Gouf Custom would look amazing, if they can keep to SUBTLE color differences. Bandai always seem to do subtle red plastic color variations, but very obvious (and ugly) blue plastic variations. (I'm looking at you, RG RX-78)

And of course, then they go way too far in the other direction, with no variation on the Zeta's blue.

[mikeszekely]

I'll just stick to UC, and hoping for Nu Gundam, Double Zeta Gundam without a core fighter block unless it's seperate like the RX-78-2, and maybe even a Physco Gundam.

I don't think I'd have bothered with the SEED kits, since SEED and SEED Destiny are collectively my least favorite Gundam series, but Destiny and Strike Freedom were readily available at Barnes and Noble, and I'd been playing Dynasty Warriors Gundam Reborn (and Strike Freedom is pretty OP in that game, so I'd been using it a lot).

But, huge yes to an RG Nu, yes to ZZ, no to Psyco Gundam. I prefer my Gundams to be Gundam-sized, I guess.

Other RG kits I'd really like to see would be Hyaku Shiki, Alex, GP02, Char's Gelgoog, and the Zaku III. Really, anything in the Zaku family.

RG Gouf Custom would look amazing

Since I literally just finished the HGUC Gouf Custom, I'm kind of hoping they hold off on that one for awhile.

Oh, as for Deathscythe... man, those old "HG" kits. Sure, they have polycap joints, and they have more paint than the no grade kits (I have a 1/144 GP01 that's no grade, and it sucks), but they're still way to simple, and they definitely need painted. Deathscythe came with stickers for the red fins in his chest grill, the white on his arm guards, gray on his collar, his eyes, his chin, and bits of gray on the front of his skirt armor. At minimum, that means painting the vents on the sides of his head, the cameras on his head, the blade of his beam scythe, and the tops of his feet. Technically, the gray on the back of his skirt armor, too, but his wings cover that. I wound up painting everything that needed to be a different color than the plastic it was molded in instead of using the stickers (except his eyes).

Newer HG kits also have a much better range of motion. It's pretty disappointing that his wings don't move... if you want to close them, you actually have to disassemble them, then put them back together in a different way so that they're closed.

Edited July 27, 2014 by mikeszekely

[Hikuro]

More Zeon RG suits, I'm all for. Yeah I forgot, NT-Alex would be a nice RG kit imo. Maybe some GM kits? Like a Powered GM, or Sniper kit?

I've started my own Hi-Nu, it's a mix of a different paint color to replace the black using the GBP yellow and white plastic.

I gotta say I REALLY am digging how it's looking!

[Hikuro]

I'm done! Hi-V Gundam Hikuro Custom. Let's see Star build take this thing on! I'll beat it's ass!

[mikeszekely]

10533544_10204264361226232_6231786675750721068_n.jpg10527279_10204264361066228_6642333866958160127_n.jpg

I'm done! Hi-V Gundam Hikuro Custom. Let's see Star build take this thing on! I'll beat it's ass!

Wow, and Neko Basara thinks I'm fast!

Looks great, too! I wouldn't have known it wasn't supposed to look like that has you not told me and had I not looked up the kit in the first place.

[Hikuro]

Yeah I'm fast when I find out wtf I"m doing and how. I use Krylon or Rustoleum Paint when I do paint jobs. There's tons of colors, different variety and you don't need to primer them most of the time to get the results you want. My blue I got on 1 coat of paint and still got plenty left to where if the MG Hi-Nu Ver Ka is any bit awesome as I'm hoping, I will get a 2nd to make the same color variant as this 1/144.

Pondering on buying a customized decal set for this so I can further enhance it and make it even more awesome.

[David Hingtgen]

Just got my Gouf R35---and it is two-tone blue, but VERY subtle. Wish it looked more like it did in the instructions (a more obvious two-tone effect).

[mikeszekely]

Just got my Gouf R35---and it is two-tone blue, but VERY subtle. Wish it looked more like it did in the instructions (a more obvious two-tone effect).

It's a shame that the Gouf R35 is a Build Fighters design and not a canon UC unit. It's like the best of the Gouf, Gouf Custom, and Gouf Flight Test Type rolled into one, with an extra pinch of badass.

[David Hingtgen]

I would still like a "Gouf Ignited Flight"

[Nekko Basara]

Everybody knows about the Gundam Hammer, but what about the Gundam Axe?

Edited July 30, 2014 by Nekko Basara

[Hikuro]

Everybody knows about the Gundam Hammer, but what about the Gundam Axe?

I got nothing.

[mikeszekely]

Everybody knows about the Gundam Hammer, but what about the Gundam Axe?

Dang, Nekko, I was hoping for an update on your Mk-II!

[Hikuro]

I'm currently working on MG Shenlong. Dragonfang, upper torso, waist and staff are done....and I even slapped some stickers on dem! EVEN THE RUB ONS! .......All the rub ons.....Holy crap I'd rather be doing decals. At least with those I can play with positioning....rub ons you can't really after you press....pre-press yeah, post-press.....no.

I've been trying to drop hints to ppl I know that I want either the FA RX-78-3 7th Gundam or the Thunderbolt for my birthday. aaaannnnd all I got was a stupid Fing like.

[Nekko Basara]

Dang, Nekko, I was hoping for an update on your Mk-II!

That's so nice! Not much to show so far, but I have started an album here.

This is a pleasantly simple RG, after the Freedom. Reminds me of the HGUC Ez-8 a little bit.

[chyll2]

I am still undecided if I would get the red astrae Exia. I had a heavy July purchase and I am not sure if I still have enough funds

it is priced double here locally but I really just love Astray/Astrae design

[Nekko Basara]

Wasn't expecting this so soon! Gaijin Gunpla review of Char's Z'Gok:

http://www.gaijin-gunpla.com/2014/07/rg-chars-zgok-review-87-1/

[anime52k8]

Mine's out for delivery right now. I'm excited now.

[mikeszekely]

I'm going to wait for the 7 RG kits I ordered, (maybe should be here Friday). Then, if it's available and not a preorder on Amazon, I'll order it when I order the rest of the remaining RG kits in a another week or two.

After that, I don't know. Maybe some HGs, maybe some of the exclusive RG repaints like Zeta-3 and Casval's Gundam. Really wish they'd do an RX-78-3 repaint...

[Nekko Basara]

Question for the RG fans:

A lot of RG kits have a mechanism that lets you shift the pelvis joint (where the hips attach) slightly lower and further forward. I can't read the Japanese instructions, so... what is that for? Is it to enable slightly more natural kneeling poses? Which is the "normal" position?

[mikeszekely]

Question for the RG fans:

A lot of RG kits have a mechanism that lets you shift the pelvis joint (where the hips attach) slightly lower and further forward. I can't read the Japanese instructions, so... what is that for? Is it to enable slightly more natural kneeling poses? Which is the "normal" position?

I assume you're asking because it's in the Mk-II's instructions?

My Japanese isn't what it used to be (and it used to be barely conversational for speaking and basically illiterate for reading), but if you're looking at the page in the Mk-II's instructions, I think it says something about spreading the moveable range of the legs, followed by instructions:

1. Lower the lock

2. Move the crotch axis forward.

3. Raise the lock.

It doesn't really indicate what the normal or default position is, nor am I clear on what it's supposed to do. I didn't try kneeling, but I checked my Mk-II in a simple standing at attention position and doing some Van Damme-style splits, and the range of motion seemed to be limited more by the skirt armor than the position of the pelvis joint. I settled on the higher and further back pose. Standing up, the difference is very subtle, but it just looked off in the lower-forward position to me.

FYI, I looked at that page carefully to see if anything else said anything about it, and it really doesn't. The box above the hip joint tells you that you can lock the waist swing, the top box on the upper right simple says "opening the cockpit hatch", and the box on the lower left tells you that you can use the Bandai Plamodel Action Base 2 (sold separately) for display. The bit at the top outside the boxes tells you to put piece A15 wherever you like (A15 being the little Kamille Bidan piece), and the two things at the bottom right are (I think) telling you that they painted the completed model in the picture, and that the model in the picture is using the thing, referencing the Bandai Plamodel Action Base 2.

[Nekko Basara]

I assume you're asking because it's in the Mk-II's instructions?

Actually, I first encountered it in the GP-01 (which I now know does use the same frame sprue as the Mk-II), and the Freedom has a similar system.

Thanks very much for the translation! I was able to work out how to move/lock it from the pictures, but I was left puzzling over the purpose. "Spreading the moveable range of the legs" seems right to me.

My theory is that in the higher position, the mechanism places the legs more directly under the Gundam's center of gravity and keeps the hip joints well concealed under the skirt armor, but how far the hips rotate forward is limited by where the skirt armor attaches. By dropping the hip joint slightly, the legs can swing a bit further forward before hitting this limit, but the hip joints are slightly more exposed and off-center (I'm not sure if the way the hip joint shifts forward is intentional, or just a side-effect of how the mechanism works). But that's just a guess. I was hoping the instructions were more explicit - oh well!

At any rate, it's quite a hassle to operate once the suit is built, so I'm going to assume that the higher, more-centered position is the default and leave it alone.

By the way, what was that you mentioned about locking the waist swing? Do you think that refers to this mechanism, or is there something that limits the waist from swiveling side-to-side?

Edited July 31, 2014 by Nekko Basara

[mikeszekely]

Actually, I first encountered it in the GP-01 (which I now know does use the same frame sprue as the Mk-II), and the Freedom has a similar system.

Yeah, I remember something like that building Strike Freedom, too. But I mean, I figured you were thinking about it now because you're building the Mk-II, right?

At any rate, it's quite a hassle to operate once the suit is built, so I'm going to assume that the higher, more-centered position is the default and leave it alone.

Not as bad as you'd think. I use the RG hands with the movable fingers on most of my models (Strike Freedom is the only exception so far, and that's because I just couldn't get the RG hands to hold his guns no matter what), so naturally my Mk-II dropped his gun as soon as I started messing with him. Otherwise, all I did was remove the bazooka from his butt-holder, lift his skirt armor, and remove one of his legs so I could see the pelvis joint. I left the other leg attached, because it worked almost like a handle to move the joint.

By the way, what was that you mentioned about locking the waist swing? Do you think that refers to this mechanism, or is there something that limits the waist from swiveling side-to-side?

The first picture box says, more or less, "You can lock the hip swing." Once you have the Mk-II built, you'll notice that there's a groove in the small of his back, and on the part of the skirt armor with the bazooka butt-holder you'll see a slot with a gray notch on it. The notch moves a piece in and out of the groove on his back.

Thing is, I'm not entirely sure what this is for. As near as I can tell, unless I royally screwed something up, he can't really turn more than 45 degrees or so at the waist either way. Also, I don't know if any of the other kits have this feature. I didn't even know the Mk-II had it until you asked about a translation, causing me to try to read more of the instructions instead of just looking at the pictures for the actual assembly.

[Nekko Basara]

Otherwise, all I did was remove the bazooka from his butt-holder, lift his skirt armor, and remove one of his legs so I could see the pelvis joint.

That sounds filthy! Good idea to remove the leg, though.

The first picture box says, more or less, "You can lock the hip swing." Once you have the Mk-II built, you'll notice that there's a groove in the small of his back, and on the part of the skirt armor with the bazooka butt-holder you'll see a slot with a gray notch on it. The notch moves a piece in and out of the groove on his back.

Thing is, I'm not entirely sure what this is for. As near as I can tell, unless I royally screwed something up, he can't really turn more than 45 degrees or so at the waist either way. Also, I don't know if any of the other kits have this feature. I didn't even know the Mk-II had it until you asked about a translation, causing me to try to read more of the instructions instead of just looking at the pictures for the actual assembly.

Thanks! As it happens, I had just built that section and I was wondering why a part of the frame with a slot was exposed like that. I kept trying to assemble it differently so that a tab would go in there or something. I'm going to go mess with it now.

[mikeszekely]

UPS brought me a box today.

[Nekko Basara]

That is what I would call a solid 3+ months of OCD fuel.

Watcha gonna do first?

[mikeszekely]

That is what I would call a solid 3+ months of OCD fuel.

Watcha gonna do first?

Three months? I'm hoping I get three weeks out of it. I'll probably order Freedom, GP02fb, and Char's Z'Gok in a week or two, then start on a couple of HG kits of mobile suits I really want in my collection, but aren't likely to get a RG kit any time soon. Stuff like the Zaku III.

Not sold on the Skygrasper. An OCD part of me wants to do all the RG kits, but even on Amazon it's $25+ for a dinky plane and some add ones for Strike when I know I'm going to pose him with the Aile Striker pack anyway.

As for what I'll do first... I kind of wanted to do Exia. But, I have two RG Zakus, so I might do one first and one last... especially since, of all the models I have built, the only ones that aren't Gundams are a Zaku I (Black Tri-Stars) and a Gouf Custom. I could use more Zeon suits.

[Nekko Basara]

I think I'm just stupidly slow with these kits. And I don't even paint (except for detail parts like the verniers). At least half of my time is spent on panel lining, which I do before assembly (because panel lining a completed kit would just be do tedious that I'd never do it).

I dunno... I'm happy when I'm done, and I get my money's worth, I suppose, but it might be more fun to just get the kit together. The Freedom got to be such a chore by the end that I didn't touch another kit for about three months. To be fair, Kerbal Space Program may also be to blame for the hiatus.

Anyhow, I think the Skygrasper looks neat just for being something that isn't a MS. But I agree that it's overpriced, and I don't have the Aile yet. That goes on my "someday" list.

[Nekko Basara]

Just as a tangent, here is my RX-78-2 demonstrating how screwball size and mass are in the Gundam universe.
These two machines are in the same scale and, according to the Gundam wiki, weight roughly the same amount: