For me, Zakus should ALWAYS come with a machine gun and a heat hawk, no exceptions. That's just your soul being weighed down by gravity.
And then there's Johnny Ridden's Big Boomin' Zeke Zooka! I was so into working on his signature weapon I almost forgot about the machine gun.. which I haven't. previous work in progress on that is in a post buried in last weeks thread pages... As for my soul, there's more weighing on it than gravity... but that's my problems in reality, nothing to see here. Subtle, but It truly makes a difference. Nice work, haven't you done some of their supplement manual note mods before? It's where I learned about how to trim skirts in half and shave those BLOCK nubs off the backs of 1:144 v-crests, all the way back in 2002 when they included the same kind of Hobby Japan "how to" booklet with the SEED 1:144 HG Strike Gundam. Also, check out Dengeki Hobby's website, www.hobby.dengeki.com. Your browser's automatic translator can spell it out in Engrish Pomegranate, Every now and then, they have some kind of Gunpla styling articles. Last week was about painting the Blue Sprinter camo pattern on the Ex-S Gundam, and a couple of months back it was "how to build a masterwork class project when dime store products.."
I learned to do that with the pack-in materials that came with a beginner RX-78 I bought for my kid brother a while back.
Haven't had a kit with supplemental material before. Before tackling this, my only gunpla experience is giving my cousin a hand trimming and grouping parts on some MG Wing kits while he snapped them together. Really, this is my first build from start-to-finish, so it's been a learning experience. I thought I was so smart gluing pieces together as I built, only to find when I wanted to start modding the figure, the stuck pieces would've been so much easier to work with separate. Oof. There is some stuff in the "Hobby Japan" half of the supplement I want to try - namely cutting the rear shoulder armor along a panel line so it can still come apart after the center seam is joined. But no, this ankle bit wasn't in any of the instructions. I only caught it because the center fold is where the "Hobby Japan" and "Dengeki Hobby" mini-mags meet, so there are two different builds contrasting each other, and I was trying to figure out why the Dengeki build had a photo dedicated just to the ankle. But yeah, I'll do some digging. More how-to's would be great. I've no idea what you're talking about when it comes to splitting a skirt, but it sounds interesting enough to look into.
Simple tricks for better results! Legs are finished, still need to paint the brown-gray pads on the bottom of the feet but that will be easier to do when the rest of the kit is assembled and I can do all of the areas I want to paint that color at once, seeing as I didn't bottle any. I painted the front of the side ankle covers and the interior of that area too. And now for my work in progress pose @Squee loves... It's heftier than it looks, diecast parts notwithstanding, but it feels more like a glass sculpture. Looking ahead, I'm also going to put some darker Clear Green over the forearm sensors so they better match the Search Eye.
Skirt splitting. Front armor pieces on a High Grade either have a plate in the center, or ball socket looking bulges that keep them centered. I used to do it with my X-acto but bought a craft saw for this very purpose. Using nippers or a knife risks squeezing the part which could fracture the part incorrectly. The obvious result is independent movement. So one leg up doesn't mean a full upskirt.
If those kits included hand options, then how could they sell those hand kits? You have to think like a business.
The Builders Parts weapon sets all came with hands, and then Build Fighters led to the Jigen Knuckle sets. But the thing is those full runners of hand parts started with the GM Custom and GM Kai kits, so naturally they were included with the GM III . It was back during the point where Bandai wasn't giving GM's the love they deserve.
Ah yes, silly me. I mean, these are the same people who make everything worth a damn P-Bandai these days. Speaking of, some pics of Heavyarms Custom: I think the reason I love the Heavyarms Custom so much is because it seems like a real upgrade to the Heavyarms in every way. The armour on the torso and waist is thicker and better protects the sensitive joints and cockpit, the weapons are vastly upgraded with even more missiles and the cumbersome underslung gatling gun is replaced by much more versatile and powerful arm-mounted ones. Plus the overall body shape is more lithe and agile which aids in mobility, which is a plus when you're a walking armoury where enough sustained fire could set off those stored missiles. Plus the darker colours would make it blend better in space and be a less obvious target. Plus, it just looks classy.
Something I was not expecting A High Grade with a partial inner frame. I'm taking my sweet time assembling Char's Zaku II. Before I start another gunpla, I'm gonna need another black Gundam Marker. Ended up bristling mine coloring in the shoulder vulcans. I figure the next gunpla I do will be High Grade Master Gundam with Fuunsaiki for my husband. He really likes Mobile Fighter G Gundam, and Fuunsaiki is his favorite.
I've always preferred the Endless Waltz designs over the originals (I'm still not really on board with the current "Ver EW" thing,) and Heavyarms Custom's my favorite. Which kit is yours? I ask because I now feel a need to build one again (the original 1/100 kit was my second Gundam kit back when it was new, and I never really liked the 1/144 one that came out a year or two later.) My current project, Cherudim Saga Type GBF. No detailing so far, huzzah!
Finally the weather outside permitted me to finish this build. This is the Real Grade Gundam GP01. This is my second go at this kit. Love the design to this kit, so I had another go at it! J on Instagram: “After months of waiting for decent weather, I was finally able to finish this build. This guy is a pain to pose, but he's one of my…”
The Heavyarms Custom is easily my favourite as well. Like I said, I feel like it's the only one that's a true upgrade over the TV versions as far as capabilities, and the kit is solid. Other than that, I honestly really love the Sandrock EW. I like the Custom's design, but the lavender doesn't do it for me. The pastel sandy scheme of the EW though I feel perfectly compliments the design and "character." I'm iffy on the EW designs myself. Heavyarms is fine, of course like I said Custom is better. Deathscythe is great except for the weird as fuck decision to add more white to the suit, especially the head. I'm not sure what the goal was there. Shenlong is okay except for the awful Dragon fang. Not only does it look terrible, I don't see why they didn't just give it the same functionality as Altron's weird Dragon Trains. Just give it one of those and retool the actual dragon head to look like a dragon and it'd be fine IMO. Then there's Wing, which is physically okay, but the colours are atrocious IMO. Too light, too primary, and too much of every colour on every piece. I don't know what Katoki was thinking when he coloured that thing. I ended up repainting mine: I also think the EW redesigns of Epyon, "Proto" Zero and Tallgeese are all fantastic, and are everything the other EW designs should have been except Sandrock. I'd highly recommend those as well. (the RG Tallgeese is incredible, IMO) My definitive ranking of all Wing's Gundam designs from best to worst: "Proto" Zero > TV Wing Zero > Wing EW classic colours > Wing Zero Custom > TV Wing >>>> Wing EW TV Deathscythe > Deathscythe Hell Custom > Deathscythe EW classic colours > TV Deathscythe Hell > Deathscythe EW Heavyarms Custom > Heavyarms EW > TV Heavyarms Sandrock EW > TV Sandrock > Sandrock Custom TV Shenlong > "Nataku" Altron Custom > Shenlong EW > Altron I'm debating getting an old 1/100 NG Nataku to graft the Dragon Train onto my MG Shenlong so it at least has something on its right arm, but that's a lot of scratch-building involved to make that work.
man, just as I decided on that 00 Sevensword on Craigslist for its big ol' "Fuck You" weaponry, someone grabbed it and the Dark Matter Exia, so now the only MGs left are the SEED Destiny ones Also finally decided my opinion on the Wing Zero Gundam: asthetically it's neat, but I can't get myself to like the `feather` wings :\ I like my robots to have a practical look to them, and while I understand how people like the Zero, I just can't get into it
for me it's Wing: TV > EW Wing Zero: TV >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> EW Deathscythe: TV = EW Deathscythe Hell: TV < EW Heavyarms: TV <<< EW Sandrock: TV < EW Shenlong: TV > EW Altron: TV = EW Deathscythe and Altron I find myself indifferent to one design over the other, DS because there's not enough about either one that really stands out as much as the other and vice versa, and Altron because... well the things that do stand out on either one don't do themselves many favors.
I'll give Altron EW this, it is more coherent than the TV version. It's not a great design, but it doesn't feel as... messy as TV Altron, which has a very loud colourscheme combined with an odd combination of wings, two Dragon Fangs stored in oversized shoulders, that weird tail gun thing and the shield just kinda hanging out on one shoulder. (with the EW version just omits outright as the Dragon Fangs are plenty big enough to be shields) The head of the TV version also takes the dragon thing a bit too far IMO, whereas the EW version is too similar to Wing Zero. It'd be fine with Altron's EW design if the Dragon Fangs looked like, y'know, dragons and not bullet trains or whatever they're based on. (are they even based on anything?) As it stands it's a perfectly fine design that just doesn't feel "themed" enough to be a Wing character, but I may still get it one day to fill in the spot.
... No amount of "Anime Physics!!" can explain how they get THAT long. * you can say camera angle is deceptive all you want, but when the kits include extra links to extend it like that.. doesn't justify it when it's Okawara's version with only TWO links. ... Funny thing though is I gifted the Heat Whip parts from my P.Bandai Tallgeese III to a friend with the same kit too just so he can have the "Anime Accurate" version of it too.
