Literally the only thing that could make me care, and even then it'd have to be some of the real good stuff and not another round of Zaku and GM recolors.
Nice! Did you paint the kit?! Tbh the RX 2.0 pulled me back to gunpla back then. The completed kit feels solid and toy-centric to me.
Deathscythe hell (supernova) together and lined (no paint for this one/no need). Up to three kits now.
On the canon Heavyarms, the leg missile containers are nice and balance with the shoulders. But on that interpretation of the HAC with the extra twin gatlings on the back, it just feels like he needs more BRRRRRRRRT on the legs instead somehow. And also the Igel's extra shoulder-mounted missile containers. Dominance through overwhelming firepower.
PROTIP; you can take a Q-Tip or small swatch of paper towel doused in 91% Iso Alcohol, -with excess wiped/squeezed out- and rub/wick away that dirty residue around the dry transfer decals...
With the second round of HG Gundam AGE kits reissues finally hitting some online stores, I decided to order a HG Gundam AGE-1 Normal. After building 2 Master Grade kits back and forth, I'll like to build something a bit more simple and won't take forever to build. And also after re-watched Gundam AGE, I did mentioned that I would like to get more AGE kits; And this one would be right up my alley. The MG RX-78-2 Gundam ver 2.0 is indeed quite a nice kit for what it is; I did some panel-lining, some painting on the front/rear head unit camera, the fully clear Beam Javelin effect part, as well as some of the clear stickers & dry rub-on decals has been applied. Thanks for the tip. With dry rub-on decals, sometimes I ended up leaving some dirt residues after I applied them which isn't pretty, so the tip is appreciated.
yeah, those rub-ons can be a cast-iron bitch. i really, REALLY wish BANDAI would make triplicate redundant decal sheets standard in at least MG and up, Waterslide, Rub-On and Self-Adhesive, rendering GUNPLA products pretty much well and truly complete in their all-skill-level-friendly inclusiveness...
I bought a 1/144 HG gundam model from a store here and it's missing it's sticker sheet. Who do I contact about that? Is there a canadian/north american importer? The store isn't likely to have another of the same model.
You could try to contact your seller if you want to, but if you have the skill you'll be better off painting the kit yourself. Something like that actually happened to me a while ago with my HG Exia, where I lose the eye stickers (And almost the entire sticker sheet) halfway during the build. I just ended up attempt painting the eyes myself with what I have, and it turns out alright. For some reason, I did eventually found the sticker sheet long after I finish building it; Which is just bizarre.
I would in most cases - but it's a 00 Trans Am model - so the stickers are metallic, glittery and have incredibly tiny writing on them.
HG Gundam SEED Windam up for pre-order at USAGundamStore, which finally means pics because for whatever reason I don't recall seeing this thing before: https://www.usagundamstore.com/prod...m=Email&utm_campaign=5ebed42c8ac2c25615b7940c It's pretty legit and for $15 that is NOT a bad price at all. Whenever my budget gets freed up again I'll have to pick one up to customize, this thing is just begging to have some of the 1/72 Dust Tactics waterslide graphics applied to it (for reference, it's where the decals for my "Grimore Red Beret Full Blitzkrieg" came from). Now, given this is a non-Gundam grunt suit given some much needed love in HG, where does that leave us for older non-UC series? SEED - Windam Wing - Leo and Maganac G - Death Army I think the only series still missing "unique" grunts in modern HG form are After War Gundam X (that P-Bandai Daughtress was a Build Divers variant so it doesnt count) and Turn A (seriously, I think the Gold SUMO is maybe, literally, the only suit piloted by any official Char Clone that isn't available with a modern kit).
P-Bandai Solicitations for the Week of 5/10/2020 MG MSZ-006-3B Zeta Gundam 3B Type <Secondary Orders> Price: 7,150 JPY (Taxes Included) Release Date: Jul 2020 RX-78/C.A. Casval's Gundam [Resale] Price: 4,950 JPY (Taxes Included) Release Date: Sep 2020 RGZ-91B Re-GZ Custom Price: 6,050 JPY (Taxes Included) Release Date: Jul 2020 RGM-79SP GM Sniper II (White Dingo Team Spec.) Price: 4,180 JPY (Taxes Included) Release Date: Sep 2020 RMS-179 GM II (A.E.U.G. Color Ver.) Price: 3,850 JPY (Taxes Included) Release Date: Sep 2020 RE/100 XM-07G Vigna-Zirah Price: 4,400 JPY (Taxes Included) Release Date: Jul 2020 HG Dictus (Callisto's Light Custom /'Jurisdis Sinistra Dictus') Price: 3,960 JPY (Taxes Included) Release Date: Aug 2020 XM-X1 Crossbone Gundam X-1 Full Cloth Price: 2,530 JPY (Taxes Included) Release Date: Aug 2020 XM-X3 Crossbone Gundam X-3 [Resale] Price: 2,200 JPY (Taxes Included) Release Date: Aug 2020 XM-X2ex Crossbone Gundam X-2 Kai [Resale] Price: 2,200 JPY (Taxes Included) Release Date: Aug 2020 RGM-79V GM Night Seeker (Origin Ver.) Price: 2,530 JPY (Taxes Included) Release Date: Aug 2020 RAG-79-G1 Gundam Marine Type (Origin Ver.) [Resale] < 3rd Order> Price: 2,200 JPY (Taxes Included) Release Date: Jul 2020 AGE-IIMG-SV Gundam AGEII Magnum SV ver. (FX Plosion) Price: 3,300 JPY (Taxes Included) Release Date: Jul 2020 OZ-06MS Leo (Full Weapon Set) <4th Order> Price: 2,310 JPY (Taxes Included) Release Date: Jul 2020 WMS-03 Maganac 36-Piece Set Price: 49,500 JPY (Taxes Included) Release Date: Jul 2020 RMS-099 Rick Dias (Quattro Bajeena Colors/New Standard Colors) <Secondary Orders> Price: 2,090 JPY (Taxes Included) Release Date: Sep 2020 Dodai Kai A.E.U.G. Sub Flight System <Secondary Orders> Price: 1,320 JPY (Taxes Included) Release Date: Sep 2020 MSZ-006 Zeta Gundam (U.C.0088) [Resale] <Secondary Orders> Price: 2,420 JPY (Taxes Included) Release Date: Sep 2020 GUNDAM BASE LIMITED RX-9/C Narrative Gundam C-Packs (Titanium Finish) Price: 6,160 JPY (Taxes Included) Release Date: Jul 2020 OTHER GUNDAM BASE LIMITED MS General Purpose Hanger Price: 2,860 JPY (Taxes Included) Release Date: Jul 2020
Night Seeker AND Aqua Gundam? Yes please. Unfortunately, unless these hit Bluefin (and they fucking damn well better), I might actually not be able to pick them up. GenteiKits on Hiatus – Gentei Kits Gentei Kits is going on hiatus due to the pandemic and Japan Post being held up and he's saying running the service has taken a toll on him. He's 50/50 on if he'll come back or not - truth be told I'm betting he's going to take the opportunity to see how Bluefin goes. If Bluefin expands P-Bandai service (and I can't imagine why the hell not, all signs are pointing to it being a massive success overall), he may no longer see a need to run middleman. He says all existing pre-orders will still eventually go out so I'd like to think that means my Mudrock Gundam is locked in (especially since there isn't a refund or anything). It sounds like he might have a huge sale on extra inventory when the mail resumes but that's just to move stock. As it stands, the option of pre-ordering anything at this time has been disabled and there's only a scant few offerings - I'll probably end up nabbing that Mobile Worker Ral custom that's been sitting on that site since forever once the price drops, if I get there in time (no big loss if not - I actually have a secondhand one chilling on my desk at work I was going to eventually experiment with but then, well, I haven't been to work in two months). Naturally, this sucks, because I really want that damn Aqua Gundam
I'm glad the Leo Weapon set is getting rereleased. I am beyond furious that the Dictus is P-Bandai. FFS, why even release kits at retail anymore if you're going to lock brand-new moulds to the fucking site? It's like Bandai is purposely alienating non-US foreign customers.
I've been slowly making progress since building my airbrush station and now that I've got a decent amount of Gaia Paint and tools in I decided to start working on my backlog that I've built up already. But where to start? The Figure-Rise Standard War Greymon Amplified Kit my wife gave me for Christmas? No, don't want to mess that up? The MG 00 Qan(t) Full Saber I picked up from the local shop in my home town who just started carrying Gundam? I'm not sure I'm ready for MG just yet. I got it! Let's take a page out of the movie "The Longest Yard" and do have a Tune Up Game or rather a Tune Up Kit. Went down to the shop nearby and low and behold there's a single solitary Mobile Suit Gundam Wing 1/144 Vayate. I can practice working on joining parts and getting rid of seam lines, scribing existing panel lines, and my airbrusing. Just primed the body, but the cannon is 90% completed. Just needs topcoat. Things I've learned so far. Sanding in one direction vs. back and forth definitely gives a better smoothness texture. When joining parts together I need to make use of a binder clip like Hadlen suggested or some sort of vice. I think I'm getting the hang of the airbrush and the air compressor, but I do think thinning the Gaia Paint to 1:1.5 isn't enough. I probably need to thin it to 1:2. Also, I'm not sure if it was the best idea I've had or the dumbest but instead of keeping all of my paints unthinned I transferred them to resealable bottles with shaker ball bearings and added thinner that way I can just shake and go. Seems to be working well, but I guess time will tell. I really do like working with Lacquer paint more than Enamel or Acrylic due to the drying/curing time. Let me know what you guys think.
While waiting for my HG Gundam AGE-1 Normal to arrive, I went and take the RE/100 Gundam GP04G Gerbera out from my backlog to work on it. Just as what I previously mentioned about the RE/100 kits (While they aren't necessarily awful kits, build-wise they're a bit on the basic side and they do need some effort to make them presentable); the RE/100 GP04G is no exception to this. Just built straight OOB, the three "Stürm Boosters" aren't necessarily the best looking things around; they're just formed with flat white parts sandwiched together with no color separation for the grey parts at all, and if you want them to look good a straight-build with the included color correcting stickers just won't cut it. I went and rectify it for a bit with painting the sections that should be grey in their supposed color with the use of some masking tapes, as well as some panel-lining and subtle weathering all over these boosters. There's still some cleaning up to do, but for now I like the results. The Custom Shield and Custom Beam Rifle are also painted slightly, with some lighter colors like white and gray been added on to the Custom Beam Rifle to provide some subtle highlights instead of just being two flat grey parts sandwiched together.
As frustrating as the system is, I'm sure the logic tracks in its own strange way. Japanese companies tend to have a very traditional insular and protectionist worldview. They only really care about what goes on in Japan, and generally rely on regional branches or partners outside for greater perspective. In this case, the Dictus is a villain suit (strike 1) from a relatively obscure portion of the franchise (strike 2). This is what warrants a P-Bandai exclusivity in their mind. They're not really factoring in the more Western ideology "buy thing because it looks cool" mindset at all. They've left it to Bluefin to handle international distribution of their brands. Bandai themselves are largely hands-off. Bandai USA is its own largely separate entity, and has no interest in the import business at this time. And then on Bluefin's end, the problem they run into is logistics. I have no idea about the specifics of the arrangements, but businesses like them tend to prefer working with courier companies like FedEx and UPS rather than with the Postal Service. And unfortunately, that's where we hit a major snag here in Canada. Canada is a massive patchwork of city centres buried among huge swaths of unpopulated land. A lot of those courier companies just do not serve those areas at all, because it's not worth it to them to set up distribution centres amongst all that nothing. So large chunks of the country become logistical dead zones. Which brings us back to Bluefin/P-Bandai. Or lots of other similar specialty services. Many just don't bother with Canada at all because then they'd have to go through the trouble of mapping specific serviceable regions. "Valid addresses only within 100km radius of Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Toronto, blah, blah, everybody else get stuffed". No coast-to-coast network within these courier services creates massive problems for them.
