Gundam Plamodel Thread IV

[SchizophrenicMC]

Airbrush caps jam a lot. I don't know why they're built to such tight tolerance. I want to get one that caps around the outside instead of on the inside. Or something that screws on.

[Hikuro]

Airbrush caps jam a lot. I don't know why they're built to such tight tolerance. I want to get one that caps around the outside instead of on the inside. Or something that screws on.

I got it off with a flat head. My idea failed so I repainted for a reverse wash using Lacquer Gold, which right now is being clear coated. I was gonna do yellow but guess it just seemed to cheesy in the end.

tomorrow I should be able to do the enamel gloss black. I mean in the end, even if I used a flat red and yellow they'll get glossed up with the clear coat.

[GU-11]

I almost never cap my paint cup when airbrushing, because I usually use very little paint.

[mikeszekely]

Big thanks to davidwhangchoi for helping me get this guy.

Not a ton to be said that I didn't say about Zeta the first time around, except that experience did make it easier this time around, and I don't know if I screwed something up the first time or what but his chest and shoulders seem much more stable this time and his neck isn't constantly drooping into his torso, so win this time. I'll also say that I was surprised that the box was much bigger than a usual RG box. This is because, to get some parts in the correct color for Z3, some of the runners are doubled or tripled, forcing you to check the enclosed insert to make sure you're using not just the right part but the right part off of the right runner. It seemed a tad wasteful, too... there are three E runners (which is a big one), and you literally only use one of them for one part. Oh well. I'm saving the extra parts. If I ever come across a service that sells replacement runners, I'll buy just the non-duplicated runners and build a third Zeta. Maybe build a Zaku Head.

Shame with all those extra runners they still couldn't throw in an RG Hyper Mega Launcher.

Also, in a first for me with RGs, I actually painted a little black into the verniers on its shoulders and did some panel lining on the white and gray parts. I think it looks good.

It's funny, my wife asked me if it was a mobile suit for a girl, because of the pink (side note, when did Z3 become pink? Wasn't it originally more purple, so the color scheme was closer to G3 and Hi Nu?). Pink or not, I think Z3 is much more striking visually than the regular Zeta, so I'm really glad to have this kit in my collection.

[David Hingtgen]

Bandai seems incapable of "correct" purples in Gundam kits lately. See Angelo's Geara Doga, any Hi-Nu, and Zeta 3. They prefer brown, blue, and pink. Rather than, you know, purple, purple, and purple.

[renegadeleader1]

Yesterday wasn't an easy day for me. I attended a memorial service for a former boss who had passed away suddenly last sunday and it wasn't easy. Hell it never is, will be, or should be. To top it all off we got hit hard with heavy snow into today. Well I stopped on the way home at comic store and picked up a few things.

RX-79 UC hardgraph ground war set.

HGUC RMS-179 gm II

HGUC Zaku II FZ

HGUC RGM-79D

HGBF Beargguy(soon to be Boston Bruinsguy)

Its interesting to see the differences in engineering that has come to the HGUC line over the years and how much more complicated the parts and assembly is of the GM II compared to the GM D.

[Hikuro]

scrapping my Sinanju. Everything went fine until this morning and now all my work has gone to waist on 2 parts. I was doing the wrist parts and the enamel black I used clogged my Airbrush even after using thinner mix cause it's way to thick unlike Acrylic. It came out really goopy and spotty for what paint applied. So I wasn't happy and wanted to clean it off. Instead the enamel thinner I used to clean the black off ate right thru, doing damage to the clear coat I put on, the gold, the previous black and even the plastic is now partially warped. there's no way I can get replacement parts for this as there's no blue-fin logo on it. It'd be faster to buy an entire new kit for it. But broke until next month.

[mikeszekely]

scrapping my Sinanju. Everything went fine until this morning and now all my work has gone to waist on 2 parts. I was doing the wrist parts and the enamel black I used clogged my Airbrush even after using thinner mix cause it's way to thick unlike Acrylic. It came out really goopy and spotty for what paint applied. So I wasn't happy and wanted to clean it off. Instead the enamel thinner I used to clean the black off ate right thru, doing damage to the clear coat I put on, the gold, the previous black and even the plastic is now partially warped. there's no way I can get replacement parts for this as there's no blue-fin logo on it. It'd be faster to buy an entire new kit for it. But broke until next month.

That's a bummer, but maybe thinking about it as part of the learning process and figuring out what does and doesn't work for your airbrushing.

Yesterday wasn't an easy day for me. I attended a memorial service for a former boss who had passed away suddenly last sunday and it wasn't easy. Hell it never is, will be, or should be. To top it all off we got hit hard with heavy snow into today. Well I stopped on the way home at comic store and picked up a few things.

RX-79 UC hardgraph ground war set.

HGUC RMS-179 gm II

HGUC Zaku II FZ

HGUC RGM-79D

HGBF Beargguy(soon to be Boston Bruinsguy)

Its interesting to see the differences in engineering that has come to the HGUC line over the years and how much more complicated the parts and assembly is of the GM II compared to the GM D.

That's just a bummer. At least you got some cool gunpla to get you through it (although I'd be more partial to a Pittsburgh Pensguy).

Bandai seems incapable of "correct" purples in Gundam kits lately. See Angelo's Geara Doga, any Hi-Nu, and Zeta 3. They prefer brown, blue, and pink. Rather than, you know, purple, purple, and purple.

FWIW, I think Zeta 3 was pink in the PSP Gundam Battle games, but it still kind of bugs me (as does Hi Nu's blue). I might be totally wrong, but I've thought of Gundam/Zeta/Nu as "Gundam colors" and G3, Z3, and Hi Nu as Amuro's colors, so those three should be similarly gray, white, and bluish-purple. Edited February 15, 2015 by mikeszekely

[Hikuro]

I didn't realize this, but it would explain a lot, but Krylon unless otherwise stated is actually an enamel base paint. Interesting huh? Never knew.
I'm taking a chance and I did what I could to salvage the two parts that got nailed best I could....this is where it kind of pays to be in the job I'm in....we've been messing a lot with plastics and shaping recently for a proposal project demonstration and been doing a lot of tap plastic runs.

Anyways, I think I might of fixed the parts just enough to make them useable, then I resprayed the gold and clear coated the about an hour or two ago.

While that was going on I took one of the other pieces with the krylon and sprayed it, let it cure for a while then went up to my room and tried my hand at the wash. It worked!

It gives it an interesting brass look despite it originally being gold. I think this is due to the flat black having some kind of an affect on it. Either way I didn't have much to touch up and I think it came out rather nice. So right now the other parts have been sprayed and later tonight I'll start to clean the parts off of their excess paint and maybe I can finally assemble tomorrow!

[Guest davidwhangchoi]

Big thanks to davidwhangchoi for helping me get this guy.

z3.jpg

Not a ton to be said that I didn't say about Zeta the first time around, except that experience did make it easier this time around, and I don't know if I screwed something up the first time or what but his chest and shoulders seem much more stable this time and his neck isn't constantly drooping into his torso, so win this time. I'll also say that I was surprised that the box was much bigger than a usual RG box. This is because, to get some parts in the correct color for Z3, some of the runners are doubled or tripled, forcing you to check the enclosed insert to make sure you're using not just the right part but the right part off of the right runner. It seemed a tad wasteful, too... there are three E runners (which is a big one), and you literally only use one of them for one part. Oh well. I'm saving the extra parts. If I ever come across a service that sells replacement runners, I'll buy just the non-duplicated runners and build a third Zeta. Maybe build a Zaku Head.

Shame with all those extra runners they still couldn't throw in an RG Hyper Mega Launcher.

Also, in a first for me with RGs, I actually painted a little black into the verniers on its shoulders and did some panel lining on the white and gray parts. I think it looks good.

It's funny, my wife asked me if it was a mobile suit for a girl, because of the pink (side note, when did Z3 become pink? Wasn't it originally more purple, so the color scheme was closer to G3 and Hi Nu?). Pink or not, I think Z3 is much more striking visually than the regular Zeta, so I'm really glad to have this kit in my collection.

np, glad to help:)

wow you built that thing fast! i just shipped that to you a few days ago,

[mikeszekely]

np, glad to help:)

wow you built that thing fast! i just shipped that to you a few days ago,

Three days? That's slow for me. I usually finish RGs in a day or two, and just a few hours for HGs (depending on how much paint they end up needing).

[areaseven]

[David Hingtgen]

I might be totally wrong, but I've thought of Gundam/Zeta/Nu as "Gundam colors" and G3, Z3, and Hi Nu as Amuro's colors, so those three should be similarly gray, white, and bluish-purple.

Agreed, but I see Amuro's signature color as "lavender" above all else, based on various depictions etc. IMHO those 3 Gundams should all have the same color, or close to it. Not range all the way from pure pink to almost pure blue. Should all be "variations of lavender/light purple". It can't be an "identifying scheme" if it's completely different every time.

Char coloring is much more consistent. Rarely "perfect matches", but they don't run the whole gamut from orange to burgundy-brown between every machine... There's basically "early" red/salmon/maroon combos, and "late" crimson/black combos.

[Hikuro]

Well, here it is so far....

[Nekko Basara]

Sinanju is looking sharp! Glad to hear you are back in action with it.

[Hikuro]

thanks.
Caught a couple of scratches during assembly cause I hadn't clear coated the entire kit yet. Usually I wait until I know it's done, then disassemble it into sections and spray.
I seem to be missing a PC-2 for the left leg at the knee area. Either I lost it or I put it on an area of the kit that didn't need it. I'm noticing I seem to have a PC-1 still left, but I dunno where the first or second would go too....I think 1 was at the bottom of the crotch for the action base....not sure.

For now I have a PC part from another kit that's finished acting as a substitute. problem is it doesn't fit to well and the leg is extremely flippity floppity.

[Nekko Basara]

Okay, so this isn't a Gundam, but I did a crazy-fast build this past weekend (fast for me, anyways) and got this:

Nineball from the original Armored Core series.

Edited February 17, 2015 by Nekko Basara

[Phyrox]

I've been thinking about trying the AC kits, but I hate that they are sold as whole mechs and not sold as parts. In order to built "my" AC that I beat the old games with I'd have to get like 5 different kits (one for head, one for arms and legs, another for back weapons, yet another for torso, etc.) Given the source material, I'm surprised they didn't sell them as parts sets.

But...back to gundam:

So I thought my MG Turn-X needed a little buddy. What little I know about the "Correct Century" is that it is far in the future and mobile suits from all sorts of eras are dug up on the moon and earth. With that in mind, I figured I could pretty much go with anything. So I did.

Here's my Zollidia (V-Gundam timeline) just after basic construction and putty application:

I don't like the scheme on it, but I did think it would look really nice with a zaku-esque "OYW Custom" job.

So I replaced the beam shield with a holster/bracket for his new beefy gun and painted him up.

Nice and simple, but it looks good next to the muuuch larger Turn-X

Apologies for the grainy photos. I think if the full force of the sun isn't shining on my subject I will never get a "clear" photo with this cellphone.

[Hikuro]

no idea what just happened. I got 2 problems, 1) I got a gater skin like cracking going on with the enamel black after I sprayed a semi gloss over the kit tonight. 2) Some reason the white boosters on the backside have become slightly pinked due to somehow red paint SOMEWHERE possibly on the clips spread onto the parts.

Just a bit bummed that now this is looking really amateurish.

[close313]

Is the semi gloss spray lacquer? That might have caused it to react with the enamel paint.

[Hikuro]

no it's an acrylic. 75% of the model was used with acrylic, all the trim pieces were a combination of lacquer and enamel to perform the reverse wash to get the right pattern of color for the raised details. I've never see it before it's just so odd.

its almost like you can't clear coat anything when you use a combination of paints to ring out certain things of a model kit.

[David Hingtgen]

Had a question---who do people watch for reviews on youtube, now that rrobert84 is effectively gone?

[mikeszekely]

Had a question---who do people watch for reviews on youtube, now that rrobert84 is effectively gone?

I never "watch" reviews. I can read much, much faster than most people speak.

When it comes to written reviews, I mostly read Syd's stuff over at Gaijin Gunpla. If he hasn't reviewed a kit, I'll take a peek at photos at Gundam Guy or solicit opinions in this thread, but honestly reviews seem to matter to me a lot less for gunpla than other stuff like Transformers and what not. It usually boils down to:

A - Do I want this MS in my collection?

B - Is this the best 1/144 scale representation of said MS?

If it's an RG, the answer to both is (so far, anyway) yes, so I buy it. If it's the most recent HG release of a given suit, it gets a little more complicated. If the MS in question isn't Federation/Titan/Zeon/Neo Zeon, then I'll probably pass. I just don't have the same attachment to, say, a Tieran, a Zoloat, Den'an Gei, etc, that I do to a Zaku, a GM, a Marasai, or a Qubeley. If it's a Gundam or other hero suit, I'm interested, and more interested the newer the kit is, unless I think there's a good chance that it'll get an RG. For example, I bought the new HGUC Turn A, Crossbone X1, Victory, and F91 because they're newer kits with modern engineering, and I don't see them getting RGs any time soon. I'm not building an HG Hyaku Shiki or ZZ because they're older and I'd prefer to wait for a possible RG, however long that might take.

[chyll2]

for review, I only bother to read if there is a written review (like Syd from Gaijin Gunpla), if I am really interested for a particular model/toy, I browse the photo review to see how it looks like out of the box of which Gundam Guy regularly collates from different reviewer or I can also view Dalong's site (well it is a written review but it is Korean )

[renegadeleader1]

I personally like Kakarot197's reviews on youtube. His videos are straight to the point covering articulation, accessories, quality, value, and comparisons to similar kits. He knows what he's talking about, and it doesn't hurt that he's a GM head like me.

Edited February 18, 2015 by renegadeleader1

[Nekko Basara]

I generally watch reviews more for entertainment than specifically to evaluate potential purchases. My purchasing logic is more like, "Is it RG? Then I'm buying it."

Having said that, I've been enjoying Mecha Gaikotsu's videos recently. The gunpla content is a bit light (I go more for the figma reviews), but he speaks clearly and enthusiastically, has a consistent format, and he goes FAST. You get a lot of well-considered info in a review that is generally under 10 minutes.

[Guest davidwhangchoi]

i read this thread and the impressions after the builds.

[mikeszekely]

My purchasing logic is more like, "Is it RG? Then I'm buying it."

A sound policy I've applied in my own life.

i read this thread and the impressions after the builds.

[VF-19]

Anybody getting this: http://www.hlj.com/product/wavkm-11/Sci ?

The instructions on 1999 make it look super easy to build. Mine should be here in a couple of weeks or so. I just hope it's not tiny.

[Kelsain]

Whoa, that's cool. And my box from HLJ just arrived yesterday...

[Hikuro]

well my vrabe shipped, cool cool.

[joppewo]

Been waiting forever for this

[mikeszekely]

*Sees Hyaku Shiki, gets excited*

*Realizes it's not an RG, gets disappointed*

[David Hingtgen]

Let me know when they make MG Delta 2.0

[Guest davidwhangchoi]

waiting for RG gp02a physalis (with the rocket backpack)

and gp-03