I just realised I have not really introduced myself. Friends called me “Fong” and I started my interest of building scaled models back in 1989 with a Tamiya 1/144 WW2 Mitsubishi Zero Fighter and progressing into my first Gunpla with Master Grade 1/100 Zaku 2 and Gundam Mk2.
After a 22 years hiatus, I restarted my gunpla hobby back in 2017 equipped with an air-spray and it wasn’t until May 2020 when I started to share my work on Facebook and blogging my projects.
After speaking to a friend “Wolf” from Wolf Photography over a pizza dinner, he helped and guided me through the procerss of setting up a Facebook Page for “itisagunpla” and linking it back to this site. Thus, this is where it all started…
I have 3 golden rules “No Fuss, Kit Bash, and Pre-shade”
No-fuss; I just don’t have the patience and space, that said I am not into scribing, pla-plates, water-slides decals (only reserved when I need to bring in the “A” game!), photo-etching (when it is straight forward) etc.
Kit-Bash; I like to make something uniquely mine. With the “No-Fuss” rule, the kit-bash is usually swapping different weapons or limbs and lots of super-glue!
Pre-shape; I am not a clean and weathered builder but more of a in-between, hence I use pre-shade to help bring out shadows and edges to give the finished kit more visual depth. I like to featured my kit as “used “!
That said, thank you for visiting and please scroll down or look to your left for my completed projects! and if you do like to support my future works and this blog please donate using the “Tip Jar” if you can.
My inspiration for this EFSF Gelgoog was from the iconic Stardust Memory where Ensign Chuck Keith is seen piloting a “captured” EFSF Gelgoog with a 2 finger peace sign. Mora Boscht pimped Chuck’s Gelgoog with parts that was rumoured to come from Char’s MS-14S. Thus earning Chuck’s new call sign the “Red Baron”.
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The MS-05L Zaku 1 [Sniper Type] is a variant of the MS-05B Zaku 1. I first saw it while watching Gundam Unicorn anime where it was piloted by the Captain of the Zeon remnants on Earth. The Pilot eventually tried to “kamikaze” to take out 2 of the Federation’s Jesta but failed.
My inspiration was less sombre but was based on “Stardust Memories” where old Zeon Mobile Suits has been repurposed into Federation’s frontline. Thus I have painted it using Federation colours and gave it a Federation shield.
Check the new project out by clicking on the photo banner above or the link here.
This was originally meant to be my submission to ZakuAurelius ‘Advance of Zeta Contest’ in May 2023. Unfortunately, I was not able to finish in time and honestly, I did not even get it started until Jul 2023. But please check it out by clicking on the banner above or the link here!
This is my Bandai 1/144 HGUC MSZ-010 ZZ Gundam. My colour inspiration was on a “What If….” Paptimus Scirocco has stolen the ZZ Gundam from AEUG and repainted to represent his purple coloured hair. And I am also trying out doing a clean finish and using a very busy colour accent help bring out the parts separation and details. Click on the image above to find out more.
I wasn’t originally a big fan of the Gustav Karl design especially in the Unicorn series where it was shown been piloted by some lazy and inexperience test pilot and naturally defeated easily by RGM-96X Jesta. But in Hathaway Flash, the Gustav Karl was shown to be a much more aggressive and “Hunter” like mobile Suit, hence I thought painting it in Titian Blue is more relevant. Click on the image above to find out more.
Bandai HG 1/144 Gundam 00 Command Qan[T] is a relatively new kit for with new 2021 runners for the Battlogue custom parts, that said the Qan[T] runners are still from the original 2010 moulds. My customisation includes bazooka from F91, Fuel tanks from a 30mm weapon pack, swords and beam saber from Exia.
I have also painted the shield in Ukraine Flag colour scheme with an image of Statue of Liberty, which is my way of supporting the Ukrainians and hoping for the war to end and their return to freedom!
The Me02R-F01 Messer Type-F01 is a mobile suit that is featured in the move “Hathaway Flash”. This mobile suit is used by Hathaway Noa’s Mafty group and it is specialised in guerrilla warfare.
I was moved by the loss and suffering of the Ukrainians when Russia decided to invade Ukraine. In order to stand in solidarity with the Ukrainians I have painted the Messer livery in Ukrainian flag colour.
Please click on the banner above or the link here to read about this project.
The Deathscythe’s primary weapon was its beam scythe. The power and reach of the scythe enabled it to destroy most single (and sometimes multiple) mobile suits in one sweep. The Deathscythe also carries a Buster Shield on its left arm. Other weapons are head-mounted vulcan guns and collar-mounted machine cannons. The invisibility and the speed of its attacks strike fear in all enemies as an “Angel of Death”. To find out more please clip on the link here or the banner above.
First commission of the year is completed! The client requested the FM Barbatos Lupus Rex with color choices similar to the metal build and sharpened claws to match. I rarely use metallic paint, so capturing a more gloss look for the inner frame was fun to try out. Additionally, extending the claws was an interesting challenge where I sanded down some spare runners to form the pointy claws reminiscent of the show. The result was truly menacing!
Building the FM kit did remind me of how good we have it with the MG Barbatos though. Since the FM kits reuse a lot of the inner frame parts, the armor doesn’t fit very tightly on the frame and in some cases causes big seamlines. Since the giant mace is impossible for the kit to hold up without the extra stand, I tried to tighten up the joints a bit to help…
Bandai HG 1/144 G40 Gundam is a redesign or re-imagination of the Grand-daddy RX-78-2 Gundam by industrial designer Ken Okuyama and director Kou Matsuo for the 40th anniversaries of Gundam in 2019 and 2020 and was released in Dec 2019! But my G40 is inspired by Casval ‘s Gundam which was featured in PSP game ‘Gundam Battle Royale’ which adeptly named and piloted by Char Aznable where he has reverted back to his real name Casval Rem Deikun hence the model of his RX-78 has a suffix ‘C.A.’ Please check out my latest project by clicking on the banner above or the link here.
It has been awhile since I posted and I believe it is about back in early Aug 2021. Yes, this Sinanju project has taken a lot longer than I hope due to a change in life event and other priorities over the last few months. But I have funally able to catch a break during the Christmas season to sart up the air-brush and finish up this impressive kit. Please click on the banner above for details.
I have ben buying my kits from Ching and Friends; it is a Facebook Group where Ching provide regualr updates of kits he has pre-ordered from Asia or you can give him a wishlist which her will try his best to source them out. Check him out!
The High Grade ZGMF-1017M2 GINN High Maneuver Type 2 is a Bandai 1/144 scale kit released in mid-Jul 2005. It is developed from its predecessor the ZGMF-1017M GINN High Maneuver Type, due to its been produced in small number, Ace pilots were prioritized when assigning the GINN High Maneuver Type 2. But my kit is customised for my submission into SIDE6-Calling All Aces competition hence I have put in an extra effort to make it look like a proper Ace mobile suit. To find out more please click on the photo banner above or the link here.
This RCX-76-02 Guncannon First Type [Iron Cavalry Squadron] [Iron Patriot Custom] is heavily inspired by Marvel Iron Patriot hence the play of name from “Iron Cavalry” to “Iron Patriot” Custom. I have also taken inspiration from the RX-77AQ Guncannon Aqua from Thunderbolt series where the Aqua Guncannon was fitted with missiles pods to the backpack instead of cannons. This is my submission to Gundam Builder Master Championship 2021 Beginner Category held in Indonesia on 8th August 2021. Check them out and support me as well! To learn more about this built please click on the photo banner above or the link here.
This is my second RGM-86RBM GM 3 Beam Master kit. The first was customised to look like a GM3 “Kia” and the second is customised to look like RGM 109 Heavy-Gun from F91. To find out more please click on the photo banner above or the link here.
The High Grade RGM-86RBM GM 3 Beam Master is a Bandai 1/144 scale kit released in mid-April 2018. Although it is released in 2018, the kit is based on the HG RGM-86R GM 3 kit which is released 7 years ago in August 2011. The Beam Master kit however uses some newer parts such as the knees, side skirts and a new head unit. It is basically a kit-bash of the HG GM 3 to make it a Yukki’s custom. To find out more please click on the photo banner above or click on the link here.
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In the Gundam Build Divers series, Yukki previously piloted a RGM-86RBM GM3 Beam Master as a long distance support; but as the series progressed, Yukki’s best friend, Riku slowly improved and hence Yukki decided not to be left behind and wanted to fight along Riku hence developed a new Mobile Suit. To find out more, please click on the photo banner above or the link here.
The RX-78-02 Gundam is the Granddaddy of all mobile suit featured in the Universal Century of the Mobile Suit Gundam story line. It was piloted by Amuro Ray during the One Year War and it was designed and developed by Tem Ray (Amuro Ray’s Father) for the Earth Federation Forces (E.F.F). To find out more please click on the photo above or the link here.
It has been a while since I posted a new blog on a new kit! Hopefully I will be able to complete this over the next few days and publish a new blog over the weekend! Wish me luck!
WMS-03 Maganac despite being mobile suits with specifications close for ground and desert use, they have high versatility and their performance surpassed the OZ-06MS Leo. The Maganac was also developed to be operated in cooperation with the XXXG-01SR Gundam Sandrock. Almost all of the 40 units were individually customized to have different abilities and traits such as enhanced melee combat capabilities and communication functions depending on their pilots’ skills and roles. To learn more click on the photo above or the link here.
“This is no Zaku, Boy!!” and yes that is true to a sense as it does not have much of a Zaku likeness. That is the main reason why I really like this design. It is different and yet not too quirky. My plan is to customise this Bugu such that has that beta version look that inspired a Gouf. Or in a way I was inspired by post-apocalyptic “Mad Max” or “Fist of North Stars” biker gang helmet with shoulder spikes! Hence I will be am calling my kit-bashed Bugu “The BUtcher!” swinging a huge Buster sword. To lern more on my entry to ZakuAurelius Clean vs Weathered Competition 2021 please click on the photo above or the link here.
I have submitted my Bandai 1/144 HG MS-04 Bugu [Ramba Ral] into ZakuAurelius Clean vs Weathered Competition 2021. ChrisPabz is one of the judges of the competition and on his youtube channel he gave me some really positive constructive comments and also many things which I can improve on! Check it out on timestamp 16:31.
Take a look at his other videos and if you like send him your WIPs or build for him to review; check out his Instagrambio for the link to send in your photos and follow him!
MS-06S Char’s Zaku 2 is a Mobile Suit featured in the Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin. It was piloted and made famous by the “Red Comet” Char Aznable during the One Year War. Char’s MS-06S Zaku 2 is a customized version of the standard MS-06S Zaku 2 Commander Type, which is basically an overall improved MS-06F Zaku 2 painted in his personal red comet colours. To find out more click on the photo above or the link here.
The MS-06FZ Zaku 2 Kai is one of several variants of the MS-06 Zaku II line of Mobile Suits (Kai is a Japanese word used to designated as improved, modified/altered from the original). It was first seen featured in Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket and was piloted by Bernard Wiseman. To find out more please click on the photo above or click on the link here.
So to celebrate Father’s day, I have seen many people have been featuring a father and child gunpla using SDCS kit with MG scale kits. Thus I thought it would be also appropriate to talk about my SDCS collection with their slightly larger than life HG counterpart (mainly because I do not have any MG kits).
SD Gundam Cross Silhouette (SDCS) is a line of Super Deformed Gunpla kits introduced by Bandai in June 2018. This new series features 2 options to either build a standard 8.5 cm “SD” type kit or adding limbs extensions to make it a taller 9.5 cm “CS” frame with slightly less SD proportions.
The first kit of the series is SDCS RX-78-2 Gundam which is released in late Jun 2018 with a retail price of ¥1,540 and the HG RX-78-2 Gundam (Origin Version) is released in mid-Mar 2020 with a retail price of is ¥2,530.
I repainted the livery of my SDCS RX-78 Gundam with the RX-78-1 Black and White. Similarly I repainted my livery of my HG RX-78 Gundam with RX-78-3 Light Grey and changed the backpack kit-bashed from a GM3.
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The SDCS Gundam Ground Type is released in mid-May 2019 with a retail price of ¥1,100 and the HG Gundam Ground Type was from the Ground War set which is released in mid Sep 2009 with a retail price of is ¥2,420.
I swapped my SDCS Ground Gundam with head with a GM head and customised it to look like a Blue Destiny. Similarly I swapped the head unit of the HG Ground Gundam with a GM replacement head and painted the customised kit to look new an improved Ground GM.
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The SDCS Wing Gundam Zero EW is released in early Nov 2019 with a retail price of is ¥1,100 and the HG Wing Gundam is released in mid Sep 2013 with a retail price of is ¥1,650. I customised my SDCS Wing Zero using Bandai Sky High Wings. I customised my HG Wing Zero using the wings from SDCS Zero to give it a quad wings configuration.
This is my collection of “child-like” gunpla kits (with SDCS Nightingale and HG Core 2 Gundam.
So since I painted my first Zaku 2 High Mobility with Tri-Star colour I was wondering what I should do with the version. Since Christmas was round the corner and Thunderbolt Gundam came to mind and hence my Origin Zaku 2 High Mobility is inspired by the Psycho Zaku 2 from Thunderbolt. To find out more please click on the photo above or click on the link here.
A total of fifty-six Zaku 2 High Mobility Types were constructed, with half of the existing Zaku 2 High Mobility Test Types upgraded to the R1-A model. The Zaku 2 High Mobility Type became a highly sought after unit by ace pilots such as the Black Tri-Stars, and Shin Matsunaga. But despite its incredible popularity and high performance, the suit was considered too difficult for rookie pilots to handle, and too expensive for mass production. To learn more please click on the photo above or click the link here.
Bandai /1/44 HG MS-06C Zaku 2 Type C/C-5 is an upgraded version of the earlier space use Zaku 2 Type C, the Zaku 2 Type C-5 is usable in both space and earth, and also has a different cockpit. The suit also has a new optional forearm armament, the Twin Machine Gun, mainly for use against battleships and combat vehicles. Check it out by clicking on the photo above or the link here.
The High Grade MS-05S Char’s Zaku 1 is a Bandai 1/144 scale kit released in early Dec 2016. The origin storyline and kits are still relatively new kit with new moulding. It still uses polycaps, but it has a lot more articulation to allow more dynamic posing when compared to the older HG versions. To find out more please click on the photo above or click the link here.
I was inspired to give Barbatos Lupus Rex the Gold treatment especially it is the “King”. Hence I have planned the original Barbatos in its original Gundam-like White, Blue and Red, while the Lupus is in Dark Silver, which nicely leading to a Dark Gold for the Lupus Rex. To find out more please click on the photo above or click on the link here.
I was inspired by the Tieren Groud Type military tank-like look that I gave it a brownish livery to pay tribute to the USA M1 Abrams in Desert Livery. I also added a small Gatling gun below the cockpit to add to the military vide. The L-shaped shoulder shields reminded me of a Zaku, hence I kit bashed 2 shields from my Zaku to give this MS more protection. Find out more by clicking on the photo above or the link here.
I am interested in this Bandai 1/144 HG ZGMF-Z10A Freedom Gundam because Bandai has constructed the first life-size Gundam outside of Japan in Shanghai! Standing at 18.0 meters tall, physically it does sort of standout but that is not the only item but (in) the name of “Freedom Gundam” is sort of an irony to be proudly displayed in China. Please click on the banner above or the link here for more details.
The High Grade Cosmic Era (HGCE) GAT-02L2 Dagger L is a 1/144 scale kit released in 2021. It is latest HG kit released by Bandai and the HG Dagger L shares some of the similar joint system with the Infinite Justice Gundam (hence the head unit is easily swappable and similar in scale). Also as a new kit, poly caps are not used but instead a series of spigot joints or hinges are used instead. Check out the blog by clicking on the photo banner above or the link here.
I was able to custom my Justice Gundam into a Neo Roanoke Windam Custom, which is a unique purple and neon green accent colour scheme. I basically just swapped the head with of the Justice Gundam with a Windam head unit and used the Windam beam rifle. I am very happy how the custom turns out; it really looks more like an Ace Mobile Suit. Please check out the blog by clicking here or the photo banner above.
One of the main reasons I got into the SD/CS series is because Bandai has released a MSN-04II Nightingale. I know Bandai has also released a RE1/100 version and I am never too keen on a 1/100 scale model as it takes too long and take up too much space on the shelf. Shelf space is premium in our house now days!
I bought this kit with the Cross Silhouette add-on to allow me to make a slightly less deformed version of the Nightingale. This kit is although none scaled, it is still quite a huge kit; the shoulders and tail sections are already almost similar height to an EG RX-78 Gundam. Parts separation are not too shabby for a “Fun” kit, but I wish the vernier thrusters are moulded in separate parts so that I can paint it in different colours (masking is possible as well but has a curved and raised edges thus it is not easy to get a clean separation).
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As usual I pre-shade my painting scheme, but I tried to do something different this time; I was hoping to give it a more “organic” look, like a mechanical crab with lots of blemishes and spots. This will also help to break up the majority red scheme and give it interesting surfaces textures.
As said this kit is huge, and when compared side to side with a SD/CS RX-78 Gundam, the Gundam looks inferior in all aspects.
The completed Nightingale also looks bigger and wider when compared to the EG RX-78 Gundam. If Build Divers are a real thing, I will be using my Nightingale!
I really enjoyed putting this kit together. The colours pop, especially the bright orange thrusters bells, and the golden funnels.
Slight disappointment is that the insignia crest on the chest and shield comes as stickers, which I have not used. I could have hand painted the chest crest in but I am not good with hand painting and hence decided against it.
Otherwise the shelf presence of this kit is great and it is easily one of my favourite build so far this year. If you do like my work, please consider supporting this blog by visiting my previous project to keep this blog going, or you can also visit my shop and buy some gifts.
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Unlike some mobile suit pilots I do like carrots; epeically when I am working out what to build next. So if you do like my work, please consider donating to my “Carrot Pot” to help me keep this blog going!
This is my Bandai 1/72 Star Wars X-Wing Starfighter T-65 Space Superiority Fighter. It was built maybe back in 2017. At that time I was still exploring scale models such as Airfix and Revell. Most Japanese brands such as Tamiya, Hasegawa and even Bandai are limited in choices and ranges in most High Street shops in UK.
I only started looking at Gunpla when lockdown started as most hobby shops have went online and then I have access to more overseas brands such as Bandai and I was surprise to find ou that this is still available.I tried to paint the X-Wing in an old metallic finish to present it as an overworked fighter jet and it been repaired using parts from different planes.
I do like how it turns out and really like this design compared to the new X-Wing shown in the new movies.Parts separation is great especially it is a Bandai design. It helps with my colour separation and I really enjoyed the build process. The only thing I dislike about this is that I am not skilled enough to paint the pilot with details hence I just used a lemon yellowy colour base, sigh I still do not know why I used that colour!If you like my work, please feel free to visit the blog at www.itisagunpla.com and have a look at my previous projects. Your continuous support is much appreciated as it helps keep the site going and allow me to do more projects.
When I was much younger and without the internet I was so confused with all the different version of Wing Gundams; saying that Bandai didn’t really help by releasing several “non-scale” version of the Gundam Wings’ mobile suits. Those are actually quite nasty if you compared to todays’ standard. Hence that slightly put me off getting this Bandai 1/144 HG XXXG-00W0 Wing Gundam Zero since 2014, until I recently saw it on www.armourofgod.co.uk.
One of the main reasons is because I don’t really wanted to splash out on a RG version and I wanted to complete my Wing Gundam “Band of Brothers.” As you know I do like to customise my kits and hence my Wings Gundams are slightly not OOB designs. From the left we have Heavyarms, Wing Zero (Fenice), Sandrock, Wing Zero, and Altron.
I have seen many fantastic designs from other modellers online, and many of them took the kit to a new level which I don’t think I will get there in a weeks’ time. So I thought I might as well do something different by combining the wings of the Endless Waltz version to my Wing Zero; to make my own 4 Wings Gundam!
Before doing Gunpla seriously, I tend to do a lot of scale models and sometimes harsh panel lining are not appropriate hence I used pre-shading to help bring out the details and parts separations. In this case, the Wings are majority white hence it is crucial to help lift the details up by giving it a high contrast between black and white. To help tone down the pre-shade it is best to coat the parts with several layers of paint one at a time; for the wings I used 3 layers of white.
The part separation of this kit is adequate, what I don’t like is the skirt armour and the ankle armour. I know in the anime it is mainly white and hence Bandai just moulded it as a single piece, but I love to give each parts its own colours to help bring out the details so I have to do lots of masking to achieve the parts separation I need.
I love painting the thruster bells, I tend to use double sided tape and give it a black coat to help bring out the shine on the silver layer. The silver is to give a metallic shine to the red inside of the thruster bells. Once dried, reversed the thruster bells are sprayed the outside; this will give a nice interesting contrast to the thruster bells and help make it stand out.
I am impressed with the kit, but be warned it is not all great news. The shoulder flaps are on a hinge, and because of paint, the hinge is kind of stuck and hence my shoulders are shown open which I kind of wanted to but would be nice to be able to close them.
The other issue I had is that the leg joints are actually quite loose, hence I have to prop the Wing Zero on a stand for a hovering pose as the leg will drop off easily.
The eagle eye among you will notice that one of my wings are missing in some of the photos, that is because in the nature of kitbash, things do tends to break and super glue is your best friend.
This is a side by side with my Wing Gundam (Fenice), I bought the Fenice because I like the damaged design of the kit, as it kind of reminds me of the original Wing Gundam been self-destructed and kind of try to be put back together. But as you can see both design are although similar in principle but very different in parts design.
I am overall really please that I bought this kit, even though there are some horror stories during the build process mainly because I really dislike painting in white especially it is very difficult to touch up if there are any errors. But the assembled kit and the colour separation make this kit looks good. To be honest it is not near the quality of some of the other artists but I enjoy what I did with my own kit.
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Mine Bandai 1/72 Star Wars Y-Wing Starfighter, this was built before I re-started doing Gunpla again. The main reason is because it is easier to get Japanese branded Sci-Fi kits such as Star Wars instead of Gunpla in the High Street in UK; I guess the chances of people buying a Star Wars kit is higher in a traditional Scale Model/Hobby Shop in UK.
There are several other competing brands that make Star Wars kits but they have weird scaling and not as detailed as a Japanese manufacture. I grew up knowing Bandai and hence I trust Bandai’s effort in making something good. The details of the Y-Wing is great, there are several pipes mould individually; it also comes with an instruction manual that shows you the actual model they have followed to make this a screen accurate. To be honest, I don’t really care much of screen accuracy. But I do care that when I put this together, it should look great and fantasy realistic.I changed the colour scheme of the Y-Wing slightly, mainly along the exposed body, I gave it a mechanical dark iron to help brings out the gold and copper pipework. I gave the Y-Wing a slightly stronger yellow to help give it a bit more contrast to the dark tone.The shading are all done using air brush using the pre-shading; these are the days before I started at serious with my models and panel lining.
Yes, I don’t just do Gunpla, I have done quite a few scaled models mainly WW2 planes and some modern jets and Helicopters. I hope I will slowly start blogging about them especially I have started to slow down a bit on my build process and a dwindling Gunpla backlog.If you like my work please consider visiting my other projects to help keep this blog going.
This is my Bandai 1/144 HG RGC-83 GM Cannon 2. This is an OOB build with no attempt to kitbash and customise; mainly because I am not sure what else is needed to make a “prefect” kit better. It is strange the after watching “0083 Stardust Memories”, I am not actually interested in the GP01, GP01FB, GP02, and GP03, those to me are just “meh!” it is not that I dislike the Gundams but the mobile suits design that had me excited are Gerbera-Tetra, Titians’ Quel, GM Cannon 2 and the Federation F2 Zaku 2.
To be honest, “Stardust Memories” on its own has helped renew my interest in the Gunpla hobby. I have collected almost all the mobile suit design from the series, and this this kits are barely modified OOB. This Cannon 2 I would assume is the upgraded version of the original Guncannon, it features the similar double long range cannon backpack and it is fires from the shoulder of the mobile suit. In the Anime, the Cannon 2 is a supporting partner to the GP01 when they are trying to recover GP02.
Compared to the other mobile suit, the Cannon 2 looks “fatter” because it is equipped with Chobham Armour which is inspired from RX-78NT-1 Gundam “Alex”. I could imagine that it will look similar to the Quel (which is re-painted to look like a Custom GM) when the armour is taken off.
As said, I believe Cannon 2 is an upgraded version of the Guncannon, and you can see although they do not have much of a similarly, but in principal both mobile suits have similar features.
This is a side to side comparison to other “grunt” mobile suits from the anime. From the left is one of my favourite Zaku 2 variant, and the right is my GM Type C.
The articulation of this suit is typical of a HG, I am not saying it will do splits and some “Kung Fu” poses, but as a long range support, I think I am quite happy with the pose I have set. Parts separation for painting is actually not too bad; I am able to achieve the colour scheme I intended without the need of much masking.
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This is my Bandai 1/144 HG RX-0 Unicorn Gundam [Destory Mode]; I have already blogged about this project here. This is now my attempt to update this project with better photos to give it justice as it is one of my favourite build in 2020.
I did not customise this kit much at all because I can’t think of any ideas. There is a saying you can improve on prerfection, and I think this is one of this kit that I just want to build it the way it is. I did give it a slightly more metallic blue accent because I just prefer to give it a bit more contrast over a whole white base.
I also gave it more weapons and shield from my Unicorn [Normal Mode]. This just helps to justify the “Destory Mode” title!
I had not have the chance to get a Full Frontal Sinanju so I have no choice to use a Stein.
This is just a side-by-side comparison to my EG RX-78 Grand-Daddy. You can see the technology have improved on the Gundam line since RX-78 rolled out.
This is a comparison to some other mobile suits that appeared in the in the Anime. The left is my Delta Plus customised to look like a MSN-00100 Hyaku Shiki, and to the right is my Jesta which was painted in Jegan Green.
The Bandai 1/144 HG RX-79BD-2 Blue Destiny Unit 2 is not my first Blue Destiny kit, I actually already owned 2 but saw this on www.armourofgod.co.uk and decided to purchase it as a custom unit. I knew that Bandai actually updated their mould for the Blue Destiny and my previous 2 models are the improved version; this kit I just bought sadly isn’t.
This Bandai 1/144 HG RX-79BD-2 Blue Destiny Unit 2 is released in 2007, although it has some good parts separation mainly around the legs. I am slightly disappointed with the torso. The latest version has the vents and waist cannons moulded in separated pieces for easy painting but this is moulded with the intention of using stickers and masking. The skirt armour is also mould as a single piece which I have to mask to get the colour separation I am aiming for. In the end, I drilled out that waist cannons and repurpose the beam sabres to provide the part separation.
I am not keen on making another Blue Destiny kit, and I was inspired by the latest PBandai Mudrock. The Mudrock is the 6 variant of the RX-78 design; it is modified to improve on the original design by giving it more long range fire power. I thought the Blue Destiny unit is a good start because the chest itself is already equipped with several ballistic weapons. Thus, my kitbash included a head unit from a Ground Gundam, Beam Cannons from Ground Gundams, Heavy Beam Rifle from Gun Cannon, Heavy Shield from Alex NT-1, and Hand Gatling Pods from Powered Arms Powereder Weapons Pack from Build Divers.
The double Beam Cannon made this Gundam very back heavy and thus I am not able to get it to stand on its own; luckily I have a few spare stands to use.
I am not too keen on the original lemony yellow accent of the Mudrock but after playing with some colours, the Teal blue and off white base colours actually worked quite well together. Don’t look too closely on this kit, the details and panel lines are not deeply cut in early 2000 hence there are lots of searing from panel lining, I tried to clean up as best as I could, but I am not patience enough. Also my masking isn’t really up to scratch, there are several places with the paint bleeding and I have to touch up using hand brushing.
Saying that, once I completed everything and assembled everything together, I am really surprise how well the colour combination turned out. The kit looks mecha handsome with its edgy corner, the huge weapons and shield gave it a battle ready look. Both my Mudrock Custom and EG RX-78-2 look like they are ready to be deployed.
This is my Mudrock Custom standing next to the mine other improved moulding of the Blue Destiny. Although you may not seeing the parts separation, but you can clearly see the vents and waist cannons on the previous units looks sharper and more defined. There are not much difference in terms of design between the newer moulding and the old, but I can see that the Mudrock as a slightly slimmer leg tight compared to the new models. This makes the new models having a slightly stubby look.
I gave my Mudrock Custom the number “06” because it is the 6th variant of the RX-78, I also used some red triangles to help give it a more closer representation to the actual Mudrock. Deep down, I know I had made a lot of mistake painting this, but I actually do like the colour, the customised weapons and look. This unique colour kind of refreshes and stood out on the shelf of my other entire similar colour Gundam. This is also a trash kit of the year for me but I am glad I finished it.
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This is another attempt to update my older blogs with better photos. Bandai 1/144 HG RGM-79C GM Type C is one of my favourite GM to be fair the anime Stardust Memories came out with several designs that are quite high up on my list of favourites. This is also an anime where I believe more engineering thoughts are put into the mechas’ drawings and design.
I am usually into kitbashing and modify mine kit to give it a personal spin, but I struggle to come up with a better idea other than to paint this to how I remembered it when I was much younger watching the anime. I also gave it a beam rifle from my Hazel.
This Type C GM has become the run off the mill at the later end of the One Year War, I have to say this is a much better looking mecha than the original Red and White cannon fodder GM.
This Type C GM has become the run off the mill at the later end of the One Year War, I have to say this is a much better looking mecha than the original Red and When you compared it to the EG RX-78 Gundam, you can see that the GM Type C has a slightly bulkier design, I would love to say that this Type C is an improved version but sadly no.
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This is the latest “Revive” version of Bandai 1/144 HG XXXG-01H Gundam Heavyarms; if you are ever lucky enough to grow up assembling one of the love & hate anime to plastic toys to help expand an plastic toy empire yes it will be the Gundam Wing Series and if I am not wrong the other most “milked” series in Bandai history. I am not saying the plastic quality are bad, it is actually very good when I was a kid, also if you want a double Gatling Guns for kitbash you will have no choice to get the original 1/144 Heavyarms Custom from Endless Waltz.
I am fortunate enough to get my hands on a pre-order kit from www.armourofgod.co.uk, they are a UK based online shop that has been my main supplier of kits since lockdown from March 2020. Please check them out if you are looking for kits, but be warned they do sell out very quickly.
To be honest, I have not been Heavyarms greatest fan, being an engineer and army I just do not believe in chest Vulcans or a heavy Gatling Gun as a hand (it makes it so imbalance…part of the Gundam lore); I mean it is a cool gimmick when I was a kid but I think it just takes the sci-fi fantasy one step too much for me. Ok ok! Mine quadruple Gatling guns are a bit over the top but I am just “compensating” and trying to help the pilot to shift the weight balance of the machine for efficient manoeuvrability
The other gripe I have with Heavyarms is the White/Orange colour which just for me do not match with the heavy gun blazing machine; I think the series did tried to fix it by giving it a new colour in Endless Waltz by changing it to White/Blue but it is still a bit of a half arse fix because the colour don’t even match the personality of the pilot.
Nonetheless, this is Gunpla and I am able to change out the colour to whatever I want. Thus, one of the reasons why it took me a while to get this kit started is because I can’t make up my mind about which colour scheme to go for BUT if you really want to know, I blame Covid for delaying the postal service from overseas (I think Brexit played a part too).
I finally went for a Cheddar Cheese colour which is based on Beam Master and Baster Master from the Build Divers Series. The Beam Master and Blast Master design is based around a long range support unit with lots of weapons. Hence I thought since my custom Heavyarms will be kitted out with lots of guns I thought it will be great to give it an Orange based colour and take up a support role for the other Wing Gundams.
While building this, I come to realise that the kit quality and assembly design has really come a long way since. The parts separation for colours and painting is actually really good; even if the parts are not separated they have relatively sharp corners to allow easy masking. Thus, I am really able to mix if lots of different colour combination on a HG kit.
Articulation is not bad as well, but because I have overloaded my Heavyarms the legs tend to separate on its own after a while, hence I have to put it on a stand; or some people will strength the hip joint with dry glue.
Slowly and surely, my customised Wing Gundam Team is coming along well, Bandai did recently announced that the HG Deathscythe will be released later in 2021. In a way I do like to customised my kits and I like them to be uniquely different from others, hence each of my Wing Team members have quirky kitbash to showcase its own individuality. From the left it is mine Altron, Heavyarms, Wing Zero and Sandrock.
In the anime, Heavyarms and Sandrock pilot came to work together in their own strange ways and hence I thought it will be good to at least pay a tribute to their friendship with a Maganac.
And finally it is fair to give a shout out to the Leo which is the receiving end of all the bullets Heavyarms spewed out throughout the anime. Oh Poor Leo!
And as part of a tradition of this blog I would do a side to side comparison of a common HG kit as a benchmark of size and design. I used to use a HG RX-78-2 Origin, but I think the EG RX-78-2 is a more common kit now days which most people starting out will probably had come across or build one.
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Bandai recently released another iteration of OO Sky with a backpack weapon set since I already have a OO Sky I just don’t need another similar version. But it happenes that www.armourofgod.co.uk has this kit in stock and just thought why not and bought a set off them to upgrade my own OO Sky.
The weapon set came with 2 different backpack option sets for the OO Sky and AGE2 Magnum, but since I do not have a AGE2 Magnum, I do have a OO Diver. The AGE2 weapon set does look like a GN drive so I thought it will fit nicely on my OO Diver.
The weapon set is relatively simple and I have to say parts separation could have been better. Details are not bad but luckily most of the parts have good edges for masking. Yes lots of masking to make it look at least half decent.
Both the weapon packs looks good on both OO Sky and OO Diver. The OO Sky has become slightly back heavy and it falls over a lot easier. Good thing the weapon set comes with a stand and I will be posing the OO Sky with the stand going forward. Even so, I think it is a great upgrade. It gave my OO Sky and OO Diver a fresh look!
I really like the weapon set, it makes the OO Sky looks a lot more ready for battle! I prefer my custom colour scheme as well, it looks more adept and fitting on my OO Sky as compared to the original teal green colour..
Even though the weapon pack does not belongs to the OO Diver, I think it gives the OO Diver more bulk and battle ready look.
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I had this Bandai 1/144 HG MS-14JG Gelgoog Jäger for quite a while and I just realise that I had not written a blog about it. I think one of the main reason is because I didn’t actually quite like what I did with this kit. To be fair, the design is great but because it is a relatively old Bandai kit, the seam lines are very visible in many places. Yes, I could have hidden and cement in the seam lines but at that time I think I was already slightly disappointed with the kit hence I was planning to put in too much effort.
But I guess that is one of the reason why it was a eye candy for me. Nonetheless, I do like the unique Gelgoog shape and the big beam machine/sniper rifle that comes with the kit. Saying that, this kit comes with nothing else, no shield, maybe some beam sabers.
Beside lacking in wepaons and accessories, the kit is also suffers from surfaces details, but I guess it is not unexpected from an old kit which it is in the same eara of “War in the Pocket” but I can’t remember which scene it was in. Hence I used my Alex as a side by side comparsion.
Everyone who watched “War in the Pocket” will remember the famous Kampfer!
And of course my all time favourite Zaku 2 FZ still ironically finished the work which the more advanced Kampfer was designed for.
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I started this as a “frankenstein” experiment to see if I am able to kit bash a box of spares and unwanted High Grade kit from Ebay. Bandai Iron Blood Orphans kits are actually quite easy to work with especially most of the kits shares the same “inner frame”. This blog post is just basically to update my previous Pinkinstein with new photos and a short video. Please take a look at my other projects to support this website and my work.
The Bandai 1/144 HG MS-14F ‘Gelgoog Marine’ is released in 2000, I am lucky enough to find a ‘reprint’ with a blue Bandai badge at Galactictoys on ebay. This kit is not easy to find but this is one of the better Gelgoog variants ever release in HG scale.
I always wanted to do Char’s Red Comet Gelgoog, but the original design is although similar in shape but is lacking in details. This variant is from the Stardust Memories series and has some good details and some adequate articulations. The kit is somewhat sparse as it only comes with a small Zaku machine gun, 2 light effect beam sword and a modified Zaku shield with spikes. I have to make my own beam rifle that look like what Char had used when he had the Gelgoog, also I have to superglue the hilt of the beam swords together to make it look like the twin beam sword.
I appreciate that the eagle eyed people will notice that my Gelgoog do not have an commander fin which Char’s Gelgoog has. To be honest, this kit do not come with an option for a commander head unit, and I am kind of glad that it didn’t because I already have a few HG Gelgoog and they all have a commander fin, so I really do not need another “Commander” unit. I am always hoping to build a original Gelgoog with it menacing huge shoulders and clean smooth racoon lokking head.
One of the reason why I had not built a Red Comet version of the Gelgoog is because it is quite difficult to get the Salmon pink colour and dark red torso colour correct. I have been experimenting with colour mixing and it is only unitl now I have some confidence of getting the colour almost correct. This kit also has some nasty seam lines running down the middle of most parts such as arms, legs, tights, I have to ‘cement’ them together and sand off the seam lines using my sanding sponges from DSPIAE. The sanding sponges are great for this kit because Gelgoog has rounded surfaces. I bought mine from www.armourofgod.co.uk.
I am hoping one day I will be able to build Red Comet Zaku 2 to accompany my Char’s Zaku 1 and Gelgoog. Saying that I already owned lots of Zaku 2, thus I am actually trying to get a Zaku 2 F2 instead and repainted it in Char’s red. The F2 has a different shaped chest which is unique from the normal Zaku 2 design, hence I am hoping it will make my Red Comet Zaku 2 special!
This kit also do not come with any decals which is not a surprise, so I used some of the decals that from my RG Zaku 2 to help bring out some of the edges of my Gelgoog.
The MS-14F Gelgoog is baiscally similar to the MS-14Fs Cima Custom Gelgoog. If you have a choice to buy either one of them, I would say go for the Cima’s variant because you will get more plastic for your money. Cima comes with a shield, beam machine gun, more details, and more fuel tanks etc. You can see that the Cima version has a different chest design which is a lot more edgy compared to the normal design.
Another interesting variant is the Bandai 1/44 HG MS-14JG Gelgoog Jager (on the left of the photo). ZakuAurelius from Youtube has recently uploaded a video on this variant. please take a look at his videos; I really enjoy his insight into the kits and I tend to watch his videos before buying a kit. One of the main reason I bought the Jager is becaue it looks different from normal Gelgoog design and I was tempted by the big beam machine gun; basically it shares similar parts of the Marine but if you have a chance the Cima’s variant is still the best out of these 3. Looking at the photo, I am quite surprise that my Red Comet custom actually looks a lot more commander vide even though they are all the ‘same’.
Details on the Jager is slightly lacking but it is better than my MS-14F (Red Comet), Cima has the best details. I also did not use the fuel tanks that comes with the Gelgoog Marine and kit bashed with thrusters bells instead . I am aiming for a quick reactive variant just like and a cleaner profile.
And fianlly my side to side comparison to Char’s rival RX-78-2 Origin. The Gelgoog looks so much more beefier than the RX-78 and that is one of the reason why I prefer the Gelgoog over the Gundams when I am still a lad. If you do like my work please support this site by visiting my previous projects or leave a “Like” on my Youtube video and this blog.
Bandai 1/144 HG RX-121-2 Gudam TR-1 [Hazel 2] is released in 2006. It is a realtively old kit, but the sculpt is relatively mecha handsome and looks good in different angles. Since it is an old design the joints are basically plastic against polycaps; so don’t expect this kit to hold a pose for long if the joints are weighted down. I bought this kit from Galactictoys Ebay; bascially it is the same but I find that this is easier to manage as it sort out the custom and delivery as one purchase.
I always wanted a Titans’ colour mobile suit, but I struggle to get the colour correct because it is either a Titan’s blue in some box art or purplish in the anime. Thus I can never decide on what to do, also I already have a Gundam Mk2 in white hence I don’t really want another Mk2 just for a colour change. The Hazel 2 gave me a good compromise as it came with a RX-78 type head with different head camera options. Hence this Hazel is a Gundam Mk2 wannabe but with some modifications.
I am also inspired after watching Build Fighters anime where they used a modified Gundam Mk2 with a G-Defensor booster! It was quite difficult to get my hands on the Build Fighter Mk2 and I am not really keen on the head and chest design hence I thought this Hazel 2 will look great when customised with a Booster backpack instead. I also kit-bash my Hazel with GM3 backpack, head vulcan and beam machine gun from Jegan, Side skirt armour from GM Command. In order to get the booster to retro-fit securely to the GM3 backpack, I have to drill a 2mm hole to accept the peg from the booster; I could used super glue as well but I thought a hole and peg will give me more options in the future.
I love how it comes together despite the terrible seam lines. I tried to remove the seam lines with the least effort possible such as the tights and legs. It is basically glueing it together and wait for it to dry and sand it off using my new sponge sanding sticks by DEPIAE. I bought my from www.armourofgod.co.uk.
My inspiration is to create a unique Gundam Mk2 look-alike and I think I did a pretty good job! The shoulder armour chest vents, add-on head vulcan, ad GM3 backpack does helps.
In reality, the Hazel is actually a Quel with a different head. I painted my Quel in GM Custom colours because I prefer the Quel simplistic design over than the GM Custom with it extra wider shoulders. The Quel have huge calf muscles and legs, it is good to know that the Titans do not skip legs days at the gym. As said although the Hazel is based on the Quel, the upper chest and back connector for the backpacks are different on the hazel but otherwise they are completely the same (apart from the head design).
I was quite please it is all assembled together. I had reservations on the Hazel 2 huge backpack and that is one of the reason why it had not bought this kit, but with the booster pack it looks like a total different machine. Also the dark purplish tint, this gundam stands out on the shelf with my other design and now I know why Titans called it the “Dark” Gundam.
This is a side-by-side comparision to my older Hazel which I have kit-bashed it with a Tristan backpack for the same reason I did not like the backpack the Hazel came with. I painted the Hazel in Gundam Thunderbolt colour since I was inspired that the Hazel is my working front line machine. Both kits are similar is some ways and shared similar parts but the Hazel Custom has different legs design which makes this another unique Gundam kit on my shelf.
This is my Hazel standing side-by-side with my RX-78 Origin for size comparision. Interestingly the Hazel looks a lot more beefy and “muscular” compared to the slim RX-78. Look at the calves muscles on the Hazel!
That said, I like this kit a lot and enjoyed looking at it but because I was too excited with the kit potential I rushed quite a bit in the painting process and kind of overshaded some parts and when masking I did not pay too much attention on how well the masking tape sticks down. I ended up with several paint bleeds and because the violet blue was a custom colour I wasn’t able to replicate the same tint hence it looks messed up at places.
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Bandai 1/144 HG RGM-79G ‘GM Command’ kit is released in 2004. This is a relatively old kit with limited joints movement, badly placed seam lines and use of polycaps as hinges. This kit although is old but the design and sculpt gives it a handsome mecha vide, to be honest this is one of the besy looking GM in HG lineup. Bandai has also released several different variant of this design such as the Space and Cold District. They are all very similar and the differences are the colours, weapons and backpacks.
I bought my kit from Galactictoys when they are still selling kits for less than USD 10! This has been in my backlog for a while, and I have saving this for a rainy day especially I already have the Space variant and I don’t really need another GM Command.
But after seeing Bandai releasing a PBandai version of the Pale Rider, I thought I should be be able to kit bash a Pale Rider out of my spares using the GM as the base unit. I ended up with an old Tristan’s legs and arms armour, Ez8’s shield, Old Ground GM’s side skirts, and Ground Gundam’s weapons. One of the main reason why I like this GM kit is because this is the one of few design where the mobile suit has 4 chest vents and the vents are part separated from the chest unit which means easy painting. This really helps especially the Pale Rider has a distinctive 4 white chest vents. Also not forgetting the head antenna and lots of super-glue!
The part separated chest vents is found on the GM variants and also on the more modern GM Sniper. I am not sure why Bandai did not extend this design to the Alex and Tristan as well.
As said, the GM ‘Comand Sapce’ and the ‘GM Command’ are basically the same kit but with different weapons and backpack and colours. I have recently modified my ‘Command Space’ with left over weapons from my ‘Beam Master‘. This makes my ‘Command Space’ also look like a ‘Stark Jegan’ look-alike. Saying that, the ‘Commad Space’ does looks tired and old and has a terrible paint job, but he is my first Gunpla after a 20 years hiatus; he is the true Grand-father of this blog.
I am actually very happy how this kit bash turns out. The the design makes my Custom ‘Pale Rider’ looks more like an Ace unit and almost look par next of the RX-78 Gundam.
Some of you eagle-eyed people may wonder why I used the decals from ‘Alex’ since it is not cannon and not even the same mobile suit. Basically I don’t have much of a backstory and since I have a bunch of decals left over from other kit bash, I just thought I might as well use some to make my ‘Pale Rider’ look more ‘legit’ and the ‘Alex’ font looks very attractive over the white shield. Come to think of it, the ‘Pale Rider’ comes equiped with a HADES system which is a improved version of the EXAM system thus my custom “ALEX” can be an “Autonomous Logic EXam” System! There you go, I have a backstory!
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Bandai EG 1/144 RX-78-2 Gundam was aimed for begineers new to this gunpla hobby. The kit was relatively easy and the parts can be removed from the sprues without using a nippers. The parts separation were actually not bad and the “V”sign at the waist was actually moulded as a separate part and not a sticker! Surface details were not great or acutally none but you can’t expect a HG quality kit for kit that probably cost less than half a normal HG kit.
Because this was a competition submission, I thought I will spend a bit more time and love to prep the surface and sand off the seam lines. Well let’s just say I have good intentions and carry it as far as I could just like a Ball Pod going against a Zaku 2. Mind you if I am a New Type, I might has pulled it off, but I lost my momentum and gave up on decals.
This colour scheme was based on Full Armour Green RX-78-2 Gundam. I planned to submt somethig less common colour scheme as an entry to a painting competition organised by Otaku ME. I used camouflage green to help provide some patterns to the areas where it was missing details.
I have a collection of a few Grand Daddies, and each HG RX-78 variants has slightly different design profiles. My favourite was still the Origin Version, but the head unit assembly design has to be the Revive version. I was actually very disappointed with the Beyod Global version; I was hoping that Bandai will take all the years of expereinces and built a “perfect” RX-78. I used to have high hope on the GBN Base Gundam, because I thought it was meant to be a “clone” of from a popular anime and the Build Fighters GM was actually very good, but this GBN Gundam was just too goofy looking and something just not look correct. Nonethelss, I am surprise that the EG shape is actually very well design and really have a strong impressive pose.
To be fair there are some details such as underneath the shield, the feets, the joints, beam rifle, backpack etc. Hence my aim was to bring out those details but painting them with different colours.
Overall, I am quite surprise how well this kit turns out even though there were areas where I could be more careful with the paint finish and not rush through the prep works. I learnt a lot from this process and I take my hat off to other modellers who has a lot more patience and professionalism in spending the time and days to get everything right.
The Stargazer Gundam, I bought it from Armourofgod in UK maninly because it has a different head design compared to other Gundams and it is a realtively cheap kit which includes a plastic stand and some green decorative rings. I have not watched the Gundam Seed anime series and hence I have no idea what is the history behind the big ring and the mobile suit background story.
But from a quick wiki serach and googling, I found out it is more of a exploration mobile suit instead of combat use. Which is like a Star Trek “Boldly goes where no Mobile suits has gone before” type story. Hence, I was quite keen on painting this in metallic steel or grey to pay tribute to Star Trek Starship type colours.
The kit is basically very simple and straight forward, adequate parts separation for painting and I tend to use a bit more artistic license and change up new colour scheme with masking and kit bashing. But I wasn’t really inspired by this kit so I kept the “re-design” relatively “out-of-box” and simple. The paint finish wasn’t as well done as I hope because I keep having mixed feelings on the metallic colour scheme hence I didn’t really prime the surface hoping that I would paint it over later.
I always wanted to try Vallejo Clour Shift paints which can be air brushed on easily. Hence I thought I would try it on the big ring to makes it stand out. It is recommended to use a black glossy base to bring out the shifting paint.After assembling it, I am slightly surprise that the Stargazer is slightly shorter than a regualr HG Rx-78 Origin.
I also have the Strike Rogue from the SEED series, but Stargazer is a very different design and shorter even though it is from the same series. The Stargazer is probably around the similar height to the smaller Gundams such as Victory and F91. The Altron and Sandrock is only used as a reference, but please take a look at my other projects if you are interested in my builds.
“Set your phaser to stun!” I know it is an exploration Gundam, but I just thought you also need guns just in case! The metallic steel colour came out a lot darker than I had planned, but that is a good mistake because the dark colour helps bring out the yellow reflective stickers than comes with Stargazer. It makes the Stargazer looks like it is also it is ready for a bicycle ride at night to gaze at the stars.
The additional weapons are a beam rifle from AGE and hands cannons from Jupitive. I am quite pleased with the colour shift paint, the Big Ring colour changes at different angles and also in different part of the day. I also mixed the shifting colours by painting a different colour over the first coat when it is still wet. I was hoping it will give it a strange blend of colours.
There are not much of a surface details for this simple kit, which is not a problem because most of the empty spaces are taken up by the reflective yellow stickers. There are 2 sticker colours options Black and Reflective yellow; I would suggest using a light white base finish if you are using the black stickers and if you are using the reflective yellow a dark colour based will suit better.
My metallic dark steel with the reflective yellow scheme makes this Gundam stands out on the shelf and the colour shifting ring changes colour throughout the day and it makes me want to look at it to see what colour has it shifted too. I like what I did, but I don’t like it enough to buy another one.
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I wasn’t keen on this kit until Bandai released the “Fake Nu Unit and Wepaons”pack. This additional add-on set makes the Alus looks like a re-imagined verison of the RX-93 Nu Gundam. I don’t own a HG or RG version of a RX-93, hence I thought this and my customised Captain Zeon will be a great modern and unique tribute to the classic mobile suit.
Bandai recently announced that they will be releasing a new RG Zeong, I never liked that huge design, but I just thought it would be great to use that colour scheme on my Fake Nu Alus! The colour scheme was pretty simple with 3 main colours Purple, Blue, and Red. I tried a heavier preshading and 2 tone shade on some parts to give it a dark vide. The parts separation on this kit is not too bad, which helps with the “creative” painting.
The completed Alus Earthree with the Fake Nu Unit stands almost as tall as the HG Rx-78 Gundam Origin. The Core Gundam is almost up to chest height. I actually bought the Jupitive Gundam to be used with the Fake Nu Unit, but after test fitting, I prefer the curved edges of the Alus, which kind of suited the Fake Nu Unit better.
I actually enjoyed this built. The parts separation allows me to be creative with the colours. The sniper beam rifle allows you to configure it in both open or closed mode which is a nice touch by Bandai. I just don’t have much neagtive thing to say about the kit.
But there is just one minor thing, the purple chest piece in the middle is a sticker, this piece is curve hence hand painting will be difficult and sticker will be quite nasty if not stick on correctly. So it would be easier if Bandai does mould this as a separate piece.
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Disclaimer: I am not saying I dislike the following projects but just saying there are some bits that I do not like about it in terms of build process and final colour scheme or design which I believe I could have done better.
1. Bandai 1/44 HG HG GAT-04 Windam
I bought the Windam purely because it is a realtively new kit and it uses a new type of joint system which is similar to the 30MM and Leo. But while building it I isn’t really convince with the long antennas (V fin) of the original head sculpt and it makes it look like a “bug” hence I switched to a Gundam looking head that I found in my box of kit bash. While putting things together I am inspired with RGZ-91B Re-GZ Custom and thought I should paint this suit in that colour. I am not unhappy with the design, but somehow the completed colour scheme did not sit well with me; if I am doing it again, I would remove the red accent on the shoulders and used a different shade of blue.
2. Bandai 1/44 HG F91 Gundam
I have high expectations on F91 Gundam, because this is actually the 4th kit I owned. I not sure why but I really like this design, but I can’t seem to complete this kit with a colour scheme I wanted. Anyway I aimed to do a John Harrison version of this HG kit using a different face sculpt. But somehow the paint came out too glossy than what I anticipated, I tried to matte it down a but then it just went fuzzy. Sigh! And to hide my mistake, I tried to do some weathering. To be honest it looks okish in photos but in real life you can actually see painting errors…looks like I need to get another F91 in 2021!
3. Bandai 1/44 RG Zaku 2
I bought the RG Zaku 2 with a high expectation that after all these years of design development Bandai has surpassed itself in plastic technology! That is true however due to the inner frame complexity, some of the joints are weak and the instructions are difficult to understand even for an engineer who read basic japanese. Saying that, I am not disappointed with the final paint job but the build and paint process is tiring especially the power hose bits….I am still having nightmares of spraying tiny plastic bits.
4. Bandai 1/44 HG Wing Gundam Fenice
I think I have made known on several posts that I wasn’t keen onthe Wing Gundam series. However, the green coloured Fenice from the Build Divers anime series has inspired me to start one. I like the bashed and damaged design and the fact that the mobile suit is built up using spares, this is almost the ultimate kit bash! I inspired to do a damaged Wing Gundam with a brown cloak (just like Exia Repair), which I am quite happy with the final result. But I made a mistake by applying too much weathering to try to spearate the white colours, that has made the mobile suit looking strange in real life.
5. Bandai 1/44 HG RX-78GP03S Gundam
There are some kits made by Bandai you have to learn to avoid, like the Tristan and the GP03S! There are lots of warning signs from other reviewers and Youtube channels, but I am interested because the GP01, GP02, GP01FB are relatively good kits despite the age; I thought I should just gamble with the GP03S. I am wrong; the parts separation are terrible, and the bits are fiddly to put together, the huge booster skirt gets in the way of everything, to be fair it would have been more forgiving if it is moulded in different parts for painting. But once finished, it is just okish.
6. Bandai 1/44 HG GBN-Base Gundam
The Build Divers GM was one of my favourite kit, but sadly it did not make it to the top 12 of 2020, hence I thought the GBN-Base Gundam would be a good modern take on the dated Grand-dad design. The body shape has more agressive angles and looks “fit”. I actually like it so much that I bought 2 of this kit, the first version was painted in Thunderbolt dark blue/red and the 2nd was in anime bright blue scheme. The only reason why this is here is because the V fin on the head is slightly too long and this makes the head looks like a bug, especially if you do not clipped away the safety tabs. Also because of the shape of the modern design, the Gundam only looks good at certain angle. I might get another one in 2021 and painted it with more muted Grand-Dad colour.
7. Bandai 1/44 HG MS-14JG Gelgoog Jager
I love a Gelgoog design, and the Jager is no doubt one of the design I have high regards espeically the beam machine gun. But why is it in a my list of least favourite? That is because the joint dessign of this kit is so bad that you can’t really bend and pose apart from doing stationary stance. Bandai in their instruction manual has shown that they are able to pull out some fantastic poses but I am afraid of scratching the paint I did not move it too much. Also the colour scheme jsut did not sit well with me, if I am doing it again I will give it a much stronger colours.
8. Bandai 1/44 HG MS-7B Gouf
I am never interested in the Gouf mainly because I don’t like the huge curved horn design, I just don’t see it been a practical mobie suit design. But that is not the main reason why it is in my list of least favourite. The reason why it is here is because I was disappointed in myself for failing to get the pre-shading for the white to show up properly. I have no choice but to use weathering to break out the total snow white effect. This is the only kit that I might dump into the “Box of Despair”and buy another to do it again. Have I said that I really dislike painting “white”?
9. Bandai 1/44 HG MS-06FZ Zaku 2 FZ
This is actually one of my favourite Zaku 2 FZ variant. This is only here because I am slightly disappointed with my dark colour scheme. I am aimming for a German WW2 shock trooper colours, but my pre-shading for the grey did not show up enough to give it any depth. Hence I actually bought a 2nd kit to and give it a bit of justice.
10. Bandai 1/44 HG RX-93-V2 Hi-Nu Gundam
This RX-93-V2 should be on one of my favourite list but it ended in here because I really dislike the build process of this kit. The weight of the back pack is also makes the mobile suit imbalance and hence I need to use a stand to help it “stand”properly. I also feels the base grey would have been slightly lighter.
11. Bandai 1/44 HG Gundam Astaroth Rinascimento
I love IBO kits, they have this inner frame that makes the mobile suit looks mecahnical. I bought the Astaroth Rinascimento to purposely build a mobile suit that literally assemble from spares parts. I beleive I did achieved the look, but the reason why it is on the list of the least favourite is because I am disappointed with how the colours turned out. I would prefer the grey to have a bit more pre-shading to help with the look.
12. Bandai 1/44 HG Sengoku Astray Gundam
I bought this Sengoku Astray with anticipation that I will make it into a Musha Gundam look alike. I technically did acheived my idea and I liked the coloured scheme, but the reason it is in here because I really dislike the colour I used on the mouth piece; it is too dark to and hence it hides the face. I tried to painted it with red to bring it out, it works a bit but it does not improve the visibility. Sigh!
When I first saw this strong red and metallic gold Captain Zeon Nu-Zeon I wasn’t really keen on getting it, but when I realised it was based on Nu-Gundam I started getting ideas in my head. Mainly because I have not had a RX-93 Nu Gundam, thus I thought I would be able to customised this as an “improved” version of the out-dated kit; especially when Bandai released the Fake Nu Wepaons and I have a spare booster shield from my Hazel. I painted the mobile suit in Gundam colours and I am very pleased with my “creation”.
I did not buy this Unicorn Destory Mode kit thinking I am able to customise it or made it any better. I just saw this in the shop by chance and thought why not since “every” Gunpla builder had one and it is almost like a rite of passage for a Gunpla builder to have at least one Unicorn. I did not really enjoy the build because there are many small parts hence a lot of painting. But once I have finished painting and assembled it together I am surprising pleased with my ideas of using metallic blue and using a double shield set up pinched from my Unicorn Normal.
3. Bandai 1/144 HG MS-06R-1A Zaku 2 High Mobility Type
I was inspired with Christmas and was keen on doing a Thunderbolt Psycho Zaku 2 to pay tribute to the anime for it ‘December Sky’ episode. But after reading some reviews and the Youtude channels on the build process, I wasn’t too keen on paying a hefty price for a rare Zaku 2 with lots of bazookas and huge booster pack. Thus I decided to buy a Zaku 2 High Mobility kit which is much cheaper and comes with lots of spare weapons. I repainted using Thunderbolt Psycho colours and kit based with missiles pod from an old Heavyarms, and a Bazooka from Sinanju Stein (Narrative version). I am actually quite please with how it turns out; the bright red and strong orange accent – just like a psycho Santa!
4. Bandai 1/144 HG MS-05 Zaku 1
I can’t have a Psycho Zaku 2 without the Zaku 1! Which similarly I wasn’t too keen on paying a hefty price for a rare Thunderbolt Orange Zaku 1. Thus I decided to to re-purpose an old Zaku 1 kit from eBay and uses the weapons left over from the Zaku 2 High Mobility kit. I repainted using Thunderbolt Zaku 1 Orange/Yellow colours and kit based with missiles pods from an old Zaku 2 F2. I am actually quite pleased with the completed kit! Now my Psycho Santa has an “Elf”to help carries Santa’s weapons!
5. Bandai 1/144 HG RX-78-2 Gundam (Origin Ver.)
I was slightly surprised that I placed this RX-78 Gundam Origin as 5th on the list; especially this is the one kit I will use to showcase what I can do. But because I like to customise my kits and make them look different and unique to the box art. The other top 4 kits are really “WOW” me when I finished them (also because I had a bad feeling throughout the built process on the other 4 that I might regret my design decisions). This Origin kit is just “perfect” in many ways, it is a solid build and I have confidence that it will ended up a good looking kit. The only big difference is that I used a GM3’s backpack that is kit bashed from my GM3 Beam Master. This backpack is similar to Gundam Mk2, hence I was thinking it could be a prototype for the Mk2. I was inspired by RX-78-3 roll out colours as well. The colour and backpack design helps it to stand out better than all my other Grand-Dads on the shelf!
6. Bandai 1/144 HG GM3 Beam Master
The Build Fighter kit like the GM3 Beam Master comes with lots of spare parts to make either the GM3 or the new Beam Master. I appreciate that many people dislike the cheesy orange colour of the Beam Master but this kit I believe is the ultimate kit bash machine where it comes with lots of spare weapons, shields, backpacks etc which is used on many of my “creations”. I actually bought 2 so that I can build a Thunderbolt inspired GM with lots of shield and double beam cannon and I also made a RGM-109 Heavy Arms lookalike!
7. Bandai SD/CS Gundam Ground Type
I will understand if you are quite confuse when you are expecting to see a SD CS Gundam Ground Type but end up looking at a Blue Destiny inspired Mobile Suit. I was never keen on SD type kit, especially with the googly eyes, but the SD/CS made me changed my mind about this series. I already have 2 HG Ground Type Gundam kits, thus I wasn’t keen on making another version on it in SD/CS. But since the SD/CS booster kit comes with a GM head, I thought I could actually make a “Blue Destiny” inspired mobile suit. The most stressful process of this kit bash is painting the large visor red; I am glad it came out ok! Phew! What a cutie!
8. Bandai 1/144 HG XXXG-01SR Gundam Sandrock
I wasn’t keen on the Wing Gundam series because when it was aired, especially I was already in my late teens and hence wasn’t interested in “kiddy” cartoons. Due to lockdown, I am starting to get myself back into Gunpla, and Bandai has a plan of re-releasing the the Wing Gundam kits in late 2020 and into 2021; which I was inspired to start a series on “band of brothers”. This new version of Sandrock has great parts separation for painting compared to the older version. I had a blast building this kit and kit bashed the wings of Jiyan Altron to make fangs for the Cobra shield and as a red cape for my “Centurion”!
9. Bandai 1/144 HG Gundam Jiyan Altron
This is my Jiyan Altron, it is a Build Fighter version but I preferred this over the older version of Bandai HG kit. This modern kit has more parts separation, surface details and better joint movement. I have modified the Dragons arms to come out of the backpack instead of the shoulders.
10. Bandai 1/144 HG UGY-R41 (Land) Man Rodi
Man Rodi is a simiple HG kit, and there is not much to it. But it is one of my favourite build this year because the colour scheme and legs used for land makes this kit very unique. It is not an easy kit to get hold of and I have to wait for a long time before seeing both the legs and Man Rodi kit on sale on eBay. I also added a large shield to the kit to give it a “Security Guard” look.
11. Bandai 1/144 HG Lightning Z Gundam
I did not customise this Lightning Z Gundam kit at all apart of cutting out the plastic that holds the cable for the rifle scope. This is another hard kit to find. I always wanted a Zeta kit, but I don’t like the transformation of the HG Zeta kit hence I have been eyeing this none transformer version, also this kit has a “pistons” waist which is helps with the mechancial feel of the Zeta unit. What I did was that I spend quite a long time build this because I want this to be “perfect” Zeta Gundam!
12. Bandai 1/144 HG RX-78-2 Gundam
Finally my 12th favourite kit of 2020. When I bought this Rx-78-2 Gundam I didn’t actually get it for the mobile suit but for the Core Fighter as this is the only kit that Bandai released in the HG scale that comes with Core Fighter. But I thought it would be a waste to not build the mobile suit, because this shape and design was one of the tradtional Grand-daddy! So I kit bashed the backpack from the Origin with the cannon, shield from the Tristan and machine gun from Alex Gundam. I was inspired by Psycho Gundam colours and thus painted it to looks like it. I really like how it turn out, pretty crazy right!?
I bought the Mobile Pod Ball from eBay at a good price and had been sitting in my backlog for a while. Since it is close to Christmas time I was inspired to make do something that looks like a Christmas Tree Bauble and I thought the Pod Ball rather fits the part!
I can’t remember the last ime I built a MG scale model, it must be more than 20 years, just mainly because I prefer a simpler and more straight forward built from a HG scale. But this Pod Ball althought it is a MG scale it is relatively smaller in size. Also I was inspired to do an exposed Pod which looks like it is under repair or maintenance.
The MG kit has a lot more details than a normal HG kit. Parts separation are great and I am able to paint most of the mechanical parts with different colours without the need to use lots of masking. The details are nicely moulded in and allow me to hand paint some of the ball surface with metallic colours easily.
The MG Pod Ball although it is 1/100 scale, physcially it is not too much taller than my HG RX-78 Origin. It is only that tall because it is on a “work stand”.
I really enjoy putting this together. I love the exposed mechanical look and metallic finish. Bandai also provided a metal rod to be simulate a hydraulic piston for the arms and red wires for the control and power cables for the claws.
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The Man Rodi kit was released by Bandai in 2015. Althought it is considered a recent kit but I struggle to find any in stock from my regular online seller shops. I saw it by chance on eBay for a decent price and went for it. Initially I wasn’t keen on the Man Rodi just because I did not like the design of its “space”legs. Hence when I saw the IBO Mobile Suit Option Set 9, I started to have some ideas.
Not many people are interested in getting an Option Set because they are going at crazy prices online. But the Option Set 9 is really good as it gives you 2 machine guns which can be used on the Gusion Rebake Full City, some accessories for Graze and parts to make Geirail!
Parts separation are not bad for a simple kit, but I have to do some masking bring out the details.
Overall, it is a very simple HG kit, but there are good surface details. Some panel lines are quite shallow but that is possibly due to the curved shape of the mobile suit.
I am warming up to the design especially the curves. I assume the Man Rodi was inspired by the Gusion which I have built previosuly and also the Gusion Rebake Full City.
Usually I would tend to customise my kits to make it uniquely mine. But in this case, after converting it to a Landman Rodi and repainting the colour change to suit the anime. I just thought by adding a shield which has almost similar surface details would make this suit looks more like a “Security Guard!”
The Rodi and the Gusion looks really similar which is no surprise as the Rodi is designed to act as a “Wingman” for the Gusion. With them side-by side the Gusion looks more like a big brother to the Rodi.
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I wasn’t keen on the Wing Gundam anime when it first air in Japan. Hence I wasn’t interested in the original release of the 1/144 model kits. It is only when I recently watched Build Divers, I saw how they were able to customise the Wing Zero and the Altron I started to get some inspiration.
It is not until I realised Bandai have released the “revive”Sandrock. Maganac and Heavyarms and in 2021 Deathscythe, I started to get serious and planned to collect and build the Wing Gundam Suits.
I wasn’t keen on the original white base and blackish scheme, which I thought it wasn’t really “Sandrock”looking and it is too different to the Maganac. I decided to give it a sandy beige base with a dark brown tone to give it a desert scheme. Sandrock is also a leader to the Maganac so the desert theme is much more suitable.
I read that the pilot of the Sandrock comes from a rich family and hence I thought a bit of yellowy god will be just right to show his family wealth. I have also kit bashed the wings of the Jiyan Altron to made 2 huge fangs to the cobra shield.
I actually quite pleased with the design of Sandrock as I think it gives a Roman Centurion vibe, hence I coloured the fangs red since I have always remembered Roman Centurion Officers wear a red cape in the history books.
The Wind Gundam kits are usually a bit smaller in scale to the UC design, which you can see side by side with R-78 Origin.
So far I only have 3 Wing Gundams kit; I have preordered Heavyarms so I am hoping it will arrive before Christmas 2020.
You can’t have Sandrock without the Maganac and the Leos! I have customised one of my Leo to look like a “Tallgeese“! If you enjoy my work please feel free to browse my other other previous work to help keep this project going.
This is actually my 3rd Zaku 1! I found this on eBay built and thought I could use this as spare parts for my kit bash. But instead after creating my Thunderbolt Pyscho Zaku 2, I thought it would be nice to complete the story with a Thunderbolt Zaku 1 as well.I have lots of spare Zeon type bazookas and a sniper rifle which would work well with this scheme. I used the legs missiles from my other Zaku 2 F2, which not great fit but a little bit of blue-tac on kit bash works wonder. In Thunderbolt, this Zaku 1 is seen to be carrying lots of weapons hence I was going for that look by overloading it. It does kind of look like a Santa’s Elf carrying all the presents.
The Zaku 1 is just a bit smaller than the improved version of the Zaku 2 High Mobility.Side by side with Rx-78 Origin. Not too much difference in height and size. I still prefer the engineered heavy industry use look of the Zaku 1.My band of Zaku 1 brothers. The Blue Zaku 1 was inspried by Ramba Ral with a big galting gun just like his Gouf. The Red version was inpsired as Char’s refinded clean look as a calm tactician.
I used some photo etched parts for the elbow joints. I left it unpainted because I wanted the hinges to be metaillic silver.
Getting the mild yellow colour was not easy, I spend 2 days testing out colours, but I finally went for a combination of Vallego Dark Skin tone with a drop of Red Orange.If you enjoy my work please feel free to browse my other other previous work to help keep this project going.
Bandai Real Grade Zaku 2 at 1/144 scale is a marvel of Bandai innovative manufacturing process to mould moveable joints and hinges together as a single plastic piece.
I had so much hope and so excited when I bought this as my first RG kit from eBay. But boy, this is no ordinary Zaku 2 when compared to the standard HG kit. This is much more complex and has many small parts, which is actually very good in terms of parts separations. However, I did not enjoyed one bit of this build. I struggled to understand the instrucitons even though I read basic japanese and I review technical/construction drawings for a living.
Some of the parts are so small that I am not able to use either clips or double sided tape to hold it down for painting. Espeically the hose armours, they are just small loose rings that i have to individually string it up and spray them one by one. Also the internal frame has build in joints and hinges that if you painted them over, they will pracitcally fused together and stopped moving.
Super glue and cement are your friend when putting this together. Some of the external armour is just a push fit onto the inner frame, and these are to allow movement to simulate “Real” world movement of the joints, and these are so loose and keeps popping out.
I have used a sinper rifle and bazooka magazines from my other HG Zaku kits. The parts are not really interchangeable so I have to modify and glue them on.
Proportion wise, it looks good when compared to the HG Zaku 2. But the head sculpt just look slightly weird, it is although the hose pipe on the RG head is slightly higher and makes it look dis-jointed from the chest.
My RG Zaku 2 side-by-side with HG Rx-78 Origin. I painted my RG Zaku 2 based on the colour scheme I saw in Stardust Memories. There is a scene where GP01 is tasked to find GP02 and a remants of Zeon troops with Zakus mashed up from old parts.
I am not sayng not to buy a Real Grade kit, but I have to honestly say I am not keen on getting another unless it is on special offer (I heard the Sazabi is the best RG though). What I am trying to say is that if you are just starting off and like a quick build this is not the kit for you. You will probably have more fun buying a cheaper HG and experiement with painting scheme. But if you like a challenge like I did, buy a RG but know what you are getting yourself into. You have been forewarned, this is no ordinary Zaku!
I was never a fan of the Bandai SD range, I admit that they are “cute” and good for display but I wasn’t keen on the plastic feel and huge voids. However when Bandai started releasing their SDCS range which allows SD to have slightly better proportions I thought I gave it a try. I actually eneded with a collection of SD CS kits. I have the Gundam Ground Type modified to look like a Blue Destiny, a Rx-78-2 repainted to look like Rx-78-1, I also have a Barbatos Lupus Rex painted in gold (not shown in this photo shoot)!
I have modifed the original wings of the Zero with “proper” Gundam Build Custom – 1/144 Sky High Wings. I have to say I actually enjoyed building this kit, parts separation are actually very good for a SD kit, but I did a lot of masking to achieve this scheme I have been inspired to. I have to use the smaller wings that comes from the pack because the large wings are too big for my photo booth!I know it is not a true comparision to my HG Wing Gundam but I think my SDCS Wing Zero EW is too “cute” and I have no need to get a HG version (maybe a RG version). Also to add, the SDCS kits are although deformed to look small but they are not actually physcially small in size when compared to a HG 1/144 scale kit.
I have just set up a online shop selling some of the photos of my gunplas, please take a look at my shop.
I didn’t really watched Wing Gundam anime when growing up because it is quite a long series and I was at an age where I wasn’t interested in kiddy cartoons anyore. Thus I only have very patchy memories of the characters and mobile suits in this series. Which is why I wasn’t aware that the HGBF Jiyan Altron was actually based on the Altron from Endless Waltz and it was an upgrade from the original Shenlong or Nataku.
But what I like about the Build Fighters kit is that they are a customised version of the original design, sometimes the moulding has improved with better details and modernised joints. Unfortunately this kit does not comes with the original beam trident so I have to replaced it with a SD/CS Barbatos’ mace (for the moment).
You don’t need to mask quite a few bits to make this look nice.
Details to head V fin is fantastic!
I used a Jigen Hands pack to give my Alton some “Kung Fu” style hands.
I am not sure if Bandai actually made a proper HG version of the Altron, because I don’t recall the Endless Waltz release were actually given the proper HG quality. Therefore if you want an “unique” Altron it is probably easier to buy this HGBF kit and modify it yourself or wait for Bandai to release a “revive” version.
I have also modify the dragons to be attached from the backpack instead as shown in Endless Waltz. The kit is sticker heavy for the tiger head, I can'[t be bothers to mask and paint in all the stripes, to be fair it doesn’t look half bad!
The name Altron reminds me of Volton, which I can see how designers used a play of words to name this design. But Altron wasn’t equipped with the Tiger and Wolf heads until Build Fighers so my assumptions may not be correct.I remember watching Endless Waltz both the Alton and Wing Guhndam were having a major battle and although there wasn’t a clear winner, the Wing Zero was getting beaten up.
Similarly my Wing Gundam is actually based from HGBF Fenice. I do like HGBF kits that gives you lots of options. I dohope the”revive’ versio of the Heavy Gun and Sandrock are made in similar and matching scale!I actually quite enjoyed customising both this kits as they are uniquely my “take” on the Wing Gundam series.
This is another update of my previous blog on my GP02! Since then I have learnt a lot more on my workflow and I am starting to update my previous projects with better close up photos and side-by-side comparison to other similar kits.GP02 is a big kit especially with chunky shield. To be honest, it is not best kit for articulation as there bacially “none” due to the hugh bell bottom legs and feet. This kit is basically for posing and you are quite limited to the type of poses you can do. With the magic of bluetac and try and error, I have held the bazooka and shield sufficiently in time for the photo.
Saying that, I still love the design and huge shoulder thrusters. I actually prefer this design over the rest of his siblings.I understand there is another version of this HG kit but with missiles attached to his backpack. That kit is possibly worht getting as you will have more plastic and options compared to the standard HG release, but you may need some luck looking for it.Stardust Memories is possibly the anime that brought me back to Gundam series. Gerbera-Tetra (or GP04) and the GP02 are my favorite designs.
The classic stand-off between GP02 and GP01.GP02 side-by-side with GP01FB. I would recommend getitng the RG version if you are interested in a 1/144 scale kit. HG is not bad, but this is dated and you need to spend a lot time to make it look right. GP02 side-by-side with GP03. I don’t usually don’t have much of a negative thing to say about any kit but I was very disappointed with GP03s if you compared to the standard of the rest of his siblings. HG GP03 has terrible parts separation, articualtion and loose waist and a chunky side skirt that gets in the way of everything. If Bandai ever release a PG get that instead of the HG version.GP02 side-by-side with Gerbera-Tetra. I love Gerbera-Tetra design and bandai actually release 2 different version of the kit, and I had both. The newer version is more of a “revive” version with a slightly different booster assembly, but otherwise it is basically similar.
I have previously blogged about my customised Sengoku Astray Gundam. But there was one small bit that has been bugging for a long time; I had previously painted the mouth piece black, but due to the muted dark red colour the black mouth piece was not really visible so I repainted it dark red. It doesn’t really change much but as least it stopped bugging me.I have also added a Strike Rogue into my collection and since they are mainly from the similar century (anime) I thought I will just do a side-by-side comparison.Bascially I have not changed anything but hoping to update some of my older blogs with new photos and also with smaller file sizes to help with browser download time.While I am taking new photos, I just remembered that I spent quite a long time painting this kit because I was quite happy with the parts separation and masked quite a bit to get the scheme I was aiming for. I am actually quite please with the result but will just slightly disappointed that the face was a bit too dark.I also run out patience at the end with masking and just left the sword as a simple golden hilt. I might hand painted it next time for a next update!If you do like my work, please feel free to look at my other projects and collections to support this blog.
Bandai have released quite a few different variant of the Gelgoog, but the Jager has a slightly different curved waist compared to the other standard design.What attracted me to this design was that has a beam machine gun and 2 fuel tank at the back. The design is also slightly modernised and does not have the retro goofy look.
The kit itself has many large plain surfae area and lack of details but it didn’t really bother me as it is a relatively old kit. Aritculation is also barely adequate, it will stand because it has huge feet, but don’t expect and Christmas family twister game with this kit.Parts separation is also adeqaute but because some of the edges are angualr, it is not too difficult to mask. I went for a old samuria yellow purple colour scheme, which I actually quite like because it stands out among my other collections. Also I later found out it is also similar to Cima’s Gelgoog in 0083 Stardust Memories.This Gelgoog Jager was featured in “War in the Pocket” but I always get confused between this design over Cima Gelgoog Marine. At the time of my writing Galactictoys has one on sale.
Comparing side-by-side to the standard Gelgoog (which is actually my Cima’s but I repainted to the standard livery); the standard Gelgoog is slightly taller but has a more goofy grunt look on the face comapred to the Jager.
This is side-by-side compare to other kit in the 0083 Starudst Memories, Gerbera-Tetra, Gundam GP01, repainted RGM-79Q, and finally the Zaku 2. If you are confused on why I am comparing this Jager with “0083 Stardust memories” and not “War in the Pocket” is because my memory has gone to my pocket and I was just thinking of Starwars!If you like my work please feel free to visit my other completed projects to support this blog.
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It is a Gunpla! 