Looking back at the month of May, it feels like I did a lot, but yet didn’t get much done at all. If anything, May was a mountain that I finally got over. Due to that it felt like forever, but actually passed by in a whirlwind do to a variety of reasons.
First up, work. I’ve talked a little bit about it last month, but May has ended up being the busiest month yet with some long hours and ups and downs, but things worked out for the most part with the issues that I was dealing with and life is settling down again. I see another mountain in the distance but it shouldn’t be as bad as this last one. If anything, I’m hoping this will let me finally get to go on some business trips abroad as opposed to all domestic Japan only.
One of the major perks of May through was meeting the mastermind behind Gundam Australia. What was supposed to be just drinks and dinner turned into a 10 hour adventure in Osaka. No one tells a better story than the man himself, so I highly suggest you check out his full report at GAF of what went down. Well, full story so far as what we can legally tell you.
On the home side, the SO and I continued our spring cleaning and re-arranging of of how our room layouts are done. I’ll be finished moving all my gundam stuff and setting up my workshop in our spare room hopefully in the next week or two. This means I’ll actually be able to start taking pictures again, as the running gag is that… well I never get around to taking photos! But actually, there is a bit going on at home that I’ve not posted about, so once we finish moving things around, I’ll actually have more room to do pictures and stuff without bothering the SO. With a window by the desk where I’m setting things up, future plans no include a possible investment into a spraybooth along with a compressor. This may allow for that eventual move into airbrush land. But that all depends on things over the summer so nothing set in stone yet.
But now onto the important stuff right? Gundam! I actually didn’t get much of anything done aside from the Gentei Destiny Gundam. I was actually fairly impressed by the kit, especially that it could hold it’s giant sword with no problems. Pictures will eventually be showing up, but I think there are a couple on the facebook page.
The main thing I posted about though was my participation in the Gauntlet of the Apocalypse. If you’ve not checked out the thread, then click the pic below and check it out.
Some amazing teamwork and synergy is happening there, and it’s the little touches that really makes this build special. My particular favorite is the GAF Blog post providing breaking news on everyone’s progress. I will definitely being doing what I can to make sure the retrofit of my Strike Freedom is ready in time for our initiative.
In other kits, the progress on the PG GP01 is about 80% done, I just need to finish the waterslides on a few parts and top coating and the GP01 Version will be done. The full Vernier parts will take a little longer, but I’m not sure if I’ll even use them yet. I’m also going to knock out some more HGUC kits to get boxes out of the way. At this point I think I’ve got 3 versions of the HGUC 78-2/3 Gundam I need to build, so I just might do that. But being too ambitious usually leads to nothing getting done at all so I’ll keep plugging at it at my own pace.
On next to the latest kit news, we saw the 50th Shizuoka Hobby Show this month, and to tell the truth I came away from the news quite disappointed. No where near as exciting as last year, and only with short term release information. In fact, the only “new” MG to be announce was the Delta Plus. I held off on the HG Delta Plus because I figured Bandai was going to do something like this, similar to the HG ReZel, by releasing in well within a year or so of the HG release. At this point, I’m sure we’ll have a MG Geara Zulu by the end of the year. Aside from the already announced Gundam Wing MG kits (and you notice that Heavy Arms and Sandrock were the HG 1/100’s still) and 00 Raiser and Epyon, it was quite barren. HG kits saw some love you could say, or at least G Gundam kits did, but overall, I found this years show to be a bust. I will say that the SD Kshatriya looks awesome though!
So, the last major kit on my list to buy at this point is the Epyon, and I’m done for a long while unless something awesome is announced. And given that there is a new series to be announced next week, I’m sure there will be new awesome kits coming out this year… perhaps.
Looking good!
But, I’m still on track for a special kit arriving in July as well, so that will probably take up some of my time for the foreseeable future aside for the PGSF, so perhaps it’s for the best.
While nothing exciting on the horizon in my opinion, what’s everyone looking forward to, or planning on spending these long summer months working on?
An American Salaryman in Osaka 
Epyon!
In all honesty, that’s the one I am excited for too but little else right now. Which when I think about it, is a good thing. I’ve got a Perfect Grade and a deadline. And so do you.
Well, Sandrock is confirmed for this year, so I guess you can count that as another “new” announcement. I’m excited for Epyon, but that’ll have to wait after july. And what places would you go first if you take business trips besides domestic Japan?
@GaiGun: Yep, that deadline is looming over our heads, gotta jump on things here soon and start prepping.
@Tom: Well, technically, didn’t they pretty much announce all five GW Gundams for this year? So we know heavy arms is a go too. It’s just the kit they had at the show doesn’t look MG. Still, we have the announcement of a new TV series along with products next week sometime, so at the point maybe we’ll hear about new kits. As for business trips, it seems that China is likely, and seeing how we just completed a huge M&A in Europe, Switzerland maybe.
Get your butt to Australia! Write it off on Uncle Take-san, and we’ll get down.
I don’t know if “mastermind” is accurate. If anything you’re underselling my brilliance xD… Moreover scatterbrained with a fortunate series of events =D
Epyon is a goer for me. Delta plus will be a definite as well. We’ll do a GB at GAF and have a recolour comp as well, seeing as that flat grey scheme seems to stoke the fires of the imagination so well. Unbeknownst to me (until this morning), I have had my Delta Plus pre ordered for me already.
Looking forward to your Strike Freedom build! I wasn’t aware those Heavyarms and Sandrock were HGs, I had previously reported them as MG on the GAF Blog. Meh, oh well. I cannot wait for the Epyon, it really came out looking better than I expected it too…turned up the heat for me!