The State of the Gunpla Union – 032309

Been a while since I’ve written up a state of the gunplay union, but I thought I’d catch up with a variety of items.

 

First off, on the Gundam side, I finished up the W-zero last week, and overall it was a stress free build.  Clocking in around a little over 15 hours of total build time, the most frustrating part had the be the torso and waist.  Still throwing on the wings and standing the sucker up makes you just go wow at the size.  Only complaints is that aside from the wings, there’s really nothing else to show for it, and the lack of seals/decals make it’s a little plain compared to maybe something like the Strike.   The other thing, and I have this complaint with the other PG models, is that, outside of the Aile Striker kit, there is no stand.  While all the PG’s have no problem standing and posing, the W-Zero kit is just screaming for a stand.  Especially if you want to do any of the famous W-zero poses.  Anyways, thanks to the new addition, my rack is officially running out of space, so it may be time for spring cleaning, to find a place to pose them. 

 

Having finished up the W-Zero, I whizzed through the MG Zeong on a whim this weekend, and it took no longer than two hours to build.  Just got the hands left to go.  A simple kit, but outside the build and decals, I’ll probably not bother with top coat, or doing any WIPs with it.  Just a few pictures and that’s it.

 

I guess the big news is that we’ve got some big drops this week.   The obvious being the new PG Astray, which hopefully will ship tomorrow, which is what the rumors are saying.  Ready to dig into that sucker.  As I’ve stated, big robots/mecha with giant swords are always a winner with me.  The other is the GFFMC Zeta Plus, which drops this weekend.  I’m still debating on getting the Blue one, and would have to pre-order it today or tomorrow to still have a chance, while I can pre-order at 25% off, I’m just not sure yet,  I love Zeta Gundam and all related designs/variants, it’s just that building the kit is part of the experience for me.  We’ll see if I have any moments of weakness in the next couple of days.

 

On a side note, I was waiting for the wife to show up yesterday at the local store/supermarket to buy dinner, and when checking out the rather small model section, I noted they had 4 MG Turn A Gundam kits (first run with bonus comic as well) at a little over half off price (1900 yen as opposed to 4,000).  I might just pop down and pick it up, as I am fond of Turn A Gundam.   I found the anime to be much more positive and bright then some of the other series that I had watched.  This is probably because I watched it right after the “let’s kill everyone!” depressing anime that is V Gundam (seriously, watch the last couple of eps, they totally kill off like everyone over the age of 15).

 

Speaking of anime, I’ve managed to catch 00 the last 3 weeks in realtime, definitely hitting that end of the series climax, and there have definitely been some oh shit parts. (Particular Tierra getting killed (initially), Trans-am Burst, Ali-Al Saachez finally getting pwned and so on).  Of course, we’re seeing all the elements of the previous Gundam series here: A-laws are Titans, and we have another Gryps conflict here, Inovators are the new newtype/coordinator, and Louise is the new four/la-la, and so on.  But it’s a fun ride. 

 

In other news, I’m still addicted to Ryu ga Gotoku 3, and on top of that my copy of Killzone 2 also showed up as well.  I’m still chugging through Gundam Musou 2 on the ole Xbox, and still want to get back and eventually finish Ace Combat 6.  I’ve got Lupes on my Xbox friend list (we need to game it up in something sometime!) and for anyone else, my XBL name is OsorakuCloudv, and my PSN name is Cloudv. 

 

Other than that, work is busier than ever as we approach the end of the fiscal year in Japan, and start looking forward to the “new year” as well.  Looking at some weekend work coming up due to projects but just got to chug at it.  The bright side is we’re seeing Sakura start to blossom, and should be a full bloom by the weekend.  Definitely looking forward to it.

Zeta Gundam – Final notes

I realized that I forgot to list the tools I used when building the Zeta Gundam HD vers. kit. 

I used the following tools:

For the eyes, sensors, and some areas on the armors and legs, I used the following Gundam Markers – Zeta Yellow, Meta Blue, Meta Green, Gundam Black.

For panel lining, I used the black fine tip Gundam marker.  I also used a new pen this time around.  The Copic Modeler, a 0.02 pen, and I have to say, it’s absolutely great.  The problem with the fine tip Gundam marker, no matter how fine tip you call it, is that it tends to bleed out of the line, leaving clean up to be a mess sometimes.  The copic modeler, which comes in various sizes, 0.02, 0.03, and 0.05, and doesn’t bleed out at  all.  I used the warm gray marker this time around on white parts, and I think it came out very well.

I used a dessign knife to trim leftover sprue nubs down flush to the pieces, simply because, I’m too lazy to sand, ha.

Lastly, I used Mr. Mark Softer to help “glue” down slides and seals.    Again, as I mentioned before, the special HD waterslides, while nice, simply do not stay on, even using Mr. Mark, and tend to rip apart when trying to adjust them.  The original included waterslides didn’t exhibit this problem at all.  But I guess nothing is perfect right.

In other news, I started on the Hyaku-Shiki, and it looks to be a pretty fast build, about half the runners then Zeta had.  However, I ended up picking up Ryu Ga Gatoku 3 on the way home from work, so Hyaku-Shiki is the back burner for a few days.  I played the first one, but just the loading got to be a nuisance.  The reviews and buzz is good though this time around, so I guess it’s time to get down to wandering around Kabukicho!