Gunpla Construction: PG Gundam Astray Part 4

So, in the home stretch.  

The shoulders were a quick build, and overall, very huge.  It’s interesting to see the detail that’s done for the inner vents as well as the rear of the shoulders.  It’s funny because for the most part it’s detail you’ll never see once you put the outer armor on and attach the arm.

Shoulders

More shoulders

Moving on to the arm, it’s a straight build here too.  It’s very impressive to see the amount of articulation that they’ve done with the arm.  If there is any complaints, is that when you curl the arm up, the fore-arm has the tendency to pop off, so you have to be a little careful.  Also, note the comparison pictures of with and without outer armor, and again, how the outer armor really bulks up the arm, but doesn’t affect the articulation at all.

Built shoulder joing/upper arm and said pieces

Built forearm, and a completed arm

Comparison shot 1

Comparison shot 2

Comparison shot 3

Hand, already made for  you, just twist together

Just to give you an idea of how it’ll look attached to the frame.  Looks a bit unbalanced with only one arm armored.

 

And with that, the construction is done.  As mentioned in the first WiP post, I tried a new method of decaling and topcoating pieces as I completed them.  Not sure at this point if that took more time than doing decaling/topcoating after all the parts are built, but it there is a nicer sense of satisfaction, especially knowing that I balanced my decaling time out this way.  

Next post will be the pictures/review post. 

Preview!

Gunpla Construction: PG Gundam Astray Part 3

Moving on with the slow as molasses updates:

First up the backpack, fairly simple snap together.  As mentioned in a previous comment, the backpack fills like an afterthought to me.  I realize it’s part of the design, but after to you have the beefy legs, and the general “bulk” of the whole frame, the backpack just looks like a flimsy little attachment on the back.

Backpack parts

Backpack completed

The head was also an easy snap together.   The battery pack is also much more accessible than it is in the PG W-Zero. 

Head Parts

Partially built

We have light!

Moving on to the weapons.  I did build the beam rifle, but as Lupes mentioned in his picture review, there is no point in really showing it.  I build the shield as well, but now that I think about it, I’m probably not going to use it either.  The main attractation for the Red Frame is it’s big ass sword.  Unfortunately, this is where you see some lack of foresight on Bandai’s part.  With the gold and silver parts, I really wish they have done under gates (As per Hyaku-Shiki).  There are some pretty obviously points that you snip, which leaves damage, no matter how you do it.  While I put a dab of Gundam Gold on the parts, it’s still a little frustrating.  Another point to be careful is that you can’t do panel marking on the gold parts, as it’ll take the gold off.  Also, top coating the gold is probably not a good idea.   Still the assembled sword is just huge, you can hold the hilt in your hand and it’s almost like you have a dull knife. 

Hilt
Sheath
Sword completed
Shield parts
Shield completed

Up next post, the shoulders and arms, followed by completion and thoughts

Gunpla Construction: PG Gundam Astray Part 2

Ahem, well, I guess I must be one of the slowest updaters around,  between work and hanami’s and Killzone 2/Ryu ga gotoku 3 I’ve been slacking off on the Gunpla, sorry about that. 

Anyways, back to the in-depth look at building the Strike 1.5 Astray.  We left off with one leg being built, but since then I’ve completed both legs, along with decals/seals and the final top coat.  You’ve probably seen a couple of photos in the quick updates I’ve done recently.

Next up the waist.  Again, no where as near a pain in the ass as the PG W-zero.  The biggest probably is that the nice long codpiece armor thing is pretty long, so with the fattened thighs of the astray as well, it gives the model less articulation compared to the Strike.

The pieces for the waist

 And we’re done, that was easy

 Testing with the legs

 With armor, side view

 Rear view

 Top view

With that done, next up is the torso, also another easy piece compared to the W-Zero.  This was another quick build.  You see a few differences however on the outer armor compared to the strike, but the internal is the same.  Including the slot to shove in the Striker Pack. 

Cockpit

With front armor on

  One of torso/shoulder joint pieces

  Torso’s internal frame complete

  With Armor attached

With the lower torso/waist part attached

Side View

 Back View

 

On the subject of the striker pack, I gave it a try, unfortunately, due to the slight armor differences, it won’t fully slide all the way into the slight, and you actually have to take some pieces off of the torso to even slide it halfway in.

 With Striker Pack, top view

Side View

Another angle

Next post will move on to the head and the laughable back pack.

Gunpla Construction: PG Gundam Astray Part 1.5

Crunch time at work this week so not able to spend as much time as I would like to.  Anyways, finished up the seals/decals on the right leg and did the top coat.  Looks damn nice with top coat on it.  Should finish up the other leg today then.

Gunpla Construction: PG Gundam Astray Part 1

We’ll catch up with the GFFMC in a few days, but first up, the Astray.  I finished up the feet plus the inner armor of both legs plus the outer armor of one of the legs.  Overall, for the most part the legs are the same as the strike.  We see obvious differences in the feet and the outer armor though.  I do like the dark red color of the frame, it’s really nice.  The outer armor, especially around the knee is really fat compared to the strike.  not sure if I’m liking the swollen knee look just yet, but we’ll see. 

This time around I’m going to try building the part, doing the lining, then putting on the seals/decals before moving on to the next part.  One thing is all the decals here are dry decals as well, so got to try not to screw up on the transfers!  Anyways, should finish up the other leg, do decals, and put top coat on both legs tomorrow night at this rate.

Today’s  total work time: 5 hours

Overall total work time: 5 hours

Astray in the house!

My PG Astray arrived today, and the box is a big one.  It’s bigger than the original Strike, and other PG boxes as well.  Looks to be the same size as PG Zeta.  Anyways, here’s the initial shots, unfortunately, I didn’t get home until late tonight, and thanks to having to work tomorrow as well, I won’t be able to break into this until tomorrow night.

Also, will have a couple of other things showing up tomorrow, one a pleasant suprise, something I forgot I had ordered for a couple of months, and the other an impulse buy.  Bet you can guess what that is.

Anyways, the pics, and more tomorrow!