Gunpla Construction: PG W-Zero Gundam Part 6

Moving on with the torso, it’s a quick finish, just snap on the front half of the armor, and put the boxy vulcans on top and you’re done.

Unfortunately, this is where I start having fit problems, as the upper right part of the torso doesn’t fit perfectly.  It looks like the right arm inner frame is raising it up a little, but as far as I can tell the inner frame is flush and should be fine… Because of this, the upper right vulcan box doesn’t quite fit flush with the torso.  Guess you can’t win them all though.

The torso completed – 1

The torso completed – 2

 

Next up we move on to the back pack, which will help support the wings as well as hide the batteries.  Another pain in the ass, due to trying to get all the wires screwed in, along with the switch, without leaving too much extra wire leeway for when you attach backpack.  Of course I just now realize that I didn’t take any pictures of the backpack though, sorry about that.  Basically you shove the wires in, screw it down, and pray it works.

Battery pack – 1
Battery pack – 2

And we have light!

Before moving on to the wings I build both of the guns, which as you can see are straight forward no frill builds.  I also took the time to top coat everything built to this point (aside from the guns)

Hyper Mega Blasters? Can’t remember the name.
Top coated parts

Moving on to the final part of the build, the wings.  The main wings themselves are huge, being taller than the W-Zero once you add the feathers.  The back wings as well feature a spring system that allows them to stay closed until you extend up and then the wing pops fully open.

Preparing the feathers
Completed wing

Preparing the back wing

Back wing fully extended

With the initial build finished last Thursday, all that was left was top coating the wings, which I finished up over Friday.   Next up, final thoughts and photos.

Last week’s  total work time: 3 hours

Overall total work time: 15 hours, 15 minutes

Bonus preview shot
 

Gunpla Construction: PG W-Zero Gundam Part 5

Here’s the work I did over the weekend. 

Moving onto the torso, we first start with the cockpit/power source/glowing chest thing.  This is where we see our first part of fun with wires.

Starting from here

 We stick the wires in a hole, followed by screws to hold them in place, and to connect the current to the diode

The first problem we run into is that the bottom screw (grey wire) simply doesn’t want to stay in, and falls out, even with having the wired in to tighten it up.

Testing the connection and we have light

We then proceed to put said light into the final die cast pieces and attach to the waist.  Unfortunately, we go back to the issue of balancing the tightness of the screws.  The bottom two as well were rather hard to get in, due to having to hold the die cast pieces together, while attaching it to the waist ball, while trying to stick in a screw on one end, and a nut on the other, and tighten in.

Finally attached to the waist

 

Testing the light again with the inner frame attached.

 Unfortunately, the batteries either shorted, because it no longer lights up.  I tested them with the head, and no go.  Will have to pick up some more batteries, because I don’t really want to take this apart just to check the wiring again.

With the inner frame for the arms added.

We then jump to the head, because of how the wiring will run through the torso.

There weren’t any particular problems with wiring for the head.

We then run the wires from the chest and head through the back of the outer armor of the torso.

Wires galore

 
I’ll continue with the torso again in the next update. 

A couple of bonus pictures, I stuck the legs and arms on just to see how it looked. 

Standing

Kneeling side shot

Kneeling front shot

Saturday/Sunday’s total work time: 4 hours

Overall total work time: 12 hours, 15 minutes

Gunpla Construction: PG W-Zero Gundam Part 4

I spent most of the weekend playing Ryu ga Gatoku 3, so running a little late on updates.  Today’s update is the work I did Friday night, and I finished the outer armor of the legs, and have done the panel lining.  I also moved on to doing the waist.  The legs overall weren’t a problem, and actually, the all white legs feel kind of bulky and plain compared to the Zeta and Strike PG kits.  Still, the articulation, even with the armor on is stable, even if the legs are no-frill.

The waist, and moving on to the torso is where you see the use of the rest of the die cast pieces, and where the real frustrations start to come out.  My first real frustration is with the waist, and the die cast pieces that are used.   The pieces are screwed together, but with the waist cross bar, the torso bar, and the upper leg pieces, their ability to move around is based on how tight you screw the main die cast pieces together.  So you have to adjust two or three screws to get the right amount of movement and finding the balance between loose and not too loose.

Anyways, again this time we’ll be doing a simple gallery, please post questions if you have them.  I’ll be going further in depth with the torso as it’s where I’ve found the most trouble. 

Friday’s total work time: 3 hours

Overall total work time: 8 hours, 15 minutes

Gunpla Construction: PG W-Zero Gundam Part 3

Managed to put in some quality time last night.  I finished up the other arm, as well as the feet, and the internal frame of one leg.  One thing I just now realized while doing some of the panel lines is that this PG kit doesn’t come with any seals or decals, and as far as I recall there weren’t any sold seperately.  I guess that saves me some time, but I actually get so used to having them included that it is odd they aren’t.  With my luck, they probably had a set with Hobby Japan or Dengeki Hobby magazines when the kit came out.  Guess I could check for some back issues!

There were no particular problems with the feet or legs, but looking ahead, it looks like the torso will take some time due to wiring for the lights.  At this rate I may finish the other leg, armor it, and be on the waist and torso this weekend.  Anyways, today’s pictures will be thrown up gallery style, please comment if you have any questions.

Today’s total work time: 3 hours

Overall total work time: 5 hours, 15 minutes

Gunpla Construction: PG W-Zero Gundam Part 2

Just a shorter update today.

 

I finished up the left arm, as you can see here.  There were particular no problems with any of the pieces, and for the most part, the sprue nubs are fairly hidden on a lot of pieces, so you only have to clean up the white pieces and a few of the blue ones.  You can then see the total amount of pieces required for the arms as well.  It doesn’t seem like it, but the pieces do add up.  I’ll finish up the other arm and probably do the panel lining tonight before moving onto the legs. 

 

The arm/shoulder pieces

 

 Arm put together

 

The pieces for the right arm

 

One more shot of the left arm

 

Today’s total work time: 60 minutes

Overall total work time: 2 hours, 15 minutes

Gunpla Construction: PG W-Zero Gundam Part 1

Well, despite the fact that the PG Astray is dropping in a little over two weeks, I’ve jumped into building the PG W-Zero Custom.  Depending on how the build goes I may stop to build the Astray first if I don’t finish this in the next two weeks. 

 

In terms of PG difficulty, at first look, I’m going to have to rate this up there with PG Zeta Gundam.  For the record, I consider PG Zaku (outside of some fitness problems with some part) and  PG Strike to be on the easy side of the PG spectrum, while rating PG Zeta at the hard end of the spectrum.  I also imagine that PG GP01 would also be hard, and that’ll most likely be the last PG I’ll build. 

 

The PG comes in a large box, the same size as Ex(s)-Gundam or Strike, and consists of 30 runners, plus 18 die-cast parts, 14 individual feathers for the wings, plus springs, wires, and a whole lot of screws for a total of near 700 parts and pieces.  In other words, something that is not going to get done in a few days.

 

All unwrapped and ready to go

 

Contents of the materials box

 

All the individual screws and stuff 

 

 You may notice the blue A7 bag in the middle picture, these zip lock bags will be used to keep the screws and stuff in so I don’t lose them.  Bandai at most will give you one extra screw, but mostly they don’t, so you don’t want to lose your parts.  I picked up the zip lock baggies at the 100 yen shop (the dollar store back home).

 

Starting right off with the arm and shoulder, in the first picture I have the internal frame of one arm finished, shown in the bottom left, along with the shoulder.  The parts around the completed arm is used to complete the next arm.  While it seems just strewn about, the parts are actually arranged in the order they need to be built, clockwise.  The shoulder is attached via screws, so you have to slide on the armor before screwing the shoulder to the arm part.  The second picture shows the forearm armor attached, and that’s as far as I got last night. 

 

One arm finished

 

Left arm with shoulder attached

 

I cleaned up the sprue nubs from the two white pieces, but there is a somewhat noticeable seam on the forearm.  Most likely that can’t be helped due to the size of the piece.  I don’t really worry about cleaning up sprue nubs from the internal frame, because you’re not going to see it once the armor is put on. 

 

Todays total work time, 75 minutes.