The Shooting Star She Saw...

Building the 1/144 Wing Gundam has been a stroll down memory lane. The 1/144 scale Wing kits are extremely simple, in some areas very dis-proportioned (I'm looking at you Sandrock!), and they all come in that strange slightly grayish white color. But they were the first models I ever built and they're cheap! Great for a few hours of fun and testing out new ideas, techniques, and methods. Some people hate them, I love them because they remind me of simpler times.

Long long ago in a city about 75ish miles from where I live today, I was a young kid begging for a ride to Toys R Us so I could return my 1/144 Heavy Arms Gundam for the second time because that stupid V-fin was so tiny it snapped when ever I tried to take it off the runner. Of course, that was before I used any tools at all to take the parts from the gates! I used to just break the parts off with my hands! Tut tut, young Joe. But I have grown leaps and bounds in my abilities since those long lost days. I would post comparison shots for my old Wing Gundam and this new one, but it's arm broke long ago and it was dismantled and cannibalized...

On with the Wing Gundam!

Yup, a freshly and properly built 1/144 no grade kit from Wing is stable enough to stand on its toes! I think you know what ended up happening to this picture ~_^...

Front

Left Side

Right Side

Rear View

1/4 Turn Left

1/4 Turn Right

The most epic weapon of them all (Until the Wing Zero shows up and blasts away an entire colony :-P), the Buster Rifle! Capable of destroying several enemy MS in one blast.

Rather minimal detail on the legs, not nearly as much as its 1/100 scale counterpart.

Quite a bit of detail on the chest and front skirt armor, however. I may go back and repaint the camera eye on the chest a different shade of green...

The face is pretty nicely crafted, I like the looks of it, even in this scale.

The aftermath of the hacking I did on the calves to incorporate a new thruster nozzle.

A side view of the leg thruster

It's a Bird! It's a Plane!

It's a NEO BIRD MODE!

I'm impressed at the transformation of the kit at this scale. Not that the transformation is all that complicated, but it's nice to have this feature available.

Preparing to shoot down enemy craft!

I think this is the only 1/144 of the original 5 Gundams to have detail on the bottom of the feet.

Showing off some of the detail under the shoulder.

Wings folded in.

Wings folded out.

Beam Saber Action!

Even with the basic articulation, the kit does allow for some pretty good posing!

Blasting away an entire unit of Leos in one shot...

Duel wielding action!

And the Heero Yuy figurine standing close by his Gundam.

Pretty sure he's 1/35 scale.

Front

Back

Left

Right

And there you have it, my first ever endeavor with a picture and photoshop. Not bad, if I do say so myself. By the way, thank you NASA for taking pictures of Earth from space!

That's it for the 1/144 Wing Gundam. I'll be starting on the 1/100 MG AEUG Gundam Mk II HD Version next. And then onto the 1/100 MG Wing Gundam.

Until next time: Happy Building!