2Old4Toys Robots of All Nations Contest (sponsored by ishop2go) Entry!

This is my official entry for the Robots of all Nations Competition sponsored bi ishop2go.com!

This project was a series of first for me.  My first time building a 1/144 Low Grade kit, my first experience with spray paints, my first time entering a competition, and my first ever custom paint job on a kit!  I had a blast with it and I think that is what a competition should be about.  Having fun!

On with the model!

I chose an old 1/144 Gelgoog kit from Mobile Suit Gundam.  Yes, the old kits that require cement and putty and sanding and painting and the WORKS to look even remotely good!  The proportions are awful, the parts fit is BAD, but it came together pretty well and with little problems.

So what did I do with this kit?  The terms were the model has to be around 700 yen or less (Cut off at 800 yen and higher), no physical modifications, and the paint scheme had to represent a country.  A lot of the entries so far... in fact all of the entries as of this post are all colored based on flags of nations.  Awesome! That makes the kits very colorful.  However, I don't recall any Gundams in G Gundam save the Maxter (that's the boxing Gundam right?) that was painted in strictly their respective nation's flag's colors.

I decided to go with a theme rather than the nation's colors.  When I was looking at the Gelgoog's shield I got a great idea!  The Gelgoog's shield, as most of us all no, is a Zulu Shield!  The Zulu, currently, predominantly reside in South Africa.  Their flag looks like this:

Good color combination!  I could probably do quite a bit with this grouping of colors, but I wanted My Zulugoog to scream, "I'm from Africa!"

I wanted the paint scheme to be animalistic, tribal, and native all at once.

So here it is without further a due:  The Zulugoog!

The white on the Shoulders, legs and skirt armor were all sprayed on with Krylon, ALL of the rest was painted by hand.

No decals were used, as I don't have a way to print them.  The tribal markings on the shield and body are intentionally not straight and imperfect.  I wanted them to look like they were painted on like a Zulu warrior put on war paint before going into battle.

The eye was painted with silver with a clear yellow over it. 

The Leopard Print was painted with a base coat of white, then a mix of white and yellow laid over the top and dry brushed to sort of blend in at the base and fade into white like the fur of the big cat.  Then the yellow mix had a bit of red added to it to make it a little bit orange.  That was painted on in spots of various shapes and later I added the black spots around each of the orange spots.

My roommate commented that the skirt armor makes him look like he's got on a leopard print bikini!  Admittedly, it does kind of look like he's got a leopard print bikini, but at least it's not... erm... riding up ~_^...

Tribal markings on the hands as well, with gold accents. 

Zebra print on the legs and the diamond shapes on the knees. the stripes are hand painted with gloss black to make them pop from the white base coat.

The leopard print wraps around the whole "belt" area of the Zulugoog.

The tribal markings on the shield are based off of MANY pictures I found on Google image search when typing in "Zulu Shield".

I painted the rings on the inner elbow gold, along with the wrists and the upper arms as accents or bands a tribal leader might wear.

Top shot of the leopard print

This was a very fun project to work on!

Best of luck to all of the contestants, and I'll see you all on the Earth Battlefield!  May the best Gundam Fighter win!

Until next time:  Happy Building!

MG Wing Gundam Part 2

Opening the Pandora's... uhm... plastic bags...

Continuing (FINALLY) my posts for the MG Wing Gundam.  I've been really busy discovering a new hobby shop in town that actually sells Gunpla!  Anyway, on with the procedure of opening the bags!

Here, I use precise instruments to help open the cavity in which the vitals are stored.

(I'm cutting the bags with scissors)

The very small poly-cap runner, the white runner has leg, crotch, head and shield parts. All of the blue parts are this one runner.

Heero is crisply molded in his school uniform.

I love how the head halves are molded.  This really will hide the seams!

Two identical yellow runners.

One of the infamously labeled XXXG runner here, though it have many of the parts specifically for Wing Gundam, but we know Ban Dai can trade out sections of runners for others.

The hands are similar to the first Gouf and Gouf Custom MG where the palm and thumb are the main part of the the hand and the other four fingers are one single piece.  To have different hand poses and grips, the four fingers piece are swapped out for a different four fingers piece.

THIS EXCITES ME!  Finally the right color of green blades!  The Ver Ka and the WZC MG kits come with a dark clear green set of beam saber blades.  This is much closer to what I believe the color should be, very similar to the 1/100 HG Wing kits clear green accessories.

Sorry for the lighting here.  This is the only Wing specific runner of the inner frame, having quite a few parts for the Buster Rifle.

All the red parts, some yellow (V-fin, chest pieces) and the gun metal colored barrels for the Buster Rifle.

Leg armors are not divided between calve and lower shin, very unique to this model, I think.

Another XXXG labeled runner.

This one has the majority of the inner frame on it and much of the transformation gimmick comes from these parts.

These two pieces are identical as far as I can tell, the details slant differently on the front but the tabs on the back run opposite each other as well...

So as to not mix them up, I put two dots on part 2 and three dots on part 3 of the runner.

All parts are snipped from the runners and trimmed of excess plastic. They are placed in their respective boxes.

So begins the assembly of the MG Wing Gundam.  I again did not do too much painting to this kit, which is why I will probably not be posting on MechaTalk.net along with the final post.

Next post will be the few parts that I did paint, then the final assembly.

MG Wing Gundam Part 1

A Master Piece We Never Thought We Would See

I know that I have waited for a Wing Gundam rendition that did the design justice for about 10 years!  I think this kit will be able to head that call.  The design is a little more slender than it's TV counterpart; however, I have been watching the DVD's on a 16:9 wide screen when it was made for a "normal" 4:3 aspect ratio.  So that may account for the wider look :-P

On with the kit!

The box art is pretty cool looking, showing off both MS mode and Neo Bird mode.  I'm assuming this is the New Edward's Base in the background ^_^.

Side of the box (sorry for the glare, I don't normally take pictures during the day and the sun was pretty bright).  There is a good shot of MS Mode and some inner frame detail on the leg.

Rear view, Action pose, and the Wing and Shield gimmicks.

Our favorite brainwashed killing machine with complete lack of personality, Heero Yuy.

Bird mode (I guess Neo Bird mode is for the Zero...)

Another Action Pose and the basic build with runners.

Now we open the box!

Blue and White runners for the armors, looks like some Arm, Torso, and Leg armors interspersed all over there.

Looks like backpack and Buster Rifle Parts on this one.

All of the red parts here and the barrels for the Buster Rifle, V-Fin and some others.  And of course the markings packet with stickers, marking seals, and dry transfers.

Legs and Wings, mostly here.  Two identical runners it looks like.

Inner frame bits here, these would by those infamous runners labeled so vaguely as XXXG.

Leg armors, Shield parts and some more blue parts, looks like for the skirt armors.

Two identical runners with the yellow bits for the wings.

Beam Saber blades and some more inner frame parts.

Did I mention, I decided to watch Gundam Wing from the beginning while building this.

This would be episode 1, when Zechs takes on Wing Gundam in a Leo.

THE FIRST TRANSFORMATION!

And say good-bye to two Aries at once!

Let's have a look at the manual.  Basic front cover.

Looks like some info on the MS and some nice photoshopped pictures of the model in various scenarios.

Some info on the gimmicks of the model here, a shot of Bird Mode, and the painting guide.

The painting guide has a nice comparison shot of before and after panel-lining. I like they started including these comparison photos in the manuals.

And the back cover has the front view of the model.  I miss there being a cardboard insert in the boxes that had the front view.  The insert was placed over the runners in the box and at the bottom of the box you had the manual and on the back of the manual was a rear view of the model.  Now they've taken out the inserts and you don't get the rear view anymore.

And by the time I had taken all of the pictures and gotten the boxes for the parts ready, we are at episode 2 and Duo just shot Heero for interfering with his recovery of the Wing Gundam, not knowing of course that the Wing Gundam belonged to Heero.

"Don't look lady, save yourself a lot of grief!"

And Heero plummets to a watery grave after sending three torpedoes straight into the emerging Deathscythe and Wing Gundams... but of course, Heero cannot be killed, for he has the invincible PLOT ARMOR!

I couldn't wait to get started on this kit!  So I got to work right away and snipped and trimmed all the parts and placed them in their boxes... but that will be for the next post!

Until next time:  Happy Building!