HG Masurao

At long last, I present the HG Masurao.  Released in 2009, I've wanted this kit ever since, can't believe it took me this long to get it.  This is one of my top 10 favorite mobile suits, so this is going to be a straight build, and is going to need a lot of painting...  Should be really fun though, pretty excited about it!

MG Gundam Age-2 Dark Hound

Well this is long overdue, this is my Master Grade Gundam Age-2 Dark Hound I bought at the local anime convention in August.  I'm building this in tandem with my friend who is building the MG Crossbone X2, so I'll probably make separate posts with both kits.  Assembly is complete, next we'll be taking them apart and painting them up!

HG Gundam Age FX

Quick side project, this came in yesterday and I opened it up and snapped it all together in about 2 hours.  Overall, not too impressed with this build, especially the legs and parts of the arms, but once I paint it that'll probably clear up.  There are a couple clear parts that should've been on the clear green runner, like the "A" in the cest....but other than that and the strange use of purple in some spots it has good separation.  The main reason I got this was to do a kitbash with the 00 Quanta and 00 Gundam for a future custom suit, I'll probably be working on that this weekend (and hopefully some MG Dark Hound...)

MG 1/100 Gundam X Announcement!

I don't normally post about new kit releases but for this one I can't help it.  Master Grade Gundam X, to be released this coming January!  Now I'm not a huge X fan, but I love the Double X Gundam and getting this means there's a good chance of the DX coming sometime.  The biggest thing here is, this was the only Gundam series left that didn't have any Master Grade kits at all (excluding the new Build Fighters...) and it's a line that a very large amount of people have wanted for quite some time now.  So on this night, we thank you Bandai for finally releasing a brand new MG that we can all enjoy!

RG Destiny: WIP Part 4

Alright, this will be the final work in progress for the RG Destiny Gundam.  All I've got left to do is flat coating the weapons, which was going to happen tonight but I spent most of the night assembling the body and wings.  I'll be doing that tomorrow though and will finish the kit tomorrow night/Saturday morning.

RG Destiny: WIP Part 3

Been awhile since the last post it seems, the Destiny is coming along nicely thus far.  I spent most of the night working on decals on the wings and weapons and I am now officially in love with water slides, I don't want to use stickers or dry transfers unless I need to from now on. 

Also, I was able to assemble the get, legs, and 90% of the waist tonight.  Yes, Destiny can finally stand partially!  So far, my concerns about all the layers of paint have been cleared, no problems with the parts I put together tonight.  I'm going to credit that to the alclad aqua gloss, because it makes such a strong layer of protection, and adds a really nice shine to pieces you want glossy.  On that subject, I am very pleased with the effect the painted frame has under the armor and I've only gotten through a couple areas so far.  Tomorrow I'll be paneling and flat coating parts of the arms and wings, while I assemble the torso.  I hope to finish the model by Thursday, for sure by the weeks end.

RG Destiny: WIP Part 2

As of tonight I've painted all the red and blue parts, given them a gloss coat, and started panel lining them.  I've also got most of the rest or the parts gloss coated and they are curing atm.  Should just be one more round of prep glossing to go.  I had to paint the blue parts because the nub marks were way too noticeable on this guy, plus I made a stress fracture in the plastic on the chest so that needed fixed.  I painted the red with a mixture of Mr. Color reds, because I found the standard red too bland.  I used Mr. Color on both and this was my first time using that brand.  I must say I really liked it, being a lacquer based paint it should bond better with the plastic.  Not much else to say about it this time other than I got some decals for the kit from SamuelDecal, all water slides do looking forward to trying those out.  At this point I'm very pleased with the kit, albeit a bit nervous about how well it will fit together with all these layers on it, we shall see.

RG Destiny: WIP Part 1

Well this post is about a week late...anyways Destiny was completely assembled (no paint except the eyes) and had since been taken apart.  I painted the frame parts using a mixture of Tamiya silver and gun metal, was pretty nervous about painting the preassembled frame of the real grade but it came out perfectly.  As I said in the opening part, trying to simulate the silver frame from the MG Extreme Blast but toned a lot darker (expecting a RG I Justice that will need a silver frame).  After that I gave it a light coat of Aqua Gloss Alclad to help protect the paint.

RG Destiny Gundam: Next Project

While I wait to make up mind/am able to get the rest of what I need to remake the Independence, after much debate, I've decided to make the RG Destiny as my next kit!  This will be my second Real Grade and the Destiny being one of my favorite designs this will be a fun build.  Gonna be a pretty straight build, except I'm going to paint the inner silver or chrome like the Master Grade Destiny that came out a few years ago.  It'll be tricky with that pre-assembled frame, but I think if I just do the parts that show it'll be ok, stay tuned.

MG 00 Gundam/Raiser: RE Update

As I said before, there wouldn't be many updates on this project and here we are, 00 is as done as it can be for now...  As you can see it is not complete, and that's due to complications along the way, yes complications even though this was a simple "pull it apart and put back together" job.  Now the yellow v-fin was already broken from a cat knocking it off a shelf awhile back, nothing new there.  Everything was going fine until I put the right arm back together after flat coating it, even with only 1 layer it was enough to make the arm unbendable and in an effort to break it loose, well I did just that.  With really no way to fix it, I had no choice but to order new parts, and those will take awhile so this guy is going away for the next month or so while I wait on that.  When the parts come in I'll get him back out, finish it up, and take completed pictures and post them.

MG 00 Gundam/Raiser: Revisited

Tallgeese EW is done now (pics tonight or tomorrow) and I've decided to take some time and retroactively go back and top coat/detail some kits of the past.  Some of these kits will just need washed and then flat coated, others never got panel lined even, so those will be more work.  I'm do this for now mainly while I wait for my friend to start his MG Crossbone X2, at which point I'll be building my MG Dark Hound with him in a sort of build off; given the X2 and DH are parallels it should be an interesting game.

So, first up is the MG 00 Raiser, one of my favorite mobile suits of all time, and we'll be starting with the 00 Gundam itself.  Working from the feet up, I've been disassembling each part, washing them in water and then drying them, and then finally taking them out for a flat coating.  Thus far I'm pretty pleased with the results.  Alclad II is a pretty good product for this.  Anyway, not going to be a lot of posts on this, probably just this one then next will show 00 completely reassembled, then the 0 Raiser and such.  Enjoy!

MG Tallgeese EW: WIP Part 7 (Final)

Here it is, the final WIP for this kit, and while I love this model, it's been quite a pain in some areas, but more on that in the next post which will show finished pictures and have thoughts on the model.  Now for some pictures and the last one I'll have a brief description on what's going on there...

MG Independence Gundam ver. RM

Tonight I want to tease at a soon to be project, MG Independence Gundam ver. RM!  After a couple years now of wanting to remake this custom model I'm finally preparing to do it, and it's poised to be much better than the original model that I made 8 years ago (...wow 8 years really?)  Giving my improvements in painting plus the release of an MG Epyon is sure to make this kit much better.  I will be using to MG Wing Gundam EW this time as opposed to the ver KA that I used in 2005 (the EW wasn't released untill 2011)  This is probably going to be 2 to 3 projects away, but I wanted to show off that the base kit has arrived!

MG Tallgeese EW: WIP Part 6

So didn't quite make the goal I set for this weekend as Tallgeese only has one leg tonight, but the left one is done just not pieced together yet, I'll do that after work tomorrow.  However I am pleased with the progress that did happen because the legs did get finished and both arms and shoulders got flat coated tonight as well.  Hopefully I'll be able to get the mobile suit party all assembled tomorrow night, and then all that's left are the thruster pods, gun, and shield!  Here's some pics of where we're at as of tonight, the next WIP will probably be the last before the final!

RG Freedom: Complete

After a lot of work, my Real Grade Freedom is finally done, and I think it was a fitting suit to be my first RG.  Can't wait to do my RG Destiny Gundam, which I may end up doing after the MG Tallgeese, we'll see...  I'll probably do a full review of this guy after I get an action base to put him on, but for now here's some pics I took a few days ago, enjoy.

MG Tallgeese EW: WIP Part 5

Ok, waited a bit for this post till I had some real progress to show off.  The torso is complete now, as is the waist.  However that can't be completely put together till the legs are done due to the side thrusters connecting to both the waist and the sides of the legs, which I think is a pretty interesting new feature, much like how the thruster pods on the back now connect to the torso and not the shoulder armor!  Anyway as of tonight those sections are done, plus the head though the red crest isn't on there quite yet, will be tomorrow.  The right leg is all panel lined and I just got done flat coating the pieces of that, so I'll check them over tomorrow night and will potentially be able to piece that together.  There are parts of this model that I'm not 100% satisfied with, but at this point I've decided to go with it and I'll fix it at a later date.  This is most apparent on the head of the model, as something happened to it during the curing process and it just looks like a different shade of white now...  Also, since it's been awhile, there's pics below of the half painted shield and other parts as well.  My goal is to have the Tallgeese standing by the end of the weekend at minimum, and ideally an arm or too as well.  Pics below, enjoy!

MG Tallgeese EW: WIP Part 4 [Updated 08/13/13]

Ok so, the torso is now roughly 95% done, just waiting on the back armor piece, and now I'm working on the waist.  Sprayed the last pieces in dark grey that still needed it yesterday and tonight they'll get a gloss coat applied to them.

Meanwhile the head parts...have been nothing but a pain.  For some reason on what was to have been the final spray of flat coat on those parts, it ended up dulling the white and making it look horrible.  So now it's been completely stripped and tonight I'll start reapplying top coats.  Haven't decided if they're going to get a layer of gloss again, may just run a flat or two over it and call it good.

RG Freedom: WIP Part 3

Ok, so obviously that is not the Freedom but rather the MG Epyon, there'll be a review for that soon so look at this as a teaser.  The freedom had a couple more setbacks that prevented it's completion, however it will be fine today, just waiting for the party's of the right wing to dry.  Tonight I plan to finish it's assembly and take some pictures of the kit, and then resume work on the MG tallgeese.

RG Freedom: WIP Part 2

Today I came home to find my topcoat had arrived, which means I can finally finish the Real Grade Freedom!  Originally I should've been able to finish this guy up last week however I ran out of the top coat I was using, Alclad II Klear Kote, and yes that's how it's spelled.  It's a really good airbrush top coat that I've been using on my MG Epyon and RX-78-2, and then on the RG Freedom.  With only the right wing and the shield left I could've just finished it up last week in Testors brand, but I have a thing about doing a kit with just 1 product rather than mixing it up.  So I'll be soaring this tonight and hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to finish this guy up and post some pictures!

MG Tallgeese EW: WIP Part 3

No pictures today, and not a lot of progress for that matter.  Instead of painting more grey parts what I was able to get done was put down the gloss coat on the parts painted yesterday, and put a layer of flat coat on the head.  This would've completed the head however I accidently knocked down the stem with the head crest on it and got fingerprints in the finish, so I'll have to work on fixing that up this week while I continue work on the torso that I also started today.  Unfortunately vacation is over now so work is going to slow down this week, but I will be continuing work on this (thus far) exceptional Master Grade of a suit I never thought would get the treatment, the Tallgeese!

MG Tallgeese EW: WIP Part 2

Finished up all the yellow pieces yesterday, began work on the grey parts this morning.  There's a lotta grey parts that need painted so this is gonna take awhile.  Just like with the yellow, I started by painting all the parts that needed masking and recolored, now I'm going to recolor the ones that don't need masked on a sectional basis, starting with the arms.  Tonight I also painted the pilot/standing figures of Zechs Marquise, not the easiest I've painted but at least both both figures had the same attire.  The rest of tonight/tomorrow I'll be spraying more and more grey and cleaning up the over spray on my already painted parts.

RG Freedom - WIP

This is my RG Freedom, as you can see it's almost done, just waiting on the wings to finish flat coat and assembly.  Should have it completed by next weekend, look for more pics then!

MG Tallgeese EW: WIP Part 1

Starting the MG Tallgeese ver. EW!  As you may know the EW version of the Tallgeese changes the color scheme slightly, focusing more on a white overall look and removing a lot of the dark grey from the TV version while adding some yellow.  I'm going for a modified version of this look adding in even more yellow and putting in some of the dark grey found on the TV version.  Got the first round of painting done last night, here's some pics of what's been done so far.