An Old Friend

Everyone, meet Astraea. This is the very first gundam I built back in december or  so of 2008 and the kit that really hooked me in to this past time. It’s very obvious it was my first kit- I didn’t have the proper marker for panel lining, there are nub marks in various places and there are some seams here and there.

I was still overjoyed at how well the kit had turned out when I had finished it. It had taken me all day to just assemble the basics of the model, the weapons wound up having to wait until a few days after.

Time passed and though my skills improved, I left Astraea on display on the lower shelf of my stand as a reminder as to where I started. It got dusted off just like all the other models and occasionally posed around something else, though it was usually near the other 00 kits (Dynames, my second gunpla, and Exia- the 5th or 6th). One day while moving everything around to make some more room for the future, the elbow peg on Astraea’s right arm gave way and snapped! I was a little bummed since it was the first gundam I had put together. While I’m not nearly as proud of it as I was originally I still wanted to leave it out.

That’s when I got an idea.

The Exia Repair at the start of Gundam 00 season two was one of my  favorite mechs that we’ll never see a proper model of. I had contemplated buying another Exia kit or the 1/144 version along with a Tierren Ground Type for the sole purpose of cutting them apart and mashing them together. The broken arm on Astraea was a perfect chance to do something just like that! After a few days of work, we got the following-

Not bad for being generally clueless when it comes to battle damage! I tried to drybrush some metallic grey in to the gashes with varying degrees of success, but in the end I think I should have stuck with the weathering compund for that. I went over the entire kit with some sandpaper to take away the plastic shine and then covered it with sand/light sand, topcoated it then did the same thing over again. Maybe I’m applying it wrong but it seems like some of the weathering blows off when I apply topcoat to the model, necessitating a second go. The cloak is a brown shirt that I hacked apart (Thanks goes to Mmy for finding a tut while I was at work) and and burned to give it that worn out look, as well as applying the same sand weathering to it. The collar of the cloak has a wire instead to keep it from doing whatever it wants though right now if it’s messed with it takes a bit of time to get looking normal again.

I’m even more happy with this kit than I originally was now that it has a little more work put in to it. I originally planned to redo the panel lining as well but sanding everything down sort of cleaned things up on their own..not that you can see much of the panel lining now anyway. It now sits on the shelf with the rest of the gunpla I’ve put extra effort in to.

MG MS-06 Zaku II Pics.

Finally got some AAs for my digital camera. Found out its a piece of junk. Camera added to my list of things I need. Heres some blurry terrible pics.

Obligatory Introduction.

After a long running love of Gundam and other Giant Robots I got excited about the idea of being involved with Gunpla when I was introduced to Lupes about a month ago. His already bolstering collection had enthralled and excited me. I had pieced together a couple non-grade kits in my childhood; Wing Zero, Epyon, and Deathscythe Hell Custom. All very weak kits with little appeal now, but then I was in love. A love I didn’t feel again until I gazed upon this holy fortification, a Dark Tower of mobile suits.

Introductions and Updates

Added a new user to the blog, Mmy (a local friend) who will also be doing updates to the site from here on.

In other news, I finished the PG Wing Zero and weathered my Zaku II! On the downside, while wiring up the battery pack for the Zero one of the wires must have been damaged as none of the lights would work when I tested them after wiring everything up. Regardless, the finished kit is still a sight to behold. Pictures after the jump!

Weathering+Topcoat

I used my Ez8 model as a testing ground for these two things since it was only a 30$ model and could only benefit from being finished better. I’m pleased with how it turned out, though I know I can improve my weathering technique by a lot right now. I certainly have the tools do so with Tamiya’s weathering sets (A/B/C/D), so it’s just a matter of refining my work. The topcoat on Unicorn is currently drying, so if it makes things look that much better you can expect to see a few more shots of it as well (limited as it’s posing ability is).

I went with a heavily worn look, considering by the end of the 8th MS Team the Ez8 has seen quite a bit of action in a short period of time. Soot from fighting in the city and mud/dirt from the mountain bits. I tried to weather the booster pack but you really can’t see any of the work I did there (aside from the little bit of burnt orange and blue around the booster edges). While it looks dirty as all-get-out compared to the rest of the unweathered models it sits next to, I think that the dirty look suits the Ez8 very well and gives the kit an neat level of personality that the other kits don’t have.