Model Making Makes Me Merry

[Felicia]

Looking at the stuff in the box, I notice that there's a super tiny green piece on the sticker sheet that's apparently supposed to be applied into a super tiny hole on the top of the head, and that scares me a little. I've read some suggestions that you can just draw in that spot with a green marker instead, and that does seem a lot easier, so maybe I'll go with that.

 

[Tomm Guycot]

As someone with little ties to actual Gundam series (so far...?) I have fewer must-model kits on my list (about 10)
...I was crushed to learn that the G Gundam representation isn't great, because the appeal of modeling an entire Punch Out!! of racial stereotyped robots is strong.

RIP Tequila Gundam.

 

[Felicia]

As someone with little ties to actual Gundam series (so far...?) I have fewer must-model kits on my list (about 10)
...I was crushed to learn that the G Gundam representation isn't great, because the appeal of modeling an entire Punch Out!! of racial stereotyped robots is strong.

RIP Tequila Gundam.

There is at least the alternative of the "Mobile Suit in Action" figures, those apparently have a pretty big selection from G Gundam. I'm considering maybe buying some of them in the future, if nothing else to have a complete set of the Scandinavian Gundams (Nobel, Viking, Mermaid).

 

[Kirin]

Also if you’re looking for kits from less popular shows, be sure to check out what’s available from the Build Fighters/Try/Divers lines, as those are shows *about* Gunpla and end up with kits that are mods of mechs from all over the franchise, so you never know what might show up that’s at least close to what you’re looking for.

 

[Octopus Prime]

there’s a few options for Shining Gundam, but I’m surprised there’s no Dark Gundam available.

 

[Tomm Guycot]

Here's my current planned progression of kits:

HG RX-78-2 Origin (started)
The only Gundam I've seen before this Gunpla foray is Wing (and then GQuux) - I know Wing is generally accepted but back then I absorbed the stigma of it not being a "real" Gundam so I don't want to start there. I should start with the OG and this has been suggested as the best OG in High Grade. (I've also started watching the original)

EDIT: HG RX-78 (G)E - RFV
It was right there at Target and the idea of buying Gunpla from Target at no markup was too great. It helps I'd been thinking about Tomino saying his original vision for Gundam was to be real military colors and he initially didn't like the red/yellow/blue/white treatment forced by Sunrise. And here it was! A Military-accurate evil RX-78. For $20 no shipping!

HG GQuux Red Gundam (preordered)
Ep2 of GQuux is what infected me with the Gunpla mind virus so you gotta pay homage to your first, right?

HG GQuux Police Zaku
I have never liked Zaku designs so those don't appeal to me, but this studio Khara burrowed into my brain so this looks the best to me.

RG RX-78-2 2.0
Time for Real Grade - gotta start with the OG (version 2)

MG Tallgeese EW
I feel at this point I'll have modeled enough I can indulge my GWing origins. My favorite of the five is Deathscythe but research suggests those kits are pretty clunky. There's a P-Bandai exclusive of Tallgeese Flugel I might try to nab.

MG Epyon EW
My favorite mobile suit in Wing. Kit seems dope. LFG

RG Eva Unit-01
I think I earned my right to geek out at this point.

RG Eva Unit-02
I mean I need it to pose the kick, right? Eva kick vs. Char kick?

HG Gundam Zilius
This manga was just announced but the main design looks sick

 

[Felicia]

Looking at the stuff in the box, I notice that there's a super tiny green piece on the sticker sheet that's apparently supposed to be applied into a super tiny hole on the top of the head, and that scares me a little. I've read some suggestions that you can just draw in that spot with a green marker instead, and that does seem a lot easier, so maybe I'll go with that.

Crisis averted: I managed to get the tiny green sticker into the tiny hole on top of the head, with the help of tweezers and a toothpick. I'm really proud of myself for managing to do that!

 

[Kirin]

Yeah I’ve done a few of those on various Gundam heads, they’re kind of nuts but real satisfying when you get them in just right.

 

[Felicia]

I finished my first Gunpla! Here's the pride and joy of Neo-Sweden, the mighty Nobel Gundam!

The feet has a tendency to come loose if I bend them too much, but the big problem is that the white plates on the hands fall off pretty easily. Maybe I should glue them?

I still have the weapons, optional hands, etc. to do, but that'll have to wait until tomorrow.

 

[Tomm Guycot]

I decided to get nuts. I work better when I can get into a groove and just grind a single action repeatedly. It also helps skill up these new model skills. But as I mentioned last kit, I can very easily sink into "Wait is this the right piece??" anxiety. So I came up with a way to organize by step - if there are too many specific pieces in a step, you just move to the next so the "do this first" are a section and "do this later" are the next.

This should also let me keep track of right/left limbs easily.

So I've clipped and de-nubbed my RX-78-2's torso so far.

 

[Felicia]

I've basically spent all day taking photos of my Nobel Gundam:

 

[Kirin]

Lol, fantastic shots in there Felicia! Love it.

 

[Octopus Prime]

YES!!!

YESSS!!!

 

[Felicia]

 

[Tomm Guycot]

I did it guys. I finished* RX-78-2

*(removing from runners and smoothing all the pieces)

Time for panel lining and assembly.

 

[Violentvixen]

So while we were in Nikko Japan we went to the shrine/memorial for Tokugawa Ieyasu, and while there were amused to see a Gundam displayed in one of the buildings.

Turns out it just came out last year and is to promote the shrines? Pretty cool look I think.

 

[Tomm Guycot]

Ieyasu Gundam: insane.

Update:

 

[Tomm Guycot]

Sorry for double posting (?) but I've completed RX-78-2 Origin version. I don't have an action stand yet so had to stick to ground-based poses. In this AU the Gundam works better in Earth's gravity >_>

 

[Kirin]

Lotta little stickers on that guy. And looks like you did some panel lining? Looks sharp!

 

[Tomm Guycot]

Lotta little stickers on that guy. And looks like you did some panel lining? Looks sharp!

Thanks!

Yeah I did panel lining for this guy. I don't see myself ever doing painting* but I definitely want to seal with a topcoat (to even out stickers) and do some weathering. So I got an HG Barbatos ($10) to screw up with different techniques and low skill so I'm not ruining a kit I care about. Then I'll kind of have my go-tos and try that out for a few models.

(*my wife already had an airbrush that she's been afraid to use so she asked me to learn how to use it for gunpla and then teach her, for nail art. So I'll be painting SOMETHING I just don't think it will be a common thing for me)

 

[Violentvixen]

I love all of these, but I had one of these horses growing up and it disappeared so it makes me super happy to see again.

Anyway, I was shocked at how little access we had to any kits this trip. We went to the Gundam Pavilion at the World's Fair which was fun although their attempts at justifying their presence with the future life/sustainability theme of the Fair was a bit of a stretch. "The beam saber can be used to add nitrogen to the soil!". Sure, why not.

The pavilion was quite fun, space elevator attack situation, Star Tours at Disneyland is probably the closest comparison I got but this was much grander. You walk into the first room and are launched up the elevator in a room that shakes and such while the screens show various space scenes and then enter a big room which is supposed to be the station. Then a piece of space debris has a Bad Guy in it (it was entirely in Japanese so don't ask me details) and there's a big battle, where they were flying all over the panels of the room. Fun stuff.

After doing the pavilion we tried to find one of the unique model kits from the expo but they only sold the art book there. They directed us to the main store which was sold out of basically everything.

After we left the fair we were already going to an area where there was a special Gundam popup, but nope, you need a ticket for the day to enter and we couldn't get one even though the store clearly had a billion kits ugh.

At this point we were out of time to go to another shop that might have 'em so gave up. We went to visit the small town where Lumber used to live and guess what I saw at the kombini right outside this tiny station?! They had two of the expo exclusive kits, absolutely bizarre but I'll take it. We were basically packed at this point so jammed it in the shopping bag we had and it was one of Lumber's carryon items, ha.

We haven't fully unpacked and have a lot to catch up on so probably not assembling it for a bit, but wanted to share our adventures here!

 

[Kirin]

Ooh, that solar powered Gundam kit looks super cool!

 

[Felicia]

It was a flag day today in Sweden, so I went outside and got all patriotic with the Swedish Gundam:

 

[WisteriaHysteria]

Glad to discover this thread popping off lately! Love seeing all of y'all's photos. I have an immense backlog of stuff I need to get back to, but for me, making kits can take weeks, and it's hard to find the time. Also, I have two young cats so I fear my days of making Gunpla in peace are over. My heart is still with the hobby though, it's just so fun! Some random replies to the thread that I'll spoilercap for size:

Spoiler

What is everyone's approach?

Never even considered option A, really doesn't seem like a good idea especially when you get to a piece that has a lot similar pieces.

I will do Option A. It gets you more into an assembly line type of mindset. Which I can understand if that is a turnoff to some people. But when you're making a bigger kit, it's nice to be able to just hold onto the same set of tools and not have to pick up five different ones for each piece. It makes the builds go faster and also helps you hone your fine motor skills. Also, I will do panel lining before assembly, since panel lining a completed kit is annoying and cumbersome. That part alone makes option A the better way to go since you can panel line a bunch of pieces all at once.

or do I obey the color rules?

Grey panel lines on white; black on darker colors; brown on reds. Sometimes I'll do black lines on white pieces if I want to mimic the way a certain mobile suit looks in their TV shows, what with anime having thick black contours. It's all up to you though, and what you think looks is best!

ALSO to echo what folks said to me - don't waste time on the EG (Entry Grade) Kits.

Entry Grade kits are fine, they're just probably not for the demographic of people here. From what I've seen, they're great for:
1) Cheap gifts to little kids or scared newbies to get them into the hobby.
2) For really advanced modelers so they can either use them as cheap stock for testing/practice, or to really just stunt on ppl and show off how good their modeling skills are. I've seen people turn EGs into models that look BETTER than Real Grade kits through their custom mods.

As someone with little ties to actual Gundam series (so far...?) I have fewer must-model kits on my list (about 10)
...I was crushed to learn that the G Gundam representation isn't great, because the appeal of modeling an entire Punch Out!! of racial stereotyped robots is strong.

RIP Tequila Gundam.

There are a bunch of HGs and a smattering of Master Grade G-Gundam kits out there. All of the modern HGs are fine. There's HGs for The Shining, God, Master, and Nobell Gundams, as well as the Death Army robots. The Master Gundam comes with a Fuunsaiki which is neat. There are also HG kits for the Maxter, Rose, and Dragon Gundams, but those are rare for complicated reasons. Avoid the MGs though. They were designed and made 25 years ago, they are obsolete and ancient builds, and honestly not even fun to make. There is an RG God and Shining Gundams though.

RG RX-78-2 2.0
Time for Real Grade - gotta start with the OG (version 2)

I don't want to dissuade anyone from doing Gunpla, but Real Grades are generally pretty hard for newbies. They are harder than Master Grades on average, because the parts and stickers are soooo small. It's nice that they're 1/144 scale, so they pair up with High Grades pretty well, but just be ready for the build to be much more challenging. Also RGs have a reputation for being "grenades" (I'm sure y'all can figure the etymology on that one out) on account of how intricate and fiddly they are. Just a word of caution so you're prepared.

The feet has a tendency to come loose if I bend them too much, but

This happens on kits from time-to-time. Sometimes because of wear and tear from the kits getting older and the joints wearing down. But sometimes on older kits, things just don't fit as snugly. One way to go about solving this is to paint a thin layer of super glue on the peg, let the super glue fully dry and cure, then plug it back in. That will usually be just enough extra width to make things fit snug again.

This btw, helps demonstrate just fun the hobby is. There is no mistakes, just learning opportunities. Any broken or lost piece can be fixed or replicated if the hobbyist is willing to put in the work and exercise a little creativity.

Also, re: someone saying plastic model kits are just legos but cheaper. I submit to you the Perfect Grade line of kits. Here's an example of one:

And here's another:

 

[Octopus Prime]

It occurs to me that I haven't shared my own works here;

 

[Violentvixen]

It occurs to me that I haven't shared my own works here;

I love the archery one.

At first glance I thought the fighter jet was the sword for the one in the second picture. Really like those colours too.

 

[Kirin]

Using a Vic Viper as a sword *would* be a pretty baller move for a large mecha. (Though, the scale doesn't quite work here because that's a ZOE Orbital Frame, and one of those actually transforms into... a straight-up Vic Viper.)

 

[Tomm Guycot]

FFFFFFFF Vic Viper and ZoE TT_TT

EDIT:
Question for Octo and WH I guess - what do you use for panel lining? I did fine tip Gundam markers and on my new kit I'm trying the injection Gundam markers and the approaches are very different!

 

[WisteriaHysteria]

I've done almost all of the various methods people have concocted. The one I prefer is to make my own panel wash and then let capillary action draw the thinned out paint into the panel lines. In this method, it's best to use a thicker paint like an enamel paint as your base, and then use a paint thinner to thin it out. The result is very clean and even looking, and is relatively easy to clean up. There are a few catches however:

1) Enamel paints, and paint thinners in general are toxic. Ideally, you'd do work like this under a fume hood, or somewhere well ventilated. It's probably bad to huff paint/acetone in the ways I have.

2) Paint thinners will chemically react with and erode most plastic model kits are made of. So you either have to lay down a base coat first to protect the plastic (which adds additional time and work) or risk the integrity of your kit's plastic with every tiny mistake.

3) Paint thinners evaporate quickly, which means you have to work faster and/or constantly add new thinner. This is more a double edged sword than a full drawback, as the paint thinner evaporating quickly will also mean less drying time, and also easier to do cleanup work.

What I do is get a tiny little jar of a specific paint I want -- you can usually find thimble-sized tiny jars at hobby shops. Then put a small amount of that into either a tiny palate, or a clean/empty tiny jar, and mix in just enough Zippo lighter fluid (in place of any other thinners like acetone) to make the solution runny like water. Then use a small paint brush to absorb the solution, then lightly touch a panel line so that the paint gets drawn into it.

If the panel lines are deep/sharp enough, this process is really fast and simple, and so is clean up. But a lot of kits -- especially older ones -- don't have good panel lines on them, which will make any panel lining hard. Under those circumstances, you either have to carefully paint the lines in, or learn how to scribe panel lines yourself so you can make them deeper yourself and thus easier to work with. I generally don't go that far.

 

[Tomm Guycot]

Also, re: someone saying plastic model kits are just legos but cheaper. I submit to you the Perfect Grade line of kits. Here's an example of one:

On that note, it looks like that Millennium Falcon is on Amazon for $418. Meanwhile I happened to encounter the LEGO Jabba's Barge last week and it's set at $499 so advantage: Bandai


EDIT: I just looked up LEGO's Millennium Falcon and it's a cool $850.