Okay. It's been two months of work but I've finally finished Gundam Zirius. This was my most ambitious build yet, though it didn't start out with that intent.
Gundam Eight (the manga Zirius is from) and this kit were announced the weekend after I finished my very first trial gunpla build. I earmarked it as the first "new" Gundam since I cared about Gundams, which is always a mindset I fall into. I love Sekiro not because it's my first From, but it's my first NEW From. So I was locked in on Zirius. I even ordered an extra kit, because its design inspired a future (very future) painting project when I learn to airbrush models. More on that later.
I wanted to do the kit justice and use all my skills like panel lining, weathering, topcoating, etc.
Zirius has two modes that can be built; Light Armor and Full Armor. In short, this means there are a LOT of parts compared to the average HG model. it's several armor pieces placed on top of an already complex inner frame. Once prepped, the volume of pieces stretched my organization method to its limit I think. Just topcoating it took 2 sessions to fit everything in, and in total I killed an entire can of semi-gloss.
I weathered with blue realtouch marker to get a highlighted look, to match the key images of the Zirius where its glowing crystals are casting a blue light over everything.
At this point it occurred to me, since I had 2 kits - and the future project only requires a specific set of parts... I had a LOT of spare parts. And I DID want to put everything into this kit after all, so I started on a few mods. First, the easy one: beam saber beams. You can soak these in boiling water and then curve them to imply motion.
Next is the gun. Zirius's beam rifle has two modes: Short and Long range. The default build for this kit is the Long Range mode - but for an HG kit it seems REALLY complex, with a ton of pieces that interlock.
If I didn't know better, I'd say the original intent for this aspect was for it to transform between modes. If you look at images from the manga, you can see how the short range mode would almost magically work with these pieces. ...and that's the rub, because I have an entirely spare set of parts (except the barrel, which I need for the future project). So I got a craft saw and started separating.
It all fit together exactly like I expected. If I had it to do over again I would have separated the parts slightly differently, but it's hard to argue with the end product.
That worked out great, so I reopened the manga to look for pose references... and was reminded in the first major battle (the only battle thus far, really) Zirius doesn't have the guns, leans heavily on sword fighting and... summons a cyclone of crystal shard flachettes.
Hm. Well not only do I have an entirely spare set of crystal elements from the backpack, gun, and shield... I also have thin plastic squares serving as labels on all the used-up gates. So I threw all those into the freezer to make them brittle, then gathered a hammer and screwdriver and set to chiseling. They broke into convincing shards.
I first assembled a structural line of the less aesthetic pieces, in hopes the pretty ones could run along the outside in a more "random" pattern. Still, I checked every potential option before committing to gluing them down. Eventually, I had the completed ribbon of crystal shards. The next step was the ultimate mod technique: sprue glue. You see, plastic cement doesn't bond it MELTS the plastic, meaning if you drop a bunch of cuts from the gate (or sprue) into glue, it forms a colored cement that will dry into plastic that matches the Gundam. I painted this liberally down the back side of the crystals, to provide additional structure.
as a happy accident, this not only supported the structure but made it pliable. This let me do several tests to come up with the final curvature and twist, which I accomplished by soaking the structure in boiling water (just like the beam sabers).
The final touch was going to be the two points of the shield, which each had a ring. zirius is rotten with attach points, so by looping these into ones aligned with the crystal ribbon, I could keep it secure. I tried several different methods of curving these to fit the attach points but also align into the crystals - but my luck had run out. I collapsed one of the rings entirely in a heating accident.
Regardless, the photoshoot went without a hitch. I had a great time trying new techniques to enhance a meaningful kit, and 98% of them went surprisingly well.
