Loots & Purchases 17

It's been 3 months since I last purchased any gunpla kits, and now... behold, my first splurge of the year!

List:
TT/GG PG 1/60 Wing Gundam Zero Custom
GoGo MG 1/100 Hi-Nu Gundam Evo

Mcmodel HG 1/144 HWS Nu Gundoom

Daban MG 1/100 Astray Red Frame Kai

Daban MG 1/100 Epyon Gundam

BTF 1/100 GN Sword IV Full Saber

Tamiya Pla-plate set

Mr. Hobby Mr. Masking Sol R

I bought the PG Wing, MG Hi-Nu Evo & MG Epyon from Taobao, while the others were bought from local sellers. I've been searching for the normal TT/GG PG Wing for quite some time, and there is only the Pearl Coating version available everywhere as China stopped production of the normal version at that time. Recently they have started reproducing it again, so I quickly grabbed it before it become scarce again ^_^v. Good news is TT/GG PG RX-178 Mk-II both AEUG & Titans versions are also being reproduced, so grab it while you can!

The MG Hi-Nu Evo is finally released! I mentioned in a post few months back about China is making a snap-fit plastic kit out of a Hi-Nu resin conversion kit, now finally released, and the results is an awesome looking kit! I bought the 1/100 GN Sword IV Full Saber though I don't have a MG 00 Qan[T] yet. The reason is that this kit is a limited release, so I better grab it now than regret later XD. If you didn't already know, Daban is a new China bootleg company that just started business recently, releasing  MG Astray Red Frame Kai as their first bootleg kit, and the second kit being MG Epyon. On a side note, Dragon Momoko is releasing MG Epyon too, but with add-on clear-orange parts for the heat rod. I can't seem to find any Taobao seller which have Mcmodel HWS Gundoom in stock, so I have no choice but to get from a local seller(last unit to boot) at a higher price =(. Lesson learned for not buying a Mcmodel kit when it's just released. 

I also bought a few decals from Samueldecals again.

List:
RG Freedom Gundam decals

MG Zeta Plus decals Ver. 1

MG Zeta Plus decals Ver. 2

Oh yeah, means I finally can make a move on my previous backlogs, though new backlogs are added lololol. WIP of MG Strike Freedom coming soon!

MG GAT-X105E Lukas's Strike E + IWSP - WIP Part 3

Yo, it's been quite some time since my last WIP post, project kinda delayed due to Chinese Lunar New Year, which I eat, drink, play & sleep all day long XD. I finally completed the body of Strike E, which took longer than expected.

Legs:

*Front vents below the knee armour are painted silver with Artline silver marker.

*Side vents at the lower thigh side armour are also painted silver. I've applied extra caution waterslide decals by Samueldecal on the sides of knee armour.

*I painted the inner side of the rear thrusters with gold using Artline gold marker. Extra caution decals above the thrusters, using Samueldecal's waterslides.

*I applied extra large GAT-X105E logo decal on the right side of right ankle armour and vice versa on the other. Also waterslide decal by Samueldecal.

I've painted the insides of the ankle armour to simulate inner frame. Colour used are silver with Artline silver marker, and gray with Gundam Marker GM12 Gray.

I've also painted some silver on the inner frame on the upper thigh where the outer armour splits when bent.

Hip:

*The front vents on the crotch are painted silver while the vents on the front skirt armour are painted yellow(Gundam Marker GM62 Yellow), then filled in black(Gundam Marker GM01 Black). The O.M.N.I. emblem is waterslide decal from Samueldecal while the other 2 are dry transfer decal given in the kit.

*I just detailed the side skirt armour a bit by painting the bolts silver. The decal on it is sticker given in the kit.

*The insides of the rear skirt thrusters are painted in gold. Decals applied are just using dry transfers & stickers provided.

*It's the first time I've tried to paint the insides of skirt armours. Using same colour like what I've used on the ankle armours.

Here's the whole Strike E completed and weathering done.

Now that the body is completed, next up is the IWSP pack and weapons + accessories. This may take some time as there is many parts need to be painted, especially the IWSP pack, where masking will be a pain in the butt =_=. I'm also working on MG Strike Freedom at the mean time but at a slower rate than this kit. Stay tune for the next WIP!

MG GAT-X105E Lukas's Strike E + IWSP - WIP Part 2

Happy New 2012 Year!!! I've been utilising the past 2 weeks of my semester break to do as much as I can on my projects, not to mention the hot & dry weather helped a lot too. ^^

I've finished applying decals and topcoat on both shoulder armours and arms. =)

Shoulder armours:

*Front-facing: left piece is right shoulder armour and vice versa. I screwed up a bit on the letter 'E' on the GAT-X105E decal =(. I'll leave it as a sign of battle damage. The GAT-X105E decal is dry transfer decal given in the kit, while the Lukas's signature dog(or wolf) emblem is waterslide decal by Samueldecal.

*Back-facing: I applied O.M.N.I. emblem waterslide decal from Samueldecal on the backside of the right shoulder armour. However it seems less pronounce than I expected because it was silver instead of gray. Even a coat of flat topcoat, as suggested by Samueldecal, didn't make it turns to gray. Guess I just have to live with it. Decal on the backside of left shoulder armour is similar with front side left shoulder armour.

Arms:

*Only colour some silver with Artline silver marker on the shoulder joint frame, other than that all are plastic colours. Used a combination of dry transfer, stickers & waterslide decals, all following the manual original decal location. With exception added a warning decal salvaged from Bandai MG Strike Freedom waterslide decal on the elbow.

I've done some weathering on the head & torso, using Gundam Real Touch Marker GM406 Black. My first intention was to create shading effect as done by airbrush painting, however it didn't turn out quite well so I switched to weathering instead.

Here's with the shoulder armours & arms weathered and attached to the main body:

I also coloured the inner frame of the shoulder armours in silver, and I forgot to snap a photo of them before attaching to the main body =X. It was a hassle to detach it again so I just went ahead and took this photo, haha

That's all the completed parts I've done on this kit. I've applied decals on the legs and gloss topcoated them, but the weather just have to turn bad on me and I can't flat topcoat them =(. I'm also working on my MG Strike Freedom, stay tune for a WIP post of it and a third WIP post of this kit!

MG GAT-X105E Lukas's Strike E + IWSP - WIP Part 1

I planned to only paint some minor details on this kit, apply decals, and topcoat it. So most of this kit is going to be in original plastic colours. I've only finished the head, torso and feet so far.

Head and torso:

 

 *Nothing special done here, just applied a few provided dry-transfer decals on the chest top and stomach.

*Added some minor silver details around the neck.

*Painted the thrusters gold using Artline gold marker, and silver on the bolt using Artline silver marker.

*Applied provided stick-on decals on side of chest and waist, and also side of head.

*Painted the eyes using Artline gold marker too, with black paint around the eyes. Used Gundam Marker GM17 Metallic Blue to paint the forehead and back camera. The vulcans were painted silver, and the cheek vents were just filled in with Gundam panel line marker GM01.

Feet:

*Painted the ankle's hydraulic pipes and bolts. I used Gundam Marker Seed Destiny GM59 Red for the red parts, but it ended up with a disastrous result. First I painted white as a base colour, then layered over it with red. I have no idea why did black spots appear after the paint dried. If anyone reading this who knew the reason, please feel free to leave a comment to advice me, thank you =).

*The part where the ball joint is located was originally red, but I've painted it gray using Gundam Marker GM12 Gray.

*Painted gold on the thrusters vents, while silver around the rims. Some minor silver bolts details.

*Stick-on decals applied on front top of foot and side of heel.

All of the parts above have been gloss topcoat-ed before masking off the shiny parts, then topcoat-ed with flat topcoat.

Currently finished detailing and applying decals on the arms, leaving only topcoat to finish them. Just started to work on the legs. Stay tune for Part 2!

MG Lukas's Strike E + IWSP - Unboxing

If I were to make a WIP post, I'll need to do an unboxing post first, so here it is =).
This is a custom Strike Gundam piloted by Lukas O' Donnell in the Gundam Seed Frame Astrays series.
The body of this Strike is similar to that of Strike Noir with exception of different colour scheme, and it is fitted with the Integrated Weapons Striker Pack, IWSP in short. IWSP is a combination of the 3 original Striker packs into a single pack.

Front/top/bottom/side view:

 

 

Contents:

*Total of  21 runners

 *-2 screws
   -2 wires for grappling hook

Manual(Front/back/centre spread):

That's it for this unboxing post, will post up a WIP post of it as soon as possible.
So far only done the head, torso and feet.

Loots & Purchases 14

Another long MIA from me, been real lazy to blog recently, lol

BUT, today(or actually yesterday), 19/11/2011, is a very special date for me. It's so special, that I have to blog it no matter what. The reason it's not because Malaysia's Gundam Builders World Cup(GBWC) Open Category is being held in Sungei Wang Plaza from 18th to 23rd November, nor because the Junior Category is being held in MIECC from 18th to 28th November.

It's because I finally bought my dream gundam kit, MG 1/100 MSA-0011[Ext] Ex-S Gundam!!!!!! *cheering*

Finally made up my mind to buy it after holding back for so long. There was a small warehouse sale during the GBWC, and the MG Ex-S was on sale at a price of RM265. Not a very big discount from the usual price of RM280, or RM272 of Gamers Arena's price. However, I thought, since I'm going to buy it sooner or later(the only kit I would die for), why not buy now at this cheaper price? So I went ahead and bought it ^^

Before this I wanted to buy the HG Hyaku Shiki GPB Color (Byaku Shiki), but my friend, Nicholas Chua aka ascentic advised me not to do so, for now, as the price of RM68 is overpriced.

I took his advise, and went to look for another worthy kit, if any, to purchase. Had my eye on the MG RX-178 Super Gundam, since it was rare, and the good thing is I can mount the G-defender on MG RX-178 MkII v2.0 when I buy it in the future. But then I thought when will that be? Moreover I'm not really loving RX-178. Then I saw workers bringing in new batches of stock, so I went and checked out what new items were brought in. That's when I saw MG Ex-S Gundam and the rest are history~

I'm definitely broke now, trying to salvage some cash for the upcoming Mcmodel Nu Gundoom HWS, still surveying for a good price. But this purchase today is not the only reason I'm broke, but also due to I've ordered ALOT of bootleg gundam kits from Taobao. It's not convenient for me to tell the price here, but all I can say it's BIG =X. I ordered a total of 7 kits, that's right, 7!!! Here's the the stuffs I've ordered:

List:

HG 1/144 Gaplant TR-5

HG 1/144 Psycho Gundam

NG 1/100 Akatsuki Gundam

MG 1/100 Sinanju

MG 1/100 Deathscythe Gundam EW

MG 1/100 Deathscythe Hell Custom

MG 1/100 Zaku II J-Type

*I'm not really sure which version of this Zaku II is. It's either the normal version, or the MS Igloo version. They are suppose to be of different shade of green, but I can't differentiate it by using photos from web.

Now that's alooooooot of kits to build, adding up to the large number of backlogs I already had.

Other than Mcmodel Nu Gundoom HWS, no more purchases for me until next year, the most until Chinese New Year, lol. I hope I'm not tempted to buy the upcoming TT/GG release of MG Wing Zero Custom, or worse, the TT/GG MG Hi-Nu Gundam Kai! >_<

That's it for this post, I'm currently working on my MG Strike E + IWSP, hope I'm not too lazy to post up a WIP, lol.

P/S: I'm starting to number my 'Loots & Purchases' posts, it's head cracking task to think up a different title everytime, lol.

MG ZGMF-X20A Strike Freedom Gundam - WIP Part 1

I got this kit sometime end of last year, so I've already snap-fitted it long ago, but haven't painted, panel lined, or topcoated it. I haven't got the knowledge on how to do those during that time, so now I'm trying to complete the kit.

First things first, I bought the standard MG Strike Freedom, not the Full Burst Mode version, nor the Extra Finish version. The standard version's inner frame or supposedly gold coloured parts are an ugly non-shiny gold-yellow, some said "poo" colour, LOL. So my first task is to paint it real gold colour, which I've done on one arm and one leg.
I've hunted high and low for brands that have real gold colour spray can, but most are metallic gold -_-. I can't find brands carrying the chrome gold plating type colour I wanted, so I've no choice but to settle on ABRO brand's High Finish Gold which is the closest colour I can get to the chrome gold I wanted.

Comparison of the unpainted right arm with the painted left arm:
Inner frame:


With armour parts:


Comparison of the unpainted right leg with the painted left leg:
Inner frame:


With armour parts:

*I also painted a bit gold on the ankle armour's details, and a little bit of red in the small knee thruster.

I planned to try the PG Strike Freedom's colour scheme on this kit, so I also paint gold on the inside of the shoulder armour.
Comparison of the unpainted right shoulder armour and the painted left shoulder armour:
Disassembled:


Assembled:


That's what I've progressed so far, next I'm going to paint the the main body first before moving on to finish the other arm and leg. Lastly will the Dragoons pack, which will be a tedious job just by disassembling alone =_=.
Stay tune for Part 2!