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.

Loot & News

As what I mentioned earlier in my previous post, I went to Midvalley today to COD a MG Lukas Strike E + IWSP today, and here it is! XD

If you haven't read my earlier post, I got this at RM130, much lower than usual price =D.

Some updates in the gunpla world(Namely bootleg gunpla =P), the Mcmodel Ex-S Gundoom is finally released in China on July 22! I've already pre-ordered a unit from Nicholas Chua, and the stocks are expected to arrive sometime next week XD. He's unable to confirm the price yet, but other sellers are setting the price around RM50-60. The price range is very very good, and hopefully Nic's price will be in that range, or better, less =P.
Here are pictures of the SD Ex-S Gundoom in colours from the web, as previously I've only shown the uncoloured prototype.








*A LED unit will included in the kit, which is used to light up the eyes. It is said the LED will only be included as a premium item for the first production batch only, much like as in Hi-Nu Gundoom

There's another soon to be released special edition version which comes in orange-red colour scheme with hot rod style fire decals pre-painted.


Another big news is from the bootleg king company, TT Hongli. It is said that they hired designers from VP, a conversion kit producer in Korea to design their new MG 1/100 Hi-Nu. TT is following Mcmodel's footstep in taking resin conversion kits' design and making them into plastic kits.
Here are some pics of the supposedly their new Hi-Nu(Named Hi-Nu VP for now).



It is said that TT is going to use back the inner frame of the original MG Hi-Nu inner frame, with the outer armour being the new desgin.
I've seen people mentioned on web that TT also copy-righted this design, though would it render Bandai unable to file a lawsuit against them is questionable.

Lastly, the news on TT's next bootleg kit of Bandai's, is to be a HG ORX-005 Gaplant TR-5. Good news as the Bandai kit of it is very rare and costly.

That's it for updates!