Lots of New Gundam Models...

And not that much time to build them. While some of you might not know, but I'm not actually in my gunpla building hub as you might think. I'm actually away, continuing my studies, and unfortunately all the tools and paint are not with me right now. Secondly, it becomes quite a pain having to pack gundam models into my bags when I leave fro my studies, so quite a few models which I can just straight build, pretty much, are not here with me now. Therefore, I might be a bit slow on posting new updates on my gundam collection, but I'm also planning on posting stuff other than gundam models on this blog, for example my love of Nerf and video games, which fill up my spare time. As you guys might have noticed I had posted quite a lot about Hawken, or mentioned it in a few posts, but it is mainly because the game became very addictive these past few days, and I spent quite a lot of time, as you guys might know playing it.

Well, now that I'm done with that, let's get to the gunpla news. They are releasing a new RG to add to, if I'm not mistaken the previous 9 RG models that are already in the market (correct me if I'm wrong in the comment section please). Now, one of the main reasons that I'm especially excited for this model is the fact that I'm currently building an RG model, and its still blowing my mind with how beautiful they made the gundam model, and also the fact that this particular model is in my wish list. I have always liked the GP0s, and as I had posted previously on my blog, I had purchased the HG GP03. As much as I liked the model, I wished that it had more detail, and better articulation. And my wish was granted with the new release of  Gundam GP01 Zephyranthes and its upgraded version for improved space combat Gundam GP01 Full Burnern (which I thought to be Full Vernien because if I remember correctly it was spelled that way in the anime but oh well...). They both look splendid as do all the RG counter parts do, and they have all the added detailing.

As you can see both models above, they both look awesome. But what I'm most excited about is this might be a stepping stone towards making RG models of the other GP0s, and I'm most anticipating the GP03!! Especially if they make it compatible with the Ochiris! But for now I might just settle with the Full Burnern as my second RG model. Looking forward to it!!

Farid

Wow, does it look spendid!!

As you guys might be able to guess from the photos below, I actually played more Hawken than I actually did as excited as I was with the game. As I pointed out in the previous post I did on my personal impression on the game, I didn't play it as much as you might think, in this sense, I hardly played, about 2 games in 2 months. As I did mention the gameplay was so different I found myself just playing league matches on Starcraft II (also because I got the expansion as a birthday present, thanks by the way), I didn't pay any attention to it. However, on Friday, I actually thought I might jump in and play a match or two, just to see what new goodies the developers had brought to the game. What I saw, basically, surprised me.

Above are 2 of my favourite maps during the closed beta, but I rarely see the city map now, I only play on the desert map which is called Bazaar.

This is my new favourite map, and clearly named Front Line, its a beautiful map, because this one is a nicely planned, clean city for your team to wreck havoc in.

The game looked much better than what I remembered in the closed beta, and as I played, I realized that added so many new things. The mechs moved much more smooth, althought if some of you had watched any gameplay footage you might think its clunky and jumpy (although it was worse in the closed beta), I felt it was easier to move your mechs around and dodge attacks from your enemies.

A short, 5 minute gameplay footage, sorry for the quality will try to improve on it later on.

They had also added objectives, which I think everyone appreciates as you unlock one and it pops out on the bottom right side of the screen with a very cool sound effect.

Just some of the beautiful screenshots I took in game, this was only in the new map they, Front Line, and I like the landscape a lot! The settings I play on are Medium, so you can see how splendid the game looks, I could play it on high settings, but during fire fights, the game gets laggy, and I prefer as much graphical looks until it can no longer play smoothly. I will add gameplay footage later on if possible, because I'm having some problems at the moment, just a short update for now, AND that is all, FINISH!!

Farid

Real Grade, Real Fine Details!!

Yosh, now finally starting some real progress on my newer gundam models, and since I had never started on a Real Grade model before, I decided to start with this one first. I don't usually like to do step by step posts of my progress on my gundam models, I usually like showing off the finished model straight away, but as I built the right leg of the gundam model, I realized that this is in a whole different league compared to most gunpla, and it surely isn't just a Master Grade scaled down like how I thought it was. They added different shades of a single colour like white to make the model look much more detailed then their High Grade and Master Grade counter parts. So, this post is pretty much out of my shock and awe when I started building this model.

This is just a re-used photo, but this was the packaging... like they changed anything, NEXT!!

One of the coolest part I find building these Real Grade models are the joints and different plastic which are molded into the runners. But looking at the parts a bit more closely, a little add-ons might have taken place in the factory, but still awesome and new to gunpla!

This was also a surprise to me, where they gave a piece of braided cable and wire, to cut and place to look like the hydraulics of the Gundam Model. And I have to say, this makes the model look so much more realistic and I'm really happy with how it looks. However, I will recommend cutting the braided cable with a pair of scissors so that you can keep your work clean without much effort.

Another look at how they make the hydraulics have their own texture and make the model so much more intricate.

They added a lot of details to be panel-lined in this model, and I'm guessing in all Real Grade models. And it also takes a lot more work building it because you have to thin out the panel-lines to make it look sleek as the model itself.

One of the things I also like is no stickers, nice having different coloured plastic~

Well, that's pretty much it for now, will hopefully get the completed model up on my blog as soon as its done, and to those who consider buying a Real Grade, get one, its a whole different level of gunpla, but extra care should also be taken when building these, because nub marks can really mess with how well the parts fit together.

Farid

Looking back at all my old gundam models.

Quite a few years had passed since I started taking building gundam models seriously. Before, all I did was straight build and I didn't even cut the parts from the runners properly. There are actually a few models which I made bad mistakes while building, and because of the limited knowledge I had dealing with such problems at that time, I failed miserably in fixing them. These gundam models, I took of my blog, because I planned on finishing them before reposting them again.

One of main ones that I messed up on, Unicorn Gundam. Sadly, this also happens to be the most expensive model in my collection. I'm sure you might think it looks good in the photos, but that was mainly because I hid the damage well, broken parts, bad decal placement, all that kind of stuff.

This SD model was actually the first model I really tried panel-lining, I've gone a long way since this... but I just cannot understand how I thought that looked so clean last time...

And this, Blitz Gundam, I actually tried fixing this model up, repainting the required areas and all, but every time I took the model out of the box, I looked at the large amount of fixing that needed to be done. Although it was on this model I tried painting for the first time, and I continue to now.

This might not look so bad, Shibai Sazabi. But a lot went wrong on this model. However, this one happens to be one of my few broken or messed up models that I fixed. The pink colour I initially used was too watery to paint the model with, and I left all the white parts, which should remain white, stained with the watery paint. Thankfully I managed to clean it up and paint it appropriately, and you may notice that I didn't put this guy on the side with the others, well it was mainly because I was refining my painting on this model, and after that I jumped straight to the model I actually wanted to paint, forgetting this one almost entirely. Oh well, maybe this will be one of my secret projects!!

Farid

Basically All that I have done...

An update on my current 2 projects which are both HGs, but I'm most likely going to be halting that for now as I'm back to continue my studies, however, finished as much as I could before getting bored and doing something else. I was working on 2 models, HG Nataku and HG Heavyarms (the anime version not endless waltz). 

(Above) Are the Nataku parts, I basically only finished the foot area, because all the other are in the planning stages of which is to be glued together first before painting or even sanding.

The sanding process, mostly I spent so much time sanding and re-sanding the parts out of pure dissatisfaction of how they turned out every time, but I finally got it to how I wanted.

Smoothing the edges on some of the parts of the legs. Not sure whether or not I'm being overly sensitive to how they look or not, but I just couldn't leave them like that.

Hopefully, I will be able to finish these the next time I come back for holiday, might have to make a list of things to take into account before putting them together, and also just a small update on my current projects for the year, I have many more models that have yet to be built, and I'm not sure when I will finally complete them but hopefully, I'll be able to before purchasing new ones, or the stack will grow higher...

Farid