Model Kits

Gunpla Chronicles Local Type - Build 2019-07-15

Runners

This kit has ten runners. You only see nine in this photo because I already used up the one that holds the beam sabers. Subtract that tiny orange runner in the photo, which houses some parts for the head, and you are left with effectively eight main runners. That’s a few less than the Zaku II C6, so I expect this to be a somewhat simpler build.

Gunpla Chronicles - CMWOLFE-07/C1 S-Class Plus (Build) 2019-07-14

Let’s get the build started!

I always begin a build by putting together the weapons, but this time I decided to mix it up by building the body first. After all, if you build the weapons first, you can’t do anything with them, but if you build the body first, you can still post it or stand it up and have it hang out while you wrap up with the weapons.

Runners

We’ve got about eleven runners here, which is a decent size for a High Grade. I expect this to be a good meaty build.

Gunpla Chronicles Local Type - Intro 2019-07-01

This kit - officially known as the Gundam Local Type (North American Front) is the kit I wanted to buy, but I only did so after I let my inner child convince me to do so.

We’ll get into the history and details of this mobile suit in due time, but let’s just get one thing out of the way first - if a generation of pre-teens somehow got hooked on Gundam by watching shows set in the Universal Century, rather than by watching shows such as Gundam Wing or Gundam Seed, this is the kind of mobile suit they would be sketching in their notebooks.

Gunpla Chronicles - CMWOLFE-07/C1 S-Class Plus (Intro) 2019-07-01

Let me begin this post with a rant.

The best and worst thing about the Gundam: The Origin line of model kits is its abundance of Zaku prototypes and variants. On one hand, I love that the Origin OVA basically forced Bandai to make kits out of mobile suits such as the Waff, the Bugu, and the Zaku I. I also love how you can get so many of these kits in different colors, such as in either standard green:

Char Aznable red:

Or the black/purple scheme of the Black Tri-Stars.

In the past, these kinds of mobile suits were either too obscure or too specific to see frequent release, but in the Origin OVA’s they are, in some cases, the only suits to show up during a given episode, so Bandai had no choice but to make new models out of them.

Gunpla Chronicles - Revival 2 2019-03-29

You might be wondering why I have three model kit posts in a row. Normally this might be because I had the posts queued up for months, and just happened to publish them all during the course of a week. This time, however, I actually built all three in the span of a week. The family was out of town, and I missed them so much that I needed something to keep my mind off them. For seven nights (and two weekend days) in a row, all I did was sit in the basement and sling plastic and paint. It was intense, stressful, and yet still extremely fun. I doubt I will do anything like this again any time soon, but I have no regrets.

For our second Gundam kit, I saved the best for last, with the Gundam F91 (from the film of the same name). While the movie itself is extremely mixed in quality, the mobile suit is nothing but aces. I thought it was cool before seeing the film, but after watching it the F91 rose to the tippy top, becoming one of my favorite Gundam designs of all time.

Gunpla Chronicles - Revival 2019-03-25

I built a few Star Wars model kits over the past year, but it has been a long time since I built a Gundam model kit, on account of a little disaster I experienced back in 2017. I might get into that in a later post. Maybe. It is still a rough patch for me.

My gunpla dry spell is over now, however, with the kit I purchased during my latest trip to Disney World. Behold the Dijeh:

Star Wars Model Kits - Boba Fett 2019-03-24

Back during christmas, my wife got me yet another Star Wars model kit as a gift. This was the first one I would build that would be of a human character, rather than a spaceship of some sort. Specifically, this is a kit of my favorite bounty hunter:

I assumed it would a similar process to building a Gundam model. In both cases you are building a model out of a head, arms, legs, chest and backpack. And yet now that I am done, I can say that the build actually felt more similar to my previous, starship-based Star Wars kits. Whether human or spaceship, they tend to use fewer pieces than Gundam kits, but require far more painting/detailing/weathering. Ostensibly, the experience is the same, but in practice they are very different. You have to pay very close attention to what color everything should be, since there are many small details that may happen to be colored silver or black or brown. You have to come up with painting strategy in which you figure out what to paint, in what order, and when to apply decals or weathering. I found it to be extremely challenging, though when everything comes together the results are quite worth it.

Star Wars Model Kits 2019-02-18

Some time around the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Bandai began releasing model kits based on various Star Wars vehicles. This was an interesting development; here was a company famous for creating model kits for Gundam and other popular Japanese franchises now using their talents to create models based a franchise that is live action, Western in origin, and arguably the most popular science fiction brand in the world. In a way, it is a far cry from their regular wheelhouse.

In the years during which this blog was silent, I managed to obtain and build a few of Bandai’s Star Wars kits. Here are my thoughts so far.

Gunpla Chronicles OVA 2 - Wings and Stuff 2017-02-26

Wings

Of all the individual components that make up the Gundam Epyon, the wings are the part I was most excited to build. They’re unlike anything I’ve personally encountered before. Yes, even the Wing Zero’s boosters don’t quite compare in size or shape. After all, the Epyon’s wings are as tall as the mobile suit itself, and are made up of several separate components which are woven together to make an appendage that appears multi-layered and intricate. I couldn’t wait to see exactly how they are made.

As is the running theme of this build, the answer is “the process is complex, and not as fun as I had hoped”. The way it works is that the bottom of each wing is sandwiched between the pieces that make up the middle, with the middle then sandwiched between the parts that make up the top. The pieces aren’t entirely flush when they’re correctly assembled, so it isn’t obvious that everything is properly aligned and attached. The only way to be sure is to invoke the gimmick which allows each wing to spread out. If all the pieces move and slide around without the wing falling apart, then you did it right. Just make sure you move each section of the wing in the proper order, otherwise you might break something (or at least encounter an unnerving amount of resistance).