cmwolfe.net

2022

Gunpla Build - High Grade Victory Two Gundam (Wings of Light) 2022-08-28

Now that the Victory Two is finished, let’s try out some poses:

Eh … sorry, but I can’t do it. That pose would look fine for just about any other model, but the V2 looks downright naked without its Wings of Light.

Thankfully, I have some we can use:

But first things first. There’s a lot I want to talk about regarding these Wings, and that’s what we’re going to do in this post. If you want to see how they look on the model, you’ll have to wait for the next (and final) post, where I’ll actually get around to taking photos.

Gunpla Build - High Grade Victory Two Gundam (Part 1) 2022-08-26

A bit of housekeeping before we begin.

While I did this build back in December 2021, I recently went back and took some comparison photos between it and the High Grade Victory Gundam. As a result, the photos throughout this build are a bit scattershot, and come from different periods of time.
Since I built this model so long ago, my commentary about the build is entirely from memory. I may get some details wrong in the process.

Good? Good. Let’s begin.

Parts and Pieces

The V2’s runners

Gunpla Build - High Grade Victory Two Gundam (Intro) 2022-08-25

It is time to finally (finally!) chronicle a build that I did all the way back in December 2021. It was right after finishing the Real Grade Nu Gundam. Despite feeling exhausted after that gauntlet of a build, I still felt compelled to knock out one more model before taking a nice holiday rest. Something quick and simple that I could “relax” with.

It ended up being quicker and simpler than I even imagined. I started it on December 7th, and finished it up by the 13th, less than a week later. Which was a bit of a problem, because at the time I had yet to finish watching the show that the model came from. So now I had a mobile suit that I didn’t know enough to talk about. Even worse, this suit is the mid-season upgrade in its respective series, and I didn’t have its predecessor MS to compare it to.

That’s why I put it on the shelf until the time when I could discuss it properly. Which, as it turns out, is now, almost a year later.

Let’s finally (FINALLY!!!) talk about the High Grade Victory Two Gundam:

Gunpla Accessories Build - Marsfour Weapons 2022-08-21

Gunpla accessory packs are not all created equal. For example, many of the Iron Blooded Orphans Arms are engineered to work with very specific models. Try and use them with another IBO kit - or worse yet, a non IBO model - and you may not get the results you want.

I wouldn’t be surprised if this booster works with no other models

On the other hand, the packs that were made as part of the High Grade Build Fighters line were meant to be more generic. The boxes show the accessories being used on all sorts of non-Build Fighters models, likely to encourage you to go wild and experiment.

That’s quite the spread of different models from different shows

Anyway, I’m assuming the same thing is true of the accessory packs made for Gundam Build Divers, which is why I picked up this Marsfour weapon set way back in December:

Simply put, it’s a pack of swords. I figured I’d be able to re-use them with any kit that happened to look good carrying melee weapons. Unfortunately, I never got around to cracking it open and painting them, so they sat on the backlog.

Gunpla Build - High Grade Messer (Part 4) 2022-08-16

Let’s finish this build …

Head

Relative to the rest of the body, the head arguably requires the most work. Not including the monoeye, there are four different places to which you need to either apply color correcting decals, or paint (I chose to split the difference, going half and half). It’s precision work either way; the decals are so small that you can easily tear them apart, while painting requires a small brush and a steady hand.

Additionally, there is a nasty seamline that runs along the entire head. I normally leave seamlines alone, but this one was too much even for me. I did my best to use some cement and sandpaper to buff it out.

On Dating Posts 2022-08-13

I’ve got a pair of confessions to make.

First, I have a model that I built and finished last December, right after finishing the Real Grade Nu Gundam. But I haven’t taken photos of it, so it’s been sitting there, waiting for me to write about it for almost a year.

Second, I have another build that I started in May, and have been working on on-and-off since then. It’s almost finished (just have to wrap up the weapons).

So here’s my dilemma - how do I date the posts for these builds? I have three clear options:

Post them all “now”, with current dates
Backdate them all to when I began the build
Date them based on when I actually did the work, ie backdate all the build posts for the first model to December, and then date the photoshoot posts in the present.