cmwolfe.net

2021

Gunpla Build - Gundam Alex (Part 1) 2021-04-09

Writer’s Note: I wrote this post back in February when I first started the build. That’s why I am posting it now, the same day that I’m posting the intro. No use keeping it unpublished when it’s already in the tank.

Runners

This model doesn’t have that many runners, but they are all quite large. The two runners in the top right corner are as long and wide as the box is.

One of those large runners is devoted entirely to the Chobam Armor. If we take it away - and then remove all the parts used for the weapons and accessories - we get roughly this many parts that are devoted to the actual body of the mobile suit:

That’s … actually still a lot of parts! This should be a fairly detailed High Grade.

Design Series - The GM's of 0080 2021-03-27

For my very first Design Series post, I want to go over something that’s been on my mind a lot lately - namely, the GM variants found in the 1989 OVA Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket. I built two of these GM’s as model kits in the past year, and currently have another in the backlog. This seems like the perfect time to cover them all in one fell swoop.

Caveats and Context

There are plenty of other GM variants from across the Universal Century timeline, but I am going to focus on the ones from War in the Pocket.
These mobile suits don’t just happen to appear in the same OVA: they are also part of a single throughline of technological progression, each one building off of another. That makes this post much easier to write.

Design Series Posts 2021-03-25

Lately I’ve been in the habit of writing about the in-universe technical details of the model kits I build. I find it to be good fun to nerd out about this stuff, but sometimes it is tough to determine how far to go with it. For instance, say I’m building a model of Mobile Suit D, which happens to be based on Mobile Suit C, which was based on MS B ,etc. Subsequently, MS D was the basis for MS E, F, and G. How much do I talk about these other units? How much is enough to provide proper context about Mobile Suit D? How much is too much?

Gunpla Build - Gundam Heavyarms (Part 3) 2021-03-20

These final sections of the Heavyarms were the easiest to build. For one reason or another there simply wasn’t a lot of painting or detailing to do.

Shoulders

Like the chest, and the legs, the shoulders are filled with ordinance. This time though, there wasn’t any need for painting. I applied some gunmetal weathering compound, and that was that: