cmwolfe.net

2021

Gunpla Build - Gundam Heavyarms (Part 2) 2021-03-18

Onward and upward (literally)!

Upper Torso

I got out of the habit of posting photos of loose pieces, but allow me an exception here. The Upper Torso uses a quite a lot of pieces, and I felt compelled to share:

Like with Sandrock, Heavyarms uses a lot of parts layering (and a little help from some clever use of decals) to create a level of detail you don’t often see in a High Grade.

Gunpla Build - Gundam Heavyarms (Part 1) 2021-03-13

Since the High Grade Heavyarms is the same(ish) price as the Sandrock - and that they are both from the same series - I assumed they would have similar part counts. That does not seem to be the case.

Here are the runners for Sandrock:

And here are the ones for Heavyarms:

Granted, the runners are different shapes, but it still feels like Heavyarms has more going on. For example, its “A” Runner (the one in the center) is the full size of the box.

Gunpla Build - Gundam Heavyarms 2021-03-04

From 2018 - 2019, Bandai released three new model kits of mobile suits from Gundam Wing. These included the Leo, the Maganac, and the Gundam Sandrock. All three models were very well received due to their excellent detail and articulation. Sandrock in particular got the Gunpla community very excited to see what Bandai would do with the rest of the show’s five Gundams.

In October 2020, roughly a year later, we finally get to another with the release HGAC Gundam Heavyarms:

Let’s see if Bandai was able to work some magic again.

No Longer Doin' the Robot (Revisited) 2021-02-17

At the very tail end of 2016, I switched for Android to iPhone, which I wrote about in a post named No Longer Doin` the Robot. Slightly over four years later, I’m finally ready for a new phone. I’m still sticking with Apple, but I thought it would be interesting to revisit that old post to see how the state of the mobile phone has changed, and whether any of my complaints/predictions/etc panned out.

Gunpla Build - High Grade Zaku I Sniper Type (Part 4) 2021-02-16

I felt like I built up some good momentum with the last build, so I decided to keep it going and knock out the last two components shortly after. Once again I tried not to overthink the weathering - whatever happened happened, and I left it at that. Let’s see how it turned out.

Arms

Not much to say here. The shoulder pauldron connects via a polycap, which makes it easy to remove if need be:

Gunpla Build - High Grade Zaku I Sniper Type (Part 3) 2021-02-13

I decided to keep bulldozing forward with this build. Weathering effects look great, but I just don’t have a fun doing them, at least not to this extent. It’s not a matter of impatience - after all, I can easily spend several days painting smaller details onto a weapon.

No, the problem is more that I overthink weathering, and exactly how I want to do it. It leaves me feeling stressed and/or unhappy with what I come up with. It’s just not a good headspace for me to be in.

That’s why I’m going to keep it simple from here on out. Whatever weathering I come up with is what I come up with, for better or worse. With that being said, let us begin.

Gunpla Build - High Grade Zaku I Sniper Type (Part 2) 2021-02-09

The build keeps trucking along.

Skirt Armor

Here are all the skirt pieces. This time, I’m not showing them so you can see how many pieces there are - Zakus have a very predictable number of skirt sections - but rather so you can see the weathering effects I chose. Note that the piece in the top right of the picture was Photoshopped in, as I forgot to do it as part of the initial batch, and had to come back to it later:

It isn’t a GOOD Photoshop, but it’s not like I’m trying to fool anyone

Gunpla Build - High Grade GM Cold Districts Type (Part 2) 2021-02-05

In the last post, we got through the roughly half the body and half the accessories. In this post, we knock out the other half.

Skirt Armor/Waist

As I expected, this kit comes with a decal for the model’s crotch arrow. What I didn’t expect was that the decal would only be of the arrow. Normally the sticker is large enough to cover the entirety of this red piece:

The model has two additional decals in this area. One is right below the crotch arrow, and weirdly enough, the second one is between its legs:

I’m not entirely sure why it is there, but it makes it very clear that this model cannot fit onto an Action Base. That’s a first for me. I wonder if it was more common in older models from decades past.