One of the coolest things about the Real Grade RX 78-2 is the inclusion of a working Core Fighter. The tiny aircraft can actually be used to help form the torso of the Gundam just like in the show. Due to its small size, I decided it was a good place to begin.
Before beginning this build, I told myself that I needed to improve on my skills and make fewer mistakes. To that end, I got a few additional tools to help me out, most notably a set of hobby sandpaper sheets to use in place of the very coarse grit nail file I abused the Zaku with. Unfortunately, by the end of the first night of work on the Core Fighter, I feel like I haven’t gotten any better, and may have even got worse. Here’s a picture of what I wound up with:
You can’t quite see it, but the clear plastic of the windshield is a bit scratched up. Furthermore, those big black panel markings on the top of the fighter are dreadfully ugly, and it turns out that I placed them in a spot where stickers are supposed to go. I’m not really sure if I can remove them now that they’ve dried, but I’m crossing my fingers that I can find a reasonable solution.
Here’s a picture of the bottom of the fighter as its in docking mode:
There’s a nice big scratch running down the left side. I think this might have been the result of overly aggressive sanding, which means that my new tools are actually doing me more harm than good at this point.
If there is one thing I did learn from my first build, it is the importance of being able to walk away when things look bad, so you can return to it with an actual gameplan, rather than futzing around with desperate, half assed attempts at a solution. I left this one alone for now, but rest assured that I’m not done with it yet.