Okay, so you know I said I had a special Master Grade I wanted to build? Spoiler alert - it was going to be the Master Grade Turn A Gundam. I recently finished watching the show, and building the Turn A seemed like the perfect way to celebrate.
And I did start building it, but then I gave up. Turns out that it needs a bit more color correction than I expected there to be, not to mention that I started to feel intimidated (I really don’t want to mess it up).
So then I was going to switch gears and build another Master Grade - a Gundam Wing Master Grade specifically - in order to honor the show’s 30th anniversary. But that one needed even more color correction, and the build was just taking forever. Meanwhile, the backlog has grown even bigger on account of me stocking up on kits and supplies before tariffs possibly cause prices to go up.
So I decided to switch gears yet again. I’ve got a couple of High Grades that shouldn’t take too long to get through, and I’m hoping I can knock one or two out before the end of April.
And lo and behold, the first one I plan on building has a Turn A Gundam connection, so I still get to celebrate the show.
Other Thoughts
On Color Correcting Master Grades
I want to make it clear that the reason why I’m so bothered by color correction on Master Grades is that, because they’re so much bigger, they have a bigger surface area to paint. That makes the entire process take more time, effort, paint, etc.
Also, it’s the principle of the matter. I never realized Master Grades (especially older ones) would require so much TLC.
On Turn A Gundam
It’s one of the best Gundam stories ever made. Period. I am still blown away by how good it is, and it kills me to know that it remains one of the hardest of the TV shows to watch.
On Tariffs
Assuming I pace myself, I probably have at least two years worth of kits to build, and maybe more. In retrospect, this is probably going to be a good thing. Even before the tariffs it was clear that prices were going to go up (Bandai explicitly announced that they would be). That doesn’t mean I’ll stop buying new kits, but it does mean that if I need to slow down, I’ll still have plenty to build.