Gundam HG : Astray Red Frame WIP Part 2

Okay, I messed it up. :(

The spray coat was way too thick, causing the parts not to fit nicely. So what I did was... clamping the parts together by using a spanner! It worked! The parts now fit smug and tight. But just as I expected,  some "battle damages" crimp marks are now permanent residents of the Red Frame...

You can see that the edges along the chest are slightly flattened. Slightly only. Since the milk was spilled, I decided to do some exposed metal effect along the edges. Might as well, this Red Frame will be now known as Battle Damaged Red Frame! Oh Yeah!

The dirty charred shoulder plates should further enhance the battle damaged look. So which one do you prefer? The clean and polished or the dirty and uncouth?

Gundam HG : Astray Red Frame WIP Part 1

Yo, dudes and dudettes~ Check this awesome looking mecha out. It's the Gundam Astray Red Frame HG.

I know this guy been out for a long long time but I just got back into this hobby again. So, I thought to myself that if I'm EVER going to build a Gundam again, it has to be the RED FRAMEEE~

No Gundam gets cooler or hotter than the Red Frame 'cos he got a real katana (Japanese sword)! Not some fancy laser beam sword. Moreover, he's built sleek and streamlined, unlike the Shin Musha and Musha MK II which are bulky and clad in thick samurai armor. I don't really adore chubby samurai. Red Frame is more like a ninja than a samurai, so he works for me.

So, less talky now and get on with the building of the RED FRAME!

You see that can of Krylon Fusion Flat Black in the picture? It's going to be my primer and I'm going to spray every runner with it. Except the sword and the laser beams.

Done! All runners coated and I have emptied the entire can but I started with a half-full can though.

My lineup for today are Park Green, Flat Red, Titanium Gold, Flat White, Flat Aluminum.

I begin with the backpack. The color scheme is basically the same as the original but I  find it to be a little lacking of something. So I added a bit of highlights of my own. The Titanium Gold! Does it looked better now?

The back part of the backpack~ Nothing much to see here. Ya, the backpack is movable but not detachable.

Another view of the backpack. I did minimum weathering effect and I hope it will looked as what I intended.

Okay! The upper body is finished too. That stub at the bottom right is the neck portion and I got huge complain about the plastic used for it. The neck is on the runner for the polycaps! So my grudge is that the paint won't stick on the neck's rubbery surface. The paint can be scratched off easily and that just sucks.

The front and the back laid side by side. More weathered effect on the front. And I wondered why they can't make the mecha twists at the midriff section as well? It's not that hard. Ah, I forgot this is just a HG version.

Combine 'em up! And that's the toughest part for me. You see, I painted the inside of the body and the paint got in the way when I tried to snap fit the pieces together. There is hardly any allowance between the connectors. But I admit that's my fault, for spraying into the connectors. Haha... sucks for me.

The front view. I wondered if the Titanium Gold is noticeable on the vents on the chest? Nope.

Back view with the backpack released but still latched at the waist. I wondered what's the purpose of this...

A bottom up view of the backpack. The thrusters get a fair bit of scrapped paint effect.

So, that's all for now. And I hope this model won't take me too long to complete it, 'cos... it's just a HG, for God's sake!

OMG! The White Glint! Part 2

My sword for White Glint~

OTTi : Where did you put the White Glint?

Me : ??? Oh no~

To be continued >
(Special thanks for OTTi's guest appearance)

Armored Core : Mirage AC01-GAEA [Custom Paint]

"Here kitty kitty~"

Hi folks~ So this is going to be something like a review on the Armored Core model kit, Mirage AC01-GAEA, which is made by Kotobukiya. The reason why I said it's like a review is that I'd touch on some articulation stuff here and there. Not much though. This post is more like a complete update on my custom paint job. There are related posts like this, this and this as well.

So, let's begin~

Here's the box front cover art. A striking pose of the mecha and loads of labels plastered all over. It doesn't have a diorama background like burning buildings or ruins and stuff. But it's okay 'cos the mecha is that good-looking just by itself.

Let's open the box! And there's a nicely-painted assembled mecha standing in the box... ALREADY? Instead of a bunch of runners?? Haha, so as I said, this post is not really a review.

So, you'd most probably noticed that the mecha's primary color is green instead of the tacky blue. That's the request of the commissioner. He wanted to have a military feel to it. And I felt that'd be more in-tune with the armored core game style as well.

Mirage AC01-GAEA is the poster boy for the game Armored Core: Last Raven. Hence, there's a wide array of weapons available for this model kit. And the weapons are:

1. FUNI [連動ミサイル]
(These are on the shoulders. I guessed it translated to Chain-shot Missile launcher)

2. MAGORAGA [超小型ミサイル]
(This one is on the right back, mini missile launcher)

3. CR-WB91LGL [リニアガン]
(On the left back is the railgun, I think... the japanese katakana is RINIA GAN, so you figure it out yourself)

4. CR-WR93RL [リニア・ライフル]
(The main weapon on the right hand, RINIA RAIFURU... Rail Rifle??)

5. WL-MOONLIGHT [レーザーブレード]
(The blade thing on the left arm. I think I got this one. it's Laser Blade [Reezaa bureedo])

"HQ, this is AC01. Core Initialized. System On. Ready to move out. Over."

This is some very impressive details done on the mecha by Kotobukiya. I'd just let the pictures do the talking. On the down side, there are a lot of mirco-mini parts just to assemble another micro-mini part. But I guess that's just part of the work to make this mecha looked this great. So, I'd recommend keeping all your parts in little pill boxes and keep your workdesk tidy, or you are bound to lose some pieces along the way.

Pilot: "Ore wa aamaa koo des..."

HQ: "Shut the fxxx up and get your ass working, soldier!"

The major letdown would be the finger articulation which is no articulation at all. You could swap some gundam hands over here with some moddings. Kotobukiya does provides you with a few hands to play around with. The hand with the gun is a single piece, meaning you don't slot the gun into the hand but you assemble 'em up.

Mecha is marching out of base...

Armored Core model can't really pose much. But I think that's okay 'cos the mechas in the game don't have much flexibility too. So, it's pretty accurate to the actual mecha, in that sense. lol.

"Damn wires on the floor."

"Whacha lookin' at, punk?"

"Eat this~"

"Finally made it to the gate~ Let's rock and roll!"

I played around with some photoshopping here, newbie here~

"Your country needs you! Sign up now at ac-pilot-sign-up.gov now!"

"Come on, ladies~ CHARGGGGGGE~"

AC Pilot: "Optimus Prime said meet up at the Pyramid... Where are they?"

Prime: "Dude, you're at the wrong pyramid..."

Background noise: *Devastator's metal balls knocking at each other*

Final words... so I'd say it's a very spectacular model despite some articulation limitations. But if you should ever get an Armored Core mecha, this is the one to have. It captures all the essentials of an Armored Core mecha. Not even the White Glint tops it. Just my opinion.

So, thanks for looking~ 'till next time~

OMG! The White Glint! Part 1

The White Glint revealed itself! It's love at first sight~

To buy or not? To buy or not?

Can't control myself anymore~ I MUST HAVE IT!

The White Glint is freaking EXPENSIVE!! WHY~

To be continued >

Armored Core : Weathered Paint Effect on Core [Mirage AC01-GAEA]

Yo. It's me again. I'd be sharing some pictures of the Mirage AC01-GAEA core, C01-GAEA. And it is painted with the same weathered effect, of course.

And here it goes~

Ya, just in case, you want to know what paint I'm using. So, I painted fully in dry-brush, no airbrush, and the paint are Tamiya's Flat Black (base), Black Green, Flat Aluminum and Copper.


This is the back top-down view~ There are two holding slots at the back, for some kind of droids. I will show it later.


The exhaust pipes seemed to have a shade of green but that was just the lighting.

Nothing much to say here... lots of scratches and worn metals.


Okay, I admit I did a bad job painting the copper on the chest [right side]. That area was smeared, and I will repair it later... maybe only.


These are the droids that I was talking about earlier. I didn't play the game, so I got no idea what were they for. Some spying/surveillance droids, I guessed.


Here's a shot of one of the droids secured on the core. It was a pita to put it on the core. There's only one way to get it in and once you have done it, you wouldn't want to take it out again. It's that much of a pita.


Here's another picture on the droids. So, if you look at the right side of the empty"landing pad", there's a groove and you need to fit the droid into that position and push it down in a certain way. I only hope the paint is still intact after the brute-force shoving.

Close-up of the cute little droids. Actually, I think they can be piloted since the front looks awfully like a cockpit? Or maybe they are escape pods? If you got a clue, tell me, m'kay?


Nothing much to comment here~


Another rear shot, this time with the droids on-board.


Sneak peek head shot! The visor is so highly reflective that the glow looked almost LED-ish.


Solemn pose~ I hate to brag, but it does looked realistic, right?


Okay, that's all for now. Time to knock out~ k thk bye.