MG Zaku 2.0 WIP Pt 2

Since yesterday's post I've painted like a man possessed. As of about 2 hours ago the only unpainted color group of the Zaku is the grey interior frame!

I did a lot of little neat things with the paint on this kit, some things I'm going to keep to myself until the kit is finished!

The light blue is pretty close to dusty 'robins egg blue' but the color didn't translate well in the picture. 

I post shaded the battle damage, I wanted the damage and surrounding armor to look scorched, 'painful' and 'bruised'. Again the cell phone pictures didn't do a great job with the color. After some dry brushing and weathering these pot marks should look pretty good.

The chest and skirt are a darker and more vibrant blue to contrast with the extremities.

The pistons are star bright duraluminium, and the 'collars' are star bright brass.

The launch tube of the bazooka is star bright dark iron. 

If you haven't already guessed I'm doing a bit of a themed build for one of my favorite 0079 characters; the man, the legend, the mustache...

Not my statue by the way. Just a stock image I found. 

MG Zaku 2.0 WIP

When GB announce he was going to hold a weathered kit contest I knew I had to sign up. It's been a while since I've weathered a kit, and I really needed a contest, build off or something to get me motivated to build another. 

The deadline for the kit is pretty tight (roughly a month) and I don't want to half-ass a kit. Fortunately I had a White Ogre Zaku squirreled away.

Starting with some of the small details first. 

No blunt spikes here. By adding a bit of putty to the tip of each spike I was able to sharpen each spike to a nice point.  

The Ogre's complete (for the most part). I ordered some parts from Gentei from other Zaku 2.0s to set mine apart. 

Time to beat him up. I'm using this little ball bit on a dremel to gouge and scrape away thin bits of armor. My goal is to scratch the Zaku up just a bit, I don't want the mobile suit to looks like it's been blown away by the 78-2.

Wear and tear, and glancing blows. 

Tis only a flesh wound. 

The kit is currently soaking in soapy water. I already have a color scheme picked out, so after a bit of pre-shading I'll paint the kit, decal/panel line then follow it up with a few layers of weathering and paint chipping. 

Bro Build Complete MG Astray Red Frame

Here's my final painted up Astray for my Bro-Build with Justinius!

I made a few changes to colors applications, so this isn't exactly a stock scheme. Overall I'm extremely pleased with how the kit came out. This is the first kit I've used a future floor topcoat on, and overall I'm satisfied with how it came out; but I will need to experiment with it more before I'm 100% happy with it. 

It looks like the Astray is going to be the first in a long line of build offs this summer. So stay tuned for more! 

Colors:

Frame: Clear red over titanium base
Leg and Arm Armor: White
Chest Armor: Black
Waist Armor: Grey 
Eyes & sensors: Clear green over silver
Internal details: Medium Grey

Enjoy the photos!

Delta Epsilon Color Scheme 2.0

When I first photographed the Delta Epsilon I wasn't really happy with the kit. At the time I really just wanted to get it off of my desk. But after reading comments from everyone I decided to take another swing at it.

I only repainted the chest section of the kit. I wanted a color that would contrast less with the surrounding gold paint. Over all I'm much happier with the light blue chest color, and I think that the Delta looks much more like the Hyaku Shiki now.   

I also applied a set of black decals from the MG Rezel Commander I found on ebay to the kit. They definitely help break up the chunks of gold.

Enjoy the photos:

Weekend WIP

I don't have a ton of photos to share of this weekend's progress. It's partially because I'm done painting the Astray; and I don't want to give too much away!

However I will happily show off my favorite part of the kit.

"One sword keeps another in the sheath" ~ George Herbert

MG Strike Remastered Group Buy Pre-Order

MG Strike 2.0 is ready to launch!

Joe from Modelgrade just informed me that the Strike Remastered group buy is now live. Hop on the band wagon and grab a pre-order for this kit before it's too late!

Here are the details:

Special preorder price $47.99
Flat rate $5 shipping (free shipping on orders over $100)
Plus you'll receive a free $5 coupon for your next order!

Deal ends May 31st; expected release date is June 2013.
Deal is open to US & Canadian addresses only. Free shipping is only valid for the US customers

Order yours now!

Directions:
1: Add the special Strike to your shopping cart
2: Proceed to checkout. 
3: On the 5th step you'll be able to enter the coupon code REDDITDEAL to get the discount (look at those $1000 melt away!). You may need to change the shipping option before completing checkout.
4: Done!

Bro Build Update

For the first time in what feels like months I am working on only one kit! Now that I don't have to divide my attention I'm starting to get a lot of work done on the MG Red Frame for the Bro Build with Justin. 

At this point most of the red pieces have been painted. I applied a transparent red over a titanium base coat; I really like how the red color pops. You can also see a few of the gold trim pieces; they received a coat of gloss black followed by Gaia Notes star bright gold. 

RG Zeta White Unicorn Amuro Custom

This is suit number two in my Project Amuro. When I originally planned out the scheme for this kit I thought I was being clever, but then Bandai announced the RG Zeta White Unicorn version and that went out the window. However after seeing Bandai's sticker design I decided to model some of my masking after their markings.

 Overall I'm pretty happy with the masking on the final kit. And I really like how they interact in the waverider mode. 

Hit the bump for all the photos!

RG RX 78-2 Amuro Custom

 

I received this kit as a trade from a local buddy  for the HG Age 1 Normal + Razor kit I had lost interest in building. I wasn't entirely sure I wanted this kit, but I started thinking about projects I want to do, and everything just sort of clicked. After all it makes sense to start Project Amuro with the RX 78-2.

The color scheme is inspired by my all time favorite modeler Kieta. 

This kit was been in WIP hell for over a month because I damaged the red portion of the shield. Originally I removed the yellow cross and puttied the holes where cross connected. However after several rounds of different types of primer and paint and masking I was still seeing color variations in the shield color. Ultimately I decided to revert the shield design. 

Overall I'm pretty happy with the way the kit turned out. Unfortunately I did notice that the armor caps for both knees have started to crack. I also made a rookie mistake during the assembly process that I couldn't reverse after paint (can you spot it?)

OOBBO Conclusion

Firstly I would like to thank everyone who participated in the blast off. I was really shocked by the quality of each submission I received. Each submission was well done, and they all had a special personal flair which I appreciated (which also made my selection really difficult)!

You can check out all of the submissions here!

I used the follow criteria laid out on the rules page to evaluate each kit submitted.

"I'll be judging your kits based on two criteria; which are the overall quality and cleanliness of your build. I will also take the quality and clarity of your photos into account (so make em fancy!)"

After some long hard deliberation here are the models and builders that I chose.

Commission Complete HG Banshee Special Clear Version

This was a pretty different commission for me. Normally when I'm asked to take on a commission I'm asked to do some sort of paint job; however instead of painting my client asked me to build this kit as cleanly and paint free as possible. After some intensive scratch removal I'd say I was successful!

You can fix scratches easily with this method. 

I used the MG Banshee decal set for this kit. I had to modify some of the decals to fit. I had to precisely cut up the GR decal on the left shoulder to fit the design.

Hit the bump to see the full gallery!

Multi-project WIP

I usually end up working on multiple kits simultaneously. The nice part about having multiple WIPs is that I have more pictures to share.

HG Banshee Clear ver.

This is a commission I'm currently working on for a client.

The goal is to just keep the kit extremely clean and unpainted. (Not an easy feat considering how easily clear  plastic stresses and scratches!)

Here's how most of the pieces looked after I cleaned the nubs and stress marks.

 

After some scratch removal and decal here's how the kit looks.

One year of Gunpla by GoodGuyDan

I started this blog on 4/22/2012, so today it's one year old!

I had a difficult time writing any sort of content for this post. I'm a terrible writer, grammar aside I can't help but think that I'm unclear and the content that I develop is trite and unoriginal. 

Originally I was going to write about the things I've done over the course of the last year; Group builds, GWBC, hits on the site and so on. But after looking at it, it looks terribly self important and self congratulatory. So instead I simple want to say...

Thank you! 

To everyone who has been supportive, read my blog, asked questions, sent me emails or participated in anything I've done. Your support and readership are the reason I'll continue to develop content!

I'm looking forward to another year of kits, reviews, contests, group buys and builds!

GGD

OOBBO Final Entries

Here are all the entries for the OOBBO!

If you submitted work but don't see it here, you have 24 hours to send me an email to verify the status!

RG Zeta & HG Banshee WIP

In addition to the MG Red Frame build I'm also painting the RG Zeta Gundam. Here's what the Zeta looked like the last time I posted any pictures of it.