Kit Information :
Scale : 1/100
Grade : Master Grade
Made by : Bandai
Completed : 12th Jan '09
Boxart :
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Shin Musha Gundam
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The Shin Musha would have to be one of the more cooler designs from the Gundam Universe. Not only does it mix the charm of mecha with that of the Samurai, but the whole steam pipe look makes it one of the most interesting subjects I have built to date.
I decided to make this build OOB with some cosmetic changes (that is no serious modifications) and also keeping the colour scheme similar to the original.
Pins (you know those pins you use at home to pin cloth together) were used as a sort of rivet throughout the kit. Each hole was measured, drilled with a small drill bit, widened at the top to allow the pin head to recess into the kit, and then the pin head was cut from the pin and (once the piece was painted) glued into place. I took the time when building to write a tutorial for this technique, which can be found here.
The skirt armour has small recessed areas, so each piece was masked off after the initial red layer, and air brushed with Mr Metal Colour Brass (a paint that I use instead of Gold as I like the 'goldness' of it better than other golds). It was an excercise in patience, as a lot of fine masking was required to get the effect. The shotgun was also masked and painted with the same paint.
The thrusters were replaced with aluminium ones from Ako Hobby, with IC pins added to the central shaft for an additional thruster. The inner bells were painted with multiple layers of Tamiya Clear Red to get a nice, deep red.
The decals used were purchased from Samuel Decal. Quite a few were too weak and came apart. I attempted to repair them by carefully aligning them, but most that were damaged couldn't be salvaged.
Aurora sticker paper (again from Ako Hobby) was used for the eyes and head sensor. It is a fantastic product that reflects different colour depending on what angle you look at it. The eyes were already cut to size, but the head sensor needed to be cut from a larger sheet and carefully applied.
Panel lines were done with a black wash on the white parts and a gold wash on the red ones.
All up, there was colours used. They were :
- Tamiya Nato Black.
- Tamiya Flat Red.
- Tamiya Flat White.
- Tamiya Brown.
- Tamiya Clear Red.
- Mr Hobby Dark Seagray.
- Mr Metal Colour Brass.
- Model Master Aluminium.
A simple picture frame was used as the base, with a section of it masked off and painted with Mr Metal Brass to match the theme of the kit (I tried Clear Red (it was silver) but I couldn't get an even coating so I went with the brass). A piece of balsa the size of the inner frame was covered in air drying clay and air brushed with brown, black and greens. Once that had all dried, it was sprinkled with green and brown flock and some grey ballast - similar to what I had done in the Kampfer vs GM diorama. The kit was attached to the base with some small lengths of brass rod and wheathered accordingly with the Tamiya Weathering Set to give the kit a 'dusty' look, as if it was new but had been out in the open field for a little bit.
Overall, I am quite happy with this build and I am confident enough to say that this might be my best build to date. It is a very detailed kit (for MG standards), and I had a lot of fun building this one. If there is one kit I would recommend to anyone, then this one would be it.
Keep on modeling!