Kit Information :
Scale : 1/200
Grade : Speed Grade
Made by : Bandai
Completed : 31st Oct 2010
Box Art :
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Socceroos Gundam!!
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I've been wanting to do a Football themed Gunpla kit for a while now. Recently, 2Old4Toys (a YouTube and Gunpla fanatic) recently, announced a 'Flags of the World' competition. The main rules of the competition were to paint your mecha kit in the colours of the country of choices' flag and that the kit would need to retail at under 800 Yen. I recently got a hold of the 1/200 Speed Grade Gundam which retails at 750 Yen so I decided to use that and paint it in my countries second national colour, the Green and Gold.
The kit itself, while excellently detailed for the scale, is horrible to work with. The plastic is brittle and seamlines are in places that make it difficult for them to be removed easily.
I began by removing seams and priming the kit. I ended up keeping the arms and head white for the 'skin' colour. The main colours used were Yellow and Dark Green for the 'Green and Gold' that Aussies tend to wear in sporting events and based the scheme on the most recent Socceroos strip - green on top around the shoulders and yellow underneath. The upper thighs were painted green for the shorts and the lower legs yellow for the socks. The boots were painted black with a red sole.
Panel lines and other details were done with an Oil wash which didn't work out the best as the Turps I use to thin the oil paint decided to rub off some of the yellow and green as I removed the wash from the kit.
I used the base that came with the kit and modified it into a goal. I used some styrene tubing and heated it up before bending it into shape. For the netting, I used a small net bag that some garlic had come in from the supermarket. I glued it onto the frame and then using some masking tape, hid the edges from view whilst making the extra padding often seen on goal frames.
CA Glue was spread out over the base and then sprinkled with Green Flock. White lines were handpainted on finally. For the flag, I downloaded a picture from the web and modified it so it was double sided and then stuck it together with double sided tape and slid some styene rod into it and glued that into the Gundams hand.
Overall, it isn't my best work but it was a quick fun project that took my mind away from the mod intensive GP01 that I am also working on as I type this. The only thing I wanted to add that I didn't have time for was a small soccer ball at his feet. Maybe I will add it later on but for now it's back to the GP01!