In-Progress : RX-178 Gundam Mark II
25-08-07 : Starting my all time favourite Gundam...
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Finally, I've made a start on the Mark II. It's been sitting on my shelf for nearly 12 months, waiting patiently to be done. So far, I've done the test fit (as you can see by the pictures) and begun preparations for painting and some of the mods. I've replaced the side shoulder vents with mesh. I cut the existing plastic out with my Dremel tool and added some mesh cut carefully to size. I found that mesh likes to come apart easily when cut that small, so to remedy this problem, I added some glue to hold the mesh in place. I just need to clean up the excess dry glue now. As for paint scheme, I'm thinking metallics all over with either a cool camo pattern or tribal style flames that are seen on a lot of hotted up cars these days. Pretty much, the scheme will be blue/silver (perhaps chrome if I have enough Alclad II left). More to come... |
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29-08-07 : Mods & painting the legs and arms....
Some mods have been done. They are nothing major, just a few cosmetic modifications to help enhance the cleaness of the kit.
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Here is a quick explanation of the mods shown in the picture above :
- Addition of beads to the 'ankle' armor. At first I was unsure of whether to go with the gold or the black. I was going to post it on a few forums to see what people thought, but I ended up going with the gold as it matches the blue better (see pictures below).
- Addition of beads on the feet armor. I was unsure on this at first but it is growing on me now that the piece is painted.
- Removal of mesh piping and replacing with mesh chain on the rear of the legs. These have a plastic tube that runs inside the mesh to hold it in place when the leg is moved. I ended up cutting these off, removing some plastic where the piece met the leg so as to recess the mesh chain deeper behind the armor (and to help hide where the chain is attached), drilling a tiny hole with my pin vise, threading some small (but strong) wire into the hole and then threading the mesh chain over the wire. This wire helps hold the mesh chain in place and also gives it the ability to be somewhat posable.
I had also planned to add a ton of beads on the leg and arm armor but I decided not to do too much as it looks quite excessive.
The main painting has also been done :
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I went with Tamiya Metallic Blue for this paint job. I didn't do my usual black base coat when I painted either. I don't know why. I originally thought the blue was too light but once the gold and internals where done, it started to look really good. The internals where done with Alclad Steel and given a light coating with Clear Red. The Gold was done with Mr Metal. Moving on to the torso now. |
01-09-07 : More bead action...
I've been preparing the torso for painting over the last few days and also took the opportunity to start on the next lot of 'mods'.
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- Added beads to the front and rear skirt sections.
- Added beads to the upper torso armor.
- Added thrusters to the Jet Pack. For this, I am using some after market thrusters I purchased from Ako Creations a few months ago. They are a three piece unit that fit together nicely and seat well inside the jet pack. The picture here is a 'before and after' type of shot to show the difference between the new and old thrusters.
I'm currently waiting for the primer to dry on these pieces so I can get painting, so in the meantime, I'll be making a start on the weapons and head.
04-09-07 : More painting and reassembly...
The torso and waist has been painted and assembled. Forgot how much I hate gloss black until I started touching the pieces. The paint is completely dry but the gloss black still manages to pick up finger prints. Lucky they wipe off I suppose!
Here are some more pictures of the re-assembled kit with added beads :
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It's starting to come together now. I feel that the beads may be a little on the big side but the bead color does suit the overall color scheme. The red on the cockpit cover (Gunze Metallic Red) also adds another color to help break up the black. I plan to paint the vents on the front waist with the same paint I have used on the gold pieces (Mr Metal Color) but I'll have to hand brush it on. Just have to sand back the putty on the head now and I can prime and paint the last pieces. My decals should arrive today so there wont be any more delays! |
09-09-07 : Preparing for detailing ...
Haven't done much this week. Some poorly mixed primer has slowed it down a little. I have to wait until the primer cures on the back pack so I can sand it back again to get rid of the air bubbles that decided to appear about 10 minutes after I primed the piece.
In the meatime, I have painted the head and thrusters and gave the assembled kit a clear coating (picture below) so I can make a start on the decals and panel lines. The picture to the right shows the thrusters before and after the painting. The main thrusters have been painted with Smoke (a clear black) and the inner bells done with Clear Blue. I thought about doing the inner thrusters with Clear Red but I thought the red would clash considering the majority of the kit is blue. I've started on the weapon also. It is a 1/100 Mega Beam Rifle that I purchased from Ako Creations a while back. It needs a little work to get rid of seams and make the sections even so it will take a while to get to the painting stage. |
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16-09-07 : Head painted and some detailing done ...
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Head is painted and reassembled. The eyes and top sensor was painted the a black base, alclad chrome layer, clear yellow layer and top coated with clear green. When I went to reassemble it all, I needed to remove the sensor and attach that seperately to the rest of the head. When I did that though, the piece feel out and glue smeared all up it and ruined the paint. I ended up fixing it with a metallic sticker from an old sticker sheet which I cut slightly larger than the sensor and wrapped it around the edges. I've since then done the panel lines and also reassembled the jet pack. Now on to sanding the gun and add some more decals to the kit. |
02-10-07 : Nearly finished ...
Here's a picture of the gun nearly completed. I just have to panel line and add decals to it. It was painted with a black gloss base then the main section was painted with Alclad Steel with the other parts of the barrel and nozzle painted with Alclad Chrome. I also replaced the barrel with silver tubing that I had left over from the lighting setup on the Tachikoma base. I then used the Clear Blue over the barrel and parts of the base to match it in with the overall blue color scheme.
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Working on the base now. I'll keep that a suprise for the end but it involves a picture frame and some basic Photoshopping. It will be something simple as well as something that fits in well with the overall look of the model.