Sunday, July 29, 2007

The Making of MG Gundam Strike!

The pressure was on...

The task was daunting...

The excitement was off the roof...

And upon seeing the multitude of plastic sprues inside the big MG Box, my lips curved into a smile of delight! I told myself that after building a High grade type, I just wanted more parts to assemble to keep me preoccupied...the more the merrier!

Yep this is the feeling of a newbie Gundam collector at the sight of his very first Master Grade kit! I know some of you may have felt the same thing on your first Gundam kit, considering the prices of these MG's, you can only expect the best (hopefully nothing goes wrong)!

However, I'm writing this blog not only to tell you how addictive building your own Gundam is, but to give newbies like us a background on how things should go on your first try.

So here it goes... I believe the first thing to consider is the Gundam kit you like, if you like a First grade (less parts), High Grade (more parts, fully functional joints),Master Grade (with inner frame, detailed parts) or a Perfect Grade (you name it, it has it) which I'm not considering to have because of its price!

I chose the Gundman Strike with IWSP because its one of the latest in the shelves of Best toys. We had a choice between Strike Freedom and this one, but we just like the IWSP type because of its Big bad ass weaponry and backpack!!!

I.W.S.P. Fresh off the Assembly Line!!

With that out of the way, the next step is to cross check the contents of the box with that on the manual to make sure nothing is missing.

After we cleared that out, we quickly looked for a place where we could admire our spoils... Oh BTW, for newbies, its advisable to have a friend or two to help you in the Building process. You can do it solo once you get the hang of it and besides its more fun to build it with a friend, the other cuts, while you piece it together.

Now since we were both excited, we quickly began the task of piecing together the IWSP because it really looked cool in the images on the box! This is where we committed our first mistake. The painting and detailing should have come first!

Painting: The plastic of the Gundam is dull in color, so experts use spray paint to highlight the parts while their still in the sprue. Let these things dry, then the detailing follows after.

Detailing: Before cutting them from the sprue, you should use a Gundam marker to outline the grooves to add detail to the parts.

The most important part with a little detailing

We were not able to paint Strike, and the detailing only came after we assembled some parts. But we agreed however that this is the first MG we worked on, so we could have the full details on the next try.

Piece by Piece, slowly but surely!

Now the 2ND most important thing to consider is the day you decide to work on your kit because it took us more than 5 hours to work on Strike so a weekend will be best, or after work if your not tired yet because once you start, you will surely get hooked!

Next choose a working area with a nearby food station and comfort room because the long hours will surely make you need these things!

We officially started working on Strike at 11pm and we ended past 4 am, we just couldn't stop.

Now after you have painted and detailed the parts, you can begin the assembly stage.

Form arms and Body!!

As I said we started with the IWSP pack because we wanted to get the detachable accessories out of the way first, and I thought that the weapons were really cool so I wanted to see them built ASAP!

Now in building an MG, there will be a lot of small parts, so patience will be needed in piecing these parts together. I almost lost mine because of sleepiness!Lolx!

And I'll form the legs... was that the proper sequence??!!

We eventually piece things together and assemble the overall robot form!! Hurray!!

Finally Complete!!I wanna cry!

Now this is what this Gundam is all about, the bad ass weapons!As you can see he has two swords in the pack, two daggers on the pouches on the sides, a Gatling shield, laser canons and many more!!

The fun however doesn't end here because in the MG Kit, a lot of decals come with it. And some of these decals are microscopic in size so it took us a lot of time doing this but it was worth it. A tip from dannychoo.com: tape both sides of the decal before scratching it in place so it would not move.
Decal patrol!!The smaller the bitter!!Lolx

There were millions of decals (kidding) so we just concentrated in the manageable ones to complete Strike for a picture taking!

Accessories galore, now beat that!

And after all these hard work, the finished product was a jaw dropper despite the paint application and extensive detailing... remember, were newbies at this, he he he!

Yes folks, all that hours of work will be relieved once you see you MG complete. That's what we felt upon seeing strike!Weee!

Armed and dangerous and drop dead asteeg!

Next time, on our next MG, we will be more detailed!Promise!

Up next... Strike Noir??Wait and see!

3 comments:

SiMo said...

Nice! Yeah, it gets a little scary making mistakes with painting and detailing the more expensive your kit gets, so when you start out it's best to just feel the process first and build build build. So I suggest practicing detailing and painting on smaller scale Gundams first, that way mistakes wont cause unbearable crying.

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Eckoy said...

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