Lack of Posts

I have to apologize for the lack of recent posts. I've had a rough couple of weeks, with my friend recently passing away due to breast cancer just last week and so I haven't had any time to get much done.

I'll be back this week though.

My G System GP04 Bust came in from GundamPro Shop on Ebay, and its perfect! I'll have pictures up soon.

I'm also working steadily at fully repairing and mounting my 1/144 resin FA Gundam Mk.II. Its supposed to be a fully pose-able kit, but because its a re-cast, the parts don't fit that well. He took a fall off my shelf a few years ago and I haven't fixed him since.

Jaa mata -

The Force is Strong With This One...

In my 26 years, I've managed to narrow my interests down to a quartet of specific mythos:

The first, of course, is Mobile Suit Gundam, this is truly untouchable in terms of the four powerhouses.

The other three, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars and Monster Hunter tend to be in a continual battle royale for the number two spot.

Right now, that number two spot is Star Wars. And unfortunately for my resin FA Gundam Mk.II, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed hit the shelves in the US yesterday..I picked up a copy on my way home from work (I had been playing the demo on Xbox Live for about 3 weeks now)

Let me paint you a quick picture of Force Unleashed.

You're a Sith (Vader's Apprentice) -

Vader sends you on missions that are top secret. He doesn't want the Emperor to know about you so you need to wipe out Imperials and Rebels.

A Stormtrooper draws near....

You can either:

• Deflect his blaster shot with your lightsaber and kill him.
• Use the force to push (read: blast) him into a huge steel door
• Use the force to lift him, then hurl him into
• a door - a pit - lava - other Stormtroopers - anything else you can see
• Use the force to lift him, shock him with lightning then
• drop him dead on the ground - or see above options
• Use the force to lift him off the ground, chuck your lightsaber at him - then see all above option
• Use your lightsaber to kill him with various awesome moves and combos (
• Or any of the above options combined, plus an infinite number of other options.

You can also unlock different uniforms, and various lightsaber crystals that affect the strength and color of your blade.

This game is awesome, truly awesome. It will be hard for me to balance playing the game and working on the plethora of models I need to fix up before starting on the S Gundam, but there are worse problems in life to try and figure out!

Till next time -

Ja Matta~

Crossbone Gundam Follow up

Being anal-retentive, I've been looking at the pictures of My Crossbone Gundam from the last post and cringing ever so often.

So I wanted to note a couple of things:

The face looks horrible, I know. The Head was one of the most complex units I've ever put together. For one thing, the face vents, which to me, make the Gundam, were very hard to work with. The top slot was molded into the upper half of the face plate, which is fine - but with the design of the Crossbone, the upper half slides up to allow excess heat to escape - this doesn't work so well with a small scale model though and the lower face vent is molded into the separation between the upper and lower halves of the plate, which doesn't look right, as you can see.

The head has the detail of a 1/60 perfect grade, but at a 1/100 scale and I had a hard time with the grey under section of the eyes.

I also accidentally threw out the chin piece, which had me nearly pulling my hair out this weekend. I used the chin piece of my old MG Gundam Mk II, so it looks a bit too big. Luckily it fit though.

The head really just fell apart on this kit. The V Fin and Skull & Crossbones were easy, but everything else just was more difficult than I had expected.

Also, the inside of the Beam Sabers (in the upper chest) does not appear white like it does in the photos. I believe this is the flash from the camera reflecting on the paint in there.

I'll stop because I'll end up tearing my work apart on this. He looks a lot better without a super-zoomed in photo, trust me, and I do like how he turned out, but these pictures sort of highlight my mistakes. Bleh.

Until next time -

Jaa ~

Crossbone Gundam X1 Ver Ka Kit Review

Well, I finished my X1 today, so I thought I’d do a kit review.

The Master Grade Crossbone Gundam X1, Ver. Ka represents the pinnacle of Bandai’s Gunpla kits, with the exception of the newer 0079 kits being released.

The X1 uses very simple, yet tremendously sturdy designs for all of its inner frame, allowing you to a multitude of poses.

Here’s a shot of the inner leg frame under construction

Compared to the older kits, Bandai chose less inter connected parts, but modified the joints, allowing for more posability as well as tremendous support for the kit’s balance.

The new ball joints work very well to allow balance in the legs.

Here’s the completed lower half of the X1. (sorry for the inverted pic, Blogger isn't cooperating tonight)

The armor panels attach to the outer frame perfectly, allowing move

ment in the thigh, ankle and foot.

The X1 also comes with the core block system, one of my favorite concepts in the Gundam Universe. I actually build the core fighter first, which was nice as I could display it in my collection as it can completely stand along as its own model, much like all the other kits that have core fighters.

I botched a few things though. I didn’t start air-brushing until I got to the X thrusters, so the body of the jet looks a little less smooth. You’ll notice too that I switched out the yellow for gold. I do this for all of my kits. I don’t really care for the whole “school bus yellow” idea on a war machine, and gold seems to add a bit more realism to the kit. I’m regretting not painting those red “v” decals on the thrusters. I used the stickers and they didn’t line up well, so the look a little off.

Here’s the upper body before assembly. Again, the arms (while not pictured here well) use the same, simple, yet study inner frame design, which works great. I mixed the blue coloring myself, and I think it turned out pretty dang well. The cockpit is open here, but without the core fighter, there’s nothing inside.

The X1 uses the Zambuster Beam Rifle. The Zambuster separates into the Beam Zamber Sword and Buster Gun. I had a hard time painting the grey trim, and the heat dagger handles actually tuck into the back of the calf unit, so I had to make sure the paint wasn’t too thick which is tough for white!

So here is the final product. I have the X1 tearing off the beam cloak. The cloak that comes with the kit is pretty terrible, but I did manage to burn some “beam holes” into it. I just didn’t like how it looked attached so I thought this works well.

The whole thing is painted. I use black spray primer, then sand and air brush section individually. The kit is amazing, but I do have one gripe (besides the beam cloak), some of the parts are attached to the trays in awkward areas. For example, the thumb pieces, are attached at the base and tip, its pretty tough to sand the flash point down on a tiny little thumb. Other than that, this has been a blast!

But now I’m running into some trouble. Here’s the X1 among my collection…

As you can see…I’m at full capacity! (I even moved some Robust Silhouette figures and my DX V2 Assault Buster Gundam to the top of my TV~!)

My next project is the S Gundam, but before that, I have a bunch of repairs to do, including my resin 1/144 Full Armor Mk.II – but before that….I gotta find some space!

Until next time guys,

Jaa matta~

Gundam Vs Gundam on PSP

I’m really excited for Gundam vs. Gundam on PSP.

For one, the PSP, in my own opinion, is quite a little power house. My favorite game is easily Monster Hunter 2nd G, but I do love the Gundam Battle Chronicle Series.

GvG looks amazing. I’ve reviewed another “Vs.” game here, OMNI vs. Zaft, but this title will encompass every series…including Double 0 and my personal favorite, X!

It is currently scheduled to be released in November, for readers in the US, not to worry, PSP does not have a country code built in, so Japanese format games work just fine…provided you have a rudimentary understanding of the Japanese language.

Gundam StandArt

I have to hand it to my fiancee, she's so very supportive of my Gundam craziness. You would think most women would think it's silly, but honestly, my wife-to-be loves to help me hunt down Gundam merchandise, and often gets as excited about it as I do (well...almost, I mean, c'mon).

I had mentioned to her tonight that I would like to get a hold of the Gundam StandArt recent release of the RX-78-2 or RX-78-3. I love the design. If you can't see the pictures well, one of the things I really love is the thrusters in the back are rectangular. Instead of two circle thrusters on each side, this version (and the old Ultimate Operation Fusion Works version) have rectangular thrusters instead. I don't know why, but I love that look on the Gundam.




Not to mention that I love how Fusion Works's mobile suit designs tend to exagerate the shoulders and make most of thier models (especially Gundam type units) look more...Beefy I guess. And given that I love the S Gundam and it's giant shoulder armor, you can see why I would like this style so much.

The StandArt collection is great. I currently own the Gundam Mk.II (Titan's colors) and MS-06J Zaku II from the first collection. I bought the full set, but gave the Wing 0 Custom and AEUG Mk.II to my good friend (secretly, I really wish I would have kept them!)

I hope she can find either the Gundam or the G3. While normally I would push for the G3, I find that I'm lacking in RX-78-2s in my collection, so I think this beauty would be a fitting addition.

Oh! and on a side note - Its been a full month since I placed my order for the GP04 Bust from Gundam ProShop. The proprietor, George, seems like a nice guy, and I can't wait until I get his email that its finished.

Until next time~

Jaa~

PS - Don't forget to vote on the new POLL OF THE WEEK!

X1 is Nearly Complete -

Hey Gang,

Just about done with the X1. I'm Guessing it'll be by next week Wednesday. I only have the arms and Head to finish.

Once done, I'll post a review/pics for you guys to see and get my take on the kit.

Still working on the banner and getting some ideas down on paper for how I want to take the site.

Any suggestions, just leave a comment, I'd be happy for an outside point of view!

New Banner

Hey All -

Well, I guess I took more time off than I thought. But I'm working on a projects and will be back in full swing this week.

First off is the new banner! I'm working on creating a few banners for a banner exchange, and this was a bit of a test bed.

Its my Perfect Grade RX-78-1. One of my most favorite units in all the series and one of my best paint jobs done by hand ever (with the exception of my PG Mk.II).

I'll post more this week, and maybe work a bit on those eyes on the banner. I wanted them to be gleaming, but that'll take some tweeking.

Until next time -

Jaa~