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~

We're Back!

Okay, well after a crazy..CRAZY week, I'm back.

Sorry for being MIA there gang, and thanks Q for sending comments, even in my absence! Glad to see you're still checking in -

Okay, well, I should update the situation on the GPO4..because I've gone completely crazy over the design. As stated in the last post, I found a private dealer on Ebay. Yes, Q, you're right, kinda sketchy, but the guy is legit has nothing but positive feed back and assured me his products are 100% G-System made. And seems G-Systems won't get back to me, I'll take the risk. Now, the GPO4 he had wasn't a finished version, but he is going to finish it for me. Again, another risk, but I was given assurance that the final product will look exactly like the picture to the right. We'll see what happens, as it'll be about a month before its done. The things I do for Gundam sometimes....

I've run my funding into the ground though so it will be a while before I make any new purchases. As luck would have it, my fiancee called me at 5:30 am this morning (in the US) because she was in the electronics store in Kawasaki picking me up a couple of HCM Pro Gundams...just because she loves me that much....awesome sauce. I was pretty groggy but after she listed off to me what was available, I got to pick the Gundam Deathscythe....

And the Wing Gundam...

Again...awesome sauce. Both the Wing and the Deathscythe come with display stands I believe, so I may take the Deathscythe's and donate it to the Impulse Gundam (with some minor modifications), which will look great I think.

I know some of you don't care too much for the HCM Pro's (Ngee, I think you said you're not a big fan) as they come pre-assembled, but for being pre-assebled, and basically action figures, I honestly love the little guys. Plus it is a good thing they are, seems I have plenty of MG kits to assemble.

Which brings me to the final part of this post: The Crossbone's legs are nearly complete. I've got pictures, but I'll upload them when I finish the kit and do a whole "kit" review type of thing. Next up on my list is the hip armor pads and weapons...followed by the skirt armor, and arms, and finally the chest and head. The ABC cloak will be last but that's because I have a secret plan to use for getting a great looking cloak as the kit comes with a god-awful nylon-ish thing..utterly useless.

So that's the scoop. I'll post tomorrow on my review of SD Gundam G Generation Portable for the PSP.

Jaa~

Mondays

Lots to do again.

I realize this picture isn't that clear but I'm currently working on the Crossbone Gundam X1 Ver. Ka. You can see the Core Fighter X1 here, which is already complete.

Its a fantastic kit of one of my most favorite Mobile Suits, the SNRI XM-X1 Crossbone Gundam.

Also have the Battle of A Bou A Quo on G Generation Portable to finish and OMNI vs. ZAFT II came today, which (thanks Q!) is awesome in every sense of the word.

Needless to say I've been busy. The Seed Destiny Soundtrack is coming up tomorrow or the next day, I promise!

Jaa na~!