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I think everyone who has seen the nadesico movie have the same opinion of it. (it was pretty poo) but there were some good points. Personally, I liked the Astromeras which was seen very close to the end at the “concert” but the main mecha was, without a doubt, the black Sarena. Piloted by everyones favourite cook Akito Tenkawa (oh wait, was that a spoiler?).
This model was released in March and is part of the Soul Of Chogokin line. Normally, the SoC line deals mostly with super robots but they created a special line for the “real” robots called the SPEC line. Currently, it’s dominated by the Evangelion mecha but they also have Dragonar Unit 1 and SPT Layzner in the lineup as well.
The black sarena is the latest release in the line which offers the same attention to detail and die cast construction one expects from the main Soul of Chogokin line. So how does it fare?
Those of you who have been reading the blog for a while now (or could be bothered to look through the archives) will know that I have a resin kit of the Knight of Gold from the Five Star Stories. I’ve had it for quite a while now but never really got into building it for several reasons;
1) it’s ridiculously complex! I have said this before put the number of parts to this kit vastly exceed any and every other kit I have in my collection. In fact it has more than the next 2 combined!
2) a lot of the parts are very small and still require cleanup. The resin used also isn’t the best and is quite brittle, thereby increasing the chance of a major mess up which cannot be fixed.
I basically got around the problem by getting an abundance of (misplaced?) overconfidence now that I have 4 more kits under my belt. I also decided to try and break it down into smaller projects as opposed to one long, continuous one like I normally do. So I’m going to do the legs first and then lower and upper bodies separately and eventually build it up instead of doing a complete pre-build and painting the whole thing in 1 go. It will allow me to focus on a small bit at a time and, hopefully, stop me from getting overwhelmed.
3) But the biggest issue was that, with a name like “knight of gold” you would want it to be, well, GOLD!! But as I explained with my lancelot, the actual colour of gold is really REALLY hard to get right!!
But using the information I was able to gather when I was mixing the gold for the lancelot, I was able to mix a colour I was happy with. And it only took a year to work out the solution to the problem. What does it look like?
Despite Code Geass R2 being inferior to Macross Frontier in pretty much every respect *dodges thrown projectiles* it did get me in the mood for a Geass related model. So I dug this one up and finished it off over the long weekend.
Presenting the “white death.” 7th Generation Knightmare frame, Lancelot!
I bought this kit a while back (before Christmas) so I’m afraid that there’s no float system included in this release. Having said that, I will openly admit that I hate the Float pack!! As a practical tool it’s useful but it’s so damn ugly!!!! But I guess it would have been useful for certain photoshoots.
On another break from working on C.C (I’m now on the part I dislike most, the eyes! Although, at this point, I’ll take anything over having to spray the body white again) and I have managed to finish the brother unit of WildFalken. This is WildWurger!!
Wildwurger is a mecha which is geared towards mid/close range combat. It’s purpose is to smash through the enemies while WildFalken provides long range support from behind. The 2 units also have a joint attack called the Twin Bird Strike. Both units have appeared in the same games Thus far.
Unsurprisingly, considering the closeness of the 2 units, the pilot of Wildwurger, Arado Balanga, is very close to Seolla, the pilot of WildFalken
That’s the background info, now for more pics and model review!!
Painting parts the same colour is boring! Esp whey you have to do it several times in order to get a good finish! And that’s where I find myself with C.C. Although things have progressed a little further that that now, but in my sheer boredom of painting large pieces white and then white again, I decided to start on WildFalken which I bought from orbital Manga on Saturday.
Then I started thinking, just how quickly could I finish a kit and give it a full works in terms of a paintjob?
Then answer, Less than 1/2 a day. Or more precisely, I began working on Falken at roughly 5:30pm on Sunday afternoon and finished at 1am Monday morning. So that’s 7 1/2 hrs, factoring in points just as having a meal, reading manga while waiting for paint to dry, working on C.C simultaneously, etc I’d say less than 5hrs of work.
The result?
For those who do not know where this gorgeous mecha is from, this is WildFalken from the Super robot wars series. It made it’s debut in SRW alpha 2 and has since been seen in SRW alpha 3, Original Generation 2, OGS and OG Gaiden. It’s one half of a pair with WildWurger forming the other half (Yes, I have Wurger too) and is Piloted By Seolla Schweizer. The 2 are designed to work in tandem, with Wurger acting as short/mid ranged attacker and Falken providing long range support.
But enough of the history lesson, More pics!!
Yay, my first full post of 2008!
Not really much to say at this point, other than a quick post to display the kits and figures I received around the Christmas period
So, that would be a
- 1/100 Alteisen
- MG Destiny gundam
- MG unicorn gundam
- 1/35 Lancelot
- Yoko “vs Tepparin” ver
- Yoko “vs antispiral” ver
Alongside my kits from way back at wonderfestival, my “to do” list looks something like this…
C.C is represented by a photo as she was taking a parts bath at the time (hint: I’m working on her now!)
So, during 2008, I hope to work steadily and finish FOUR of the above!!!
Ok, pick yourself up from the floor and I will explain my reasoning. Last year, I finished a total of 3 kits. Bunny Haruhi, Getsumento Heiki Mina, and Strike Freedom. Admittedly, bunny Haruhi did take much longer than any previous kit and i did take an extended break after completing her but the grand total is still only 3.
I’m not sure how regularly I will be able to work on my figures this year so I’m simply hedging my bets. I could realistically say i could finish 5 or 6 kits but you never know what may happen so I’m playing it safe. That way, if I do manage more than what I set out to do, I can feel pleased with myself!!
I should really buy fewer kits before my build list gets out of hand, but with winter wonderfestival next month and 2 more figures awaiting shipping, I think it’s a bit late for that. I recently purchased a rozen maiden set from e2046 during their sale, mainly as a way to test the quality of their recasts. I’m also interested in their “gathering” series as everyone raves about them, I’m interested to see how one of my works stacks up to theirs in my critical eye.
In any case, lets start the way we mean to carry on. At the time of writing, C.C is cleaned, sanded and undergoing priming so look forward to progress reports soon!
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Man, this project was a mission…
Actually, it was finished on Wed evening, but I was too tired to take pics. But it’s all over now. I present Strike Freedom!!
For any budding modelers out there, a word of advice, make sure you have PLENTY of paint so you don’t get frustrated twiddling your thumbs while waiting for more to arrive!!
For those interested, previous posts for this project can be found
Comparison pics and other poses after the jump.
Stuff happens…
Sods law struck just before this update when I ran out of spray paint for 1 last remaining wing. So unfortunately, the completion of strike freedom, which was supposed to be todays post, has been delayed while I get more paint.
To make matters more annoying, my usual model shops no longer stock any Tamiya spray paints (most likely because they are extremely toxic and probably prone to abuse by little kids). Luckily, I braved the internet to find 1 shop which stocks the required paint so I should be able to finish this project soon. In the meantime, we have comparison pics!
The upper gold parts were coloured using gold gundam marker. I wanted to use my usual technique of painting the part silver and then using yellow ink to get a very vibrant gold colour, but I learned from past experiences that it is not applicable in these sorts of cases as they scratch very easily and the wings do not allow for repair work. The gundam marker paint is more resistant to scratching off but isn’t as shiny as the chrome part. I think it’s a good compromise and it certainly looks better than what it was originally.
Nearly at the home stretch now. With this, the vast bulk of the work is done. All that’s left it the DRAGOON system backpack and beam rifles. All the armour parts are done!
Not too bad really. I really do prefer the Chrome-ish grey look over the shiny gold which was supposed to be on the frame!
Seems that the revoltech line has gotten big enough to have a small event dedicated to itself!
I’ve been reading up on some of the reports on akiba hobby and I have to admit I was underwhelmed. Fraulein idolm@ster line and even a revoltech Gurren Lagann didn’t really appeal to me and the whole event seemed rather dull until I saw this:
Do mine eyes deceive me? Or is that a revoltech of the Laevatein?? If that is the case, Definitely DO WANT!! although a regular figure of some sort would do nicely as well.
Spoiler: for those not in the know, the ARX-8 Laevatein is the replacement/upgrade unit for the ARX-7 Arbalest in full metal panic. i.e. Sousukes new unit!! I won’t spoil the plot of the books, but it appears after the events in Owari day by day as animated in FMP: the second raid and it’s rather powerful, being able to take out several Codarls and Behemoths single handedly and in a matter of minutes…
(Edit: in case people are curious, a colour pic of the laevatein can be seen here)
Not much to update now. The inner frame has been completely painted in a mix of dark grey and metallic paint to give it a sort of shiny grey look. Pretty hard to see from this pic and will be even harder once it’s fully completed since only a small amount will be visible…
The gold parts near the top correspond to the air vents once the outer armour is applied. I had planned to make them gold since the beginning, but I must admit that the initial grey did look very good! There was also some very minor detailing done in certain areas (like the pistons in the feet) and the whole frame was drybrushed with a dark metal colour to highlight some more details but the main point was to try and remove some of that plastic look, which worked out pretty well.
The hands were also slightly modified by having the fingers cut into separate digits. Initially, the 4 fingers and thumb came in 3 parts with the 3 less used digits moulded in 1 part. I cut them separately to give it a little more articulation. you can see the difference in the pic after the jump.
After noticing a disturbing lack of mecha (one of my fave anime genres, if not my #1) I though I would go back and start on a gunpla! I’ve actually had strike freedom for quite some time after preordering it last year! I even remember ordering the “special edition” version before anyone even knew what was so special about it, but at long last, Strike Freedom Full burst is starting to show!
I’ll be honest here, I’m not a big fan of Strike Freedom. I much prefer the original incarnation (which I already have the MG for). My dislike for the mecha may have stemmed from the show it appeared in, but I do tend to keep to a pseudo “hate the pilot, not the mecha” approach, except in this case…
Nevertheless, I picked up the MG and what is shown above is the “out of the box” look for the kit.
So far very little is done to it, but that will change.
*ahem*
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They say that patience is a virtue… Sometimes, maybe not so, but in any case, Orbital Manga finally managed to get in my revolvtech Dangaioh!! (thanks guys!)
This would be my 3rd revolvtech but there was no way I was going to say no to a figure of one of my favourite mecha designs of all time!! In fact, I think this may be the only figure of this mecha! Aside from the revolvtech dangaioh and a couple of resin kits of the female pilots and possibly a fix pose version of the mecha itself which can be found in the recesses of Yahoo! Japan Auction, I don’t think there is any dangaioh merchandise out there! I would love to see a fully transformable version!! In any case, review and more pics after the jump! Click on the pics for larger versions!
There are some model kits out there which makes you feel content just looking at them in their complete form, made by others. This one could very well be one of them…
A friend of mine bought this resin kit for me as a gift (or punishment, depending on how you look at it). I’ve been putting off starting on it for quite some time, the reason being fairly obvious from the pic below…
Note that the pic above only contains around 4/5ths of the total number of parts, possibly even less! The remaining parts are very small and I did not want to risk losing or (even worse) breaking them during this initial parts check. At this point, I’m thinking I’m in way over my head…
This will be my first Mecha resin kit and already, it has surpassed any and every other work i have done in overall complexity (though only perfect grade kits have more parts). One thing I can say for certain is that this is not a kit for newbies. Heck, even experienced modellers will probably break a sweat when they see this thing!
But I’m guessing you are all more curious as to what the kit is and what I hope it will resemble when I eventually finish it. Find out after the jump…
I’ve always been somewhat interested in the Kotobukiya Armoured core line of Mecha kits (after all, I am a big mecha fan) but they never grabbed me as a “must buy” item. But, as luck would have it, Orbital manga had a few in stock and I managed to find one I kinda liked so I went and got one!
This is the Crest CR-C75U2 Close combat version. A bit of a misnomer since, as every armoured core player can tell you, the weapons on this kit means it’s nowhere near kitted out for close combat! Who the heck would outfit their unit with a long range cannon and lots of missiles on a close combat unit?
*ahem*
In any case, More pics and a review of the kit after the jump. Click on the pics for larger versions!
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