Anyone into gunpla - Japanophiles unite to share tips on painting our toys (GUNPLA IS FREEDOM)

[WarJams]

I've been putting off reading that because I bought the original MSG trilogy novel collection (Awaken, Escalation, Confrontation) and I want to read what Tomino's raw real vision for Gundam was before it got translated to TV.
Without any major spoilers, how does The Origin compare to the original series (novel or anime, whichever you know)?

It changes the order of a few things up. Like Odessa and Jaburo basically do a switcheroo, which effects the locations that major plot points happen. The mobile suit designs have more built-in and bolt-on weaponry to boot, so things feel a little less toyetic, kind of like when the movies booted out the G-Fighters in favor of the Core Boosters.

The One Year War parts are the Origin are pretty solid. Where it suffers is in the prequel material where they flesh out Char's early life, which is made even worse in the OVAs in my opinion. I basically think the OVAs are best treated as Char's personal headcannon where he's the strongest fighter at Zeon fighting academy and fuck you Garma from school stop showing people my deviantart.

But I bought the whole hardcover set of the Origin. Beautiful art. Looks great on the shelf to boot. Yas did a great job.

 

[Cedric_Eff]

It changes the order of a few things up. Like Odessa and Jaburo basically do a switcheroo, which effects the locations that major plot points happen. The mobile suit designs have more built-in and bolt-on weaponry to boot, so things feel a little less toyetic, kind of like when the movies booted out the G-Fighters in favor of the Core Boosters.

The One Year War parts are the Origin are pretty solid. Where it suffers is in the prequel material where they flesh out Char's early life, which is made even worse in the OVAs in my opinion. I basically think the OVAs are best treated as Char's personal headcannon where he's the strongest fighter at Zeon fighting academy and fuck you Garma from school stop showing people my deviantart.

But I bought the whole hardcover set of the Origin. Beautiful art. Looks great on the shelf to boot. Yas did a great job.

I also dig Sayla’s Custom GM. I just wish they made a Origin version of War in the Pocket, Stardust Memories, or even The 08th MS Team.

 

[Gar For Archer]

Thanks for the review. I was planning on looking into getting one of these before I settled on the LMHG kits for their nostalgia factor. That must've cost you half a leg considering how expensive finding those kits can be but they really are a great middle-ground between the classic 90's LMHG kits and the recent RGs in terms of posability and design. Good on you for considering painting later on. Make robomom proud.

>original color scheme and proportions.
My niggy! lol I'm huge into Evangelion (the manga, everything else not so much) and while I can appreciate the Rebuilds from afar I just haven't gotten into any of them. I'm there with you about the color scheme, too. Too bad it doesn't come with the extra little goodies the LMHG kits did, but I guess it's a fair trade-off for the great poses you can achieve.

It's not too bad actually, they're around $60, $5-10 more than the RG's. Except for the Unit 2, which is $80 because it includes... a plastic cloak and 2 extra weapons? Really, the issue is just the extremely limited availability since Kotobukiya seem to be doing smaller production runs. It actually does come with all the expected Eva accessories (pallet rifle, charging plug, knives, plus an "open" shoulder pylon with a stored knife coming out), I just haven't bothered taking them off the runners yet and thus didn't include them in photos. Not sure what the HG might include that this kit leaves out - maybe an AT field effect for the iconic goatse pose?

Also, I'd say this kit actually has BETTER posability than the RG, because the RG gimmicks - while cool - definitely get in the way. The bicep connection on the RG is honestly atrocious and barely holds together, while the wrist rotation is limited to about 90 degrees due to the forearm armor gimmick. The hips on the RG are also sketchy because both legs can actually rotate together, making it difficult to get the pose you want. This kit on the other hand has no gimmicks and just uses hinge joints with a rotation on each end, allowing for a wider range of natural-looking poses such as the folded arms, which would take a lot of finagling to replicate on the RG.

I'm definitely not quite confident in painting this kit just yet. I haven't had the time to sit down and fuck around with my airbrush yet, and I have another 2-3 cheaper kits lined up as guinea pigs for my painting experiments. I'll post pics of those when I finally get around to painting them as well.

 

[CHARizard]

Yeah I got the Gaia/Mash custom, it lets you make either of their suits with a bunch of extra accessories. I opted for shields on both shoulders and to use the machine gun. Chars Zaku II The Origin also comes with the sniper rifle so I didnt go with that. I really like the kit, The Origin Zakus are basically perfection in terms of HG kits, I want lots of them they have so many details you can panel line and turn out really well, though like most kits the stickers stick out really bad on the dark areas.

 

[Weebsperg]

I'm working on the hg turn a gundam with my son today. It's not my favorite gundam but I think it's unique design will stand out on the shelf.

Here's what we finished so far

 

[EyelessMC]

I'm working on the hg turn a gundam with my son today. It's not my favorite gundam but I think it's unique design will stand out on the shelf.

Here's what we finished so farView attachment 1799970

Any updates on this one?

 

[Weebsperg]

Sorry there hasn't been an update yet, unfortunately I have to share my kids with my ex. I'll have my kids back for New Years and we'll probably finish up then. It's got a lot of detail for a hg kit I am going to enjoy practicing my panel lining on it.

 

[Poyo Sato]

Cool, a gunpla/model kit thread. While I'm into gunpla since I was a kid, I don't buy really often. Maybe around once in 3 or 4 months. Never paint aside from using panel line and gundam marker for small parts, let alone kit bashing and other advanced customization. Just like straight and clean build, sometimes with top coat.

Anyway I just finished a Master Grade Buster Gundam yesterday.

For a relatively old kit (2012), it's pretty good and solid imo. Details and articulations are pretty good. The build is solid. Weapons are really cool, and I really like its color scheme. Not exactly a mind blowing kit, but still fantastic nevertheless. The only thing I found annoying about this kit is to make it hold its weapons, at least at first. After I got the hang of it, it's not that hard anymore.

It was also my first time applying dry transfer decal, and it was quite fun experience. Really love the rubbing part.

If this will be a general gunpla and other model kit thread, may I suggest the title changed? And if I am to be honest, the phrase "Gunpla is Freedom" is a bit cringey.

 

[CHARizard]

And if I am to be honest, the phrase "Gunpla is Freedom" is a bit cringey.

Its a quote from Build Fighters, one of the characters yells it whenever he sees a cool build.

 

[Poyo Sato]

Its a quote from Build Fighters, one of the characters yells it whenever he sees a cool build.

Yeah I know. I still think it's a bit cringey though. Some fellow gunpla hobbyists I know keep saying that phrase everytime they talk about gunpla, its ended up quite grating to me. So well, it maybe just me.

 

[CHARizard]

Oh man I think its a fun phrase in the context of the show, but if someone said it to me in real life I would agree its pretty cringe.

On topic I got a really great christmas gift and I love it so much. Compared to the RG unicorn this HG was a really enjoyable build.

 

[EyelessMC]

Just like straight and clean build, sometimes with top coat.

Same here. I recently got a matte (flat clear) top coat because one of the posters here, I think @Celestial Being , showed a great kit with a matte finish and I wanted to try it out on an otherwise plastic-looking Kotobukiya kit. Otherwise straight builds with panel lining is definitely the way for me, if only because I don't have to worry about the wind somehow sneaking the faintest smell of the spray into my apartment and getting me sick. lol

Anyway I just finished a Master Grade Buster Gundam yesterday.

That looks badass. I forgot about the Buster Gundam. The decals really bring more aesthetic to it and I think you did good with the dry decals. Never liked them myself since they don't conform to edges as easily as water decals but it's neat. I like the color of white they used, sort of a brownish white. It helps give it a sort of "realistic" mecha vibe like this is something you'd see in a war in the Middle East.
And yeah sometimes we'd be surprised at how certain older kits still hold up so well. Did you have to do a lot of nub clean-up?

if I am to be honest, the phrase "Gunpla is Freedom" is a bit cringey.

Bah! Embrace the corny, mate. Goofiness and hokey cheese is always great when appropriate. As we get older we can more appreciate the simplicity of what we had once considered "cringe" or had shied away from for fear of embarrassment. As long as we aren't making a fool of ourselves like some youtuber desperate for clicks or some instahoe wanting attention, a little goof is good for the soul.

It's the difference between saying "Gunpla is Freemdom!" with a fist-pump for a laugh among friends and shouting "Gunpla is Freedom!" while running up-and-down a railway platform...in a Naruto headband
while holding a body-pillow
and a dildo.

To put it far more eloquently...

Oh man I think its a fun phrase in the context of the show, but if someone said it to me in real life I would agree its pretty cringe.

On topic I got a really great christmas gift and I love it so much. Compared to the RG unicorn this HG was a really enjoyable build.View attachment 1818110

Yeah! See? Fun phrases are fun.
Anyway, that Unicorn looks so cool! I'm used to seeing it either red or green so that deep blue combined with the pearl white of the body gives it a great icey aesthetic. Even the Gundam V horns are a cool blue! Talk about a perfect Christmas gunpla. Whoever bought that one for you did fantastic.
The RG Unicorn is definitely the best in terms of detail, and I hear it's also great for stability and posing, but that HG looks great! Considering the Unicorn is one of the larger Gundams at 20 meters tall it's also preferable to have it bigger than a RG, too, at least to me. That beam axe looks killer and those back pod...things (I didn't watch all of Unicorn yet so I only know those big things from the Phoenix version gunpla) really add to its already bulky frame.
How long did this build take? How's the transformation for this kit?

 

[CHARizard]

How long did this build take? How's the transformation for this kit?

About 2 hours, and no transformations. The perfectability is not the canon version of the Unicorn, its an alternate take on the Full Armor where instead of being loaded up with armaments it is give the special equipment of the Phenix and Banshee. I have the slides from my RG unicorn still I think I will put them on this guy since I like it a helluva lot more.

The MG version looks like it transforms, but good luck finding that one.

 

[Poyo Sato]

And yeah sometimes we'd be surprised at how certain older kits still hold up so well. Did you have to do a lot of nub clean-up?

Yep, for all I know, the SEED master grade from '10s are pretty nice. Although from what I've heard, building the five GAT-X gundam may feel repetitive since they share the same frame, especially Duel, Buster, and Strike.

Bah! Embrace the corny, mate. Goofiness and hokey cheese is always great when appropriate. As we get older we can more appreciate the simplicity of what we had once considered "cringe" or had shied away from for fear of embarrassment. As long as we aren't making a fool of ourselves like some youtuber desperate for clicks or some instahoe wanting attention, a little goof is good for the soul.

It's the difference between saying "Gunpla is Freemdom!" with a fist-pump for a laugh among friends and shouting "Gunpla is Freedom!" while running up-and-down a railway platform...in a Naruto headband
while holding a body-pillow
and a dildo.

To put it far more eloquently...
View attachment 1819380

Then I guess I have to embrace it then. Still won't use that phrase irl though.

The RG Unicorn is definitely the best in terms of detail, and I hear it's also great for stability and posing, but that HG looks great! Considering the Unicorn is one of the larger Gundams at 20 meters tall it's also preferable to have it bigger than a RG, too, at least to me.

Never build RG Unicorn, but my friends told me it's pretty good. Some said that Unicorn was the first RG kit that's not a fragile hand grenade (others said it started with Tallgeese).

If you want a good RG, I can vouch for the Nu Gundam. The detail is top notch, while the articulations and stability is on par with action figures.

 

[CHARizard]

RG Unicorn was my first and probably last RG. I just didnt enjoy the build and for the time it took me I would rather do master grades. The transformation gimmick made it feel like a hand grenade. I kind of want to do the RG Nu, since its one of my favorite looking suits but the Unicorn has soured me hard on the line.

 

[Prairieschooner]

 

[EyelessMC]

Yep, for all I know, the SEED master grade from '10s are pretty nice. Although from what I've heard, building the five GAT-X gundam may feel repetitive since they share the same frame, especially Duel, Buster, and Strike.

I guess it's down to which is your favorite of the bunch and just sticking to that one, then. Honestly I'm not boned up on SEED much since my first exposure to it was Seed Destiny, for a single episode, and I can only vaguely remember it being either childish or garbage. Seems like a lot of people think that but they also keep saying SEED is to Seed Destiny what DBZ is to Dragon Ball GT.

Is SEED good? Should I give it a watch? I still need to finish Unicorn but since I'm poring over the original Gundam novel(s) I kind of want to see the first real story for the UC before going into its finale like that (well, in terms of apex Gundams and the whole focus on New Types I mean).

Then I guess I have to embrace it then. Still won't use that phrase irl though.

lol To be fair that's probably for the best.
I like to embarrass my nephews by doing things like that in public.

Never build RG Unicorn, but my friends told me it's pretty good. Some said that Unicorn was the first RG kit that's not a fragile hand grenade (others said it started with Tallgeese).
If you want a good RG, I can vouch for the Nu Gundam. The detail is top notch, while the articulations and stability is on par with action figures.

I want the Nu Gundam so bad but I just know I'm gonna want to buy its companion piece too and right now cash is tighter than tight. I just got done buying a rare niche kit from another brand, too. Maybe in the future I'll get my hands on that kit because, man, Nu Gundam is one of the true pinnacle of Gundam designs to me (aside from Wing Zero but I'm bias since Wing was my jam when it aired).

RG Unicorn was my first and probably last RG. I just didnt enjoy the build and for the time it took me I would rather do master grades.

Exactly my thoughts after trying out the Impulse Gundam. Ultimately a solid build despite the silly transformation gimmick but putting it together was genuinely painful. Literally. Those tiny tiny pieces hurt my hands and I ended up slicing my finger open trying to cut off a nub on the head I didn't see until it was too late.
I don't think Nu Gundam would be like that, though, because of it's size.
Honestly if a kit's gonna be 1/144 then it better be a 1/144 you can man-handle like Nu Gundam seems to be, otherwise 1/100 or higher is the only way to go for me. It's supposed to be a giant robot, after all. Why would you want what's basically a posable miniature of a giant robot?

The transformation gimmick made it feel like a hand grenade.

I hear that's the biggest problem with Unicorn kits in general for those not used to it. The RG is supposedly the best of the bunch (at least for an affordable price) even in that regard so fans of Unicorn kits who are used to that transformation style say it's not a hand grenade.
Maybe you found the HG Unicorn better because of the size comparison? How is it transforming the HG kit?

I kind of want to do the RG Nu, since its one of my favorite looking suits but the Unicorn has soured me hard on the line.

Nu Gundam is worth it. I feel it in my bones. Nu Gundam is Nu Freedom.
Although I'd like a new MG of it even more

 

[Syn_32]

Well, Christmas comes and goes like everything else... my Christmas was divided into 3 separate events, and it was yesterday was the final one, I asked my mom for a specific model kit, and games and boy did she deliver. The model kit I asked for was the HG Papagguy


Now, I know what you may be thinking, where are his thigh sheaths? Well... I put too much pressure on one and caused a pretty nasty crack (i put too much force trying to get his leg to connect to the thigh, that it cracked. So I said fuck it and went without)

It was a fun build (took 2ish hours) and he looks dapper as hell, hence why I call him "Dappy", the most dapper of the Beargguys. I hope to source his family soon, but that depends when I get that stimulus.

So happy new year, hope your holidays were pleasant, and stay safe out there.

 

[EyelessMC]

Well, Christmas comes and goes like everything else... my Christmas was divided into 3 separate events, and it was yesterday was the final one, I asked my mom for a specific model kit, and games and boy did she deliver. The model kit I asked for was the HG Papagguy

View attachment 1820657
Now, I know what you may be thinking, where are his thigh sheaths? Well... I put too much pressure on one and caused a pretty nasty crack (i put too much force trying to get his leg to connect to the thigh, that it cracked. So I said fuck it and went without)

It was a fun build (took 2ish hours) and he looks dapper as hell, hence why I call him "Dappy", the most dapper of the Beargguys. I hope to source his family soon, but that depends when I get that stimulus.

So happy new year, hope your holidays were pleasant, and stay safe out there.

That looks ridiculous in the best way. I can't help but imagine some old school tense mecha action, some major firefight going down in an urban area, and suddenly Dappy comes in wreaking havoc with that look on his face. A giant dapper death bear mecha. He's like the Gamera of Gundams-- incredibly lethal but a protector of kids.
As for the thigh sheaths, I didn't even notice it. It's likely because I haven't seen any bear mecha aside from that yellow one and I know nothing about them haha But it looks fine even without them. What's the poses you can pull off with that fun thing?

Happy new year to you, too!

 

[Optimus Prime]

Didn't know we had a Gunpla thread here. Neat.