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

[Gar For Archer]

Built two more kits in my backlog during the holiday break. I'll give some quick thoughts below.

HG Striker GN-X

I picked this one up on a whim at my local hobby store mostly because I thought the head piece looked kinda cool. I actually broke a small structural piece holding its massive gun together so it's just posed with some beam sabers until I can find some superglue. Because of how heavily armored it is, the posability is pretty awful, but it's good enough for what it is. Also, because it's apparently a variant of another kit it came with a crapton of extra parts. I took off the extra bladed arms on the backpack because they were kinda floppy and I couldn't really get them into a pose I liked anyways.

I definitely want to mod him to make his gun backpack-mounted (maybe with 3D-printed sub-arms to replace the skinny stock ones), and paint-wise I'll probably stick with the army green with some added browns/tans to further the heavy tank theme.

HG Helmvige Reincar

Got this kit because I really dug the minotaur aesthetic, and the absolutely ridiculously huge sword that's like 2x his height. Similar to the above kit, posability is a bit limited simply due to how heavily armored it is. The "hooved" feet are also a bit awkward to pose. The stock colors are honestly pretty bad - all the pictures show the secondary color as tan instead of the gross booger green that it actually is, which REALLY doesn't go well with the blue. I'm probably gonna go for a "medieval"/steampunk color scheme by adding some brown/gold to the frame, doing the puke-green parts in reddish brown, and painting the blue parts metallic copper.

As a side note, Bandai's improvement of runner design was very noticeable between these two kits - the Reincar had very few parts that needed careful nub mark removal with most of the nubs being the thin kind that can be easily snipped off leaving little to no evidence, while the older GN-X runners required way more post-processing to remove obvious marks. I recommend these kits if, like me, you're not a huge fan of the classic Gundam designs and want something a bit different.

E:
Did a quick mockup of the basic paint scheme I want to use on the Reincar. It's a bit of a pain to get all the parts separated in Photoshop, but it's well worth the effort because it's much easier changing some overlay colors in Photoshop than stripping and re-painting IRL.

 

[Moguro Fukuzou]

It's nice to see a gunpla thread here and so many people being into it!

I mainly just snap build my kits and panel line, sadly don't have the space to paint kits at the moment. I've tried my hand at airbrushing kits, but all my paints and the airbrush have just been collecting dust over the years and the experience itself was quite stressful. Constantly felt like I was fucking up and ruining it, which looking back I'd attribute to growing pains of figuring out the best way of doing things. Now that I have the itch to try again and see if I'm any better I don't have the space to really try.

With kits themselves I don't buy too often since I still have a backlog from years of not building due to no time and even now I have to be in the right mood to spend most of the day building. Experience itself is very relaxing since I'll typically put on old music (not dadrock, more what your grandparents might listen to or nice Jazz) and zone out while slowly making my way through the build. Mostly been building HG or RG, but my current build is the MG GM Command Colony Type which has been a lot of fun so far. Got the HG Tyron 3 for chirstmas to put on my backlog with the HG Reborns, HG Kampher Amazing, RG Strike Freedom, D-Style Scopedog, and MG Gundam X. Currently thinking of what to build after the GM Command.

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.

That sucks to hear, I've been on the prowl for a good Unicorn kit and had heard the RG was worth looking into. My MG is a literal brick, which I don't even bother to display in my collection, so I've been looking for something better since it's one of my favorite designs. I'm tempted to look into just picking up one of the non-transforming HG versions since I don't really care for the Destroy mode anyway.

My time building RG has been fairly good, though the process itself can be fairly annoying given the small pieces. The RG Gundam MK-II was my first which was a very solid fun build and my more recent RG Destiny was also pretty good, both felt very solid.

Neither were as frustrating as trying to build one of the Zoid kits from Kotobukiya, maybe the newer kits are better, but trying to put together the Buster tortoise was an awful plastic on plastic mess that made me miss polycaps. At least the kit doesn't look bad without any painting, but it made me wary of picking up any other zoid kits.

 

[Cedric_Eff]

My favorite Gunpla was the limited edition RX-78-2 (7-Eleven) Gold model kit.

 

[Optimus Prime]

I got the RG Nu as part of a Secret Santa thing this year alongside the RG Sazabi and both of them are absoutely rock-star builds. They're effectively miniature master grades (except for fixed posed hands, which are way better than trying to do posable 1/144 multi-joint hands that fall apart) and the only real criticisms I can give for both are that the Sazabi's shield is just a massive plastic hunk that's difficult to pose around and the Nu's Funnels are, sadly, a floppy mess when assembled into the stored wing configuration unless posed just right, makes me wish I had the funnel effects set so I could display them off the suit because the Nu itself is absolutely phenominal. There isn't a single pose where it doesn't look good.

 

[Weebsperg]

Still no update on the turn a gundam. We watched Gundam Wing last night so my son wanted to put together his Leo. It was a fun easy build and it looks pretty good even without cleaning up the nub marks. My only complaint is that it keeps falling apart at the waist. I added a foil sticker behind the yellow eye to make it pop.

 

[Florence]

Finally got an airbrush and all the assorted stuff that comes with it for Christmas, so hopefully I’ll be able to get some painted builds done soon — tried handbrushing a Zaku and dear God it did not go well.

 

[Gar For Archer]

Anyone got experience with metallic Gundam markers? How well do they work on unprimed plastic? Debating if I should go with those as a quicker, easier option for adding some detailing to joints/inner frames without having to prime and paint a bunch of moving parts.

 

[Hot Dog]

You win, I got a HG Zaku II kit after not building anything for 16 years. Looking forward to getting back into it.

One of my friends built an awesome PG Nu Gundam along time ago and I've been jealous ever since. The paint job was amazing.

Sieg Zeon!

 

[CHARizard]

Anyone got experience with metallic Gundam markers? How well do they work on unprimed plastic? Debating if I should go with those as a quicker, easier option for adding some detailing to joints/inner frames without having to prime and paint a bunch of moving parts.

I dont have any personal experience but when viewing reviews on the Sinanju I saw a lot of people mention metallic sharpies for the crest, so that could be a good alternative.

 

[Grundlejungle]

Anyone got experience with metallic Gundam markers?

I use them in almost every build, I've never had any problems. The set that come with the metallic orange and pearl white is the best one IMO.

Just finished up this bad dude, the MG Marasai. I felt that it needed an extra pop of color, so I busted out my new metallic purple gundam marker. Additionally, I used two different topcoats, gloss for the deep red, matt for everything else.

 

[Gar For Archer]

I dont have any personal experience but when viewing reviews on the Sinanju I saw a lot of people mention metallic sharpies for the crest, so that could be a good alternative.

Found this blog post which has some pretty nice photos, it looks like the effect is actually really nice. I'll have to get a set and give them a shot.

Anyway, for anyone who wants to do custom paintjobs, I highly recommend using Photoshop to mockup what your model will look like. The thing about painting that gives me anxiety is not knowing what the kit will actually look like once assembled, and if I change my mind I'd have to go through the additional effort of stripping and re-painting the parts. After some experimentation, I've gotten down to a system that lets me define some colors and styles (e.g. flat/metallic), and drag individual parts/groups into folders to apply these styles. This lets me easily change the colors of parts on the fly by just dragging them to a different folder, and is great for experimenting with color schemes. After taking some better (neutral stance) pics I came up with the following color schemes I might paint the kit as; pretty sure these pictures will end up looking better than the actual finished paint job.

 

[Optimus Prime]

Still no update on the turn a gundam. We watched Gundam Wing last night so my son wanted to put together his Leo. It was a fun easy build and it looks pretty good even without cleaning up the nub marks. My only complaint is that it keeps falling apart at the waist. I added a foil sticker behind the yellow eye to make it pop.View attachment 1822208

Use a thin coat of nail polish on the waist joint to thicken it, making it less likely to pop off.

 

[Dark Edea]

OH HO HO

So this is where the Gunpla nerds have been hiding. Line up, faggots. Swirlie time!!

 

[EyelessMC]

I use them in almost every build, I've never had any problems. The set that come with the metallic orange and pearl white is the best one IMO.

Just finished up this bad dude, the MG Marasai. I felt that it needed an extra pop of color, so I busted out my new metallic purple gundam marker. Additionally, I used two different topcoats, gloss for the deep red, matt for everything else.
View attachment 1824989

You made the kit look better than the original concept art. Nicely done! And did you put in an LED for the mono-eye or is that just the paint you used catching the flash? It really looks like a Gundam-tier red Zaku. How are the manipulators on that kit? I heard older kits with posable fingers like that usually can't hold onto anything very securely.

Anyone got experience with metallic Gundam markers? How well do they work on unprimed plastic? Debating if I should go with those as a quicker, easier option for adding some detailing to joints/inner frames without having to prime and paint a bunch of moving parts.

It depends on what you intend to do with the kit (personal fun or competition entry) and how much fun you want to have. I use acryllic paint markers for dirt cheap because money hurts, and honestly it works perfectly fine. You really don't need to prime everything you paint unless you're doing large surfaces that will take multiple coats of paint, and even then I found it's not necessary unless you're really changing the entire color of the kit, like red on red or blue on blue, etc. If you're just painting silver onto silver-injection plastic or whatever it's not worth the trouble. However primer will definitely take you a long way so long as you spray it right and gently sand down anywhere it clumped up on the kit before properly painting. Otherwise some simple paint and top coat would work wonders.

It also depends on the age of the kit, too, since newer kits don't need as much work to look good whereas older ones have different plastic etc. I even heard that certain very old Bandai kits use a kind of plastic that you need to wash with dish soap before for any panel lining or painting because of how it was produced.

Use a thin coat of nail polish on the waist joint to thicken it, making it less likely to pop off.

Nail polish can be good but a lot of nail polishes can also degrade the plastic and cause breakage. The better bet is always just a very, very thin layer of superglue, left to fully dry before sticking it back in, just to plump up that joint. That's what I do.

You win, I got a HG Zaku II kit after not building anything for 16 years. Looking forward to getting back into it.

Welcome back to the autist side.

One of my friends built an awesome PG Nu Gundam along time ago and I've been jealous ever since. The paint job was amazing.

PG looks like a terror to me but in that way horseriding is a terror-- it looks amazing when it's done right and you always want to get a chance to do it at least once before you die, but actually going through with it means getting past the fear of getting a Superman...

The price is monstrous but 1/60 scale plus the details really make it worth it (kinda) for major enthusiasts. That recent Perfect Grade RX-78 just screams abject masterpiece.

Sieg Zeon!

Despite my love for Char and Zakus...

Spoiler: Funny Gundam UC/Zeon Summary

I just got finished with the trilogy of OG series movies and plan on watching Char's Counter Attack tonight. I know I'm skipping Zeta but I've got that and the last New Translation movie on the back burner for now. Also I'm skipping ZZ but from what others say I wouldn't be missing much after the first couple episodes and the last ten episodes.
At some point I plan on reading the Gundam novel but I stopped partway once I saw Tomino had supposedly voiced his discontent with how he needed the novel in light of what would be planned for the anime. Plus he had most control over Zeta and the anime came first, which was not the case for Char's Counter Attack but good luck finding that book in English.

Tomino is a beast. Dude is helming Zeta to completion and immediately gets started on ZZ, then midway into that he writes the CCA novel which inspires a theatrical movie, but his first script for the movie is canned. What does he do? Turns that script into another novel while working on the CCA movie. Talk about an author's author.

 

[Optimus Prime]

You made the kit look better than the original concept art. Nicely done! And did you put in an LED for the mono-eye or is that just the paint you used catching the flash? It really looks like a Gundam-tier red Zaku. How are the manipulators on that kit? I heard older kits with posable fingers like that usually can't hold onto anything very securely.


It depends on what you intend to do with the kit (personal fun or competition entry) and how much fun you want to have. I use acryllic paint markers for dirt cheap because money hurts, and honestly it works perfectly fine. You really don't need to prime everything you paint unless you're doing large surfaces that will take multiple coats of paint, and even then I found it's not necessary unless you're really changing the entire color of the kit, like red on red or blue on blue, etc. If you're just painting silver onto silver-injection plastic or whatever it's not worth the trouble. However primer will definitely take you a long way so long as you spray it right and gently sand down anywhere it clumped up on the kit before properly painting. Otherwise some simple paint and top coat would work wonders.

It also depends on the age of the kit, too, since newer kits don't need as much work to look good whereas older ones have different plastic etc. I even heard that certain very old Bandai kits use a kind of plastic that you need to wash with dish soap before for any panel lining or painting because of how it was produced.


Nail polish can be good but a lot of nail polishes can also degrade the plastic and cause breakage. The better bet is always just a very, very thin layer of superglue, left to fully dry before sticking it back in, just to plump up that joint. That's what I do.


Welcome back to the autist side.

PG looks like a terror to me but in that way horseriding is a terror-- it looks amazing when it's done right and you always want to get a chance to do it at least once before you die, but actually going through with it means getting past the fear of getting a Superman...

The price is monstrous but 1/60 scale plus the details really make it worth it (kinda) for major enthusiasts. That recent Perfect Grade RX-78 just screams abject masterpiece.


Despite my love for Char and Zakus...

Spoiler: Funny Gundam UC/Zeon Summary

View attachment 1827061

I just got finished with the trilogy of OG series movies and plan on watching Char's Counter Attack tonight. I know I'm skipping Zeta but I've got that and the last New Translation movie on the back burner for now. Also I'm skipping ZZ but from what others say I wouldn't be missing much after the first couple episodes and the last ten episodes.
At some point I plan on reading the Gundam novel but I stopped partway once I saw Tomino had supposedly voiced his discontent with how he needed the novel in light of what would be planned for the anime. Plus he had most control over Zeta and the anime came first, which was not the case for Char's Counter Attack but good luck finding that book in English.

Tomino is a beast. Dude is helming Zeta to completion and immediately gets started on ZZ, then midway into that he writes the CCA novel which inspires a theatrical movie, but his first script for the movie is canned. What does he do? Turns that script into another novel while working on the CCA movie. Talk about an author's author.

Yeah, once you understand that the Zabi family straight up hijacked the original Zeon 'revolution' which was dumb (and could only have festered on Side 3 because it was the only colony built without giant fucking sky windows so it was literally a giant sardine can of humanity), the 'war for independence' is just bullshit and it's saturday morning cartoon levels of villainy with real world warcrime effects, because the Zabis just want to conquer all of civilization.

The ironic thing is that indirectly, this - along with the events of Stardust Memory - leads to the creation of the Titans, which is everything the Zeons claimed the Federation originally was being toward spacenoids.

 

[EyelessMC]

Yeah, once you understand that the Zabi family straight up hijacked the original Zeon 'revolution' which was dumb (and could only have festered on Side 3 because it was the only colony built without giant fucking sky windows so it was literally a giant sardine can of humanity), the 'war for independence' is just bullshit and it's saturday morning cartoon levels of villainy with real world warcrime effects, because the Zabis just want to conquer all of civilization.

The ironic thing is that indirectly, this - along with the events of Stardust Memory - leads to the creation of the Titans, which is everything the Zeons claimed the Federation originally was being toward spacenoids.

Kind of takes the whole "there are no heroes or villains in war, only people" idea that some Gundam fans espouse and puts it in the burner. Sure, there were people with family in the Zabi family and most of them cared about their crew but that doesn't make them any less evil. Even Stalin was married and Hitler liked dogs.
Speaking of the anime, though...

Spoiler: Char's Counter Attack and anime talk

Okay so now I know why so many people decades later argue about Char and his motivations/development between Zeta and CCA. The movie never says it outright but has the better part of the main cast speculating different theories, both personal and grandiose, for Char's heel turn and each one is somewhat contradictory. Just some thoughts...

Spoiler

So from what I gather Char took up the burden of being the Zeon leader to fulfill his birthright obligation and to guide a post-Haman headless Zeon people, and while doing so the title changed him. Also he became disillusioned with trying to find cohesion between Newtypes (Zeon, even though not even most of Zeon is Newtypes but whatever) and Earth. Bit of a mess in motivation.
This bit is kind of better explained with just a couple added details in the ending of a Zeta videogame made way later, mind you, where Char seeing what happened to Kamile as a result of the AEUG being sandwiched in the conflict between the Feds and Neo Zeons led to his buddy becoming retarded from the villain's glittering brain flashlight.

Anyway, Char turns heel after all this but not fully, secretly hoping that Amuro will meet him on the battlefield (thus fulfilling another motivation that's floated, his desire to conclude his rivalry with Amuro) and stop their rapid momentum to cataclysm spurred on by Char's moves.
This "I hope he stops me" thing is the most blatant motivation as it comes from his own private thought and is hinted throughout the film (ie when he's doing the big "gold for Axis death nuke meteorite" deal and he mutters something like, "Amuro, I'm doing something extremely wicked. If you can hear/sense me, stop me.")

So far so good, honestly. It's not really convoluted until we get to the Lalah Sun aspect.
Char's hope of Amuro trying to stop him is joined to his desire to finally best or be bested once and for all by his greatest rival in war and love, cause Lalah.
In this, revenge for Lalah's death is also thrown in, and we know it because of what's shown, what's mentioned, what is floated as a theory by characters and what Char says at the end in confrontation with Amuro...but this makes the least sense of anything. Char's major reason for continuing with the Zabi woman toward the end of the original series was not just something to do with Newtypes but because Amuro killed Lalah and Char wanted to defeat and kill him for it. Char is forced to confront that he was using her like the Zabis use Newtypes as weapons, which he (rightly) claims Earth does, and when he makes excuses Amuro calls him out on it, but it's not until he hears it from his own sister's mouth that "You're both to blame for Lalah's death!" does he realize it's true. Note how Amuro immediately regrets what he did but Char keeps running away from it with excuses until this moment in the ending.

So basically what I'm saying is his revenge motivation for Lalah, or at least him holding a grudge about it, is either Tomino or whoever totally retreading ground and forgetting this was resolved at the end of the first series. That's retarded.

To me the worst offender is the Lalah Sun thing, but it gets worse. Char was in love with Lalah, but Lalah and Amuro soul-bonded on a level she and Char never could because Amuro is the apex Newtype and awakened at Lalah's level (or close to it). It's implied visually that Char saw Lalah and Amuro connecting (slight retcon since Char wasn't on Lalah or Amuro's Newtype level so he wouldn't be able to see what they experienced in that moment) during the war way back and that's what made him break them up in that mid-fight moment, not just because she was connecting but because it was on that intimate level. Either way, Char deeply loved Lalah and everyone knows it, even the jealous punk guy trying to get Blue Hair says Char's murmured Lalah's name with every woman he's slept with. Char loved Lalah...
...but then in the climax of CCA, Char's latter words to Amuro basically are "You killed my mother figure!"
Dude what?
I will remind you that Char literally kissed Lalah on the lips and it's implied that despite him using her he genuinely did love her. It's implied in the PG series even! Everything says Char loved Lalah like a boy loves a girl, but now he always secretly loved her like a mother? As in, Char had mommy issues?

Spoiler: Also there's this which is kinda funny considering certain things

TL;DR I now know more than ever why so many still argue what caused Char to go full "nuke the planet with the rock". I still really like it despite the flaws and I like all of the UC in general (except Unicorn, although the animation is beautiful). I still prefer Gundam Wing but I haven't gone through Zeta yet so that might be a new fave once I do. Or ZZ.

Spoiler: Also...

I'd like to hear certain Gundam fans bitch about the romance between Gundam Wing's Relena and Heero again. For years I heard people saying it was the least convincing of any Gundam romance. That's rich in light of the original series/UC's biggest love plot occurring in a split-second mid-fight moment between two characters who know nothing about each other but are just soul-connected through fate and being space psychics. Although I also know about Amuro's romances being different in the novels, something to do with Sayla instead which was hinted at but never fulfilled I guess in the series. I'm just talking the anime and movies though. Obviously the novels would be on another level. Hell, the first chapter of the trilogy Tomino wrote has Amuro witnessing his buddy's organs spilling out after an explosion and then seeing the charred skin of victims he hand to crawl over sticking to his shoes.

Neither were as frustrating as trying to build one of the Zoid kits from Kotobukiya, maybe the newer kits are better, but trying to put together the Buster tortoise was an awful plastic on plastic mess that made me miss polycaps. At least the kit doesn't look bad without any painting, but it made me wary of picking up any other zoid kits.

I mainly just panel line also. A good enough kit doesn't need extra work unless the builder finds it fun. As for what you said about Kotobukiya, yes. Kotobukiya excels in getting unconventional properties like Muv-Luv, Linebarrels, etc. but sucks at actual build design. Only this year did they realize that having a pre-built inner frame from the start weakens the kit. Their Frame Arms kits, aside from the Zero Tora and recent Striker or whatever it's called, almost all suck. Faberge plastic, and even with the solid ones you still get arms popping off for no good reason other than pathetic kit design.
If you know how to handle them and have patience they can be good. I like my Muv-Luv raptor. But it's way more miss than hit.

 

[Moguro Fukuzou]

I mainly just panel line also. A good enough kit doesn't need extra work unless the builder finds it fun. As for what you said about Kotobukiya, yes. Kotobukiya excels in getting unconventional properties like Muv-Luv, Linebarrels, etc. but sucks at actual build design. Only this year did they realize that having a pre-built inner frame from the start weakens the kit. Their Frame Arms kits, aside from the Zero Tora and recent Striker or whatever it's called, almost all suck. Faberge plastic, and even with the solid ones you still get arms popping off for no good reason other than pathetic kit design.
If you know how to handle them and have patience they can be good. I like my Muv-Luv raptor. But it's way more miss than hit.

Oh man, you've reminded me that I tried building a frame arms kit ages ago and it spent most of the time in a little toy recycling bin before eventually ending up in the real one after I unfortunately dropped it while cleaning. Thing couldn't stand without falling over and posing was also off the table since it liked to fall apart when you tried moving anything. It really sucked since the frame arm kits had some nice designs, but I've been looking into the 30mm kits since they've been giving me a similar vibe. I had someone give the amazing description of "30mm is like if bionicles and gunpla fucked and had a baby" which immediately grew my interest as I've always held a grudge against LEGO for getting rid of the line.

Whole line looks great for grunt building and their specialty types all have pretty interesting designs. Like the Portanova space type looks great, but given the series is built on kitbashing you can make some really neat looking customs yourself.

 

[Optimus Prime]

Kind of takes the whole "there are no heroes or villains in war, only people" idea that some Gundam fans espouse and puts it in the burner. Sure, there were people with family in the Zabi family and most of them cared about their crew but that doesn't make them any less evil. Even Stalin was married and Hitler liked dogs.


I mainly just panel line also. A good enough kit doesn't need extra work unless the builder finds it fun. As for what you said about Kotobukiya, yes. Kotobukiya excels in getting unconventional properties like Muv-Luv, Linebarrels, etc. but sucks at actual build design. Only this year did they realize that having a pre-built inner frame from the start weakens the kit. Their Frame Arms kits, aside from the Zero Tora and recent Striker or whatever it's called, almost all suck. Faberge plastic, and even with the solid ones you still get arms popping off for no good reason other than pathetic kit design.
If you know how to handle them and have patience they can be good. I like my Muv-Luv raptor. But it's way more miss than hit.

The whole "gray morality" thing only got added into the franchise later, since to be blunt all that Mobile Suit Gundam is based on is World War II to the point it all but declares this when Degwin tells his own son that he reminds him of a certain other dictator (basically all but stating he's Hitler II right down to the insane one-off super wonderweapons like the Big Zam). And Hitler is pretty much the closest the world has ever gotten to a legit evil supervillain with mad scientist weapons trying to take over the world. I mean, the Zeons are pretty blatantly the space Nazis right down to using a variation of the same flag and having the same development problems (I.E. in real life, the BF 109 was far superior to anything the rest of the world had, so Nazi Germany rested on its laurels and so when their enemy suddenly started whipping out far more advanced shit like the P-51D which absolutely tore up the Luftwaffe, the Nazis were suddenly behind the technological curve and while they did achieve the technological edge again with things like the stronger FW-190 and the revolutionary ME-262 Schwalbe jet fighter, it was too little too late. In the context of the Universal Century, replace BF-109 with "Zaku II" and FW-190 with "Gelgoog"). The only difference really is that there isn't the dropping of a nuke...and that's why Stardust Memory exists because it's literally a purpose-built war machine flying off to nuke Kunepei Island (Fed-controlled Solomon). Sound familiar?

And pre-built frames are just the worst. The early Real Grades in the Gunpla offerings are a prime example because the 'advanced inner joint' system weakens over time and the kits can't even stand under their own weight before long. Later Real Grades minimalize the use of these pre-assembled joints and are in essence true Master Grades at 1/144 scale and the difference is night and day with how robust the more recent ones are. My RG Nu is rock solid in every respect except those damn funnels.

Oh man, you've reminded me that I tried building a frame arms kit ages ago and it spent most of the time in a little toy recycling bin before eventually ending up in the real one after I unfortunately dropped it while cleaning. Thing couldn't stand without falling over and posing was also off the table since it liked to fall apart when you tried moving anything. It really sucked since the frame arm kits had some nice designs, but I've been looking into the 30mm kits since they've been giving me a similar vibe. I had someone give the amazing description of "30mm is like if bionicles and gunpla fucked and had a baby" which immediately grew my interest as I've always held a grudge against LEGO for getting rid of the line.

Whole line looks great for grunt building and their specialty types all have pretty interesting designs. Like the Portanova space type looks great, but given the series is built on kitbashing you can make some really neat looking customs yourself.
View attachment 1827579

30mm is absolutely the line to explore for customization options. The entire line uses the same joint system (Which is starting to appear in some Gunpla as well) so you can mix-and-match virtually everything, the only limitations is specific compatability regarding armor hardpoints I.E. the CQC shoulder armor for the Alto is not compatible with the round shoulder armor on a base Portnova.

And the options aren't just limited to 30mm since I think the peg system is identical to what they use in the Builder support option packs, so you could slap on some 30mm accessories to a 1/144 GM/GM if you were so inclined.

 

[CHARizard]

Ive heard major complaints about 30mm joints not holding up after a few months but I guess thats what glue is for.

 

[RollerGator]

https://twitter.com/NewtypeHQ/status/1304089728816472064

Spoiler: YOU CANNOT ESCAPE

With the changing news cycle, it's never been more important to keep the conversation going about racial equality. We are proud to introduce our 1st sheet of waterslide decals, developed with
@newtype
.official and
@hiqparts
. Show your support with your builds and #buildequality.
View attachment 1597565
View attachment 1597566
View attachment 1597567

So no corner of the world is safe from complete nonsense. I've got to assume that most Gunpla fans are not exactly friendly to the sort of politics that BLM ascribes to but, as always with Twitter, there are plenty of supporting comments.

Gundam Wing on Toonami and the subsequent merchandising blitz introduced me to Gunpla and I dip my toe in now and again. The last model I built was an MG Zaku a few years ago but I've got Wood, Buzz Lightyear, EVA-1, R2D2, 3PO, and 0-0-0 in a box somewhere, awaiting a rainy day build.

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.