Saturday, February 7, 2015

RG RX 78-2 - WIP 5

Problems after problems
 
With the legs, waist, chest and backpack completed, it is now time to do the arms and finally the head before proceeding to either the core fighter or weapons.

Parts of the arms in the box and laid out before assembly process
 
There was a small grey part which was missing for both arms and a small black part for the right arm. I only notice the parts were missing when I was assembling. I had no idea how they went missing because when I was cutting them off the runners, all were counted for. I started searching high and low for the parts and eventually found them. The black part was on the table, the right arm grey part was in my bag and the left arm part was in hidden in the box.

The left arm grey part was found hidden in the hole on the left
 
Suspected the grey part for the right arm fell into the bag because of the tear on the box cover.
 
There are 4 options which I can do to ensure that this thing does not happen again:
 
(1) Make a new box cover
(2) Use masking tape to tape all the holes
(3) Stop building kits with super small parts
(4) Use a new method to keep the parts together i.e. ziplock bags
 
After discovering the missing parts and finally manage to complete the arms, I have panel lined, gloss coated and decaled the parts. I thought the problem was over until I came across another problem.
 
 
Completed left and right arms
 
If you notice the 4 pictures, there are a couple of things which are out of place. First is the copper decal on the arms. I tired to fix up the part before putting the decals on but the decals are too long so I had to slip it under the armor. Once that was done, I put on a layer of Future and let it dry. When the Future is dry, I tried moving the arms and to my surprise the decal came off. Tried it a few times and the same thing happened until I tore the decal. What I did was use a Metallic Gold Sharpie and painted the 4 lines instead.
 
The other thing is the red line decal on the right arm. As can be seen in the last picture, the decal is somehow shorter than the rest. I did not know how this happen. All I know is that when I removed the decal from the sheet, it was the correct length. After soaking it in water and putting it on the model, the decal somehow shrank in length. I checked to see if it was folded or torn but that is not the case. With a shorten decal, I tried to place it as accurately as I possibly can.
 
With the arms out of the way, I started working on the shoulders.
 
Parts of the shoulders
 
After snapping a few pieces together, the shoulders are completed
 
Completed shoulders
 
Here are some photo comparison between decaled, panel lined and gloss coated and the one without:
 
 
 
The completed arms and shoulder parts:
 
 
Once again there are 2 options with the left shoulder armor decal. You can choose between the normal decal or the one with the 30th anniversary. I went with the normal decal which means only the left leg has the 30th anniversary decal on. Once completed it is time to move onto the next part which is the head.
 
 
I used a normal pen to color the inside of the head vulcans to give them some depth. As I'm building the head I noticed there are 2 red parts missing. The red at the front of the 'V' fin and the back sensor piece. I tried searching high and low again to those 2 pieces but I figured my luck finally ran out after all the other parts I've managed to recover during the build.
 
 
The missing red part at the front of the 'V' fin and the back sensor
 
I could have inserted a red piece and glue it in but I wasn't thinking straight when I was assembling the head. I'm not too worried about the back part because I don't think it will be that noticeable once everything is up. As for the red part at the front of the 'V' fin, I just painted it with gold and hope it will look nice when it is completed.
 
The gold 'replacement' for the 'V' fin
 
The head can be said to be the worse of all. As the saying goes: "The last part is always the worse". It is the same as playing games. The worst boss is always at the last stage. I thought of taking the red part from the HG RX 78-2 and fix it to the RG but I guess I will leave it as it is to remind me to be extra careful and to always make sure to count the parts before assembling. It is a painful lesson to learn but to err is human.
 
Not sure if I'm really having some very bad luck with this kit or somehow this RG kit is not for me. This is first time since I've started building kits to face so many missing/lost/dropped parts. Almost every section I've built has me searching high and low for the parts. Any suggestions on what can be done to rid me of this bad luck (except quitting plamo)? I'm all ears.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...