RG Exia - WIP 2

Not the usual process and procedure

 

Work for the head will start after the completion for the work on the leg. I know the head is usually left last to signify the end of the build but I was afraid that the same incident like what happened to the RX 78-2 will happen to this kit. So to put my mind at ease, I decided to build the head first.

 

The first piece I picked up to clean the nubs was the V-fin. I was surprised at how large the nub mark was.

 

My, what big nub you have?

 

This does not make sense because the V-fin is so small. Why did the designer have to design such a big nub mark for such a small piece? The thoughts that went through my mind was the designer was either drunk, too tired or had just developed some eye sight problem.

RG Exia - WIP 1

An old highly anticipated gunpla

 

Decided to start on another RG kit since the completion last RG kit was in March and I feel of having an OOB built to distress from working on the PG Red Frames. Was looking through the backlogs to see which kits I would keep and which to sell. That was when I saw this RG and decided to build it since it was famous for being the First RG to have plated weapons. Do you know which RG I'm referring to? It is none other than the RG Exia.

 

Manual and tools prepared for the build

Updates (6)

New stock, new stock

 

Went over to Borders today to enquire and order some books. The first thing I did was to look for the metal puzzle section. I went to the previous location and could not find any of it. I thought they might have either sold out all the models or they have returned the unsold kits to the supplier. After walking and looking at some board games, I saw the metal kits display.

 

I looked through the Star Wars model kit and saw the usual kit which is still available from my last visit: Destroyer droid, X-Wing and Tie Fighter. Then I saw 2 other kits which was new. The R2-D2 and Millennium Falcon.

Updates (5)

 Stickers be gone!!

 

You know that with any items bought from shops, there will be those pesky price tags or labels on them? Have you tried removing them by just slowly peeling them off and hoping that they do not tear and leave some sticky residue behind? I know I have tried doing that for years. Sometimes when I'm lucky, they come off nice and clean. Most of the time they will leave some glue behind and I will use something to rub on it until it comes completely off.

 

Recently I was curious to know if there are any methods to safely remove them without damaging the box or package. I asked around and did a quick research and managed to find 2 methods which works and they are all inexpensive and readily available in the house.

Metal Earth: AT-AT - WIP 3 (Final)

Good to have spares

With the completion of the partial lower parts of the AT-AT in WIP 2, we will now work on completing the lower sections and attaching the main body to the kit.

 

The first thing to do is another set of reps. This time is the base of the foot. The instructions states that 4 nos are required.

Pieces for the base of the feet 

 

You will have to bend 2 circular  pieces together 4 times. I'm not good at making things circular so all the foot base have different shapes to it. I guess no one will be able to notice it unless they look at it real close.

 

Top view of the completed foot base

Metal Earth: AT-AT - WIP 2

Reps is the way to go

The next part according to the instruction sheet are the legs:

The instructions do look simple but in truth, they are a bit more complicated and requires you to think before you bend. After removing all the required the parts from the runner and assembling them, this is how the completed leg will look like.

Right and left view of the completed leg

There is an interesting text at the bottom or the base plate:

Text at the bottom of the base plate

Metal Earth: AT-AT - WIP 1

Something new

In the post "The unexpected purchase" I showed that I got a few (5 to be exact) Star Wars metal earth 3D puzzles from Borders. Once I finished the small kits, I started opening the AT-AT to get a feel on how building a metal kit will be and how different the experience will be from building a plamo.

This is the front and back view of the AT-AT package:

Front and back view

When opening the box, I tried to cut as small as possible to preserve the back photo of the AT-AT but that did not work out as expected. I had to cut where the picture of the scissors is thus cutting off the AT-AT words at the top.

 

Packaging after the cut

Upon opening the package, there will be 3 things inside: 1) Metal runers x 2 and 2) instruction sheet.

Contents in the package

Small scale gunpla - WIP 5 (Final)

An interesting feature

 

Detailing work can start for the Gyan since the Zaku has been assembled. The first thing to tackle is the color for the body. I used violet as the base color for this kit. The only work left is to paint the body a dark blue.

 

Left: On-going painting work

Right: Completed paint job and panel lining

 

Once the paint is dry and matt coated, the kit is assembled. In WIP 1 I mentioned both the instruction sheet for the Gyan and Zaku are the same. I'm guessing that since this build is so straight forward that the manufacturer could save money on creating a new instruction sheet for the Gyan and just print the Zaku instruction instead.

 

After a few minutes of snapping everything together, here is the completed Gyan:

 

Gyan assembled

Small scale gunpla - WIP 4

Too much arm rotation

Now that all the painting work has finished, the assembly process can start after all the parts have been panel lined. The main thing to watch out for are the right shoulder joint and the energy pipe at the leg which was glued back in Part 2. It would a shame for those parts to break again.

All parts waiting to be assembled

 

There is nothing complicated in assembling this kit. It is very straight forward build. After a few minutes (there were some issues assembling the body), you have the completed Zaku II:

 

Front and back view of the kit

Small scale gunpla - WIP 3

Another mystery solved!!

While waiting for the super glue to dry on the Zaku, work has started on the Gyan.

 

Parts of Gyan waiting to de-nub

 

The moulding for Gyan is worse than the Zaku. There are lots of excessive plastics which needs to be trimmed off. On top of that I found a flaw in the moulding process which I don't think will affect the kit in any way.

 

Flaw in the moulding

 

I'm also curious to see if the scale of this model kit is the same as the Zaku. The only way to do that is to do a quick snap fitting...

Front and back of Gyan

Small scale gunpla - WIP 2

Mystery solved !!

 

Started working on these kits after the unboxing and completed the pending part of the PG Astray Red Frame. Removed the parts from the runners into their respective container. This time instead of keeping different parts of the models in different containers, I kept all in the same container. The parts are easy enough to differentiate without any having any confusion.

 

Being curious about the scale of this kit, I did a quick snap fitting (after removing nub marks) to see how big the final kit will be and also how the odd colors come together. First thing I did was to attach the right hand onto the body, adjusted it a little and to my horror this is what happened: