RG GP01Fb Full Burnern - WIP 3

I forgot how tiny RG kits were

A lot was going on in my life and scale model took a backseat for quite some time. There was a few times where I wanted to continue with this build but after taking it out from the box and looking at the instructions, I did not have the spark or motivation to build it so back into the box it went. I kinda lost interest until recently where I visited a small-scale model shops and they were selling military kits instead of gunplas and somehow that ignited my passion again. Maybe it reminded me of my roots and how I got into this hobby in the first place.

Recently I went back to my hometown and packed some of the smaller scale kits and took it back with me back. The plan was to practice/improve my brush painting skills and techniques on the smaller kits since they were more inexpensive and also work to reduce the backlog. Obviously this and the GP01 was in the list of kits to take back as they are still in WIP.

On the way back I stopped at a new gaming/hobby shop called Impulse Gaming at Juru Autocity and went for a little look, a little see. Spotted something which I was eyeing and knew I had to get it as there were not a lot of shops which are selling this anymore. This will be the first kit added to my backlog after a long time

HMM Buster Tortoise

Since the last build 8 years ago, I am back to continuing the build from the core fighters built in WIP 2. This post will be concentrating on the legs and waist like the Zephyranthes.

Top shows how articulated the RG inner frames are but with the armor on, the foot will lose most of its articulation

The feet and hydraulic parts before assembly

Feet with the hydraulic parts attached. Did not paint the hydraulics to match the Zephyranthes

The photos above shows the wide range of articulation of the inner frame without the armor attached

 

Incomplete and completed leg with panel lines and decals

 

The work done on the leg until this point was before life got in the way. Continued the build from the waist. First project after 8 years of hiatus made me wonder if the RG kit is the best 'welcome back' kit to start. First thing I had to do was to look for and organise all the tools and to see what is or not working and replenish as and when I need them.

Luckily the nippers were still sharp and working properly. Had to replace the blade of the X-acto as the previous one was rusted and did not want to risk the infection of tetanus if I were to accidentally cut myself while removing nub marks. Had to replace the sanding stick with a new sandpaper and found out that the Zippo lighter fluid was empty when I needed to remove some panel lines which I missed.

A good thing that I replaced the blade as I managed to cut myself while removing nub marks

The tools must be unhappy been ignored for such a long time and is seeking blood

Had to also get use to reading the manual and search for parts and remove them from runners. It feels like I am new to scale modeling. I also did not notice that RG parts were so tiny before and had to use some force while installing the waist inner frame.

 

The front and back of the waist section

Completed the waist and had to get use to sticker numbers and location again. Lost one of the back skirt armor sticker and decided to not put the other one on. After completing the waist section, noticed that the legs did not have any final coating on so went to look for the crocodile clips and matte spray.

Did a matte finish for the kit to be similar to the Zephyranthes. Bottom parts are the waist section of the Zephyranthes which was not matte coated

Left it to dry overnight and assembled the bottom part of GP01 FB the next day.

 

Front and back view of the bottom portion of the kit

 

Waist can be swiveled left and right like the Zephyranthes 

Legs can be spread to almost a split 

Just assembling the waist section took me about 4 hours to complete which I found it very amusing. Would expect to be done with it faster as it was just a small section of the build. With the lower section completed for both GP01 and GP01fb, will start the build for the upper body will be next.