Gundam Unicorn

Another build complete, and my first one of 2017. At the very least it can't get any worse from here. Behold, Dragon Momoko's PG Unicorn. It's actually pretty good looking, though the devil's in the details, and the details is where things went south for me.

The next in another long line of "screw it, I'll build another Unicorn" is Dragon Momoko's 1/60 Perfect Grade Unicorn Gundam. As a huge proponent of buying official Bandai kits wherever possible, you're probably wondering why I'd bother with a standard bootleg Unicorn. Dragon Momoko's Unicorn kit unlike the other Chinese copies out there in that comes redesigned with a plethora of added detail to the outer frame.

Back in 2014 I swapped out the pyschoframes of a MG Unicorn Gundam and a MG Phenex Gundam. While I had intended to paint them, they unfortunately got set aside as different projects popped up. Now, over two years later, I've picked up the project again, starting with Hell.

It's been a long while since I've posted anything Gunpla related. This has been partly because I've been super busy, and partly because the kit I've been working on has been yet another Perfect Grade. This time, it's the PG Banshee. Since I'm not attempting to build this in a single week, like my last PG Unicorn, this one has taken ages. The first paint tests took place a whopping 3 months ago. The backpack and beam magnum got finished a month ago while I only finished the torso yesterday. If all goes well, I'll finish this kit by the end of the month. In the meantime, here's how things are currently looking...

Welcome to my end-of-build write up for the 1/100 Elyn Hobby Kshatriya. I'm going to spend quite a bit of time talking about the kit and the build so if you're just interested in pretty pictures you're more than welcome to scroll down toward the end of this article.

Elyn Hobby Kshatriya, what's that?

It's perhaps the most ambitious, and disastrous first model release from a company ever.

It took longer than I would've liked, but three weeks and 12-15 hours of assembly/final detailing later the Elyn Hobby Kshatriya is now 2/3 of the way complete.

An overwhelming sense of doom.

That's what I'm feeling right now. While I should be pleased that this build is now officially a third of the way complete and things turned out okay I can't get past the fact that the kit's LEDs are royally fucked.

Before I get into that, how about a few pictures...

After a couple weeks of prep and paint the torso is ready for top coat and final assembly.

I think I spent more time prepping the kit for paint than any other I’ve worked on up until this point. I feel like every piece on this kit has flashing issues. Some of the problem areas I didn’t notice until after the first coat of primer. Some I didn’t notice until after I had finished painting and started on detailing. Hopefully the ones I wasn’t able to fully clean won’t be too noticeable when all is said and done.

I didn’t do much modification on any components as dry fit issues were more with things staying together than going together at all. I did fill in some awkward gaps on the front of the kit. I sort of messed up the lining on that part in the process because I wasn’t paying attention though.

After a two week delay it's time to finally get this kit ready for paint. First though, the last pre-paint photo you'll get...