Author: Falldog

RG Unicorn Gundam – ver TWC Lighting Model – 5 Day Build
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RG Unicorn Gundam – ver TWC Lighting Model – 5 Day Build

I’m a sucker for all things Unicorn, so when Bandai announced a RG version with light up features I had to have one. A limited release from Gundam Base, this TWC Lighting Model is stupid expensive. Like $200 after shipping expensive. For a RG. To some extent I get that, gotta have a high price to subsidize the development cost for a limited run, highly specialized kit.

Internally the kit has been modified to fit a big strip of wired LEDs, both red and green for whichever mode you prefer. It’s pretty easy to install, and it looks great, much nicer than the LEDs in the PG IMHO. It just has a brighter, more glowy look to it, mainly due to the frosted clear plastic used for the pyscho frame. The downside is that it’s in a fixed pose, one matching that of the 1:1 Unicorn in Tokyo. Again, highly specialized. read more

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MG Unicorn Gundam – Marida Cruz Custom
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MG Unicorn Gundam – Marida Cruz Custom

Here’s a clever and dynamic opening paragraph that gets you interested in reading what I have to say about this build instead of skipping to the photos.

Despite building so many Unicorn Gundam kits over the last 8 years there’s always been a few ideas I’ve had floating around but never got to. While a Marida Cruz custom Unicorn was the runner up in my recent poll of ‘what project should I tackle next,’ it just happened to coincide with r/Gundam slash r/Gunpla’s UC 0096 group build on discord. Figured now would be a good time to try out a few of those ideas and see how they play out. read more

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Bandai Master Grade N3K-0 ‘Cat’ – A Quick Review

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After my MG Deep Striker got put together I wanted to mix things up and go for something that could be played with just a tadddd more. Where the Striker is a static kit, very little movement, zero poses, the MG Cat is a world apart. I’ll get into it a bit more in a second but wow, is this kit an absolute joy to play with.

For those who are unfamiliar, the N3K-0 Cat, specifically the first numbered varient, was originally designed by Kunio Okawara as a late-season upgrade for Char in the original Mobile Suit Gundam. Unfortunately Sunrise insisted that the use of Char’s iconic red colouring did not work with the design, feeling that it would negatively affect merchandize sales. Together with Tomino, Okawara developed a purplish colour as an alternative. Again Sunrise rejected the colour scheme. Rather than work in another colour, Okawara substituted a yet unfinished design, the MSN-02 Zeong. Due to the rushed production Okawara would not add legs to the Zeong until after production and the Cat would be lost in obscurity until its release as a MSV design. Since then it’s become wildly popular and the subject of many memes and running jokes, especially in Japan. Hell, it just recently got a lot of attention by franchise fans petitioning for it to replace the Zeong in the upcoming Origin reboot of the original series. But I digress… read more

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MG Deep Striker – Review
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MG Deep Striker – Review

Okay, let’s get this out of the way first. Should you buy the MG Deep Striker? If you have to ask then no, this kit is not for you.

This kit is purely for fans of the design/Gundam Sentinel. It has zero effective articulation. No gimmicks (the pointless shoulder expansion doesn’t count). Its size means most will never see the inside of a display cabinet. To top it off, it’s more expensive than many Perfect Grade kits. Why Bandai expected anyone to buy this kit is beyond me. Yes, I have one because I’m a Gunpla-holic, and a fan of the design, but I’m an outlier. When you think about all the kits that should’ve gotten a proper MG release before the Deep Striker, this decision is downright absurd. read more

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BSC 1/35 Sinanju Bust Review
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BSC 1/35 Sinanju Bust Review

When the Chinese company BSC first announced their ‘third party’ 1/35 scale Unicorn bust kit I threw all my money at the screen. If you weren’t aware, I’m a big fan of the Unicorn design. Despite various ups and downs with third party kits I just had to have the it in my collection. To my surprise, I had very few issues with the kit. Granted, I was a bit daunted by the LEDs and have yet to attempt them, but other than that things went together well. One day, maybe, I still hope to give it the paint and detailing job it deserves. read more

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PG Exia – Completed Hanger Build
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PG Exia – Completed Hanger Build

After about two months I have completed my PG Exia build with mini hanger diorama and detached GN drive!

One of these days I really need to go back and re-read all of my post-build mission reports. I have a sneaking suspicion that with all of my big builds I complain and say how terribly I screwed up the build. This is another one of those examples. For everything that went well, at least one other aspect didn’t quite go as planned for got messed up along the way.

Before I start commiserating about my build I want to take a minute to talk about the PG Exia. Without a doubt, it is easily a top tier Perfect Grade from Bandai. As someone who’s build a metric shitload of Perfect Grade Unicorns I feel like Bandai listened to all most of the criticism from that release. The LED wiring is a thousand times simpler this time around. Instead of building out a section of the kit and carefully feeding wires through tight joints you actually build the kit around the wires as you go along. The risk of breaking a cable along the way is greatly reduced. There’s also a lot more detail on the inner frame than previous kits. Okay, not a lot like you’d find on the MKII, but considerably more than the 00 Raiser & Unicorn, and completely in line with what you’d expect from a 00 era kit. Most impressively to me, Bandai addressed one of my biggest issues – the lack of fexability on the stand. With the PG Unicorn the torso was locked in an upright position, really limiting the posability of the kit. The connection point on Exia’s base actually adjusts forward and back for a much greater range when making dynamic poses (of course I end up leaving it in the default position for my build – shame on me). Unfortunately there’s no side-to-side action but I’ll take what I can get. I still want to say the detail and flexability of the PG Strike is makes it #1, but the PG Exia is right on its heels. read more

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PG Exia – Gunk Washing the Stand

For my PG Exia build, which I have been too lazy to share WIP images of here, I decided to gunk wash the stand. I wanted to create a nice contrast between the clean kit and the grimy hanger scene I’m going for. All in all, I think it turned out well. In addition I’m prepping some old action bases for a proper gunk wash tutorial!

Here’s how the stand looked before the gunk wash. Just a bit of paint, some pre-shading, decals, and a flat coat…

[flickr-photo:id=28363358569,size=z] read more

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What happens when your local hobby shop is going out of business?
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What happens when your local hobby shop is going out of business?

What happens when your local hobby shop is going out of business? You buy all the paint of course!

Of the main hobby shops in my area, the one with the best paint selection closed last year without me realizing. On Monday the next largest posted on Facebook that they were closing up shop at the end of the month. Seeing that the only other shops within an hour have very limited Tamiya supplies, and zero Model Master Acryl stock, I rushed in and bought what I could. I filled up an entire basket with paint before realizing I was going to make some poor sap go through and individually scan jar after jar after jar after jar. I left far too much paint behind but still ended up with receipts over 7 feet long. read more

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PG Wing Zero Refurb Project – Part 1

One of my favorite things to do is pick up used kits on eBay for cheap. It’s become a lot harder these days with the increasing popularity of Gunpla but there are still deals to be had if keep your eyes open. This is one of two kits I just picked up on eBay, a Perfect Grade Wing Zero Custom.

The listing for this kit made it clear that it was a parts only kit. From the photos I could tell that most of the kit was there, namely missing a piece on the upper torso and the buster rifles (which I planed use, never having done anything with them following my PG Wing build over a decade ago). Since then I’ve found more pieces missing, such as a rear-leg armor piece, some ankle armor, and one of the yellow detail pieces on the should armor. Still well within tolerances for the project plan.  read more

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Falldog’s Unicorn Collection

For awhile now I thought it would be swell to get all my Unicorn kits and related all together into one big family photo. I’ve been holding off because, as you may have noticed, that’s quite a bit of work. Well last night I spent quite a few hours on what may be some of the worst photographs I’ve ever taken.

I had a very terrible idea that I’d be able to manage to get them all on my photo table, which obviously didn’t work. At the very least I was able to get the built kits onto the center section of my display room though by then I had run out of patience to get everything sorted by height as much as possible. In both scenarios though I had to resort of my wide angle lens which sucks in low light and isn’t good at focusing ob objects a meter away. Of course the latter half of the issue is my inability to mitigate those problems.  read more

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