🚧 🚧🔨🔨 Welcome to Otaku Revolution 3.0

Rolling out the new site slowly, fixing things and updated a decade of content, also slowly. If you encounter any issues please shoot me a message on Bluesky or Instagram.

Perfect Grade

Perfect Grade Unleashed RX-78-2 Gundam – Review
Posted in

Perfect Grade Unleashed RX-78-2 Gundam – Review

Alright, let me get this out of the way. The marketing surrounding this kit is pure bullshit. Take everything you’ve heard about this being the ‘next evolution of Perfect Grade kits’ and toss it out the window. What it really is a nice PG RX-78-2 2.0 release. It’s will built, well designed, and very accessible for folks who haven’t built a Perfect Grade kit yet.

I’m also going to get a bit of a tl;dr at the top of this article which I’ll detail out in a bit…

The Good

  • Good looking take on the classic design
  • Phased construction (really 3 phases, not 5) make for an approachable and fun to build kit
  • Good overlapping frame design
  • Strong amount of detail both on the inner frame and the outer armor
  • Photo etched metal details with a pre-applied adhesive backing
  • Coated silver and chrome elements of the frame look great
  • Snap-off runners
  • ‘Bout time we got some magnetic hard points up in this bitch

The Bad read more

Falldogby Falldog••0
PG Exia – Completed Hanger Build
Posted in

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

Falldogby Falldog••0
Posted in

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

Falldogby Falldog••0
Posted in

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

Falldogby Falldog••0
Dragon Momoko 1/60 PG Unicorn Gundam – Project Complete
Posted in

Dragon Momoko 1/60 PG Unicorn Gundam – Project Complete

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.

Before I discuss my work I want to add to my initial review of DM’s Unicorn…

  • The decals are pretty high quality. They’re thick enough that you can place the big ones without worrying about them ripping yet thin enough that they disappear into the paint after you apply MicroSol or equivalent.
  • There are a lot of decals, and if you follow DM’s guide, 50% are unused. There’s just under a half of the giant decal sheet that went untouched. With a bunch that don’t quite work on the kit itself, but seem well suited for an Armed Armor…
  • One of the unique things about the DM’s decals are the line details used on the shin, waist, shoulder, and other places. In the manual they use the decals only on one side for the most part, but in a few areas they use both. They also neglected the decals that go on the outside of the arm (the end of the piece that holds the beam saber). Why they did this? I have no idea. While I followed the decals elsewhere on the kit (aside from a few I added to the feet since they were too bare) I said ‘fuck it’ and used up all the special decals.
  • There are three things on the this kit which are different than Bandai’s (other than all the exterior details that is, and the backpack system if you want to include that too)…
    • The chest/cockpit piece. It’s more pronounced and looks pretty cool but the neck piece that sits on top doesn’t quite fit. You can even see the issue in their official photos. Seems like a lazy thing to get wrong.
    • The shoulder to upper arm bit has bit of extra added on, as though it were there to provide more contact deeper into the arm for extra grip. While they added it, they didn’t actually add anything in the upper arm to make use of that addition. It’s odd, especially since there’s no real reason for it. Of the areas on the PG Unicorn that could use improvement, that part of the arm is not one.
    • In the rear skirt armor, they added an extra notch for the two pieces that make the little square thruster thing. This means it doesn’t fall out before you mount the backer piece, and is a super nifty addition.
    So, about the details. Pretty solid all around. I didn’t encounter any issues with the detail molding. So, about the molding. Well, there’s quite a lot of subtle flashing issues across the kit. The kind of shit that you don’t really notice when it’s staunch white. There were also mold alignment issues (where left side of the mold isn’t 100% matching with the right) which created seam lines across parts, and in some circumstances, a half mm to mm worth of slide (think of when someone cuts through a guy with a sword and the victim slowly slides apart). For the most part everything fit together really well, or at least, as well as can be expected for a fully painted PG Unicorn. Key areas that stunk: the poly caps. They were a smidge too big which make fitment a pain. The shin pieces don’t fit on mine, more specifically, they fit but there’s something about the upper connection that means they keep popping out. The LEDs… well they’re much dimmer than Bandai’s. See the comparison shot below. The wire insulation also pulls away from the light modules really easily. Such that in some of the tighter areas you might look back at the module and see the copper exposed. They’re free, and I shouldn’t complain, but Bandai’s are worth the money and the remote control gimmick is pointless IMHO. There’s also a slight circuitry change which is odd. The kit’s left leg doesn’t light up unless the right leg is plugged in. At first I thought I had some bad wires and was about ready to solder the shit out of the waist piece before I realized what the issue was. Last but not least, the LED set’s 4 separate cables that run from the battery pack to the rest of the kit is a lot more of a pain in the ass to work with Bandai’s two wire bundle.

    Wait, there’s more!

    • You know that weird backpack contraption? It’s really cool, but it’s seam line city.
    • For being built without poly caps, it does a damn good job hold all the weapons (granted all my joints there are somewhat painted).
    • The single mounting point to the backpack is a super obvious point of failure. While mine hasn’t broken, it does like to sag out a bit.
    • In case you didn’t know this, the contraption is a copy of the arms that come with the Tamashii Nation Unicorn MS Girl.

    Final verdict on the Dragon Momoko Unicorn? If you can get it for retail, it’s a hell of a steal and worth a pickup. If you’re looking for a show quality kit, get the real version. Or at least the real LED set. read more

Falldogby Falldog••0
Posted in

Dragon Momoko 1/60 PG Unicorn Gundam – Project Start & Initial Review

[flickr-photo:id=31289879216,size=z]

 

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.

  read more

Falldogby Falldog••0
M3 Model’s 1/60 Red Frame Tactical Arms Review
Posted in

M3 Model’s 1/60 Red Frame Tactical Arms Review

This beast happens to be a 1/60 scale Tactical Arms by M3 Models. If you weren’t aware the giant sword you see above what’s known as the Tactical Arms. The world, of Astray Red Frame fame, is scaled up from the Master Grade’s 1/100 scale to work with the Perfect Grade Red Frame. Like my Seraph Hobby Banshee Bust I picked this up from Samuel Decal who has all of M3’s press photos (which aren’t much different than what I’ve got here now that I look at them).

Once again the moral implications of this unofficial release are blurry. Sure, Bandai was never going to release one of these, but it is essentially a direct copy of the MG equivalent. M3 also used the same instructional build steps in their guide as Bandai did with the MG Tactical Arms. At the very least, that last part makes me feel a bit dirty. read more

Falldogby Falldog••0
Posted in

PG Zaku II ver. Reprise – Fin


Click to Enlarge | On Flickr

Finally complete, yay!

For those of you new to the project, a little background first. After a long hiatus from Gunpla I returned to the hobby with this, Char’s Zaku II, back in 2008. Being my first kit in a long time, and a Perfect Grade one to boot, my Haro did it turn out like shit. Poor lining job, no details, stickers, and an orange peel gloss coat on top. I’d often thought about tearing the whole thing apart and giving it a proper paint and detail make over. Between my ever growing backlog of kits, and the difficultly of sanding down such a gloss coat, the thought never came to fruition. Instead I decided to revise it and complete another idea I’ve been bouncing around, a clear – yet frosted – Perfect Grade kit. read more

Falldogby Falldog••0
Posted in

PG Zaku II ver. Reprise – Update 02

I’ve been making decent progress on my clear PG Zaku, though I ran into issues.


Click to Enlarge | On Flickr

The torso and waist armor were both given coats of Tamiya’s Smoke, clear black paint. They booth looked exactly the same prior to the dull coat, but one received the tail end of a Mr. Super Clear Flat can while the other was coated with a fresh one. For whatever reason the waist armor stayed the proper colour and the torso developed an odd blue tint. This is the first time I’ve applied top coat over a piece using clear paint so I’m not sure where to begin in identifying the project. Since this kit is something I’m doing to just work the idea out of my system, and there’s nothing I can really do to fix the pieces aside from ordering new ones, I’ve decided fretting over it isn’t worth the time. There are plenty of other gunpla projects to be anal over! read more

Falldogby Falldog••0