ephemeral-builds

[ephemeral-builds]

I've built the RG Wing Gundam Zero EW this week.

I've made no secret of the fact that I don't love Mobile Suit Gundam Wing... But Endless Waltz kind of retroactively improves the whole series. And I have to admit that the Wing Gundam Zero EW is really a fantastic-looking design.

Since this is a Real Grade kit we've got the Advanced MS Joint B-runner. I still don't understand these things. I don't understand how they can mold moving parts onto a runner like that. Or how it can possibly be cost-effective in any way. But, despite the hate that these inner-frames get, I think they're neat.

We also get some stickers, which I will absolutely not be using. These RG sticker sheets are just terrible. They're awfully thick for a 1/144 kit and they don't want to stick well either. Just horrible.

One of the things I love about Real Grade kits is how dense they are. There's so many tiny little pieces crammed into such a small space. There's none of the hollowness that you get with HG or even some MG kits. These things feel surprisingly substantial for their size.

And then, of course, you get all the gratuitous RG-style detail and complexity. Sliding armor panels and subtle variations in color. I just love it.

I grabbed some Delpi Decal waterslides for this kit. They're probably my favorite brand of waterslide decals. The print quality is fantastic. Tiny and crisp and amazingly readable even on a 1/144 kit like this. G-Rework is often bolder and more impactful... But I don't always like their unique take on a kit. Delpi is usually closer to what Bandai releases.

I usually complain about the lack of hand options... Especially on some of these older RG kits where they just give you the semi-posable hands... But that's not the case this time around. We get two closed fists, two open/expressive hands, two weapon-holding hands, and the two semi-posable hands.

This thing can just barely stand on its own two feet. You need to very carefully balance it... And even then, the ankles aren't very strong. And that backpack is just so bulky and awkward. I wouldn't trust it without a stand for long.

Thankfully this is one of the newer RG kits that has a 3mm hole on the stand adapter, so I can use it with one of my Good Smile Company Simple Stands instead of being forced to use a Bandai ACB2.

I used my crappy old battery-powered "airbrush" with the Vallejo Mecha Color matte topcoat again... And I'm not sure what went wrong this time around... But it doesn't look good. There's weird, white tide-marks here and there. Especially around some of the panel lines. It's not horrible. It's not super-visible from a couple feet away. But I know it's there and I'm not happy about it.

The beam-saber effect part is a very cool aqua-green color. Not quite blue, not quite green. I don't think I've seen effect parts in quite this color before.

The wings are kind of ridiculously dramatic and awkward. They're just so big! It's hard to pose without them getting in the way.

And, of course, there's the twin buster rifles. Very nicely detailed for what they are.

The two rifles can combine into the double-barreled version... And it actually works pretty well. They connect pretty securely and the arms are strong enough to hold it up.

This was a very decent build - especially for an older RG kit. Nothing feels especially flimsy or loose. I did have some trouble swapping the hands... I kept popping off part of the arm trying to push the wrist into the socket... But that's really the only major issue.

It looks good. It feels good. The build wasn't overly complex of finicky. Definitely one of the better RG kits I've built.

[ephemeral-builds]

More Witch From Mercury this week with the HGWFM Gundam Aerial Rebuild.

Honestly, the more non-WFM kits I build the more impressed I am with these things. They really are impressive. I need to build one of the new SEED Freedom kits to see how the measure-up, because these things absolutely blow the older kits out of the water.

The colors are absolutely beautiful on this kit. They're all such rich yet muted colors... Like some kind of classy, upscale take on the traditional Gundam blue/white/yellow/red colors.

And the plastic is all buttery-soft. It cuts easily and resists marking. This thing is an absolute joy to build.

Of course there's some stickers... And it's not just shiny foils for the eyes and cameras... But, for the most part, they aren't going over any weird curves and they stick just fine.

I painted the eyes and head cameras with this new DSPIAE metallic green marker... And I guess I'm not amazed?

I mean, the marker is fine. It works fine. The color looks great. It adheres well. No real complaints... But it just doesn't pop as well as those shiny foil stickers do. I have yet to find a paint that gleams like they do.

I'm also using some new Stedi panel-liner on this kit... And I don't love it.

The brown and black are terrific. It's much thinner than the QW-Model stuff and seeps into the panel lines better. It's great for the fine details that the QW-Model stuff isn't.

The clean-up is OK - I'm using a cotton swab with some isopropyl alcohol and it generally works OK. But it seems like this stuff takes a long time to dry... And if I try to clean it up too soon it'll just wick everything away and I have to start over. It also doesn't seem to set super well. It seems to get re-activated fairly easily, which can make a mess.

I am absolutely not happy with the grey colors. Both of them are very muted and dull and ineffective. The light grey is basically invisible. The dark grey looks OK... But some kind of light particulate keeps settling-out while it's drying and it winds up looking dusty or something.

I'll mess with these a little more... Maybe just stick with the brown and black moving forward... But I'm probably not going to do much with those grey colors.

This is one of the HGWFM kits with the fantastic pre-printed shell pieces. I love these things. They look absolutely fantastic. I'd love to see stuff like this for eyes and cameras in other kits.

We get the Aerial Rebuild, of course... As well as the flight pack, a beam rifle, the escutcheon, and some extras like the beam-saber blade effects and some transformation bits for the beam rifle.

There's no alternate hands, but you should be able to use the ones in the Mirasoul Flight Pack if you've got them.

I'll be posing this up on a Witch From Mercury ACB6.

The bit-on mode really looks good. I don't know that I loved it on the Lfrith or Aerial kits... But it works really well with this one. Looks nice and bulky and armored.

The beam rifle is fine. It's not my favorite. I don't hate it. It just seems to be lacking some impact or pizazz or something. It doesn't pop.

Of course there's the beam cannon mode, which is definitely impressive.

And then you can move all the bits over to the beam cannon for the GUND-BIT cannon... And that just looks excessive.

Or you can recombine the bits into the escutcheon, which again looks fantastic. The colors on the Rebuild really improve the look of the escutcheon.

[ephemeral-builds]

Yet another High Grade Iron-Blooded Orphans kit this week - the Grimgerde.

This is a pretty simple kit, even for the HGIBO line. Just two main runners of plastic and then a few very small runners with just a couple parts each. Honestly, I'm a little surprised to see those little runners... Seems like they could've all been on one multi-color runner. Although maybe Bandai wasn't doing that on HG kits at the time?

One of the things I really love about building these gunpla kits is getting to physically experience the designs in a way I just can't with the anime or manga. I can move things around and see how they work. See how they fit together. See internal mechanisms.

Something that wasn't apparent in the anime, for example, is how similar the Grimgerde is to the Graze. The head and torso, specifically, are almost identical.

This makes sense if you do some digging... Apparently the Grimgerde's Valkyrja frame was later used to design the Graze.

And, just like the Graze kits I've been thoroughly enjoying - this is a very solid build. None of the weird, wobbly, loose bits we see in the HGIBO Gundam frame kits.

We get a rifle, two shields that attach to the arms, and two swords that can be held in the hands or attached to the shields.

There's a good number of posing options with those accessories. Lots of ways to mix and match. Lots of nice, dynamic poses.

It's kind of fun to see the obvious similarities between this and the Gundam Bael. It seems McGillis has a thing for antique mobile suits with swords.

[ephemeral-builds]

Quatre and his Sandrock Gundam were always my favorites from Mobile Suit Gundam Wing. So, of course, I had to build the HGAC WMS-03 Maganac.

If I'm being completely honest - I don't love the design of these Maganac suits. They look weird. I don't like the brown/mustard color-scheme. But I figure if I'm going to build grunt suits like the Leo, I need to put some grunt suits on the other side of the fight too.

The color separation isn't fantastic in this kit, and there's some stickers to correct that... But they're really not bad. There's a few mustard panels to correct the shoulders, a couple stripes for the shield, and a couple eye/camera bits.

I didn't wind up using the eye/camera bits - I painted those with a nice metallic-pink paint marker.

The head just looks weird. And, unfortunately, the eye/camera is so deeply recessed that you can barely see it.

The shoulders feature the bulk of the color-correcting stickers... But, really, it doesn't look bad. They're nice and flat so there's no issue getting stuff to curve/bend/fold right.

I don't know if I'm seeing things... But these legs somehow give me Leo vibes.

The kit also comes with some marking stickers, which I didn't use. I'm not familiar enough with the Maganac Corps to care which unit I built.

There's a decent selection of accessories in this kit. There's a big shield, a heat tomahawk, and a beam rifle. Unfortunately the weapons are molded in black plastic that doesn't show a lot of detail very well... So I painted the blade of the heat tomahawk just to give it some life.

You can store all the accessories on the kit, which is always nice.

There's a clip on the back skirting for the heat tomahawk. The beam rifle attaches to the back of the shield, but it isn't very secure. And then you can stick the shield on the back for storage

The articulation is definitely a little limited... Those big shoulders get in the way a little bit and the legs are kind of stiff and chonky. But I guess it's about what I'd expect from a grunt suit. These guys aren't doing anything super-dramatic in the anime either.

There's really some fantastic details in this kit, too. Like little vents on the back of the elbows... Or all the verniers/thrusters all over the place.

A neat feature of these older HG kits is that the weapons are often ambidextrous.

This is yet another really solid HGAC kit. Maybe not super dramatic or exciting... But it's a great addition to my Wing collection.

[ephemeral-builds]

Build Metaverse was pretty disappointing. Just three episodes of nostalgic fluff. No substance at all. Basically just a big commercial for the even more disappointing metaverse "game" they released.

But at least we got some neat designs - like this Build Strike Exceed Galaxy

I needed something simpler after that big Ver.Ka kit last week - so this time I'm building an Entry Grade kit.

Obviously this is just a variation on the EG Strike kit. There's some new clear pink bits here and there... But it's nearly identical. And, like the previous EG Strike kit, the build is very quick and easy.

Somewhat unusually for an Entry Grade kit - there's a good number of accessories. You get the same beam rifle as the original EG strike... An alternate beam rifle that can also be used as a sword and separate into a smaller beam rifle... A shield... And the Galaxy Flyer.

Really, the only thing missing in this kit is some alternate hands. Obviously that's not going to happen in an EG, but I still wish I had more options.

Unsurprisingly, posing this kit is a little annoying. It's not that the articulation is bad... Everything moves where it needs to... But just due to the engineering of the Entry Grade line the joints are kind of weird and stiff and fragile. Limbs would rather pop off than move into position.

I really like the versatility we've got with these accessories.

As usual, I'm really impressed with this kit. The Entry Grade line just does not disappoint.

[ephemeral-builds]

ZZ was such a weird show. The tonal whiplash coming off of Zeta was just incredible... We go from a comatose Kamille to comedic sound-effects and food fights. ZZ definitely gets better... The latter half is pretty damn good... But it takes something like 20 episodes to get there.

So, after thoroughly recovering from my last Ver.Ka build... I'm building the ZZ Gundam Ver.Ka - and it's a beast.

Just the box itself is imposing. Big and heavy and absolutely stuffed-full of plastic. Tons of runners.

It's got the fantastic Ver.Ka manual with lots of full-color pictures and an interview with Katoki.

Like most Ver.Ka kits - this one comes with a sheet of waterslides right in the box, which I really appreciate. I wish more of Bandai's kits came with waterslides.

We also get a small sheet of foil stickers for the eyes and cameras - which I won't be using.

First off I had to paint the pilot figures because I hate putting unpainted pilots into a nice model kit. We get both standing and seated versions of Judau... As well as a second seated pilot that I think is supposed to be Lino Abbav.

It's fantastic that we get two seated pilots because we also get two core fighters.

The build on this kit is kind of weird. There's a whole lot of undergates that don't really seem to be necessary. I don't know if they were planning for some fancy plated version? But all it really does with this version is make gate cleanup a pain in the ass.

Aside from the annoying gates - the build is surprisingly good.

I guess I was expecting it to be more fiddly since it was a transforming kit... But it's really not bad. Everything builds up very nicely. I'd say it was less annoying than the Full Armor Gundam was.

So this is what we get... The ZZ Gundam itself, an extra core fighter, the ridiculous double beam rifle, some alternate hands, some alternate fingers, some absolutely ginormous beam saber blade effects, and the pilot figures.

To be honest, I don't love the design of the ZZ. I don't like a lot of the transforming kits. And this one just looks weird. Big and bulky in all the wrong ways.

It's hard to pose this kit. The shoulders clash with the backpack and really limit the arm movement. And then there's the big wings/shields fixed to the arms that further limit movement. The articulation isn't actually bad - there's just stuff in the way.

And that beam saber is just stupidly huge. It looks ridiculous. The hands can't even hold it right.

I really didn't like the transformation into G Fortress mode.

I mean, it's fine, I guess. And I appreciate that there's different bits to lock parts into the right places. But the whole process felt creaky and bad. It felt like I was going to break something.

After that I decided I didn't need to try the other modes - I just went back to the Gundam mode and left it there.

I really like that we get a second core fighter though. It's nice to have one to display outside the Gundam itself.

So, there it is, the ZZ Gundam Ver.Ka. It's definitely not a bad kit... The build was much better than I expected. But I just don't love the design. And the posability leaves a lot to be desired.

[ephemeral-builds]

I'm continuing my Iron-Blooded Orphans kick with the HGIBO Man Rodi this week.

I was certainly a little surprised when I opened this box. I didn't expect to see so much purple in there.

The only stickers in this kit are for the eye. There's a single, centered eye or you can combine a blank background with a separate eye sticker to make it look off to one side. Since there's no raised detail for the eye and I don't trust myself to paint those tiny triangles - I'll be using the centered sticker for this build.

This is a very chonky kit. Everything is big and bulky. Lots of rounded parts. There's a good bit of surface detail to panel-line, but some of the gates were a pain to remove. The parts generally fit pretty well... But one of the polycaps in the chest is a little loose and it's making thee torso a little floppy. Still - it's a lot more solid than the Gundam frame kits are.

This kit is a little light on accessories - just a gun and the cleaver. No extra hands or anything. That kind of stuff was all sold in the expansion sets back in the day... But those are almost impossible to buy today.

My wife says it looks like a frog. I'm seeing a turtle. All the green, bulky, rounded parts definitely give it something of an organic feel. I could definitely see this thing slinking through a swamp somewhere.

It's absolutely capable of standing on its own two feet... But, also, clearly not designed to do that. There's very limited articulation in the legs and feet. All the standing poses look stiff and wooden. I guess I'm kind of surprised they didn't include a runnerless stand in this kit.

It looks much better up on a stand - which makes sense, since this suit was clearly designed to operate in space.

I really like how you can store an accessory around on the back skirting... There isn't just a peg or a hole or something - a section pops out to hold it. That's a level of detail you don't typically see in an HG kit.

Yet another really solid HGIBO grunt kit. So far, I'm liking the grunt kits better than the hero kits. Those Gundam frame kits all seem to have issues. Which is not to say that this build is perfect... The chest is a little loose... But it's so much better than the hero kits I've built.

[ephemeral-builds]

I've been playing a lot of Hello Kitty Island Adventure lately... And when I found out about the Hello Kitty/Gundam crossover gunpla - I had to track one down.

This is an SD EX-Standard kit which means it's a pretty simple, quick build. The runners have those "touch gates" which don't really need nippers. You can just kind of pull the parts right off the runners.

What's really fun is the runners for the Hello Kitty part of the kit are designed to look like Hello Kitty and her bow. Fantastic attention to detail.

This is basically two kits in one box. You get a full Hell Kitty model. It's a very quick and simple build... But it's also completely color-accurate with no stickers or paint or anything. And it's even got some articulation - the arms move and it can sit down.

As an SDEX kit - there's really not too much to it. The vast majority of the kit is molded in white, and then there's just a few small runners in different colors.

The beam saber is just kind of a white, plastic toothpick. So I'm painting it with some fluorescent paint markers I got off AliExpress.

Most of the color accuracy in this kit is coming from stickers.

And there's the stubby little RX-78-2.

There's not a lot of articulation here. There's no knees and the elbows barely bend. And the articulation that it does have isn't great - the arms kept falling off at the shoulders. It's expressive-enough for an SD kit... But really not my cup of tea.

It's a little weird... When you combine the two kits to make the Hello Kitty Gundam you're left with an RX-78-2 head and a headless Hello Kitty body... So I combined them. And it looks pretty ridiculous.

This was a very quick build. It only took me a couple hours - and that's including hand-painting the beam saber, head vulcans, and the vents on the big Hello Kitty Gundam's mask. But it's a very unique kit. It's got some real shelf presence.

[ephemeral-builds]

I've been a fan of the Macross franchise for a while now... But I just recently discovered that Bandai makes some Macross kits. I would've loved to start with a VF-1 of some sort, but apparently those aren't available? I mean, they are... But they just seem to be fixed models. No transformation at all.

So, instead, I'm starting with Isamu Dyson's YF-19 from Macross Plus.

This is kind of a weird kit for me... It's 1/100 which puts it in scale with the Master Grade gunpla I'm usually building. But it's just a High Grade model kit - which means there's no inner-frame, the details and color accuracy are a little lackluster, and there's plenty of stickers.

There's two sheets of stickers, which I didn't really use... But I kind of wish I had.

The smaller sheet is some normal foil stickers for cameras and stuff.

The larger sheet is very thin, flexible metallic plastic. Reminds me of a mylar balloon or something. It actually conforms to the details and sticks very well... But I didn't know this until it was too late to use most of these stickers because I'd already started with the waterslide decals.

More on that later.

Of course I had to paint the pilot. I always feel bad leaving the pilot figure unpainted when it's actually going into the kit... And this one is clearly visible through the cockpit canopy. So he got painted-up.

This kit features "shortcut change" parts... It's basically what gunpla folks would call a "partsformer". It doesn't really transform exactly, you're swapping lots of parts to make it happen.

So there's whole separate bits for the fighter, gerwalk, and batroid modes.

There's also some landing gear for the fighter mode... And the gun pod. Plus a couple different hands and an effect part for the pinpoint barrier punch.

So... This is really where things went a bit pear-shaped with this build.

My gut instinct was to grab the waterslides because this is a 1/100 kit and I associate that with Master Grade gunpla. Which I like to put extra time and effort into. Paint some bits, waterslides, topcoat - the whole thing.

But these waterslides weren't great. The problem is that a lot of them are basically color-correcting waterslides. And while the color bit is the right size, there's also that little clear border around them - which doesn't fit neatly. So a lot of these decals went on very messily.

And then I had to drench them in Mark Softer... Which made the panel-liner run... And it started looking really bad, really fast.

I genuinely wish I'd used those mylar stickers first and left the watereslides for the markings. Trying to use the color-correcting waterslides was a mistake.

Batroid mode is about what I expected. It looks pretty similar to any other gunpla kit - big bipedal robot thing. Dedent details. Decent articulation. Fits right in alongside any other HG kit.

Gerwalk mode is probably my favorite. It so uniquely, iconically Macross. And it's great to be able to see the pilot in there. The articulation gets a little limited here... I'm sure it'd look better up on a stand, but you can't do anything too dynamic with how front-heavy this thing is.

And then we've got fighter mode... Which, honestly, probably looks the best of the three? Or the least janky?

This kit was definitely a bit of a learning experience, which felt a little weird. I've built plenty of plastic model kits. I've build plenty of Bandai's HG kits specifically. I feel like this should've been more familiar than it was. But maybe that was part of the problem - I went in with preconceived expectations.

I think I'll have more fun the next time around. I'll know what to expect. I'll know what not to do.

And, yes, there will absolutely be a next time. At the very least I'm going to have to build Guld's YF-21... But there's several more that I really want to build.

[ephemeral-builds]

Back to Witch From Mercury this week with the Beguir-Pente.

After building so many of those Iron-Blooded Orphans kits this kit feels completely different. So many runners for just an HG kit! And no polycaps at all.

There's quite a few stickers, but they're almost all shiny/foil.

We get a weapon stand and a wire to display the shield independently.

This kit has a tiny little pilot seat right in the middle of the chest - so I had to paint it. Nothing fancy, just a bit of black paint to make the seat pop. It's barely visible under that clear plastic bit, but I know it's there.

Everything builds-up really nicely in that fantastic HGWFM all-plastic style I absolutely love. Simple, solid construction. Really good color-separation. Dramatic use of foil stickers and clear parts. These really are terrific kits.

This is basically a recolor of the Beguir-Beu with a couple different accessories. The weapons, backpack, and head are different - but that's about it. The main build is identical.

I really kind of wonder about Bandai's decision-making when it comes to what gets a standard release and what's P-Bandai. This kit feels like it easily could've been a P-Bandai release. And something like the Desultor feels like it could've been a standard release.

I don't know how I feel about those rabbit-ears popping up from the backpack... But that shield looks very cool in its full-activated state.

The rifle weapon is fantastic, too. Big and chonky and it's got two camera bits on it. Very impressive.

I don't generally love the wire-attached weapons... It's hard to get the wire to look natural and believable. But it's always nice when they include all the gimmicks to replicate what we see in the show.

[ephemeral-builds]

More Iron-Blooded Orphans this week - the Hyakuren.

I'm really enjoying these HGIBO kits, but they just aren't consistent. I don't know if there just wasn't as cohesive a vision back when these kits were being made? Or if I've just been spoiled by how consistently good modern lines like HGWFM are?

The stickers, for example, vary widely from one kit to the next. That Hyakuri had a whole pile of stickers... But this Hyakuren just has a few bits of yellow. Hell - I'd just paint those bits if yellow wasn't such a horrible color to work with.

I really like how these Iron-Blooded Orphans designs are based off of shared frames. And you really get to see that when you're building the kits. This thing looks almost nothing like the Hyakuri I built, but you can still see commonalities here and there because they're both based on the Teiwaz frame.

Unfortunately I had a little trouble with the legs. Again - I don't know if it's an issue with my print or if that's just how these kits were... But one of the legs was super, super loose. Absolutely wouldn't hold a pose at all. Straight-up floppy. It was easy-enough to correct it with a joint-strengthening pen... But I guess I expect better from Bandai.

The head has this broad, flared thing on the back that gives me weirdly snake-y vibes. Reminds me of the hood on a cobra or something. It looks cool, but it seriously limits the head's mobility.

There's not a ton of accessories with this kit... We get the rifle and the blade, as well as a sheathe for the blade. And, honestly, I appreciate that. I never really liked how the Zaku II was just carrying a naked heat hawk around.

We get kind of an odd gimmick in these fist weapons that are vaguely reminiscent of brass knuckles. And there's some fantastic articulation in the shoulders to accommodate some very dynamic punching poses. But they don't really look like much...

Unfortunately the legs aren't super-posable. I mean, they're fine... But a little limited. Part of that is due to just how huge and chonky those thighs are. But the bulky side-skirting doesn't help either.

What can I say? It's another great HGIBO kit. I don't think I've really been genuinely disappointed by one of these yet. I'm so glad I was finally able to get my hands on these kits.

[ephemeral-builds]

Making something a little different this week... A Keroppi Woobles crochet kit.

I made one of these Woobles kits before, and it was a lot of fun.

My Wife and I have been playing a lot of Hello Kitty Island Adventure lately, and Keroppi is her favorite character.

So, of course, I had to make this kit for her.

These Woobles kits come with absolutely everything you need to make the amigurumi. There's a bunch of yarn, some eyes, a tapestry needle, some fluff to stuff it with, a few stitch markers, and a Keroppi-themed crochet hook.

The instructions are online. There's a code to put into a website and then you can either download the pattern or watch some step-by-step videos.

Like the earlier Felix the Fox kit I made - this one begins with a pre-started piece of fabric. And the first several rounds are very easy and straight-forward. It's a great way to build confidence quickly.

That all went to hell when I had to join the red yarn to the green I'd been working with...

I dunno, I guess I was just tired? I had a hell of a time just getting this going correctly. I kept having to rip it all out and start over again. It was pretty frustrating, but I don't think that had much of anything to do with the kit or its instructions.

This Keroppi kit is marked as a "beginner" kit - but it's clearly a little more involved than the Felix the Fox kit I did last time. That one's basically just a ball with ears. This one has some shape to its body as well as several extra parts/limbs/bits.

I will say that I wish there were a better way to jump back to specific bits of instruction. I kept having to go back to the magic loop video to start the different pieces, or the tie-off video when they were done. It would've been nice if there was a simple, direct link back to those videos somewhere so I didn't have to keep closing the current video and going back to some previous step.

These arms were kind of a mess. I'm pretty sure I did them wrong.

Periodically they'll (re)use some generic instructional videos that don't necessarily match exactly what you're making. This is typically fine... But the part for these arms just didn't work for me. It looked like they were making something much bigger than these stubby little things. It looked like I should have a lot more material to work with than I did. And then it abruptly cut to stubby little things like mine... And I guess they look OK?

But it was very confusing.

The bow, similarly, was kind of a mess. It's a very small, cramped piece of fabric and I'm not sure I did it right. It looks more like a blob than a bow.

And there's the finished piece!

I'm pretty happy with it... I mean, it's clearly not perfect. Barely looks like the image on the package. But this is only my second time crocheting anything - so I think I'm doing OK.

I enjoy these kits, but they really aren't relaxing for me the way that plamo is. I don't know if it's just because I'm still learning and having to pay a lot of attention to what I'm doing, or if it's just not going to push those buttons for me.

[ephemeral-builds]

I know it probably seems silly - but the HGIBO Hyakuri is one of my Graile kits.

Iron-Blooded Orphans is one of my favorite Gundam series, and the Hyakuri was one of my favorite designs. I've been wanting to build this kit ever since I first saw that suit on-screen. But, as I've mentioned before, I discovered Iron-Blooded Orphans long after it stopped airing and the kits were out of print. I didn't want to pay $60+ for a standard-release High Grade so I was stuck.

Thankfully, with the recent HGIBO reprints, I've finally got the chance to build this kit.

Unsurprisingly, there's a sheet of color-correcting foil stickers. They're not really horrible though. No big, obvious inaccuracies to correct. Just some little details here and there.

The kit also includes a runnerless stand. These aren't great... But it's always nice to have a stand included with a kit like this that can't really stand on its own two feet.

I was a little surprised that there was absolutely nothing for the eyes. No red plastic bit. No stickers. They were just going to be left white. So I got out my DSPIAE Super-Metallic red paint marker and fixed that. I think they turned out pretty well.

The bulk of the build is about what I'd expect from an HGIBO kit. Some polycaps for the joints... An almost-full inner-frame... Lots of exposed mechanical detail like pistons or hoses... Decent articulation...

The arms are surprisingly complicated. Lots of tiny little bits and pieces.

The backpack is absolutely massive. Just plain huge. It's the biggest part of the entire kit. And it's mostly just two big pieces that sandwich together.

It's a fairly simple build. Not a lot of accessories - just the two guns. No extra hands or melee weapons or anything like that.

It's a damn good thing they included the runnerless stand because this thing just cannot stand on its own two feet.

I mean, I could probably get it upright without the stand... Unlike some HGIBO kits the joints feel very strong. But those feet are just tiny and the backpack is so heavy it'd have to be a really weird-looking pose.

The articulation is pretty decent. The limbs move basically where I expect them to. And, like I said, everything feels pretty solid. I'm not having any trouble holding any poses.

There's a neat gimmick where you can use a couple panels off the backpack as shields. And the guns look pretty cool.

And, of course, there's the transformation gimmick.

I dunno, calling it a "transformation" seems a little generous. It felt a lot more dramatic in the show... But, basically, the arms fold away in the backpack and the toes go pointy. It still looks pretty neat... But it's a little simple.

I'm pretty happy with this build. I love the weirdly-insectoid look to it. That head is absolutely alien. It's definitely one of the more-unique designs from Iron-Blooded Orphans. I'm absolutely thrilled to finally have it up on my shelf.

[ephemeral-builds]

Appropriately enough, my Wife got me this MG Kampfer kit for Christmas. But things have been a little busy and I didn't get it finished until now.

This is one of those big gunpla boxes... And it's got some heft to it, too.

This is an older kit - it was originally designed back in 2000. And unlike some other kits like the MG Dom, I don't think this one's gotten any tweaks or upgrades.

There's a bag of tiny screws in the box, which just feels weird. I'm not used to needing a screwdriver to build my gunpla.

This kit also comes with some dry-transfers and marking stickers, but I won't be using any of them. I picked up some waterslide decals.

Of course I had to paint the pilot figures even though I won't be seeing them after the kit is assembled.

I'm not a fan of these hands. The holding hands feel seriously over-complicated. They're built from five different bits but they're barely articulated. And several of the pieces are molded on some softer plastic that's got horrible mold-lines.

This kit is like a walking arsenal. Two bazookas, two giant shotguns, two sturmfausts, two beam sabers, and the chain mine. You get two holding hands and two open hands. And then there's the two pilot figures as well.

Honestly, I didn't love this kit. The build felt slightly off compared to what I usually expect from Bandai. I don't know if that's just how old gunpla feels? Or if this particular print was towards the end of the mold's life? But it wasn't a great build.

Using the screws felt odd. And while the instructions repeatedly cautioned against over-tightening the screws it felt more like I couldn't tighten them enough. Lots of the joints feel loose and weak. I'm not convinced this thing is going to remain standing on my shelf.

Having said that... It's got some undeniable shelf-presence. It's big and blue and spikey in all the best ways. And it's armed to the teeth.

Unfortunately the articulation isn't great. It's hard to get the limbs to move where I want them to. It's hard to find natural-looking poses. Everything feels vaguely stiff and awkward.

But it does look damn cool when you get it into a good pose.

So, obviously this means I'm going to have to build the MG Alex, too.

[ephemeral-builds]

I'm back to the Universal Century with the HG RX-77-02 Guncannon (Cucuruz Doan's Island ver.) this week.

The box doesn't actually say "The Origin" on it - but this kit is clearly derived from that line.

If you're not familiar with Cucuruz Doan's Island... It was apparently a couple episodes of the original Mobile Suit Gundam that never actually aired. With the release of the Origin anime a few years back they took the opportunity to remake/update those episodes and released them as a standalone movie. It features the classic characters but with updated, modern visuals.

This model kit is based on a couple Guncannons we see in the movie. And the runners themselves are borrowing from the HGTO Guncannon kits. So it's basically another HGTO kit, regardless of what it says on the box.

There's no color-correcting stickers in the box. No foil stickers at all. All the plastic is already color-accurate. There's a sheet of marking stickers that I may eventually use... But I really don't love how these work, so I'm not going to apply them for now.

This thing's got the GM-style visor in its head - so, of course, I had to throw some silver behind it to make that pop.

There's a neat bit of extra articulation in the torso to accommodate that iconic prostrate firing pose. There's a hinge in the neck to allow the head to look up high enough, and an extra joint inside the torso to allow for a deep bend backwards.

Like pretty much everything in the HGTO line - this thing builds like a dream. Nice, soft plastic that doesn't mark easily. Good, tasteful surface details. Great color separation. Some neat molded details on the inner-frame that you'll never see once it's built.

One of the things I'm really liking with this kit is that we get two full backpacks. There's no awkward part-swapping of anything. No prying things apart and re-assembling. I can just swap the backpacks with no fuss.

In addition to the two backpacks we get a beam-rifle and a few hand options - two open hands, two closed fists, and one rifle-holding hand. I'm a little annoyed that we don't have ambidextrous options for the beam-rifle... But that seems to be pretty typical with HGTO kits.

First we've got the traditional, iconic cannons. And they look fantastic! They're mounted to the backpack instead of the shoulders, which looks a little better. And there's a great little moving piston gimmick. It's the Guncannon we all know and love with a bit of an update.

Then we've got the spray missile launcher. This is a new addition from Cucuruz Doan's Island, and it looks great. There's some nice little molded details up there that really pop with a bit of panel-liner.

Building this thing really makes me wish I'd grabbed more of the HGTO kits when they were readily-available.

I picked up a few... I've still got a couple in my stash waiting to be built... But I didn't realize, at the time, that they'd go out of print and become hard to find. The main/hero kits like the RX-78-02 and Char's Zaku II are typically still available... But things like the Guncannon variations are basically impossible to find these days.

[ephemeral-builds]

One of the nice things about these HGIBO reprints is that they're so cheap - at least in comparison to modern High Grade kits. So I stocked-up when I had the chance. Which means that this week I'm building the Gundam Gusion Rebake.

While it's great that these HGIBO kits are cheaper than modern High Grades... They're really beginning to show their age. This kit, specifically, has pretty terrible color separation and accuracy. There's a lot of stickers - but even with all of those it's still missing some colors.

This head, for example, is almost entirely made of stickers. It's not just the usual foil sticker for the eyes... There's a big sticker for the eye section, another for the mouth section, another for the cameras, a couple more for the white ear-like things, and a couple more on the cheeks. That's a lot of stickers for such a small area.

I do appreciate that we get two full heads though - instead of having to do some weird parts-swap thing.

The build is about what I expect from an HGIBO kit. Especially one built on a Gundam frame. There's a couple bits in the chest and in the arms that I glued to make sure nothing would loosen-up over time. The actual joints, however, were plenty tight.

In fact - some of the joints were too tight.

A peg got stuck in the shield and broke off when I tried to remove it. I had to drill out the stuck peg to remove it and then craft a new peg with some leftover runner.

I'm not used to having issues with the fit on Bandai kits, but I had to sand-down all three pegs on this shield piece.

It's pretty light on accessories. You've got the two heads, a long rifle, and the shield. No alternate hands. No melee weapons.

Posing this kit is a little weird. Joints don't bend where I think they should and the whole thing is pretty back-heavy. It's hard to find good-looking, dynamic poses. The feet, especially, just didn't want to cooperate.

I think it's fun how the shield attaches around back as a giant back-skirt. I just wish that attachment mechanism worked better...

I've commented before about how building these models gives me a better sense of how these designs behave as physical objects. Their scale and proportions. How things move. Where different weapons or gimmicks are stored.

In this case - I was surprised by the extra arms in the backpack. I recall seeing some action scenes where this guy had a lot of arms going on... But I guess I never understood that they were stored in those backpack sections. It's very cool to actually see how that works.

I do find myself wishing for another weapon though... Maybe another gun. Maybe a couple axes. Something else to put in one of those many hands.

[ephemeral-builds]

Grabbed a quick picture of my Provedel up on the shelf behind my RG Gundam MkII so you can see the size difference. That Provedel is just huge.