Heh heh, I'm just the opposite.  I like to play with my models!  Well, I like to repose them.  I don't really fly them around the room and make "pew-pew" noises.  Honest.

Besides, in Gundam shows the beam weapons don't go "pew-pew".  They make more of a "bee-yoo bee-yoo" sound.  

I haven't been able to work on anything this past week due to all kinds of stuff going on at the office and home.  My sister is staying at the house with her visiting friend, so I'm in the living room away from my work table.  But they all go home at the end of the week, and the boys are coming over this weekend for our monthly model build.

I don't value being able to repose a model. I would rather have a fixed position for a diorama or a display piece. If I've invested so much time into a piece I can't see why I would want to repose it and play with it. It's become a display object not a play object.

Hows the Dom's little bro coming along?

You would lose the ability to pose the model if the polycaps were replaced with rigid resin.

Bandai’s attempt to solve the issue was using ABS, but the material was susceptible to splitting when exposed to solvent paints.  Although I have to really wonder, as I have had that problem with their styrene parts, never the ABS ones.

I've wondered how viable it would be to make casts of the polycap sprue and then recast them in a resin material. I'm surprized no one makes plastic polycap replacements. Most the parts are universal and you could get away with a few of the weirder shape ones hidden away.

It seems Bandai has cooled off doing their EX series of 1/1700 ships.  Too bad, as I wanted the Graf Zeppelin and Grey Phantom from 0080, and the Leoloola from Char’s Counterattack.

I’ve not found any paint that can stick to polyethylene, so I just pray they don’t show in the finished model.

The commercial vinyl toys get painted with some toxic concoction that is not available to the general public, and the paint is hard to remove.

When you need to strip chrome, Easy Lift Off (ELO) works best.  Purple Power works too, to dissolve the clear coat under the chrome.  Oven cleaners and bleach only strip the chrome, leaving the gooey clear undercoat intact.

Things are busy at the Krab Kave (my place), so no model action till later on this week.

I've been considering building some Gundam ships. I built a chrome plated aghama but never took it past snap fitting. Couldn't strip the chrome and I wasn't going to chase it too hard. I did pick up Mwu's mobile armour from SEED to do in the near future, was one of those rainy day kits I wanted for a long time and finally saw a good deal on. Can't decide if I want to do it solo or recreate the opening scene from SEED where a Ginn is shot down by it.

Most 1/400 stuff is candy toys isn't it? I don't mind working with vinyl as long as the paint isn't caked on and I can clear up the mold lines. For years I've been looking for a suitable way to strip chinese paint and glues from these sort of things. A lot of board games come pre-glued and I want to take them apart to clean the figures up nicely. I have a decent size 1/400 collection rattling around some where to work with but they're hard to source outside of Japan. I usually keep my eye on ebay for thrift shops in Japan selling them in bulk. There's probably a better way to get them but they're old and pretty niche now.

Speaking of Vinyl painting. How do you handle polycaps which repel paint?

The 1/400 series was more for the toy market, though they strangely made a number of assembly kits like the Big Zam.  The level of detail was really quite good, so it's sad they didn't make it a regular all plastic kit.  I wanted the Alpha Aziel, but again, high pre-painted vinyl content discouraged me.  I did get the Musai cruiser, which was an all-ABS plastic kit but included vinyl Zakus.

It still sits in the closet, waiting for paint.  Good God, I've had it for 8 years like that!  But if Bandai dusted this series off and did a Feddie Salamis Class cruiser, I'd bite so long as vinyl material stays only with the GMs.

I built the original Bearguy which is mostly the Acguy. Absolutely loved the kit. I hope we get Thunderbolt Acguys since those little suits were cool as hell.

The 1/400 Gundam stuff is neat. I've considered doing a large scale diorama with them but I don't have anything in mind yet. They would be more like my usual miniatures than my model kits.

Cool beans Gamera!  Isn’t it incredible how the Japanese are rebooting old shows and updating them?  And more so that model manufacturers are doing modern kits of them!

Thanks Robotism!  Actually I want to dial up the weathering on new builds.  I have a MG RX-79G Gundam from “The 08th MS Team”, and since the action takes place in what looked like SE Asian jungle, I want to reflect that on the model.  Lots of mud around the feet, scratches from contact with the jungle, and faded upper surfaces from sunlight.

Bsyamato did a great job hosted a One Year War GB, but another Gundam GB would be welcome.  A pre-HGUC/MG build would be fun - the apperance of the later generations of Gundam kits made me all flabby and lazy.

A friend and I once rejointed a Zaku with polycaps in one evening.  He wanted to learn how, so I did one side and he did the other.  We added a fore/aft swing to the hip joint, which had the unexpected benefit of allowing the legs to bend more forward.  The ankles had ”L” joints for expanded movement.  That was one poseable Zaku!

While I have most of the small MA kits, the Grablo is the only one I finished.  I bought another one to try to see how far I could take it.  I thought the Zakrello from the book “MS Era” was pretty cool.  I think out of all the original MA kits, I like the Vigro best, another crabby design.  I did build the newer 1/400 Big Zam, but didn’t paint it since a lot of parts were made of vinyl.

Haro Zakrello?  OMG.  I stay away from the Haropla and Bear Guy stuff!  I did build the Acguy, which the Bear Guy is based on.  That was an amazing HGUC kit.

Ya know I don't have any Gundam kits but this is a mech so it sorta counts right? Right???

I'm putting the black primer coat on right now for the Alclad II metal coat. Hopefully I'll finish him by the end of the year.

After all the glue we sniff none of us do...

I really like your style. It's dusty but not really, hard to explain it but I appreciate it. Nice to see someone who isn't doing the harsh pre shading which make everything look out of scale (and is usually poorly done if we're honest).

That original 1:100 Zaku is awesome. Would be fun to do an old kit group build at some point. Something pre-HGUC era where not everything fit so smoothly and you have to put some real effort into parts alignment. The Zanscare suits from victory are prime candidates in my book. Such nice designs but so damn old.

Did you do any other Mobile armours or just that one? Did you see the new Haro Zakrello? Holding out hope for a HGUC one... I waited decades for the Barzam so now I need another miracle release.

Not sure I have the grey matter to lose though! 

Greysnake, right on with the Leo - long live the mass production grunt suits!  

Gamera, you NEED more holes in the head, to see all the stuff that’s out there.  They also keep your mind from being blown.  Just a little grey matter is lost, that’s all.  

That's cool Greysnake! 

I'd love to try one but I need to add a new genre to the stash like I need another hole in the head...

Oh those are awesome G! Love the dirt on the feet!

Here is my first Gundam kit, the 1/550 Mobile Armor Grablo, basically a Zeon submarine with arms!

I thought it looked like a robot monster from the Super Robot TV show "Raideen".

My second Gundam kit was the old 1/100 Zaku II, which kind of cemented my affection for the Zeon grunt Mobile Suit.

Many years later, I built the 1/144 HGUC Zaku II and Gouf, as well as the 1/100 Zaku I Ramba Ral Custom.

The Zaku I was my second Master Grade kit.  I tried out the Max Watanabe pre-shading (black basing) technique on this guy after it became all the rage in the model mags.

I also build the occasional "good guys", i.e. Earth Federation, but I like the Zeon machines a lot better.  I think the Feddie suits just look kind of boring, although I find the designs by Yutaka Izubuchi, Hajime Katoki and Kazuhisa Kondoh to be pretty good.  I built the 1/100 GM Kai Custom from "Gundam 0083: Stardust Memories", which was my first Master Grade kit.

It has been a little hectic over here, so I haven't been able to get to the bench.  But I'll definitely make an effort this weekend!

BTW, everyone please feel free to post your Gundam stuff here too - the more the merrier!

Very impressive sir!

Your friend, Toshi

Oh wow neat stories guys! 

I've ordered from Hobby Search once or twice but normally go though HobbyLink Japan. Love the fact that though I consider myself a pretty big SF geek I don't know what about 70% of the stuff both carry is! 

They do online orders internationally.

I wonder why they can release some of the kits like the Hazel and Gaplant then. Sentinel's copyright issue is just the characters. That's why S Gundams in games with a blank pilot.

I like the Titans prototype stuff from them and the kitbashes like the Hi-Zack 2. When you start adding the 12 add on parts, psycho Gundam arms and everything else I tend to just zone out. But damn if that Barzam 2 isn't a sexy beasty.

Ah you have Mandarake where you are?  I have visited the ones in Osaka (Umeda) and Tokyo (Shibuya).  I remember the first time I went, there was a teenybopper song playing, which turned out to be a kid singing on their karaoke stage. But it was a guy.

I have been informed by those that know that the reason AoZ kits are P-Bandai is down to copyright.  Dengeki Hobby holds controlling rights, so even the mighty Bandai‘s grip on the Gundam gold mine is not absolute.  Going P-Bandai might circumvent the legal language that allows Bandai to sell AoZ stuff.  Maybe that’s the reason the Sentinel Zeta Plus was P-Bandai.  Model Graphix and/or Hajime Katoki may have some rights to the Sentinel property.  That may not hold water though, since Bandai has kitted Sentinel stuff before.

While I find AoZ designs interesting, my brain has difficulty telling me what I’m looking at.  They are so intricate and unconventionally laid out that often times I cannot even tell where the head is.

Pretty good story time. Here Argos a high street store stocked Wing kits when it aired and there was a local comic shop that got random kits in.

 Manadarake is good for "Second hand" kits (someone sneezed on the box so it's damaged) and I find P bandai stuff pops up there once in a while. I've not bought P bandai from them yet but what I have bought arrived fine. Had an issue with Hobby Search who are my standard where a kit took several months to arrive via SAL. Just lost in the aether and then one day it suddenly turns up. For some reason it had come to Europe, gone to japan again then came back to Europe. I was never told why or how. I've ordered from them before and after and had the usual 2 week wait and no issues

The AoZ stuff being P Bandai is ridiclous. Especially since it's got so many variants and add ons. Even the promo material was recommending you buy like 5 kits just to make one MS. It was just lazy more than greedy.

Oh geez, you got the old man so excited that he forgot to answer your question.

I got my P-Bandai kits from several sources:  online from GGInfinite and Gentei Kits, and from local anime stores and a friend with “connections”.  GGI is defunct, and people complained about them, but I always got what I paid for.

Gentei has delivered the two times I bought from them, but they get poor marks for zero responses to customer inquiries.  They had indicated that the Dwadge was sent via SAL Small Pack, but it actually went surface mail.  After 8 weeks of waiting, I got antsy and sent them an email and got no response.  I sent another email a week later, telling them if it didn’t ship to cancel my order and refund my money.  Again no response.  And the very next day a crushed box showed up at my door.

I couldn’t decide whether to be happy or angry.  I eventually chose happy.  If they had at least responded by saying “Hey stupid, the box is huge!  We not gonna air freight that!”, at least I would have expected a 2 month wait.

I don’t like asking my friend to get me kits, as I think it’s costing him a lot and he doesn't let me pay him.

Regardless of the source, pre-ordering is the key.  Miss the window and you are out of luck.  Guys like Gentei post info on upcoming kits well in advance.

My main concern is that Bandai’s premium online program is going out of control.  Stuff that really should be normal retail kits are becoming P-Bandai, like the HGUC Sentinel Zeta Plus C Type.  So you can buy the Unicorn A Type at the store, but you can’t get the version that started it all.  And if you missed the P-Bandai C Type, so solly.  So annoying.

I encountered Gundam via model kits, and quite by accident.  A friend pointed to a small stack of the ¥300 kits and said “ Me and my brother bought those.  They were kind of fun - we put them together in an afternoon and then smashed them against each other to see which was stronger!”

We all laughed, but then I took another look at them and was intrigued.  I bought one (the Grablo) to try out, but was super embarassed to be buying a Japanese robot model.  When I got home, I built it and thought it was really fun.  It was one of the few kits that had a potted history included, so I had my mother read it for me, as I had washed 9 years of Japanese school down the drain as soon as I got out.

So there I was in 1983 wondering what a Gundam was.  “That little robot in clown colors on the box art must be it” I thought.  And thus the hunt was on to find out more information for a property that became a good part of my hobby life!

Back in the day, it was all pre-internet, so gathering information was difficult and slow.  We had to look for things with paper catalogs, using our bare hands.  And we had to walk to the model store.  Uphill.  Both ways!

But there was this little hole in the wall place called Japan Video, which rented taped TV shows and pirated movies.  Me and my friends got our first glimpse of Gundam (the 3 reworked theatrical movies based on the TV show) from that place.  We were super lucky to get onto the forming tidal wave of the new “real robot” OVAs in the mid to late 1980s.

Another friend gave me a catalog book titled “Hero Robot”, which had photos of model kits of Gundam MSVs, Macross and more.  They had toys too, including the ones that would become Optimus Prime and Megatron!  This became my holy book in understanding what was out there.

So yeah, me and my friends were ealry adopters.  We watched the shows by buying laser discs(!!!) from Japan.  None of us understood a thing, but the 9 years of J-school started to creep back.  I still can’t read the Asahi Shinbun, but I am able to read instruction sheets and model mags.

Okay so much for the old man’s story.  Time to get building.

Now I'm impressed. I'm usually the old dog around Gundam these days. I started with Wing and immediately got into the other AUs and early UC. I fell for 80's mecha in general and I'm much closer to your camp than I am the generation we're on now. It's more out of habit I follow the modern stuff than passion. Build fighters did a pretty good job of giving some love to older stuff and passsion project scenes are all over the place. G saviour even got a bit of animation which I recall shocking everyone at the time. I have a soft spot for toy robot battling so I was fine with that. The Bearguy III stuff makes no sense to me, the petite Bearguy even less but then if you look at the state of anime sales in Japan it probably makes sense. Slice of life and the leg beard market is the dominant thing, apparently they're spending more money than the Akihabara crowd is now so they trying to muscle in on that a bit. Not that SEED didn't already do that effectively until it got train wrecked by internal politics. The UNDERSTANDING stuff in modern Gundam is beyond irritating though, even Newtypes couldn't understand each other and now some kid can wound a hundred people and the war just stops because of it. I really enjoyed Narrative, it felt like an interesting take on Newtypes and included a lot of behind the scenes grey area politicing which early UC did so well. It was like a 90 minute return to the earlier era of Gundam.

Gamera, like Star trek has it's generations so does Gundam. There was the original timeline (which they now make yearly movies in for older fans), then in the 90s they started doing alternative universes where each series is stand alone. Real G is an original series only kind of guy, where as I'm a TNG guy. We've both had to suffer through the enterprise community and now we're on the Discovery community where we glare at them scornfully and ask why they're doing burn outs on our lawn as we carefully build toy robot models. They just announced Super Robot Taisen X/V are getting PC releases on Steam, which I would consider to be a watershed moment. It's going to bring in a lot of the later generations into the older generation's hidey holes. Imagine a Star Wars EU fan having to deal with people who only watched the Disney Star wars movies and you get an idea of what it's like.

Adam Drivers face was your problem with that movie? I can see why but I thought Kylo was the only character with a personality. But I'm more of a prequels fan because I like Star wars as an universe to make games in and the design work as modeling inspiration. I'm wanting to fast forward through the talkie bits and see the cool space ships... Now kids don't even know what fast forwarding is..

FAZZ being over cooked is the best part. It seemed like the AEUG side of things were making logical steps in MS progression. Instead of relying on 1 super newtype to do all the work in Judau they made defense lines of high mega cannons and had fast MS to intercept attempts to break it up.

How did you source the P Bandai kit? They're usually pretty uncommon in the English speaking community.

Gamera,

Yep.  You have the old guys and new guys in Gundam too.  It’s been 40 years.

I started liking Sisko’s character when he punched Q in the face.  I started enjoying DS9 more from that point on.

Wow, didn't know there was a generation gap here. I keep hearing about this new Trek Picard show and well I'm like 'Kirk is THE MAN, don't care about no Picard...' *

*Though I do love Sisko!!!