GBWC 2015 Singapore

The exhibition ends today but the results are yesterday. This year there are much more decent works compared to last year. Although I did not win anything, I think it is a good experience,trying out new things. I think the main things to focus on is to not make any obvious mistakes and to produce a perfect work. I guess I will try again next year. 

(Update: I did not managed to meet the deadline this year (2016)  as the competition is pushed forward to June making the deadline in May which is too little time for me to complete any decent work.)

Jagd Doga Storm Vanguard Completed

 After more than 2 months after the deadline at August, today is the day for submission of my work to the venue at nex for GBWC Singapore 2015. This year I chose to work on creating a work based on existing design namely the Jagd Doga. I wanted to create a MG version of it using the MG Geara Doga.

This time instead of painting the entire inner frame all gun metal, I mixed star bright silver into the gunmetal paint for a brighter look.

I also used starbright silver for parts like the pistons and the verniers. GX metal bloody red for the thrusters and the inner part of the verniers. Pearl copper for detailing parts near the pistons.

I have to say, the inner frame of gear doga looks impressive, much more detailed than the armour themselves.

Some pictures of the completed work.

Pictures with the whole base in view.

The greenish blue paints are actually the same ones as those used in Tieren Phalanx but mixed with a brighter stone green. The gold parts are star bright gold.
Although, I made some mistakes in the work, I liked the finished look of it. It is the finer details that I will need to improve on.

Hope you like the work. Thanks for dropping by.

Jagd Doga Storm Vanguard WIP

 Content
1. Introduction
2. Building Processes
  2.1 Getting the basic shape
    2.1.1 Head
    2.1.2 Chest Piece
    2.1.3 Left Shoulder Piece
    2.1.4 Shields with funnels and round shield
    2.1.5 Side skirts
  2.2 Detailing
    2.2.1 Pla-plating
    2.2.2 Scribing Panel lines
  2.3 Masking and Painting
  2.4 Panel lining and Decals
  2.5 Base
3. Conclusion



1. Introduction
This project is meant to polish up my basics and to challenge myself to create a model based on an existing design which Bandai have not released yet in 1/100 Scale. I chose Jagd Doga as it is a very unique design. In order to motivate myself to complete the project, I will be entering this work to GBWC Singapore so that I would have a deadline to work with.

2. Building Processes

2.1 Getting the basic shape

For starters, I need to find a base model that resembles Jagd Doga which Bandai had already released so logically it would be Geara Doga. Next I looked into the main differences between them and I found that their main differences are head, chest piece, symmetrical shape, side skirts, legs, backpack, weapon and shields. After some deliberation, I decided to keep Geara Doga's legs and backpack as they look better than Jagd doga's.

 2.1.1 Head
The head is the most obvious difference and also the most difficult to make as it has a very unique shape. I used Geara doga's head as the base and added tamiya eproxy putty (smooth type) as the smooth type takes longer to harden so more time to sculpt the head. When working with eproxy putty, it is best to add a bit of water to it to make it less sticky and also use a glove so that the putty will not be full of fingerprints. Since I make the front part of the head protrude out, I have to shift the connection along with its mono-eye forward. As it is my first time sculpting putty, I end up having to sand it smooth and did not managed to make both sides of the head symmetrical. To make its antennae on its head, I cut out the shape on 0.5mm pla plate and pasted it onto the head. 

 2.1.2 Chest Piece
I had to lengthen the chest piece so I added epoxy putty to it and tried to make the surface even using the flat side of the ruler. I used cling wrap on the upper torso of the kit so that the inner side of the putty will be shaped conforming to the contours of the torso and not stick onto the kit itself. However due to the angle difference between the putty and the plastic, it makes it impossible to sand off the line connecting them so I had to add pla plate over it to cover it.

 2.1.3 Left Shoulder Piece
As you know Geara Doga's left shoulder piece has spikes on it so I had to remove them and fill the holes with putty and sand them down. I had to add a connection point for the shield by using Kotobukiya MSG ball and bearing set.

Section 2.1.1 to 2.1.3

 2.1.4 Shields with funnels and round shield
The two shoulder shields were made by cutting out the shapes from 0.5mm pla-plate and gluing them together. Next I used 0.3mm pla-plate for detailing and added funnels onto it. The round shield is taken from another kit and I added pla- plates along the circumference to form the iconic shape.

 2.1.5 Side skirts
The Jagd Doga being a new type mobile suit needs more thrusters so there are thrusters on the side skirts. I had to saw off the magazine storage rack of the Geara Doga and add pla- plates to form the shape.

Section 2.1.4 to 2.1.5

2.2 Detailing
 2.2.1 Pla-plating
For pla-plating, I used 0.3mm pla-plate for detailing. I find it easier to stick the masking tape onto the place you want to add pla-plate, draw the shape on the tape itself, remove the tape and paste it to the sheet of pla-plate for cutting out the shape.

2.2.2 Scribing Panel lines
For me, this is the hardest portion of the entire building process as you need to come out with the panel lines design and Geara Doga, being a mono-eye suit, has many curved surface which makes it very difficult to scribe panel lines. 

Front View

Back View

2.3 Masking and Painting
Originally, I wanted to paint it using leftover paint from the tieren project but I was inspired by another person's work which uses a lighter tone of color so I decided to mixed the leftover paint with a lighter color to form different tones of lighter color. However, this also result in the need for more masking as a single part would have at least two colors. For the inner frame, I painted it gunmetal mixed with silver.

  2.4 Panel lining and Decals
I attempted various ways of panel lining. For Gundam Marker, it produce a darker line but it is hard to remove if mistakes were made. For Tamiya Accent color, it works well for most part but due to my scribed panel line being shallow, the resulted line is lighter in color and risks being wiped away if I apply more force. For mechanical pencil, it allows any mistakes to be erased easily so a top coat is necessary to seal it in. I used water slide decals but since I did not gloss coat prior to adding decal, there are some silvering on it.

2.5 Base
For the base, I wanted to create a scene in space where Jagd Doga is flying out of a destroyed base. I painted an action base 1 with gun metal and aluminum for the piping. I created some rocks using plaster and saw through some supporting structures to create debris.

Top View of the base

3. Conclusion
Considering that I started at December but went on hiatus from January to April, this project has took me at least 3 months. Hopefully, this is good enough for the competition. I attempted writing this blog post differently with words first before adding the pictures so it could be a bit wordy. There is also a shortage of wip pictures as I only took pictures of it before painting. I will post the pictures of the completed work nearer to the competition deadline. Thanks. 

MG Exia Dark Matter Semi Painted Build

This build is completed by my friend and I. I bought this for him as his birthday present and he wanted to paint it a different shade of red and purple. The build is semi-painted as only the red and purple parts are painted and then the entire kit is matte coated. To save time, it is painted while the parts are still on the runners so there are noticeable gate marks on it. The paints used in this build are wine red, magenta and purple.

360 view:

Some poses:

Overall, it looks great when it is all lined and with all the marking seals added to it.

Thanks for dropping by. =)

MG Geara Doga Review

All my Master Grade (MG) gunpla so far are gundams so this is my first mono eye MG kit that I bought. The geara doga first appeared in Char's Counter-attack and also in Gundam Unicorn but by then it is already mostly replaced by geara zulu as the Neo Zeon main mass-produced mobile suit. From its design, it resembles the zaku 2 but is a bit bulkier and with more thrusters.

It is an out of box build. If some parts looks like it is loosely attached, it is done on purpose so that it is easier for me to disassemble afterwards as I have plans to modify it.

The colours on this kit is great with good colour separation, the orange parts complement the green parts well. The energy piping on this kit is unique as it is made of rubber instead of the normal piping found on a zaku which is made up of many small circular pieces. The piping secure well and look great but at some angles the mold line can be seen.

The backpack's design is interesting as normally there is only thrusters facing downwards but in this case there are thrusters facing all four directions. The design is logical as in space without gravity, the thrusters should not be facing only downwards.

I used a colour filter here so the colour looks different 

It has average articulation but has some cool gimmick such as exposing the inner frame and yellow piping at the knee when you bend it and having a slot at the torso for you to add led to light up the head.

For accessories, it comes with a head part and another beam riffle to make the commander type. It also comes with the beam effect parts and two hands with movable fingers.

I like the design of the beam sabre as it looks much more menacing than the generic beam sabre.

   Although it does not have much panel lines or details on those large armour parts, it does make up for it with the other more prominent features like the piping and thrusters which really adds to the overall look. There is also hardly any seam lines so it is rather well designed. It is definitely a good kit to buy.

Non-scale Evangelion-02 Review

This is a non-scale kit of Evangelion-02 from the movie Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance. This is a birthday present from my dear friend. It's my first non-gundam bandai kit so it is an interesting build for me. I haven't watched the anime so I am not too familiar with the back story of it.  

For this kit you need some cement for the open hands which is something different from a normal gundam kit. This is just a out of box build where I just snap fit it together without panel lines and decals. 

The colour separation of the kit is great, the major colours comes mostly in different parts. However for some small parts, you are given stickers for it. You can also use gundam markers for colouring if you are not too fond of stickers.

Evangelion 02 has a much more humanoid shape as compared to a gundam. The build is interesting especially so on the throat area where the throat moves upwards as you move the head upwards. The white part of the arms is actually made of rubber like material, giving it a more natural look at the elbow. 

What really impressed me is the articulation of the kit. I feel that it is as articulate as a action figure. It is also compatible with an action base 1 which you can use for more types of action poses. 

For this kit, it also comes with the flight pack which in my opinion looks much cooler than the original. For accessories, it comes with the two types of guns as seen on the pictures above and two daggers. It also comes with a wide variety of hands.

For size comparison, it is much taller than your average size MG like the trans-am exia.

Overall, I am pleased with the kit. I would say that it is closer to an HG 1/100 or NG kit in gunpla terms due to the lack of inner frame but it is much more articulate than any gunpla I built. For a humanoid model kit, the proportions are great and it looks cool with the flight pack. 

GBWC Singapore 2014

Last Sunday was the result day for GBWC Singapore 2014. Although I did not win anything, it was a fruitful experience. After collecting my kit after the event ended, there is a chance for us to meet with Master Kawaguchi for a mini consultation session. He expertly pointed out all the flaws of my kit such as the masking was not done properly when painting and since the centre part of the kit is where most people look at first glance, it needs to be done perfectly. Furthermore, when scratch building the shields, I need to ensure that the pla-plates at the sides need to be done properly so that it isn't that obvious that it was scratch-built and only when all the inner parts are done properly then add the design on the shields. He also said the yellow used blends well with the main kit colour and the overall design was quite balanced. When I asked him how to improve on the base itself, he commented that I should think about how the tieren moves and the normal terrain that it normally operates in so maybe add a bit of dirt and mud but he also said that if the focus of the work is on the kit itself then the simple base like that is fine. In the end, I managed to get his autograph.

I totally agree with his comments and one of the lessons learnt is not to start too late. For this event, it was an impromptu decision as I  only decided to enter it after the group build and there was hardly a month before school starts so it was very rushed. Moreover, I made a silly mistake of not mixing the paint properly so the paint turns out darker at the start and gets lighter towards the end making it impossible for me to repaint it without changing the tone of the colour. However, I did had fun coming up with the design and after modifying the tieren, it really makes it an unique piece in my collection.

Thanks for reading.