Icarus's blog: "Hurts to watch."

1/550 Neue Ziel. (High Grade... blechk)
1/100 C-Class Gundam Zeta. MG and BAD ASS, man that gun is HUGE like six inches on a five inch figure.
1/100 Version 2 G3 RX 782 with the awesome blue on white finish and full arsenal... and corefighter (think "escape pod" that turns into a modular cockpit/fighter jet, there were times a jet was the better option than a mobile suit... rare occasions)
1/100 MG Gouf Version 2.

I throw around "MG" and "Version 2" a bit.

Lemme take...
4 minutes of your time explaining those terms, then I'm just gonna ignore you and open my brain box.

Version 2: An existing Bandai kit that was blowfully unarticulated or lacking in full detailing and brought back as a re-release with more emphasis on movement and stability
for example the difference between the gouf and gouf 2 and the zaku II and zaku II 2
night and day

the pipes fit better, the sockets and joints swivel and pivot on previously unimagened new hinges, they stand more solid, the move more dynamic
and some parts and seams overlap or have additional hinges for extra mobility

for example my Zaku II v 2 and my Gouf V2 can all stand on their tip-toes rather than having a single flat foot plate, they have EVERY finger articulated as opposed to just a static molded curved 3 fingers, a seperate trigger finger, and a fixed thumb.

People used to have to buy post-factory parts for full hand articulation or shop their own hips joints and shit

Bandai saw this and decided to give the consumer what they wanted in the box on some of their more popular and essential models

customization and rearticulation is still there, but
its nice that we have to do less work.

MG
stands for "Master Grade" this is a series of 1/100 scale models that have an added level of detail and articulation.
All the joints rest on rubber instead of plastic on plastic, and they typically have a full and working endo-skeleton that have a lot of gears and pistons and mechanical schtuff. You basically build the skeleton and affix armor plates over it.

"High Grade" can be 1/100 but typically is 1/144 and usually just slaps all visible parts together with no mention or consideration of the internal look of the model.
You don't build a full chasis or rig for your jets and verniers, you don't have to assemble four different colored plates and an individual cockpit, it already comes pre-molded the way it needs to be- put it together and pretend like no one ever said "I wonder what the inside of that arm looks like"

My Gouf Version 2 was a special re-release for the 30th anniversary that even had clear armor parts to show off the MG's underworks. I'm undecided as to whether I'm going to use them or not... but it did come with these gnarly clear shoulder spikes :3

It's kinda cool if you have a diorama planned that shows an open hatch and mech-guts, or if you like showing battle damage and dangly bits.

That and its just damned cool.

I'm really stoked about these models.
And yes, I now own the V.1 1/100 MG Gouf, V.2 1/100 MG Gouf, and the 1/144 HG.
... and the MG Version 1 1/100 Gouf custom.

I'm really only missing some Gouf Flight types.
... or maybe a conversion kit for M'Quve's custom, which I've only seen line art, and ONE model.

People really don't -do- the Gouf. And if they do, they make it a Ramba Ral custom (dark blue on... an already dark blue kit), or they're just happy with the Norris Packard custom, light blue, and a bad ass gatling gun shield and a more realistic adaptation of armaments.

Don't get me wrong.

Norris and Ramba get me wet.

I used the MS 07B3 for about 20 missions after it had long since gone outdated.
You can't argue with a stun chord, huge sword, and three machine guns.
Well... you can but its not smart.

Then I switched to the Gelgoog and the Kampfer... and the rest was sweeping military success... not on the level I had when piloting a fully upgraded RX 78 of course.
But then we're back to the two dilemmas of making a Gelgoog cool, and customizing my already wonderful Kampfer.

Well... I finished the Ramba Ral Custom Zaku I

and I did it

FAST. Like... 2-4 hours.

I said it came with option parts option parts option parts.
And I even tried a few of em on.

I have what appears to be a Zaku I stomach plate (dark blue) chest plate (black) and cod piece (dark blue)
I had the ones designed for Ramba Ral as well, which were mostly all just one piece
and the main difference was just that the line work (the grooves cut into the surface)
were different
and the ramba ral exclusive chest plate had HUGE rivets and some extra surface
I liked the seperate parts but
but but but

the kit only came with light blue chasis panels, and light blue hip panels

it looked interesting
but not good
to have this solid line of dark blue doing from head to crotch and surrounded on all sides by this light blue-jay belly blue

So everything got switched a few times around, and I eventually decided on the homogonized and pre-designed look with this creamy light-light blue on most of the torso and hips

I also had the option of changing the elbows from blue to black (not a bad look) and the knees from black to blue
leaving the head's command spire off
or only adding one dome cover to one shoulder rather than going for the symetrical look and a more classic lopsided Zaku look. Again, I went OOB. I always liked the idea of symetrical zaku shoulders anyway.

I still dunno what all these grates and loops and links are for.

Also, the kit came with a custom axe, the means to construct a bazooka, and 2 machine guns.

I went with the outdated predecessor of the 120 MM machine gun. the way I figured it was anyone stuck piloting a Zaku I for any reason, would probably have that craptastic older machine gun. I'm probably going to wind up giving my bazooka from this kit to my zaku II, giving my Zaku II's giant Baz to my Gelgoog, and give my 120 MM machine gun to one of my Goufs.

Now... I'm... thinking about a custom heavy machine gun.
That involves finding a supply of scrap plastic, molding, glueing, drilling and sanding.

but let's finish the neue ziel paint job first :B

back to the kit

mismatching finger colors... yechk
and what appear to be leg hoses and face hoses with no rings to put around them.

The thought occured to me to drill a few holes, slide some braided hoses over the wires, or a spring over em or .... some loops cut from a plastic tube and making a zaku one and a half.

Not quite a Zaku 1
not quite a Zaku 2

Hell, I might be missing a few holes, but I already have a couple extra that the hoses normally lead out of, they even gave me parts to plug em.

So for once I got
extra
guns.

and extra... everything.

Pretty sweet. Still miffed about the HALF of a shield I got. No harness, no grip, and not enough there to assemble.
I dunno how to address that either...
buy a kit that only has the top half of a shield?
Putty over it and just shave/file the bits that arent' there?
glue my own grip to it?

but that's enough about that kit.
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I've come up with a couple ideas though.
I still need to get my hands on a Gouf line art and play with the black/purple exchange if I'm going to do Dom/Black tri-star colors on a gouf.
Still need to pick up a smidge of red
but I think I'll go ahead and decide on the "black tetra stars" theme for the gouf

The Black Tri stars were Mash Ortega and Gaia. They used coordinated high speed attacks in suped up high speed zaku I's and Zaku II's.
So, unit cohesion and bad assery
and custom paint jobs.

They even captured a general once
man I tell ya, the shit that happened BEFORE Mobile Suit gundam is pretty epic, and its all up in your imagination with lil hints like that.

Anyhow, there's a way to join the black tri-stars in Dynasty Warriors 2. I haven't done it because... those guys fucking HATE me. But the joke is when you join they change name from tri-stars (mitsubishi) to tetra stars.
So I figured I'd add one diamond to the mitsubishi logo (black of course) on the gouf's shield
I think I can do it with a stencil.

Haven't, and probably won't for a while, committed to the color alternation, but I think the emblem's in the bag.
I do need to find some tiny loops... like keychain loops or something that I can tweeze apart and squeeze back together.
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for my custom Kampfer I either want to change the yellow verniers and grates to
real grates/mesh
and probably gray verniers with red tips.
I'm pretty set on the dark grey paint job I used
and I really wanna put spikes on both sets of shoulders. I may break down and buy metal spikes from Mechaskunk and just drill and glue.

I was also thinking there are so many rivet and screws cut into the surface of the kit that I might just want to drill them out and lay down a metal mesh underneath.
It might look cool.

I still want that gouf shield...
I still wanna rework the holster points.

Also, maybe some way to affix the chain mine (still haven't built that thing) to look kinda like a Japanese celestial robe.

just a thought. But I probably won't incorporate that thing at all.

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I still have no idea what to do with this damned Gelgoog.
... ... ... The vader thing, but doing a denan zon or however it's spelled would be

sooooo much easier.

I know my Gouf 2 and RX 78 G3 are going to be OOB. I know at some point I'll repaint the 1/550 neue ziel.

But what of the Zeta?

White unicorn colors? ... y'know they already released that kit.

Decisions decisions.

... I think I will repaint my Ramba Ral custom... and I probably won't do anything original because I owe an ode to the Blue Giant.

I had an idea for a yellow pinstriping on black Zaku I though. It really felt like all the lines were there for it on the RR custom.

Its good to have dilemas.
Seriously get me some fucking lineart for this damn gouf!