MSN-06S Sinanju - Work Log 4 - Hands

I made an error in my last post. Unit hands are the hands that HG and 1/100 NG models have. No finger articulation at all. Just a slot for the weapon. Modern MG grade kits generally have hybrid unit 'fingers', meaning that the fingers (middle, ring and pinky) articulate as one unit but can be seperated for individual movement. Older MG's like my G04 have unit fingers that cannot be seperated. I believe that all MG's have thumbs and index fingers that move independently.

I was under the impression that the Sinanju had all of its fingers already seperated. This is true to a point. They are... after the 2nd knuckle. But from the first knuckle there are a unit. Sinanju's fingers have TWO points of articulation! Really... this is getting close to PG grade stuff (which have 3. Like humans)

I've never seen or heard of a MG grade MS that has fingers like this. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

So, if there's one mod that I do consistently (when it's possible) it's the finger mod to get all of them moving independently and this time was no exception. As I was doing this I noticed that I hadn't done this mod yet to my own OYW RX78! To my credit, that was the first model that I even painted. I didn't know much then. Anyways I know more know so I figured while I'm at it... Might as well do both.

Now about the finger modding.

BE CAREFUL! I almost ruined my Sinanju's hands right off the bat by using the wrong tool. I thought it'd be easier if I just used my cutters, but they were too dull and wide and pushed the plastic apart in places that I didn't want it pushed apart. I almost broke the ball joints off of the fingers and that would have be DISASTEROUS. That would have been a really hard mistake to fix. As it stands I just moved the ball joints out of position by about 1mm. But it's enough to change the natural resting angle of the fingers.

Next I tried my mini saw. Better, but it takes away too much plastic. The width of the blade is about 1mm and that's good but... in the modelling mags they use a design knife. And it seems like an easy procedure.

My sawing method takes time and removes a lot of plastic. Generally I use a simple box cutter/exacto knife with a flimsy thin but sharp blade. They rust easily but they are super cheap to replace.

My impression is that the design knife is much sturdier and the blade doesn't break easily, making an operation like this easy.

Using my exacto-knife, I shortened the blade to prevent snapping and used a bit more 'elbow' grease. It worked well. And it worked even better on the OYW 78-2's hands. I used the saw on the Impulse and the MGIJ. I will not be doing that anymore. It works but the knife is better. Cleaner cut, less damage and it's faster.

There's a huge different in height between the Sinanju and the OYW 78-2 but not a huge difference in the size of hands, length of arms or the length of the torso for that matter. Like I said before... it's all about the legs with the Sinanju. That's where all the height comes from! I mean take a look for yourself. It doesn't seem that out of proportion does it?

(Yes, the peace/victory sign is a benchmark test of finger articulation. I put the spidey webshooter/rock on sign in there just for the sake of variety.)

It takes a bit more work than usual for these hands but it's worth it for me. The hands can give a model so much character sometimes I think, so it tends to be a part I'm pretty thorough about. The more articulation the better and this kit does NOT dissapoint. It excels.