Jestas 2 - Main Assembly Complete

All done and it was a lot of fun.  Prepping the parts wasn't so enjoyable but it has to be done.  Nubs all over my clothes.  On the desk.  In the box.  On the table.  On the carpet.  Sanding.  Blah.  Messy.

But it was a nice opportunity to enjoy listening to music, talking to friends or family, watching stuff on TV.  Sometimes I wonder if it's not the Gundam's so much as being able to do the other things at the same time.

No way.  It's the Gundam's!  But it really is such a relaxing hobby sometimes...  I've learned a lot of stuff while building Gundam's and goodness knows it helps with women because they can just keep talking and I can actually pay attention to what they're saying because I'm doing something else at the same time.  Weird how that works.  Can't give a woman your full attention.  That's just ridiculous! (jk to all my female readers.)

Anyways, onward!  To the pics!

After the cleaning I brought out all the parts and organized them by section.  Guess work but when you've built as many Gundam's as I have this part is actually pretty easy.

Very fun!  Trying to think of names and which one is going to be #1 and which one is going to be #2.  Hard to decide since they were both made at exactly the same time and parts from either box have been intermixed.

Oh yeah!  Alternate configuration.  Ngee and I don't have anything in common there.  I NEVER want to do it the standard way like it is on the box.  I'm going to switch it up if I can.  I need to do it my way.

U.C. 0096 Big Boss.  I have 6 suits from that era now and they are all GREAT.

Tag Team Champions

Sinanju vs. Jestas x2.  Who wins?

Yes!

 Totally worth it!!!

4 Years

Yep it's been that long already.  I won't make some long winded post this time...  Anyone whose been reading this blog already knows most of the story but here's a quick recap of the past year of Plamo Addiction.  Sorry no links.  It's all there on the sidebar if you want to know the details.

Jan - My last of month of 8 years in Japan.  It was a hard and busy time but an amazing one.  Packing up my kits and posters preparing them for the voyage across the Pacific to meet relatives they've never seen before.  It was also the last time I met fellow Gunplars ASM and Gaigun and had a great time in Osaka enjoying many beverages, food, discussions and all things Gundam.  I'd bought the PGSF the month before and continued work on that up until it was time to leave.  I bought my last few kits (MG Mk.II ver.2, GN Sword IV Full Saber Kit, HGUC ZGok Experiment, HG Nobel, 1/144 Nataku, ANA OO a gift from ASM and Graham's Union Flag, a gift from Gaigun) got rid of as much unnecessary plastic as I could and finally left the Land of the Rising Sun, a place which I'd called home for yearly a decade!  さようなら and 本当にありがとうございました!  Looking back on it getting that many kits in a month, considering what I paid was truly luxurious.  I had no idea how much my life would change in that department.

Feb - I bought the new HGUC GM Custom at Narita on my way back.  The last Gundam that I'd buy with my own hands and money.  The end of an era.  I did one of my first reviews if not my first actual proper one.  I had time and space now living back at home.  A lot of time and space but how to use them?  My Gundam's ended up being absorbed into my mom's doll collection while I sorted it all out.  I didn't do much Gunpla but I kept following the news and did a couple back posts on the PGSF and some other smaller kits, HGUC Sinanju, RG RX-78-2, ANA 00 and RX-78-2 Gundam while also talking about new/upcoming releases, MG Epyon, Shenlong and HGUC Dreissen which was a lovely surprise for me.

March - Decided to follow through on the polling results and picked the MG Exia as one of the next kits that I'd work on.

And you know what... I'm just going to stop there.  Too much really happened to recap.  This post will read like a boring novel if I keep going.  And I don't want to bore myself.  Because if I do that I'll stop and nothing will happen.  (See fall posts for 2011)

Which brings me to something I want to talk about now for this 4th year anniversary post.  Unfinished business and finishing it.

I'm going to try and do that.  Progress has been slow.  A lot has happened.  And not just to me.  A lot of my fellow bloggers have slowed down or all but disappeared.  Things have changed.  People have moved on with their lives.  Children.  School.  Work.  Moving.  Natural disasters.  Accidents.  Deaths.  Births.  Life.

All that stuff plus paints, airbrushes, putty, camera settings, lighting, tripods, tools, competitions, plastic.  Our chosen hobby.

Man I've been gone for a while.  Forgot what it was like to write again.  Well let's see if I can't get a feel for this blogging thing again.

No longer a blog about Japanese experiences with this hobby.  Now we do it entirely from North America.  Think I've got a handle on how to do it here now.  It's so nice to have the space to spread the army out finally.  No one has to stay in boxes anymore.  One mech at a time... they have have a place now and I'm happy about that.

But let's start this new year in my blog and in my Gunpla life with a project that I've been looking forward to for some time.

Jestas

Aas is my custom when starting a new build, let us first bring out the honour guard to welcome our new brothers into our midst.  Every project has an overseer and for this it is the HGUC Unicorn Gundam.  It's only right.  The Jesta units were made from Unicorn data to protect and supplement that suit.  I now also have a lovely Phatasy Star maid-bot so she will probably be present during the sanding/cutting/cleaning process.  Thank you Elenor.  Your first job.

Also present are Hazel and GM Quel as brother units and also as predecessors to the Jesta design and scheme.  We always give respect to those that came before us here.

So here we are.  Enter: Year 4.

Jesta parts are kept in the black Crown Royal bag.

Been a while...

Well there's a lot to say but let's just start with this.

All Christmas gifts.  This is what's coming.  No I haven't given up making models but now that I've finished Skyrim maybe you'll be seeing me blogging a bit more.  I'm already starting the process of getting back into it.  If you're still around and reading this... thanks for your support.  Things certainly got a bit crazy in September.  The same day the Gauntlet finished I got a new job and couple that with exhaustion from that project and some awesome games (Uncharted 1,2 and 3, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Modern Warfare 3, Skyrim and I tossed Heavenly Sword in there just to check it out, quite good actually)... took me away from modelling until Gaigun's GMII came in the mail and that kind of stoked the plastic fire under me to get back into things. 

Time's up I guess.

Oh I also can't forget the new paints I got as well (also a Christmas gift)!  A new hobby shop opened up down the street from me (providence?!) and they sell all my old paints I used in Japan plus some other stuff that I couldn't get there.

So some new stuff to look forward to in 2012.  There's also a lot going on my fb page so if you haven't checked it out yet get on it and you can start to fill in the blanks.  While I've been away from blogging I haven't been away from Gundam and fb was just so fast and easy so that's what I gravitated toward.  Check the link on the sidebar.

Anyway... more to come!  Hope you'll continue with me on this journey. 

Merry Christmas and Happy New year to you all!

RGM-96X Jesta

If there's a day that I regret not living in Japan anymore it's today.

I must have it. I MUST have it!

HGUC Jesta

Oh yes. Finally. Must have. Hell I might even get two or three of them!

RGM-96X Jesta

jesta-6
Originally uploaded by Busterbeam

More U.C.0096 goodness. A pic from last months Hobby Japan that I meant to put up but didn't get around to until now. Love this suit! If you missed my previous post on the Jesta, check it out here.

RGM-96X Jesta

rgm96x
Originally uploaded by Busterbeam

Alright, I'm going to start with the best as far as I'm concerned. This months Hobby Japan has got a large feature of scratch built 0096 suits and they look good! The Sinanju featured in my U.C.0096 gallery is actually not the MG that a lot of us are building now but actually a scratch built one made months and months ago. If you compare the two side by side (they did this in the magazine) the differences are very slight so I suspect that if future U.C.0096 suits are released they'll look very similar to these scratch built ones.

The one that I was taken the most with was this Jesta. Reminiscent of the RGM-79SP GM Sniper II or the RGM-79SC GM Sniper Custom. Take your pic. Except this is not a Sniper unit. On the contrary it’s a regular infantry suit.

Although it was made 10 years after Gundam Mark II (stats in italics) let’s do a comparison of the numbers.

Propulsion: 81200kg vs. 89030kg
Sensor range: 11300m vs. 14200m
Generator: 1930kw vs. 2710kw
Base Weight: 33.4t vs. 24.8t

I know. 10 years but still... When I look at this suit I don’t see a GM. The GM Custom from 0083 was actually comparable in power to Amuro's RX-78-2 just to keep things in perspective. This machine would smoke a Mark II easily in every category.

The thing I like about this suit is that it’s not special. It’s standard for its time. Maybe above average and it’s not overly armed. Grenades, Beam sabers, Beam rifle. But where’s the shield? That’s the only thing I’m concerned about. I'd like it to have a shield. Even the one the GM custom, Quel or Hazel used would be fine. This suit reminds me a lot of those one. It harks back to a time when grunt suits where GOOD and not cannon fodder like what the GM's and Zaku's eventually became. I guess that's just time though. All machines become obsolete eventually.

I also like the fact that this suit isn’t flashy. It's functional and has now become a personal favorite of mine.