Just Talking - Early July 2011

Well... might as well give you a summary.  For those who like to read here's your recap.

I am still whittling away at the kits I've got here.  In progress are MG Exia, HGUC GM Command and PG Strike Freedom.

Currently at work on Exia, GM, Strike in that order.

Shenlong was fun.  Titanium Finish was great.  Decals finished on the ANA 00.

Brought a bunch of the army out of their boxes.  Still about half to go so that means... God help me... about 40 kits.

But I'm plugging away.  You all know life gets in the way sometimes.

Still... great stuff is coming out constantly and right now I'm talking about the Gundam Wing kits.

Honestly I'm loving these things.  Not because I'm a fan of the series and not because it was the first Gundam series that I ever saw... speaking as a North American...  but because... the kits are ****ing awesome.

Wing, Shenlong and now... Epyon which to be completely honest... has impressed me a lot.  I love that thing.

So I want to make a couple of special posts today.  Special in my opinion.  One I saw from Gundam Guy.

Blue Epyon.  Lovely.  This is why I love modeling.  Doing stuff like this.

The second is from a modeler that I've had... a kind of infutation with for some time and this time she has really and truely blown me away.  I'm SO glad that they actually interviewed her for this project.  This girl SHOULD be as popular if not more so than Mariemon but... where is her blog?  Anyway just an awesome awesome Shenlong.  I shouldn't be surprised that it comes from her but I am.  I can tell you now... in some cases appearance doesn't matter.  Whoever this woman is I love her.  Damn.  Also from G.G.

Wing and Double Beam Trident!  + Semi Nataku colour scheme!

Double FUNCTIONAL and EXTENDABLE Dragon Fangs?!  *explodes*  Channeling some Virsago here maybe?

PLUS the TAIL?! omg

Seriously, I'm shocked.  This model has made a HUGE impression on me for one and to find that it's from a modeler that I've really liked for a while...

Can you imagine if your gf made Gundams like that?  That's crazy!  All I'm going to say is that I hope she's with a man that can appreciate what she does!  Because if she isn't that's just a straight tragedy.

So I'm going to take this moment now to profess my love in public.

上原さん．あなたの事全く知らないけど...大好きです！

Avalance Astraea Type F / Musha Gundam Astraea Type F

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Originally uploaded by Busterbeam

Forced to buy the August issue of Hobby Japan solely for this pic alone. I couldn't bear the idea of never seeing it again. 1/100 Astraea Type F has already been released and 1/100 Avalanche Exia is coming out in a couple of weeks. After I saw this pic I thought... 'omg... I can't buy either of them now if THIS is going to be released later.'

But it isn't. It's a custom job. Guess by who...

I'm going to become this woman's stalker at this rate.

She did her Astraea Type F just like her regular Astraea. Only very slight colour changes. She just brings out the potential on the kits she works on without adding too much.

The title of this blog post is actually what they called this variation. They didn't intend for it to look like the Musha Gundam but that's how it turned out in the end. Made me think about making one too. It's possible but I'd have to buy two separate kits and order the katana separately. Not worth it so I'll just have to stare at this picture indefinitely.

Anyways, here's a quick rundown of the magazine contents.

First a colour line art page of the OO GUNDAM! Finally! Looks nice!

GN-001/hs-A01 Gundam Avalance Exia 1/100
MSJ-06II-A Tieren Ground Type 1/100
MSJ-06II-C/BT Tieren High Mobility Commander Type (Scratch) 1/144
AEU-09Y812 Al-Saachez's AEU Enact Custom (1/144 AEU-09Y812/A Agrissa-Type conversion)
GNMA-XCVII Alvatore 1/220 Scratch built
SVMS-01AP Union Flag Orbit Package Colony Guard Type (Union Flag conversion)
GN-003 Gundam Kyrios (Grey with heavy modifications)
MG RX-78-2 Ver. 2.0 released on 7/26
MG Zaku Cannon out in Aug
HG GN-X next month
HG Kampfer in Aug.
HG Rick Dom II Light Green Version in Aug.
SD Exia in Aug.
Large spread on MG Shin Musha Gundam which was released recently.
HG Sazabi (3000 yen! More expensive then a lot of MG's. MG Impulse is 3300 yen! I mean... get real! HG Powered GM is 600 yen for chrissakes. That said, it's probably the most detailed and largest HG I've ever seen. They really stepped up the quality on that one.)
Fix FA Gundam Mark 3 and a lot of other stuff.

Realized that my post count for this month was really low. Probably because I missed an issue in between because they were concentrating on the MG Impulse I'm working on now. Still probably should have picked it up anyways. There were some cool shots with different scratch built Wizard Packs. Oh well. Maybe I can still find it somewhere. Better yet I'll get a subscription... If I can figure that out.

Impulse update: Working on the shield and beam rifle now. Frame is done. Core fighter is done. Anti-ship sword is done.

As usual more shots at my flikr.

Miyuki Uehara's 1/100 Astraea

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Originally uploaded by Busterbeam

So... back onto the topic of women and Gundam modelling.

I did some research into who this women is and couldn't find much. Just some of her previous work. And it's really good. Take a look.

RX-78-2 GUNDAM
RX-78-2 GUNDAM ver.ka
MS-06W ZAKU WORKER
RB-79 BALL

She's a professional modeller and works for Hobby Japan. As it turns out I've actually seen a lot of her work before. This months Hobby Japan cover is her MG Impulse. Issue 2's cover was her Unicorn.

After looking at her stuff I realized that I like her style a lot. She doesn't go for flash or glitz. Upgrades and modifications are minimal and alterations to the paint scheme are extremely slight. She goes for clean lines and simplicity. Trying the make the model easily recognizable.

I like her style but I'd prefer a more creative approach. haha that's just me though. I want to see colour schemes I've never seen before!

I got to thinking about what it would take to influence a girl so much that she'd want to take this up as a job. It reminded me of the time a couple of weeks ago when I saw a women driving the subway train for the first time in my life. She had a uniform just like everyone else but it was pink. She was young and pretty. She didn't look like a tomboy to me but I suppose to drive trains you kinda have to be to a certain extent right?

I wanted to tell her how proud of her I was. And that I thought that she was setting a great example for women. I didn't. She looked busy and I wasn't sure I could say it the way I wanted to.

I'm proud of these women that step outside of their conventional gender roles. Penetrating a field dominated by men can't be easy. They must have to deal with so much bull **** sometimes.

Oh well. I'll salute them this way. By spreading one Japanese woman's work to an English speaking audience. Here's your not-so-silent tribute.

Perhaps this is something that I shouldn't even be surprised at... but we can't say that we live in a world where sex and race don't matter at all. I mean just look at what's been happening in American politics this year.

Impulse update: The Core-fighter is now 100% completed. It's SO advanced compared to the RX-78 one. And... I recieved something in the mail from Bandai Japan today. It made me very happy.