The time has come...

I started this guy a long time ago. About 9 months. Early-Mid December 2010 is when I first got him and first did the unboxing ceremony with all my PG's present, saluting what would be their new leader. The most advanced, newest and most majestic Perfect Grade amongst them... The one called "Strike Freedom". That time in my life and now seem like polar opposites. So much can change in less than a year! Complete life upheaval in my case. And these poor guys were taken along for the ride. Caught in the great Tohoku earthquake, beaten and battered by tsunami waves, never mind the regular rigors of international transport across half the planet...

But they survived.  WE survived.  The family is all together again.  So as it began... so shall it end! Honour Guard!!! Salute!!!

Mark II.  My first PG ever.  Bought him in my first year in Japan so he's a Chiba/Tokyo kid through and through.  This guy has had the **** kicked out of him over the years but he's still standing and still looking good!  I've always been so proud of him.

Zeta. Hand was lost to the Great Tohoku Earthquake of this year. But he made it home basically in one piece but a bit broken.  Had to do some repair work to get him to this stage.  Bought him during my 2nd stage in Japan and finished him in my 3rd.  Started in Kasugai, Saitama - finished in Matsusaka, Mie.

Red was in the most amount of pieces but he's almost completely intact minus some minor breakage in the ankle area.  Bought in the place that would become my 2nd home in Japan, Nagoya - Aichi at Bic Camera during the "heyday" of my time in Gunpla.  4th stage of my life in Japan.

Strike.  Almost as good as the day I first bought him.  He's been waiting a long time for "Big Bro" to arrive.  Bought in Matsusaka, Mie and finished there.  He's the country boy or 田舎物 (inakamono) of the group.  He would get an upgrade later when his twin brother Red stepped into the picture.

The Throne.  Made for he that I would acquire during my 5th and final life in Japan or my 2nd life in Nagoya.  Completed during the transitional phase back into Canadian life.

Indeed... The Gauntlet has finally come to it's conclusion...  Time truly does wait for no man.  All of these mechs mirror parts of my lives.  I can see my whole time in Japan by looking at each of them.  8 years worth of experience and memories.  It's not just about building robots for me...  It's about the memories associated with them... so I just want to take this time right now to thank all the participants of this group build for helping me forge new memories in my new/old home.

One day left!  ONWARD!!!

Extreme Gundam Mash Up

+ some others courtesy of Hobby no Toriko!  LOVE this guy!

Feeling ALL of this stuff! SO creative! Can't get enough!!!

Strike Vermillion & Astray Strike Frame

A couple more shots of Strike Vermillion and Astray Strike Frame. Both models are incomplete. I still have a lot of work to do on both of them but for now this project is on hold and I'm moving back to my MG G04.

Tonzo mentioned in the last post that the katana on either side of the mech looks good as seen with the Astray Orange Frame and I'm starting to think that he's right on two points. One; in response to what I said about being a traditionalist and having two blades on one side of the warrior... He said that's true in the case of a Katana and Wakizashi but not necessarily a Katana and ANOTHER Katana. And I must agree. Two; there is the balance issue. The Katana/Wakizashi combination wouldn't look like how the Astray wears the double blades. It isn't that cumbersome and bulky (spoken with experience as I've done it myself on numerous occasions - don't ask.). I think it might be better if the Astray has a blade on either side... I mean it's not like robots are left or right handed right? And balance is more of an issue for machines... So... I can make the change and still maintain my principles haha

Without question the Astray is a bulky mech especially in comparison to conventional Seed designs like the Strike, Impulse, Freedom and so on. TheAastray looks like a football player next to a swimmer. But hey! We're all built differently right?! Just because he's bigger doesn't mean that he's not as effective or uglier! It's all perspective/opinion! I know a lot of guys out there who can't stand Seed's "anorexic" designs and like the Astray style a lot more.

That said... I like both of them. From the waist up I like the Astray but from the waist down I like the Strike... hey wait second... I wonder would it would look like if...

OK guys take a look at these pics, cause you won't be seeing these guys for while. In the meantime I'm going to try some 'experiments'.

Had to leave 'Afro Samurai Gundam Pilot Double B' in the pics for scale. These are some tall war machines!

PG Astray: Strike Frame

From all of these runners, he emerged. Seriously. This is all of them. I didn't throw any away.

Construction operations completed.

*but I still have a long way to go before I can say this project is done*

PG Astray: Strike Frame - Sub armour sections complete

I painted the figure just to show the scale. Yeah I know Lowe isn't black but I am! Where are all the black Gundam pilots?! Anyways I had no flesh tone paint so I just went with brown.

PG Astray: Strike Frame

PICT0437
Originally uploaded by Busterbeam

I mentioned before that I'd be spending a bit more time on the frame than usual on principle and I'm think I'm finaly done with the basic frame.

I wanted to give it a used, metallic look so I did a bit of silver dry brushing all over the frame and painted the tubes/wires. I could have done a better job but it's all going to be covered up by armour anyways so I didn't put in my best effort. However I do believe that some of my efforts will pay off once the armour is applied because a bit of the frame is going to peek out in places so... We'll just have to wait and see if I'm right or not.

As usual there are more images at my flickr.

PG Red Frame / PG Strike frame comparison - Part 2

This post was long over due but here's the 2nd half focusing on the PG Astray with the PG Strike frame.

Starting with the cockpit. The only change here is a pretty minor one. The cockpit cover latch is different. Really it's almost insignificant. I dont know why they made it like that.

The neck connection is a bit different.

Most of the changes can be seen in this shot. Chest frame cover, cockpit hatch cover and the torso/shoulder joint are all different from the Strike.

This is the last part. The elbow armour connection panels are different. Outside of the parts I mentioned here, there are no extra parts that are necessary for the Astray frame.

As you know all know now, I've used the PG Astray Red frame for my Strike Vermillion and I will be using the Strike frame for my PG Astray. Here they are side by side before armour application. I really like the Strikes lower legs and feet. The Astray feet seem really bulky to me now.

That's all for now. I'm a bit behind on posts so I suspect that I'll be blogging a bit more within the next couple of days. I have a free weekend with no plans so that means I can finally concentrate on the things that matter. *looks at his Red Frame box*

More Strike Vermillion + Where are they now? Current poses for my models

Thought it'd be nice if I put up some pics of the current poses that my 'boys' are in. I have a lot of models but these days I only keep the ones that I've painted/lined out. You can see the gallery for all of these models on the side bar.

Also there are couple of extra pics of the Strike Vermillion. More of that to come in the future but for now... I'm going to try and put that aside until my Astray is done. I think I can officially say that my distraction is now over. I'll put all of these pics up on my flickr in case there are any problems with the links.