MG Blue Frame vs. PG Red Frame: Proportions

Stolen from Sandrum.

The Red Frame looks like an old clunker next to the Blue Frame! What's with all that bulk!? At least the Blue Frame as the "anorexic" design we're used to seeing from CE suits. To be fair I'm not completely satisfied with either of them.

What does it say when the MG's have better proportions than the PG's? Hell I'd take the 1/100 proportions over the PG Red Frame's (I already have both of them though...)

And don't get me started on the PG 00 Raiser and how it's wing binders don't even move making it inferior in some ways to it's HG counterpart! Put the PERFECT back in Perfect Grade for goodness sakes. Are the day's of the quality of the PG Strike behind us? Is this the 'new' standard? I'm not impressed.

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

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 Comic - Part 3/3

Final Round!

Side note - Modifications on the PG Strike are coming along well besides some minor 'hue' problems. Basically just have to line the armour, wait for the paint to dry on a couple of pieces, get a new battery and assemble the head.

*edit* just realized that I saved over my 2/3 post... ugh. Oh well it wasn't anything pressing or important. I'm putting all the images up at my flickr for posterity.

PG Red Frame - Dengeki Hobby 5 scans + Analysis

It wouldn't be right if I didn't finish off the set so here it is. Red Frame P-02. All the work done on the previous versions posted here were also done on this one so lets take a look at some of the modifications.

First the main shot.

The first thing most people are going to notice is the clear green on the legs and the helmet. Also great decal application on the left shoulder. Hard to get that looking good with the edge there.


Great decal job on the outer right leg. V-Fin has been sharpened. Extra detailing on the inside of the vents on the back of the shoulders.


Anyone who's assembled this kit knows that there there are two types of red parts (not including polycaps). Care was taken to unify the colour scheme (including the grey parts). There isn't as much contrast, but that also means there isn't as much distraction. I think it works. I haven't gotten into the sword assembly yet so it's hard to comment but it looks like the blade of the Tiger Pierce is a bit darker than the Gerbera Straight. I saw something like this in Hobby Japan as well but that was more of a custom job. It also looks like the hamon is different on each blade as well. Not sure if that's a custom job or if it came like that but I like it. I'll be investigating this in further detail as I near the end of the build process. I intend to spend extra time and effort on the swords (as I did with my 1/100)


Clear green on the clear parts creates a great effect. Especially with the decal and lining under it. Looks like silver paint on the helmet visors, lined then covered with a clear green painted on the clear part. It works in my opinion. Plastic removed from the torso is a minor mod but it's good. I think the deeper etching of the panel line there created a larger effect though. Lining on the inside of the armour? Hm... don't know if I'm going to go that far this time.

I'm not done with these Astray's yet friends! More to come!

PG Gold Frame

From this month's Dengeki Hobby

Thank you for your patronage. Please come again.

PG Green Frame

Perfect Grade MBF-P04 Gundam Astray Green Frame. Re-colour of the red frame, naturally, from this month's Dengeki Hobby. Images courtesy of myself. They did a pretty good job on the custom rifle don't you think?

Thank you for looking at this blog. Here is some candy.

PG Red Frame - Hobby Japan 5 scans

hj0905010
Originally uploaded by Busterbeam

I'm sure many of you have seen this already but for those of you who haven't I decided to put up this months magazine spread from Hobby Japan. Images are from srw hotnews. I decided not to scan them myself because apparently a chinese company has went and done the whole magazine already. What I really want to show you are the images from this months Dengeki Hobby but I haven't been able to find it on the net yet, so I might have to do it myself for a change.

Anyways take a look. A couple of mods where done to this to make it look sharper, particularly the V-Fin. More at my flickr.

Found the PG Astray! and a Purple Sinanju?!

I couldn't believe this when I saw it. Wtf?! How and why does this store have TWO PG Astray's out already?! They had the regular one and the one with the clear armour on. Take a look at the Purple Sinanju beside it for size comparison. Here's of closer look at that.

It's kind of a muted purple. Doesn't really... pop. It's metallic. Chrome thrusters and look at the gold tubing. I just did that 2 days ago! Nice but not really feeling it so much. What do you guys think of this colour scheme?

Anyways, after taking a good look at the PG Astray in person I can say that it is definitely something I want. Don't really need the clear parts though. I do want that Tiger Pierce, extra sword however.

Suggested retail price is 18900 yen but shops around here are selling it for 12800 or 13000. They've started taking pre-orders for it but I was checking out other shops today and wasn't at my regular place so I'm going to order it from there... maybe next week.

More PG Astray pics and news

I was away filming a documentary for a couple of days and when I got back my Hobby Japan was waiting for me in the mail. Instead of wasting time scanning it myself I'm just going to use other images already on the net. Same thing. Someone just beat me too it. Image courtesy of SRW hotnews.

I was reading this in bed last night. I'm pretty excited about this one. I'm going to be there on the day it's released! I've been waiting for a new PG for so long. Just wasn't really feeling the other ones so much... but I have been having some crazy ideas for PG Wing Zero Custom recently...

Maybe someday!

For now this Astray is at the top of the list. It's kind of wierd... I was thinking of displaying it but my 1/100 Astray is right there too! I almost never get two model kits that are the same type just on principle. I want a different experience each time I build a model. That's part of the reason why I didn't buy the Musha Gundam. Same frame as the OYW version. Granted it is considerably different but still... One exception to this rule has been the Infinite Justice. I have 3 of those. But in my defence, it is probably one of my favourite mobile suits ever. And I have 5 VF-1 type Valkyries...

My mind is running over ideas for what to do with the Astray once I get it... I'm definitely doing a re-colour... but I think I'm only going to re-colour the frame and just leave the white armour as is. Just thinking... Still about a month before it's released but it's really going to be the center piece of my collection. I'm sure of it. I thought the Sinanju would be but I'm just this one is going to overshadow it. Literally.

I have a long history with the Red Astay. It's a very important suit to me for many reasons (and not just the one's mentioned in this blog). I'll spare you the details but it's always going to be a suit that's close to my heart. I'm glad that it is becoming a PG. Not many suits get that honour. I am glad the the Red Astay is one of them now.

It is worthy.

PG Astray?! Frame Comparisons

frames
Originally uploaded by Busterbeam

News in the blogosphere travels very fast. I think it was revealed just yesterday that the PG Astray is coming out in March. I got my Hobby Japan in the mail today. It's really impressive actually. I live in Japan and have a subscription to the magazine but by the time I get it, it's already old news! haha More proof of why I should stay away from the 'main' news and just stick to 'supplementary' stuff.

Case in point. Today's blog post is about the PG Astray, but I just wanted to give people a bit more information about the frame itself. The Astray frame is an ORB design based of the research used to make the first GAT series of Mobile Suits in the CE Universe. Those GAT suits being Duel, Blitz, Buster, Aegis and of course Strike. Seed fans will remember that the Alliance had a secret base on the ORB space colony Heliopolis. Dalong has scans from the PG Strike manual but they're kind of low resolution so I've decided to scan my own manual at a higher resolution (with a bit of minor editing for the sake of comprehension) to illustrate just how similar the designs are between the original Astray series (P01 to P04, Gold, Red, Blue and Green respectively. Whether P04 Green Frame deserves to be in that category, because of its late introduction, is up for debate but there it is.)

Now... why PG Astray? The picture should answer that question succinctly enough. It will also explain why Duel is my favourite of all the initial GAT series suits. It was the most like the original design. Better design than Strike IMO. Yep. I said it. And now that I have I realize that PG versions of the other GAT series suits aren't out of the realm of possibility either. Mod a PG Strike into a Duel... Wouldn't take that much effort... hmm...

Bandai made multiple versions of all the PG suits (outside of GP01 and Zeta I believe) why should the Strike be any exception? I mean we already have Strike Rouge. Why not one more? Minor changes to the armour are all thats necessary since the frame is essentially the same. Why not milk it a bit more? Look at what they did with the Zaku v.2 frame! How many versions of that have we seen already? Now the RX78-2 v.2 frame is getting milked with the MG GM v.2. Come on though... It makes sense right? It's just good business.

Huge profits for a minimal amount of work. Also the PG Astray kit is essentially an invitation to colour it any way you want! Don't like Rowe's Red? Than changing it to Gai's Blue is easy enough to do. Or maybe you have a taste for gold (like me :)? No problem. Easily changed. They'll sell double the kits on that aspect alone.

All that said... I am totally getting it. I paid about 15000 yen for PG Mark 2, 20000 for Zeta and 10000 for Strike. I'm willing to go for 15000 for this kit seeing as it's essentially a remake of the Strike frame. Zeta, I could justify 20000 yen for since it transforms. Funny thing though... Despite all this. I've built the 1/100 Red Astray and the PG Strike and found them to be very different frames. I'm curious just how similar the PG Astray's frame is going to be to the Strike's but still maintain the unique design that the Astray's have. When I was building the 1/100 Red Frame I specifically remember thinking "This is no Gundam!".

I'm really very excited about this kit. I wouldn't say its like my prayers have been answered but its close. I was very surprised and pleased at this news. I've wanted a new PG for a while now but haven't been impressed with the selection. GP01 would but nice but the Full Burn option parts and stand display... ugh... its just a waste for the money and plastic as far as I'm concerned. I wouldn't use it!

But this is a good thing. I have over 3 months between Sinaju and this so it should be enough time to work through my back log without having something else come in. That is unless Gundam Cherudim Saga suddenly gets released in which case I will buy it IMMEDIATELY but that's not very likely. One can always hope though right?!