Miyuki Uehara's 1/100 Astraea

s 072
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.

1/100 GNY-001 Gundam Astraea

As I mentioned before, after I was finished at the Expo I ended up going to two new shops. At the last shop I saw a couple of new models. This is one of them. 1/100 Astraea. Looks like it comes with the GN sword, bazooka, rifle, plus shield. It reminded me of why I bought the MG Mark 2 so many years ago. It wasn't anything flashy. Bazooka, rifle, shield, beam sabres. Very well rounded and at a good price too. They had a completed version displayed as well. I was very tempted to buy this... but am focused on my G04 right now and am having trouble seeing anything else right now. But there's no rush to get this after all. I'll probably be able to buy it cheaper in a little while anyways. Thinking of potential paint schemes for it. Maybe... silver? I'm thinking of something a bit 'showy' and 'alien' for this one.

I know.

Going against my regular style but I think the design warrants it.

GN Arms Type E + Gundam Astraea

agn2
Originally uploaded by Busterbeam

Constructed from the GN Arms E 1/144 HG kit. Not THAT many modifications but enough to make it look a considerably better. Most of the work went into the paint job. Yellow? Mm... not sure how I feel about that (being the tame guy that I am). Also not so keen on the colour scheme of the Astraea either (orange, pink and grey? Yikes.) but the "full face" helmet mod is kinda cool.

I like the idea! I'm curious about future GN Arms versions. I think this could have been executed a bit better. Or should I say... more to my liking. Definitely potential here though. Complete section scans at my flickr.