This was supposed to be a fun, quick build. Several weeks ago at the Omacon Model Show I noticed several “Robots” in the Sci-Fi category. I had never built one before, but always thought that they looked cool so I struck up a conversion with a guy who had built several of them. He told me that they were Gundam models. I had no idea what a Gundam was or how you get one.
Anyway, went home and did some research (actually I found Brent’s Journal) and went looking for Gundam models. They are hard to find in the US.
Fast Forward, to the last model show. There were several Gundam models in the raffle. Since I had no luck in finding them from my usual webstores (yes, honey Great Models did not have any), I plunked most of my tickets and won one out of the three offered (my luck sucks and that is why I do not gamble). But hey, did win a Star Trek model!!!!
The Gundam models are a whole different animal. Putting all the parts together was relatively easy. It is a “snap” together kit (more like a push together) which is nice in one way – it holds the parts together while you run glue down the seams. The only problem that I found is that the parts sometimes did not line correctly and will need major sanding to look right.
The real neat thing is that all of subassemblies can stay separate until they are all painted, as they have rubber joints and can be put together at the end. The seam work is very, very, very, very tedious and will absorb most of the time on this kit. About this time I began to realize that these are not the quick and easy kits that I assume most modelers think they are.
I have a new found respect for those funny “robots” on the sci-fi table. The modelers who build those suckers put a lot of time and effort into those kits. Sci-fi kits are generally the hardest models to put together, the parts never fit right and detail is average at best. There are no aftermarket companies that make detail / upgrade sets (trying looking for a resin cockpit for an X-Wing Fighter vs a P-47 Thunderbolt and see who wins). Usually the only details sets are from other dedicated modelers (everything has to be scratch built). So far I have enjoyed putting my first Gundam together and will look into buying a few more.
The two pictures below – the first one is mine (oh no, it exploded!!!!) and the other is what it is supposed to look like.
I told you that was a particularly tough kit. It\'s also an older kit--dating back to the early 90\'s, I believe. The one you\'re working on is also 1:144 scale. The one from the show (not mine, though it, too, was at the 2006 Nationals competing against me) is 1:100--from Bandai\'s "Master Grade" series. Tons easier to work with, but each still has their own issues (and usually all sorts of hard-to-reach seams). Click here to see an in-progress build/modification (not by me) of a 1:100 Kampfer. And click here to see what the 1:100 Master Grade looks like straight out of the box (no paint--just "snapped").
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