Wednesday 31 December 2014

Overview of 2014

I have a few kits in progress for the start of 2015, overall its been a busy year for Gunpla, and plamo kits in general.

The very first kit that I completed this year was the HG Seravee Mk II that I built up for the Modified/Kit-Bash Group Build [MKBGB]. This kit was very certainly an exercise in scratch building and overall I'm rather pleased with how it turned out.


HG Seravee Mk II, completed January 23, 2014
The second kit was my entry into Gundam Eclipse's 5 Group Build [5GB], the MG Gundam Hurricane. I spent a lot of time this year on this one kit, and I'm very pleased with how this turned out.

MG Gundam Hurricane Google+ Album

MG Gundam Hurricane, completed July 14, 2014
My next project was a group of kits the LBX Jennock First Platoon Set, which included LBX Dot-Blastrizer, LBX Trivhine, and LBX Val Diver.


From Left to Right, LBX(s) Val Diver, Dot-Blastrizer, and Trivhine, completed September 8 2014
LBX Dot-Blastrizer was the first of the Jennock platoon kits that I completed, it easily the most complex of the three and somehow the joints became exceedingly loose before I got around to photographing it.


LBX Dot-Blastrizer, completed September 8 2014
Trivhine was the second completed kit in the Platoon, and I really like how the orange turned out in particular.

LBX Trivhine Google+ Album

LBX Trivhine, completed September 8 2014
LBX Val Diver, was the final part of the set that I finished and has the simplest of the colour schemes. I did encounter a bit of trouble with the seam lines on this kit in particular where it is somewhat more simple in construction.


LBX Val Diver, completed September 8 2014
My entry into the Gundam Eclipse Video Game Group Build [VG GB] was my sixth completed kit this year, the Armoured Core 2Ball. Originally it was 9Ball while it was in red but after I painted it blue I felt 2Ball was a better fit.


AC 2Ball, completed September 23 2014
The HG Astraea Dark Arms is my first entry into Gundam Eclipse's 2015 Gunpla Builders Championship Group Build and the first of the entries into Team Night Warriors.


HG Astraea Dark Arms, completed November 13 2014
This HG Quanta Blood Moon is the second of my entries into Gundam Eclipse's 2015 Gunpla Builders Championship Group Build and the second entry into Team Night Warriors.


HG Quanta Blood Moon, completed December 2 2014


Monday 29 December 2014

MG Marasai Ver. War WIP #1


I think I've been slowly working on MG Marasai since early September, I removed the seams in the lower legs since they were big and obvious (I completely forgot to take photos of that).


I've started paint work on MG Marasai, the inner frame is pretty much done , the power cables are exceedingly annoying to paint.



Friday 26 December 2014

HG 00 Nightmare Quadruped WIP #3

Continued work on the waist section add a bit of work to the front and rear of the part.


Did a slight bit of work on the backpack, adding the first of its 4 GN Drives and a hard
point for the cockpit attachment.


And as Wintaamero correctly guessed Nightmare Fortress Mode (still a work in progress). Kind of inspired by ZZ or S Gundams transformation.


Nightmare Quadruped Mode


Thursday 11 December 2014

Pre-Blog Kits #7: HGUC Jegan Fireball

Reference Artwork
Reference Artwork

This build was for Gundam Eclipse's 2012 Personalized Grunt Group Build. To better match the design of the MS in the reference artwork, I scratchbuilt a new backpack, and modified the  lower legs to accommodate more thrusters than the standard HGUC Jegan. I altered the shield with a weapons rack on the underside, the rifle with a bayonet of sorts and some minor pla-plating for the shoulders and chest to round things out.

HGUC Jegan Fireball, completed April 16 2012

Having decided to call it the Jegan Fireball, I figured a deep red colour would suit it best, and given that the only two reference pieces for this particular MS are of not particularly high quality in addition to being black and white the choice seems reasonable.


HGUC Jegan Fireball, completed April 16 2012


You can check out more of this kit in the Facebook Gallery.

Notes:

RGM-89R-2 Jegan Fireball [High Mobility Type-2] - the Fireball is a pre-existing design from the F91 Era (2 illustrations in the manga, to work off of)... Introduced in the early UC 0090s, the RGM-89 Jegan soon becomes the Earth Federation Forces' main frontline mass production mobile suit. But as the Federation slips into stagnation, the advent of new mobile suit technology won't be actively pursued for almost three decades. Over the years, the old Jegans are constantly overhauled and upgraded to keep them in service. One such Variant is the High Mobility Type-2 or the RGM-89R-2 "Jegan Fireball" a unit designated for use by an Ace pilot of the federation forces, designed in an attempt to match the performance of the Cross Bone Vanguards' Mass production units...

Grunt - any mass production MS, typically refers to the GMs ("Jims") and Zakus of each universe. They all have them its just a matter of how they are re-imagined or re-vamped.

Tuesday 9 December 2014

HG 00 Nightmare Quadruped WIP #2

I've been trying to figure out what to do with the legs for a couple of weeks now and everything I had done just didn't look right. For some reason I had been looking at my completed kits and my HG Eins Quadruped (see below) provided me with a rather unique answer; Quad Legs.


Now to the best of my knowledge this is a mod that is still fairly unique to me, I've seen a handful of great centaur styled Unicorns but only a few (one of them mine) with short hip sections and reversed legs in a Armoured Core Quadruped styling. As in Armoured Core having four legs lets you carry the heaviest of weapons and still be mobile.

First off I picked four legs I liked, then I built up a hip and waist section out of two FG Strikes, HG 00's waist and lots of pla-plate.


Where the other two members of the team were fairly simplistic mods I will be going way over the top with this one with a few odd functions that I think would be helpful in a team based battle.

HG 00 Nightmare Quadruped WIP #1

For the third unit of my team, I had decided to use 00 Raiser as the base and build up a heavy long range Gunpla.

The first item was the backpack that pla-plated together to hold the cannons (formerly Harute's binders).


At some point I decided to use Reborns Gundam's head for this with some minor cosmetic alterations.


All together


Tuesday 2 December 2014

Completed Kits #9: HG Quanta Moon Blood [GBC GB]

Quanta Blood Moon of Team Night Warriors


Type:
Designed for use in Space, though functional in a multitude of environs at reduced efficiency. Tuned specifically for Mid-to-Long Range Battle and painted in Black and Red for added effectiveness in darkness.

Internal Weaponry:
-GE Sword Bits X6, back mounted.

Main Weaponry:
-GE Mega Rifle, high output precision long rifle
-GE Sword IV Kai, functions as a shield and heavy machine gun in addition to buster sword.
-GE Gunblade X2, functions as both pistols and short swords, combine for a throwing Javelin.

Optional Weaponry:
-**TOP SECRET** to be revealed on March 31st 2015.

Strengths:
-GE Composite Armour, strengthened against shell and beam impacts.
-GE Twin Drive, Synchronized GE Drives result in squared particle emissions.
-GE Trans-Am Gunpla will operate at 3X the performance for 5 minutes.

Weaknesses:
-GE Trans-Am after time limit performance is reduced to 1/3 of original specifications.
-Poorly equipped for aquatic battles, no solid weapons.

Backstory:
Created first and foremost as a support unit for the Team, it is well balanced by comparison with
the other two units, capable at both long and short ranges. It comes with a large floating barrel
mega beam rifle for precision covering fire and the 6 sword bits excel in a supporting offensive and
defensive role.

It also serves in the capacity of a shield breaker for the other units using either its buster sword
(the GE Sword IV Kai) or the Javelin (GE Gunblades combined form) to destroy heavy armour
and shields.

Special thanks to Juno-Uno for naming this one.



Complete Google+ Album.

Astraea Dark Arms Showroom and Blogger Post.

A note on the functions of GE Particles. The Gundam Eclipse Particle is used to mobilize a Gunpla through the voting process of the GE Gunpla Builders Championship. Beyond their inherent ability to make all Gunpla the same scale, they also function equivalently to any particles in the anime be they Minovsky or GN, etc.

Monday 1 December 2014

Gundam Eclipse Domain Name Change

The domain name "gundam-eclipse.net" seems to have stopped working, rest assured we're looking into it. Zetaboards had been experiencing issues over the last few days in the wake of a DNS attack which has impacted quite a few forums, We are working to resolve the issue and return the forum to our domain to its full functionality.

In the mean time the Zetaboards default seems to be functional: http://s1.zetaboards.com/Gundam_Eclipse/site/