RX-78-2 Gundam Ver. 2.0 (Part 4)

Techniques

Some readers may be interested in Gunpla, and might have some questions.

"What spray paints do you recommend?"

"Is there an advantage to using a top coat?"

"How much time does a model take to build?"

Those are all great questions. What you're going to want to do is get comfortable cursing. When dealing with hundreds of small, fragile plastic pieces, as well as several different cans of spray paint and coating, something will go wrong. That's natural, but you need to be prepared. Therefore, I recommend preparing a good salvo of curses. You'll want to go with the most guttural sounding ones with the least syllables. You should preferably use ones with vowels such as "u" and "o", and ending in either hard "k" or blunt "nt." sounds. When that knee joint snaps, and it will, you're going to need to be able to curse immediately, loudly and properly. Don't force it - just say what comes out naturally. The problem you encounter will help you choose. For example, a string of curses following a slowly building, frustrating issue (such as a stuck part) will differ greatly from a sudden, surprising shattering of a piece. Below are some real life examples that I encountered personally.

Example 1

I put the neck piece under the head, but didn't tuck the connecting pieces properly, so I had to take it off and start over. The neck was stuck on too tight, however, so I took a pair of pliers and tried to pull it off... when suddenly *SNAP*!

"Oh f*ck!!! F*CK!!"

Example 2

The arms have several pieces of armor on them, including a small piece above the elbow. I placed it on the left arm, but it didn't fit right, so I took it on and off a few times and then it just crumbled into a bunch of pieces...

"You've got to be f*cking kidding ME!!!!!"

I hope this helps. The hobby can seem overwhelming at first, but with a little guidance, there's nothing to be afraid of.

RX-78-2 Gundam Ver. 2.0 (Part 3)

Assembly

The bulk of the construction is the assembly of the parts. I've probably over-emphasized the amount of parts , but the majority of them aren't even visible as they are covered by the armor plates. Bandai did a good job replicating the actual framework of a "real" Gundam as much as possible, and it shows.

Below is the chest chassis, with tiny pistons that move in and out when the arms move. Nice detail, totally unable to be seen on the completed model.

This is the chest with the armor on. Note the small sumi-ire (inking) on the neck armor.

"Right Arm of the Giant"

Here we have the legs - one without the armor on, revealing the mechanics underneath.

These are all the completed parts, freshly top coated and awaiting final assembly.

There were some mishaps throughout the assembly process. Those will be documented later.

Evangelion Makes You Coffee

The Broken

Coheed and Cambria have a new single out, and as exciting as that may be, after several listens, I'm on the fence.

I absolutely LOVE Coheed and Cambria, but this song is really not speaking to me yet. It's too dense, especially for a single, and it's really hard to remember it after it's over. It has some good use of synth chords to fill out the background, but the guitar parts are a little confusing, especially during the verses. Overall, it's chaotic, but not in a good sense. I am happy, however, to hear Claudio Sanchez singing some new material.

Well, anyway, if you're so inclined, have a listen:

Coheed and Cambria - The Broken

RX-78-2 Gundam Ver. 2.0 (Part 2)

I originally had the crazy idea to cut out every piece and paint it individually. When I saw that many of the pieces were small enough for me to be able to inhale, that idea went out the window.

I decided to just spray paint the entire runner and worry about any after-cutting touching up later.

Here is a picture before I started. The runner and I were very nervous; it was both our first time.

The spray painting began in the garage. As I was spraying, I noticed bumps appearing on the shield and realized that dust was collecting on the pieces. I looked up at the light, and to my horror, saw all kinds of dust particles floating around. The garage was out - too much dust. I took the paint off with thinner and took it outside to try again.

I set everything up, aimed the spray can and started spraying. The wind promptly blew all the paint in my face, and not on the runner. I had no choice but to do the painting in my apartment. Needless to say, my apartment stunk of spray paint for two days, and I'm certain I suffered brain damage. At what price, this Gundam?

Here we have some runners drying throughout the apartment. You get very creative when paint fumes are eroding your brain cells.

Here is the styrofoam I used to keep the paint from going everywhere.

And that was painting!