Crossbone Gundam Firefly Prototype

Did some minor customizing last night with Crossbone’s spare parts! I had originally thought of an prototype booster pack for Crossbone. As much as I enjoy its original boosters, I was curious to see what the Crossbone would look like with a more singular compact unit. Thus, the “Firefly Prototype” was born.

Majority of the parts came from the extra parts in the Full Cloth box, other parts came from an HG 1/144 RX-78, and an old MG Kampfer. I’m still trying to figure out where this design is going, hopefully when I paint the Gundam and the backpack it won’t look as out of place.

Lemme know what you think!

Gundam Exia 1/100 Scale

Just saw this at HobbySearch, this 1/100 Gundam Exia looks great! From what I understand this kit is HG grade (assuming from price range and details) and it seems like Bandai’s upgrading the quality once again. Looks to have much more detail, more panel lines from previous releases, and has some features I’ve never seen in an HG grade kit. Seems like the knee armor can shift when it’s bent, and the cord from the shoulder armor is made of some kind of rubber. I personally think it’s also good to see different sets of hands, rather than one “poseable” hand.

This kit will be available in November, and going for 2185 yen, which is roughly $19 USD.

I haven’t seen Gundam 00 yet, but it’s officially out in Japan right now. Check out Danny Choo’s for more on the series premiere.

UPDATE: Just found Gundam 00 on YouTube, watching it raw..

Prebuild – endoskeleton

With record high temperatures outside, it’s gonna be hard to tell when I’m ever gonna be able to paint this Crossbone.

I’ve never pre-built before, without painting at least. I usually spray the runners down and touch up later in the process. But because I’m in a hurry to get this kit done before summer ends, I began prebuilding. I really don’t want to get any of the other color parts off their runners until I sprayed down a good coat, so I purposely skipped all of those steps. + I was eager to see what the endoskeleton would look like.

Sorry in advance for the hurt eyes, I just woke up–I didn’t know what I was doing.

View The Set.

Direct Links – (+1) (+2) (+3)

After building the mechanics I realized my usual Tamiya German Grey would not be the right color to coat it. I just fell in love with the extremely dark brown plastic used. So, I’m gonna try my best to get back to the store and find a dark dark brown. And I’m planning on using Tamiya Nato Black for my black parts, not quite sure how thats gonna look :D.

BTW, I just love the leg design, it flows alot smoother than any of the other MG Gundams I’ve built.

I’m sure you’ve heard this before, but the Crossbone, like the F91 kits, are slightly smaller than the rest of the MG line. This is due to their polycapless design. While I’m not sure if I constructed the upper body correctly, it’s safe to say this Gundam will be rather small. That is however, not a bad thing. Maybe gundams from that time were built smaller?

Change of Plans, PT.2

So my Crossbone Gundam came on time today, although it’s much too hot to even consider painting outside today, (I don’t have a painting booth) I was very happy.

 View the set.

But much to my surprise they had shipped the wrong Crossbone ^^. What they had packed was the Full Cloth version… No I’m not complaining, and yes I’m keeping it. You may be thinking I’m doing the wrong thing, but I’m waiting for them to email me, and when that happens, I’m very willing to pay the extra money. It’s too late in the summer to ship things back and forth, so if that means I have to pay a few more dollars, then that’s fine. I’m not sure if this is a big deal, as this has never happened to me before…so, I’m just gonna let things handle themselves.

Now that that’s out of the way I can talk about the great Action Base from Bandai.. It took me longer than I would have imagined to build, it’s much more intricate than it seems. Not too bad though, the end result is fantastic, very adjustable, sturdy, and sure as hell looks nice. For the level of detail and adjustability, six dollars is practically free. Despite the clunkiness, it’s still pleasing to the eye. It might not be as discreet as clear stands, but as a mech stand, it performs well.

I took some pics of my RX-178 on the stand, don’t mind it, I haven’t had time to paint it. You’ll see these pics in the set link above, but in case you’re not interested in the Crossbone, here you go.

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As you can see I didn’t capture the base altogether very well, but I tried to highlight some key elements that make it worth the cash, and justify it’s bulkiness. Either way it’s got my recommendation. Hopefully tomorrow morning I’ll be able to paint and what not. I’ll need to run to the store for more colors.. my airbrush doesn’t hold much paint, so I’ll be screwed trying to paint it all that way ^^;

Change of Plans.

 

It’s a lot tougher than I thought to keeping up with a blog ^^;

So AnimeArigato was backordered on my Shii figure, so I canceled the order. AnimeArigato was prompt and very courteous, so I’m very happy about the experience. Definitely ordering from them later this year. Shii is still on my buy list though :D

I ended up ordering another Gundam, I figured with the time I have left before school starts… I might as well build another robot. This time around I decided to order the ((Crossbone Gundam)) and snagged the new ((Action Base)) from Bandai.  I still gotta run to the local hobby store to pick up some paint / primer, though I have plenty of time… The store I ordered from used the wrong shipping method, and so I’ll be expecting my Crossbone sometime next week.

Anyway, I’m debating what colors I should use. I know for sure I want to paint the black parts dark dark grey, but other than that I’m all open for ideas. An all-white gundam would be pretty sick too. I haven’t been all too lucky finding pictures of this Gundam on google, doesn’t seem like anyone has done any custom painting on it.

By the way, does anyone know about the new Turn-A Gundam MG kit? I remember seeing two versions from Danny Choo, but all the recent pictures show the plain one? Maybe it was a custom or something, because it looked absolutely brutal.

Edit : Found the link ……. http://www.dannychoo.com/slide/eng/shizuoka_hobby/6307/photo/100th+MG/

As for the header picture I stole it from gearsonline.net … http://www.gearsonline.net/gundam/gundamgirls/xm-x1.jpg