Kotobukiya, Mirage C03-Helios Victoria Ver.

My first ever Kotobukiya kit, and I must say for a 2009 kit I am let down by the MASSIVE amount of seam lines in this kit. They are every where! I have completed the snap build and I was about to walk out the the parking lot (I am stuck in a hotel at the moment) when I took another look at the kit and remembered I still have hours of seam line removal to do. Exciting I know.

 But enough complaining about work its nothing I haven't had to do before. For my first Kotobukiya kit I have to say its an easy build overall, a lot of little details on this one for sure. The metallic pieces are really nice and even after sanding they are still nicely colored. The lack of an internal frame is not missed due to details on the connecting pieces.

Simply put there are a lot of details, and they are nicely done once I get them sanded down to hide the seams. I do not intend to do any additional scribing, the shape of this kit is really not suitable for more. It would just add clutter. So Back to seamline removal. Enjoy the pictures.

Well enjoy what it looks like now. It wont look that way much longer. Hopefully I can successfully hand paint this guy!
As always thank you for stopping by. T.G.

The O, Neo Geo Version (Resin)

Finished!!!!! Hand painting is fun and all. Nothing like going back over the same color a few times to cover up mistakes...in the end it was worth it though. It feels great to complete a Gundam after so long.  I stayed with a simple color scheme as I said I would. I did add a dark grey in to break up all the light colors. This was a fun build for sure! My only gripe still remains the missing piece. Maybe someday I will try my hand at pouring resin so I can repair/replace things like that. Enough talking though; you are here to see the completed Ver. Tem.  Neo Geo Version of The O.  Sorry if the pictures aren't amazing quality, the only camera I have is on my iPhone.

This is the finished lower half, I wanted to get a picture of the frame work, and show how the wash gave it a really nice finished look.

The gold still really stands out like I wanted it too.

While I am taking photos of just half....I think the stripe on the beam rifle really gave it a finished look. I cant take credit for the idea...it was in the picture of the original build. But I still like it.

This is prior to panel washing.

The bright gold gives added contrast and detail to a very dark part of the model.

A couple more shots of the underneath. Have to make sure you get a chance to see those details that normally no one sees.

I know this photo is really bright! But if you look at the very tiny face. I used a bright green on the eyes.

Bird's eye view.

I hope you like this build. I had a good time building it for sure. I am going to have to make a decision between a custom resin version of a Dom, or the God Gundam. I don't have all my tools for working plastic right now, so I think I may do another 1/144 resin kit. I have all the tools needed to working on those.

As always thank you for stopping by. T.G.

The O (Resin) WIP 3

Man, oh man, free time in a hotel room allow a lot of time to complete some resin work. I have met my goal of being able to paint by the weekend. The O has been primed as you can see.

Not perfect by any means, but spray can primer can get thick fast, and I would end up losing a lot of little details. I am trying to avoid the loss of details obviously. This kit is supposed to look rough on the armor, but honestly the small lines are very fine, and fill with paint very easily, even after I cleaned them out with scribing tools.

After painting the frame components, and stealing a skill learned from Warhammer painting, I used a wash to bring out the details that are there. I am really happy with how it came out, as my last attempt to use a wash on a Gundam ended very poorly. If I remember it ended in said Zaku exploding (after I threw it in frustration from basically wasting a month of work and $50 in custom metal parts).

Here is the first color starting to be laid down. I am not going for a crazy color scheme this time. Its not a huge model, so I was afraid if I did too many colors it would be overwhelming to look at. I am sticking with a 2 primary color scheme, with some additional colors to bring out the little details.

The hand painting is a challenge for sure, but not having to mask is kind of nice.

Here is the second color, with some of the metal detailed out in gold to add some pop to the frame. I think the blue really contrasts well with the grey and adds a much needed brightness.

Here is the chest section. I am having to paint in sections, so I don't touch the paint too much. Did I mention its a 1/144 model? I miss working on 1/100's  So much bigger. I will also say that I have learned to not rush to glueing sections together. Its adding to the challenge of painting the really tight sections for sure. But such is life.

Work will continue of course.
As always, thank you for stopping by. T.G.

The O (Resin Ver) WIP 2

Wow, I have been off the radar for a while I know. Sorry about that. Moving half way across the world, repairing a house, and driving 3000 mile will do that to a month. But, thats all past us now. I have been working diligently on my resin skills, via The O here. Actually, this kit is really easy clean up wise. Its not supposed to be a smooth finish version so that saves a ton of sanding time. And I rather like this ones rough look. Might even motivate me to weather it some. I am going to have to hand paint it because I don't have my airbrush here in my hotel room. I don't think they would like me to be painting in my room any way. (:

Below are the photos of where I am right now. I have completed the lower half and am about 50% done with the upper half. Hoping to be painting by saturday. But enough words. Pictures say more....

This is during the installation of the front waist skirt arms.

I love all the little details added to the waist here.

My only complaint is as you can see the kit came with one missing piece. The third finger for the arm. Call it battle damage I guess.

And an under the skirt shot a lot of hidden details to be painted.

On the chest. I didn't like how low on the body it set so I raised it a half inch or so. This is during the clean up and adding putty to build up the bulk of it a little more.

I didn't take any before pictures, but its better now trust me.

I also raised the head up a tiny bit. By doing so I was able to give it a more aggressive forward lean once I pinned it.

Thats where I am at for now. I am going back to work on the arms now. I have to figure out how to attach the huge gun to the arm, as there is no obvious way to do so. But thats all easy stuff.

As always, thank you for stopping by. T.G.