Lil update and stuff

Just did a little rearranging of the furniture, cleaned up the library and spanked the gundams into attention(?). This be my little sanctuary, my batcave, my captains chair, my escape from reality, the alcove of doom, the gateway to hell, the..errr...where was I going with this? Anyway here be pics of the office/hideaway/blahblahblah. Yeah I know, no animoo posters, no dakimakura, no blow up sex doll hanging from the ceiling. Not thrilling at all. What do you want from me?

Manga and anime DVD collection.

The desktop, boring as usual. That is a picture of Chii from Chobits in the lamp, I have no life...orz

Closeup of the area next to the desk. Always like to keep my favorite genre of manga REALLY close. note Battle Angel, Blame and Eden, also Chobits.

Updated gundam collection from last year. I see only 4 fresh faces. *sigh* Need MORE GUNDAMS!!!

Alas here is the pre-review of my poor GN-X, still undecalled and still waiting for his final flat topcoat. I don't know why I'm too lazy to just get it over with and done. I'm having second thoughts about this kit, originally I wanted to go crazy and mod it and in a fit of over-excitement decided to prime, paint and this was the result. The color itself was an impromptu decision. I had a a bunch of paints, grabbed the nearest one which happend to be field blue and the rest is history. Note the encircled areas where the scratches are most visible. The GN-Drive is a pain in the arse and getting it to come out has resulted in paint chipping even w/ the topcoat on it. ARRGH....

I promise I'll get around to actually painting and modding this PG someday, for now the build has been put on hold. As of this writing I still have MG Zeta coming in. Also for some reason he was swaying a bit on the left side. Fixed it now.

And now we venture into all things non-gundam related. Some shots of my PVC collection. not a big fan of 'em really. certain requirements have to be met for me to actually grab one.

Ken Akamatsu stuff. reaally old, the Love Hina gachapon figs are my brothers (abandoned)

This Ryomou Shimei is a headache, it's always toppling over. Got it for cheap though.

Lovely Needa with her anti-materiel rifle and Samurai Spawns helmet. Ignore the katana at the background.

Two Amy's from Bakuretsu Tenshi (Burst Angel in non-Weaboo). Got both for real cheap at Amazon, I doubt they are original Japanese products too but hell I love the little loli too much to nitpick.

Kujibiki Unbalance Trading Figs (I doubt anybody else has these or the interest in em really), Samurai Spawns and Saber figma (LOL)

Megahouse Sheryl Nome, my all-time favorite PVC figure. It's got no blemishes, perfect casting, her hair catches light pretty well and has this great effect. Don't fall in love with it you're still better off with a flesh and blood human. Figure is cast-offable, I don't remember the last time I put her clothes back on. Which brings us to the other Sheryl Nome down here.

Face is pretty passive and boring, no hint of emotion. It's funny, since this figure is called "Emotion Style Sheryl Nome".

I hate that she needs a special stand on her legs like those play-arts Final Fantasy figures. Transparent or not, they're very disrupting.

She has a nice front rack though :) and her right arm can be swivelled back and forth as well for a different pose

And finally my one true beef with getting this kit. Encircled in red are two cast errors/nubmarks that are visible even at arms length and without my glasses on too. It might just be that the PVC Figure Gods hate me and decided to fuck up my version but seriously Bandai, get yer act together.

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Silver Striker

"Witchcraft, heresy and mutation! He built another Gundam SEED kit!!!"

So anyways, here's quite an expensive impulse buy from that certain anime store in NYC. Originally I had planned to get the Shin Matsunaga Zaku V2 or any variant of the hi-mobility Zaks but after checking online, the bastards were out of all them. Failing that, I settled for the MG blue frame 2nd revise but really did not dig the blue and yellow colors on it.

I was a bit torn on whether to go with a metallic black frame and silvery outer armor or vice versa. At one instance I actually thought about using dark gunmetal for the frame but then I realized that wouldn't be to pleasing to the eyes (at least to mine). After much thought and with a little help from the helpful attendant at the store I came up with using a flat black color for the outer armor parts with a little bit of gunmetal thrown in. The frame itself would be Tamiya gloss aluminum which I really had no prior knowledge what would look like once sprayed. I'm so glad the gamble paid off with its nice metallic sheen.

Not so good action shot >__<

REAL CLOSE UP MACRO SHOT OF BACK

It was a real joy painting the inner frame to a more metallic and flashy hue. The inner frame kind of reminded me of the T-800 upon close inspection or as my great idol James Cameron would call it "Death rendered in steel". Even the most casual person and non-gundam fan who've seen me paint it (AKA my big bro) asked me if I was building a Terminator.

CLOSE UP SHOTS OF ZE SEXY LEGS

FRONT TORSO UP CLOSE

STANDARD DORKY KNIFE WIELDING POSE

Tried replicating the high kick pose in the manual. Failing miserably. The funny and probably impressive thing is how this kit can hold this pose solid without tumbling over. The pics I've taken really don't do justice to the kind of articulation this suit is capable of. I think it's mostly because I'm afraid of the paint scratching and wearing off from moving too much.

Shots of the dual blades. Meh...not impressed by it.

Here it is wielding the overly-compensating huge-ass Tactical Arms. Couldn't really think of any creative poses for this, the little guy can barely hold it with his one arm. Apologies for using the Char stand, I keep forgetting to buy new ones.

Without a doubt, these are my favorite shots of the Silver Striker(?)

I learned a few things about myself while building this thing, one of which is how impatient and overly excited I can get regarding this hobby. T'was supposed to be a relaxing build but I think my mind was buzzed from lack of sleep, long train ride home and the after-effects of watching Avatar in 3D for the first time.

As for the gundam itself, it's a beauty. the legs are greatly articulated and detailed. I like the little touches added in to the inner frame. It has been noted by a lot of other gunpla reviews that this MG shares a lot of the tech found in the PG Red Frame. I still believe that Bandai just uses the PG line as a test-bed for all the newest tech that they'll eventually introduce into the MG line. Who knows? we may get MG 00 raisers w/ spinning motors soon.

As for minor annoyances, a couple come to mind. The movement on the arms is kind of restricted by the pauldron/shoulder armors, which in my build come off easily on the right arm. And, as with all backpacked units, it tends to get a bit unbalanced to pose when the Tactical arms is folded. And as for the decals, what a waste. They could have done more.

After all this, I'd have to say this'll probably be the last Master Grade SEED Gundam I build, never much liked the series as a whole even if the mecha design has this great modern feel to it. Well, this is the last blog post for the year. Thanks for reading!

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Guess what came in the mail today? and other crap

Bought this PG RX-178 less than a week ago from Amazon.com. This was supposed to come in on Friday but goddamn, the Japanese mail system amazes me once again. Got this on a really busy week with work and all the crap I have to deal with. Yes, that is my bed sitting right next to a shelf full of manga I've never re-read again.

Also been Borderlands into the wee hours of the morning. It's a helluva fun game even with the lack of enemy variety. Only level 12 so far but already seen assloads of different weapons. Something about the loot system appeals to my post-MMO grinding addiction.

Anyways, will try to see what part of the Mark2 I can build tonight.

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MG Exia Ignition Mode finally done

Well, it was bound to happen. OO never was my favorite Gundam series, that distinction solely belongs to Zeta Gunam, but damn does the Exia look nice. I prefer my mobile suits to attack from range, but something about the Exia's slim and ergonomic design as a fast close-in melee
fighter piqued my interest.

Pre-ordered this bastard from HLJ and got it in about a week from release. Built with just your standard OOB method, no fancy gimmicks or anything like that except for the no-brainer finger separation mod. Used Tamiya German Gray for the inner frame and dark gunmetal for the sword and weapons. Added a flat clear topcoat as well. I only panel lined a little bit of the details since I'm not really that big a fan of adding too much like most people do.

Front view

View on the sides

GN Blades unsheated

My only beef with this kit is that the GN blades "holster" gimmick on the hips is a little bit weak, the pegs that were supposed to attached the white circular part to the hip refused to stay on if the GN blades are attached. As a matter of fact, they so weak that both pegs on the leftmost side came off and I had to do a little cementing for that.

It's too bad I didn'y have the batteries for this yet when I took these photos, would have loved to see the LCD lights in effect. I keep forgetting to grab those LR41s while grocery shopping. Funny thing is, I never noticed that the "cable" things that attach to the shoulders and legs actually do that prism effect till I took the photos.

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