HG GX-9900 Gundam X

I am not a big fan of 1/144 scale because it is too small to work on, but after watching the reviews on rrobert184's youtube, I decided to give HG GX-9900 Gundam X a try.


Surprisedly, I really enjoy the build on this kit. Some of the parts are really small because of the 1/144 scale, and it is not as detailed as the MG and PG. But because of the simplicity of it, it does not have the problem of the MG which have way too many joints which make MG really hard to pose.

I try not to use any stickers and I paint the eyes and the green parts instead of using stickers. Because I do not want to paint this kit, I finish it with Krylon's matt finish to get rid of the glossiness on the plastic, and it turn out pretty good.




What sold me on the kit is the overall proportion and the design of the Gundam X, and because of simple parts, I was able to build this kit in just few nights. Also the price of $20 for this kit, I can not be happier.





After building the HG Gundam X, I think I will be getting more HG kits, especially more of the recent release by Bandai.
Now I have done my first 1/44 scale, I think I am ready for the RG next....

Mr. Top Coat

I have been wanting to try finishing my Gundam with Mr. Top Coat for a while now. Since there is the spray can ban on oversea shipping, Mr. Top Coat has been a hard-to-get item. Thanks to Ebay, I got myself 2 cans just to try it out.
I have been using Krylon's matt finish as my top coat finish but it tend to dull the color of the model and it does not always dry clear if I gave a heavy coat. Krylon works good to make glossy paint become matt finish but does not look too good on unpainted plastic.
I am really excited about Mr. Top Coat and will be using it on my RG RX78-2...

Like Father Like Daughter

People always say Zoya really looks like me ever since she was born, but I always thought she looks like me only in some parts until I saw this picture.
Zoya not only looks like me, and her personality is too. It is amazing that each baby has his/her personality embedded like DNA.

Sweet Dreams

Janice woke me up 5:30am with Zech cover in vomit, and so much for sleeping in over the weekend. Because of that, Zoya has been up since 5:30, and during our worship practice, she fall asleep on my guitar case to recharge her energy......

J+Y Wedding Day

First wedding of this year and I was so tired by the end of the night. It remind of me what my wedding day was like 5 years back. Considering regular work, kids, church....and another side job ???? It was crazy and insane, but it is all for the love of photography. Being able to capture the love and the images become timeless is all worth it after all.

Congratulation J+Y, may God bless your marriage as you complete each other daily.

Gundam PG GP01

I have been waiting for this kit for a quite some time now. It was on backorder on HLJ and several vendors I dealt with for few month. Because of the size and the weight of this kit, it is really expensive to ship from Japan until HLJ had free shipping last month. Unfortunately many hobbist were eying on the same thing, and by the time I place my orders, GP01 were all gone, so that was a big disappointment. (of course I got many other things to make up for it and enjoyed my free shipping from HLJ). Thanks to AnimeRaro (http://www.animeraro.com/), they got some shipment of this kit and I reserved my copy and picked it up locally yesterday at Frank&son.


This kit is much bigger than I thought, and I think it is the same size as the PG OO. When I opened the kit, it has two boxes similar to the PG OO. PG GP01 was released 2003, one year before the PG Strike. It will be interesting to see how well GP01 was designed compare to the Strike since I am still building the Strike.


Box A

Box B


This kit is actually 2 in 1. Bandai, allows you to choose between GP01 or GP01fb. The reason I bought this kit is because I first saw it on Danny Choo's Gundam modeling Tutorial, and Choo build the GP01 version and I don't think he even bother to finish the rest of the kit. Therefore, I think I will just build the GP01.

I think GP01 is less skeletal compare to the Strike and it is closer to the original RX-78-2 design. I love the nice and simple line design of the GP01, the GP01fb is a bit too fat and fancy for me with all the armors. All in all, I am very excited about getting this kit, and the only question left is when am I going to get to build this........

PG Strike Gundam

If you are growing up in Asia in the 80s, most boys knows Gundam. Eventhough I have never watched the Gundam cartoon when I was little or ever own a Gundam plastic model ( I'm more of Saint Seiya fan) , it is still something special in my heart. While shopping Saint Seiya toys at HLJ website, I saw the PG OO gundam was on sale as well as the MG Exia ignition mode. Those became my first Gunplas ever. I was amazed how well those plastic model were designed and were very well made. The engineering for each parts are amazing, and it was such a big difference than the gunpla I see when I was growing up. I was hook by Gunpla after owning the OO and Exia.


One of my current gunpla project is the PG Strike and man it was nice to work on 1/60 scale. With the amazing detail and each piece fit together and all the joints consider the kit came out back in 2004.
I love the simple and slim design of the strike and a lot of the inner frames were exposed, it really gave the Strike the industrial and rawness of this gundam. I used the metallic storm gray for the inner frame and with the flat outer armer, it really gave a nice contrast. I am really happy with the way it came out.
I try to panel line with the "washing" technique on one of the legs. I don't think the paint flow too well on the flat white paint, but the line came out much thinner than using the Gundam panel markers.




The waist section has a lot of mobility to allow for legs movements, and I love how the armer parts design are so simple. I had fun painting them.

Here is the legs and waist section put together, I need to sand the armer parts for the right leg, but I like how it looks now with one side full armer and one side just the inner frame. Sometimes I felt it is almost a waste that a lot of nice details on the inner frame were covered, I guess that is why Baidai is releasing all the gunpla with clear parts at their 30th anniversary.

The head is one of my favorite section and it has the most parts for such small assembly. The eyes will light up by a small LED inside, but I just need to find the right battery to make it work. I am debating how much panel lining I will put on the head. I do not like the panel lining shown on the box art, it felt way too many black lining for my taste, and it felt like too comicky with that many hard lines on the head.

The strike too me about 1 month now and it took me a long time because Gunpla is not meant for people who have 2 kids, and usually gunpla building happens in the late night. I am trying new techniques on the Strike and one of them is cutting all the parts from the runner first, separate them into different bags base on the construction manual. I think it is more time effective doing all the rough cutting at once, them fine cutting after all the parts are separate into their groups. Then, fine trimming and sanding before second layers of paint. I think I might try not to paint the runner next time and just paint after all the sanding is done. All I have left is the 2 arms and the weapon, panel lines, stickers and top coating...........when is this going to end ????

RG RX-78-2

Real Grade, mark as newest line of 2010 Gunpla by Bandai. It was given much rave reviews and thanks to Rock, I got my copy at the SD comicom. I am really looking forward to work on this kit with the inner frame at 144th scale as well as the details you see from the MG. I just need to find time for my long list of Gunpla to build.