Preamble
The year is 2009, Japan celebrates thirty years of Gundam, rumors of the recently completed novel series, Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn, will be animated while we anticipate what will be a disappointing movie - Mobile Suit Gundam 00: Awakening of the Trailblazer.
Around this time, I started experimenting with scale models, buying cheap classic models from the local hobby store and some lame The Fast and The Furious themed scale model cars. Despite my interest in scale models and Gundam, not once did I ever think about combining the two interests. That is until I started talking to the owner of the local hobby store - we ended up buying a large order from hlj together.
While ordering I picked up four Master Grade kits in one go - Strike Rouge (2004), Shin Musha Gundam (Sengoku No Jin), Musha Gundam Mk-II, and the kit we are focusing on today, G Gundam. I built the Strike Rouge and G Gundam as practice, and as you can tell from the photos I took last year, I had (and still have) a long way to go.
One great bonus that I did not truly appreciate until more recently is the bonus runner included in the kit. To celebrate the 30th Anniversary, Bandai re-issued select kits with a bonus runner of clear parts to show off the inner frame. Had I known more about this, my purchases may have looked very different...
STOP RIGHT THERE! This is not the time for nostalgia - we are bringing this kit back from the dead! We can only look forward from here!
Concept
After going back to the Strike Rouge (holy hell! that was a year ago?), I knew I wanted to eventually go back to all my old Master Grades to make them shelf-worthy again. But what would I do with the G Gundam? The plastic was falling apart from the terrible enamel panel wash, pieces were missing, and it would not go with anything I was interested in building. I kept the idea of revisiting G Gundam in the back of my head. Then Gundam Build Fighters Try happened, and the gears started turning again.
Legacy. That was the key word here. I wanted to have Build Burning Gundam displayed its predecessor, G Gundam standing in the background. I decided a monochromatic scheme would be best as to attract more attention to Build Burning Gundam. At that point I knew there was only one way I could take this Master Grade - Hyper Mode.
WIP Montage
I decided early on that I would use the clear parts this time around including the Bakunetsu God Fingers (They were not even off the runners until last month). Taking everything off the inner frame, I worked a trial run with the gold and how it would look under the clear parts.
At this point I had used quite a bit of gold for my hand-painted candy red projects. After painting the inner frame of the leg and arm, I was running out. Thankfully, my brother was kind enough to stop by the Spare Time Shop to grab a second jar of Mr. Color Gold.
Everything started coming together. This project was a lot easier than I thought it would, especially with all the crumbling plastic.
...and we finish off with the Core Fighter.
One thing to note about the Core Fighter. The cockpit's windshield comes in clear. However, the box art (and I'm pretty sure the show) displays the core fighter in both Hyper Mode and vanilla with a green cockpit. Because I had no clear green, I took some unmixed Mr. Color Acrylic Metallic Green and painted the inside of the clear piece. The result is a green tinted window with speckles of metallic particles. I thought it looked pretty sweet.
This was the longest Hyper Mode transformation sequence ever.
Final Photo Set
I got pretty lazy after I finished painting all the things - my photos did not turn out as good as I hoped they would. Maybe I'll be more serious when I get the the rest of the project together.
Thanks for checking out my take on the Hyper Mode G Gundam! This was a great look at my embarrassing past. There's still a lot of touch up work to do (not to mention a good gloss coat), but it is definitely more shelf-worthy than it was.
Moving on to more important news, I am finally able to view all the Gunpla Lollapalooza entries! Unfortunately, due to delays, we are not announcing any winners until next week. Who will be the winner of the first annual Gunpla Lollapalooza? Please stay tuned to find out!
Until then, may your cuts be clean and sandpaper rough. This is Gundariumsmith signing out.
See you in the next one.
I feel your pain/excitement, I'm also revisiting an old MG in the form of the Sinanju Ver Ka. Although I'm still working on the kit it's been equal parts exciting and exhausting, as I work through cleaning up nub marks -damn you energy cables - and see the kit slowly revitalized.
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