TallonMetroid

So I built a stegosaurus model kit, which included some factoids in the instructions. One of these factoids was that stegosaurs are not believed to have had a secondary brain in the hips to help them control their rear half after all. That was wild to me, since the whole stegosaurs and sauropods with their tiny heads needing a secondary brain for their huge bodies was commonly accepted back when I was a kid. So I looked it up, and indeed, the current hypothesis is that the cavity that the second brain was thought to occupy is used for a thing called a glycogen body. But what exactly does a glycogen body do? We'll get back to you on that, apparently.

~~Ah-ah! Savior of the universe!~~

Ahem, wrong theme song. Anyway, behold the G Generation F Char Custom MS Collection, which is literally 5 SD kits thrown into a single box with a consolidated sticker sheet and instruction booklet. From left to right:

1. Char's Zaku 2
2. Char's Z'Gok
3. Casval's Gundam (not to be confused with Red Gundam!)
4. Char's Rick Dom
5. Char's Gelgoog

Also pictured are a Fanfan and Core Booster, which came with the Z'Gok and Gundam, respectively.

I'll say this about Char, though. His preferred color scheme is so simple that technically you don't even need to paint anything for color separation, because aside from the feet there are generally no colors to separate. It won't be fully accurate, but it also won't look terrible either unlike, say, the Strike Gundam. The accessories are a different story, though, of course. All the yellow weapon bits are painted.

Other than that, and the feet, the biggest bit of painting I did was for the Z'Gok, where the limbs and waist are supposed to be a different color from the torso. I could have painted the torso and left everything else as is, which technically would have given a closer color scheme, except then I still would have needed to paint the hands and claws, because they were on the dark blue runner. So I decided to leave the torso alone and go for a darker shading overall.

So, I missed the first round of voting, but the second round is up, to pick from the top 20 from the first round. Top picks from this round get a re-release (in Japan, obviously, but hopefully that'll trickle overseas). Rules are that you can give one vote a day from Bandai Hobby, and one vote a day from Builders Note, but the latter seems to require a Bamco ID.

Not exactly Gunpla, but this is what I've been working on over the last couple weeks. It's 1/10 scale, so Greed herself is about the same size as the Avatar Fumina in the corner (so a head taller than a typical HG). Yeah, this is the single biggest kit I've done so far. The kit did come with 3 hex plates for display bases, but the big stand for the whale had holes for the display arms, so I just stuck them all together. Not sure if you can tell from the pic, but Greed is actually being held up by a display arm plugged into her back, because she can't stay balanced naturally on the whale's back.

...and why is it the Zero Mission version of Kraid's Lair? 😎

Seriously, though, what are your favorites and why? I like that particular version of Kraid's Lair because it's so bombastic. The way it sounds, I can easily imagine that an instrumental version would feature both organs and electric guitars, which is an awesome combo.

Without the Shin Ryusei Kochouken:

The ankles on this thing have like zero range of movement. 🤣 Also, the Shin Ryusei Kochouken arms are supposed to go onto 3mm pegs, but the seam lines end up making the sockets loose, so be warned that it might flop a little.

And with this, Bolt Gundam is the only Shuffle Alliance Gundam left for HGFC, although I continue to hold out hope for Rising Gundam.

bonus - guiz am i doing Spidey doppelganger meme rite?

For the most part, this P-Bandai kit is just a straight recolor of the MG 2.0 Zaku II, just with head vulcans and some extra weapons. You've got the fancy looking heat hawk, but also the S runner from the original 1995 MG Char's Zaku II for the sturmfaust grenade launchers (which I attached to the hips) and the 175mm cannon (not shown).

Incidentally, unlike, say, the Tallgeese 2, which had unique figures of Treize and Colonel Une, this kit does not actually come with any Garma figures. The S runner does, however, come with a pair of Char figures. So even in Gunpla, Garma gets screwed over by Char. I suppose that this, too, can only be blamed on the misfortune of his birth.

A couple of things to be aware of about this kit.

1. The eyes are a couple of tiny clear green parts that slot into a black frame to show the silver camera greebles underneath. The manual says to snap the frame in place first, don't do that. It's easier to put the clear parts into the frame first, then do the frame.
2. Unlike with the ver Ka there's no action base adapter for neo bird mode, and only the one hole on the backpack that according to the manual is explicitly designed for one of the action base 7 adapters (but will also fit the action base 4/5 main arms). So you pretty much have to hang it from the stand and hope you've got it positioned so that it doesn't slide off.

Still, those issues notwithstanding I otherwise enjoyed the build. Definitely deserves the MG label.

First build of the new year is the P-Bandai HGAC Altron. This is, of course, TV Altron which is the superior Altron. I'm normally all for ver Ka redesigns, but Katoki made a mistake here replacing the original folding shoulder mechanism for the accordian arms.

Also, part of the reason I ordered this kit was because I was curious how they gave it the ability to t-pose, because I have a MG Shenlong that I slapped the old 1/100 HG Altron shoulders onto and wanted to see if I could give it some better articulation there. Turns out the socket for the shoulder inside the torso swings up, instead of forward like with most kits. So that would have required completely re-engineering the MG torso inner frame, which, uh, is way beyond my skill set. Sad.

more pics

"It's just a windmill!" they said. "You're delusional!" they said. Well who's crazy now?!

Featuring Knight Gundam and Nether Gundam. Since I had leftover SD frames from some SDCS builds, I decided to 3D print a conversion kit for one of the Gundams of all time. Strictly speaking, it's specifically a CS frame conversion kit and not intended for the SD frame at all, with the arm pieces wedged against the shoulder armor having basically no articulation at all, and the legs and feet just straight up too bulky to even assemble on the SD frame. If this were any other Gundam, this would have been a problem, but the Nether Gundam has a flight mode, so here we are.

What do you mean, Mrs. Loheng-Rinko totally counts as a Seed kit! I'll fight anyone who disagrees in Gunpla Battle.

Anyway, the Strike is from the BB Senshi Striker Weapon System kit, but I wouldn't have been able to fit it onto her lap if any of the weapon packs had been equipped. Sad. Once I get the Skygrasper painted, because holy crap it needs it, I'll stick all the weapons on it instead and add it to the stand.

Whoof, that name's a mouthful. But anyway. This kit. I love it. The fact that it came with this entire display area, complete with tapestries in the back, is just so ridiculously amazing. Like, sure, this is based on the MG 1.5 RX-78, so the hands don't necessarily hold the weapons that well, but who cares? Just put them in the weapon racks and the Gundam itself in seiza.