Due to some unfortunate circumstances, which were honestly and 100% totally out of my control (me and my lazy ass) my follow up part 2 post that was coming “tomorrow” has been delayed an entire week or so. However I have the time now so lets do this. more…

Well to be honest my gundam is already finished but I took as many pics as I could between the steps before going onto the next but due to my sister messing with the camera, some of the unarmored shots I took are missing so what you see here is the end result of the parts such as arms, legs and such.

Day 1

Yet again today was a rather dark and cold day so all in all it was a rather subpar gundam building day but I care not for cold weather so construction went ahead.

1 thing I love about PG kits is how they are built. Most kits you buy start on the chest, move over to the arms, up to the head, down to the waist, further down to the legs and finaly the feet. However these kits start from the feet and work their way up logicaly so the last thing to be build is the head itself. Ah great stuff. As some photos are gone so you’ll have to make do with a combined leg/foot pic. more…

So today my brand spanking new gundam kit arrived in what I thought was a rather excessivly sized box. Looked like it could of shipped a small child it was so large. As the pics below should show as well this kit is indeed so big that it requires (rather gracious of Bandai) a carry handle to cart around; something i’ve never had the pleasure of seeing on a kit i’ve bought. Gone is the flimsy cardboard housing that could eaisly be taken apart by some theiving bastard to steal a precious runner which would leave you and your kit high and dry. This baby is fully enclosed, fully colored thick cardboard which looks like in itself would of cost a little bit to make.

It even has embossed kanji on the side of the box which makes it very pretty to display. Unfortunatly due to the weather and the time this guy arrived construction is schedualed to start tomorrow when I wake up so this is sort of a pre-build post just to show off the box. Next 2, 3 or mabye even 4 posts I do will be about the building of this bad boy. Fun times ahead!

PG Astray kit together with the Limited options kit. This includes an extra katana, stand for both weapons as well as clear armor plating that replaces 2/3rds of the armor on him, including head, shoulders, 1 arm, 1 leg, chest and waist,  allowing you to show his innards off.

This is the other side of the box. Spiffy no?

Next up we have a size comparison with the Strike gundam’s housing. As you can see the Astray box is around 2 – 3 inches taller and about 2 inches wider. More parts = more fun

And finally here we have the side of the box which has the handle on it as well as the embossing. So far this kit gets a 10/10 on box presentation

So… tomorrow starts a long day of sore shoulders and modeling. Many more pics to come.

Wow, quite a mouthful of a title. Next month will be a great month for Gundam Kit fans who have a wad of cash to burn (me) with the release of perhaps the best looking Perfect Grade (PG from now on) so far. What’s so special about it you may ask? Take 1 part samurai, add it to the Strike Gundam kit, add a sleeker more battle ready look and you get something along the lines of these pictures. If you look closely you’ll also noticew that this seems to be the basic, unpainted, un-lined kit. And that is just downright awesome because 99% of kits shots you see are the finished product of someone who has all the gear ready to go. This is how awesome this beast will look seconds after fitting the last part together. 

Please excuse the small pictures but since there are a few, it’ll save you time opening them. 

However with all this awesomeness comes the only downside. The cost. While this isn’t an issue for me because i’m an idiot, at $170 US excluding shipping, it isn’t exactly something that everyone can afford. In Australian that equates to about $260 or so. If your interested, head over to HLJ.com and you can see how much it’d be for you.

As you may remember i’ve mentioned my Perfect Grade Strike Gundam a bit in some of my posts. This is usualy in reference to another gundam kit or just addons i’ve bought for it. Well about a 2 hours ago I was reposing my guy and stupidly put him on on my 7 foot high book shelf, standing on 1 leg, and went across the other side of my room to gather some parts for him to look his best. Some of you can no doubt tell where this is going. While I was picking out the parts for him to hold, there was a huge SMASH and sound of shattering plastic. Yup. My poor widdle Striker fell off the top of the shelf and smashed onto the floor. Sad face.

However despite all logic telling me that there is no way he could be put together after that, I am amazed that all that was wrong with him was that he lost the white armor parts on his shoulders, his head popped off and 1 of his butt flaps came out. All of which was repaired within 5 minutes with no  traceable damage. You really have to hand it to Bandai’s gundam division. Not only are they able to faithfully recreate the robots in all their 13″ glory, split them into 500 – 900 parts and then give instructions on how to build the damn thing, but they are able to withstand a 7 foot fall onto solid wood flooring and come out with the equivilent of a couple of scratches. And this is with no glue or screws at all. +1 for craftsmanship

Faint red outline is the white part that came off, which I like better without it on. The part with the X105 sticker on it also popped off but that was very easy to just press back on.

My Revoltech Eva-01 found himself a nice seat. Shame S.G’s fingers are all dumb looking. Didn’t notice that. Also didn’t notice that it looks like he is saluting the camera. 

The shoulder flaps make an exellent seat for other figures. Pay no attention to the brown water either, I assure you it’s just the light in the house playing tricks.

So it’s been awhile since my last post, and I thought that today I would try something different since I am putting together my most expensive, and complex gundam yet. I, for once, am going to a semi step-by-step sorta deal. When i’m all done i’ll give it a quick review/overview so it’ll be a 2 in 1 post. So here we go. Oh, and please ignore the stuff in the background haha. I took these at 2am and this is the most level part of my room for showing things off due to my height. So yeah ignore all the boxes and Kodomo no Jikan stuff.

This is what I am putting together. The Perfect Grade Strike Gundam. What is a perfect grade you may ask? (if you care haha). Well to my knowlege the grading of Gundam kits goes as such. Ungraded, High Grade (1/144 scale generaly, sometimes 1/100), Master Grade (usualy 1/100), Perfect Grade (1/60). They are the top end of the Gundam model spectrum and as such also require the most work, and most paitence to complete. If you so wish, it is very easy to put together a Master Grade gundam in around 8 hours give or take. That’s usualy how long it takes me. Perfect grade Gundams (and i’m going on what other people have said, as I havn’t finished one yet) is that they take a few DAYS to finish as the sheer number of parts is so high. As an example of what I mean, I would estimate the number of parts in an MG kit would be around 200. PG Kits have over 560 minimum. Some up to 800. Now, lets begin with this thing.

Day 1

So I woke up and got started straight away. I took the parts I needed for the legs (working in reverse order than im used to, which is a good thing. you work your way up from the feet) and feet and sprayed them out in the yard. No photos of that because after all, whats so special about runners (plastic that holds the parts together) on a clothes line? Nothing. Unfortunately due to being out of stock, I don’t have any spraypaint for the red, blue or yellow sections of this kit (Next Day Edit – They have come into stock once more, so i’ve ordered a ton and they arrive in 2 mondays time) That is going to be a bit of disapointment but since this is my first attempt at actualy spraying and inking a gundam perhaps it’s better I try my hand at it first. So I finished the foot in around 10 min. Nothing special really except the sheer size of this guy’s foot compaired to the 1/100 MG scale kits is massive.

See? Besides the obvious fact my photoshop and photography skills suck, thats almost double the size. About an hour later I had the leg finished. Again nothing too special. What I love about this leg though is that so many things move when you do the simplest thing like bend the knee. Now I see why there are so many parts

Ignore the fact it looks like I have nail polish on (spray paint SUCKS to get off your nails without metho or something). Say mabye 10 – 20 min later I had the entire thing finished. Next up was to apply the stickers (no decals, buu. thats crap, I don’t like stickers) and ink the leg. Here is the finished product. Sorry, best I could do so late at night.

All day and I have 2 whole legs to show for my effort. Man this is going to be 1 huge Gundam. More to come when I am able to continue.

Next Day Edit – Ok so I’m not able to continue today because it seems its raining and i may very well run out of spray paint for this guy. After spraying both legs (only small cans mind you) I may have enough for mabye 1 or 2 runners but thats about it I think. So this may be put on hold until 2 mondays away when my next shippment of spray arrives. Joy T.T