08.02.07» Sources, Concepts &
Initial Building

The Tallgeese is one of my favorite suits from
Gundam Wing. Maybe it’s the Romanesque look or that it doesn’t
look like the other Gundams. But I love that stoic look of
this mobile suit. The HG 1/00 kit suffers from all the usual
HG wing kit problems. Loose joints, ugly joints, poorly articulated
joints, (basically bad joints) and it could use some added
detail to make it really pop. With this particular kit I could
make one of 3 different versions of the Tallgeese as seen
in the series and Endless Waltz movie. Since the original
is my favorite, I’ll be doing that one.

I’ll be making a lot of small changes to the
kit such as added detail and joint replacements/fixes. First
I removed the plastic under the collar of the head so that
I can tilt the head downward more and show some piston internals
under the back of the head. I also increased the height of
the head crest by about 60% by layering thin strips of styrene
on top, sanding down the sides then using SGT to fill the
gaps. The torso was split and a ball joint was added to improve
mid-waist posability. The knee joints were detailed and a
few leftover parts (red) from my Rick Dias killed in the front
detail gap.

For the feet I added detail and a thruster to
the sole and added pistons that go from the front of the feet
to the lower leg. The pistons are attached in the foot using
a ring magnet and metal bearing. I also cut out the shoulder
joints from the side of the chest and fashioned new ones using
the shoulder joints of an old MG Zaku kit I use for spare
parts. I replaced the barrel of the dobergun with brass tubing
and added details here and there. It’s still a work in progress
but will have a camera mounted above the new trigger grip
and a grenade launcher attached under the barrel.

08.05.07 » Binder Mod

The binders on the back of the shoulders needed
some kind of mod to make them not hit eachother when in a
dynamic pose. At first I contemplated making a balljoint or
an angled rod into the current polycap. Instead I figured
out that I can merely cut the 2 outer parts of the joint cover
from the back of the shoulder, glue them to the joint box,
slice off a small part of that box and in the end I had a
very simple plastic on plastic joint using only what was already
there. (peg and hole) Later I’ll need to thicken the peg,
possibly with some CA to strengthen the joint. Here’s some
pics:

09.14.07 » Rest of InProgs

Here’s the last of the inprogs I promised to
post up. The last pics just show what isn’t easy to see once
the kit is done. The forst few show the arm joint mods. I
basically used some rectangular tube with one thin side removed
for the lower arm joint and some detailed rectangular rod
for the upper. A leftover MG kit screw on each joint was screwed
into a pre-drilled hole. This makes the joint nice and tight.
I had to remove the upper parts of the forearms earlier in
order to be able to add the screw in later. This hides the
screw nicely as well. The top of the joint was later pined
and glued into the upper arm (bicep).

12.27.2006 » Concepts
/ Intro

My next project is a custom MS design
based on the PG WZC frame. I’m calling this unit
the Pandora. I still need to decide on an era
or if I even care to fit it in one. Probably post
F91 so I can justify a beam shield and short stature.

I am looking to find a good acronym
for H.O.P.E. System though to do the whole Pandora’s
Box thing. So far my favorite is HydrOxide
Polymorphic Engine

As for the design, I’m taking elements
from a lot of my favorite MS designs and fan-art
(especially WindFall and Studio Reckless) for
this. Also some queues from the Evolve Hi-Nu (hence
the extended ass and crotch) even though I’m generally
not a Hi-Nu fan at all.

Anyway, I have no sketches as the
design is in my head. I’m also playing it by ear.
Here’s what I’ve got so far. The main gimmick
feature I designed on it so far is the top of
the mid-chest which slides forward to open the
cockpit. I know the WZC does that, but I had to
make my own mechanisms. I’m also integrating magnets
under the armor for potential full armor (Full
Pithos (storage jar)) mode.

12.28.2006 » More
Chest Armor

I’ve gotten the basic shape of the
chest armor done. Now I just need to do clean-up
and the detail work for it. It splits up into
several pieces to allow for painting and removal.
I’ll take pics of all the seperate parts soon.
I also need to do the upper torso, but needed
the chest fleshed out first. It’s funny that I
need to do A before B before C, but I need to
first figure out what A is. Gotta love scratchbuilding.
Here’s the pics.

12.29.2006 » More
Chest Armor

Last night I made the boxes to add
to the shoulders and started on really cleaning-up
the chest parts before detailing. Below is a photo
of the finalizes chest shape. The chest vents
are modified extras from my MG Rick Dias.

Today I worked on the upper torso
that is connected to the chest, the crotch armor
and I started on the thigh armor. A lot of the
original WZC armor is rounded. This will be a
boxier design so much of those parts are getting
scrapped. I am still using small bits of the armor
though and just layering over it to get the shapes
I want, but allowing me to keep the same attachment
points to the frame.

01.03.2007 » Skirts
and Legs

Here’s the latest batch of photos
with some new body parts armored. Obviously there’s
much progress all over, but this project is so
massive that it all seems to look the same for
quite some time. These shots show the basic bare-bones
progress. These “panels” of styrene
are merely the first layer to give me something
to start building onto. Enjoy.

01.12.2007 » Legs

Here’s the latest on the Pandora…
not much new as I’ve been too busy to work much
on it, but I got the leg armor shaping up. Here’s
a pic:

About the Build »

This is the Super Deformed Tallgeese, one of many really really cheap SDs I got on sale at Big Lots. These are small easy little kits with just a few parts. Unfortunately that also equates to lots of gaps and holes to fill.

On this particular kit the holes were on the backs of the arms and under the feet. I filled the arm holes with Magic Sculpt and skipped
the foot ones as I’ll never display it upside down.

This kit only took an hour or 2 to cut, sand, fill, and ready for paint. Painting took less time and decaling a little more than the paint. I like how the large warnings look on the little SD. It gives it some easily applied and needed detail.

The shield did not have the eagle scribed onto it like I’d hoped and the sticker was a silver circle with the eagle in the middle. I cut the silver away from the eagle and applied the sticker onto the shield. It’s raised on the edges as stickers are, but gives it an  embossed look and isn’t the most horrid looking thing in the world.

About The Kit »

This is the Bandai Master Grade Wing Gundam Version Ka. This was a self-test for me to see how long it would take to to an OOB kit. It took roughly 60 hours and the breakdown is on the progress page.

I basically built this kit out of box with a custom color scheme and decals. The color scheme was based on the Skull Squadren VF-Xs from Macross. It’s all mostly grays with the exception of a gold highlight color minimally used on the chest, head, and ammo pods. I custom designed the text and girl decals in Illustrator. I recreated the warning marks for the original kit as waterslides since I really liked the way they looked and felt they added a lot to the look. The kit came with stickers, but those seldom look good.

So check out the images. I also, due to some requests, did a wallpaper for this kit. I may start doing at least one for every future kit I finish.

01.15.2005 » Concepts

I bought this kit in March 2004 at the Pittsburgh
Comicon along with an MG Strike and VF-0s. Almost a year later,
I’m finally getting to it. After doing the MG
Ex-S, Malevolent Creature, and
Vorflugkontrolle, I need a small, quick
build. Plus, I’m in the middle of painting my Vorflugkontrolle figures
so this gives me something to do while waiting for the oil paint
to dry.

Since I got the kit, I’ve been toying with various
ideas for color schemes. Nothing was really fitting this kit however.
I’ve also gone through 3 prior revisions of an anime-style girl
I illustrated in Flash to use on the shield. Then a week ago, I
was working on it again since I was planning on starting it soon
and I hit a total mental roadblock. I had a scheme I liked based
on a WW2
German aircraft scheme, but again, it wasn’t doing anything
for me.

So I was sitting at my desk, knowing that if I thought
too hard about it, nothing would get done. I picked up my VF-0s
to mess with some designs for that, and then my VF-1s Battroid toy
and suddenly an idea came to me. I opened up my Wing line art and
did a scheme based off Roy Fockers Skull Squadron valkyrie.

I didn’t want to be too literal with it, so I used
just the colors for the most part. Greens for the eyes and snesors,
charcoal gray instead of black, a gold stripe on the chest, and
a Jolly Roger on the cockpit. Finally, I had a scheme that I would
be happy using on this kit.

The kit will be done OOB (out of box) with the custom
scheme and decals. I want to see how long it will take to finish
after doing those last 3 HUGE projects.

I went right to work on the decals using one that
came with the MG Wing Zero as a reference for inspiration. The decals
that came with the Ka are great, but not what I wanted. I also went
and recreated all of the fantastic warning decals so that I can
have waterslide versions instead of the craptacular stickers that
Bandai supplies. I used info at MAHQ and the original decals as
reverence for what to write. 4.7.195 is the date Operation
Meteor bagan in Gundam Wing so I used that in the scheme. I
also used Lagrange Point One and Colonies Liberation
Organization in the theme.

The pirate girl for the shield began as a purple-haired
girl in a dress I created for one of my older thoughts for a Wing
Gundam scheme. I later changed her to fit the German scheme by changing
the clothing, left arm, head and hair. To make her fit the new “Skull-Leader”
scheme, I added a pirate-esque bandana, and a flipped-up eye-patch.
Since I created the original girl in Flash, I kept the bare body,
clothing, hair, etc. on separate layers. To create the pirate girl,
I merely removed all the clothing layers and added a bandana-matching
bikini, changed the face and hair style. I’ll use the others for
future projects.

The above image shows the transition between my original
sketch and the various modifications to eventually create the pirate
“nose-art” girl. Using layers in Flash (or illustrator)
lets you play with different looks without having to use multiple
files.

The base will be a pirate cove or a small island.
Maybe a skull island! Yeah, that’s the ticket!

01.22.2005 » Building, Go!

Since I’m waiting for oil paint on my Fliege Figures
to dry, and we’re in the middle of a snow-storm, and there’s nothing
much else to do, I started on the construction of the Wing Ka today.
So far I’ve cut out the torso, head, arms, and wings. I’ve sanded
everything I could and everything that needed glue for seams is
drying. Those parts will be sanded later.

01.23.2005 » More!

Today I cut out and sanded the rest of the pieces.
I still need to sand all the glued seams, then check to see if they
need putty. Here’s a shot of the pile-o-parts.

01.24.2005 » Sanding is not fun

Today I sanded all of the parts that I glued to remove
seams. Afterwards, on those that needed it, I either applied Tamiya
basic putty or ran Mr. Surfacer 500 (in a jar) along the seam to
fill the hairlines and accidental gouges. I also skewered all of
the parts except those that have putty drying.

01.25.2005 » By The Power of Grayskull!

Today I finished sanding all of the parts I applied
putty or Mr. Surfacer to yesterday. I skewered those parts and painted
the yellow pieces since they’re first in my list for masking ease.

I also started on the base. I did a search on Yahoo
Images for “cove” and one of the first
pics to pop-up was exactly what I wanted. I’m using a small
oval base that I finished this summer (along with 10 others just
so I have them when I need them) I put 3 wood screws into the top
to act as supports for the celluclay shrinkage. I then applied the
celluclay around the back edge. I dug the mouth hole out with a
clay tool and proceded to do all of the rock shaping with my clay
tools.

After this dries completely, I’ll prime and paint
it. I’ll add the rubble at the base before priming. I’ll be using
fine ballast gravel used for railroad sets. I have a lot more of
the tree sets that I used on my GunTank, so I’ll add those to the
top of the cliff. For the water, I’ll be using acrylic gel medium.

Later on I got a chance to paint the internals. I
mixed a warm gray color very similar to the stock internals ABS
plastic color. I readdy liked that color as it’s not the normal
gray. I used Tamiya Neutral Gray, Black, and A left-over custom
orange-brown mix to achieve the color.

01.26.2005 » Masking Begins

Today I masked off the gold ammo cartridge parts and
the chest piece and painted all of the charcoal parts. The color
was mixed using 50/50 Tamiya Black and Neutral Gray. I also gave
the elbows a shot of future to protect them while working on the
forearm seams. Later I painted the Medium Gray parts (claws, shoulder
stripe) and the lightest gray.

01.27.2005 » Farther than I thought…

I’m much farther along with this kit than I thought
I’d be. I’ve gotten all of the colors painted. I even got the internals,
charcoal, gold, and medium gray parts sprayed with their first coat
of Future. Just need to do a little touch-ups here and there, then
clear-coat the rest and ink those panel lines.

01.28.2005 » Almost there…

All of the painting is done! All of the parts have
1 coat of Future! Half the parts are inked! Other than that, today
I made my lenses and decided to document the process for a tutorial.
Click here for the tutorial.

I also worked on the base a bit… I painted it black,
but then realized that I forgot to add the talus. So after it dries,
I’ll have to reprime. Oh well.

01.29.2005 » Ready for decals!

Today I finished up with inking the panel lines and
just got done giving the parts a pre-decal coat of Future. That’ll
seal in the ink and give the decals some extra gloss to set on.

I also did some more work on the base. Earlier I reprimed
the base and tonight I airbrushed on the colors for the water. First
I airbrushed on a light blue green for the shallows. Then I blended
in a medium blue to give it more depth. Then in the deepest parts,
I sprayed on a mixture of blue and black. Finally I brushed on a
coat of Future to seal in the paint for when I start drybrushing
the rock.

01.31.2005 » Making Waves

Yesterday I drybrushed all of the rocks with cheap-o
acryllics. Today I went to Michaels and got a jar of Liquitex Gel
Medium to use for the water. It dries transparent and goes on thick.
The jar was about $10, but I paid about $6 with a 40% off coupon.
I love those!

Basically I just dabbed it on with a stiff brush and
pushed/glopped it on with a flat brush for the waves. This pic shows
how it goes on white, but all of that will be clear when it dries.
I’ll have to drybrush on some white afterwards to get the frothy
effect back.

02.01.2005 » Surf’s Up

Okay, the Transparent Acrylic Gel Mudium water is
all dry and as you can see in the first pic, it’s dried clear. All
that white from before is gone.

So to get the white caps back, I mixed some Liquitex
white acrylic and more gel medium together (about 50/50) and drybrushed
it carefully onto the waves and peaks. It’s not as white and stormy
looking as in the first pic, but that’s not the look I wanted anyway.
It now has a calm, paradise feel to it. Well… except for the ominous
skull lurking overhead. I may go and give it a sectond drybrush
to bring it out a bit more. It looks better in person though as
opposed to the pics.

And a close-up…

I might add a coat of Future over the water to gloss
it up a bit more and for protection. After that, I’ll remove the
tape.

03.01.2005 » Decaled and Done!

So I got my decals on Saturday from Models4U who did
a fantastic job as usual. Seriously… this guy is the best. Anyway,
I went to work imediately applying them. In keeping track of my
time spent on each task, I found it funny that I spent more time
decaling than painting.

The grand total… 61.25 Hours! Not
sure whether to feel happy, sad, or patheticly geeky.

Anyway, it’s all done so expect some final images
soon.

Project Time Sheet:

Out of curiosity, I want to know just how much time
I’ll spend on this project. This part will remain at the bottom
of my in-prog page. So for the concepts, I spent about 15 hours
total. That includes doing the color scheme, designing and drawing
the girl in Flash, creating the decals and getting them ready for
print. The ‘Building’ time will be how long I spend on cutting,
sanding, and modifying. Painting will be just that. And so on…

Estimated Concepts: 16 Hours

Total Building: 14.75 Hours

Total Skewering: 1.75

Total Painting: 4.5 Hours

Total Masking: 1.75 Hours

Total Clear Coating: 3.75 Hours

Total Panel Lines: 4.25 Hours

Total Decaling: 7.5 Hours

Total Construction: 2.5 Hours

Total Base: 4.5 Hours

Grand Total 61.25 Hours