MG Peace and Freedom Gundam (Stars and Stripes)

[Funaka]

MG Peace and Freedom Gundam (Stars and Stripes)

MG Peace and Freedom Gundam (Stars and Stripes)

Well, it’s the Freedom Gundam, so the Stars and Stripes theme was a no-brainer for me. I thought it would be fun to do and also make a striking model. However, I’m not the flag-waving type, so when I was planning this color scheme, I didn’t want it to be a patriotic, war-mongering, America-can-do-no-wrong statement.  So, in the spirit of the 60’s, I thought of making a PEACE and Freedom Gundam in the mold of the Preventers from the post Gundam Wing world. I thought the concept would also go with the general “war must be prevented” theme of most of the Gundam series. So, I made decals that said “Peace and Freedom Gundam” and “Peacekeepers Mobile Suit Division”, whose job would be to cruise around in the Eternal and keep the peace. I used a lot of scripty text because it reminds me of the Declaration of Independence (more Freedom theme) and carries Lacus’ quote “Neither will alone nor strength alone will be enough…” Lacus strikes me as the scripty loopy font type. Okay, Kira does too. All that time with Lacus (the other Tits McGee) and still the ambiguous relationship??? Come on!

MG Peace and Freedom Gundam (Stars and Stripes)

MG Peace and Freedom Gundam (Stars and Stripes)

The custom decals and about half the warning decals are designed by me and printed by SamuelDecal. The other warning decals are Mechskunk/Fichtenfoo. Other decals are Bandai waterslide Freedom decals. My favorite Bandai decal (located on the rear portion of the hip rail guns) says “Nuclear Drive Assault Module”, but the tiny subtext says “We Got The Divine Power”. Word.

I want to take a minute to give props to SamuelDecal. When some of Samuel’s decals fell apart as I tried to slide them onto the model, I emailed him about it and he informed me that he doesn’t put extra decal film on his decals, and that’s why they fell apart. For the cost of shipping only ($5), he reprinted all the torn decals (and then some) and sent them to me. Thanks, Samuel! I bought some MicroScale decal film and brushed it on. Problem solved!

MG Peace and Freedom Gundam (Stars and Stripes)

MG Peace and Freedom Gundam (Stars and Stripes)

MG Peace and Freedom Gundam (Stars and Stripes)

Since to me this model’s all about the paintjob, I didn’t repose it for different pictures. I just don’t want to scratch it up. Plus I’m really happy with the pose I used. As far as the paint, the red, white, blue and gray are all Tamiya paint (they’re all mixed somewhat, but they started as Flat White, Flat Red, Royal Blue and Neutral Gray). The main internals are Alclad Jet Exhaust. It’s a bit on the maroon side, but I like it. The guns and vents are all Alclad Steel. The whole model has a light mist coat of a tan/gray mixture of Tamiya to blend in the decals, make the contrasts in the color scheme less glaring, and give the model a little bit of dirtiness. Panel lines are done with a technical ink pen. A gray mixture was used on the white and an off-black mixture was used on the red, gray and blue.

MG Peace and Freedom Gundam (Stars and Stripes)

MG Peace and Freedom Gundam (Stars and Stripes)

MG Peace and Freedom Gundam (Stars and Stripes)

MG Peace and Freedom Gundam (Stars and Stripes)

MG Peace and Freedom Gundam (Stars and Stripes)

As far as mods, here’s the in-prog: http://fichtenfoo.com/forum/index.php?topic=2954.0. The short version is that I added a lot of surface detail with plaplate and metal beads/balls. I changed the handles on the hip rail cannons to make them scopes because I thought handles were worthless and the guns were too flat and boring. I redid some of the internals on the shoulder because they’re just so cheesy looking. Finally, I shortened the stand by about three inches. It was way too tall. My tallest shelf is tall enough for my two PG Gundams, but way to short for the Freedom on its giant stand with the wings out. While I was shortening the stand, I added a pivot so I could lean the Freedom forward some.

MG Peace and Freedom Gundam (Stars and Stripes)

MG Peace and Freedom Gundam (Stars and Stripes)

I hope you like it. I’m not real happy with my pictures. The color is off (I need a better camera), and because the Freedom has so many long skinny appendages, it’s hard to take a good full-model picture. So, I did several close-up pictures.

[Zers]

I like it. It's pretty, and has a good theme, and it's well built and well painted! =)

[Ezechiel]

Congrats, it looks very spectacular!
It was a very ambitious project but the result is great!

[beertax]

nice work.  Wish Samuels did my second print decals for free as well  but than againa I didn't think to ask...

Btw did you check the other Freedom Gundam that uses a flasg scheme?  Kinda similar to yours... but deeper blue and different decals... but enough similarities that the two could be brothers.

[Funaka]

Ezechiel asked me in my Super Astray gallery what was next and I put a link to a pic of my MG Freedom color scheme lineart. Then Major Blah commented on it and showed me this Freedom similar to my concept done previosly by Bad Andy: http://mechamaniac.com/v-web/gallery/freedomsst. I was a little bummed somebody had already done it, but I'm still excited about the project.

Was it the one I referenced in the In Prog?

[beertax]

yea that's it.  I saw it a long timne ago.  But have to admit, yours looks much better :)

[jim27]

Wow, this looks fantastic. Great job.

[Doctor Seleski]

yea that's it.  I saw it a long timne ago.  But have to admit, yours looks much better :)

I can only assume you are talking about Bad Andy's Freedom SST.

[Major Blah]

Amazing work Funaka.  To be honest, I didn't think it would look this good, this is easily the best freedom I've seen.  Glad to hear Samuel solved your decal issues, they certainly look nice. 

Last time I checked those peace activists don't carry such big guns. 

[Hemish]

Yeah what they said, that is such an amazing piece, looks so very nice, I have to admit I didnt think it would lok anywhere near as good as it does, so kudos to you!

[d_love09]

Great Work, and i love the decals and the paint scheme is great

[Funaka]

Last time I checked those peace activists don't carry such big guns. 

Well maybe they should!  Can there be militant peace activists?

Amazing work Funaka.  To be honest, I didn't think it would look this good, this is easily the best freedom I've seen.

Thanks a lot!!! I tried very hard to make sure this wasn't just another Freedom, since this kit has been done many times before. Here's two Freedoms that I studied while dreaming up my own:

http://codyscoop.com/models/mecha/bandai-freedom?g=0&i=0
Cody's Freedom has nice little cosmetic mods that inspired my own.

http://fichtenfoo.com/forum/index.php?topic=603.0
WhiteBase's awesome 1/144 Freedom is a masterpiece of mobility mods. It's been my favorite Freedom. I can't say I did anything he did on my Freedom, I just would look at his and drool and want to build my own. 

Btw did you check the other Freedom Gundam that uses a flag scheme?  Kinda similar to yours... but deeper blue and different decals... but enough similarities that the two could be brothers.

Major Blah pointed it out in my in-prog, which was the first time I had seen it. By that time I had done a ton of work on my color scheme (over 20 variations until I settled on one). I thought up the idea of a Stars and Stripes Freedom while sitting in a Red Robin and looking a picture of American Flags on the wall. The idea evolved, and for a while I was going to make it as inspired by the "Skyblazers" aerobatic team, the Air Force's forerunner of the Thunderbirds:

http://www.warbirdregistry.org/jetregistry/f86registry/f86-524959.html

MG Peace and Freedom Gundam (Stars and Stripes)

The gray in the picture would have been natural metal finish, but with so many "Special Coating Version" models out, I decided against it.

Yeah what they said, that is such an amazing piece, looks so very nice, I have to admit I didnt think it would lok anywhere near as good as it does, so kudos to you!

Thanks, to quote myself in my In-Prog:

If this MS had been called the Taoist Gundam instead, or the Socialist Gundam () instead I'm sure I never would have seriously considered stars and stripes on a Gundam. There's a huge potential for tackiness, but I'm gonna hope with good execution it'll make people say "WOW!" more than "WTF?"

I made a serious effort in the color mixing stages to make the model as subtle as possible to avoid a cheesy toy-like feel. I made the blue and red very deep and covered the whole model with a light mist of a dirty gray to blend it all together. You can compare the finished look to a picture in the in-prog before the decals were applied.

[braxat2000]

Brilliant idea!
and superb execution, what a great model 

[erix93]

Great ideal!! Nice scheme!!! Nice finishing!!!

I love it!! 

[Gr8one]

Very nice work! One of the best MG Gundam I've seen in a long time! I love all the work you put into this kit! I have seen Andy's Stars and Stripes in person and I have to say I love both kits.


Leo

[5thluna]

unbelievable....what a imagination!!!
BEST ^^b

[Whale Gamer]

I adore the wavy pattern on the wings; most beautiful!

[bad andy]

Dude... that looks really good, I really dig your interpretation. Great details, and your paint and weathering are spot on. excellent excellent 

[philipks]

What a great work! I love the idea, and you pull it off nicely. I believe it was no easy task.