{"id":529,"date":"2004-07-11T17:25:09","date_gmt":"2004-07-12T01:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fichtenfoo.net\/blog\/?p=529"},"modified":"2009-02-10T17:30:27","modified_gmt":"2009-02-11T01:30:27","slug":"completed-%c2%bb-ex-s-gundam-crimson-iota","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fichtenfoo.net\/blog\/completed-%c2%bb-ex-s-gundam-crimson-iota\/","title":{"rendered":"Completed \u00c2\u00bb Ex-S Gundam Crimson Iota"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"fichtenfoo-crimsoniota-11\"<\/a><\/p>\n

About The Look \u00c2\u00bb<\/p>\n

Originally, I was going to do this kit in red instead of the blue-violet, but after playing around with my color scheme, the blue-violet just seemed to fit this kit very well. Plus I’d seen it done in red a few times and while it was nice, it was too “bright” for a kit of this size. I used these particular colors as well to give it a prototype\/elite feeling.<\/p>\n

I also took some influence from an EX-S I saw in a hobby magazine a while back. Those influences can be seen in the whites on the shoulders and the rings around the guns.<\/p>\n

The various whites and grays are meant to give the piece more depth and visual interest than you’d get by painting it all one gray or all white.<\/p>\n

I designed the decals in Flash and Illustrator. I sketched the “Miss Iota” decal first then scanned her in and traced\/redrew her in Flash to make her nice and clean. You can see on a close-up of the decal in the gallery how the Alps printer did the purple. On that close-up it looks weird, but at a normal viewing distance (without the EXTREME CLOSEUP!) it looks great. Thanks to Peter at Models4You for the great print job.<\/p>\n

About The Kit \u00c2\u00bb<\/p>\n

Okay… this is a HUGE kit. When I showed my wife the finished piece, I actually got a “holy crap” out of her as opposed to the usual “that’s nice”. LOL!<\/p>\n

However with “huge” comes lots of sanding. I hate sanding. Honestly, I worked on this kit for 2 months and 6 weeks of that was cutting and sanding. Really! Granted that was maybe 1\/2 hour a night on most nights, but you get the drift.<\/p>\n

While doing this kit, I took a break to work on the SD GunTank just because I was getting burned out. At several points I had thought about giving up on it and putting it aside, but stuck with it. And After I got the whole thing together, I’m glad that I did. Now, all that time and energy feels worth it.<\/p>\n

The EX-S comes in a PG sized box with hundreds of parts. Many of them are tiny to accommodate the transformation process. I will
\nnot be transforming this kit as I fear scratching my paint and decals up.<\/p>\n

The kit is nice though as far as seams. There’s only a hand full in the usual spots. Head, weapons, backpack, fuel tanks, wing binders, and the base.<\/p>\n

Would I recommend this kit? While I was working on it I would have said “NO!” but now that it’s done and sitting on my shelf, I’ll have to say maybe. If you’re willing to put in the time, and I mean a lot of time, on this kit, then it’ll be worth it in the end.<\/p>\n\n\t\t