2012 in review

Hello! It has been some time I know and as you may have noticed it has been the festive time of year (again, I don't know how it happens every year around this time its weird..). Thought I would take this opportunity to say I hope you all had a nice Christmas, and to have yourself a awesome new year.

I have been spending lots of time with the family, and working steadily on an MG Rick Dias (WIP will eventually be posted, probably next weekend or something).

2012 has been a special year for me, it's the year I think I have learned the most about the art of Gunpla. This year I have learned how to airbrush, learned about paint types, thinners, modifications and seam line removal and am of course, still learning with each experience. Most of what I have learned has come from the awesome people in the gundam community across the world, so here are a few youtube channels I would like to mention who have helped me (and could help you too if you don;t know about them already!) along in some way this year:

deezipp3011
TheGunplameister
vegeta8259
crapmunky99
enensis
NigelTehTianHong
Kamniks
sneeper1980
mokanaman

I would also like to thank everyone on the mecha lounge who's advice has been invaluable :) I also completed watching nearly every Gundam anime that has ever been made, apart form superior defender which is just a steaming pile of shit. Patlabor next.. :)

Heres a quick vid update, the last of 2012!

Happy new year to you all and see you in 2013!

Ryurai Kai Suppression Vanguard custom

Took around 5 weeks to complete, on and off of course interspersed with family life and activity. All-in-all I really like the design of this model, it has a real chunky, thick-armour feel and is the closest match to what I can only describe as a walking tank!

The addition of the gatling gun was a bit of a whim, but it did give me the idea to call it the "suppression vanguard  with the idea of this machine being a pure, frontline mech with artillery and ballistics combined. Its heavy armour would make it ideal for initialising battlefield operations by laying down a spray of gatling cannon bullets along side long-range artillery, enabling other forces for drive forward with less challenge.

In summary, assembly was easy and straightforward, the inner frame gets very loose, very quickly and the model does suffer a lot from "droop". The additional armour bits are really cool, although I kind of ran out of steam to detail those parts properly so they returned to the box where perhaps future frame arms will utilise them. Would I get another frame arms model? Yes, if i like the design of course. Some final pictures below: