MG Gundam AGE-1

[Faust]

A few years ago Bandai expanded the Gundam franchise again with the Gundam AGE TV series. At the time, it was somewhat criticized as being a bit too “kiddie”. Sure, the character designers looked a little simpler and more “Digimon-ish” than what we’d seen before, but really, the accusation isn’t fair. AGE was a good show, and it managed to do a lot more than most other Gundam series of the same length without getting too bogged down in contrived introspection.

Of course, Bandai when to town when it came to kits for AGE. Mind you, they made more kits for Unicorn and it was only a 7 episode OVA, but there were a lot of different age kits to choose from. The earliest Master Grade from AGE was the AGE-1 Normal, the ‘most basic’ form of the Gundam, but one that made it all the way through to the last episode of the series. I’ve always been a fan of the AGE-1, and was glad to give the MG a go.

Check out this somewhat overlooked Master Grade below. Maybe you’ll see that AGE wasn’t so bad after all!

https://adamrehorn.wordpress.com/model-kits/mecha-robots/bandai-1100-mg-age-1-gundam-normal-type/

 

Edited September 9, 2016 by Faust

[phil-east]

that is superb work, it looks great. I love building gunpla but my knowledge of the tv shows is non existant so i have no idea about the different shows etc but i like the design of the suit.

the pannel lines look great, i am having quite a bit of trouble getting that part right on my builds, I have just finished my 3rd kit and i am getting better with them but i seem to get staining on the white parts when removing the wash. I have tried both vallejo acrylic and humbrol enamel washes over future and my next build i am going to try an oil paint wash.

I am currently building my gunpla kits without weathering as i like the clean look so the staining is quite unwanted but when i do build them to look battle damaged i think it will actually add something to the finished result.

[Faust]

Hey Phil! 

Thanks for the compliments. As for knowing about the show, I always buy my kits before I've seen the show anyway (at least 95% of the time) and I have kits from shows I STILL haven't seen!  I, too, like the AGE-1's aesthetic, even the spoiler on the back!

As for panel lines, I never use washes, even on most other types of builds. I've only started to use pastel washes on planes in the last 6-8 months or so. They are hard to control and staining is a problem I've found too. Definitely okay on armour or weathered planes, but bad for a clean MS, you're right.

Find a Michael's Arts and Crafts store, or a Hobby Lobby (Do they have those in England?) or, barring them, some kind of similar store. If you can find the Sakura brand calligraphy pens, they are great. There are "Gundammarkers", too, a brand designed by Bandai/Mr. Colour to work with Gundams, but they are a little bit big, sometimes, even at their smallest. Get the smallest Sakura pen, and I think you'll be better off. A pencil, filed down, works great on small details too.

To prevent staining, especially on white, I'll paint the white, then dull coat it with a thinned out Delta Ceramcoat Indoor/outdoor Urethane Varnish. Once that's dry, the paint can be handled without yellowing, and if the marker smudges a bit, you can use a white eraser to remove most if not all of it. A bit of light sanding or scraping will do the rest. I then nail the marker down with a VERY LIGHT dusting of dull coat. Too wet, and it'll run! I let the marker sit for about 4 hours first, though. 

Hope that helps, and yeah, the smudging will look fine on a damaged suit!

[phil-east]

Thanks a lot thats awesome, i will hunt down some sakura pens ! its hard to find techniques for clean mechas as it seems that everybody who paints them does so weathered. We do not have michaels or hobby lobby over here but i'm sure i will find them on amazon or somewhere else online.

On a different note, my hometown is host to the UK's first gunpla conference at the end of the month so i will hopefully pick up a few tips and tricks there.

These are my first 3 completed gunpla kits. The Zeta was one of the most enjoyable builds i have ever done.

[Faust]

Nice work on those kits! I love the Zeta, but I must say that the silver and blue on the RX-78-2 is very eye-catching! Which kit is that? 

I am with you on frustration regarding clean Gundam/MS builds. I've alwasy built my MSs clean, because I want a "just walked out of the anime" look to them. I get some flak for my approach, but as you can see form my website, I don't really care, and just carry on doing what I do. A lot of people think that my kits are toys (I get a lot of "Oh, it's a Transformer!") or simple assembly jobs. They don't realize that there's just as much, if not more, skill that goes into a Gundam/mech build as any other kind of kit. :/

Congrats on the Gundam conference! If there's anywhere where there's some pics, make sure to post a link! You'll find all kinds of cool advice there!

Have fun, and keep up the good work, Phil!

 

[phil-east]

Thanks man, the rx 78 2 was a master grade  kit, version 1.5 it was a great kit to build. I am building 144 kits at the moment as they are cheaper so i can build more but eventually i want to get one of the massive kits to try out.

I had a look around your website and love your work, the Megatron custom looks especially fantastic. I have been wishing for transformers kits for years ! I will keep an eye open for some pics for you, they will probably put a load up on the facebook group or website. 

[Faust]

Thanks for the compliments, Phil!

I really wish there were more Transformers kits, too. I think they'd be awesome. Like the "Robot replicas" from the first couple of Bay-verse movies, but of G1 guys and, you know, cool. 

I also have an old HG 1/100 Epyon as Devil Gigatron from Car Robots (Galvatron in RiD) and that worked amazingly well as a detail/colour overlap. I also have a Frame Arms I think looks like Hardhead. Overall, though, it's tough to find a mech that looks like a Transformer (Valkyries and Dorvack mecha aside, of course), eh?

I'll keep my eyes peeled!