Bandai Cielnova in Black: Finished

[David G.]

Hello Everybody!

 I picked this kit up a while ago with the intent of challenging myself with some building diversity. Don't get me wrong. I enjoy building cars, but I also enjoy Science Fiction and Fantasy. Most of all, I enjoy building. And although I may branch out from time to time and build something else, I will continue building Model Cars, Mostly.

 

This is the kit as it is assembled out of the box. It's very well engineered, all the pieces have a good positive fit and come together to yield a well articulated and detailed figure. 
It's quite a nice little kit.

The kit comes molded in a variety of colors and all the parts are interchangeable among the kits. This allows the builder to purchase multiple kits and swap the parts to achieve a custom look for their own Mech.

 

I decided to paint mine instead.

 

The kit is molded in three colors, black, gray and white. The colors I chose to paint it with are Tamiya TS-40 Metallic Black, TS-53 Deep Metallic Blue, Tamiya TS-42 Light Gun Metal and Rustoleum Chrome Silver.

 

The red on the ends of the backpack arms is from a Sharpie. I also used a few of the stickers provided in the kit to dress it up a bit.

 

In addition to the kit-provided stickers, I made one of my own.

 

 

Years ago I had a VW Bug and feeling a little creative one day, I painted this emblem on the front. Sort of a Mech Warrior clan badge. I thought would be a nice touch to have on a Mech Warrior, so I whipped up a version in PaintShop and printed it out.

In the years since I first created that logo I've used it in other situations. In Forza for example, I would place a version of this emblem on all the cars I used in the online games. Now that I have an image that I can print decals from, I can start using it on some of my other builds.

 

A couple of other detail call-outs: I was inspired by the Iron Man power core when I painted the red circle on the torso. I painted some Chrome Silver behind the purple eye in the hope of making it show up a little better. It did work, but just.

 

The helmet is cast in three pieces so I took the opportunity to paint the central piece in blue to add a little visual interest. Unfortunately, the Rustoleum Chrome Silver is a little fragile and easily marred as can be seen on the AWACS style radar dish.

I may decide to touch it up or I may just consider it battle damage.

 

As always, thanks for taking the time to look and please feel free to post comments, questions and observations.

David G.

[Cool Hand]

Well done David. turned out great. 

Can see you enjoyed the process of building a 30MM and coming up with a custom paint scheme.

Look forward to seeing the next one you build. 

Edited February 5, 2023 by Cool Hand

[David G.]

17 hours ago, Cool Hand said:

Well done David. turned out great. 

Can see you enjoyed the process of building a 30MM and coming up with a custom paint scheme.

Look forward to seeing the next one you build. 

Thank you Luke.

I certainly had fun with this one and I'm sure that there will be more builds like this in my future.

David G.

[Sandboarder]

This turned out awesome. Sounds like you really enjoyed the Bandai kit. Great to see your OOB build and then taking the time to disassemble and rebuild after paint. 
 

Looking forward to your next Bandai build, what ever it is that you choose

[David G.]

5 hours ago, Sandboarder said:

This turned out awesome. Sounds like you really enjoyed the Bandai kit. Great to see your OOB build and then taking the time to disassemble and rebuild after paint. 
 

Looking forward to your next Bandai build, what ever it is that you choose

Thank you Chris.

I really did enjoy the build. The quality of the engineering and design of the kit has put Bandai on my radar.

They have a Star Wars license and I've always wanted an X-Wing in my collection...

David G.

[slusher]

Looks great David!

[David G.]

7 hours ago, slusher said:

Looks great David!

Thank you Carl.

That reminds me, I still have one more pic to post.

Edited February 11, 2023 by David G.
typo

[David G.]

Hello Everybody!

I still have my Showcase Photo to post, so here it is!

 

Getting a good shot of this one in the display case was a little tricky. Finding the right combination of lighting, position and reflections took a couple of sessions but I finally got a shot I can be happy with.

As always, thanks for taking the time to look and I always appreciate your comments.

David G.

[stavanzer]

Adam Rehorn (aka Faust) to the white courtesy phone please!

Stellar Job on this Kit.

[David G.]

18 hours ago, stavanzer said:

Adam Rehorn (aka Faust) to the white courtesy phone please!

Stellar Job on this Kit.

Thank you Alan, I'm glad you like it.

I'm afraid that I don't know enough about models of this type to understand your reference, though. I did do a quick Google search and came up with a bunch of odd results but nothing that seems to tie in with mech warriors.

David G.

[stavanzer]

Adam Rehorn, (aka Faust) is a member here. You may know him for his interest in so-called "Loser Cars".

He is a huge Gundam Fan.

https://adamrehorn.wordpress.com/model-kits/mecha-robots/

Here is his most recent finished project.

Anyway, I was giving him a shout-out, as I am not sure he has seen this project.

Sorry for the confusion.

[David G.]

Ah, thank you for clearing that up Alan. I appreciate the links too. If a  picture is worth a thousand words then a link is worth... hmm,  half a million or so?

David G.

[Faust]

Man, I've been so busy, that I did NOT see this project!

That looks awesome, David!  I love a good mech, and I have a bunch of these 30mm kits in my stash, but haven't built one yet. 

I'm glad to see someone going all out with paint and decals on one, and I must say your choice of colours is awesome.

Well done, and congrats on pushing into territory you might not do much of. It's fun, once in a while, to give yourself a bit of a challenge to work on, eh? 

Sorry it too me so long to get here, Alan! But I made it!

[David G.]

10 hours ago, Faust said:

Man, I've been so busy, that I did NOT see this project!

That looks awesome, David!  I love a good mech, and I have a bunch of these 30mm kits in my stash, but haven't built one yet. 

I'm glad to see someone going all out with paint and decals on one, and I must say your choice of colours is awesome.

Well done, and congrats on pushing into territory you might not do much of. It's fun, once in a while, to give yourself a bit of a challenge to work on, eh? 

Sorry it too me so long to get here, Alan! But I made it!

Thank you so much for your kind words Adam!

I do like to challenge myself with a few non-automotive builds every year. I see myself as a model builder who builds model cars, mostly. That's actually what I named my Facebook page, "Model Cars, Mostly".  I've been working on uploading all of my builds there. I have about twenty builds posted there so far with many more to go.

I've checked out your WordPress page and I've seen some of the amazing builds you've posted there. You have quite a wide variety of subjects, all of them very well done.

Thanks again Adam for taking the time to comment, I appreciate that.

David G.