One of the great things about the Gunpla is the opportunity to modify the kits. Especially the SD kits are good kits to mod. The inspiration came from my brother which started with Gunpla at the same time. His first mod was the SD Strike Gundam. Since he already owned a normal version of the SD Strike and purchased the SD Strike + Striker Weapons System, he didn't know what to do with the extra Strike at first. After a good brainstorm, he decided to make a rarely seen SD Strike Rouge. He has turned into a SD mod specialist ever since.
The first kit I've had modified was the SD Gundam Astray Red. I've had a SD Astray Red already build, wondering why Bandai didn't milk this one out, I made a recolor and the SD Gundam Astray Blue Frame was born. To find a fitting color wasn't that hard. I decided to use the Tamiya Spray TS-44 Brilliant Blue. Now the hard thing was to get the details also in the same color. Since there is no acrylic version of the TS-44, I had a solution that was just as easy as brilliant. I took an empty acrylic bottle and sprayed a couple of ml in the bottle and made sure that it was well closed after every use. I could have even the polycaps painted. (See all above)
After the release of the SD Gold Frame, the Astray Team was complete.
My second mod was a very good one, almost a masterpiece. This was the SD Blaze Zaku Phantom (Rey version) turned into worlds first SD Blaze zaku Phantom - Dearka Elthman Custom. Below the results.
This is one of my better works. The irony is that, again, my brother started to mod his Rey version into a Heine Westenfluss version. 8 months later Bandai had released such a version themselves. I wonder whether Bandai releases my SD mod.........
Since this site is about Gunpla too, I thought it would be good to post some of my works..... Well, the first photo is from August 2006. Just finished my first Gundam kit. It's a good model and not too difficult. The HG 1/144 ZGMF-515 CGue hasn't been painted yet and I was trying to find my way in de world of Gunpla and painting. So the details are limited to some panelline markings and a little painting.The thrusters on both sides of the chest are painted, so are colors the pink and German Grey (Tamyia). The grey I used was mixed on feeling. Being a teacher in Physics has some advantages I guess....
My latest works are the MG 1/100 RGM-79Q GM Quel (on the background another masterpiece: Gundam Mk II Titans) and the HG 1/144 TMF/A-802 Mobile BuCue As you can see, all the parts are painted. The details are done with old school paint and the larger parts, such as armor plates are done with spraycans. It's easy, faster and, most importantly, economic. All my Master Grade (and the pending Perfect Grades) have also undergone a Top Coat-Flat treatment, this is to wipe out the chaep plastic-looks from the kit. The flat version makes the kit look very precious and 'heavy'. I've decided the Top Coat treatment to be prohibited to the MG & PG kits. The SD and HG are in my opinion, not worth it (yet, although there are some exceptions). The GM Quel is a relatively old kit from December 1999, almost a decade. Though it is a good kit to start or, what I did, enjoy as a funny project between the serious works.
The BuCue (2007) has more articulation and details than the CGue (2004). It has good beam weapons and two backpacks. Either a twin-rail gun and a 13-pod missile launcher. More projects are coming up. in the future I will upload the best of my works till now. The next project is still unknown, due to the investigation of the Macross Frontier kits. So, the next kit could be a MF kit.
All the photo's till now are taken with an ancient digital compact camera Sony DSC-P8 (2004). This is because the 3.2 megapixel isn't that spacious as the 10.2 megapixel from the Sony-Alpha 300 DSLR. Therefore, soon I will switch to this camera due to the much higher qualities and possiblities it has.
As a long time fan of Sci-Fi like Transformers back in 80's (Only G1, the rest was crap), Battlestar Galactica TOS and Battlestar Galactica 2003, there was also place for Anime. In the 90's there were besides Anime, Manga. This is a different style and fundament, but that aside of it. As a kid I've watched many Cantonese versions of Anime like Mobile Suit Gundam (Not aware of all the storylines, but the action was great), Dairugger XV - Kikoukantai, Six Gods, LionBot and so on.
At the end of 2005, after purchasing a HD-DVD recorder to record BSG 2003, my brothers attended me that the series mecha do have a lot in common with Mobile Suit Gundam Seed, and more importantly, have a good and decent storyline. After buying the first 2 DVD's (10 Phases) to give it a try, I was completely hooked. That was about Jan. 2006, a time-span of 22 years since the first show of the Transformers. A lot has happened. While searching for some information on the internet, I remembered my brother purchased some kits from Gundam Seed way back in 2004 in Hong Kong SAR. The kits, HG 1/144 Freedom & Justice made me curious about the franchise and before I realized what has happened, I had a tons of kits. Thinking about being able to build just one kit at a time, the idea to sell Gundam Model kits was born in no-time. Since then, there is not many left untouched of this franchise and grew out to a serious hobby of mine, again.....
To say that it is a life-changing day, is probably somewhat excessively. But with the launch of this Blog, there is another expansion of my view on Gunpla modeling, the world of otaku, videogames, traveling. The Blog's name is derived from a faction from the Gundam meta-series 'Mobile Suit Gundam Seed'. Since the vision and the mobile suit ad battleship designs of Orb are very inspiring to me, I decided to use these terms as well aside of my Gunpla webshop Morgenroete Inc..
Therefore, I hope this Blog will also inspire other Bloggers, Gunpla-fans etc. It's one of the many ways of life. Have fun.
One of the great things about the Gunpla is the opportunity to modify the kits.
