Strike Freedom Construction - Day 11

Look! Standing on its own two feet :) Finally 2/3 complete!

Strike Freedom Construction - Day 10

Wow, 10 days already. I never kept track of how many days it took to build my previous kits. Did it always take this long? I don't think I'm close to finishing this one yet. There are still many parts left for the wing assembly.

Strike Freedom Construction - Day 9

Haven't updated in a few days, but not because I've stopped working on the kit. It's actually because I've been caught up working on it that I haven't updated my progress here.


Here's how the kit looks on the 9th day. Nice legs! But it's getting cold so let's put on a pair of shorts :)

Notice on the second pic one of the beam rifle is missing. That's because I'm making a modification to it. It may actually be my first time modding a kit.

As you can see in the pic below, the end of the beam rifle can open up and allow the other rifle to slide in to form a "mega" beam rifle. The problem I found is this part doesn't remain in the closed position very well. So after thinking about it for a long time, I decided to cut a small piece of soft rounded plastic from the "PC" runner (that's the gray piece) and super-glue it onto the end piece.



So now, the gray piece will fit into the open slot at the end of the rifle and thus keep the end piece in the closed position. To open, I'll need to apply a little bit of force and pull out the end piece so that I can rotate the gray piece out of the slot.

Strike Freedom Construction - Day 8

Lots of progress on day 8 (it was actually on the labour day weekend). I worked on the model in two sessions on that day. The pic on the left shows what's done after the first session.

I included the shield in this pic, although there wasn't really much to work on, aside from taking it out of it's plastic bag :p It wasn't even attached to a runner, surprisingly.

On the beam saber, the 2 black stripes on the hilt are painted on.

And here on the right shows the final results of day 8. The entire hip cannon assembly is done :) Notice also that I now have the kit on the included stand. The stand is not sanded though, that would be too much work.

Strike Freedom Construction - Day 7

Now there's a place to holster the beam rifles. And the tip of the day is, sometimes it's easier to sand a part while it is still attached to the runner. Especially for those small parts that would be hard to hold onto while sanding, you can let the runner do the holding for you. Then after removing the part from the runner, just remember to go back and sand down those few spots where the runner was attached.

Strike Freedom Construction - Day 6

Day 6, didn't work on the body of the Gundam today. Instead, I assembled the two beam rifles. For this part, I actually did use some paint because was not molded in colour and some foil stickers were provided to put on instead. Can you tell which part is painted?

I only used those foil stickers for my first couple of kits back when I didn't know how to paint or sand. Those foil stickers would always start peeling off sooner or later and they don't look that great (makes the kit look cheap). Hence, I decided to never use them again. In fact, for those kits where I had used stickers, I eventually discarded all the stickers and give them a proper coat of paint.

On the other hand, the MG kits usually come with some dry transfer decals that I've always wanted to try out. I didn't attempt it before because I was afraid it wouldn't apply on my shoddy paint job very well. But since I'm not using paint on this kit, I think it's the perfect chance to give these dry transfer decals a try.

Strike Freedom Construction - Day 5

As you can see from the photo, the upper body is complete now. I'd say the whole kit is about 1/3 done, as there are still the legs and the backpack to assemble.

I think I'm starting to get the hang of this sanding stuff now, so here are some tips I've discovered along the way...

I find that sanding under bright lights is always good idea, especially since it makes it easier to find spots which still have that glossy look. Also, and this is fairly obvious, is that sanding in one direction whenever possible will result in a better look at the end. Lastly, remember that sometimes it is easily to sand certain parts assembled together, so it's a good to get an idea on how the parts fit together before starting to sand (like dry fitting before painting, except there's no paint at all :)

Strike Freedom Construction - Day 4

Here's day 4 (short) progress report, added armor to the arms.

Strike Freedom Construction - Day 3

Part of the arms are done. All that's missing is the outer armor. I didn't get to it yet as they require more sanding and I have done enough of that for one day. Below is a pic showing the look before and after sanding (maybe it's hard to tell from the photo).



Expanding on last post's comment about choosing which parts to sand, I've also found that selectively sanding specific surfaces of a part is also a good way to add some detail and shading to the model. It sure beats using different shades of paint to achieve the same effect.