Thursday, June 12, 2014

HGAC (HGBF) Wing Gundam Zero WIP 1

Finally got around to posting this.  As I said in an earlier post, out of the HG's I have this kit fit the bill perfect for this build.  Besides it being a solid ass kit, it also has some sentimental value to me.  The first Gundam kit I ever got was the original 1/144 HG Wing Zero.  Back when Gundam Wing was airing in the US you could actually find Wing kits at Game Stop and WalMart.  Well looking back now, that HG was pretty terrible, especially by today's standards.  Anyway, on to the work in progress.


First thing I did.  Yes, I took the wings off of a machine called the WING Gundam.  Umad bro?... any hoo.  I did this because I wanted a sleeker look.  I'll probably end up adding extra thrusters in other places to make up for the thruster pod like wings being gone.  I'm not sure of any modding I'll do to the actual body.  I think I'll just add some pla plate panels here and there, but who knows..


Oh yeah.  Sorry about the TV and junk in the back.  I've been using my lap-desk set up lately.  


That brings us to the next part of this build.  I wanted to keep the Twin Buster Rifles.  On that note, I felt I needed some sort of custom weapon.  I mean I am building this thing with the mind set of 'what if Gundam Build Fighters were real...' so I wanted it to reflect that.  I originally had a brief thought of using the shield for a custom cannon but then I thought, 'This is MY Gunpla!', so I got away from the idea of giving a pretty much mid-long range mobile suit another long range weapon.  In every robot or Gundam game I've ever played I've always been drawn to using melee units or fighting in a close range style.  Yes, I was that asshole with dual Moonlights in Armored Core.  Getting back on topic, I decided to give my Wing Zero twin swords to go with its Twin Buster Rifle.


I nabbed some of these blank ID cards from work.  They basically work like thin, rigid ass pla plate.  I have thicker pla plate that's flimsier than these cards.  Because they're rigid despite how thin they are I thought they would be perfect for a sword blade.


I started with this.  This is part of Bandai Weapon System 003.  My Wing Zero actually spent two days holding one of these as I could not decide on a blade design.  I drew probably about 20 prototypes and spent hours Googling to no avail.  Then my wife brought something up to me.  "Why don't you give it Kirito's sword?"  I was perplexed.  We were watching Sword Art Online at the time on Netflix.  Then I thought about it... This is a 'custom' Gunpla.  Anybody else remember that whole episode in Build Fighters about freeing your imagination?  



So yeah... I went there... I did it... I built an Elucidator for my Wing Zero.  The real Elucidator is on the right for reference.  Yeah it's not an original design and haters gonna hate.  But at the end of the day, I love the sword and the anime.  So I saw no problem in giving a sword design that I love to my Gunpla.

I used the handle from the Heat Sword and trimmed the hand guard down so it would flow better.


Cutting those little parts out of the card was tedious, time consuming, and !@#$@%.  Eh hem... Actually all in all it wasn't that bad once I got going.  I simply put a template on the card and cut it out with my hobby knife.  I ended up making this two of those ID cards thick.  It just seemed kinda dinky just using one card.  One weird thing I ran into with this.. My Tamiya Extra Thin Cement had absolutely no hold/effect on these cards.  No idea why.  Ended up going to my bottle of 'ole reliable Loctite and it held no problem.  Again, no clue why the Tamiya cement didn't work at all.  Oooo welll.


Back to the Twin Busters.  Like I said earlier, I wanted to keep these for this build.  I actually don't plan on modding or adding anything to them but I was presented with a small issue.  My Wing Zero has 2 rifles and is going to have 2 swords.  He only has 2 hands... Well as soon as I made the Elucidator I had already started thinking of sheath prototypes that would hold it and the other sword.  My issue is the rifles.  Is my Wing Zero going to just through the rifles/rifle away when it wants to use its swords? Hell no.  If there's one ongoing pet peeve I have with mobile suits it's that I think all a mobile suits weapons should be able to store on it somehow.  It just makes sense.  Like, why have to ditch a weapon to use another weapon?


That brings us to this quick little mod I did.  I had originally planned on attaching something else in place of the wings.  That's why what used to be to ball joint connection is now a chewed up peg. -_-   Anyhoo I did some cannibalizing to the shield to get the connectors for the Twin Busters.  After some cleaning up and some cementing we have...



I think it flows better than I thought it would.  





It does stick a little off to the side.  Ugh.  I can only hope that putting the sheath apparatus in the middle will help deter from that bit of awkwardness.  Speaking of which.  As I'm typing I can see that I really don't have that much room in the middle for said apparatus.  I don't think there's even room for the Elucidator's hilt/hand guard in that space.  Many curses are ensuing in my head right now.  ..sigh..  Oh well.  I guess I'll figure it out when I get there like always.  

Well here's some random pics I took.  My next missions are the other "holder" for the right side Buster Rifle and the other sword.  No, I'm not going to make a Dark Repulsor to go with the Elucidator.  I'm not gonna take both of Kirito's swords.  I have an idea I'm running with atm.  Hopefully it'll go smoother.  I'll probably post another WIP after I start working on ideas for the sheath.




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