Dammit, GM!

Yup, he's silver. But that's not the part that has me swearing. I planned to paint the GM Ver 2.0 using leftover paints I had as I want to use as much stuff as I can before I retire from gunpla. So I used the Mr. Hobby Silver on the head and other select parts of the body.
I then used my Tamiya Brilliant Orange on all the green parts. HOWEVER, Tamiya Brilliant Orange works like crap and won't stick to anything. I tried a couple of coats and it still beaded up and looked like garbage. Dammit, GM! I needed to think of a solution. I needed a paint that would cover well and definitely hide the faults left behind from the orange. I had a little bit of semi-gloss black leftover.. Hmm, I thought, black and silver go well and the Tamiya black spreads nicely. I knew I didn't have enough black so I headed off to the Yamida Denki because I knew they stocked Tamiya sprays unlike the closer Toys R Us.

But, if I use black, the frame won't be as noticeable, I thought. Hmm. While looking at cans of paint I grabbed a can of Tamiya Silver Leaf (made famous on my Shin Musha Gundam). I had a tiny bit of Silver Leaf left so it seemed like a good idea.

Returning home I sanded down all the crappy orange and sprayed it black. The Orange was so crappy that it hung around and created some problems for the black. Dammit, GM!


Spraying the frame Silver Leaf made it really stand out and it looked very good. I was very impressed with the result. The hands, especially, looked awesome. I was pleased.

But... (you knew this was coming, didn't you?) the Silver Leaf also, apparently, makes pieces very brittle. I don't know if it is because of the plastic Bandai used on the new 2.0 frames or whether it is just the relatively narrow width of the pieces or the Silver Leaf itself, but when I started to assemble the frame then armour, the frame pieces started to break.

Dammit, GM!

While assembling one foot a piece of the frame, which isn't even used to secure armour, snapped off and flew away.

One side of an ankle snapped.

When I assembled the sliding mechanisms on the arm and slid the armour on first the forearm, then the upper arm shattered! I had to piece them together, glue the frame, then slide the armour on and repair that. The arm.. it not bend so good.

The worst of all were the hands. Being small pieces, the fingers and thumbs just crumbled apart and I was left searching the counter and floor for all the pieces. I don't even know if I have them all again. The wrist also snapped so I can't even attach the hands.

Dammit, GM!

I don't intend to mail away to Bandai for two entire hands so I think I will be doing a lot of gluing. I think I will glue the hands back together holding the weapons so they are supported that way.

I don't want to huck this entire thing in the garbage because I think it has potential but with all the broken pieces and the now weakened frame I have to decide what to do with it.

I decided. (That didn't take long, eh.)

Diorama!

I could build a battlefield type seen with a beaten and broken GM or I can build one of him getting the core-fighter kicked out of him by an enemy. I know...!

Yeahhhh! This is going to be interesting.

More gunpla? For the guy who said he was quitting? Well, the wife is in the hospital for another four days at least so I have been pounding out the gunpla while she is away. For example:

I built this guy in about 6 hours in total (mild painting included) and he is having the topcoat dry now. Decals tomorrow night!

I will create an entry just for this guy soon. My entries might be coming fast and furious so be sure not to miss an exciting episode of...