The joint venture with the American Salaryman in Tokyo known as the Victory Duo Project comes to a close. See the galleries with both MS here and here.
Let's have one final look at my V Gundam as I give my final thoughts. First off, though, let's talk specs.
Colours used:
Tamiya TS-37 Lavendar
Tamiya TS-56 Brilliant Orange
Mr. Hobby 8 Silver
Topcoat: Mr. Hobby Gloss
Decals: Bandai Victory Gundam decals (x2)
Parts: Aurora stickers for the eyes.
My first thoughts when putting together this kit, "Wow, this thing is really small."
My final thoughts when seeing the completed kit among his new friends on my work desk, "Wow, this thing is really small."
There's a lot going on with this kit, and this seems to be a staple of the Version Katoki kits. I prefer my kits to be a little advanced when it comes to engineering so this was a good thing. The transformation gimmick added to the impressiveness of such a small kit.
Let's have a look at this kit in its different modes.
Looks very Y-Wingish, if you ask me.
How do you get this thing into its different configurations? For the most part, it isn't terribly difficult. You do need patience and a light touch. Paying particular care and attention not to scrape off a decal when switching. Don't ask me how I know.
You have three different sections; The bottom half (for the bottom fighter), The top half (for the top fighter) and the core fighter. I really am impressed that they gave you enough pieces to make two different fighters, one for Victory and another for Hexa. Two complete core fighters? I'll take 'em!
Start off like this:
Move some things around.
click/snap
Voila! Just attach the Core fighter and you're good to go. This was the easy half.
The Victory Crab makes another appearance!
I had wanted to pose my Victory in some cool action shots but it proved too difficult and I lost patience and gave up. In order to get this guy on the stand you have to attach him by the bottom of the skirt, however, that part is made to open and flip so it never stays together tightly enough to allow the stand attachment to grab hold. The result was my Victory kept falling off the stand and hitting the table. So I said, "Screw it" and just went ahead and transformed him seeing as he wasn't staying together anyways. This is a big drawback for me. With the design of the hips, there is almost no posability. You really only can bend the knees. The arms are slightly better but the construction of the shoulder can get in the way quite easily. This things literally stays together by sliding the bottom half into the top half which means it will come apart just as easily and a lot of times when you don't want it to.
Final word;
The fact that I was building this kit as a joint project with a fellow gunplar kept me focused and made it enjoyable. Had I been building this as a solo effort, I might have enjoyed it less. The extensive decal work can take a lot out of a person, but I couldn't give up as I had a mission and a deadline.
Would I build it again? Hard to say... Good thing I have enough gunpla to choose from I won't have to think about it for awhile.
Pros: Excellent engineering, two core fighters, hands are plentiful and of good design, transformation!
Cons: Very limited posability, both Mech and rifle fall apart very easily, takes some effort to put core fighter into upper torso which may lead to damage of decals, too many decals!
Colours used:
Tamiya TS-37 Lavendar
Tamiya TS-56 Brilliant Orange
Mr. Hobby 8 Silver
Topcoat: Mr. Hobby Gloss
Decals: Bandai Victory Gundam decals (x2)
Parts: Aurora stickers for the eyes.
My first thoughts when putting together this kit, "Wow, this thing is really small."
My final thoughts when seeing the completed kit among his new friends on my work desk, "Wow, this thing is really small."
There's a lot going on with this kit, and this seems to be a staple of the Version Katoki kits. I prefer my kits to be a little advanced when it comes to engineering so this was a good thing. The transformation gimmick added to the impressiveness of such a small kit.
Let's have a look at this kit in its different modes.
Looks very Y-Wingish, if you ask me.
How do you get this thing into its different configurations? For the most part, it isn't terribly difficult. You do need patience and a light touch. Paying particular care and attention not to scrape off a decal when switching. Don't ask me how I know.You have three different sections; The bottom half (for the bottom fighter), The top half (for the top fighter) and the core fighter. I really am impressed that they gave you enough pieces to make two different fighters, one for Victory and another for Hexa. Two complete core fighters? I'll take 'em!
Start off like this:
Move some things around.
click/snap
Voila! Just attach the Core fighter and you're good to go. This was the easy half.
The Victory Crab makes another appearance!
I had wanted to pose my Victory in some cool action shots but it proved too difficult and I lost patience and gave up. In order to get this guy on the stand you have to attach him by the bottom of the skirt, however, that part is made to open and flip so it never stays together tightly enough to allow the stand attachment to grab hold. The result was my Victory kept falling off the stand and hitting the table. So I said, "Screw it" and just went ahead and transformed him seeing as he wasn't staying together anyways. This is a big drawback for me. With the design of the hips, there is almost no posability. You really only can bend the knees. The arms are slightly better but the construction of the shoulder can get in the way quite easily. This things literally stays together by sliding the bottom half into the top half which means it will come apart just as easily and a lot of times when you don't want it to.
Final word;The fact that I was building this kit as a joint project with a fellow gunplar kept me focused and made it enjoyable. Had I been building this as a solo effort, I might have enjoyed it less. The extensive decal work can take a lot out of a person, but I couldn't give up as I had a mission and a deadline.
Would I build it again? Hard to say... Good thing I have enough gunpla to choose from I won't have to think about it for awhile.
Pros: Excellent engineering, two core fighters, hands are plentiful and of good design, transformation!
Cons: Very limited posability, both Mech and rifle fall apart very easily, takes some effort to put core fighter into upper torso which may lead to damage of decals, too many decals!
woah.. very nicely done.. wish i could make smthing like this one day..
ReplyDeletemay i know how do you panel line your kit after painting it? the lines seemed so thin and straight.. and there's hardly and smudges, i.e cleaning up any panel line mistakes..
ren.
Nice review! Deadlines come in handy sometimes. and the core bottom fighter does look like the y-wing doesnt it. extra core fighter in the kit was a good call by the designers because in the anime core fighters are used like regular fighters. theres a lot of them coming out randomly to provide parts for the v-gundams
ReplyDelete@Ren n Tako: Thanks! If I am panel-lining an unpainted kit, I will take a very small copic marker, usually 0.02 or 0.03, and panel line before applying the top coat in preparation for decals. With an unpainted kit it is no problem to wipe away panel-line mistakes with your finger or a cotton swab, or even a toothpick in those hard to reach places. If I am panel-living a painted kit I put a gloss coat over it first before using the marker. I can remove mistakes again with my finger, swab, paper towel, or even some enamel thinner.
ReplyDelete@Busterbeam: I haven't seen the anime so I wasn't familiar with the use of the core fighter. I did see some images in the jan issue of Hobby Japan that there are ground transports for the sections of the V gundam but I never thought about the purpose of the core-fighter. You learn something new every day.
thank you so much for answering my question! i'll try it! cos i din really have a good experience cleaning up panel line after i've painted and gloss topcoated it.. i was using enemal paint for panel wash.. and when i make any mistakes, using enemal thinner cotton swab to clean the line would actually remove the thin layer of gloss topcoat along with it. leaving an ugly patch on the kit.. maybe i'll try a thin copic marker.. smthing like the gundam panel lining marker.. =)
ReplyDeleteHi Ren n Tako,
ReplyDeleteWhat type of gloss coat did you apply? Was it lacquer based? I found a good resource which lets you know what kind of paint is suitable to go over other types of paint. It was very helpful to me when I first started painting. Check it out!
http://www.naritafamily.com/howto/paint.htm
yups.. its glossy white spray can.. so its lacquer based. dun think i sprayed topcoat at all. so the enamel thinner actually removed the glossiness of the white when i ran my cotton bud over.. its kinda unexpected for me.. and i've nv heard or seen such things before. haha. thanks alot! it looks very useful and easy to understand..! oh.. and i envy you.. you hlj worker!!! lolx.
ReplyDelete