12.26.2005 » Naming Conventions

This project is based on an idea that one of my forum members (GrinchWSLG) had a long time ago on my first and now dead forum. His idea was for a mass-produced version of the Gp01 called the 'GM Patriot'. The name didn't do anything for me, but the idea was pretty cool. I waited and waited for him to do it (because I wanted to do one too, but not first since it was his idea), but he said he won't for a long time and that it's cool if I wanted to go ahead since they'll be different anyway.

So first up I started on some research for a new name. Since the other GP series mecha are named after orchids, parts of a flower, or the gerbera daisy/fish (neon tetra?) I decided to take that route. The Gp01 was named the Zephyranthes after the orchid. I found that there were many varieties of Zephyranthes orchids so I researched the traits of several of those varieties. Pretty easy considering they were all on one page! ;-) I found the Zephyranthes Reginae which grows in Mexico.

"Zephyranthes reginae is native to Mexico. It has moderate sized light yellow flowers. Like Z. citrina, it does not offset much, but a large colony of them can be built up quickly because of the abundant, possibly apomictic, seed production."

That sounded like a mass-produced flower if ever there was one which was perfect for this project. I took the "ae" at the end and changed the character to æ to combine it so that it was more like the AE logo of Aneheim Electronics Inc., the company that developed the mobile suits in the Gundam Project. The whole official project name was now: Gundam Project Mass-Produced Zephyranthes: Type Reginæ. The MS code being GPM-01R. Since Grinch will eventually be doing one then his could potentially have a 'P" designation for Patriot or maybe he'll change the name to another orchid.

12.26.2005 » GM Stylings

Meanwhile I was deciding what I wanted to do to make this a mass-produced Gp01. I have a left-over GM Quel head which is a contemporary MS so I decided to use that. I'll also be building the Gp01 head so that I can swap it. I figure the Gp01 head could be an officers-use variety ala Macross. Gun-wise I'll be using the Ako Creations Mega Beam Rifle and the Beam Spray Gun from the GM Type C, another contemporary MS weapon.

I didn't want to just remove detail from the Gp01. In fact, I want to do excessive detailing for this project. And make a nifty looking kit in the process. I got a lot of inspiration from the other GP suits, the Aneheim Electronics Ex-MS from that book cover, and the Gerbera Tetra. Here's a list of things I want to do:

• New backpack design to incorporate 4 thrusters
• Utilize Mecha Skunk's machined aluminum thruster bells in the backpack
• Make backpack cover flip up to reveal thruster details
• Create sturm booster ala Gerbera Tetra which attaches to new backpack
• Hollow out Gp01 shoulder thruster detail and add new detailed thrusters
• Make center portion of shoulders flip up to reveal thruster details
• Modify chest vents similar to my Hazel [Stutzer]
• Add chest detail as seen on many Ex-S projects
• Make shoulder pegs movable instead of fixed
• Add extra detail for guns
• Add hard-points for guns
• Make both the Quel and Zephyranthes heads
• New smaller shield design based on upper portion of Gp01 shield
• Add details to leg internals
• Remove thruster details from backs of calves
• Add detail to neck
• Use extra rear skirts from Gp01 to replace ugly front skirts
• Add fuel pod hard-points on rear skirt armor
• Create fuel pods for rear skirt
• Possibly square off the knees
• Make thruster bells movable using steel balls and ring shaped rare earth magnets
• Make shield, leg armor, sturm booster and fuel pods detatchable using rare earth magnets
• Detail-up using pin-heads and silver crimping beads
• Custom decals
• And more as I keep adding things to the list!

It's a huge list of things to do, but I'm very excited about this project. I went with a red color with white highlights in tribute to the Gerbera Tetra, one of my favorite mobile suits and part of the Aneheim Electronics Inc. Gundam Project. Plus the red will look very slick with the internals which will be done with my new favorite metallic internal paint: Alclad II and the natural bare metal of the Mecha Skunk thruster bells. The finish of this project will be 'factory fresh' and clean.

Below is a diagram I drew of what the backpack might look like when done. I rarely keep consistent between my sketches and the final piece though so this is very likely to have design changes:

12.30.2005 » Progress beginnings

So far while waiting for Hazel [Stutzer] stuff to dry I hollowed out the shoulders for the new thruster assemblies, started roughing up the sturm boosters to fit the rear skirts, and cutting misc parts out from the sprues. Each of the sturm tanks were so far made from two 1/4" lengths of styrene tube and two 1/4" lengths of styrene H-column from Evergreen styrene. These were stacked and glued to form the rounded edged boxes. Then I stuffed them full of old sprue and Magic Sculpt to fill in the holes. I'll need to fill in the outter edge gaps next then sand them smooth before detailing. Here's some pics:

01.01.2006» Backpack

Today I had all day with no family around to work on this project so I got a lot done. I cleaned up a bunch of parts, but mostly I worked on the backpack and center sturm booster. The backpack has a center portion which the sturm will mount to using rare earth magnets. On the sides of this center are two boxes that house the main backpack thrusters. I'll probably be making these so that they are able to flip upward to reveal the thruster details. The center sturm needed to be bigger to look right so I used larger tubing with the same 1/4" H-column inbetween. I added layers of styrene to fill up the center cavities. The boxes are made from pieces of styrene using L-columns as supports. You can see the supports glued into place for the outter back walls of the boxes. Everything is sticky-tached on so excuse the lopsidedness of it. Here's some pics:

01.03.2006» More Backpack

I'm still plugging along on all the mods I'm doing to this thing. Most of my focus at the moment has been on the backpack which is turning out rather well IMO. I added the back panels, did a lot of clean-up, added beveled panels to the out-sides of the booster boxes***, and started adding some bevels to the surfaces. When I use a file to do a bevel, I like to first color the edges with a red marker so that as I'm filing down the corner, I can see a white edge appear. This line inbetween the red helps me keep consistant with the bevel edge widths and angles. VERY helpful! The marker is faded from later smoothing of the surface with light sanding. Here's a pic:

*** The beveled panels on the side and back of the center box are .020" thick sheet styrene that I cut and pre-beveled before glueing it to the out-facing edges.

01.05.2006» More of everything so far...

I've been working on more than just the backpack, but that's been taking up the bulk of my efforts at the moment. I've also been starting some of the other modifications that I was planning. First off is the ankle gaurds. I like those for the Gp03 better since they don't go all the way around the back. So I cut off the back portions of those for the Gp01 and filled them and the outside gaps with Magic Sculpt (MS). I also started on the modified vents for the chest. I filled in the lower portions with MS and sanded them flat. Then I dusted it all with baby powder and added more MS inside the angled space left over. What that extra MS is for is to flatten and bevel a new intake cover that will look more like that of my Hazel Stutzer. When dry, I'll pop-out the MS blocks and file to shape. More on that later.

On the backpack I used my large file and beveled the corners and edges. This not only makes them look nicer and more refined, but also more like a kit part rather than something I made myself. On the center part you can see the 2 drilled out round flat verniers from Kotobukiya. I have the next size down that will fit inside those after painting and inside that will be a ring magnet. The ring magnets will be used to attach the sturm booster. On the outside edges of the center part and the inside walls of the side boxes I drilled tiny 1/16" holes that line up. Each hole will contain a 1/16" W x 1/32" H rare earth magnet. The 4 magnets/box will hold them to the center part and allow for them to be removed easily for displaying the aluminum thrusters. Also shown is the beam saber mount from my extra GM Type C backpack.

FInally are shots of the 3 sanded sturm boosters. You can see where I rounded the outermost edge. On the flat inside edges I drilled holes for 1/8" W ring magnets to use for attaching them to the mounts I made on the rear skirts. Those can be seen in the second pic. A 1/16" aluminum tube will help to hold the ring magnets together via the 1/16" hole in their center. Four magnest will be used to hold each tank onto the MS. I'll aslo be pinning the 2 rear skirts together on the insides of the balls so that the remain parrallel. A pin will be used on the rear center to keep them from sagging.

01.07.2006 » Beam Cannon and Chest

First off, I'm just about done with the chest vent mods. After filling the existing vent holds with Magic Sculpt (MS) I let them dry. Since I dusted the vents with baby powder first, the new parts popped right out when dry. I then took my large file and began shaping the parts. After I got the parts flat and beveled I used my scriber saw and made the seam across the front. Here's a pic:

Also yesterday I pulled out the Ako beam rifle that I had snapped together months ago and was planning on using for my Hazel Stutzer. Since I modded another beam gun for that I decided to use it for this. While looking for styrene tubing the same size as the barrel so that I could avoid some sanding I came across the barrel for my large cannon I was making for my on-hold Sazabi. I had already added rifling to the inside of the barrel and it was the perfect size. Suddenly I decided to use that barrel, but much shorter. Then I removed the ribbed midsection of the gun and found that the short cannon looked good there without it. Then one idea led to another and I decided to make something similar to this ore-gun. So I added more barrel on the back of the gun, removed the handle and added a large drum in it's place, and started modifying the handle to be mounted on the side. I like that side mount for large weapons as it makes them easier to hold for the MG kits. Anyway, here's a pic of the progress on the "Beam Cannon" so far. I still need to add an obligatory grab handle and possibly some tubing.

06.17.2006 » It's BACK!

Been a while since I've worked on this. Not because I didn't want to, but because I was waiting on some parts. MechaSkunk's machined Aluminum Bells are just about ready for sale so it's time to finish this up. The painting is all done and the kit is ready for decals. I'll take pics of those when I get to it. I just finished the base and thought I'd share. Keenix found some great plastic box picture frames at Michael's that work great for bases. Ar $1.99 each I picked up a few for future kits. I designed the base in Flash based on my decals and printed it out on photopaper. I mounted the paper to a thin sheet of styrene for sturdiness and set it into the frame held in with rare earth magnets. I think it looks great. Later I'll drill a hole for the clear rod which will hold up the GPM. Pics:

06.18.2006 » Paint and Bells

I got my aluminum bells today from Fulcy that runs the MechaSkunk store. They'll be up for sale very soon. I polished and painted the insides of them blue. As for the rest of the kit, it's painted and well past the pic below as I just finished the flat coat. A wash on the internals and a coat of paint on the lenses and I can start building it. Here's some pics:

06.19.2006 » Building

Man... building this thing is taking nearly as long as painting and decaling did. This is because I need to take my time to avoid damaging the finish. Plus I have a lot of magnets to deal with and beads/pin heads to glue into their holes. Anyway, enough talk, here's pics.

06.20.2006 » I Love Aluminum Bells!

The building of this kit is progressing slowly, but like I said above, there's a lot to do and add and it's all delicate work. I finished the magnetic mountings for the bells. I used a 1/8" ring magnet, a 4.5mm steel "bb", part of a screw-on jewelery clasp and MechaSkunk's bells. For the backpack I left the center pins long since they looked good that way there. For the shoulders and large sturm booster I cut them short with my razor saw. The 1/16" x 1/32" magnets used to hold on the sides of the backpack are also working phenomenally allowing those parts to be removed easily to show off the bells. Here's pics!