This makes three in my MGX4 challenge. (click the logo) Now I just need to do one more before April 30th and I win nothing but the satisfaction of building a bunch of kits in a short period of time. Yay me.

Anyway, this is the Master Grade Zaku 2.0 in Char Aznables custom colors. Originally I was going to do this for myself in a different scheme, but I got an offer on it to build it as a Char version and it turned into a commission. I snapped some quick images without any pose because I don’t want to accidentally scratch the paint before shipping it out.

As for what I did to this one…

• Replaced all bells with Mechaskunk and Ako Creations Aluminum thruster bells.
• Replaced pipe bead insides with springs.
• Applied Ako Creation Metal Transfers (awesome BTW!)
• Added vernier to front chest.
• Replaced eye with SP Eye metal part and Aurora Sticker
• Replaced weapon lenses with Aurora stickers
• Internals painted in mixtures of Mr. Color (Gunmetal and Titanium/Brass)
• Bandai and HiQ decals
• Mechaskunk screws for shield inside
• Aluminum shoulder spikes

The 2nd completed build in my MGX4 challenge is a customization of the Astray Blue Frame 2nd Revise. Instead of blue, I went with copper (anti-beam-spam coating or perhaps anti-steampunk coating) which turned out beautifully, if I do say so myself. I wasn’t sure how it would look with the black and white as I was painting, but I’m very happy with the end result.

The only issue I really had with the copper paint was the parts in which I used the copper straight from the Mr Metal Color jar thinned with Leveling Thinner. The paint went on beautifully, but the copper for whatever reason rubs off when handled which is odd. I didn’t realize this of course until I was handling it for the final construction, but next time I use this paint, I’ll be sure to seal it. The other two tones of copper I used did not have this problem. One was mixed with Mr Super Titanium and the other with Mr. Color Semi-Gloss Black. The three tones really add some nice visual interest and break up what could be solid-colored boredom.

The kit is really nice for the most part. The blue polycaps and rubbery parts gave me some paint chipping issues, but thankfully those are all hidden after final construction. It was a pain however to get it positioned in any pose with that huge sword using the action base. That’s why there’s just a few pics and one pose.

Coming full-circle from my 1994 ‘false start’ is the new Master Grade Victory Gundam. My first ever Gundam model kit was the 1/144 V-Dash built soon after graduation from the Art Institute in 1994 and purchased mail-order from someplace called the “JAM Group”. About 7-8 years later I picked up where I left off and started building again… pretty much non-stop.

Because of my affinity for this design, this is one of the rare cases where I’ve actually painted something the colors it’s supposed to be. Well, mostly. I based this scheme off of the Windfall illustration ‘Mobile Suit [Second V]‘ as seen below.

Studio Windfall Illustration circa 2004

The internals were painted with Mr. Color Super Metals and Alclad II Lacquers. The ‘gunmetal’ color is Mr. Color 50% Semi-Gloss Black + 50% Super Stainless (super metallic paint-line) and the lighter warm metal is Mr. Color Super Stainless first, then a thin layer of Alclad II Pale Burnt Metal on top of that. The armor was painted with Tamiya Acrylics. I muted most of the colors except yellow to get that Ver. Ka color look.

This was a very quick and easy kit to finish. First off, there was no seam-lines. Just sprue-nubs and the usual faint mold flash lines. Cutting took a day and a half, skewering the MANY parts and priming took another day and painting took only a day as well. I was very impressed with the internals and mechanical construction. Decals were the official Bandai waterslide release and took about 4 hours to apply.

This is the first of 4 MGs in my personal MGX4 challenge where I want to attempt to finish at least 4 modern MG kits (kits from the past 2-3 years) before the end of April. I started this challenge on February 15th, 2010. The other three are the MG GN-X, Astray Blue Frame 2nd Revise, and Chars Zaku 2.0. So far so good!

So I have proposed an interesting challenge for myself and perhaps one of you would like to try it as well. I am attempting to complete four modern Master Grade kits by sometime in April. (partially to reduce the footprint on my shelves) The kits I hope to complete are the following:

Chars Zaku 2.0
Victory Gundam ver Ka
Astray Blue Frame 2nd Revise
GN-X

The GN-X is on its way, but the other 3 are all cut out and sanded and it’s only taken me 5 days to do so. These first 3 kits surprisingly have no seams to be glued which is amazing. There’s just some flash lines, very minor, on some of the weapon barrels to be dealt with. These kits are so easy that it’s almost painful based on some of the other stuff I’ve been building.

All of these kits will have some sort of customization to the color schemes and will have minor add-ons like aluminum bells for the Zaku and lights for the GN-X drive. I may do one more if I have time.

Anyone want to try and match or beat that? Click here to join in on the challenge!

Deadline of 4/30/2010

Personally, I hope to be done by 4/1, but am being realistic.

Here’s the final images of the BergeLuther.