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Bandai 1/144 Guncannon


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Hi folks,

A friend was selling off a couple of surplus HG Gundams at our club competition last week and I picked them up at the last minute for a song. The HG kits are Bandai's cheap line and are usually 1/144 and relatively simple. I started building one before once (as a wreck) but while I have a few Gundam models in the stash I've never finished one.

Anyway, one thing led to another and I thought I'd bung this thing together as a palette cleanser after all the Rocky Horror sewing, to get me back into the mood for working on the plane I'm supposed to be doing for the Vietnam GB.

My daughter obviously stole the "cool" one - the "Amazing Red Warrior" released last year or thereabouts - as soon as she discovered it had many guns and swords and such. And she built it with gusto while I was messing around with sandpaper and glue. She likes making things but not the sanding/filing aspect so the Bandai kits are great for her.

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I was left with the Guncannon, which is from 1999 I think and is a bit more cartooney. I read the background and apparently the RX-77 Guncannon was one of three Mobile Suits developed at the start of the war against Zeon - these being the Guntank, Guncannon and Gundam# As you can probably guess, the first two were a bit crap and the Gundam saved the day.

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It's also simpler - with for example two pieces and a polycap for each foot, where as Laura's had maybe six? It still fits really well but there are more seams to deal with and more masking too.

So far I've put it all together, primed everything, painted the insides with Alclad and then did a lot of masking with tape and blu-tak to paint the outsides with Tamiya acrylics, thinned with lacquer thinner.

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You can see I had the paint a bit thin when I pre-shaded and there are tide marks, but I think once I add some chips and streaks they won't be too bad. It was interesting figuring out how to build it so I could fix the seams e.g. through the kneecaps and elbows, while still inserting the joint pieces between them and painting those a contrasting colour. I think with the newer and fancier kits this is maybe less of an issue (especially Master and Real Grade kits) since the armour pieces are added to the frame after, and break down along panel lines.

I did the most masking on the feet - these were two pieces each split vertically, so I had to get creative with the blu-tak to pick out the round bits.

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Aizu micron tape was very useful for following the panel line around the bottom of the foot too. The black booties are a nod to Patlabor, which is my favourite lrealistic mecha series. Well, maybe joint fave with Evangelion :)

I kind of forgot how careful you have to be with the Tamiya gloss acrylics and was rushing a bit, so I had to re-do the orange on one of the legs. The other is still a bit ragged but I'll live with it. The matt colours are rather easier to use. I'm also wondering about masking off the front of the shoulder cannons (in the notch) and spraying the backs the same grey as the rifle, but I'm not sure yet.

I am currently varnishing parts and doing detail painting ready for some decals salvaged from my collection - the kit only has a sticker for the visor.

Cheers,

Will

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Thanks Andy :) I'm getting a lot of flak for the colours on Facebook ("It's beige!" "It's flesh-coloured!" "Laura's one looks way better!") so it's nice to hear another view.

I wanted something pale so I can weather over it (rust over sand is pretty) and the orange/white seemed like a good colour for recognition markings.

Will

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Well, be thankful it's not pink! (Sniggers at the thought of the flak-o-meter going into the red)

Looking at the box art, I was thinking you could really go to town on the detailing if you were so inclined. Nothing's better than seeing exposed wires,leads, control boxes and other such mechanical items on display

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Don't steal my decalling technique, I find it both nerve-wracking and time consuming, there must be a better way?

Anyway, decals are now on. I think I counted fifty or sixty, most quite small. I used a lot from an MG Guntank sheet, and some from a Wave option sheet I think.

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I tried to keep the stencils small although they're probably as big (in scale) as the huge "BEWARE JET BLAST AND ROTORS" warning on US carriers! I repeated the EFSF decals (cut up and rearranged) and the unit number on the lower leg on the basis that if you were a tank or an infantryman doing some kind of joint op you wouldn't see the ones on the chest :)

I'm not wild about the rifle but I guess I can just leave it off, or find a better one?

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Finally does anyone else share my extreme unwillingness to let the decal sheet become more than one piece?

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I might give these another round of Microsol and then brush some Klear over and I can get onto the fun bit - chipping!

Cheers,

Will

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Looking good there Will, the colours look good to me. I'd say maybe one of the Australian testing units after Australia got wiped out by Operation British? Or some desert scheme. The head unit reminds me of something from Patlabour or Macross. Tbh I was never a fan of the Guncannon, the Guntank had a weird cuteness about it tho... I dunno I'm weird like that. It's weird seeing a Gundam in Chars colours, but I liked Gundam Try Fighters, I got the GM Cardigan I have ear-marked for a special Hazel conversion. ;) I bought some of the cheap decals on Ebay... I had my hopes set way too high, they where horrible. You are not the only one with the decals tho :)

Kind Regards,

Dazz

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I love the orange and beige, reminds me of my RGM-79

Heh - I'd totally forgotten about that but my subconscious was clearly on the case :)

Tbh I was never a fan of the Guncannon,

Hey Daz, I wondered when you might spot this :) I like the idea of it being an Aussie Gundam, will have to read up on the background some more.

I'm not in love with it myself but sometimes it's better to build one you don't like because I find I get less hung up on doing it right/well/whatever and just get on with it. I was curious to see how much the cheesy shape would be transformed by paint and decals and dirt too.

For the decals, I've tended to buy whatever Bandai decals HLJ have had available (especially in sales) when they come up, because they're cheap and don't add to the postage on an order. But they seem to have dried up completely now - everything shows as back-order.

The official Bandai ones are worth getting if you can - they have a bit too much carrier film (I trimmed it off the stripes and placards on the metallic surfaces) but they sink into the surface really well with Microsol and they're very easy to work with - no tearing or anything.

Cheers,

Will

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Hey Daz, I wondered when you might spot this :) I like the idea of it being an Aussie Gundam, will have to read up on the background some more.

Hey Will 0/

sorry for the late entry, it's been manic at work. :P Look up Gundam 0083 : Stardust Memory, that'll have the Australia Base in it, ignore the 80's hair cuts... They are bad. :P

Those colours are very similar to the training VF-1A's from Macross, maybe that too?? Either way the paintwork is impressive :)

last I heard, the decals are not being produced by Bandai anymore. I got a few for Flag of Titans and Chars Counterattack. I bought the cheap ones for the warning decals. But they are not usable at all, didn't loose much money on them tho. Next purchase is photo etch, looking at some resin bits too. ;)

Really looking forward to more :)

Kind Regards,

Dazz

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Been busy being grown-ups this weekend since our daughter was away at cub camp. So we walked a lot, looked at furniture, had fairly fancy dinner and watched Spectre. Today was a bit quieter and I found some time in the afternoon to add some chips and scratches:

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Nothing too clever - Vallejo German Black Brown on a sponge, blotted onto paper to dry it off a bit and then applied to the edges and corners mainly. After that I thinned some with water and used a brush to add more chips or scratches, and join the spots together into patches.

I also found a wet toothpick very handy for erasing and re-shaping while I was going on - the paint doesn't grip fantastically well to the Klear so it's easy to remove for a few minutes after applying.

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I've tried to gradually reduce the intensity from the feet up to the top, but I think it's fair enough to chip robots more than tanks - they have parts that move with respect to each other (like diggers) and they can also get down into the dirt a bit more.

That said the ones on the arms are a bit over-done, I will try and clean them off a little before proceeding.

Cheers,

Will

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I have chipped it a bit around the neckline and on the sticky out bits at the back, but only after I took this picture. I used a mid-grey.

I've done some basic enamel shading and streaking now, I'll post that tomorrow when I have light for pictures. There was one scary cracking sound as I think a glue bond weakened, but otherwise it seems to have gone OK.

Cheers,

Will

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Thanks Steve!

I did some washing/streaking last night with MIG products, I think in hindsight this was a bit risky but I'd had a gin and tonic, so...

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I really like how it looks, but some joints which were tight now feel looser, and there was one quiet "crack" sound as I did the left lower leg seam. I know that enamel thinners can attack styrene, and generally people say it's worse for Bandai. But I think maybe it's all styrene, and it's just that the Bandai kits tend to have unpainted surfaces (or paint rubbed off) in joints, and a lot more internal stress from the press-fit nature of the construction, so any brittleness is more likely to cause breakage.

I know that when I added enamel washes to a set of Academy indy-link tracks which I'd solvent welded with Tamiya extra-thin, they also tended to go floppy or break up again, so it's not exclusively Bandai plastic at least.

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Hopefully if I take care with it it'll be OK :hanging:

W

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Looking very good there Will, love the weathering and the paint chipping, something I will one day try out and probably mess up in a spectacular fashion! :P

Doesn't look like the visor is painted yet?? Or maybe fitted?

Kind Regards

Dazz

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Thanks folks. The visor is absent in the above pics, you don't get a part (the head is just two halves) but there's a foil sticker which I've opted to use. I was going to put some Hasegawa "polarise" film on it for extra spaciness but I couldn't find it so I didn't.

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I was a bit hasty with the decals and should have used more Microsol - when I sprayed the matt coat you could see silvering at glancing angles. So I spent a while stabbing tiny holes in them, applying more Microsol and eventually Tamiya Extra-Thin to get rid of it. That's been mostly successful I think, although the problem isn't going to be evident in pictures like this anyway.

I also sprayed some thinned dark brown into the skirt from below, where the torso sits on the hips, and under the jetpack, just to connect things together a bit more. And some soft black for jet exhaust, which might need modifying a bit with pigments.

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Finally I sprayed AK Africa Dust over the lower legs and feet and finished with some Gulf War Sand pigments. The guns had a bit of black pigment and graphite powder too but I'm not sure that I haven't handled most of it off again while fitting them?

I'm debating whether I should fix the primer visible in the groove on the upper left leg, and I imagine there'll be other things that I spot in the pictures when I have a proper look. But nearly there!

Cheers,

Will

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I did fix the primer in the end, and lopped off/filled in the nasty gunsight that was bugging me.

I also added an oil leak to the groin (I'm soo grown up) and some epoxy "lenses" to the scope on the rifle, plus did a bit more with pigments and enamels to shade some areas more and make the exhaust stains more interesting. Minor things but I think they help.

Now finished, RFI post here:

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234992666-rx-77-2-guncannon/

Cheers,

Will

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