My first Gundam!

[paul_c]

Well, my wife and son have just bought me this as a present.......

I have never built a Gundam before or even watched any of the animations so I'm a proper noob at this genre. However, my tastes are far reaching and I can't wait to get stuck into it some time soon along with doing some research.

Any of you experts out there have any advice when it comes to building and more specifically, painting? All of the colour call outs in the instructions are in Japanese so I'm at a bit of a loss there for a start.........

[Misrule]

It's a pretty good one to start with, that giant gatling gun makes it look the business You can see it in action a bit here..

Might help with colours too, though with it being 20 something years old animation maybe not

[Dazzio]

Oo Colonel Norris' Gouf Custom! Your wife and son have picked a really good suit to start with, it's a simple old skool kit that shouldn't give you too much trouble. Also fyi, the Gouf isn't actually a Gundam, it's from the 08th MS Team OVA which the lead mecha in it is the RX-79[G] which is a Gundam. This is "technically" the bad guy being a Zeon suit, but nothing is ever that simple in Gundam... ever. As for colours, well you can do whatever you want! But the two main colours are a royal-ish dark blue and light blue (maybe azure?) on top. But you can do it however you want and I encourage that! Look forward to seeing this one in progress. I'll check my Mooks tomorrow to see if I have any information on the Gouf to help you with.

Kind Regards,

Dazz

[Thud4444]

Great first choice!

To add to what's already been said; the Gouf is like the Gundam universe's Supermarine Swift. It was technically a failure in its intended role, but was modified into a very useful piece of equipment. It was well loved by ace pilots. They liked it's maneuverability over the obsolete Zaku and the more useful, but way heavier, Dom. Check out the wiki for more info.

As far as colors go, the sky is the limit. But if you want to stay true to canonical sources most where painted blue. Most likely due to its association with the Ral family. But the Midnight Fenrir used an olive and dark green scheme. While the test and evaluation units where dark and light grey. There was another ace called the White Rose or something like that who had a white and grey/very light blue suit. There are examples of most of these schemes on the wiki page.

If you're interested in the franchise, the 08Th MS Team is an excellent show to start with. It takes place towards the end of One Year War.

Edited June 15, 2016 by Thud4444

[Thud4444]

http://gundam.wikia.com/wiki/MS-07B-3_Gouf_Custom

Here is the link. For some reason it wouldn't work in the other post.

[Dazzio]

Going on from Thud has said, the suit excelled in urban area fighting. So I'm not sure if that will give you any ideas as well?

Kind Regads,

Dazz

[paul_c]

Thank's for the replies guys, I'm quite glad I've got this one now!

I like the idea of a custom paint, especially urban style..... Hmm......

Edited June 16, 2016 by paul_c

[rockpopandchips]

Go mad with it, its what Gumpla is all about but once you start they are very difficult to stop building.

[Will Vale]

Yay more Gundam! (I refuse to bow down to the only-Gundams-are-Gundams thing, I know it's a mobile suit really, but it's from the Gundam universe!)

I think this would look good in an urban environment, but you really can do whatever you want. Look to tanks and things for weathering reference but bear in mind that they're much much bigger so paint chips and streaks and things should be small to sell the scale.

On the building, I found that with the older HG kits you probably want to build up the limb parts with glue so you can deal with the mould lines, and paint them as units. For the newer HG kits, and RG/MG kits you can generally paint all the bits separately and put them together at the end as the seams will fall on panel lines or be otherwise concealed.

It can be helpful to do a dry fit of the whole thing to figure out how to break it down, but when you have polystyrene pins going into polystyrene holes they will often break when you try and get them apart again. Cutting the pin ends off at an angle helps with this, although you'll probably have to glue the pieces together when you finally build it.

If you're going to handle the finished model a lot for setting up poses and such, painting with lacquers is a good idea as the paint is much more hard-wearing. You can paint the polycaps (squidgy polyethylene joint pieces) but the paint tends to rub off so it's good to use a colour similar to the plastic if they're going to be visible. Also watch out for enamel-based weathering products - the thinner tends to seep into the joints and can cause the styrene to craze or crack. You can use them (carefully) but try and work almost dry. This is all a bit black magic though - sometimes it's fine, sometimes not. Seems to depend on the kit plastic and the engineering too - e.g. how much stress the joints are under.

In case it helps, I did a WIP of a similar style of HG kit (also my first) here:

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234992196-bandai-1144-guncannon/

Look forward to seeing your Gouf take shape - I have the Mobile Suit Origins one so it will be good to get some inspiration. I started off thinking they were a bit silly but my daughter and I watched the original Gundam series and were won over by Ramba Ral (Gouf pilot) and his mad skills

Will

[paul_c]

That's some great advice there Will, thank you. I've just looked at your build and I'm blown away by your finishing skills! I can only hope my build will look at least half as good........

I'm not starting it just yet as I have a Tamiya Toyota GT86 to get done first but you've certainly got my creative thinking going!

[Dazzio]

Yay more Gundam! (I refuse to bow down to the only-Gundams-are-Gundams thing, I know it's a mobile suit really, but it's from the Gundam universe!)

Lol Will... that is one thing me and you are never going to agree on. But you are entitled to your opinion The way I look at it is thus, you wouldn't call every single engined plane in the RAF during the 1940's a "Spitfire" just because it was in the war and fought for the RAF. If you caught someone doing it, you would 9 times out of 10 correct them wouldn't you? Each "Gundam" has a reason it's called a Gundam. For example the UC ones are usually made from Gundanium Alloy, SEED has the G.U.N.D.A.M OS, After Colony is the alloy and because it was designed by the professors so on and so fourth also the big give away but not always is the antenna on the head (also the face). But I digress, you will often catch me calling other Earth/AUEG/Karaba/Titan suits "Gundam", but I am a dopey bugger If you wanna be really pedantic (pedantic for sci-fi fans! SHOCK HORROR!) the "Universe/Time line" is actually Universal Century in this case.

All good advise Will, and some I will be stealing for my GM/Hazel kitbash I have going on. I have restarted this now I have managed to get my bits to my new flat. Have a look at my Kitbash (click on link) Paul and also my Hazel (click on link) to see what can be done with as little skill as possible.

Kind Regards,

Dazz

Edit : I feel I should correct myself. In SEED there are technically no Gundams as that's the name that Kira Yamato gives the Strike after reading the name of the OS (General Unilateral Neuro-Link Dispersive Autonomic Maneuver). He also calls the Freedom it, infront of Lacus Clynne who says something like "Gundam? That does sound stronger" or something like that.

Edited June 22, 2016 by Dazzio

[Scotttomo]

Love this kit. Hope you're enjoying the build. Also love how much knowledge some of you guys have about the Gundam series, awesome.

 

Scott

 

Edit: I've just realised this thread is a little old now. How did the OP get on with the build? 

Edited March 2, 2017 by Scotttomo
Not checking post date

[solowing666]

For some gunpla modelers, the focus of painting the kit is not staying true to the show, but making it look good and pleasing to the eye of the beholder.

For example, I painted my Char's Zaku II with RLM 23 Red instead of the original pinkish red.

Many painting styles exists: simple pre-shades, drybrush, color-modulated, all-gloss (like a model car), all-metallic/candy-tone, full weathering, etc.

Many modelers even change the shape of the basic kit with plastic plates, putty, cable, mutilation (battle damage), kitbashing, etc.

 

No real-world histories = no strict references = no limit

[Blastvader]

RLM 23 is pretty pinkish anyway.

 

For red Zakus I've always preferred Johnny Ridden's one anyway. Char is too much of a Mary Sue.