A Walk Through A New Concept: Strike Freedom Gundam
Introduction
First of all,
I would like to thank NeXuS for his kind invitation to be a 'Gunpla Hero'.
My introductory post will on my latest completed work, which is the NG 1/144 Strike Freedom Gundam.
The small box comes with great artwork.
Every experienced Gunpla fan will know that a NG 1/144 is the cheapest Gunpla kit around.
For that price, the kit usually comes with few parts in just a mere 2 to 3 runners, that can be snap-fitted together to give a 7-point articulated model, namely neck, shoulders, groin and feet.
The recent Seed Destiny NG 1/144 are a notch better than its precursor, Seed, with the introduction of a twin-balled PC runner. Such a runner allows more articulation than the regular stick with PC-7 ball. The NG 1/144 kit runners also comes in basic colors ranging between 1, usually 2 and sometimes but rarely 3 types. Hence, you definitely need to put on your own colors to make look complete.
Runners 1 and 2. Notice the basic colors.
Runner 2 and 3.
Coloring of the NG 1/144 kit takes a real great deal of effort. Reason is that for example an arm usually 2 or sometimes 3 colors, since the masking for air-brushing seems a rather difficult task, hand-painting is the only option. The greatest difficulty of hand-painting is the brush-strokes. However, with experience in blending the right proportion of paint and solvent, this issue can be resolved. The use of Vallejo paints are good too since they are water-based, easy to apply and hardly any brush-strokes are visible. Nevertheless, I prefer to use a combination of 3 different types of paints, namely Gunze Sangyo Mr Color (lacquer-based), Mr Aqueous Hobby Color (water-based acrylic) and Vallejo (water-based acrylic).
A raw fixed up NG 1/144 Strike Freedom Gundam. I will always pre-fix the kit loosely and take a snap shot so as to compare the overall experience on working with a NG 1/144 kit. The result is simply exhilirating.
Into the main topic.
I started the assembly of the Strike Freedom and it took me a mere 1 day.
The V-fins were delibrately filed down to give it a fiercer look.
As usual, I am taking short cuts by not doing anything to the seam-lines, since I am rather pleased even with seam lines.
I worked on the painting of the head first, so as to get an impression of the whole kit.
Head: Vallejo off white, Vallejo flat red, Vallejo sky blue, Valljo yellow and Mr Color medium seagray.
Next I started working on the rest of the kit.
Colors used include: Valljo prussian blue, Mr Color German Gray and Mr Color gold.
When the major painting was complete, panel-lining was done.
Tamiya enamel red was used in this kit. This is also the first time that I am using red color for panel-lining. Let's see if it will turn out right!
Man Wah decals were used and the colors where carefully chosen to match the panel lines.
Red seems to go best with the red panel lines.
Upon completion of all the decaling, top-coating with 2 to 3 coats of Satin finish was done.
The gold color was applied onyl after the top-coat, so as not to dull out the gold.
Last but not least,
posing the Strike Freedom on a generic 55c compressed wood block makes the kit looks more complete.
The red Man Wah decals were carefully picked to match the panel lines. The white decals seem right in certain areas of the wing, too much made it too messy as if overkill.
The twin rifles cannot be combined together like that of the HG and above grades, and it came in only 1 plain grey color leaving the painting to the skills of the modeller.
The Strike Freedom should be using a twin beam sabre, which is not available at all in this NG kit. The beam sabres are fixed to the belt. I got this RX-78 beam sabre from my friend sometime ago. Hence I decided to do some painting on the originally white beam sabre into what you see now.
At the end of the whole modelling experience of the Strike Freedom, I felt strongly that I should have used gold panel lining to give it the 'Lighning Edition' look. But all is done and I have no regrets.
Note:
More images can be viewed in my gallery (Mecha:base) which is accessible from the link on the right-hand side of this page.
First of all,
I would like to thank NeXuS for his kind invitation to be a 'Gunpla Hero'.
My introductory post will on my latest completed work, which is the NG 1/144 Strike Freedom Gundam.
The small box comes with great artwork.
Every experienced Gunpla fan will know that a NG 1/144 is the cheapest Gunpla kit around.
For that price, the kit usually comes with few parts in just a mere 2 to 3 runners, that can be snap-fitted together to give a 7-point articulated model, namely neck, shoulders, groin and feet.
The recent Seed Destiny NG 1/144 are a notch better than its precursor, Seed, with the introduction of a twin-balled PC runner. Such a runner allows more articulation than the regular stick with PC-7 ball. The NG 1/144 kit runners also comes in basic colors ranging between 1, usually 2 and sometimes but rarely 3 types. Hence, you definitely need to put on your own colors to make look complete.
Runners 1 and 2. Notice the basic colors.
Runner 2 and 3.
Coloring of the NG 1/144 kit takes a real great deal of effort. Reason is that for example an arm usually 2 or sometimes 3 colors, since the masking for air-brushing seems a rather difficult task, hand-painting is the only option. The greatest difficulty of hand-painting is the brush-strokes. However, with experience in blending the right proportion of paint and solvent, this issue can be resolved. The use of Vallejo paints are good too since they are water-based, easy to apply and hardly any brush-strokes are visible. Nevertheless, I prefer to use a combination of 3 different types of paints, namely Gunze Sangyo Mr Color (lacquer-based), Mr Aqueous Hobby Color (water-based acrylic) and Vallejo (water-based acrylic).
A raw fixed up NG 1/144 Strike Freedom Gundam. I will always pre-fix the kit loosely and take a snap shot so as to compare the overall experience on working with a NG 1/144 kit. The result is simply exhilirating.
Into the main topic.
I started the assembly of the Strike Freedom and it took me a mere 1 day.
The V-fins were delibrately filed down to give it a fiercer look.
As usual, I am taking short cuts by not doing anything to the seam-lines, since I am rather pleased even with seam lines.
I worked on the painting of the head first, so as to get an impression of the whole kit.
Head: Vallejo off white, Vallejo flat red, Vallejo sky blue, Valljo yellow and Mr Color medium seagray.
Next I started working on the rest of the kit.
Colors used include: Valljo prussian blue, Mr Color German Gray and Mr Color gold.
When the major painting was complete, panel-lining was done.
Tamiya enamel red was used in this kit. This is also the first time that I am using red color for panel-lining. Let's see if it will turn out right!
Man Wah decals were used and the colors where carefully chosen to match the panel lines.
Red seems to go best with the red panel lines.
Upon completion of all the decaling, top-coating with 2 to 3 coats of Satin finish was done.
The gold color was applied onyl after the top-coat, so as not to dull out the gold.
Last but not least,
posing the Strike Freedom on a generic 55c compressed wood block makes the kit looks more complete.
The red Man Wah decals were carefully picked to match the panel lines. The white decals seem right in certain areas of the wing, too much made it too messy as if overkill.
The twin rifles cannot be combined together like that of the HG and above grades, and it came in only 1 plain grey color leaving the painting to the skills of the modeller.
The Strike Freedom should be using a twin beam sabre, which is not available at all in this NG kit. The beam sabres are fixed to the belt. I got this RX-78 beam sabre from my friend sometime ago. Hence I decided to do some painting on the originally white beam sabre into what you see now.
At the end of the whole modelling experience of the Strike Freedom, I felt strongly that I should have used gold panel lining to give it the 'Lighning Edition' look. But all is done and I have no regrets.
Note:
More images can be viewed in my gallery (Mecha:base) which is accessible from the link on the right-hand side of this page.
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