Final assembly is always my favorite part in Gunpla-ing. ^^ It's the time when you get to enjoy completing all the components, without worrying about how to panel-line or to paint this and that afterward. After a model is completed, it would be the time to pose the model and to play with all its features. To start thinking about how to panel-line or paint it at this time seems so anticlimactic to me ^^;
So, my first HG kit since quite a long time ago, and my first Gunpla from Gundam Double O: HG 1/144 Tieren Ground Type ^^
The elbow can only bend for 90 degrees - not really a big issue since Tieren doesn't really need to bend his arm so much.
The shoulder shield is quite flexible, but can get in the way of the shoulder sometimes when the arm is lifted.
Be very careful of the four parts for the thighs. They look pretty much identical for the two sides I had some hard time figuring out which is which. I regretted for a while there, not having to separate the parts for the two legs but dumped all of them in a single paper tray instead.
Ultimately, I just tried both parts on the same knee joint. The one that can't bend (at all) would be for the opposite side.
The articulation of the leg is very cool. With the shield on, they enable Tieren to pose kneeling in a very natural way, as seen even above - even before the final model is out ^^
The only drawback is the feet, which has no point of articulation at all (except for the ankle of course). Tieren has an unusually long heels that look like iron plates attached to the feet. Merely snapping onto the feet, they have no joint at all. That's OK I guess if they are meant to support the model from falling on his back, but they are quite troublesome when it comes to action poses. In before the non-movable forefeet some more ^^;
The feet design was improved for the 1/100 scale version, where the forefeet comes with a polycap for some degree of articulation.
A very broad upper body Tieren has. XD As such, the shoulder blocks are designed to be movable - rotatable to the front only, so that the arms can move frontward without relying on the waist alone. Also, there's a polycap in the abdomen which allows the model to bend back and forth, quite widely too. ^^ It's a really awesome design, especially when you pose him on a display stand, in a cruising forward pose.
Also, applying those orange stickers to the shoulder blocks was kind of fun for me. It's being quite a while since I used so much sticker for my model. Not that I oppose using sticker, I use them when necessary only.
For the Smooth-Bore Gun's muzzle, since I don't want to cut out the pieces that resemble the muzzle brakes, I just painted them black. They are supposedly holes - see through ^^;
Completed the upper body. ^^ Moving on to the last component: the waist.
The entire rear skirt armor is molded in a single piece. It looks OK from behind, but the hollow spaces beneath it is quite disappointing. Supposedly a thick armor plate, those hollows make it seems very "fake" instead.
Fortunately, the poor design is remedied for the 1/100 scale version, with awesome details too ^^
And now, putting all of them together:
I would gladly give it 9 out 10 for the imitation of its box art action pose ^^
More action poses in Part 5 [Final].
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2 comments:
lol I see Doraemon in one of your paper boxes! XD
The Tieren surely looks awesome, even in 1/144. Btw are the silvery flashlights on the shoulders from foil stickers? I remember you mentioning about the periscope sights being foil stickers. Speaking of which it does seem like that you've used more stickers than you'd normally do this time round XD
Can't wait to see the action poses it can do already!
>>Q
Yup those spotlights on the shoulders are from foil sticker, to be consistent with the targeting scope on the pilot cockpit. I used quite a lot of foil stickers for Tieren - mainly because I don't have the suitable marker for the orange parts on chest ^^;
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