MG Force Impulse Gundam Part 2

^o^ Lunamaria ^o^
Moving on to the initial work on MG Force Impulse Gundam after yesterday's introduction of this kit, and as teased in that previous posting as well, it's going to be just one single part this time - the pilot figure ^^



Those who watched "Gundam SEED Destiny" would know that Impulse Gundam switches from Shin to Lunamaria as its pilot after Shin upgrades to Destiny Gundam. The pilot figure is designed with helmet on (as usual), so you can just assume who it is piloting the Gundam depending on who you like better, and if you're indeed that anal about this details as well. ^^;

Personally, I like Lunamaria as the pilot better. Nothing to do with whatever she did with the Gundam in the anime actually, I know many people dislike her for not being able to do anything useful with that Gundam. Personally, I don't care much about that, or any of the characters in the show, since all of them were just equally badly written in my opinion, so there's no like or dislike for me for any of them, including Lunamaria. I just like the idea of having a female Gundam pilot. ^^

So in my "imagination", the pilot figure included, which will be sitting in the cockpit of Core Splendor when I assemble the whole model is going to be Lunamaria. Then again, when compared to the standing figure of her included with this kit, something is lacking, physically ^^;



Comparison between the two figures.
A look at Lunamaria (in pilot suit) from the anime:




And comparison with her from MS Gundam Seed Destiny Heroines 7 gashapon set:



Clearly, the pilot figure for this MG kit doesn't support the assumption of it to be Lunamaria at all. ^^; She's definitely not a pettanko by any standard. On the other hand, there's no problem for Shin though, so I could just turn off my preference for Lunamaria to be the pilot figure and a great deal of work in this posting would be void, but no, it's going to be Lunamaria all the way. ^^

"If you can't imagine it, then create it yourself." ^^ If the pilot figure doesn't have the bust to show it as Lunamaria, then I'll have to add those breasts onto the figure to make it into Lunamaria. ^o^

Konata's wicked grin would be absolutely in place for my plan. ^^


Somewhat like the work on Iron Mask in MG F91 actually - "adding in" something for the pilot figure. ^^ I was thinking of using the tool from that previous work, Tack-It adhesive for the add-on because of that similarity, but then I figured that it would probably make the work somewhat harder later on, since the suit requires a few colors to be painted on it. I'll need something that can give the figure a more solid bust (ahem!) so that it can be painted easily later on. For that, I resorted to using Tamiya Epoxy Putty Quick Type, which was first used for fixing the hip joint of my old MG Zaku II.



As little as I snitched from each bar for the mix, quite a bit of the putty would be wasted in the end. ^^;


Just cannot resist not putting in this scene right here when it comes to mixing the putty XD
And then it's just applying the putty onto the figure and shaping it to form Lunamaria's "rightful assets" XD


Toothpick is the best tool for the work.


Temporary result.
Too busty even for Lunamaria. ^^;


Next's up on the task list: toning down the bust with paper file.


Temporary result.


Final result.
Much smaller (ahem!) as compared to the initial work right after putting on the putty, but it will be fine now. ^^
Waited for a few hours for the putty to dry before using paper file on it. It wasn't mentioned up there, but waiting is part of the work as well. According to the manual included with the putty, it should be 6 hours for complete hardening of the putty, but I didn't waited that long before continuing with the next step. I waited a whole day for the putty to dry in my previous work on fixing MG Zaku II, so a few hours of waiting for this figure is really nothing. ^^

Next thing to do is to realize the colorful ZAFT pilot suit through painting.


Painted white for the putty area first using Gundam Marker White.


Guide on the colors to be used based on the manual.
Maroon for the helmet and abdomen is a color I don't have actually, so I'll just replace it with bright red then. ^^
The paint work done on Shin (MG Destiny Gundam) and Athrun (MG Infinite Justice Gundam) are great references as well.


Some of the painting tools used.


Panel-lined the pilot figure first to differentiate between the sections on a tiny white part.


First color is red (from normal marker and red whiteboard marker ink) for the arms, legs and the helmet.
The area between the legs are done using whiteboard marker ink since it's impossible for the marker tip to reach in there (and not make a mess out of everything around it ^^;)


Touching up here and there on the red areas before painting black (from normal marker and pen) for the rest of the suit.


Painted red (from normal marker) for the boots.


Painted black (from panel liner) around the waist area when the red paint has dried.


Added a tiny yellow dot (from Gundam Marker Yellow) on the shoulders as ZAFT emblems.


Painted silver (from normal pen) for the patterns on either sides of the helmet.
They are supposedly white, but using the paint from a Gundam Marker would most likely create a mix with the red normal marker paint and mess up the entire helmet, so I opted for the "invincible" normal silver pen for the task instead ^^


Painted gold and silver (from normal pens) for the front portion of the helmet and a little bit on the boots respectively.
The golden area is supposed to be yellow bits on the helmet, but I didn't use the more conventional Gundam Marker for the same reason as the silver bars as shown earlier on.


Painted metallic green (from normal pen) for the visor on the helmet.


The chest area is a bit dirty because of the bad panel line done on it prior to the entire paint work, so I scratched away the paint and reapplied a new layer of white using Gundam Marker White.


Repanel lined the chest area.
All done now for the pilot figure of Lunamaria. ^^



And a shameless comparison of the figure before and after the entire work: ^^




^o^ Lunamaria! ^o^

Not as "impressive" as the gashapon figure version from MS Gundam Seed Destiny Heroines 7, but I didn't deliberately make it to compare with that figure anyway. At least it's no longer mistakable as Shin. Minimum objective achieved, I'm satisfied already. ^^

Very satisfied actually.


By the way, I'm not the first person to come up with this idea really. A "modified" version of the same pilot figure appeared in either Hobby Japan or Dengeki Hobby for a sample work of MG Force Impulse Gundam when this kit came out many years ago, and it was just shown through a single picture of the figure sitting in Core Splendor. I remember someone who emailed me in the past to talk about his own experience in building Gunplas mentioned that he applied such "modification" to this pilot figure as well. I'm merely making a fuss out of it on this kit that I own because, well, I don't always do it (and probably won't do it again for any other model kit). Hohoho~

All the work for just one single part. ^^ I'm toddling off to something else next. ^^