Wednesday, September 14, 2011

HGUC Sazabi Part 4

Funnel spirit II: The Two Kotobukiya Runners

Continue with the work on HGUC Sazabi's Funnels after the previous posting. ^^


Painted the interior of the nozzles yellow using Mr. Color 109 Character Yellow.


Supposedly red according to the box art shown in the previous posting, yellow is used instead because it's the color that I like better. Apart from being consistent with all of Sazabi's other thrusters and vents, it would stand out more on the tail unit, especially after the next layer of paint. ^^


Painted the tail portion of the Funnel black using Mr. Color 33 Flat Black.
This is a rare snap of the paint before it dries, when it seems to be glossy not flat XD


Done for the black paint on the tail.
The "mouth" of the small thrusters is left untouched at the moment.


When the black paint has dried, the "mouth" of the thrusters is painted using the flat tip of Gundam Marker Black as the last step.

Seems all done for the Funnels at this stage, but not really, this is just about half of what I've planned for this weapon. ^^ All the 24 tiny thrusters done so far are just the supporting type, obviously so since they sit on the side of the tail portion. The main thruster behind the whole part is the real deal. ^^

Another look at the Master Grade equivalence shown in the previous posting:


That's a design beyond cotton swap stick I'm sure. ^^;

Some "mercenaries" need to be called in for this serious task. XD

Luckily for me, Kotobukiya has just the right set of add-ons for me to use. ^^


Modelling Support Goods (M.S.G.) Pla Unit P-113 Vernier Nozzle III.

Knowing that there are plenty of goodies in this series of plamo accessories, it wasn't too long before I found this particular item, which contains the suitable parts for HGUC Sazabi. By "suitable" I mean the size of the nozzles. There are five different sets of such vernier nozzles that I know of: D-38 Vernier Set, P-103 Vernier Nozzles, P-109 Vernier Nozzles II, P-113 Vernier Nozzles III and P-122 Vernier Nozzles IV. Information about each set, including the design and more importantly, measurements of the different parts are up on Kotobukiya's official site for M.S.G. items, so anyone who are interested in using these accessories can get all the official and accurate information required, from the manufacturer itself to get just the right set of parts.

Still, since I never used any of M.S.G. items before for any of my kits, I did pondered for quite a while before making the final decision of getting this particular set. I got two since I need more of the same parts that one individual runner is offering.

On the other hand, this is technically the first plamo-related item from Kotobukiya that I tried as well. Despite having quite a few SRW OG, Zoids and HoiHoi-san models kit, all which are from Kotobukiya, I haven't built any of them yet, so they are not counted. ^^;



Just a single runner for the entire set. The shorter, smaller ones are what I'm looking for for Sazabi.


Comparing the parts with the two types of Funnels, even though the measurements are confirmed again and again based on the information about this M.S.G. set on Kotobukiya's official site. ^^


The smallest unit (2.9mm in diameter) is for the Funnel bit in storage mode so that it can be fitted into the back;
The somewhat larger type (4.4mm in diameter) is for the deployed type so that it would stand out more. Since there's no actual expansion gimmick anyway, slightly oversize thruster on the back of the Funnel makes it look more powerful I think. ^^


Deep inside the Funnel's body (before actually using anything to lock its position in there), the small thruster is not really detectable.
Apart from the details, the nozzle part actually serves another purpose, but I'm keeping quiet about it until the next posting. ^^


6 + 6 nozzle parts for all the 12 Funnel bits in storage and deployed modes. ^^
Each set of P-113 only has four 2.9-mm types and three 4.4-mm types, which is why I need to get two sets instead of one for all the parts I need.


Painted all the interior of the parts yellow using Mr. Color 109 Character Yellow, for obvious reason.


One of the smallest parts is badly chipped when I removed it from the runner, ^^; but I reckon it won't be too obvious since it will be sitting inside the Funnel's body and the wall is already painted in black at the beginning of this posting. ^^


Panel lining applied to all the nozzles when the paint has dried.
You can see that the mouth of the nozzle parts are not painted properly - for obvious reason like the vents beneath the rear skirt armor did in Part 2 and the four side thrusters on the Funnels shown earlier on.



Flipped all the parts to paint the surface of the nozzles black using Gundam Marker.

You can see that two of the parts have drill holes right in the middle of the nozzle, even before the parts are painted. It's actually part of a very convoluted experiment (XD) I came up with for these parts, so complicated it has to have its own long posting to discuss (XD) - the next one obviously. Then again, I kind of regretted doing it so soon, when it should have been put as the last step of the entire scheme. Still, I do like the fact that I get to test it out myself to know that it doesn't work, and the damage isn't too severe to really hinder the completion of everything.

All is clear for this phase of the task, and its completion is at hand. ^^

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I salute you for painting the thrusters for the fin funnels. They are absolutely... tiny.

canopy said...

While I, salute you for the persistence on doing gunpla everyday with so great detail.....
I wish I could steal some of your time though. T_T