After a good build of a great looking mobile suit, and now here I am dealing with lighting problems:
There are shiny foil stickers set behind the eyes of this model, and in theory they’re meant to reflect light and make the eyes look kinda glowy. Under “normal” lighting it works pretty well:
But it’s not working so well in the lightbox:
I’m not sure what’s going on here. I mean, I know what’s going on, which is that the light is coming from above, rather than from the front. What I mean is that that hasn’t been a problem before. I’ve built lots of other kits with shiny foil stickers for their eyes, and they managed to look quite bright and glowy. So why not these ones?
My only guess for now is that maybe the eyes are set too far deeply into the head, so that whatever light gest in just isn’t enough.
My “solution”, if you want to call it that, was to stick my ringlight in front of the lightbox and crank its brightness all the way up. The results aren’t perfect, but the extra direct light still helped some:
Problems and Concerns
I had big plans for this photoshoot. I was going to go all out, with props and outdoor location shots in order to try and recreate scenes from the show. But after having my “come to Jesus” moment I realized that I lacked the time and energy and motivation to do all that. Just like I was under no obligation to do encyclopedic research on every mobile suit, so too was I not required to recreate every iconic scene from a 50 episode show.
Also, because I was waiting around for the energy and motivation needed to do this ideal/”perfect” photoshoot, I inadvertently created a nasty backlog of other finished builds that needed photos, at which point I realized that I really needed to get a move-on with this one. I ended up taking whatever photos I could, and that will have to be that (at least for now. Maybe one day I’ll go back and do the other shots I had in mind)
And you know, in the end it’s probably a good thing that I didn’t try to go all out here, because I’m not sure if the model would have made it through. The joints on the left arm are extremely stiff, and while I see no evidence of stress-induced wearing or tearing, I was constantly afraid of breakage (and quite frankly, given my past history, I didn’t want to push my luck)
More concerning was the right holding hand, which started to demonstrate some visible wear and tear:
I can still move the fingers as needed, and they don’t seem to be at risk at falling off. They’re packed tightly enough in there that they’re basically keeping each other in place with friction. But I’ll still have to be careful going forward if I do any more posing with this model.
The other thing I came to realize is that the articulation on this model isn’t quite good enough to do some of the things I had in mind. It has particularly bad lateral arm motion, and the legs can’t do a comfortable kneeling position.
It’s not the worst articulation I’ve seen, but it’s also not as good as I wanted it to be, and at that point I realized I needed to cut my losses and keep it simple(r).
Visual Design
Visually, my only complaint is in regards to the dimness of the eyes. Everything else looks wonderful. There are a number of extra panel lines across the body that make the mobile suit look more like it does in some of Syd Mead’s design sketches, and I really appreciate that.
I should have tried to tuck the butt of the beam rifle near the armpit, because I think it looks a little awkward holding it like this:
Firing poses fare much better:
The Turn A might be one of the only mobile suits that actually looks more natural doing a two handed firing pose like this one:
It also looks pretty great with its beam sabers:
This here wasn’t an intentional pose. Somehow I set it down like this and thought “it might look cool with a beam saber in its hand”
Now for the Gundam Hammer. I’ve worked on some other MG’s that have problems holding on to their weapons, and I encountered multiple builders who all swear by using sticky tack to secure them. But why not see if sticky tack might help keep the Gundam Hammer in place during action poses?
Let’s see here. I’ll just grab one of the GWitch Weapon Display bases, unplug one of the spikes on the hammer, and stick ‘em together like this:
This is not the only shot I tried, but apparently it’s the only one I saved. Unless the ball is sitting directly atop the little stand, the sticky tack isn’t quite sticky enough to keep it in place. For all the other attempted shots, it kept falling off the stand, and eventually I think I just gave up:
Maybe one day I’ll go back and try some more.
This shot was a pain in the ass:
Those little hatches on the chest love to fall off. The hinge is almost nonexistent:
On the other hand, the cow is much easier to deal with. You just pop off the chest armor and then you don’t have to worry about it:
I wanted to do a kneeling pose where it sets the cow down, but like I said earlier, it didn’t really have the range.
A few more poses before we get to the pièce de résistance.
I’ll say this: simple standing poses don’t do this thing justice. You really need to get it in motion in order to appreciate the beauty of this design.
Moonlight Butterfly
Okay, now for the big moment. Let’s activate the Moonlight Buttefly and destroy the world:
Still think it’s kind of crazy how one of the most powerful attacks in the Gundam multiverse is so elegant and pretty.
Conclusion
I’m really sorry it took me so long to get this one out. I’ve come to the realization now that no matter how much I might love a mobile suit, that doesn’t mean I have to make the build into a big pageant full of pomp and circumstance. I can, nay need, to treat it like any other model. Because if I stay frozen in place in an attempt to try and make it perfect, I’ll never get to share it at all, and what good does that do anyone?
I’m glad this is finally over, not only because it means I can move on, but also because by the time it was all said and done, it reminded me why I was so excited to build it in the first place.