Bandai MG RX-79(G) Gundam
Entry, 2nd SDFGC

With the destruction of Apsaras III, the federals effectively won the battle against Zeon. But for the members of the 08th MS Team, it was a victory they accept with a heavy heart. For their respected leader, Lt. Shiro Amada, perished with the Apsaras.
However, life goes on and Karen Joshua was to assume the duties of team leader. Her ‘jimu atama (GM Head)’ mobile suit (MS) suffered heavy damage during its last scuffle with a MSM-04 Acguy but was deemed repairable. Thus born the RX-79(G) Karen Custom.

Obvious changes included the new head, the repaired pilot hatch and other minor improvements. The ‘new’ MS is a grim reminder of the Ez8 once piloted by Shiro. Karen is of course oblivious to the changes and repairs, however, there is one thing she insisted. Though she assumes command now, the MS is still code numbered 082, for there could be no replacement for 081…

Construction

Head Unit.
The original head of the Ground Type Gundam looks good, but I have a serious dislike for the v-fin so I discarded it without much of a thought. The head front profile is narrowed by carefully cutting out the parts protruding at both sides. Then I carefully hollowed out the area and reinsert the previously removed parts. The resulting head reminds me of helmets worn by Roman soldiers. Lastly, I added a antenna module built from scrap sprues.

Arm Units.
The engineering that went into the kit is obvious when you look at the arm of the Rx-79(G). Built out of the box, the arm has the flexibility of a PG Gundam. The only modifications I did was to replaced the wrist parts with ball joints and the slight modifications to the shoulder armour.

Shoulder Armour.
For details regarding the modifications, you can refer to the Dengeki Hobby Magazine (DHM) issue August 2000. The article on RX-78 Ver 2.0 provides good insight as to how the changes are made.

Torso Unit.
Having tried to make a Gundam kneeling long time ago, I realised one of the problems that obstructs realistic pose is the lack of flexibility at the torso. When a human kneels, the torso bends at below the ribs to create a crouching position. With this in mind and with reference to the DHM August 2000 article, I recreated my own version of the bending torso. The details of the internal parts can be seen from the pictures. Bear in mind that everything is has to be movable.

Shield.
Having been properly inspired Takuji Yamada’s PG Zaku II article in Hobby Japan (HJ) January 2001 issue, I decided to simulate a heavily damaged shield. The damaged area is first hollowed out and a small piece of steel mesh is then inserted into the area. The work is however not done. The steel mesh should be an exposed part of the shield internal therefore, appropriate work should be done to re-built the area. Fortunately, I simply have to rebuilt the area with scrap plastic and sand it back to the original shape of the area.

Weapons.
One of the lures of buying this kit is the huge 180mm Cannon. It just looks awesome and I built it out of the box. However, since I trying to create a battle scene, I thought it of adding an extra magazine. The idea led me to casting a duplicate. The magazines are secured together ala special force style with a strap and a scratch-built buckle.

Damage.
In addition to the shield damage, the entire model is simulated with the battle worn look with damages. I firmly do not believe in using a soldering iron in recreated damages, for I don’t think it is realistic. Imagine that the model is actually scaled up 100 times, the soldering iron scars would be entirely out of proportion.
My method of introducing damages is to simulate the numerous small arms damage. These could have come from machine gun damage or other conventional weapons but none that could penetrate the armour. I simply use sharp metal tool to awl the surface in an irregular pattern. I am pretty pleased with the results.

The leg and back pack remained changed.

Painting

I often use the pre-shading method in painting my models. But for this particular model, instead of using a lighter color for pre-shading, I used pure black. This allows the heavy look of the paint scheme in which dark colours often shows through. It was decided that there shouldn’t be much deviation from the original colours. I usually limit myself to a 3-4 colour scheme.

One of the things we often discuss in modeling meets is the use of paints. Different modelers have different preference in their choice of paints. Indeed there is a myriad of choices, acrylics, lacquer or enamel, not counting the different brands of each type!

I found out that many people was surprised that I use Humbrol Enamels (yes, those annoying tins!) whenever possible. I discover from them that they find it difficult to use as the finishing of the model is often not ideal.

‘This is strange’, I thought to myself. I have no problem whatsoever and I simply love the smoothness of hand painting those enamels which covers well and don’t have the annoying property of quick-drying acrylics.

The secret (finally) is to use Gunze Sangyo Thinners! Yes, in fact, I only use one brand of thinner for whatever paint I use. One reason being it is compatible with most of them, the other reason is because I am a cheapskate so I only buy one brand.

Diorama

A model is best displayed in its normal setting. This is true for any model, from cars to aircrafts, and of course, Gundam. This is actually one of my first attempt at diorama. I wish to depict a battle scene in a urban area. With the action still hot, the MS attempts to reload the weapon.

The water tower and truck is from railroad modeling. The HO (1/87) scale fits well with the MG (1/100) series and is the perfect choice of accessories to use. I particularly love the truck, look at the amazing parts breakdown!

Additional Images