Bandai 1/100 FA-78-1 Full Armor Gundam

[chromdome35]

I think it looks great, the camo job is very Urban appropriate.

Some good weathering work and this will be one to be proud of.

[`Boots`]

Mar 27, 2023 18:32:13 GMT -5 mz3 said:

Mar 27, 2023 16:13:54 GMT -5 `Boots` said:

I`ve only gone and snuck an `ickle one of these in my Ebay watch list since watching this , can`t afford a bigger one.....YET!!

Top work fella but your a bad influence on my wallet

If you wait a bit these kits are being reprinted by Bandai for MUCH cheaper. I was thinking about doing a second one and could only find them on ebay. I'm NOT paying that much for one of these. I got this when it first came out years ago for like $50ish.

Thanks for the heads up fella.....

[mz3]

Mar 28, 2023 6:08:43 GMT -5 mustang1989 said:

This is turning out very well so far and I'm looking forward to seeing the weathered panels installed when you get the chance.

Ah yes!!! The joys of moving!! I've been through so many dang moves I can't remember how many times my wife and I have done it. My grandpa used to have a saying that went something like, "Five moves is equal to a burnout." There's alot of truth in that because we've either given stuff away, lost stuff or broken stuff in all the moves we've been through. Hopefully you'll get some better property management where' you're going.

The best part is the management company won't let us sign a new lease and won't tell us why. The apartment is still listed as available online and on their website. There are a bunch of units still listed. We missed the resign date by 2 days, they're being unreasonable and petty. Here's a customer willing to pay and they don't care. Great business ethics. The unit we're moving into has been empty since November. Luckily this was always a temporary situation so it will take me literally 2 hours to pack and the only big item we have is a couch.

Ok, rant over. Sorry.

[mustang1989]

Mar 28, 2023 15:05:41 GMT -5 mz3 said:

Mar 28, 2023 6:08:43 GMT -5 mustang1989 said:

This is turning out very well so far and I'm looking forward to seeing the weathered panels installed when you get the chance.

Ah yes!!! The joys of moving!! I've been through so many dang moves I can't remember how many times my wife and I have done it. My grandpa used to have a saying that went something like, "Five moves is equal to a burnout." There's alot of truth in that because we've either given stuff away, lost stuff or broken stuff in all the moves we've been through. Hopefully you'll get some better property management where' you're going.

The best part is the management company won't let us sign a new lease and won't tell us why. The apartment is still listed as available online and on their website. There are a bunch of units still listed. We missed the resign date by 2 days, they're being unreasonable and petty. Here's a customer willing to pay and they don't care. Great business ethics. The unit we're moving into has been empty since November. Luckily this was always a temporary situation so it will take me literally 2 hours to pack and the only big item we have is a couch.

Ok, rant over. Sorry.

That's crazy about them not letting you sign a new lease with no explanation. The saving grace was this was in fact a temporary place to stay. Glad to hear that you're getting the hell outta Dodge.

[mz3]

Alright, I'm 85% set up and ready enough to get going. I took this opportunity to organize everything so I'm not working in a 9"×9" space on my desk anymore. For as long as I can remember I've worked like this. It sucks. I'm not doing it anymore.

Anyways...



I took off the parts that I felt needed to just be repainted. It was only 7 small pieces. V-fins and skirt parts were painted black and the back of the hands are dark iron+hull red.

Having room to work is awesome!

[tcoat]

Oh look!
He is Canadian!

[mz3]

🤣

Now I can't unsee that.

[tcoat]

Apr 19, 2023 9:39:17 GMT -5 mz3 said:

🤣

Now I can't unsee that.

[Real G]

What? The Full Armor Gundam is Canadian? What’s all this aboot?!

[tcoat]

Apr 19, 2023 12:12:25 GMT -5 Real G said:

What? The Full Armor Gundam is Canadian? What’s all this aboot?!

Not all of them. Just the EH model.

[Real G]

...is there a Zaku Hoser to go with it?  

Anyway, cool Full Armor Gundam.  One of the iconic original MSV designs that stood the test of time.

[mz3]

We fun now....

The zero in my other post is driving me mad. So having this going at the same time is good.

On to building...

I had to drill holes in the sides of the knees to accommodate the magnets glued inside the side caps






I lost my normal, larger drill bits. So I used the biggest one from the pin vise kit I have, then used a blade to make it larger. Not the best way, but it got the job done.

The past coulle of days I've been painting and getting decals on weapons and small bits.








For the guns I mixed tamiya gun metal with sea blue 2:1 and I gotta say I love it.

All of the outer armor parts are primed. There are 60+ pieces and about a two thirds will need masking. So I've been half stepping on getting that started.

[406 Silverado]

The camo on this thing is coming along brilliantly! A couple of years ago I had a Ford Maverick build that took me ONE year to build. A frickin' AUTO build that took me a dang YEAR! To avoid going crazy I had a couple of "filler builds" along the way to restore my sanity and to have at least some sense of accomplishment along the way. In short......I feel your pain brother.

[mz3]

May 1, 2023 20:43:00 GMT -5 406 Silverado said:

The camo on this thing is coming along brilliantly! A couple of years ago I had a Ford Maverick build that took me ONE year to build. A frickin' AUTO build that took me a dang YEAR! To avoid going crazy I had a couple of "filler builds" along the way to restore my sanity and to have at least some sense of accomplishment along the way. In short......I feel your pain brother.

Look at that damn T-72a I built and posted on a few years back. It's the reason I quit for a couple years.

[406 Silverado]

May 3, 2023 15:57:31 GMT -5 mz3 said:

May 1, 2023 20:43:00 GMT -5 406 Silverado said:

The camo on this thing is coming along brilliantly! A couple of years ago I had a Ford Maverick build that took me ONE year to build. A frickin' AUTO build that took me a dang YEAR! To avoid going crazy I had a couple of "filler builds" along the way to restore my sanity and to have at least some sense of accomplishment along the way. In short......I feel your pain brother.

Look at that damn T-72a I built and posted on a few years back. It's the reason I quit for a couple years.

You mean this one?



That looks INTENSE!! I also saw where you had some blues with the PE. Yikes!!!

[mz3]

Just seeing it makes me cringe! Burn it with fire! It's in a shoebox hundreds of miles away from me and it can stay there for all I care!

[406 Silverado]

May 3, 2023 21:03:44 GMT -5 mz3 said:

Just seeing it makes me cringe! Burn it with fire! It's in a shoebox hundreds of miles away from me and it can stay there for all I care!

Been there and done that. I've got a couple of builds that I have tossed for less reasons.

[mz3]

The only reason I didn't toss it was because I spent too much time and money on it. It took a while to get all the aftermarket parts together. The resin turrets were always sold out. I could never find anything on how to fix/modify the tamiya kit turret.

[406 Silverado]

I had a build go pretty similar to this one several years ago. It just seemed that I had to throw all kinds of money at the thing to get everything to work.

[mz3]

Update...

Everything is painted, decaled and glossed. Chipped decals a little to start the weathering.








I had a very concerning thing happen Saturday morning. Some small parts I previously washed had crazed. I have no idea why. I tested the was on a spare, unpainted part and got nothing. 3 of the parts were fixable and 2 I replaced from another gundam. For the life of me I can't figure out what happened. I test everything before I do any wash or filter on any kit regardless of brand. No other parts are showing any signs of cracking or anything. Weird!

[Real G]

The stupid Bandai crazing plastic strikes again. Their styrene formula causes unpredictable splitting when thinners are used when washing parts. For some reason, Bandai is extremely slow to react to and correct material based problems.

They had a similar problem with their ABS parts. Bandai thought they could eliminate polycaps by using ABS joints, but there was that cracking/splitting problem when exposed to thinners. So they eliminated ABS and went to KPS, which is just styrene molecularly bonded to rubber particles. The theory was that the plastic was more resilient, but I have found out firsthand it’s just a regression to the Bad Old Days of no-polycap kits that require Viagra for floppy parts.

And they still use stickers!

[stikpusher]

Yes, but they’re very good stickers…😜

[Real G]

May 15, 2023 16:36:17 GMT -5 stikpusher said:

Yes, but they’re very good stickers…😜

On flat parts! I did try them to see how they handled some gentle curves, and the answer was predictable. I have heard of people using heat to coax the stickers around compound curves, but then that just deflates the Bandai fiction balloon of making it easier for the kids! Bandai-San, you suckku.

[406 Silverado]

May 15, 2023 16:23:40 GMT -5 Real G said:

The stupid Bandai crazing plastic strikes again. Their styrene formula causes unpredictable splitting when thinners are used when washing parts. For some reason, Bandai is extremely slow to react to and correct material based problems.

They had a similar problem with their ABS parts. Bandai thought they could eliminate polycaps by using ABS joints, but there was that cracking/splitting problem when exposed to thinners. So they eliminated ABS and went to KPS, which is just styrene molecularly bonded to rubber particles. The theory was that the plastic was more resilient, but I have found out firsthand it’s just a regression to the Bad Old Days of no-polycap kits that require Viagra for floppy parts.

And they still use stickers!

That's very unfortunate. In this day and age when things can be corrected pretty quickly, it doesn't look good on a vendor to not fix a known issue like what you're mentioning here Neal.


MZ3: I'm sure that this is going to turn out to be a great build but I definitely feel your pain for the troubles along the way bud.

[Real G]

Bandai might be like a freight train trying to slow down when it comes to raw material purchasing.  Perhaps they got bamboozled by some supplier who oversold the virtues of KPS styrene, and they signed a binding long-term contract.  But the sticker thing I suspect is pure economics.  It's probably cheaper to run the sticker machine that  serves their toy lines rather than have a waterslide decal line dedicated to their model kits.

Bandai is terribly uneven in their product quality.  Their superlative 1/72 Milennium Falcon kit had stickers only in the regular release.  Their premium edition with the lights came with proper waterslides.  What the heck.  They already had the waterslides, so why not use it across the board?  Aaargh, now the P "Pee" Bandai thing is starting to bubble up inside me like bile, so I'll just pump the hate brakes and stop right here.

Anyway MZ3, great progress and I look forward to seeing the final product.

[mz3]

Don't get me started on p Bandai 😡

The crazed parts drove me nuts. I haven't had that happen in like 15+ years. I test before painting and before weathering. For a good part of yesterday and today inbetween the work I was doing on the 2 kits, I was trying to replicate the crazing on spare parts. I got nothing. I remade the wash exactly the same, odorless mineral spirits with Winsor and Newton black oil paint. I broke the spare part so there would be cracks the wash could get into. I washed the part like normal, nothing. I set the part in the wash for an hour, nothing. I let it set overnight and dry, nothing. It's the same PS that the crazed parts are.

Any way, a switched from oms to odorless turpenoid just to be safe. I've never had any problems ever with that.

[Real G]

Yeah, I had heard that the odorless turpentine is safer on Bandai plastic.  Plus it doesn't stink up the room as much!  When I first tried oil washes using regular turpentine, I almost gassed myself to death.  Now I do oil washes in the dining room when no one is home, or out in the patio.

[stikpusher]

G, try to get some Mona Lisa thinner. That stuff is for oils and practically odorless. Hobby Lobby carries it, if there are those stores on the islands.

[dupes]

May 15, 2023 16:23:40 GMT -5 Real G said:

And they still use stickers!

Their resistance to putting proper waterslides in their kits (at the very least the PGs and MGs, come on!) is baffling.

Looking good, man!

[mz3]

What really gets me, the 2 star wars kits I've done from Bandai came with stickers and waterslides for all the same markings.

And, usually a month or so after a kit comes out (hg, rg or mg) Bandai releases a decal sheet for that kit.

Honestly, after using aftermarket decals on this kit, Bandai's decals are trash.