MG the O II Hauer conversion verDC23

First of all... thanks a ton to Kenny Lim aka Toymaker for making this project possible!

Before I start boring you with a lot of talk, here is the link to the summary of the work in progress of this project.

This is basically my entry for the Toymaker versus DC23 build off that I talked about in a lot of my older posts. The Toymaker versus DC23 build off is better explained HERE and HERE.

This was supposed to be my entry for the up coming Gunpla Builders World Cup 2011. However as I have won 4 times as Champion and 1 time as 1st runner up, I am basically disqualified in joining the Open category here in the Philippines since last year ( 2010 ). I will still be placing this link in my contest gallery though as this was originally planned for GBWC expert category anyways.

note: I abandoned the original diorama concept and threw away the diorama out of the window ( excluding the MG Gundam markII ) after the GBWC Philippines announcement. This year's expert category at GBWC will only accept OOTB builds, unlike last year when I won with my " Gilgamesh project ". I then did a quick simple base / diorama for a day ( yesterday ) just to improve the presentation of the whole project.

I wanted to challenge myself early this year when I thought of starting this project. I am not good at all with scratch building as evident in my older builds. My primitive skills in scratch building only allows me to do kit bash stuff and my usual mindless slapping of pla plates and kotobukiya parts.

I worked on this build for roughly 3 months total, but started really early on the basic shape of the butt. After managing to produce the scratched built butt, I abandoned the project as I had to work on a few commission builds. I was a little more confident that I could somehow pull off my first scratch built project after seeing how I did the butt.

I then revisited this project only less than a couple of months ago and tried to finish before my self imposed deadline.

I hand painted the whole kit with Vallejo and Citadel acrylic paints as I made a huge mistake on the salt technique a couple of weeks back, thus ruining the original air brushed painting. I enjoyed painting with the Vallejos as they went on very smooth and the colors are vibrant. So basically aside from being my first almost fully scratch built Gunpla... this is also my first almost fully hand painted master grade kit.

The build is still a bit crude and rough as I am not really that comfortable with scratch building. I am a Fine Arts graduate thus I love painting and weathering more than measuring and cutting plastics. But I am happy with the outcome! Never thought in any stage of the build that I could pull this project off.

I am a little more confident in my scratch building after this, although I must admit I am still not that comfortable. I will be finishing a couple of master grade kits ( commission works ) before the year ends and after those projects I will start in brainstorming my next contest build for 2012.

Anyways, here are a TON of photos of my MG The O II conversion...

Again thanks a ton to Kenny Lim aka Toymaker for making this project possibleand thanks as always for dropping by guys! Til' next year end project! :)