PG RX-178 Gundam Mark II ver DC23

Discarded my post yesterday, made a booboo with the topcoat and ended up with super glossy finish plus the indoor lighting added to the glossy effect. I was not able to meet up with the client yesterday as I was not feeling very good ( Hypertension ), So I applied a final matte coat on the kit today and gave it an outdoor photo shoot.

Not to make an excuse, but this project is wayyyy long overdue.  got this since February this year but was only able to finish it yesterday. So many distractions last July, set up a fan page at Facebook, created a MAC Facebook, co created the MAC forums and finished my Gilgamesh project.

Anyways, here are some photos of my most recent work...

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PG MKII painted!

I am currently weathering this kit right now, putting some paint chipping effects and some washes. Just taking a break and posting a few photos of the kit before the weathering. The colors on the photos is not accurate though.

I will tone down the colors and add some post shading with Tamiya smoke tomorrow and will post the photos of the completed kit very soon. I like the internals in particular, the silver I used is not too flashy and bright mainly because of the weather. With a bit of Tamiya smoke I hope the whole kit will look more serious rather than the toylike look it has right now.

Anyways here are some pics...

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PG MKII prep for priming

Just a quick post before I dive in to the ultimate FUN of this hobby! Sanding! I will be cleaning up the parts, sanding off the nub marks, remove a few seam lines, wet sand the pla plating and hopefully prime this kit later today!

This kit will be weathered, so I will be adding a few damages on the obvious parts. Some small damage effects on the knee, elbow, foot and manipulators. I might also put some damages on the shield as well. I might have updates later today or early tomorrow.

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PG Gundam MKII diorama done!

I just finished painting the PG MKII diorama that was formerly the MG Sazabi diorama. This is as big as my The Graveyard dio as this was originally planned for BMKWC. This is a bit simple though and is just a simple old hangar in the middle of a red planet.

Now let us go through the simple painting steps I did to this dio. First I painted the whole thing with Bosny ( industrial grade ) Flat Black earlier today...

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PG MKII commission - WIP - Sazabi diorama

After exactly 20 days of zero Gunpla for me...I have updates alas! hihi. I started re working on this project yesterday... decided that the diorama is done and added some koto parts and pla plating on the PG MKII and yes this is the Sazabi diorama I am giving up for this build.

 I asked the client if he is ok with a 50cm x 50cm diorama for his PG MKII and he agreed to it. Thus I am giving my Bakuc 2010 Sazabi diorama for this build. I removed the crane stuffs in front as those are 1/100 and have primed the diorama today.

I will be hand painting the base color of the  groundwork tonight, let it cure overnight and try to finish the diorama by tomorrow. I will be airbrushing and add some weathering on the dio to compliment the MKII, coz the MKII will also be weathered. The PG MKII is almost done also, just a few small pla plate strips and it is ready for priming.

The original MKII diorama sucks... so giving up the Sazabi dio is an obvious choice. The good thing about giving up the Saz dio is that I will be working on a new Sazabi diorama for Bakuc. hihihi... I will keep it a secret for now, so stay tuned guys. Now here are a ton of photos of my PG MKII progress so far...

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PG MKII commission - WIP - trekker shoes

Just a very small update on my PG MKII build... I gave the kit some trekker shoes basically. The shoes surprisingly  complimented the mods on the legs and the torso. It gave the MKII a bulkier feel to it and is subtle enough not to disturb the overall design of the mech.

I also gave some more simple pla plating on the arms, legs and head. I need to add a little bit of koto parts and small pla plate strips to fully compliment the torso and complete the detailing. This is almost done, next updates will be priming of the kit. Now here are a few photos of my progress so far...

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PG MKII commission - WIP - simple pla plating

Ello guys, just a quick update on the PG MKII commission build... I did some simple pla plating yesterday all over the kit, mainly the skirt armors, legs and arms. I basically used my usual pla plating shapes to compliment the plates on the torso part.

The MKII is starting to take form now, and as always I am starting to over detail it again. This is in Titan's color scheme as I've said before... so I am afraid that most of the details won't be that visible in the photos when painted. However, the client would clearly see the mods in person anyways so the heck with not over detailing the kit.

A little more custom shaped pla plating on the foot legs and rear skirt and some small pla plate strips will finish the modding stage. i hope to finish this soon, so stay tuned. Anyways, here are a few more photos of my progress so far...

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PG MKII commission - WIP - scribed panel lines

Ello guys, I have been scribing additional panel lines on the PG MKII armor since around 10 am, so I have been scribing for almost 6 hours now. Basically I could not do pla plating today because I still do not have a Tamiya extra thin cement... and it is raining so I can't paint my Core Booster either, so I just decided to do panel lines instead.

Adding panel lines is the usual and fastest way of breaking large surfaces, not really my cup of tea as I like pla plating more. I find scribing, boring and is sort of a repetitive task for me. Anyways, as if I have a choice today. I am happy with the outcome though, but I am looking forward to seeing this with my usual pla plating soon.

Anyways, here are some progress pics of the new panel lines and some holes...

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PG MKII commission - WIP - more armor shaving

Ello guys, I have been working with this kit since after Lunch. I basically removed / shaved off more armor areas to reveal some internal details and give the armor a more interesting shape. The mods also gives a more complicated look to the overall appearance of the kit. I also exposed a few internal parts on the calf armor.

I could finish the modifications of this commission build this weekend. At this pint I only have to add my usual pla plating and maybe a few holes and koto parts. I am pretty satisfied with the segmented look of the armors, perfect for dark color schemes.

Again, client wants this in Titans color, so there won't be exaggerated pla plating this time as that won't be visible in dark color schemes anyways. Now here are some pics of the progress so far...

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PG MKII commission - WIP - diorama setup

Ello guys, I have been working with the initial set up of the hangar diorama of the MKII since after lunch today. I had to pack up early coz my daughter Samantha woke up with a bad mood ( sitting beside my portable table in the photos ), so I immediately took crappy photos and packed my tools away.

I am currently blogging with her on my lap now... hehe. Anyways, I managed to assemble a few 1/72 figures that came unassembled as usual. I also managed to stage the main catwalk and some reinforcements to stabilize the cat walk of course.

I have to detail the hangar soon but as you can see it is just a basic hangar diorama without walls... much like Toymaker's Maintenance Bay dioramas. Anyways, here are a few lousy photos of my progress so far...

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PG MKII commission - WIP - Armor Cutting

Ello guys I managed to cut the thick armors of the PG MKII yesterday and today. Kinda slow coz the armors are really thick and I am not really comfortable with this kind of mod. I first scribed some panel lines on the part to be cut and then saw it with my Hasegawa saw... I then cleaned it up with a file and an art knife.

I will then have to add a few pla plating to maintain consistency with the torso mods and I might scribe a few panel lines and some MSG option parts also. I friggin' ran out of Tamiya thin cement thus I could no longer detail this kit today. Well, at least I am back to working on this kit again.

This kit will not have much detailing coz the client wants it in Titans color, thus I am afraid the dark color scheme will just hide the pla plating if I add too much. Anyways, here are some pics of the armor cutting...

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PG Gundam MK-II WIP part 3 - torso mods

Ello guys, I just finished detailing the PG MKII by cutting some armor parts and did some pla plating and some MSG Koto parts. I started working on the kit after lunch, so it took me around 5 hours to finish this...kinda slow actually. I have been slacking a bit for 2 weeks now, so I am a bit rusty I guess. hehe.

I used my fav triangular hasegawa saw to remove some portions of the armor parts to expose the very nice internals of the kit. PG internals are perfect after all...so I might as well expose them. The armor parts like the PG Zeta armor parts are  a bit difficult to cut actually, coz they are simply a ton thicker than MG armor parts. I have yet to clean up the glue marks of the pla plating and wet sand the pla plates to soften the edges a bit...but I think this is done. The client told me that he wants a Titan's color scheme for this, so I won't be adding too much detail, coz the dark Titan's scheme will hide it a bit.

I will then have to expose some internals on the other parts of the kit ( e.g. legs ) or scribe some thick panel lines if cutting the armor is not possible to maintain the consistency of the overall look of the kit. Anyways here are some pics of the progress...

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PG Gundam MK-II WIP part 2 - diskette hangar dio

Ello guys, just a quick post on what I did earlier today...basically I did the base of my PG MKII hangar base and used some old diskettes for the wall, some High Impact Plastic Sheets ( HIPS ) for the ground of the hangar and an old tray for elevation. I also used some balloon sticks to reinforce the joints between the diskettes and the HIPS. I was about to glue some tubings using some Gunpla trees when I suddenly ran out of super glue. Dang!

Anyways, here are a few pics of the base so far...of course I will detail this with lots of tubings and maybe a catwalk and a platform at the corner. Obviously I am going for a maintenance bay type and not a full hangar...Now, here are the pics...

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PG Gundam MK-II WIP part 1 - snapfit

UPDATE 04-05-10 : snapfit

Ello guys, actually I did not snapfit this kit, I just got it today from the client. My first PG commission is the PG Zeta and this is just my second PG commission and I will work on this immediately after the AC White Glint commission. I will then have to bump off my personal project which is the 1/100 Seravee for a much later date. Commission works are great...you have more money to buy Gunpla...you just don't have the time to build them. hehehe

The client's instructions is a Hangar diorama for it and the color scheme should be in Titans colors. He also wants it weathered and of course my detailing treatment. I like the proportion of the kit, looks pretty solid and " macho ". I plan to give this kit some military like detailing, thicker pla plates than usual and more squarish shapes. The problem with the hangar dio is where to get the 1/60 figures as I told the client, hopefully we could get our hands on a bunch of figures for the diorama.

As usual I posted WIP threads at ZeroGunz, Plamo, Netmorks, fichtenfoo and for the first time at hobbyfanatics. I took a lot of pictures so that I have lots of before pics and could compare it after I have modded it, pardon the quality of the pics coz they are just quick snapshots just to show the bareness of the armor of the kit. Now here are some pics of the kit which has some panel lines and stickers on it oledi...

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