Starship Modeler: Gallery ( Mecha )

Gundam H-ARMS Custom

This is the crystal type kit of the H-Arms Custom which means that it's made of clear and chrome plastic so you don't have to paint it. However many years of slavishly following every detail on aircraft have made me want to make everything as per the prototype - besides all the seams show if you don't sand, putty and paint.

There were two sprues of clear parts which are normal plastic and one polycap sprue, plus two sprues of chromed plastic which were then painted with some weird kind of black/purple paint. I cleaned all the areas to be glued on these parts so the glue would stick properly (though it's a snap type I used glue anyway) . During construction I encountered several problems ,mostly of my own making.

First, I painted the inside of all the clear parts black so that light wouldn't pass through them and because the inside of the armour needs painting anyway as some of it can be seen. This meant that when I came to paint all the white areas the black showed through the white. What I should have done was to paint the inside white first then black over the white.

The second problem came during construction. As I was used to test-fitting aircraft parts I did this with the Gundam. However, as it is a "snap together" kit the parts acted as designed and stuck. I fixed this by shaving pins and enlarging holes slightly so that the parts could be separated after test fitting.

The third problem I encountered may not have been a problem. In the absence of any reference material, I decided to cover over some holes on the front of the backpack. There are three holes on the front of the backpack at the top and two at the bottom and the way the piece is moulded suggests that they are there so it can be moulded properly rather than from choice. I covered them, but there are some rockets on the back pack and these holes may be air intakes or something.

After all these problems were sorted out the gundam was quite easy to build being a nice change from my usual choice of kits. The painting was also quite easy with citadel paints (I mixed the colours to match the box and instructions and thinned them to make brush strokes less noticeable). The polycap construction of the moveable joints allows the Gundam to be disassembled into separate bits of arms, legs, feet, torso etc. so that each piece can be painted separately.

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