It has been a long time, maybe years since I last built a Gunpla kit. I had retired from the hobby, disposed my unbuilt kits and a few of my tools. Financial constraints might be my major reason but I think the lackluster part of Gunpla building has consumed me. I may look at released Gunpla kits from time to time but that does not seem to excite me now. That is until is I saw the preview pics of the MG Deathscythe Hell to be released by Dragon Momoko.

As a 90s kid, I grew up watching Gundam Wing as my first Gunpla series and got enticed by the five major character and their mobile suits and since then was a fan. Seeing this version of the Gundam Deathscythe has given me an insight and a reason to purchase and build a Gunpla kit again. Time might be a factor for me now but having a snap build is good and satisfying already. Anyhow, here below are some of the preview pics published at the Dragon Momoko FB page.

The sleek design can make us conclude that this kit has surpassed the original build of the Deathscythe. Let us just be wary though of possible loose or not connecting parts given that it is a third-party released kit.

I had already placed my reservation for the preorder at my local hobby store and the owner said that the possible price would be around P1300 to P1400. The final price are to be posted.

We will see how this goes once the kit arrives and maybe I can publish an unboxing post again to scale the quality of the parts.

Goodbye, 2016. The past year was somewhat an unpleasant one for my personal life though at least the Magic: the Gathering Iloilo Community garnered another recognition with Mark Tubola’s Finalist finish at Grand Prix Kuala Lumpur. The other achievement I think was the increase of the new players and those who have become interested of the game. I am hoping of this trend to continue this 2017 and I will do my best in catering them to stay and enjoy this hobby.

Mark Lawrence Tubola finished in 2nd place in GP Kuala Lumpur last October

We welcome another year of MtG gaming and one relevant tournament for this year will be Grand Prix Manila in June. Aether Revolt is on the horizon for this month and two more sets to go to define the Standard metagame for this GP event.

News for the community is that Critical Hit will now be hosting weekly Friday Night Magic and will start this coming Friday, January 6. Players will now have two game store choices to go to and play. It will now be more convenient for peeps from the Jaro and Mandurriao district. I will be posting the details on this blog and at the MtG Iloilo FB page soon.

Anyhow, let us wrap up this post. Set your goals and be a better of yourself this year. Happy New Year geists!

I am not if it is because of boredom or impulse buying or something but I recently bought a Gunpla kit again after years of hiatus from the hobby. The kit was the High Grade 1/144 scaled Gundam Barbatos and posted at the local Gundam Builders Iloilo group by a fellow Ilonggo hobbyist. I was initially watching that Gundam series of the kit and that maybe was the major influence on me buying the kit. Anyhow, what I need next to do is to update my cutting and building tools. I think my hobby knife already rusted out because of long idle use.

For now, here is the unboxing pics I took of the HG Gundam Barbatos:

Here are some of the pics taken by fellow Iloilo Toys & Comic Collectors member Axel King of the ITCC Toy exhibit together with IBAM and Gundam Builders Iloilo during the first Artolda Iloilo Art Festival held in Central Philippine University last Friday, August 28, 2015.

If the embed code does not function on your browser, click here for the FB album.

Here are the pics that I took during our Monday side trip after the Grand Prix Hong Kong tournament. We went to Lantau Island to see the big Buddha and after that went to Times Square mall in Causeway Bay to check the Gundam Docks at Hong Kong II exhibit.

Click on the link here to check the album gallery on my Facebook page.

It has been a while since I bought this kit MG Tallgeese III from DM and I literally forgot to take some pics of the runners for blog post. Well to compensate, here is part one of the unboxing featuring the runners of the model kit.

First off is the box cover of the kit with an awesome design.

A glimpse of the box contents as I opened it.

Next are the kit runners. The first two pics compose the inner frame parts of the Tallgeese III.

Here are the runners for the armor parts and some grey parts for the joints.

The blue runner for the backpack booster and the runner for the parts of the shield, chest and side skirt.

More small runners included in the kit.

That is a huge blue part of the shield and look at that orange effects sheet for the TG III Beam cannon. The white and orange runners next to it are for the parts of a sort-of scale whip that is attached to the lower end of the shield.

More orange parts and the runner for the Beam cannon along with the decal and sticker sheet.

Part two is for the pics of the manual so just stay tuned.

I am not into Gunpla commission jobs skill-wise and experience-wise, but a kumpare requested for restoration of his old out-of-the-box built Gunpla kits. One of which is the HG Arms Astray PMC Custom from the Gundam Seed series.

My first step was to dissemble the parts and group them according the color. After a few hours of careful parts separation, they were sorted and placed in the organizer box.

The plan is just to detail the parts with panel lines, either using the Copic marker or via panel wash with Tamiya Accent Color Black. After that, I might have to fix the parts with sticker before top coating them with Bosny Flat Clear. The original color scheme will be retained for most of the outer armor whereas the dark blue parts might be repainted with that same color or Dark Grey.

Part two on the paint jobs and stuff to be posted.

The other Gunpla kit I have bought from Hobby Link Japan when they held one of their recent sales was the BB #172 Gouken Gundam Kirahagane Gokusai (Released June 2010). Its list price was at 1000 yen but went on sale at a 65% discount and was priced at 350 yen or at around 175php. I ordered the kit via a friend’s recommendation that it can transform from its mini version to a sort of a High Grade version.

The kit’s box is short to the box size of a HG 1/144 Gundam Wing kit and there are only three runners. The challenge is that most of the designs are sticker-based so masking and painting might be my solution. Here are the pics of the unboxing of the BB #172 Gouken Gundam Kirahagane Gokusai.

Product info at the HLJ Page: http://www.hlj.com/product/BAN963273/Gun

So I finally get to hold of this kit which I ordered from HLJ months ago via Dexter’s shipment transaction. The kit was the Hardygun MS RGM III and this was one of the kits listed in one of their regular on sale items, though at that time it was low on stock. When the order was placed, the kit is now unavailable so it had to be reserved and added once the new stocks arrived. Fortunately it has, and the kit arrived a month ago which I did not paid for immediately due to lack of funds.

Anyhow, everything is now settled so let us go to the unboxing pics. See it on the gallery below.

This will be added to the ‘For commission’ list of a colleague who is skilled enough to paint this old school type of kit. I just have to wait two months for him to completely recover from CTS.

Until the next post.

The first ever build challenge for the Gundam Builders Iloilo FB group will commence this July 1st and will last two months. I volunteered to be one of the organizers of this contest as I don’t think I will have the time to build my entry kit. Here are the rules of the contest as discussed with Gian and Doc Ivan:

*Rules were based on Mechapinoy who have generously agreed to share their criteria and rules, though it was slightly modified.

1. The kit should be of the BANDAI brand only, built out of the box of the scale High Grade or Master Grade. It can be from any series, can be painted, weathered, top coated glossy or flat. Improvement of the overall appearance is limited only to the following: sharpening of V-fins. rescribing of the original molded on panel lines, filling in of seam lines, hollow parts and gaps.

2. Kits colors must be from the original depiction of the Mobile suit, however some slight changes are allowed (shades of yellow, gray and red etc.). Decals are allowed whether it is kit issued or aftermarket.

3. Modifications or additional parts or weapons are not allowed. The mobile suit must look exactly as it was in the series. Also, no custom panel lines should be added.

4. Participants can post their WIP (Work in Progress) pics of their kit in the duration of the challenge, but NOT THE FINISHED WORK so as to avoid prejudging.

5. Registration fee of 100 pesos required for each participant to be used for prizes. The fun build challenge will start July 1 and will end September 1st.

And here is the Criteria for Judging:

1. Basic Skills (absence of mold lines, Seam Lines, inappropriate gaps, minimum cut marks, proper parts alignment, absence of adhesive marks) – 30%

2. Painting (smooth paint texture,, absence of over spray, absence of frosting, properly leveled (no brush streaks), color separation, overall color combination. – 30%

3. Detailing -20% – includes, color shading, panel lines, decal placement, weathering

4. Presentation – 20% – General impression and appearance.

Yesterday was the conclusion of our one-week toy display and exhibit at the Robinsons Place Iloilo for their weeklong event for Father’s Day. Iloilo Toy and Comic Collectors associated with Gundam Builders Iloilo and with Robinsons Admin permission to setup the display in two locations inside the mall, one on the ground floor near the fountain area and the other on the second floor of the Ledesma wing.

The initial setup was quite a challenge for the group as the display cabinets needed some cleaning and fixing. We brought glass cleaners but those were not enough as some of the cabinets’ stands were uneven & needed to be fixed. It took us some DIY stuff for the repairs and now we were off to setup the toys for display which took us hours to finish.

Here are some photos I took on yesterday’s finale of the Fathers Day Event Exhibit in Robinsons Place Iloilo.

I am somehow getting back my drift on to continuing my build of my backlog Gunpla kits. Since I am cancelling my build project on the HG Nu Gundoom Ground Type due to the parts issue, I have decided to grab this kit from the Gundam Build Fighters series which I bought a few months back and start a new project.

There is not yet a definite plan of the paint job of this kit so it will most likely be the standard Flat Clear top coat. I will try to add a few waterslide decals from Samuel Decals for added details and maybe darken some edges with Tamiya Weathering Master.

Here are some preview pics.

*banner image from Gundamguy.blogspot.com