The best Bandai kit ever made finally landed at my house today:
DO NOT EAT
Yes, it is indeed a 1:1 scale model of a sealed Cup Noodle.
I love the warning labels — “don’t eat this,” of course, but also “don’t pour hot water into me.” I also love that it’s not in any way a Gundam model, not even slyly; it’s just a Cup Noodle.
Although 40k minis completely sidelined my Gunpla hobby activities from March 2020 onwards, I preordered this kit back in October because it’s a thing of motherfucking beauty. I know the bug will bite me again, and when it does…Cup Noodle will be waiting for me.
Out now: The Unlucky Isles
The Unlucky Isles [affiliate link], the first system-neutral guidebook for my Godsbarrow fantasy campaign setting, is now on DriveThruRPG.
I picked up the HG MomoKapool kit as a break from more complex Gunpla (at the time, MG Astray Red Frame Kai) and painting (at the time, Sternguard Veterans and a Chaplain for my Blood Angels 40k army), and it was just what the doctor ordered.
One hour and a couple minutes to go from box of plastic to built and panel-lined, and gosh I just love this adorable little kit.
HG MomoKapoolPenguin buns
My Gunpla to-build stack grew quite a bit in May and June, so I’ll have some more completed models to post here eventually.
Out now: The Unlucky Isles
The Unlucky Isles [affiliate link], the first system-neutral guidebook for my Godsbarrow fantasy campaign setting, is now on DriveThruRPG.
When I stopped posting hobby stuff — both here and on Twitter — on May 31, I didn’t stop working on 40k miniatures or building Gunpla. (I did take a lot fewer pictures as I went along, though.) Some time away has made me realize that I miss having this creative outlet and that spending less time on Twitter increases my well-being. So I’m coming back to blogging, slowly, and staying entirely off Twitter. We’ll see how that goes.
To catch the blog back up, here’s an omnibus of the few WIP photos I had backlogged.
Gunpla
MG Astray Red Frame Kai — finally done with the body!I picked up an MG ∀ kit to work on next (although it got leapfrogged by a cute little HG kit), and the difference in box size between it and my Kai is striking
40k
Squad Amedeo starting to take shapeAmedeo WIPNearly there with the Chaplain and the Sternguard!Chaplain Arrius freshly shadedMy Sanguinary Guard getting their base coats, and the Land Raider Crusader partially primed
I’ve got several posts queued that cover the stuff I’ve finished during my hiatus; those are up next, a couple each week.
Out now: The Unlucky Isles
The Unlucky Isles [affiliate link], the first system-neutral guidebook for my Godsbarrow fantasy campaign setting, is now on DriveThruRPG.
With my HG Gouf Custom built and tucked into the toy display on my desk, I returned to my first MG kit, the lovely Astray Red Frame Kai my wife got me last Christmas.
Nestled inside its chest is its tiny pilot.
Pilot Lowe Guele
The undergated parts make this kit a dream to get off its runners. Most parts have their nub protruding from an internal surface, almost like it’s been slid up alongside it, rather than attached to it or on an external area. Just nip, trim, and move on — it’s awesome.
Undergated parts
After 90 minutes of work on my second night (first since late December 2019), I had a finished torso. So. Many. Parts!
This kit is going to look so cool when it’s doneWorking on the arm inner frames and joints
The Google Translate app makes assembling Gundam kits a lot easier — and sometimes it adds a dash of humor, too.
Words to live byThis right here is a really neat armLook at that bend!One arm down
I love the use of a reflective foil sticker underneath the clear plastic element on the head. It really pops, and it’s such a clever approach.
Now we’re cooking with gasStill needs hips, thighs, and ankles, but I’m starting to get a feel for how tall he’ll be
By the time I got to the legs, I was back in the groove and moving more quickly. But between the weapons and the rest of Astray’s body I’ve still got several hours of building to do.
Out now: The Unlucky Isles
The Unlucky Isles [affiliate link], the first system-neutral guidebook for my Godsbarrow fantasy campaign setting, is now on DriveThruRPG.
I haven’t built any Gunpla kits since I started on the — rather intimidating! — MG Astray Red Frame my wife got me for Christmas, mostly because miniatures swallowed my hobby time whole (in a good way). But on Sunday night, unable to sleep, I was in the mood for Gundam.
The Astray is my first MG and I was feeling a bit rusty, so I jumped into one of the other two kits I currently have on hand instead — an HG Gouf Custom. HG kits are super-relaxing to work on, simple but rewarding, and this was just what the doctor ordered. I popped on Community in the background and tucked into it.
HG Gouf Custom waist, torso, and head done so far
I’m still a Gunpla newbie; the Gouf is my fourth kit, all HGs (Leo, Barbatos, and Astaroth Origin are the other three). After working on plastic miniatures, I have to switch grooves a bit — double-nipping, multi-stage sanding and polishing, no glue, no painting, etc. It’s a fun mental shift.
Sunday night’s stopping point, before I realized I had the shoulder joints on upside down
I started making mistakes around 1:00 am Monday, so I went to bed and picked up the Gouf again at a more reasonable hour.
The combination shield / scabbard / 35mm cannon / gatling gunSuch a cool feature of this kitDone except for panel lining
After finishing the kit, I grabbed my trusty black Gundam marker, pulled off the arms, shoulders, head, and gun, and set to panel lining. Come Monday night, I had a finished Gouf.
Finished and posed
I figured I’d stretch the capacity of my little lightbox and get a shot of him in there, too.
HG Gouf Custom
This was a fun kit to build, and now I feel like I’m back in the groove. Time to start working on the Astray!
Out now: The Unlucky Isles
The Unlucky Isles [affiliate link], the first system-neutral guidebook for my Godsbarrow fantasy campaign setting, is now on DriveThruRPG.
I knocked out two more Terminators today but got a bit frustrated with one of them (I didn’t feel like my paint job was up to snuff, but pushed ahead anyway), so I figured it was time for a palate cleanser: assembling space dwarves!
Gunpla tools, meet miniature assembly
Gunpla detour
Fortunately, I already own the tools for this because I got into Gunpla in 2019 and there’s quite a bit of crossover. In fact, if I hadn’t started building Gundam kits — something, like miniatures, I assumed I’d be bad at — I might not have gotten back into minis at all.
HG Astaroth Origin (somewhat dusty!)
When I decided to give Gunpla a shot, I was pleasantly surprised to find that I could build a kit and be happy with the results. I’m not great! But every kit is better than the last one, and I’ve added more steps along the way: double-nipping, sanding, filing, and polishing are all standard practice now. I also enjoyed the process of building as much as the pleasure of having a finished model; finding that same joy in painting is what’s really gotten me jazzed about miniatures again.
And hey, minis fresh off the sprue are covered in mold lines, nubbins, and bits of flash that need the same attention as a Gundam kit before assembly — nice!
Back to the space dwarves
I’m used to single-piece minis or figures that just need a bit or two popped on — not full-on kits like the ones in the Deadzone core set. One of the first things I figured out was that I have the wrong glue; I assumed superglue worked for everything because it’s worked for everything I’ve ever assembled — but what I need is plastic glue.
So while I wait for a chance to nip over to Mox and pick up a bottle, I thought I’d get the “use these squads for your first game” minis off their sprues and cleaned up so they’re glue-ready.
Steel Warrior Huscarl
I started with the default leader, a Steel Warrior Huscarl. He comes in 9 parts: head (with cool dwarf beard armor!), back, chest, hammer arm, gun arm, R and L shoulder pads, legs, and base. It’s a neat mini, and pointlessly gendered name aside the Forge Fathers are a cool faction. But after fiddling with it I’m much less excited about it.
Just from sort of squashing the bits together in my fingers it seems like the amount of assembly is not going to be rewarded with a matching amount of posability. There’s zero in the head and legs, the shoulder pads limit what can be done with the arms, and the torso is . . . so-so.
The torso is made to face straight forward, but it doesn’t do that well: There are substantial gaps all around the edges. But if I turn it a bit, the areas on the leg piece which are made to match up with it no longer do. Poking around online I see that this appears to be a problem with the Steel Warriors that Mantic has never fixed with a fresh sculpt.
I won’t know for sure until I try to glue this Huscarl together, but my initial impression is poor. It feels like I’m about to do a bunch of work to assemble what’s essentially a single-pose figure that could have been delivered in one piece.
Fuck it, I’m going to call it a night and revisit this dude another time.
Out now: The Unlucky Isles
The Unlucky Isles [affiliate link], the first system-neutral guidebook for my Godsbarrow fantasy campaign setting, is now on DriveThruRPG.
Out now: The Unlucky Isles
