Master Grade 00 Qan[T] Gundam - Part Final

Another weekend have passed and yet another update on this :). with only the shield and sword bits to do, I was hoping to get them done within 30mins but....



As the picture suggests, I had to look after baby Daniel and so after rocking him to sleep on my lap, I simply continued with the build (talk about multi tasking...)

However, with him on my lap, you know what that means... No detailed photos :( :( :( :( :S :S :S

Here is the only photo I took of the completed armaments completed but not yet fitted together.



All I can say is that the handle of the sword bits feel fragile and I have to be careful when joining them together to avoid breaking anything. Also, the connectors holding onto the sword C bits are extremely tight and getting the bits off is a pain in the fingers... I think my finger nails would come off first before the bits leave the attachments...

Anyway skip past 1 and a half hour later, I finished all the parts and here we have, the completed, 00 Qan(T) gundam :)



It absolutely looks amazing and well balanced now that it has a full saber on the right and the shield+sword bits on the left. I didnt like it initially as the official kit only had a shield+sword bits on the left and the kit looks soooo unbalanced.

With that completed and done, I went to bed (and put the baby to his bed...)

Wait, that's not all lol.... The Next morning.... Operation LightBox :D lol

I decided to give this kit a photo shoot in my long disused light box seeing that I have not used it for a long time and that this kit is quite a beauty :P

Qan(T) ready for takeoff...



I decided to put the GN drive LED in to have a look at the effects of not applying the foil sticker over the chest bits and it looks stunning :).



I am not really sure why Bandai would instruct us to place the sticker over the holes which illuminate the wordings of the chest piece... Looks so much better without the sticker imo.

Viewing from the side is gives a much clearer shot of the etched "00Q" on the chest :)



For the next few pictures, I turned off the LEDs to conserve GN Particles aka batteries lol... I decided to give the kit a full "schematic" photoshoot.

Front



Rear



Right Side



Left Side



General feel of the kit is it looks very sleak and the weapons are very stylish with their clear green parts. Being a melee specialized kit, it is no wonder that this MS has 11 swords in total. Also it is a very posable kit. I would also like to add that the OEM Full Saber is very matching and would be a must have for collectors who have got the MG Qan(T) gundam.

Here is a final shot of all Mobile Suits piloted by Setsuna in 00 gundam to finish off this post



Next, I am awaiting my UV bulb so that I can do so UV photography with the Qan(T) :P.... and also the Gn Field Ring in my next update lol... This ain't over yet lol.

I will try to do this pose (photo not done by me) with the Gn Field ring and see how it goes ;)...

Master Grade 00 Qan[T] Gundam - Part 3

Minor update on this. I have started to build the GN Full Saber for the 00 Qan[T] as the original backpack only has an arm to hold the shield and sword bits and so relies on this accessory to provide 2 arms for the full saber and the shield+sword bits

A total of 4 runners, 1 clear green effect parts for blades, 1 blue and 1 white outer plating and 1 grey inner frame.



*excuse the messy background :P

Also in addition to all that, there is this Quantum Burst ring accessory which is suppose to hold up all the sword bits around the Qan[T] as seen here:





So with all that properly introduced, here is the GN Full saber put togther.



This full saber consists of 3 smaller blades and 1 huge blade. the single blades fit into Qan[T]#s hands without much difficult and as there are guards for the handle, they tend to stay where they are and not fall off easily. The Huge sword, I have not tried posing the Qan[T] with it but I will do so after the entire build is done.

All the 3 smaller blades mount onto the large one like this. They are held together with plug and holes so if any of the plugs become loose in future, simply put a coat of nail varnish or super glue and everything will be snugly fitted once again ;)



You might have noticed that the photo quality might be poorer than before. This is mainly because I am using my iPhone to capture the pictures. Reason behind that is because my camera's battery ran out and I didnt want to wait until tomorrow to get this done so the only alternative is to use my iphone. Therefore apologies for the lack of quality photos.

With the Gn full saber completed, I built the backpack mounts for the Qan[t], which was provided in the Full Saber Accessory kit. Not wanting to bore you guys with the construction of merely 10 plastic parts, I did not take any photos. With that module constructed, here is a couple of shots of the Qan[T] with the Full saber attached :)





Some points to note about the full saber is the quality is not as good as bandai but acceptable. Colour matching is 99% accurate and blends in well with the Qan[T]'s armour plating. The clear green bits match to the ones ont he Qan[T] as well. The shoulder plade of the Qan[T] does not seem to be in conflict with the full saber, which is heartening ;)

All in all this is a good accessory and a good 3rd party attempt in providing a full saber for the Qan[T] which Bandai foresaken in the first place ;)

Next... GN shield + sword bits + photography session (UV bulb ordered :D:D:D:D)

Master Grade 00 Qan[T] Gundam - Part 2

With my leave over, I had to resort to building this only after I got home from work and dealt with baby Daniel lol. He tends to take up most of my time now so I am left with very little attention span on Gunpla and my other modelling activities... Lets hope he grows up fast and can look after himself so I can get more done lol.

Anyway where was I... Oh yes I have completed the inner frame of the Qan[T] and all that is left now is to put the armour platings on. Looking at the inner frame reminds me of C3P0 ie when he was first introduced to R2D2 in "The Phantom Menace" aka Star Wars Ep1.

  [R2D2 beeps]
C-3PO: I beg your pardon, but what do you mean, "naked?"
[R2D2 beeps]
C-3PO: My parts are showing? Oh, my goodness, oh!

ok back to the Qan[T] lol. For installing the armour, I started from the feet upwards. Some of the parts in blue which were supposed to install on the reverse of the leg takes a bit of forcing to get them in and it is quite heart stopping when they snap in place with a sickening "PIAK" sound... almost feel as if something has broken... Thank God nothing broke when installing these.



Here's some of the white pieces which I cut out off the sprue tree and are waiting their nubs cutting off. I tend to cut the parts off the tree with a little nub on them so that I can trim these off gently and easily to avoid getting white stress marks on the colour pieces of plastic. here in this case, they are white so the stress marks are not a big problem. However I think that a habit of mine to get them off and trim them :P

 

One side of the leg completed. now on to the next.

 

Now both done and dusted...For panel lining, I still chose to use my 0.3mm pencil to do it as I find that the colour is not too strong and is quite subtle for my gunpla. I think it is not easily seen from my photos as the exposure might be too high...

  The

Waist is up next. The parts for these are not numerous due to the front and rear skirts being absent on this model. Due to the high articulation of Setsuna's Gundams, Exia, 00 and Qan[T] all feature short or no front and rear skirtings at all. This is to prevent "skirting hinderance" to the thighs when the MS is posing. Some additional parts for the torso were prepared for installing as well.

 

After installing, I found that one of the flaps which is suppose to sit onto the side skirt frame is not snug fit enough and it keeps popping out... I think it might be just my model having this issue.

 

I was about to carry on building the head and I discovered this:

 

First thoughts was "What the *&^%$£.... How did it get bent? I dont remember  <insert action verb here> on it..."



Looks like I will have to get this replaced... grumble grumble... I must say the defect is not very noticeable once installed but as I would like my kits to be damage free, I put in an order for a replacement part all the same...

 

All that is left to complete the Qan[T] now are the shoulder pads and the arms. The left and Right arms feature a few different design of platings. I am quite sure this has got to do with the equipment which we will find out later.

 

Platings for the shoulder pads are pretty simply as well, having on 3 pieces per side. (someone remind me to do a better nub mark cleaning...)

 

And after all that was done, here we have the completed Master Grade Qan[T] Gundam :)

 

Now to wait for its replacement V fin and get the weapons built... rollon part 3...

Master Grade 00 Qan[T] Gundam - Part 1

After have a long time off from building Gunpla (due to baby duties, restringing badminton rackets, chinchillas, piano, replacing brake discs and pads... etc etc etc) I have finally managed to get a day to build one of my 2 backlogged kits; The MG Qan[T] and the MG FA Unicorn. I picked the Qan[T] to start off as this is faster to complete compared to the bucket load of weapons in the FA unicorn :P So... here we go :).

The design of the Qan[T] is a bit similar to the 00 Gundam as well as the Exia. In terms of the inner structure and external armour plating, I would say all 3 feel almost the same internally. The only notable difference would be the outer armour plating and weapons they wield.

The Qan[T] is featured in the 00 movie whereby earth is contacted by an alien species known as the ELS where they are able to assimilate everything in order to understand everything. Humanity as always, views everything as invasive and so a war between the ELS and humanity was inevitable. I got this kit whilst I was importing the rest of my stuff from China and therefore I have a kit with the box art lol (quite rare for me to have a kit with its original box imo)

 

Also together with this, I ordered a GN Full Saber for the Qan[t]. This is made by a japanese company called BTF. Not very sure how legit the company is but we shall see what the quality is like ;) as I am more interested in the colour and quality of the plastics.

 

For this build, I am going to start but building the legs up and inner frame out as opposed to legs up and armour plating concurrently.

 



The feet feel rather similar to the Exia and the 00 Gundam as I have previously noted. Hopefully the rest of the parts are going to be different otherwise this is going to be a quite repetitive build lol. The entire leg was assemble before installing onto the feet. Clear green plastics with foil stickers underneath make for a very appealing visual and all other aspects of the inner frame are well designed and easily put together. Not a bad design all in all.

 

I think the legs, without the armour plating look rather fragile. The joints at the ankles look a little thin and I doubt it would stay on if the Qan[t] were to fly kick another Mobile suit in real life lol.

Qan[t}: haiyaaaaa.... (spinning fly kick to the torso of unsuspecting grunt MS)...

PINGGGGGG... what the??? (feet flys off the other direction upon impact)

cold wind blows.....

lol best leave kicking to sturdier Mobile suits like the Sinanju and the Infinite Justice lol...

 



Next up are the hips. Hmmmm nothing to say about them, just that they are too easy to put together. Only 6? or 7 parts making up the hips. Quite a little uninspiring imo lol. Well maybe because there isnt any front and rear skirtings, which means great articulation.

The hips have the similar extending action found in the Exia and the 00 Gundam. Errr... excuse the ugly nub marks :P these will be hidden behind the armour plating ;)

 



Hips installed onto the leg units...

 

The Torso was assembled next with the pilot inside. Here is just the basic torso with nothing attached onto it yet. remind me to check my photos in future to remove any figures who have fallen over <_<

 

The head and the rest of the torso parts were installed. I have decided not to put the decal under the green chest piece as that would stop the light from the gn drive from illuminating the etched wording on them like in the case of the Exia Gundam... I am not sure why Bandai would instruct us to stick a decal over the hole where light passes though in the first place... Strange...

 

One side of the shoulder pads is shorter than the other to make space for the GN shield. I wonder if the Full Saber attachment would require the right side shoulder pads to be short as well... Guess we will find out soon enough ;)

 

After rummaging through my "bits" bin, I managed to find 2 gn leds to power the GN drive. Looks pretty intricate and nice imo lol

 

The Arms were assembled after that. Build wise, it is not too complex. The hands are quite flimsy as the thumbs are not firm and can be quite limp in their sockets... I hope this doesnt lead to weapon holding problems later.

 



With all the inner frame built, all that is left is to put the "skin" on :) More on that later ;)

HG 1/144 GPB-X80-30F Beginning 30 Gundam

The Beginning Gundam was the main mobile suit featured in the anime "Mobile Suit Gunpla Builders" and the series only comprises of 3 episodes. My general feel for this series is that it is Bandai is trying to do what pokemon/digimon and other similar genre animes are doing and try to put gundam into the same marketing strategy as them lol.

The Beginning Gundam is basically a model kit of a model kit in the anime and not like the other kits where they are kits of Mobile Suits. The Beginning Gundam 30 is the upgraded version of Beginning Gundam and has a overkill of 15 beam sabers, 6 on its side skirts, 6 at the back as well as 3 on the shield. Also attached to various parts of the Beginning Gundam are the 20 IFS units (I Field - System). These can be activated at will and use for offensive or defensive purposes.

On to the build itself. This kit is rather colourful and comprises of many effect parts. these can be swapped or attached to various different IFS units wherever you prefer.



Starting from the feet up, I proceeded to use the MS Hangar once again for presenting the build :)



The feet are quite unique in a way as it has got many small details and parts attached to it, making it look very different from typical MS feet. I find that the flap on top of the feet a little strange as well in terms of design and function.



The legs are being assembled once the feet are in place. All is quite straight forward and the parts so far are quite well designed.





Here we have the lower legs completed. Moving on to the thighs next :)



The waist joints which connects the legs together is quite interesting as the waist is built later and mounted onto the waist joint seen here on the trailer.





Leg units completed and joint to the waist join...



Here are the parts which make up the waist. Basically the front skirts are quite short and the 2 side skirts are basically holders which contain 3 beam sabers each.







Carrying on from where we stopped, we now proceed to the build of the upper part of the mobile suit.

First off is the torso. Unlike the Master Grades, this HG torso is simple and only comprises of 4 major parts to make out the basic foundation and structure for all other external platings to fit on. Quite simple imo lol.



here it is mounted on top of the waist which was completed.



The other bits and pieces are quite colourful and simply fit into the holes and plugs which are locate on the main torso...





Apologies for not documenting a build of the head as it was pretty simple and straight forward to put together as well. I got it built and installed onto the torso in about 3 minutes :P



Looks like we are almost done with the kit. Now onto the arms. The arms themselves are alright and the fitment are pretty basic and straight forward, nothing complicated as compared to the Master Grades or Real Grades imo. However, i think the palm guard (red part) is not well thought out as it hinders the hand from rotating most of the time. This is an issue with the original Beginning Gundam as well. I will explaing what I mean as I go along.





The shoulder pads are mounted onto the shoulder, unlike most kits where the shoulder pads are installed into the arm slot and held in place by the arm and have got independent movements.



Both arms installed and pending additional external platings...



If you look at where the hands are suppose to be, you will notice a little white piece protruding. This part is basically preventing the hand from rotating freely and forces the hands to be displayed facing palm out. Later on there will be a red effect part which is suppose to sit there to disrupt the articulation further.



Notice the direction of the palm in this picture?? ya they are weird imo... Anyway on to the IFS units...



spent almost any hour panel lining them as well as prepareing them before installing them...



As usual, i used my trusty 0.03mm mechanical pencil for panel lining them. Looks subtle imo :)

Finally, I installed allllllll the IFS units and it is really a mash of colours lol. Some peeps might find it a bit of an overkill and quite messy but I think it i alright. This kit i believe is generally for the younger gunpla builders thats why it is so colourful and "fun" in a sense. Another kit which reminds me of this is the Hobby Hi-zack. Do a search on google and you should be able to see what it looks like ;)



The basic equipment of any V-fin Mobile suit is always a beam rifle and a shield. So here we have a rather fancy/colourful beam rifle as well as an interesting unsymetrical designed shield.



With all parts completed, here is the Beginning 30 Gundam (still not very sure what the 30 represents though :P)

Front view



Rear view



I will set out to review this and see if I am able to pose this for some reasonable pictures later tonight ;)



thanks for viewing guys :)