MG Exia WIP 02: Green with Envy

I’ve started building the legs for the Exia. So far, one leg is built and partially painted.Of, course… this is the unpainted leg. I’ll update with a pic of the partially painted leg another time.

I love how well they recreated dock for the GN Blades in the hips. Very well engineered there. Better than the NG Exia’s setup for sure.

I also looked at the torso one night, and I realized something was off. Its not supposed to be all white. If you refer to WIP 00, I stated that the red parts of the Exia would be painted in Tamiya Park Green. This includes the oblique/side armor. Thus…

I gave a second coat after taking this picture, so the green looks a little cleaner than it does here. Let me know if you prefer it with or without green.

And now: an update on my state of affairs: My fall semester ends in three weeks. And I’m gonna be extremely busy in between that time. Most importantly, I’ll be trying to get myself into a four year college so I can go for my bachelor’s. Though I’ll (hopefully) be getting my Associate’s next month, I don’t want to, nor will I stop there. I just can’t. Not how things are today. That said, do not be surprised if I disappear for another month after this. Wish me luck!

MG Exia WI(SD)P 01: Timeskip

It has been roughly 40 days since I last posted anything relevant here. Be it regarding the Exia, Gundam, music, or anything. It makes me feel like crap, but other more well known bloggers take longer absences for real world reasons. My reason is school. I really shouldn’t be posting as this is the last full month of the semester/time to kick it into overdrive. But it irks me to look at the Exia’s torso just sitting around with the rest of it unbuilt in its box. Around this time last year, I was weeks removed from building the MG Strike Freedom and weeks away from ordering the MG Zeta Ver. 2.0 White Unicorn. I completed that in Early December.

But then again, I wasn’t doing as good in school as I am now, so I had more time to build. This time I obviously don’t. Nevertheless, when I find the time and the will to do so, I’ll continue working on the Exia and have it ready by Christmas. That said, I finally have a WI(Super Delayed)P to present.

Torso

Finally, the torso is built. I had most of it together, but then I got up to the fins near the shoulders. Having to paint such small parts gold (as outlined in the pre-construction WIP) really put my spirits off. This morning, I finally got the nerve to paint them.

I hand-painted the armor as opposed to spray painting, so please excuse the inconsistencies. I am thoroughly impressed with how much mobility the torso alone has. Here’s hoping the rest of it is as limber.

Now as for a name: Z suggested that I name it Exia Ver. L, as it bears a resemblance to the Lancelot from Code Geass. This is indeed true. So I’ll put a spin on that and name it…

 

GN-001L Lancelot Gundam EX

MG Exia WIP 00: Pre-construction

Good thing I had an extended weekend ^^;

There really isn’t much I can say about this kit or the Exia that you didn’t already know. But what I can say about my feelings on the Exia is that I initially wasn’t fond of the Exia, nor of many designs from Gundam 00, but as I continued watching 00, my opinion of the Exia has changed for the better. And nobody can deny the design of that GN Sword. Also, like many Gunota, I’m in love with swords, and Exia has seven of em. I’ve also been calling for the MG Exia for most of the year, so imagine my excitement when it was finally announced. Though now that its been released, opinions of it haven’t been as celebratory of it as expected. That didn’t stop me from getting the Ignition Mode, but I have a feeling this will be the only MG in my collection with a LED gimmick, as it seems the novelty will die fast. Then, of course, there were the chrome finish GN swords. This could lead to visible nubs, but I’ll find a way around that. Finally, there is the other “big draw” of the MG Exia Ignition Mode; the option to build the GN-001RE Gundam Exia Repair from the first episode of 00 Second Season. But before this looks more like a review than a pre-construction WIP, how about we go through the basics ^^;

This kit has 8 runners for the body: 4 for the inner frame, and 4 for the armor (I had a picture, but I accidentally deleted it >.> but you can find a picture of the runners on Dalong’s website) I like how balanced the construction process seems to be, as the Exia definitely isn’t difficult to build in any form. Here now are the pictures I do have.

These would be the runners featuring the parts for Exia Repair. These runners (along with the chrome finish GN Swords and LED for the GN Drive) are excluded in the standard release. I’m honestly not going to be using these for this project. I certainly don’t wanna discard them, so I’ll think about what I wanna do with these as I work on the Exia.

The accessories for the kit, consisting of foil stickers (which includes stickers for both the Exia and Exia Repair, the latter I won’t be using of course). You also have clear stickers which actually look kinda cool, dry transfers that I know I won’t be using (I may buy the Gundam Decal for MG Exia, if I can find it), the metallic blue Gundam Marker which I’ll use for panel lining (yea, that isn’t the Gundam Marker you use for panel lining, but does this Exia have panels worth lining? We’ll find out),  GN cords (what do they do?!) which are molded in holographic blue, are supplied in its entirety (the NG 1/100 didn’t have those for the head), and, of course, the LEDs and screws for securing the batteries. Speaking of those batteries, I don’t have them yet. I’ll be buying some Energizer button batteries from Walgreens (they aren’t the required LR41, but they are said to function as such. Can anybody certify this?) Finally, I have this…

uh… yeah… surprise?

This would be the 1/100 NG GN-001 Gundam Exia. It’s the second first Gunpla I bought, and the one that inspired me to dedicate myself to Gunpla. It was actually worse for wear. But since the announcement of the MG, I decided to use this as a testbed, comparison. If I’m feeling crazy creative enough, I may very well paint this one as well. Maybe in the Rollout Color scheme. Time will tell. Now for what I’ll be doing with the MG Exia…

As you can probably expect, I’ll be giving the Exia a custom paint scheme. Use the Exia above as an example for this scheme (as my photoshop skills are non-existent)…

The Exia will mostly be white. This includes the head, arms, legs, and most of the blue armor.

The red parts will be Tamiya Park Green. It’s the closest I could get to GN Green.

The yellow parts, as well as the white parts of the GN Sword and GN Shield, will be painted in Gold Leaf.

Lastly, the beam sabers will be painted in Clear Green, so as to make the beams resemble pure GN energy. I understand that there’s a conversion process from GN Particles to beam energy, but pure GN energy can be equally potent, as 00 Raiser proved.

Now that all that is out of the way, this guy needs a name. Suggestions?

Project 04: Eliminating targets!

As I stated in my previous post, if you were paying attention when I was working on my MG Zaku II, you would have seen this picture

OMGWTFBBQ?!?!?!?1

Thus, Project 04 is finally revealed: The Master Grade GN-001 Gundam Exia Ignition Mode. Now that I’m finally done with the Mark II, I can work on this. Shame that I’m starting it when everybody and their grandmother already has a review on it and moved on to the PG 00 Raiser & MG Astray Gundam Blue Frame, but that’s the fault of my own extreme tardiness. Anyhow, details about this project either Friday or this weekend.