[HISTORY LESSON of me getting to know Gundams]
I first come to know about Mk-II was around 7-8 years ago when i was 15-16 years old, couldn't remember exact but was around there. When i learn about Mk-II, i wasn't really into gundams yet. I was merely browsing a toyshop in sgwang, those days, it was the only shop in sgwang selling gundams. I was browsing around the shop and the tauke recommended that i should get the PG Mk-II. Knowing nothing about gundams and whatever is PG was, the tauke never give some pointers or bother explaining much about it though. Plus, those times, google wasn't that popular yet. But anyways, i could still remember his words that the PG Mk-II is the best gundam model around, it's big and full of details and bla bla bla. After a few days of consideration, i decided to buy it, even though that time it was priced at RM500+, couldn't remember exact price. Upon spending a whole fortune to get the PG gundam, i have no idea what i'm getting myself into. Damn right i was.
Upon opening the box once i got home, i see shit loads of runners and hell, i didn't even know what's going on. Well, to be honest i did have some experience buying HG gundams when i was younger. I love LEGO and i love gundams too. But all i have been building was HG models, and not PG. Nevertheless, i made my first PG gundam, not having the proper cutter and shit, no inking and etc. Without doubt, the gundam isn't as nice as the tauke said. Well, it was BIG and damn freaking detailed, but without the tools, the nubs were still on the gundams and somehow or rather, the gundam is top heavy, it could hardly pose and always bends over and drops either front or back. That's how it got the backpack broken cause it dropped back to the front. That time, i was really frustrated with it considering i spent almost an entire week to build it, almost 2 nights to build just a leg. Well, the details in PG are freaking incredible, but i didn't know jack shit of how to appreciate it that time. So frustrated with the gundam, i shelved it aside till few years back that i eventually kept it in a box, out of my sight. Speaking of the tauke, he knows me so well that he refused to refund my Rm200 deposit for a PG Eva-01. I paid my deposit and waited, waited and waited for weeks and it hasn't arrive, so i asked back for my deposit. He said whatever it's paid, can't be refunded. BUT in the first place, he said if he couldn't get it, he will refund it. Well. Consider having a bad built of PG and Rm200 conned by the tauke, i hated gundam ever since and never spoke of gundams.
Well, that was 7-8 years ago, the tauke is still at Sgwang, i recognize him(how could i forget that bastard). But i never enter his shop since then. If i get a chance, i would still burn his shop, for once..only once. I shall not name his shop but it's somewhat, pretty, damn near to the sing k place. LOL.
Well, i wasn't into gundams for the past 8 years till i recently bought some gundams anime from a friend and got hooked ever since. I was watching Gundam 00 then and really wanted to get a gundam Exia but only to find that those in the market are non grades ones, which i don't really like. So in the end, after Joe recommended me dalong.net, i've been surfing for gundams quite often and finally got myself a FAZZ, it was around Rm200, my initial thought it was a bit too pricey for my first MG gundam but to hell with it. I didn't wanna repeat my mistake i did 8 years ago, so i did many, plenty of research before i actually started to build it. Though my first major mistake was i should have just build for fun rather than do it perfectly. I begun assembling by carefully nipping of the runners and carefully sand the nubs away, which took my a whole night just to build half an arm. Then later, my friend Alex and Kabil told me, i should just build for fun and so i listened and just assembled it. Out of all the research i've done, the best was still Danny Choo's tutorial and i tried to followed him as much as i could. One thing i followed 100% was the runner spraying before assembling, i really find that it improves the quality of the texture. However i screwed up when i attempt for my first top coat on my FAZZ. I guess i sprayed too much on the gundam that it made it white. So the grey and blue parts are 'affected' by heavy white. I have yet to fix the problem yet, but i bought some markers to deal with it.
After assembling FAZZ, i got myself Ex-S Gundam, which is a MASSIVE MONSTER. It heights the same as a PG and it's bigger size than most MG. Not only the size, the parts inside the gundam are more, more and more complicated than most MG gundams, though less complicated and still lesser parts than a PG. It was the most awesome MG gundam i have and i had the most fun and hell building it. It was challenging and it was rewarding. Though my regret is that i never spray the blue and it looks pretty plastic. LOL. Well, i think i made a mistake with the timeline of my purchase. I actually bought Ex-S before i finish assembling my FAZZ and bought a Strike Freedom Full Burst shortly after i bought the Ex-S. Ex-S was the last gundam i built among 3 of them. I didn't quite enjoy building Strike Freedom as it was really easy considering building a slightly fatter and more parts of a FAZZ. Though i screwed up the wings mechanism. SIGH. But all in all, Strike Freedom is a really nice looking gundam. Though couldn't be pose much as the wings are really heavy. It hardly stands without the stands. Well, same goes for FAZZ and Ex-S, they couldn't really pose much, especially Ex-S. Ex-S just looks mean and massive sitting there itself, so i'm damn satisfied with it. LOL.
A couple of weeks, or a few months later, i bought Sazabi, i didn't get the Metallic one cause i think it's overpriced so fuck it. I bought the standard one for RM280, was still damn freaking expensive, but was still cheaper than Ex-S. Sazabi is massive as well, so my initial thought i was expecting it to be no less as satisfying was when i was assembling the Ex-S. However it comes to my disappointment that Sazabi is actually made of a lot of big pieces, so the building process is fairly easy. But the end result is still awesome, Sazabi was the first gundam of mine that i actually do full runners spray to all colors, do inking and decals as i'm assembling it. So in the end, it's still damn freaking satisfying. Though it can't pose much, but standing there itself, it's awesome.
After completing Sazabi, i've actually decided not to buy anymore gundams as i've ran out of space. But well, guess everything isn't as we planned always. I accidentally stumbled upon a huge discounted Hi-Nu Gundam, which i wanted to get it earlier before Sazabi. So i got it immediately. Considering watching Gundam 00(the anime) recently, i decided to buy Virtue, it's a HG but with the size of a 1/100. So i think it's worth getting, but instead, i got myself a Mk-II and a Nu Gundam. I bought the Mk-II simply because i screwed up my first Mk-II, so i wanted to make a MG and see how well it is. So here is it, my Mk-II Titans, freshly completed this evening. Enjoy(and thanks for reading the long ass history.).
I skipped a lot on the decals but i also use a lot of extra decals on the models, where it look best.
Considered my first 4 MG were not that posable, so i find Mk-II damn amazing when it comes to posing. (If you're wondering why my Mk is 03 and the shield he has is 01. Well, they only gave 3 dry decals for ''03'', so i wanted something on the shield so i used "01". Just treat it as he stole it from 01. LOL) The shield looks better anyways.
More photos will be taken later once i've completed all my other gundams. My final verdict for Mk-II? Look at the above picture, thumbs up!
I also spent the evening(half way assembling Mk-II) to prime my Nu gundam and give it a grey monotone. It went pretty alright. Though i've used a slightly darker grey than the standard prototype models in Hobby Japan but it's still nice. Below is a couple of images i took of the grey Nu gundam, i only managed to assemble an arm and i've stopped because i noticed there's quite a number of pieces that need additional coat of grey so i'm putting a half till i buy another can of spray. It's actually my 3rd can of grey for Nu gundam now. I kind of forget if i primed all the runners for Nu gundam or i just primed the darker colors. But anyhow, coating another colors of them are more difficult and requires more coats(or maybe i sucks at spraying and wasting paints away).
