Mobile Suit Gundam SEED: Freedom

 Finally I could watch the newest Gundam movie that came out end of january, and went to break some anime related box office records in Japan.

So time to sit back and enjoy more Kira, Athrun, the Freedom gundam and of course, LUNAMARIA HAWKE.

Taking place a few years after the events of SEED Destiny, Lacus has founded COMPASS, an organisation tasked with opposing independant resistance groups, Blue Cosmos, and other threats.  Kira and his friends intervene on their behalf as the armed force of the organisation, with updated Gundams and mobile suits at their disposal.  

And it immediatly begins with an intervention against Blue Cosmos, showing that Shinn and Kira now work together.  And Shinn now pilots the Justice of Athrun btw.  Now, while they try desperatly to stop all fighting, a new faction Foundation, is coming to the fore.  Originally followers of the Destiny plan, they want to open to the world but secretly plot to still impose the plan.  Genetically enhanced even beyond Coordinators, they reveal Lacus is actually one of them, and set a plan in motion to frame Kira for starting a war.  

 

COMPASS is soundly beaten, losing the Archangel and their mobile suits in the process, only to be saved at the last minute by Athrun and Orb.  They start forming a plan to stop Foundation, whom use Requiem, a giant orbital cannon, to annihilate Moscow, capital of Eurasia as a so called revenge for the faked nuclear attack they orchestrated to start the war.  Kira and his friends receive a gift from Orb, new and updated versions of the Strike Freedom, Destiny and Impulse for him, Shinn and LunaMaria.  They head into space aboard the Millenium, as their former friends and allies start to gather and the plan to liberate the world is set in motion.

 

In a gigantic (and awesome!!!) space battle, the heroes manage to break through the lines and Shinn destroys the Requiem array moments before it can fire on Orb, as Kira and Lacus confront the enemy and overcome them thanks to the newly formed Mighty Strike Freedom, an evolution of the Strike Freedom and a utility pack piloted by Lacus herself.

 

The movie is a great continuation of the Seed Destiny series, tying up a lot of loose ends while setting the stage for the next instalment (SEED Destiny Freedom).  It pays both hommage to the series with a lot of returning characters and mobile suits (even the Buster woohoo) while moving the story along with new equipment like the Millenium, whom replaces the destroyed Archangel as the main vessel they operate from.

 

I really enjoyed the whole film from the first to the final second, and considering it runs for 2 hours, that's a very, very good thing, even though I might have a bit of a personal bias as for me Seed has always been my favorite entry in the franchise... 

ZGMF-X10A Freedom Gundam (HG scale)

 Well, this has been a while...

To long actually.  So in the middle of past march, I finally cracked open a Gunpla set, almost 4 years after I build my last one.

And of course, what else was there to build then Freedom, for me still the most gorgeous suit ever made in the franchise.  At first, I build the set from the box, only needing some glue to keep one of the beamsabers in check, and to better attach the blue / darkblue finpoint connections.

After getting a base to place the model, I posed it accordingly to how I envision Freedom usually, with the wings open but the shoulder and hip cannons retracted, shield up and it's beam rifle firing away at the enemy. 

And then I started the painting on the model, for which I went for my "traditional" manner of three tones with bold highlights for contrast.  Because face it, the straight out of the box, while colorrepresentative for these kits, is still a bit bland after all....

But before the actual painting started, I first had to select a pose, put him on the base, and start glueing some joints and things like the wings firmer into position, so that he doesn`t fall apart once the paintjob is done.

 

 

Paint wise, I decided to go for my trusted "3 layer colour" style.  I started with doing all the parts that will become white at the end with a layer of Vallejo Cold Grey.

 

 

Next up, Vallejo Imperial Blue was used as the basecoat for the blue parts on the model.

 

 

While Black was then added to the dark parts for the chest, wings and shield center.

 

 

The next base layers where the Dark Rubber and blue greys for the gun barrels and joints of the model, together with Coat D'Arms Brown red and Sand Brown to complete the first layer to start working on. 

That was started with Sky Grey by Vallejo in all the cold grey areas.  This already "livened up" the model seriously.

The next session saw the black and blue areas coloured up, with respectively Vallejo Black Grey and Intense Blue.

 

 

A few sessions later, the complete second, or "main colour" layer was added.  The last colours added for this layer being Sun Yellow and German Fieldgrey both by Vallejo.

 

 

So time for highlighting colours now!  The first part is the biggest, as all the white was put on, done at places in two layers.

With that completed, the next areas to be highlighted where all the blue and black sections, respectively done with Vallejo Game Color Magic Blue and Armypainter Necromancer Cloak.

 

 

With that, the large areas of the model where done, and I could move to smaller sections and colours.  This was first done on the smaller grey areas, with Cold Grey by Vallejo for the weapons and joints, and Fog Grey from Army Painter for the railguns on the hips and the collar.

And that meant a final session would do all the reds and the bit of yellow, respectively with British Scarlet by Coat D'Arms and Moon Yellow by Vallejo.

After a coat of Matte Varnish from AK Interactive, the Freedom model itself is ready, so next it is to make a base for it to improve the stability with the spread open wings.

Once that was done on an official MechaTop base, the whole base was sanded next, and a layer of Warm Grey again from the Amsterdam art acrylics painted over it, before adding a drybrush of the Olive Green.  

 

 

 

I then proceeded with adding some things to the base, like rocks, tufts of flowers, and the likes to round it out nice and smoothly.

So this was a fun build for sure.  For those looking for the paints, MOST of them can be found on this website, which also has nice discounted prices so that's double whammy!

 

 

Unboxing Banpresto Lunamaria Hawke from the DX Kumitate Shiki Girls line

 Awright, another good find at Mandarake, as I got this fine lady for 1200 yen.

So, the box was damaged but unopened, I can live with that as I don`t ever sell my waifu anyways...

 

There are two different Lunamaria's in this line, but the first of them can now be scratched of my to hunt list.

 

So let's have a look at her a bit closer!

 

 

I was especially amazed by how tall she!  This is one fine figure, and a great addition to the waifu shelf... which is now expanding into a second one full of Lunamaria's...

 

 

Tau SEED Destiny project: GAT-X131 Calamity Broadside battlesuit

 The latest addition to the project, and the one that brings the points total of my force now to a 1.000 points making it playable, is this Broadside painted up as the Calamity.

An ideal match as this older Broadside sports the dual rail cannons on it's shoulders, like the Calamity does with his two huge guns, that meant it was time for a turquoise and orangy-yellow battlesuit.

And considering the Calamity is developped from the Buster, in whose colours my other Broadside is painted, that makes for a nicely paired unit.

Adding a serious amount of firepower as such to the force, as in no matter what edition those railguns could ruin an opponents heavy units, this also gives some good mobility due to being mounted on a battlesuit compared to a tank.  Add to that the missile pods, whom in the current edition ignore cover, and you have a unit that poses a serious threat anywhere on the board.

 

 

And with a shield and a gun drone, it has some additional suicidal protection as well...

The Inspiration

The GAT-X131 Calamity gundam, piloted by Orga Sabnak, was one of the antagonist suits in the second half of Gundam SEED, it was finally destroyed in the finale against the Justice gundam at the second battle of Jachin Due.

And that rounds out the units for my initial 9th edition Tau battlesuits force!

 

 

Unboxing Gundam SEED GAT-X105 Strike Internal Structure

 When this figure showed up on TokyoCatch, I just wanted to win one (though honestly, the 50/50 version was even more my target, but I didn`t get that one).

And recently, it arrived safe and sound from Japan.

So let's have a look at this model in all it's transparent glory.

So, while I'm not over the top wild of it, it still is a good addition to the Gundam cabinets, AND it is the Strike after all.

Until the next unboxing!

GAT-X131 Calamity Gundam

 Not only is this the first figure of the year I completed, but also the third one only since the AHPC of last year ended in March.

But, we are back into it, aided by some much needed glasses.

And for the first model of the year, as well as the first one of painting 15 mobile suits to use in Mechatop, it was my 1/400th scale Calamity Gundam, a suit from Gundam SEED I always loved the look of.

The turquoise artillery suit has a bright appearance, and lethat weapons with the two huge cannons on it's back, and shares the same design frame as the Strike after all.  A successor of the Buster suit, it was piloted by Orga Sabnak.  In the end, it was destroyed by the Justice Gundam at the second battle of Jachin Due.

So now with the first model complete, I`m going to try and finish some more this month, and finally get the painting tally up and running again!

Unboxing Gundam Universe GU-17 Freedom Gundam

 Recently acquired from AmiAmi, this is of course the most fantastic, beautiful mobile suit ever made: the Freedom.

And I don`t say that only because I`m a total lover of SEED and SEED Destiny.

 

So let's open the box and have a look at this most beautiful of mobile suit designs.

 

 

Of course, this one doesn`t just go inside a cabinet, but instead now adorns my home office desk.

 

 

Thanks for watching and until the next unboxing!