MG RX-78-2 Gundam Ver.3.0 [WIP: Upper Body Completed]

With various sub-assemblies comprising the Upper Body now complete, I can finally put together the first meaningful series of photos of the RX-78-2 Gundam. Up until now, one couldn't really see a coherent end product because the individual sub-assemblies had been showcased in isolation. That changes with the assembly of a fully painted and decaled Upper Body section. It's a major milestone for the mecha of which there are roughly two; the other being the Lower Body. Apart from the mecha itself, there are the Core Fighter and yet to be painted weapons as well as standalone pilot.

Master Grade RX-78-2 Gundam Version 3.0: Upper Body [Completed]

Prior to this milestone post, it felt anticlimactic at times because the end result of a particular sub-assembly couldn't yet tell a complete story. For that I apologize. For you see, these blog posts is partly an outlet for me to showcase my work and partly an online repository of work-in-progress processes for self reference purposes. Add to that my need for order and structure in a project and you'll often get staid posts. On the flip side, it does offer a somewhat detailed look into the hows and whys of each step, which may be helpful to some modelers. That's my hope anyway.   

Sub-assemblies of the Upper Body all painted up with decals applied, and awaiting assembly

I almost hate to bring attention to this issue but there is a specific section on the Grandpa Gundam's Upper Body that displays a major FUBAR on my part. Instead of leaving it well alone despite things not being perfect, I decided to try and fix an issue and made it worse. Now I'm not going to reveal what the FUBAR is yet but I'm pretty sure you'll catch the eyesore from the photos below. In the unlikely event you cannot find my mistake, I will point it out to you at the end of this post.  

For the first series of photos, the RX-78-2 Gundam Upper Body was placed against a blue background

An acrylic stand was used as a temporary base to prop up the Upper Body for the photo shoot

Sticking out from the Ransel/Backpack like two slim, cylindrical pods are the Beam Saber Hilts

Back view of the RX-78-2 Gundam Upper Body, against the blue background

Even without any weathering, there is already a lot of things going on in the Upper Body

A bit of Gundam trivia: the round, hollow elbow joint that allows its metallic innards to show is the Normal version that was first installed on the mecha; a Magnetic Coated version (non-hollow) was subsequently installed to improve performace

Extended arms served mainly to adjust the Upper Body's center of gravity thus preventing it falling

A darker background was utilized for the next series of photos you see below. If could be just an optical illusion but I felt the black background somehow made the details on the Upper Body 'pop' just that little bit more. Perhaps it's stating the obvious but I guess one's eye would tend to focus on the details if the background is just empty black space with nothing to offer visually.  

RX-78-2 Gundam Upper Body against a black background

Details seem to 'pop' a little bit more when the Upper Body is up against the darker background

Upper Body has a nice combination of neutral, primary, metallic, off-white and pure white hues

Both the Beam Saber Hilts stuck on top of the Ransel/Backpack can be removed ...

... and have clear red parts - mimicking activated sabers - stuck on them (to be shown in a later post)

Back view of the RX-78-2 Gundam Upper Body, against the black background

RX-78-2 Gundam's Upper Body will eventually connect to the Lower Body comprising its waist, legs and feet

All in all I'm pretty happy with how the Upper Body turned out with the exception of one thing (see below)

So did you spot the eyesore that I saddled the Upper Body of the RX-78-2 Gundam with? Carefully observe the red-colored lower right section of the Upper Body (lower left when looking at it from the Front View; see first photo). See it yet? Ouch! Right? I had tried to remove the sticker decal in order to reposition it more accurately. Despite knowing to avoid doing this, I had in my arrogance felt I could somehow make it work. Well, I couldn't. Removing the sticker decal resulted in the decal losing its adhesiveness. To make it stick back to the Upper Body again I had tried using Super Glue - a horrible face palm moment. Long story short, both the paint job and decal were badly damage. And on that frustrating note, I end this week's post and wish you a great weekend ahead.