Real Grade Evangelion Unit-00 [Work-in-Progress: Body & Head Assembly]

 With this Evangelion project being a straight out-of-box (OOB) build, the need for painting is alleviated. This has translated into a more fun build in some ways. Perhaps it'll not be ultimately as satisfying as a painted build, but it'll still be fun in a relatively less stressful way. This is not to say absolutely no work will be done on this Bandai Real Grade Evangelion Unit-00 model kit. It'll be panel-lined, and have selected marking/foil stickers applied. But that's it. Nothing else.

Bandai Real Grade Evangelion Unit-00 work-in-progress: Body & Head assembled

Apart from assembly, the only other work done was to put foil stickers on the inner frame

 Assembly began on the inner frame for the Evangelion's torso, all the way from its neck down to the pelvis. Incredible detail coupled with its combination of matte (for majority of the surface area) and shiny (for selected areas courtesy of foil stickers) finishes, the inner frame looks suitably cyborg-like. This is fitting as Evangelion units are essentially living organic creatures with cybernetic components grafted onto them. And all this impressive detail won't be lost once the outer armor is attached because significant gaps between the armor allow a view into the Evangelion's innards.

Early stages saw the Evangelion Unit-00 inner frame, and its neck region, assembled first

Shiny bits on the inner frame consist of metallic foil stickers that reflect light

Inner frame of the Evangelion Unit-00 with the back spinal column exposed

Evangelion Core is represented by a clear round red piece within the chest cavity

Lower section of inner frame with the slim pelvis, onto which the legs will attach

 From the photos above, you might've noticed that the yellow armor pieces on the back of the Evangelion's neck has already been attached, as has its reddish-brown neck parts. Following this, the upper chest/back was next in the assembly process. This upper torso section comprised yellow, white, and black pieces for the front; yellow, black, and reddish-brown for the back (see below).

Chest/back armor pieces were next to be assembled, after the spinal/pelvic inner frame

Chest armor (front view) located right below the Evangelion's neck (reddish brown section)

Neck, chest, and upper spinal column (closeup isometric view, front)

Neck, chest, and upper spinal column (closeup isometric view, back)

Upper back armor is situated below back of the neck region (yellow/red section above the arm joints)

Reddish brown section on the back forms a connection point for the power plug

 After the upper torso armor had been securely attached onto the inner frame, it was then the turn of the lower torso armor pieces. As alluded to earlier, the lower torso armor pieces attach in way that leaves significant gaps between segments and at the back of the spine. This then allows the detailed inner frame to be visible after all outer armor pieces are in place on the torso (see below). In many Gunpla kits, the intricate inner frame detail tends to be completely covered up by outer armor. Thankfully this is not so for Bandai's Neon Genesis Evangelion model kit series.

At this stage, assembled pieces comprised the neck, chest/back armor, spinal column, and pelvis

A myriad of points on the spinal column serve as attachment points for the rest of its armor pieces

Neck, chest/back armor, spinal column, and pelvis sub-assembly prior to attaching rest of its armor

Neck, chest/back armor, spinal column, and pelvis sub-assembly after attaching rest of its armor

Of all the yellow armor pieces, the ones on the back of the EVA's neck and its upper back are the ...

... most glossy and vivid in color, thus they look more plasticky compared to the other yellow parts.

 Meanwhile, the Evangelion's head was a relatively easier affair in that there were less pieces to contend with. For a part so small, the color separation is fantastic, and a dream to hobbyists who don't paint their kits. However, I would recommend that you at least panel-line the head with a combination of black and grey paint. There are enough grooves and raised edges to ensure that panel-lining will effectively increase the sense of depth and detail on the head. The clear green piece atop the head and the clear red mono-eye (a characteristic of EVA Unit-00) look good as is, and can be potentially better in the hands of modellers with LED lighting skills.

Bandai Real Grade Evangelion Unit-00 work-in-progress: Head [OOB Assembly]

Round red clear part at the front of the head forms the Evangelion's mono-eye

Color separation found on the Evangelion's head is amazing for a part so small

Minor panel-lining work will be carried out to increase a sense of depth on the Evangelion's head

Back of the head has grooves indicating the unit number, which will become clear once panel-lined

Apart from the mono-eye, the other clear part is a green piece that sits atop the Evangelion's head

 So the core section of Evangelion Unit-00 i.e. its head and torso have been assembled. Next on the to-do-list for this kit is the assembly of its limbs consisting of the shoulder pylons, arms, and legs. And as I upload posts on the blog regarding Evangelion Unit-00's work-in-progress, I will also be uploading a three-part video series detailing the unboxing of this model kit all the way to assembly completion, kit poses and review. It's likely the videos will be ahead in the progress timeline compared to the blog posts, so if you're impatient to check out what's new, do watch the videos on my YouTube Channel by clicking on the teal-colored banner immediately below this paragraph. With that I bid you au revoir.

 Note: Not all the Bandai Real Grade Evangelion Unit-00 video parts may have been uploaded at the time of this blog posting. The missing part should be uploaded in the coming weeks.

Enforced Hobby Downtime

 It was fairly inevitable that the unfailingly steady progress of my hobby projects would eventually grind to a halt again for one reason or another. It's just that I didn't expect the party pooper to be the dreaded Covid virus. My missus contracted the virus first, followed quickly by me, then my son. Despite our best efforts in isolating non-infected members of the family, the incredible rate of infection of this now multi-mutated virus meant once anyone in the family showed any symptoms, chances were high another family member was already infected without being aware of it.

Image source: https://coronavirus.onu.org.mx

 It's now Day 5 after symptoms began showing for me. Infected about two days earlier, the missus has almost fully recovered while I am feeling much better myself. We were both lucky in that we were infected two weeks into our second Comirnaty Pfizer booster shot (our first two shots were Sinovac). Hooray for science, I guess. (If I don't update my blog soon after this then I guess my recovery predictions were a tad too optimistic ... ptui, don't jinx it, says me to myself.)

 However there are so many variants of this virus that getting infected no longer assures immunity against reinfection. So no hoorays then? No darn it ... here's a hurrah to small blessings of mild symptoms. And as for you, my dear reader ... stay safe and be well ... and see you next week with more updates to my hobby projects ... I hope ... (drama queen much?)

Bandai Real Grade Evangelion Unit-00 [Unboxing & Pre-Assembly Review]

 To supplement my ongoing fully-painted projects, I plan to build a series of model kits that'll involve minimal work. Minimal here refers to either (i) a straight-out-of-the-box build without any painting or topcoat, but maybe with some panel-lining as well as use of stickers and/or decals; or (ii) a build in which selected areas are painted while others are only top-coated, panel-lining is applied, and either stickers or decals are used. If a kit is fully-painted, then I consider more than minimal work has been put into it. In this Bandai Real Grade Evangelion Unit-00 kit, I'll be doing minimal work type (i).

Bandai Real Grade Evangelion Unit-00 plastic model kit

 Up to this point in time, I have yet to work on any of Bandai's Real Grade (RG) model kits. To the best of my knowledge most of the kits in this line of product are of a scale similar to the High Grade (HG) ones i.e. 1/144 scale. However Bandai does state the scale for its Evangelion RG series so I'm assuming they are not exactly 1/144 scale. In terms of sheer size alone, the Evangelion RG kits are quite big with the height of this particular Evangelion unit approximating 19 cm from the feet to the top of its shoulder pylons . Below are side box art showcasing the assembled kit.

Side box art showcasing the versions of Evangelion Unit-00 that can be build; ...

... the kit's various gimmicks and how it looks build straight out of the box unpainted ...

... as well as a close-up computer generated view of the EVA-00.

 Nowadays Bandai model kit instructions tend to come in both Japanese and English languages. They also tend to have colored sections amidst a generally black and white layout. These sections usually display some backstory for the kit in question, sticker/decal placement and color guide, etc.

Manual comes with Japanese and English instructions as well as some color sections

 Unlike say the older Bandai HG kits, the molded plastic parts found in RG kits are noted for having much better color accuracy and a better finish. What these means for the average scale modeler is that there is a high chance you don't have to paint the RG kit in question to have it look good. Why so? Well, Bandai's solution to a kit with low color accuracy is to use color correcting stickers. The end result of having to use such stickers is never good, so you end up better off painting the parts. Also with a better quality gloss and matte finish, the parts can look nearly like a pained part.

 With all this being said, a scale model kit will almost always still look better painted than not. Nonetheless, these RG kits now blur the lines a little bit more between how a painted and unpainted kit will look like. In other words, the RG kits give the scale modeler a more valid option to not paint a kit, and it'll be the option I'll take for this kit to see how it'll fare.

Sprue A: Soft matte white plastic parts for the leg, ankle, and feet armor 

Sprue B1: Hard semi-gloss gray plastic parts, mainly for the legs, and the back of the knees

Sprue B2: Hard glossy yellow plastic parts for the chest, shoulder pylon, feet, arms, etc.

Sprue C: Medium-hard semi-gloss black plastic parts for the inner frame, joints, and knives

Sprue D: Medium-hard semi-gloss black plastic parts for the inner frame/joints of the leg, knee, and feet

 As I mentioned in the preceding paragraph, apart from the color accuracy there is also the higher quality finish of the Evangelion's molded plastic parts which gives them less of a toy-like look. I am particularly impressed with the soft matte white finishes for the white parts, and the semi-gloss sheen to the gray and black parts. And although I feel the yellows still look a bit toy-like in their finish, I suppose they aren't as bad as some yellow part I've seen in the past.

Sprue E: Hard semi-gloss gray plastic armor, inner frame, and joints parts for the arm and elbow

Sprue F1 (left): Medium-hard matte dark red plastic parts for the shoulder pylon and back armor piece; Sprue F2 (right): Hard glossy red plastic parts for the power plug

Sprue G1: Hard glossy yellow plastic parts for the knee and ankle armor

Sprue G2: Soft matte white plastic parts for the body armor, and shoulder pylons

Sprue H1: Hard glossy yellow plastic parts for the knuckle attachments to the hands

 One solution to some of the molded color plastics still having a distinctly toy-like look is to, well paint them. Essentially if the majority of the RG kit has molded parts with excellent colors and finish, then the amount of painting you have to do is reduced. Another solution is to use a good quality matte top coat, which can make the plastic part look like it has been painted. Both solutions won't be considered in this build as I'll be taking the bare bones route to completion.

Sprue H2: Hard glossy dark green plastic parts for the feet as well as the lumbar/spinal armor

Sprue I1: Medium-hard matte dark red plastic parts for the neck, feet, rifle, etc.

Sprue I3: Hard glossy yellow plastic parts for the back of the knee

Sprue J: Glossy plastic parts: hard dark green/gray for the rifle, and soft light gray for the hands

Sprue K: Medium-hard glossy metallic silver plastic parts for the power plug, and rifle muzzle

 A key reason why I'm attempting this build with minimal work type (i) in mind is to see how good this Bandai RG Evangelion Unit-00 model kit can be, without any painting done. In fact I won't even apply any top coat on the kit, although I might do some panel-lining to ensure the kit has at least some depth to it. In addition, I'll also use some foil stickers to simulate metal parts as well as normal sticker/decal markings to bring the monotony of bare plastic. But that's it. No painting.  

Sprue L: Hard clear red plastic part for the Evangelion core

Sprue N: Multi-colored plastic parts - Soft matte white for the head, legs, chest, etc.; Medium-hard semi-gloss black for the chest, shoulder pylons, arms, joints, etc.; Hard glossy orange for the shoulders 

Sprue O: Multi-colored plastic parts -Hard glossy yellow for the chest, head, arms, and shoulders; Hard glossy green for the shoulders; Hard glossy red for the shoulders, body, and head; Clear red for the eye

Sprue P1: Clear green plastic part for the top of the EVA-00's head

Wire rod enclosed in PVC for use as the power plug's cable

 Included with the kit is a sticker set that contains flat markings as well as shiny metallic foils for use on the Evangelion Unit-00 model kit. Generally the flat sticker markings don't look so good on dark colored plastic, and pale in comparison to their dry transfer and water decal equivalents in terms of overall look and quality. Sadly Bandai rarely (if ever) provides dry transfers or water decals with their HG or RG kits. In comparison the shiny foil stickers are much better in quality, and in a best-case-scenario can even make a part look like metal. Moreover, there are no dry transfer or water decal equivalents for these shiny metallic foil stickers. None that look good anyway.   

Sticker sheet containing markings and shiny foils for use on the kit

 Bandai RG model kits have come a long way since its first release way back in July 2010, slightly over 12 years ago. With the Evangelion RG line being a more recent Real Grade series that launched in March 2020, the color separation and finish quality of the parts is generally impressive straight out of the box. So much so that I'm going for a straight unpainted build to see just how good it is. It has been a while since I last did an unboxing post so it was good to do another one.

 And in case you were wondering, the Space Battleship Yamato project on the previous post is still progressing nicely. In the coming weeks, I'll be working on both the battleship and the EVA-00 so do check my blog for future updates on both. Until then, stay safe and be well dear readers!