I’m a little late in starting my model kit builds for 2023 but I did manage to make some considerable progress on the dual build I’m starting the year with, well at least for one of them. And as much as I wanted to build something from Advance of Zeta because of the whole Year of the Rabbit thing, I opted for series representation care of these two kits.
Today’s dual build would be the HGUC Gundam GP01/GP01Fb from Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory. These two are the first Gundam designs to appear in the HGUC line, with Gundam GP01 and GP01Fb being #013 and #017 respectively. Both kits came in the early, early 2000s which meant there’s a lot of work needed to make them look good, even for casual builders like me.
I started with the yellow vents, and there’s three sets of them, because skimping on vent colors is apparently a thing with these Gundam 0083 kits. I followed with the sensor details on the top of the torso unit, as well as other torso details like the Federation “V” which should be yellow, and the two gray bits on the cockpit hatch. There are also gray lines that go along the arms and legs.
On that note, I need to do exactly the same with Gundam GP01-Fb, but with more painting needed as that kit features a lot of small thruster units, being dubbed Full “Burnern” and all. Seriously, “Full Vernian” (read: vernier thrusters) sounds much better, but they wanted to stick with the “Fb” moniker. It’s already January 30 as I’m writing this post, so I’ll definitely finish these kits by February. Then, I could start with the whole rabbit theme afterwards.
