You know, I should probably stop trying to predict build timelines. Two month builds tend to stretch into eleven month ones way too easily. Here’s a fine example of my horrible planning skills. I give you Gundam Astaroth Nox!
Gundam Astaroth Nox – Build Talk
Nox in all its glory!
So what the hell took so long? Mostly life. Plus mad ambitions. And a bunch of failed ideas.
As far as life goes – setting up my new workshop, more work, as well as multiple cases of burnout probably amount to 3-4 months of not building.
Now, if you’ve followed my previous builds, you’ll know I like to try new things, learn new techniques. Well, this time I decided to step up my scrachbuilding, detailing, weathering and learn some LED wiring. Who would’ve predicted it’d take a while?
To be fair, original plan was much simpler – stick the cloak from MG Exia Repair on one shoulder, paint, weather, done. As the time went on, the cloak got tossed (and good riddance), replaced by a bunch of more interesting ideas.
The Plan
Eventually my vision for the build came together, seemingly all at once. I decided on a sort of night ops / urban combat unit. Lightly armored, focused much more on agility than speed.
Between Dantalion, Kimaris Trooper and other Astaroth variants I had enough parts for a decent kitbash. Two shotguns, somewhat inspired by Reaper from Overwatch, as well as a sword, felt like the perfect weapon loadout for close quarters combat suit. Finally, I decided to build a base from scratch. A hangar elevator, with blinking LEDs. Crazy idea that I stuck with nonetheless.
I ran into some more hurdles along the way, like having to redo quite a few parts multiple times (including the shotguns – first attempt was a disaster), hangar floor glued in wrong… and so on.
As painful as the build itself was at times, I had a ton of fun painting and weathering this kit. Big reason for it was completely abandoning many of the usual steps we see in Gunpla. There was no pre- or post-shading, no sponge chipping, no washes… hell, no panel lining, really. Instead, I incorporated hairspray chipping into initial painting stage (admittedly it could’ve gone better). Once the decals were on, I used oil paints and some pigments to do entire weathering, trying my hand at OPR technique (see SM.03 Review for more on that).
All in all, I learned a lot and enjoyed painting process like never before. While there are some things I could’ve done better, I’m really happy with how this kit turned out.
I’ll try to get entire WIP on Facebook soon-ish, but for now you probably want to see some more final pictures.
Gundam Astaroth Nox – Gallery
And I’ll be damned if it isn’t the best model photo shoot I did so far. Hope you enjoy!
This is a really nice Gundam you made here! I am still fairly new to the hobby and series itself, but I am astounded by the creativity you and other kit builders have and the effort you all put in it. I hope to be able to do the same thing in the future.
Thank you!
I’m sure you will! None of us are magically next-level talented from the start, it’s all a matter of putting in time and effort, slowly building up the skillset. Having some kind of creative background (like graphic design, 3d modelling, even photography or video creation) is helpful, as it makes it easier to think visually, but it’s definitely not a requirement.
As a new builder focus on mastering the basics, like nub and seam removal, panel lining etc. and slowly expanding your toolkit, learning new techniques as you go. Try to build each kit to the best of your abilities and I’m sure you’ll be showing off awesome models sooner than you expect :).