Bandai Action Kit World Cup (BAKWC) 2010 Malaysia

As I mentioned in my earlier post, I entered my PG 1/60 00 Raiser for the BAKWC 2010 Malaysia. The event was held at Sungei Wang Plaza concourse level from 23rd November 2010 to 28th November 2010. The event was a success and the favourite entries have all won something.

Without further ado, let's meet the winning entries. First, the 2nd runner's up. It is a PG 1/60 RX-178 Gundam MK-II AEUG colour scheme with full armor. The builder of this kit is from Penang, and he actually scratch build the armor parts by using pla-plate (plastic plate for modelling), PVC pipe, and some parts borrowed from other kits.





Next, the 1st runner's up. The builder of this kit used a very creative concept as shown in the following picture.



What he did was to use parts from unwanted VCR player & some other stuff which I can't really remember, and then combined them together with the MG 1/100 Zeong. The final product is amazing, and it even has LED gimmick as well. Not only that, his skill is very high-level as well because he's able to scribe a skull head behind the skirts, of which some people mistaken it as a decal. Scribing lines on a plastic surface can be very tricky and hard to do because if not done carefully, the scribing tool used could go out of line and damage the surface. On a side note, he's the one that motivated me (indirectly) to join the event.





Then the champion is a work of art (at least to me) because he managed to pull off a very nice diorama with 2 re-modelled kits: HG 1/144 Unicorn Gundam and HG 1/144 Kshatriya.







The diorama is done very well. I'm not really good with diorama myself, but from what I could see, it's very well done; there's a story to it, the Unicorn Centaur looks amazingly nice, the Kshatriya looks pretty well done, and the modifications are well executed that none of the parts look out of place. The only thing that I'd say about the Dragon Kshatriya, is that if the fingers can be sharpened to become claw fingers, it will be "mama mia"!!!

Finally, the other main attraction of the event is the new group build category. The champion in this category is a diorama of an exhibition hall as shown in the following picture.







This is a group build project by the members of the Zero-G forum. It has been confirmed as well that this diorama together with the champion will be representing Malaysia to the grand finale in Hong Kong this year. It will be such an amazing opportunity to let people see such a great work from Malaysia's Gunpla community.

Conclusion, it is a very good event because it really test my ability in modelling and it's very inspiring to see other people works as well. I personally have been inspired to do better for the next event, which is the mid year contest 2011. It's also good to share my kit with other fellow modellers as well (although I might have said something that's not really nice or give wrong info...). I'm really looking forward to next year to see if I could pull off something better.

Bandai PG 1/60 00 Raiser

This is my latest work. It took me about 6 months time to finish it. As compare to my previous PG Red Frame, this one took a lot more time to build because of the following reasons.

1. The number of parts are a lot more, and most parts are small and delicate.


2. There are a lot of seam lines to cover up on the 0 Raiser and the weapons, which are not easy task.


3. I tried to use polyester putty for the first time to cover up some seamlines, and it became a total disaster due to the polyester not hardening because of insufficient amount of catalyst. As a result of that, it took me a while to correct all the mistakes.

I entered this kit for the BAKWC 2010 Malaysia. The photos below are taken during the display week.
















I've learned a lot of things from this build, which I could list down as the following.

1. Always try to snap-fit the parts together to have a better idea on the whole thing. I personally find that snap-fitting a kit can be troublesome because in the past, I'd accidentally break some parts. Thanks to an advice from a Zero-G forum member (although I only re-considered it after a few hours of thought), I tried to do the snap-fitting and through the process, found out a few flaws on the kit that have to be amended.


2. This is the first time I tried to use Zippo oil to do the panel line, of which to my amazed it doesn't seems to work as how the professional modellers did, and ended up with a pile of mess on all the blue parts. The Zippo oil would evaporate very fast in my room's condition, so I tried to experiment with using the enamel thinner for panel lining, and then using Zippo oil to wipe the excess. Not only it works, but it also gives a much better result as compare to using enamel thinner to wash the excess because I tend to wipe out the panel line colours too.


3. Learned how to use epoxy putty and polyester putty to cover up seamlines and unwanted holes, even though the result is still far from satisfaction.


4. Advice from a Zero-G forum member as well, I tried to cut the edges of the Gundam decal before applying them.


5. This is my first build that I put a flat Mr Color Super Clear as top coat.

Overall, despite all the yelling and screaming and burning midnight oil to finish this thing on time for the competition, I really enjoy the process to build it. After I've done with it, and putting it up for display on my table for 3 days before the submission for BAKWC 2010 Malaysia, I was enjoying every seconds of my time looking at it.