HGifying some Seed grunts, M1, Strike Dagger, GuAIZ

[Random_GM_Pilot]

I've been on a Gundam Seed kick lately for my interest in gunpla, and one thing that has always bugged me is that how the Strike Dagger and the M1 never got proper kits, only those rubbish NGs. So I've thought of maybe taking some time to mod them into something worthwhile.

If I could find a way to get the Strike Dagger's waist-up onto the 105's waist section, or connect the 105's arms and legs onto the Strike Dagger base, I'd be sitting pretty, but I dunno how easy either of those would be. The M1 seems like it'd be much harder since the thing with the Strike Dagger is that the ONLY real difference on the arms and legs between the 105 is paint, so at least I have something easy to work with for the replacements. But with the M1, there's nothing in HG that's similar enough for that kind of swap, so I'd have to replace the joints on the legs and arms themselves, which sounds incredibly daunting. I've also wanted a GuAIZ, but the only thing really similar to it are Dreadnought's legs.

Sorta vainly hoping some of these have conversions somewhere...I wish.

Anyway, I would greatly appreciate any advice or suggestions on any of these. I've never done this kinda thing before, so mainly I wanna know what I can expect. I've had the NG Strike Gundams for the Launcher and Sword striker packs, but...I kinda just chucked out the MS since all I knew was that the arms or legs couldn't move, and I've never cared about the original Strike, just the grunts based off of it and Rouge.

[wavehawk]

Have you ever worked with models outside of Gunpla? Would help if you had a bit of experience or some play-around with some of the things 'regular' modellers use, like Epoxy Putty (Milliput or Apoxie Sculpt), Styrene strips/sheets, superglue, mini-saws, etc. Most really skilled modders can put posability into an NG/FG kit without needing to buy an HG to cannibalize. I'm not that good, but I've worked with quite a bit of stuff, enough that I've been able to mod a few 1/100 MGs.

I'm afraid you'll have to do a bit of work on the M1 Astray. I tried remodeling one using the DSSD Civilian Astray, but (Wes) Murphy intervened and I melted the chest and backpack, forcing me to make a (somewhat nifty) custom Sword Astray instead.

The Strike Dagger might not be too hard if you can afford a Slaughter/Gunbarrel Dagger HG kit for each Strikedagger you want. I think that you can either work with the 105 Dagger body straight off (just add details and mod the backpack to look like the Strikedagger), or you can modify the Strikedagger torso: simply cut off the lower waist, make space to install the polycap for the 105 Dagger (many ways to do this), and work with it as is--since the ball polycaps used by the Seed NGs usually fit HG polycaps without issues.

...I'd have done this if only I could findeither Strikedagger of Slaughter Dagger kits around for cheap around here.

Never finished the GuAiz I was redesigning, but the arms are actually quite easy:




EDIT: Heh, looking through my photos, I forgot I had this little troll pic on as an avatar once:

[Random_GM_Pilot]

I just mention cannibalizing HGs since it'd seem easiest in the case of the Strike Dagger, and I plan on getting more 105s in the future anyway. And the only model work I've done outside of gunpla has been...years, and I definitely didn't do any advanced stuff. This kind of remodeling would definitely be new territory for me. Yeah, the M1 oughta be a piece of work, but I really wanna know how to make it not suck, since it's one of my favorite C.E. designs. Even if it's out of my skill level, I at least wanna know how to do it for when I get better, anyway.

For the Strike Dagger, I thought about cutting it off like you said, and I'd appreciate any elaboration you might have regarding installing new polycaps.

You could always try ordering GSAM. It's where I'm probably going to get mine.



And...what a completely bizarre image.

[wavehawk]

The last time I tried modding a Strikedagger was long before I bought a 105 Dagger, so most of this is totally hindsight---I literally broke the Strikedager kit trying to put some sort of articulation into it--it's in multiple pieces in my bits box.

But essentially, the 105 Dagger, like all Seed-era kits, uses PC-123 "D" polycap to join the waist and the upper torso. When I said there are numerous ways to do this, I wasn't kidding:

1.) The simplest and messiest would be (after cutting off the lower torso of the Strikedagger) cutting up the inside of the Strikedagger torso just enough to make the "D" polycap fit, superglue the surroundings, and let dry.

2.) Another (more refined) way would need polystyrene sheet or strips, a drill, and some needle files. You make holes in styrene strip so that the polycap's 'joint buds' can fit in, basically cover the polycap in a polystyrene 'box' casing. After doing that, make a same size/shape square hole in the Strikedagger body, then use polystyrene cement to attach the part. Since styrene actually melts plastic, this is slightly more scure (and neater) than the first superglue-fill method.

3.) Third way would require some modding: essentially build the lower half of the upper torso of the 105 Dagger, and somehow modify the Strikedagger upper torso to fit. Depending on your skill, it could be a clean cut-and-glue, or else use lots of superglue and putty.

There's a couple more ways I can think of, but they escape me at the moment, and I wouldn't recommend them unless you've got a lot of experience in modding kits--and by that I mean Hobby Japan level skills.