HG Sword Impulse ver. Tron

Despite being a long time anime fan, this was my FIRST time attending Sakura-Con. Fortunately, because I was volunteering on staff, I was able to gain complimentary entry to the whole event. Like many gunplay modelers, building gunplay and other plastic robot models a solidary hobby.  It’s not very common to find another person, offline, who shares this hobby.  While volunteering, I met someone on my team who also enjoyed gunplay. He informed me the annual Gundam Builders World Cup held at Sakura Con and encouraged me to enter. It was less than a week before Sakura Con and I frantically thought, “What can I pull together in time for the contest?”

One of my problems when I start a new robot project is I become overly ambitious. I thought about some of the old kits that I reclaimed from my parents’ house. I had 1/144 S-Gundam Booster unit—pre HG era. I thought about detailing it up with similar devices to Deep Striker, or making a mass production version with a Nemo or GM III.

Alternatively, I considered entering the OOB category with an awesome new paint job. I went to my closet, where I have a mix of kits stacked on a shelf—some are unopened, some are WIPs and some are completed kits that need more work.  The only kits I had NIB were HG 00 Gundam Seven Sword/G, HGUC Geara Zulu and HG Sword Impluse Gundam.

Model 'stock' as of 5.28.12

A couple of days went by before I asked Mike for his advice. He recommended I go with Sword Impulse because he thought it was awesome. Personally, I’m not a big fan of Sword Impulse and originally bought it for parts. At this point I had half a week left to pull something together, so I took his advice and went with it.


Since I saw Tron Legacy, I wanted to do a Tron Legacy style paint job to a Gundam. Originally, I considered using this on 00 Gundam Seven Sword/G. But I didn’t have a lot of time and I wanted to do a good job on 00 Gundam; I didn’t care much about Sword Impulse, so the final choice was obvious. 

Love the box art!

Main color concept 

My first step was hunting for black and white line art for Sword Impulse so I could sketch out my own paint job. Unfortunately, the only line art I found was the MG Impulse Gundam—which had the front, back, head and core-fighter views to work with.

Since I have a tendency to get carried away, I had torestrain myself from going overboard with an impossible paint job. I had only 4 days left, and I hadn't even started the actual model. Remember, "less is more."

 Sword pack color concept

Next, I studied the model manual for Sword Impulse and sketched out the swords, boomerang and sword pack.Circles and rings are difficult to cut when using masking tape, even with the assistance of a circle cutter. To complete the 'Tron' look, the iconic Tron disc had to be visible, somewhere on the back. Originally, I planned on including the disc detail on the back of the Gundam itself (refer to pic above), but with the addition of the sword pack, which plugs into the folded up core fighter (where the blue ring is on the Gundam's back), the original blue ring would be covered up completely. The only place I had space for a ring was on the top of the sword pack, which allowed for conduits to run up the sides and connect to the top ring.


I was most excited about the long swords, since its inherent design and simplicity in shape really fit the Tron aspect.

Project managing myself!

I even pulled some of my project management skills in to create a project schedule for myself.It didn’t really help me keep track of what I needed to do, but instead gave me peace of mind of what I had already completed and helped me plan out the additional time needed to work on this project.
I listed every model part that need painting, and made columns for each layer of paint, or masking. This also help me manage drying time between layers. Overall, this was helpful, but it would have helped me get started sooner (had I implemented this sooner


After working on the MS-09F/GB Gross Beil project   I felt more comfortable using Tamiya masking tape for creative painting. When I wasn’t home, I thought heavily on how to make the blue seem illuminated without using LEDs. Initially I thought about using the classic method of a silver base coat and clear color on top.  But that doesn’t ACTUALLY look like flowing light, it just looks shiny. Unfortunately, this project would have looked a whole lot better with an airbrush, but I didn’t have that. I had Montana Gold Spray Paint, which gave me the colors I needed, but not the fine spray stream that I needed.  

“How was I going to accomplish this?”

I went back to studying Tron Legacy vehicles: tons of light cycles and Tron suits. I stared at the light conduits, observing how there were two different blues and the “overlayering” of color. Using masking tape, I tried to mimic this.
 

Given the paint job, I had to build certain parts in stages before continuing with the rest of the model, like the legs, arms and joints. Because I was new on staff, I had to spend some long days (and nights) at Sakura Con, working on-call. When I supposed to be home—resting—I was slaving away at my contest entry. I put the finishing touches on and rushed out the door to catch my bus…I think the paint was still wet on the ankle armor.

  

 


I made it time and didn’t win anything, but at least I finished and got to put it on display.  I think the swords came out the best.

Final thoughts 

Overall, I’m happy with how my experiment came out.However, my motivation for switching to airbrushing only increased after braving through this experience.