Hi all. This is a recently completed project. It's my honest-to-goodness attempt at creating the Mihono Bourbon character from Umamusume, but with a bit of a Gundam twist.
You can read more about this project here: https://www.reddit.com/r/freedomisgunpla/comments/1vmt42a/exs_bourbon/
Finally got to put her in my photo booth today. As soon as I saw Belveria-Berys, I knew I'd found the kit for my project. I'd long had some spare Gundam that were begging for a project, and I figured this would be the perfect fit.
For those unfamiliar with the source, this character from Umamusume is often referred to as a cyborg in universe, and the Gundam umamusume amongst fans. The last pic shows the reference character, while the second-to-last pic shows my two other builds (you may sense a theme).
If you're interested in a more technical post about this build (parts used, what I did), you can read it in this post:
https://www.reddit.com/r/freedomisgunpla/comments/1vmt42a/exs_bourbon/
Oh boy settle in.
For the 2026 FiG contest, I made a 30MS Matikanefukukitaru. About a year ago, I also tried my hand at Mihono Bourbon-inspired Nobel Gundam. While I was happy with the results of said Nobel Gundam, I knew that I'd botched the colors.
I've enjoyed working on the 30MS kits as I feel like they lend themselves to more kit-bashing. Having probably built 60 or 70 Gunpla kits over the last few years, I find myself occasionally looking for something different.
Mihono Bourbon is a character from Umamusume Pretty Derby. Mihono Bourbon is a Japanese thoroughbred active in the 1990s. Due to his almost clock-like precision in training runs, he was nicknamed The Cyborg. Umamusume Bourbon takes those mannerisms, and her fellow umas wonder in she is in fact a robot. Her ult shows a very familiar launch-catapult-esque run sequence, solidifying her fan-name as the Gundam uma.
This build us my honest to goodness attempt to do what Bandai won't give us (or me anyway): more Umamusume kits. When I saw the 30MS Belveria-Berys kit, I knew immediately what this project would be. I'd pretty much started thinking about this project when making my RG Gundam 7 bootleg gave me lots of spare Gramps parts, and figuring out how I'd put an Ex-S Gundam-inspired backpack was a fun challenge that went through 3 iterations.
Like most kit-bashes, there's a lot of different kits and parts that contribute to this, and this list is neither comprehensive or representative of the total cost. In reality, aside from the 30MS kit itself, I only picked up the Sight Lens and Power Arms kits (about $10 CAD each). The rest are parts I've collected over time.
I'm very satisfied with how this turned out. I tried to get closer to the Ex-S' actual silhouette; the oversized shoulders and wing-binder. But the reality of Bourbon's long hair, tail, and very narrow shoulders mean this was pretty much impossible.
Kits/parts used:
Fabricated parts
Paints
Fabricated parts
Paints
Sometimes I get an idea stuck in my head that needs to get out by building a kit.
This is a Belveria-Berys 30 Minutes Sister kit, with a bunch of leftover RG 2.0 Gramps parts, 30 Minutes Mission parts, and Demi Trainer gun. Some PLA and putty fabricated parts as well.
Maybe painting tomorrow.
I don't often post here, as I'm very much more on the Gunpla side of things, but sometimes an idea gets stuck in my head.
Painting tomorrow, probably.
I've started doing more things in my "straight builds" in recent times, the newest addition being the blacking out of the backs/insides of certain pieces, like the shoulder/waist armor, the ankle armor etc. It's the lazy-man's method rather than building those areas up with PLA plate.
But man do I love this era of HG kits. Nothing complicated, and I know what I'm getting into.
Lots of color correction on this beast tho.
All painting/weathering done with markers.
Sharpie Creative for black
A Chinese brand art marker for white
Stedi for Mecha Green (in an attempt to get the hand armor tinted a bit green to match the rest of the armor, which didn't really work)
AK Signal Red, Aluminum
Real Touch Gray 3
Very pleasant kit to build, save for all the color correction. But that's also to be expected from a kit of this era.
Only sensor stickers, and all painting/weathering was done with markers. I also used UV resin for the first time, over the chest and head-mounted rear sensor, and on the front of the rifle.
Not sure what's next in terms of build, but for some reason I have a hankering to build a 30MS Superior Mihono Bourbon out of a Belveria-Berys kit I have in my backlog.
Building 2010s HGs is kind of my comfort zone. Sure, the articulation isn't the greatest, but I know what I'm getting.
Nothing big here in terms of effort. Detail/color correction painting done with markers, weathering with Gundam Real Touch markers.
My biggest mistake here was my varnish coat; it wasn't atomizing properly, and it wasn't until I was cleaning up my airbrush that I realized I had a miniscule (probably old varnish) clog screwing things up. So the varnish feels bad, but not so bad that my lazy ass is going to do another coat. Spot fixed with a matt varnish pen (and some minor sanding).
I regret adding the tiny detail parts to the front skirt; the decals would have been enough.
Jesta is besta, but while I was initially pretty jazzed to build an up-designed version, the Regus made me realize that I wasn't in love with the original Gus palette.
So this is more of a hero palette, in line with the Regus. The light gray is a bit warmer than I'd anticipated, but not in an unpleasant way.
The good thing is this kind of kit has such good normal color-separation that it's mostly just a palette swap part for part. I didn't have to do any masking on this (my most hated of tasks that I avoid at pretty much all costs).
Paint Breakdown
One of my more complicated builds, mostly due to parts count. I didn't really click with the normal Gus colors. I know Jesta is besta, but given how visually dense 3rd party kits are, I felt the original palette was too busy.
So this was my attempt to try to desaturate the Gus a bit to let the surface detail really do the talking.
This is also my first real use of my new photo set up, and while it takes a bit longer to set up and take down compared to my old set up, I'm pretty happy with the flexibility it gives me.
One of, if not my most complicated, builds to date. Plenty of mistakes if you look closely enough, but nothing I'll see on the shelf.
I know the Gus is supposed to be a fancy Jesta, and I love that about it, but the more I looked at the original, more the really busy look bothered me.
So here's my attempt to desaturate it a bit. I didn't particularly stick to any original colors, and the deep teal kind of just felt right. The light gray came out a tad warmer than I expected, but I'm not too bothered by it.
Overall a fun, if tedious project. Cheers to builders who full-paint MG/RG kits. 400+ parts felt exhausting.
Next build is either an HG GM III or a HG Ecoas Jegan.
This one jumped the queue, but took a while to complete as I basically hurt my back and couldn't work on it for a while.
It's a neat kit, but has the typical KO problems. That said, it was a good chance to work on some heavier weathering.
This one jumped the backlog queue because of how neat it was. I was sort of considering doing a repaint of this, but ended up practicing some weathering on it instead.
Some detail painting to give some color-separation and pop, but otherwise it's mostly stock. Decals were whatever I had lying around, but mostly came from an unused G-Rework Aerial + Mirasoul FU decals I had from an earlier project. Also, no emblem for either the SSA or ESS (EES?) orgs, so I just made one up.
Mostly smooth build, but typical cheap feeling KO plastic, dips, and some fitment issues. The polycaps on the arms were particularly bad, and I ended up using actual Bandai ones instead.
I don't usually weather my kits this much, but from at least that first issue of the comic, this thing gets pretty beat up.
Weathering done with a mix of acrylic paint, AK weathering markers, and Gundam Real Touch markers. I think I overdid it in a few places, and tired to cover it up as best I could, but I'm pretty happy with the grittier feel of this kit.
A few days ago, made my original post. Honestly, coming off the build, and looking at my pictures, I was pretty lukewarm on the build.
I spent some time going back to my typical black background and reshooting this kit. I feel like these pics hit a lot harder than before for a variety of reasons.
I was hoping to get some advice from some of the photographers in this sub. I have a DIY softbox with a grid as my key light, a palm-sized LED on a gorilla pod as my fill light (usually bounced by a piece of white foam core). Also, tripod, and shooting with my phone (Pixel 9 Pro). I usually position the kit about 50 cm/20 inches away from my background.
What's your set up for photos on a while background?
EDIT: Fixed some terrible sentences.
[HG Xavier's Gyan] Mihaly Shilage Custom
A repeat of my post on the other subreddit, but some different content.
First, the last pic is art from ACZCipher on Deviantart. This is my typical workflow for custom color schemes. I took the Gyan art from the Gundam wiki, and used GIMP to recolor manually.
The plane is Sol 1, Mihaly's jet, and he's the main enemy ace in Ace Combat 7.
It's a visually striking livery that looks fantastic on an Su-30MS, and I think I did a fair job of translating that to the Gyan itself. But that didn't translate as well to the Hakuji-Packs or the shield. I think going with a more monotone look for both would have toned down the busyness considerably, and given the overall project a more unified look. Instead, the shield in particular just pulls all the attention away, and not in a good way.
Allow me to wax-poetic for a moment: I suppose, strictly speaking, a shield that attracts all the attention is a good thing on a battlefield. You want people shooting the shield, not you. But it's honestly an eyesore on a model kit.
Colour-wise, I think I needed to use a much lighter gray. The 10:1 mix is (unsurprisingly) virtually indistinguishable from the full black. If you can believe it, I actually preshaded full black around the edges and panel lines before applying my "dark gray".
The kit suffers from the problems described on launch; the Hakuji-Packs is (are?) too unwieldy, and makes posing a challenge. The added weight makes the arms pop off when H-Packs and Shield are held, and the hands themselves rely on a very thin pin to hold them together, all but guaranteeing that at some point, taking the hands apart to swap weapons will end in a sheared pin.
So all in all this was more of a learning experience than a build I loved. But that's 4/4 custom GQuuuuuuX kits, and I'm looking forward to more.
[HG Xavier's Gyan Hakuji-Packs]
Mihaly's Livery found on Deviant Art here: https://www.deviantart.com/aczcipher/art/Sol-1-Su-30SM-783888166 [ACZCipher]
An Xavier's Gyan inspired by the livery for Sol 1 himself, Mihaly Shilage from Ace Combat 7. The jet itself has very striking livery, and I tried to apply it to the Gyan in a way that made sense.
That said, bit of a mixed feeling on this one.
In one sense, I think I managed to execute my vision. Got the colors mostly right, at least according to my mock up (last pic). But somehow I'm a bit underwhelmed. Of my GQx custom kits, this is my least favorite for a variety of reasons.
Honestly, standing in a Katoki pose without the shield, it's pretty good. But the shield and the Hakuji-Packs kind of muddy the scheme, making it feel visually cluttered.
Also, I had to work with what decals I could. I found the decals on eBay, but they're meant for 1/72 scale Su-30MS, so they're a bit too obvious on this kit, even if they technically fit. Also, I think I the black needed to be a lot lighter (it's currently 10:1), but on paper at least, I got it as close to the hex-code I extracted from the mock up.
Structurally, this kit is a mess. The arms pop out of the sockets far too easily with the shield and H-Packs installed, and the dinky stand you get to pose it gets floppy too quickly. Like all GQx kits, leg articular due to added bits and bobs is poor, especially in the ankles. Additionally, while I appreciate the added wrist articulation that lets you get a thrust with the beam saber, the two halves of the hand are held together with a very tiny pin, which after repeated switching of weapons, is sure to shear off.
This one will stay posed with beam saber, and the H-Packs go into storage.
Smurve80 in Sandstone with MT3 Camillo. Got some Ashkeebs Alexandrite switches in there, mostly because it was between that, some Oil Kings, or some Nolives.
Absolutely loving the solenoid.
WHACK WHACK WHACK!
A quick build between more complicated builds, but this was also a chance for me to try out a new top coat.
Or varnish, in this case. Liquitex Matte Varnish thinned 1:1 with Liquitex Airbrush Medium. This sprays really nicely for me, and while I don't know yet how durable this is, but the value proposition can't be beat.
HGCE Lightning Buster Gundam
Wanted to do something a bit less involved, and while I'm not particularly invested in the Gundam Seed series, I can't deny the lovely designs.
Plus big guns are always cool.
This is also the first time I tried using Liquitex Matte Varnish. So far, I'm quite impressed! This is certainly giving me a better flat finish then the Gaia Notes Flat Clear Ex, which I either don't have a good mixing ratio with, or am not spraying enough of.
But one major advantage of the Liquitex is the value proposition.
1:1 thinning ratio with Liquitex Airbrush Medium, 0.3mm nozzle, 22 PSI.
I made a post yesterday about a Gundam 7th conversion kit, and one of the things I bemoaned was the half a kit I had left over.
Doing some clean up today, and decided to snap fit what I could to see what was left, and honestly kind of amazing. Another way of looking at this is that the G07 conversion replaces all of these parts.
I'm kind of tempted to see if I can't do an RG 0.5 with these pieces. Maybe a KO HGGTO gramps might benefit from this, and I wouldn't feel too bad about the leftover parts from that.