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Sharing my quirky love of kit building with the world. Life is more than a 9-5 job. :)

[cwlouis]

One down, one more to go.

[cwlouis]

Starting to build a lip and wall for the vertex armor.

[cwlouis]

Went through my parts box and found some parts that will work with this build. The MG G-Defencer armor connector will allow the vertex to rotate and mount correctly to the backpack. Also used some odds and ends from an IOB parts to build a working missile rack.

[cwlouis]

It’s a bit hard to see, started to create additional under armor details. Notched out some structural details.

[cwlouis]

Additional latch/ mounting bracket added to the scratch built vertex armor.

[cwlouis]

Duplicated and they look pretty good.

[cwlouis]

Some details from scratch.

[cwlouis]

Wet sanded the cured polyester putty. Still need to add another layer to clean up some of the imperfections.

[cwlouis]

Found some flaws and leveling issues and the Tamiya Basic Putty can only do so much. Mixed up some polyester putty by Tamiya and started to fix some of the warping. This stuff don’t shrink so it’s great for rebuilding parts or leveling large surfaces.

[cwlouis]

Primed, sand, and more reshaping.

[cwlouis]

Finished up the waist for the Ultraman Suite 7.3. This is some amazing color separation. But do not rush this section. If you plan to repaint this, I HIGHLY recommend taking your time to clip the parts off the runners and trim the tabs a little so you can disassemble the waist parts easier. The way it’s engineered, there is minimal seam line for a figure kit... that’s impressive. There was also a ball socket issue with joining the mid torso to the upper torso. I had to file and sand the ball joint to adjusted the ball to set into the ABS socket. Take your time with the adjustment, if you over shave or sand, you could ruin the kit. I also included some pivot pictures so you can see how much movement you will have.

[cwlouis]

Ultraman Suite 7.3’s upper torso is complete. The inner frame embedded into the upper torso will connect the arms and lower torso. My only concern is the entire armature is made of ABS plastic. If someone decides to play with it like a toy, the supports won’t hold its shape. The overall construction for this portion was not difficult to build. I did ran into issues with the chest LED. If the batteries are not seated correctly, it won’t light up.

Some cool features the upper torso includes hidden ports (with sliding panels) for attachments and hinges to allow vent covers to open and close.

[cwlouis]

I know it’s been a while since I posted any Gunpla related post. Just want to share my on and off HGUC Gelgoog Vertex project. Scratch building my own vertex backpack (instead of kit bashing with a Relgoog).

[cwlouis]

Here is Ultraman version 7.3’s neck assembly. The neck uses two ball and socket style cups on each end of the neck. The double ball connector that connects the head to the neck allows the head to pivot in multiple directions. The rear collar armor actually folds into the helmet when the head is tilted all the way back.

[cwlouis]

Trimming ABS plastic is a little different. It’s a bit softer than polystyrene. I decided to use a normal nipper to clip the parts, so I’m not going to use my Godhand till I need to. Since the kit was engineered for chrome platting, the gates are tucked under the parts. The attached images are the process I go through. Normally, I clip the parts leaving the nubs and use a blade as a scraper to clean up. I guess you can say this is an old school way of building (pre Godhand).

[cwlouis]

Fixed the visor’s fitting issue. I trimmed a bit of the clear yellow inner lens’ tab off and widen the tongue and groove hole to allow the clear visor sit flush to the helmet.

[cwlouis]

My Ultraman Ver. 7.3 was shipped without batteries because Yolopark had to comply shipping restrictions. Compared to my other Ultraman suite, it came with batteries but was from a reseller. Also noticed with Ultraman Ver. 7.3, it uses less electronics then the Ultraman suite. In the instruction, there was no notation on the batteries needed. You will need LR621 cells to run the Kit’s LED.