#ginkei

[rytron]

Busted out the tools and cut myself a custom matte so I could mount the black and white Ginkei side by side. These two prints came with two others with my Data Discs Ikaruga vinyl.

[kairogc]

銀鶏 Ginkei -  Kagari Hitekkai

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/VdqaWN

[runawayspirits]

Ginkei – Kagari Hitekkai • Joe Gloria

[architect-mouse-studios]

Ginkei

Originally made: August 2015.

Straight build; custom color scheme.

I decided to hop on the Ikaruga bandwagon after that one build someone posted to r/Gunpla about a month ago; figured I'd go for the other Ikaruga model so I wouldn't be blatantly copying that fellow.

Some warnings:

First, as per usual with Kotobukiya kits, the pictures you see of this kit online are all professionally painted kits. If you were to just snap this guy together out of the box, it would look like crap. Horribly oily paint, poor quality, nowhere near the right colors, etc. 

Second, you CAN'T just snap this guy together. Maybe 80% of the kit is designed to snap together, but the other 20% is all the important stuff that keeps the kit together. So you're not really going to understand what the finished product looks like until it's finished. 

Finally, a lot of the pieces fit together very poorly, even if they're supposed to snap together. Some pieces are so rigid that you can crack them just by cutting them out of the sprue, and others are so weak that they might as well be rubber. It's a bit frustrating.

You have the option to build these “feathers” extended or retracted, but you only get enough decals for one set.

Everything in this kit bends at weird angles, and I have no idea how much of it is an intentional pose.

[netsalvage-blog]

I have finally finished my Ginkei kit.

This was a monster of a project by my own standards. Lots of small parts, lots of superglue-only connections, and, well, it was just very, very intimidating because it was clearly a kit for good modellers. 40USD on sale for 20USD back when I got it.

I don't think I'm a very good scale modeller. It's part of the reason why I'm sticking to miniatures.

Early in the project I was having enormous issues with the glue-only joints on the wings. It was then that I looked up "does super glue expire?" Guess what: it does.

Cyano-acrylate glue (CA glue, super glue, etc.) gets worse over time. It dries more slowly and it bonds worse. I was using CA glue that was several years old and wondering why the hell nothing was sticking together/drying. I bought new glue and that helped a lot.

Now the Ginkei's sitting upside-down while I let glue dry within its base. I threw some metal junk into the underside of the base because it could use some stabilization.

I suppose I’ve done well enough on this that I’ll be proud to display it, and not just because I managed to finish it.

[forhonorarmory-blog]

Female Kensei in Ginkei’s armor

[forhonorarmory-blog]

Male Kensei in Ginkei’s armor

[rytron]

Was very tempted to order the legendary Flying Iron Block with Silver Chicken Coating scale model from Ikaruga during Surugaya's free-shipping weekend.