HGUC 1/144 Sazabi – Swan Song

Yes, you’ve read this right. This post marks my ‘retirement’ as I move to Japan this Saturday night. I barely managed to finish the Sazabi through a frantic rushed job while trying to sort out my belongings. It also means that my Joker will unfortunately be left unfinished. When you read this post my computer will most likely have already been disassembled and making its way to my new place. I’ll have to try to survive without it for at least two weeks, and I still need to sort out internet connectivity when I get there.

On to the subject proper; this might be a fairly long post as I try to sum up everything that happened since my last WIP update till its eventual completion. The photos were rushed and I did not have time to post this guy. I had to use a tripod as it was dusk and I still don’t have sufficient lighting in my room to take decent photos.

Overall views. I also couldn’t make it to take close-up shots of certain areas. That’s the price to pay for leaving everything till the very last minute.

With weapons equipped. Again, I didn’t really have time to make any major changes to them and I just found out the shotgun is supposed to have the piping areas along the barrel painted red. Oh well.

A bust-up shot for keepsakes. I forgot about the mono-eye until when I was starting to take photos. Luckily despite its tiny size it’s nicely visible.

Remodeling explanation

Before I start, sorry for the perspective differences due to the different camera angles. This time I remembered to take comparison pictures.

Head

Minor adjustments to head curvature and forehead sensor with epoxy putty. Random bits and pieces of sheet styrene/aftermarket plastic bits. Used an 1.8mm clear lens for the mono-eye.

Torso

Resculpted exterior areas with epoxy putty. Armpit fins. Replaced power conduits with aftermarket metal equivalents.

Backpack

Added metal parts to the funnel barrels and separated all six funnels as they originally came fused together in sets of three. Random plastic bits and pieces added on to the backpack.

Arms

Resculpted shoulders with epoxy putty and sheet styrene. Added Gerbera Tetra-style thrusters inside the shoulders and added extra armour for the forearms.

Waist

Resculpted front and rear skirt pieces using sheet styrene and epoxy putty. Replaced existing details with aftermarket equivalents.

Legs

Adjusted the shape of the legs with epoxy putty. The shin areas were done using sheet styrene.

Added some minor details to the shotgun using random bits and pieces.

Colour scheme

• Primer: Mr Surfacer 1200
• Gunmetal: (G) Gunmetal
• Red (darker): Gundam Color Sazabi Red
• Red (lighter): Red Madder
• Black: Black
• Yellow: Yellow + Red + Fluorescent Pink (tiny bit)
• Mono-eye: Clear Yellow + Clear Blue

Markings were from Samuel Decal.

I think I did not stir my gunmetal paint well enough as it turned out almost black. It was a massive adventure when I was painting that colour. I started with my leftover paint, and after thinning it down I went to pour out some industrial thinner for cleaning up, and being distracted while talking to my mother I accidentally poured the thinner into the colour mix, so I had to throw it away. I re-thinned another batch and as the threads on the glass jar did not match well with my airbrush I tightened it too much and the jar dropped to the floor, resulting in a massive spill all over and on my shorts. Right after I cleaned up the mess I had to start using a new bottle, and as I was stirring it I knocked it over, creating a spill inside my spray booth this time, and I desperately tried to scoop up the mess and pour it back inside the jar just so I could have enough to paint with and not have to make a resupply trip just for one bottle of paint.

As you may have known already, I spent a good deal of time procrastinating and progressing really slowly with this kit, until this Monday where I decided to stop dawdling and started priming it. It’s quite a rushed job as I did not have enough time to defile the other parts of the kit that I worked on later, like the backpack and weapons. In fact I haven’t applied the decals for the deployed funnels and the beam effect parts are still unpainted. Now I can finally start cleaning up the mess that is my room, just in time before I fly off. I’m still considering whether I should continue writing on this blog or move to a new one as I might not be able to keep this one running when I’m working full time in Japan.

Coincidentally, I started this humble little blog almost exactly 5 years ago, back on 8 September 2008. I’m really reluctant to leave for good, but I still want to thank all the readers out there for their support even though they could come across better content elsewhere. And just like the title of this post suggests, my swan song finally ends here.

Goodbye and take care of yourselves.