**Warning - freakin long-ass post ahead**

Let me get one thing off my chest first. Master Grade kits rawk. For the amount of money I paid (which wasn't exactly a lot by gunpla standards)... the level of detail and atriculate poses you can get outta this MG is amazing. When I placed the MG Aile Strike next to my 1/144 HG Dynames... I went like... whoa...

I can't even begin to fathom how mind-blowing the Perfect Grade version is gonna look like...

Anyways, this blog entry is dedicated to the 1 month plus duration that went into assembling the gunpla during the spare time I had after I coming home from work. Honestly, if you're planning on assembling this with no changes whatsoever, you can probably get it done in about half a day or so. But I wanted to add something different to this MG Aile Strike, so it took a little longer.

Here's the color scheme which I decided on, which way before I actually started any work.

1. Blue parts - Candy Blue (RM7.00)
2. Red parts - Candy Red (RM7.00)
3. Yellow parts - Candy Yellow (RM7.00)
4. Grey parts - Gunmetal (RM25.00)
5. White parts - Pearl White (RM7.00)
6. Strikerpack Black Parts - Pearl Black (RM7.00)
7. Base for candy paint - Decorative Chrome (RM9.00)

As you can see, it required quite a few cans of Anchor. But no biggie, since my nearby hardware store carries all these colors.

All except for the gunmetal... which Anchor doesn't carry. So I had to drop by one of those hobby shops and get it from Tamiya instead.

You might think it's ok... but this little can is much smaller than it looks.

In fact... it's so freakin small... it's only a quarter the size of one regular can of Anchor spray paint. And yet it cost 5 times as much!

Suck blood.

That is the reason why I dun wanna go down the branded way of doing things. But for this particular color... I didn't have a choice.

All set.

So here goes :

Here're the blue armor parts before they're painted. Plenty of washing and sanding before hand.

This was followed by several layers of chrome paint, and let to dry.

Then came the candy blue. The candy paint is very brittle when dry, so it WAS EXTREMELY EASY TO SCREW UP DURING ASSEMBLY. This I found out the hard way.

Here're some of the yellow bits chromed...

... before being blasted with several layers of candy yellow. Which look rather 'gold-ish'. Me like.

As I mentioned earlier, the paintjob was extremely easy to screw up. So I spent the bulk of my time, scrapping and sanding off the errors. For certain parts... it took up to 3 tries before I got the effect I wanted.

But when it came out right... it was well worth the effort. But hell... it was tiring.

It kept raining last month, so I had to keep the freshly painted parts in a low humidity area (or risk getting a dull finish). So I converted one of my closets into a DIY dry box by adding in 2 packs of Thirsty Hippo.

Once all the paint job was done, assembly didn't take much time. But yet again, I had to be very careful to make sure I don't scratch the painted parts. This I did countless times... and it hurts like hell. I ended up touching up the errors with a Gundam Marker since candy paint surfaces were impossible to fix.

The decals were fun to put on... but a bitch to remove when you get it wrong. I actually accidentally peeled off a 2 cm section of candy red paint, and had to redo the entire wing section.

I decided to skip inking the panel lines this time round, as I wasn't confident enough of doing a good job after my experience with the HG Dynames.

Most of the time, the inking look nice from a distance... but when you zoom in to have a closer look... you'll go... ughhhh..

Also, I felt that the Strike look pretty okay without inks... so I decided to let it be. Gunpla purists can go ahead and lynch me now...

The stand which came with the kit was muthafarking big. Hell... it was supposed to be a section of the launching pad on the battleship ArchAngel... so I couldn't really place it on my shelf above the tv.

So I bought a separate white 1/100 stand from Robot Master for about 20 bucks... which looks much better.

Here're some shots of the completed Aile Strike :

I stuck the two beam sabres together with some tape to create something which looks like the double edged light sabre Darth Maul uses... haha...

One of the more popular poses... the launching sequence.

This is definitely my favorite pose... Strike brandishing two Armor Schneiders... ready for close melee combat.

"I just flew into 16th floor... and a gagak attacked me..."

Side profile...

A butt shot of the Striker Pack...

"Still flyin... still flyin... aiyak... battery habis..."

1/144 HG Dynames vs 1/100 MG Aile Strike...

"Move aside you punny bugger... coming through..."

???

This fella is definitely earning a permanent spot on my shelf...

Full frontal...

Happi gila sial... ehehehe... ehehehe...

Tu dia... dia mali lagi...

Setiap hari pulak... pasti ada kongkek...

Satu kali mau... tiap tiap hari mau... isk...

Boss... janji sumpah... laman I ni takde benda cam ni...

3 things describe this project :

• My eyes are blurry from the many late nights, and my hands are like sandpaper from the constant washing with turpentine.
• It's muthafarking frustrating to redo the parts over and over again everytime I screw up the candy paintjob.
• It totally robbed me of my life over the past month and made me enemy #1 among my apt neighbours.

But other than that, it was a pretty fun build, eventhough it was riddled with plenty of mistakes along the way. I learnt a lot from this master grade Gundam Aile Strike kit. I screwed up the Striker Pack pretty badly during assembly, and a quarter worth of the dry decals ended up in the dustbin; but hey... it's worth the experience.

A rather expensive one though...

Anyways, here're some sneak peaks at the results. 

I think I'm not going to panel line the figure this time round... the gundam marker will stay in the drawer.

More pics some other time.

Need to hit the sack... zzzzzzzzzz...

This country rawks.

Leaders... so lazy... so uncreative... they just recycle history.

If it works for Dr. M... it'll work for us too.

Hell yeah.

Oh... sodom-mia...

Sorry to dissapoint you... you won't find any on this site...

Dang... wish I brought my Lumix instead... 

Very friendly golden retriever.

This little pup was super adorable.

A pair of pomeranians. Very poofy... macam cushion.

This cutie here looks like a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel... but I could be wrong coz it was a little hard to recognize after it dunked itself into the sea.

This fella here I believe is a Japanese Chin.

This Yorkshire Terrier thinks it's on a Vogue photoshoot by the sea.

The owner of this pair of beagles was more than accomodating to let us play with his pride and joy.

You're one cool dude... thanks!

Toy poodles made their presense felt too.

I R CHOW CHOW...

There was another bigger one, black somemore... but the pic came out way too blur to post.

Japanese Chin is happy... ;)

More toy poodles... complete with mini skirt some more...

I absolutely adore this beautiful looking retriever.

It took 2 cans of hair spray to get this look ok?

Where de paparazi when u need them?

I got slobbered in the face kaw kaw by this pair of beagle... I luv them to bits!

It's nice to be able to take my mind off things for just a while.

These little moments come far and few nowadays.

It's gonna be a really punishing 2 months ahead for me.

Last Friday, the dept organized a so-called "morale-boosting" event in hopes that it'll put some semblance of a smile back onto the faces of the overworked/underpaid staff. It's held in Pulau Jerejak. And paintball was the main event. Which is cool since we're a bunch of bastets with plenty of pent up frustration.

At the jetty, to board the ferry.

The super boring ride to the island.

The infamous doorless kancil on the island resort.

Where're the damn guns?

Oh... here they are.

A closer look at the weapons of pain.

The 'warzone'... which is littered with barrels and wooden barriers for cover.

Yours truly (left) with Sukuchi... before entering the zone.

I only suffered some splash damage (no biggie) when I was ambushed halfway into the game, while concentrating too hard on trying to score a headshot.

The same couldn't be said about my teammate; Kira Tomato... who got hit multiple times at close range by a chick at the end. Loads of bruises... but plenty of smiles.

And this little thingy over here are what S&M dreams are made of... the ball of pain.

Went home at sundown, after a short buffet dinner at the resort.

It was overall ok... paintballing IS fun...  ;)

I was driving to the office as usual this morning, when I realized there was this black looking patch on the road ahead. At first I thought it was a piece of black plastic bag. But as I got closer, the patch moved. When I finally saw a tail, only then did I realize it was a fookin rat. At the very last minute, I swerved to the left to avoid the bugger. I immediately looked behind and saw that the rat was still in one piece. Then a thought hit me. I could have just held steady and cream the damn rodent. After all, most ppl would have eradicated the damn thing at every opportunity they had.

Rats bring diseases.

Rats are nothing but bad news.

Rats are good for nothing scum of the earth.

Why didn't I just run the pest over?

I eyeballed my rear view mirror again.

Another car was approaching.

.

.

.

He swerved as well.

.

.

.