Sunday, July 31, 2011

Trials of a Model Builder Part II

The Porsche kit got painted a bright yellow, with black details, and ended up disappearing sometime shortly after that.  I don't know what became of it, nor do I care- it looked terrible.  I mean, it was a fine model kit, and I had done an alright job with my dad's help.  But I still didn't like it, since I don't really have an interest in cars.

My dad ended up getting a really high-end detailed model kit of the Apollo Command Module and Service Module.  He wanted me to help him build it, and so I did.  It was a relatively complicated kit, designed for those who had the skill required to address the nuances of the structure, and apply color exactly where it needed to be, and nowhere else.  We spent what felt like weeks painting, prepping, trimming, gluing, adjusting, etc., to produce a kit worthy of display.  I thought that the colors for certain interior components looked all wrong, but supposedly they were right on the mark.

We displayed it prominently on top of the TV's cabinet, a good 7 feet off the ground.  While sitting watching some show not worthy of remembrance, whilst my mom sat adjacent to me reading her newspaper, the model kit tumbled down from its perch, only to smash into pieces upon contacting the carpeted floor below.  My dad was sad to see that kit destroyed, and no doubt thought that I was responsible for knocking down from its pedestal up on high.  It wasn't even salvaged- it ended up square in the trash.

 Model kits were cast from my mind for close to a decade after that.  It wouldn't be until my college-era best friend introduced me to the world of Mobile Suit Gundam that I would begin building models again.

We started with 0080: War in the Pocket, followed closely by 08th MS Team, and 0083: Stardust Memory.  I  wasn't interested at first, thinking it was the same as Gundam Wing, a childish work that only seemed to keep the attention of my friends who had nostalgia goggles for it harkening back to their childhoods.  Something fantastic about the series caught my eye, and I purchased a pair of starter kits with my friend to get us off of the ground, and get my footing again in this medium.

I bought a set of small detail paints, found an x-acto knife, and found a place to mount my pocket vice on my desk.  The first kit I pumped out was a thrill to assemble, as I covered it with paint and a few stickers.  I tried to detail it as best I could, giving it crude battle damage, cutting away sections, scraping divots into the plastic, and splashing color in places to make it appear combat scarred.  It looked alright to me, but the poor quality of the kit, and the material with which it was molded made it flimsy, and hard to keep in one piece.

I was off to show it my friend for his critique of my work.

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