Gundam Discussion - Twilight Axis

[Edelweiss]

Had a good weather day so kinda went on a painting binge today. Was feeling pretty good, and then was reminded how much I hate dry transfer decals.. gah!

On rounded surfaces, absolutely. But flat? Nigga, you best be trolling.

[Serra]

The one that I screwed up on was on the back, between the two engine humps.

Anyway, I really suck at taking pictures, but some finished parts:

Spoiler: show

Really happy with how the dark blue turned out. Eventually aiming to have it look something like this:

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Only parts left to paint are the light blue, and topcoating everything. But, if the forecast holds, probably won't get a chance to do any of that till Saturday or Sunday..

[Edelweiss]

RG GP01:

Spoiler: show

RG GP01Fb:

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[Edelweiss]

Cagalli is crying!

[Serra]

I wish there were more 1/100 builders parts (specifically the weapons systems sets). That said, with 3d printing, is anyone making accessories for Gundams? Seems like it could be a much cheaper option than resin kits.

[Edelweiss]

Unfortunately, it isn't feasible yet. Guys who run SMS (probably the biggest Gundam resin kit refiner/maker) figure by the end of the decade, they'll probably begin using 3D printers as they become more practical and capable - it'll never catch up to what Bandai has though (as far as injection techniques and engineering). Doesn't mean we can't get shit like blades, specialty beam effect parts, and most weapons, etc.

The big thing alot of these third-parties are interested in seeing become economically feasible is 3D scanners. With that, they could concievably scan. upscale, and refine things like the 1/144 Gundam EX kits (MS trailers, Magella and Type 61 tanks, and so on). Plus maybe scanning parts into CAD, and just doing precison modding/detailing there, before printing out the final result. Of course, 3D printers would also need to become much faster too; I think most resin casters can produce around a dozen sets (if not more) an hour.

TL;DR: Cost and speed are probably the barriers for 3D printers entering the third-party market in earnest; 3D scanners becoming viable will mark something of a new age, upscaling stuff to 1/100 scale or whatever.

Of course, Bandai has been mulling on that idea of a 1/100 line of weapon sets for over a decade now (as with many other things: HG 1/100 line of stuff never getting MGs, etc.); still have yet to bring these things to market. There's a huge number of hand-held weapons alone for the UC line (including over 15 different OYW Zeon MS hand-held weapons for example); putting updated versions out would be wonderful.

[Insanecyclone]

Finished up 00 again and honestly it seemed better the 2nd go around. It had an understanding end from the get-go by wanting to eradicate war with war. Then once their unified try and make peace last long enough for the possibilities of contacting other species. namely ELS.

Only thing that bugs me is the 2nd MM. I mean from the standpoint of needed another to dominate is fine, but it felt like it was just there to show the 00 Raiser's giant beam sword. Also I've forgotten how great the dub cast for the show was. A fucking plus for everyone. Well except S2 Saji...."MUH LOUISE WAAAAAAAA" Shut the hell up crying man.

I do like that they got Marrue's VA to voice Sumeragi because they were both ship captains with big tits.

[Edelweiss]

Absolutely; the show fucking tells you from the get-go that it will be an understanding end - and it works logically towards it the entire way. The only ambiguity was with whom exactly those dialogues Aeolia mentions was to be with (the ELS); though I doubt he actually had any concrete ideas beyond causing the evolution of humanity into Innovators, able to communicate past the various masks we wear in society and across other barriers with quantum brainwaves. Essentially, he was pushing that evolution (quantum brainwaves) for two reasons: first to end the long, violent conflicts between humans (by circumventing mistrust, anger, etc.); second, getting our shit together and uniting the species in preparation of first contact (and enabling us to communicate with intelligent life that could be (and was) radically different from ourselves).

Between all the UNDERSTANDING ending attempts in many AUs, Turn A and 00 have done it best (and they didn't really allude otherwise). In both cases, the antagonists were assholes who wanted to keep sowing conflict or turn a benevolent thing to selfish, dickish purposes (and they rightfully got their shit pushed in for it).

Plus (I hope i'm not the only one who thinks this) the TV portion of the series had an utterly retardedly strong finish: some sheer ingenuity from Lockon in a crippled Cherudim, reckless bravery from Allelujah, and an excellent duel between Setsuna and Ribbons. I don't think any series will ever be able to knock the TV series finale off the top for a good while; maybe Crossbone: Steel Seven when they animate it (lol).

And yeah, that second Memento Mori did kind of seem unnecessary beyond that reason.

[Serra]

I dunno.. First season was epic. They did such a good job of telling the story in such a way that it avoided the good vs evil dichotomy. Yes, Celestial Being was trying to stop war, but you never got a sense that the other groups were evil. I think up until the Trinities were introduced, the series really started to feel different. And then when Corner betrayed Celestial Being and gave the 3 groups the GN drives, and then you suddenly had a turn around where Celestial Being was not the technologically superior force and got decimated as a result was so well done. Corner's mobile armor and suit were fairly stupid, but I'm willing to overlook that for the things that led up to it. Season 2, imo, just failed to capture that. A-LAWS were clearly an evil group and so the whole story just failed to have the same feeling as the first season.

The whole thing with a second Memento Mori also hilights another problem -- it felt like the second season lacked creativity. After the GN-X, the mobile suit designs took a turn for the worse. I know they wanted some continuity, but the suits in season two felt like knockoffs of the originals that weren't nearly as exciting. The first time Tieria purged the armor from Virtue was such a shocker. I feel because they were trying to maintain continuity between the two seasons, the later suits just failed to have anything that amazing. The characters too. I'm ok with having a second Lockon who is related to the first. But identical twin brother, really?? Just have another character design, it would have been so much better. And Graham.. what a worthless character. They were clearly trying too hard to have a masked rival. I think he might be more worthless than Saji..

[Mrbeansman]

00 mobile suits and gundams were the worst ever for a alternate universe . Other then the armor shed and exia nothing stuck out like in the past. AGE seems to be part of a declining trend for mecha designs in gundam because every thing Ive seen from there has been shit too.

Say what you will about SEEDs story but at least it had good gundam eye candy. Even if the designs were wasted on its shit story. BTW none of that applies to destiny everything about that series was shit.

[Xajii]

00 mobile suits and gundams were the worst ever for a alternate universe . Other then the armor shed and exia nothing stuck out like in the past. AGE seems to be part of a declining trend for mecha designs in gundam because every thing Ive seen from there has been shit too.

Say what you will about SEEDs story but at least it had good gundam eye candy. Even if the designs were wasted on its shit story. BTW none of that applies to destiny everything about that series was shit.

Agree to disagree. Love exia, 00, the Lockon suits, the GN-X line, the Throne gundams, Graham's suits.

[Cleverness]

00 mobile suits and gundams were the worst ever for a alternate universe . Other then the armor shed and exia nothing stuck out like in the past. AGE seems to be part of a declining trend for mecha designs in gundam because every thing Ive seen from there has been shit too.

Say what you will about SEEDs story but at least it had good gundam eye candy. Even if the designs were wasted on its shit story. BTW none of that applies to destiny everything about that series was shit.

The shitty thing about Seed is that every suit is practically a Gundam or useless cannon fodder. Other series have strong non Gundam suits. Zeta has the Rick Dias, Gundam has several(even the Gelgoog rivals it after it's upgraded), in Victory the Victory Gundam isn't even really that far advanced, it can maintain atmospheric flight but that doesn't remain a strength for long and it isn't until the V2 that it gains it's normal Gundam plot armor, before then it's just carried by a newtype pilot in an age that lacks many Pure Newtypes after so many wars. The Victory Gundam itself is a mass produced unit and advertised as one, and becomes a common suit near the end. While the Victory example is similar to my objection of all the Gundams in Seed, at least in UC universe having a Gundam that far into history is relevant; Gundams are very feared and have been at the heart of every major conflict, so designing a Gundam suit to oppose a larger force(the Zanscare) will do alot.

Honestly I'm not really sure how you don't like the MS designs in 00/AGE but I guess that's just your opinion. Both shows did a great job in paying homage with their own version of the original Gundam(0 Gundam + the AGE 1) and I personally loved alot of the designs. I'm actually not a big fan of the 00 Gundam itself cause it looks clunky as hell with the 0 Raiser thrown on though, the Seven Swords version looks alot better though since it distributes the extra tech abit more throughout the suit as opposed to making it all top heavy.

[Insanecyclone]

The 00 suits in the movie looked fucking amazing in BD while in motion.

As for Seed the thing I hate about it in terms of MS is that EVERYTHING IS A FUCKING GUNDAM. Gundams, in terms of a suit, is suppose to be a prototype/early stage of development. Not some oprah "EVERYONE GETS A GUNDAM! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

[Mrbeansman]

The 00 suits in the movie looked fucking amazing in BD while in motion.

As for Seed the thing I hate about it in terms of MS is that EVERYTHING IS A FUCKING GUNDAM. Gundams, in terms of a suit, is suppose to be a prototype/early stage of development. Not some oprah "EVERYONE GETS A GUNDAM! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

Yeah my Love for a lot the Seed Gundams is pure aesthetics I can totally agree with every point you guys have made.

[Serra]

Seed did a good job of having the Gundams being reasonable. Didn't Freedom even lose its head at one point? That was one of my biggest complaints against Destiny. The only way a Gundam got a scratch was if it was facing another Gundam. The part where Strike Freedom took out 30 suits by itself or whatever was just too awful.

[Mrbeansman]

Freedom got it's shit wrecked hard by Rau's Providence in the last episode yeah. Also Seed and Destiny to an extent had the best transformation mechanics of any universe and this is from a guy that absolutely adores the Zeta.

[Xajii]

The fact that Kira survived that shit was the most ridiculous plot armor in any series I've seen

[Mrbeansman]

The fact that Kira survived that shit was the most ridiculous plot armor in any series I've seen

Really? Mu surviving a frontal shot from the main cannon of that Ark Angel ship was 100x worse.

[Cleverness]

It was but at least can go with the excuse that they retconned it later by removing his helmet, if not for that it'd be completely inexcusable. And Kira surviving the battle against Athrun was probably dumber, the suit was literally fucked up and in pieces.

[Mrbeansman]

Lets be honest though this shit isn't unique to SEED Four was doing it before it was cool.