Event: Gundam Model Kit Challenge 2010 Malaysia
Venue: Sungei Wang Plaza, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Period: 5th June – 10th June 2010

The 2010 mid-year competition is now on! Featuring loads of quality entries from the contestants, Gunplas ranging from Gundam Unicorn, SD Gundam Sangokuden, Gundam 00 and other Gundam series as well. We shall see a lot of creativeness in the following gallery, be it in terms of painting, mods, diorama or all of them in an entry. Without further said, enjoy!

Event Area

Contestants’ Entries

Although the number of entries aren’t that many, there were a lot of interesting entries being displayed. The judges would pretty much had headache trying to sieve through the most eligible winners for this year’s event (glad that I’m not one of them =P ).

I’ll be updating the winners and more images soon, so stay tuned!
Update: Missed the prize-giving event due to work priority T.T
Good thing there are coverage from other sites!

External References:

1. Discussion and images thread from Zero-G Forum
2. Event coverage from Figure.fm
3. Event coverage from Seven6398 blog

And Here comes another round of the most anticipated annual Gunpla event! Lots of giant entries from Gundam 00, Sangokuden and other series has made their entrance. Even though the number of contestants are a bit less compared to last year, a lot of them managed to pull out such amazing works to be awed by judges, mecha fans and random passer-by. Shall we see the entries for this year?

Event Area

Contestants’ Entries

Prize-Giving Ceremony

The judges sure made a surprise this year, most of the entries that I thought would win didn’t make it. Some of them are really good compared to the winners’ entries. All in all, I normally see that winners always seems to have either the biggest entries, had a lot of Gunplas in one diorama or a kit-bashed entry that used a lot of parts from other Gunpla boxsets. MG-grade usually..

For this year’s winners line-up, finally we have female winners on stage and this shows that Gunpla hobby have started to capture local women’s interest too
Funny thing happened during the prize-giving was few of the trophies were damaged and yet they were still given out to the winners =/
I hope the event sponsors would be more careful about this in the future.

May we all be blessed with more great works in the upcoming event next year!
As usual, congrats to all the winners and everybody else who took part in the event! *thumbs up*

External References:

1. SEVEN6398’s coverage of BAKUC 2009 Malaysia
2. Video coverage of BAKUC 2009 Malaysia @ Youtube
3. TWSFreedom2306’s coverage of BAKUC 2009 Malaysia @ Youtube
4. BAKUC 2009 Malaysia coverage by Figure.fm

Scale: 1/100
Grade: High Grade
Completed In: 2008

This is my first ever attempt on building customized Gunpla and using wet-type decals. For this project, I used parts from 2 kits; the Astray Blue Frame Second-L (Gundam Seed Astray) and Gundam Heavyarms Custom (Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz) series.
I did a little modification to the kit’s backpack system, basically changing the giant sword into two sword + gatling guns instead.
This is actually my entry for the previous BAKUC 2008 Malaysia event. The modifications done are rather minimal but I hope you’ll enjoy it.

Image Gallery

The Astray Blue Frame underwent few upgrades along the series, ranging from close-range to full-armored long range weapon packs.
I named my project as Second-G II, a fictional upgrade after the Second-G weapon pack in the story. The “G” letter represents the pilot’s name which is Gai Murakumo but for this project, the letter “G” can also signify for “Gunner”

The cosmetic process for this project involves sanding, gundam markers, nail polish to give a smooth shiny finish to the parts and finally using wet decals to add in the details. One thing I’d like to note is that for metallic color markers, it’s best if you can seal them using clear lacquer spray to protect it from fading overtime.

Referring to my first experience with using wet decals, I think it’s rather simple to apply compared to dry-pressed ones. Once you have transfered it on the kit, it’s still possible to further adjust the decal’s position while it’s still wet. As for the dry counterpart, you can’t do anything about it once it’s pressed on the kit. Furthermore, I find it quite difficult to make the dry decal sheet stay in place while transferring and often slipped from the intended location. The result was either the decals were half-torn or wrinkled. I’m absolutely not a pro at dry decals

External Reference

• Gundam Astray Blue Frame Second-L specs @ MAHQ.net
• Gundam Astray Blue Frame Second-G specs @ MAHQ.net

The mid-year challenge for this year has arrived! Whew.. is it just me or does anyone else also noticed that the competition name is getting more mouthful each year..? :/
In this year’s contest, we’ll be seeing lots of entries from Gundam 00 and Sangoku-den series (as the name of the event suggested). Here are few pictures I managed to take from the first day, enjoy!

Event Area

Contestants’ Entries

I’m sorry to say that my photography skill hasn’t much improved, you’ll might find some of the images are a bit blurry or in lack of perspective. The contest area gives off too much glare that it’s so HARD to catch the good side of every entries. >__<
If you also might have noticed, this year's entries are significantly less than last year's. Maybe because of the contest theme, maybe most of the super modelers are busy, or maybe they are waiting for the annual BAKUC challenge. It wasn't so depressing though, I still have enjoyed few of the marvelous entries. Too bad I can't participate in this year's event but anyways, I congratulate the winners and may we all see your next entries in the upcoming BAKUC event.

External References:

1. Plamo Forum Thread for Gundam Mid-Year Challenge 2009
2. Coverage from Toys x Travel x Vivato blog
3. Coverage from I Love Nikon & Gunpla blog

Scale: 1/144
Grade: High Grade Gundam Seed
Completed In: 2008

Due to this Gundam’s popularity with its stylish gun-posing and my lack of budget of getting the MG grade (T__T), I decided to try out this kit instead.

Image Gallery

For this kit, it has been sand-papered down to the finest grade to get the surface clean and shiny. Next I applied some colors using Gundam Markers to the black, yellow and red parts. Finally, the kit is lined using Gundam Marker Pen to add more details. Other smaller color details applied are the helmet’s front and rear lens (colored with metal blue), the triangle decals on each shoulders (colored in gold) and the short beam guns (colored with metallic silver and lined).

The kit comes with its own plastic stand with 2 different sets of angle, a piece of threaded wire (for the rocket anchor weapon) and a set of decal sticker. As usual, the stickers don’t actually provide your kit with the complete details, so I recommend that you use markers instead for better result and satisfaction

If you’re lucky, you can grab of special version of this kit that comes with DVD promo catalogue. Basically the DVD contains a short intro about this kit’s features and Bandai’s other product franchise.

External Reference

• Strike Noir specs

I was digging through my old files and stumbled upon my first ever coverage pictures for Gundam-related event. Most of the pictures taken were so poor and amateur that I only managed to “rescue” only few of them.. ToT

Event Area

Contestants’ Entries

Prize Giving Ceremony

As much I can remember, the event was one of the best modeling competition I have attended. There were lots of creative dioramas and it was the time when Gundam Seed series was at it zenith of popularity ^o^

Unfortunately I didn’t take down the list of winners for this competition, but there’s one winner that I still remember which is a little girl who won first place in Junior Category and she was only 6 or 7 years old at that time.. O__O

This event was probably the most earliest Gundam modeling competition that was held in Malaysia. I believe that it was this event that created the local hype of Gunpla modeling as it is today. It was a very splendid event!

External References:

1. YouTube video coverage of the event

Scale: 1/144
Grade: High Grade Universal Century (HGUC)
Completed In: 2007/2008

Image Gallery

While [unit 2]’s frame is flat blue, I used a metallic color for [unit 1]’s frame and shield. Both unit’s eyes/visor are red, indicating that their [EXAM] system is activated (original color is green when in normal mode). [Unit 2]’s frame is quite identical to it predecessor [unit 1], the only upgrades done are the head unit, armaments (from 100mm machine gun to a beam rifle), the shield and the thrusters (since [unit 2] is redesigned for space combat).
Both kits are fairly simple to assemble. The joint articular between legs and body has been improved, allowing more flexibility. The shoulder’s articular is also improved for a more flexible action pose. Number decals are provided with each kit for the shoulder and shield marking, while the stickers are not fully provided to give the kit its complete color details.

The Blue Destiny unit was originally modified from the mass-produced mobile suit GM. The engineer who built it had also equipped the [EXAM] system, which is an experimental auto-combat system to assist the pilot. The frame was also strengthened with Luna-titanium material for tougher defense. When the [EXAM] system is activated, the unit’s speed and offense are both greatly increased, making the unit a scary opponent to deal with.

External Reference:

• Blue Destiny Gundam unit specification

This is the event where all the top gunpla modellers are waiting for!
The competition of this year’s event is quite intense, definitely better than last year where there are lots of 1/100 scale entries with cool dioramas.

Event Area

Contestants’ Entries

Prize Giving Ceremony

1st Winners for the Open and Junior categories will be representing their amazing works for the upcoming international BAKUC in Hong Kong (all the best to our Malaysia team to snatch the top place again ^^ ).
The list of prizes for winners are listed as the following:-

1. Open Category
   • 1st Prize: RM2000 + Trophy + Represent to Universal Cup + Gundam Model Kit (Limited Edition)
   • 2nd Prize: RM1500 + Trophy + Gundam Model Kit (Limited Edition)
   • 3rd Prize: RM800 + Trophy + Gundam Model Kit (Limited Edition)
   • x3 Merit Prize: RM300
2. Junior Category
   • 1st Prize: RM500 + Trophy + Represent to Universal Cup + Gundam Model Kit (Limited Edition)
   • 2nd Prize: RM300 + Trophy + Gundam Model Kit (Limited Edition)
   • 3rd Prize: RM200 + Trophy + Gundam Model Kit (Limited Edition)
   • x3 Merit Prize: Gundam Model Kit (Limited Edition)
3. Best Astray Modeler
   1. 1st Prize: Gundam Model Kit + Certificate
4. New Challenger Open Category
   • 1st Prize: RM300 + Trophy
   • 2nd Prize: RM200 + Trophy
   • 3rd Prize: RM100 + Trophy
5. New Challenger Junior Category
   • 1st Prize: RM150 + Trophy
   • 2nd Prize: RM100 + Trophy
   • 3rd Prize: RM50 + Trophy
6. Expert Category
   • 1st Prize: RM1000 + Honor Prize
7. Best Coloring
   • 1st Prize: Gundam Model Kit + Certificate
8. Best Creative & Modification
   • 1st Prize: Gundam Model Kit + Certificate
9. Best Sangoku-Den Modeler
   • 1st Prize: Honor Prize

Congrats to the winners of this year’s event! Hope to see them again on the next event with more of their good works.

related links:

1. Photobucket Gallery from Zero G Forum
2. Kusakabemisao
3. Ngee Khiong’s blog
4. Seven6398’s blog
5. YouTube video of event coverage

This year’s contestants are a mix of experienced and newbie level, with the former group dominating the showroom area. Lots of entries came from Gundam 00 series (as it’s the currently popular hit among Gundam fans) while Seed Destiny series still get people’s attention, as well as other series from UC era.
Very few have large-size diorama entries but in overall a majority of the contestants are more focused towards their Gundam’s presentation (modelling, painting and action pose).

Images

Event Area
Contestants’ Entries
Prize Giving Moments
Images captured with SonyEricsson k810i @ 2.0MP

Scale: 1/100
Grade: Master Grade (MG)

This is my second MG Gunpla kit. This kit is one of few Gundams that was redesigned by the Gundam founder, Hajime Katoki.

Captured with Olympus 4.0MP Digital Camera

I’m very much content with this model kit. One of the reason is that the amount of accessories/weapons it has on it, which makes it possible to have a variety of action pose. Articular points are also made in a way that allows this kit to have a human-like pose. The ABC (Anti Beam Cloak) fabric is a little tricky to put into place, but it’s probably just me and my fat-fingers who never spent time dressing up barbie dolls.. =D

If you noticed the ‘x’ wing on the kit’s back, that is actually a core-fighter which is detachable from the main unit. On the rear of each leg there is a special room for storing heat knives (but you got to separate the blade first in order to place them in). The front skirt is actually a weapon (some sort of grab anchor) which can be connected with a piece of wire (included with kit) so you can make a diorama action pose as shown in the gallery above. On the rear skirt there are two drill whips that are neatly stored on each side. Each of the unit’s arm has a shield plate that can turned into close-range beam weapon. The two main vulcans on the unit’s shoulder can double as a beam sabre and it’s actually part of the core-fighter’s equipment. Last but not least, the unit has two main weapons which is a beam gun (designed like those pirate’s shot gun) and also a large beam sword (my favorite). These two can be combined to form a single beam gun or seperated and kept on each side of the unit’s hip.

Mr. Katoki rendering of this unit is indeed wonderful. Although that you might find this kit is a little small compared to other MG-grade kit, I bet most of you will find it hard to resist having a pirate-cosplaying Gundam! =D