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Build Club: Revisions (Part I)

RKasa
April 20, 2025
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When the Spring theme for Build Club was announced, I looked over my backlog, picked out a kit, looked at the instructions for said kit, and changed my mind. On and off, this process took about a couple of weeks. Anyway, I’ve started working on the kit I finally settled on. It is…

HGBF Transient Gundam Glacier

HGBF Transient Gundam Glacier!

This mobile suit comes from the rather obscure Gundam Build Fighters Honoo Try, which was serialized in Hobby Japan and is a variant of Transient Gundam from Gundam Build Fighters Try (and yes, Transient Gundam is in my backlog). With its much darker color scheme and additional clear parts, Glacier is strikingly different from your typical Gundam revision. Still, it looks cool, and I thought it would be a good kit to get back into the swing of things.

Working roughly an hour at a time over a few days, I removed most of the pieces from their runners and did the first-pass trimming and filing; just a few optional hands, some backpack parts, and all of the weapon parts haven’t been touched yet. This whole process has been the same as usual, save for one addition: a DSPIAE handheld vacuum cleaner. I’ve been mainly using this vacuum to clean the dust off of my files, which it does a great job of, though I still have to use tape to remove those few particles that really get stuck. This vacuum has also been good for keeping my workspace a little bit cleaner. So far, I’ve gotten my money’s worth.

Testing some paint on the main (opaque) runners for this kit

Right now, I’m in the process of wiping down the pieces with wet paper towels and testing some paint colors. Said tests are for the panel lines; for this kit, I wanted to do something out of the ordinary. I’ve tested six colors so far, including a green that I originally bought to paint Gundam eyes (and for this kit, it will stay that way), and a couple from the Gundam Marker Advanced set (both of which were too dark). I really like the yellow, but it would pop too much on Glacier, reducing the visual impact of the clear parts. That said, between the last two colors, light blue and light pink, I’m leaning towards the former, since it fits better with the “Glacier” name. I’m planning on doing a second round of color tests, though, to try and mix the nicest blue I can. Interestingly enough, there’s a teal listed in this Gunpla’s color mixing guide, although it seems to just be for one small detail on the top of Glacier’s head.

So, that’s where I’m currently at with Transient Gundam Glacier. In the following week or so, I plan to finish cleaning, do a final pass on filing and sanding (for the pieces that have already been trimmed, that is), clean some more, then start painting. Going to take my time with this one and hopefully do a nice job.

Build Club Mk.2 – Works in Progress

RKasa
February 20, 2025
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Thanks to TwoAi, Build Club is back, in newsletter form! The archive, if you want to check it out, is here. What follows is my post for Update 2 for the first round, with the theme of Under Construction

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So, I have two in-progress kits right now.

The BB Senshi I will probably never finish

The first is the Koumei Re-GZ SD BB Senshi, which I’ve had on hold for about a year and a half now. My adventures in Gunpla and plamo started many years back with SD Gundams, and specifically BB Senshis, a bunch of which I was able to get for cheap via one of Hobby Search’s sales, back when they were still allowed to sell Gunpla. Even now, I still rely on them for practice and experimentation.

After several years of only building kits every once in a blue moon, I got Serious in 2023, and started off with this BB Senshi, mainly to see how my hand painting was doing and to try out a gold Gundam Marker EX. I didn’t like said marker, mainly because I couldn’t get an even, consistent coat, and wasn’t happy with how the rest of my painting was going, so I boxed up this kit and shifted my attention elsewhere. Haven’t really touched it since, and don’t feel like going back to it anytime soon.

Yin Hu, fully built Suit Type, along with the manual and the Armed Type parts

On the other hand, there’s my second in-progress kit: MS General’s Raider of Shadow Yin Hu. Last year, I built the Suit Type body, which puts her in a waitress outfit, and plan to build the Armed Type body this year. In case you’re wondering, to save space, I collapsed her box and put all the leftover pieces for said Armed Type in a smaller one.

The building of the Suit Type went all right. The manual is one of the best I’ve ever seen, with multiple languages and lists of runners needed for each section, not to mention clear instructions for just about everything. However, the quality of the kit itself is so-so, with obvious seam lines, lower-grade plastic than what’s found in Japanese kits, and nub marks that could be a little better hidden—I had to do quite a bit of touching up on the prepainted silver and gold parts. I mostly like the end result, though, and hope that the Armed Type version doesn’t give me too much trouble later on.

That’s everything for now! Planning to get back into building when the weather warms up, and already have a handful of kits I’d like to tackle. Hopefully one or more of them will match up with the next Build Club theme.

Poor Man’s Zelda

RKasa
May 8, 2024
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The box art. Image via MobyGames.Yesterday, I beat 3D Dot Game Heroes, a Silicon Studio/From Software joint filled with lots of love for the 8-bit era, and the baffling design decisions that accompany it. A brief list:

– The plot of the game is basically the same as A Link to the Past‘s, minus the alternate world. However, the design takes very little else from that classic. One excellent example: in LttP and many other Zelda games, acquiring a new piece of equipment tends to be closely followed by a section—maybe even in the same room—where you have to use it. This is basically a micro-tutorial for the player, getting them accustomed to using the new gear. There’s few, if any, such scenes in 3D Dot Game Heroes. There was even one special item that I had accidentally missed and had to go back and get later on when I became stuck elsewhere.
– On a related note, the vast majority of bosses can, and probably should, be beaten without the use of any special equipment or magic.
– The dungeon designs range from all right to boring, especially when the room layouts start to repeat between temples. A particular cave passage specifically reminded me of the largest, most tedious dungeon in Final Fantasy—not a good thing.
– Many hidden caves abound, some of them with goodies, which can be opened with bombs. However, there’s more than one where talking to the NPC will reveal their anger at you blowing up their front door and extract compensation from you, typically 20 gold. Just one of these caves would’ve gotten the point across, thanks.
– There are lots of little sidequests that require obtaining items/information and delivering them to the right people. However, much like in the NES era, most people look the same, and those giving you the info offer very little else, text-wise, in the way of identifying information.
– On a similar note, there is at least one special area in the game which would’ve been much easier to find if there had been more differentiation. Also, some rocks can be blown up, but are only very slightly different, color-wise, from the indestructible ones.
– An item called the Bestiary can be obtained and used in battle to add monsters to it. You would think that whapping a monster once would be good enough for an addition, but most require multiple hits with the thing, some needing dozens.
– The loading screens are homages to old games, and, similar to the Bestiary, there’s an in-game gallery where they can be viewed. However, not a single one will unlock there unless you’ve turned on the right setting.

The game does have its charms. Along with the chunky pixels, there’s a slight tilt-shift photographic effect at work throughout, and said pixel chunks scatter nicely when various objects are destroyed. The soundtrack is pleasant and reminiscent of old games—I particularly liked the Dragon Quest-esque save-loading music—while mostly utilizing modern sounds. Some of the writing is witty. The Producer and Developer Rooms are cute.

However, if I put some more thought into it, I could likely come up with more annoying things to add to the list that makes up most of this post. 3D Dot Game Heroes is slavish in its devotion to the 8-bit era, good and bad.

My In-Game Bookshelf

RKasa
February 29, 2024
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Books!

This past Saturday, I played through the walking sim Tacoma. As in other walking sims, and many other games besides, one of the things I could do as the player was browse bookshelves. Tacoma takes place aboard a space station where something had gone wrong, and there are six crew members, each with their own quarters and set of shelves. Given how much one does or doesn’t know about the books on offer can tell the player—or not—a little bit more about these characters. I found novels, nonfiction books about a wide range of subjects, and a handful of names and titles I was familiar with. My favorite find was a set of Alice Munro titles, including the short story collection Too Much Happiness; I read the title story when it first appeared in Harper’s and it’s remarkable.

While examining all these shelves, I began to wonder: if I was a character on a video game spaceship, what books would be in my quarters? I decided to come up with a few books that I’d bring along on my video game space voyage. My current reading habits lean heavily toward multi-volume manga, so with one exception (in a nod to that Alice Munro set), each of these is a single book.

  • Akira by Katsuhiro Otomo – the exception. Six thick volumes of shouty young men, political intrigue, metaphysics, and gorgeous architectural disaster. One of my two favorite manga of all time.
  • Azumanga Daioh by Kiyohiko Azuma – this would have to be the single-volume omnibus edition, though I personally own it broken up into its original four volumes. A lighthearted and cozy school comedy, highly influential “moe” work, and my other favorite manga of all time.
  • The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald – I’ve read this three times: once as assigned reading in high school, again in college, and the third for my own enjoyment. A true “Great American Novel”, and just a good read.
  • The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry – my favorite book when I was a kid. Would be especially fitting for a sci-fi bookshelf like those in Tacoma, given that the title character resides on an asteroid.
  • Add Toner by Aaron Cometbus – a collection of excerpts from the beloved punk/memoir/essay zine Cometbus, which I’ve been following on and off for roughly thirty years now. It’s either this, Despite Everything (the first Cometbus compilation), or a pile of Cometbus back issues, including the ones that contain “Double Duce” and “In China with Green Day”.

Are there other books I’d bring along? Probably, but I’d have to think on those a bit more. These five, however, are my must-haves.