Recommended listening: The Witch From Mercury

Don't tell me how long I've had a WfM backlog of kits that I haven't worked on because I haven't really felt right or focused for don't tell me how long either.

Mostly I wanted to have some fun, looking up some pose references to find something fun and doable. The first one is the first introduction of my new debris stand that I picked up at a con, for a pretty reasonable price. Curiously it also has some flat clear plastic bits that seem made to have a waterslide decal floating next to your model.

It's very Game Workshop (derogatory) that the HG Aerial doesn't even come with an open hand set but fortunately the wrist balls are the same size as others Gundams and the Turn A is still around my lightbox.

perhaps the very best high grade in a lineup of REALLY FUCKIN GOOD HIGH GRADES, it's gwitch's calibarn! i'm on a gwitch streak lately. this is definitely not because most of the gunpla pictures in my camera roll just happen to bias towards gwitch kits. everything in this world is part of my Plan.

what is there to say that hasn't been said already about this kit? amazing build, fantastically unique and stylish weapon (i like to jokingly call it the Boomstick), some absolutely GORGEOUS pre-molded shell units, and it's even gay! applying all sixteen(!!!!) of those reflective stickers to the back of the broomstick is kind of a chore, but they all do at least kind of slot into various recesses in the plastic so it just became kind of a repetitive zenlike activity. not particularly difficult, just kind of takes a minute. results are very worth it, too.

the one thing i don't like about calibarn is the red and yellow plastic breaking up that slick monochrome-and-rainbow look it has going on, so i painted all those parts with tamiya black spray. ended up looking great but REALLY glossy - while it works out fine for this kit, i'll probably be sticking with the metallic or matte black sprays in the future.

calibarn also, like most gwitch gundam kits, does not come with any alternate hands (they're both just your basic holding-an-object-hands), but i have an increasingly overfull spare parts box and was able to find a nice open hand that fit in its wrist socket no problem. i think this one in particular is from the HG transient, if i'm remembering that kit correctly.

oh and i gave my calibarn heterochromia because it looked cool. the only hetero thing about it 🏳‍🌈

back at it again with the gwitch high grades, it's the Big Bad Beetleborg my good friend Bald Daryl! i finished this kit on christmas day of last year. another very lovely build, just as good if not better than any of the gundam kits in the gwitch high grade line. love this guy. wish that stag beetle horn was slotted into the forehead a little more securely, but as long as you don't mess with it too much it's fine.

this was my first foray into using gunmetal grey paint (a tamiya spray, as always) on an inner frame, and as you can see in the closeups by the shoulder joint i was not entirely correct in my estimation of which parts would and would not be visible in the end product. still a really lovely effect, and since the original grey plastic was so similar in color i didn't even need primer for this one! very nice.

the panel lining on the off-white parts (which have a faint but noticeable minty-green tinge) was done with a bright green ultrafine-point archival ink pen, which ended up working surprisingly well. i've had troubles in the past with ink pen tips not being fine enough for good panel lining, but according to the 0.1 on the cap this one had The Finest Possible Tip so it all worked out. very striking color on white plastic, big fan. the glitter/frosted effect on the beam partisans was once again done with my nail polish topcoat strat. it's simply a good strat. paint your local mobile suits' nails right now