Gundam WiP - Body of Interest

Oh the humanity! Will the terrible puns never cease? Nope, not a chance. Heh!

When we last met I was in the process of building the legs of the Gundam 00. I'd finished one leg and was starting on the next. Well I've finished both legs now and the waist unit, combined them all together and the end result is................

Tada! More giant robot imagery after the cut.

Yes, it is a bit leggy, but that is how the Japanese like their robots for the most part. The 00 balances rather well, even when I try to pose it.

This was supposed to be a dynamic martial arts type pose, but instead looks like the 00 is saying "Oh hai!" Can't be helped I suppose and it still looks pretty cool, a nice mix of elegance and robustness. So the Gundam is built, we're all done right?

Nope. Not by a long shot. 

This is the parts assembly for the backpack with GN drive mounts (the cone things on the left and right). These parts have already experieced some assmebly to get them to this point and they're now ready to combine together into the backpack.

And here it goes. Various parts swivel and move around, including the dinky little engine nozzles.

See! They move and stuff! It is a tiny detail, but this model is full of them and the sum of the parts is a lot of very neat stuff that all works and makes the figure more interesting.

And the backpack goes on. It fixes neatly and perhaps a little too tightly, to the slots on the back of the torso. The slots also act as a handy handle for removing that little round door thing, granting access to the torso into which an LED can be fitted. More on LEDs in a sec.

Front shot of the backpack with GN drives. This helps balance the model out a bit more and makes it look a little less leggy I think. Pleasingly, it also doesn't cause the model to overbalance. The GN drives are a super neato power-source for the Gundam 00 and in the TV series, they're pretty much particle effect central. You'll note I've not painted on any particle effects. Here's why.

Yup, they glow quite pleasingly and much more brightly than this image (with my little camera and its shonky ISO) make out. Turning them on and off is a bit of a pain, but they are very cool to look at.

We're nearly there now, just weapons, shields and the Raiser (which is an entirely separate craft!) to build.