A Legend named ''Amaimon'' - NG Legend Ver Hummingbird

Hello all. The Hummingbird has another finished gunpla kit to show off. Well, ok, I wouldn't call this ''show off'' because I messed up alot with this kit. Anyway, this is a kit that has take me 2 year in the making.

Back in 2012, the guys from Mech Art Community ( including me ) forum decided on a big online competition and this legend was my entry build for that competition. A lot of things happened and the hosting venue moved to the Mecha Lounge and I kinda lost steam to work on this following a lot of events and this baby has been sitting in a box for 2 years. Just a few weeks ago, my friends encouraged me to finally finished this as this is about 98% finished so here it is.

I have always loved the Legend but I never liked how the back pack looks so I decided to change the back pack. A lot of help comes from the '' thehelmosengine '' who is a great scratch builder ( check out his works on his blog ) in working out the designs and modding ideas. Thank you, brother. He is also responsible for suggesting the name ''Amaimon'' for this. I tend to name my gundams as some of you are aware. We were talking about the hit anime at that time '' Aoi no Exorcist '' and he suggested that I gave the Legend Amaimon so yeah. 

For the colours, I used Black, Dark Grey and Blue which are all Tamiya. For the life of me, I cannot remember which grey is the light shade. I think it's a mixed shade. The funnels are painted with a grey shade ( again, I forgot the exact shade ) mixed with some Vallejo Steel. The booster end is painted the same way as well; purple mixed with steel. 

I did a lot of big modifications. These include; extending the waist, shortening the thighs, changing the gun, making a double ball jointed torso, scratching an entirely new knee, installing a moving MG knee, making the shoulder armour separate pieces ( I'm sure you are aware of how the HG and NG shoulders are made ), an entirely redesigned back pack and aesthetic detailing on the legs and arms. 

I did make a full build log for 9 parts which I haven't updated after the 9th post. Please check these out for full details on what I modded and scratch built - 
Part 1
Part 2 
Part 3 
Part 4
Part 5 
Part 6 
Part 7
Part 8 
Part 9

Here's the all around view -

 

 

and here's some of the close up ( you will notice a lot of massive boo-boos I made) -

 

Per the norm from me, here's a number of poses -

I am my own harshest critique and there are some aspect of it that I could have done better. I did get rid of the seams on the guns but it wasn't enough. I can still see a little bit of seam on some places on the guns. I over extended the proportion of the kit and it looks stupid, like totally really stupid. I regretted putting on the ball joints in the torso as it was nothing but a waste of time and effort because after everything I have done, the ball joint snapped so I had to glue it on and keep the torso glued straight. All my efforts were for naught. Another thing I'm absolutely pissed about is how the decals got silvered. You can clearly see it on the left funnel docking structure.  I am not happy that I was too rough with it and I chipped away alot of paints on pointy edges and I have to repaint things over and over again. But this was a kit that I painted way back in late 2012 where my skills weren't as good as they are now in 2014 ( check out my 2014 works ) so at least I can take solace in that fact and I see this as a very valuable kit that gave me so much experience on scratch building. 

My sincerest thanks to these people for the continued support on my gunpla works and pushing me to finish this -
Simon Curry, Darren Ling , Derick Siu , Pawel Zynk, Marc Mayer, Fransiska, Thanos, Justin, Jeff and Paul Bicar.  

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REVIEW: ''Painting guide for AFV'' by JOSÉ LUIZ LÓPEZ RUIZ

As you all know, since the mid 2012 ( give or take a few months ), we have ushered in to a golden age of modelling. The golden age brings us an overwhelming amount of kits, paints, weathering products and educational books and DVDs. The process of getting the information necessary for a good model with an attractive finish is easier than years ago, and generally the quality of models made all around the world is improving dramatically attesting to the now easily aavailable and well done guide books.  Among the myriad of guide books however, some modellers and certain publications become milestones in modelling world like no other. This currently reviewed book is one of that kind.

As soon I saw that this book been announce, I had to have it!
I always been a fan of José Luiz's works. As you all know, he's was a modeller from the ''Spanish School '' of modelling. I'm sure I don't need to explain what the Spanish School is. José Luiz took the basic principle of the Spanish School's display of vibrant colours and develop it further into which he termed '' the Black and White technique ''

The book has 80 glossy pages with cover. The quality of the print is excellent and three is no instances of defects or blurry pages. The images are sharp ( although some can be quite small for the eye) , the font for the text is very suitable for reading and there is a sufficient amount to both read and observe on each page.

This book is structured to allow readers a gradual introduction into the idea behind the book, author’s concept and the B&W technique, detailed explanation of the materials and finally step-by-step examples of how to make a very attractive model.
I am not going to write all details about this in too much details as better sites such as Armorama has already covered it in details.  In fact, I will just point out a few high point of this book that prove that this is a must-have.

This chapter is about colour and it's very obvious that this is targeted for new starter but veterans can also benefits from this.

A chapter dedicated to washes and what colour wash should be used is very welcomed. 

Now this is the cream of the crop. I have a lot of guide books ( even the widely acclaimed Tank Arts book ) but never have I seen a guide that is dedicated this much in oil usage. José has gone taken the trouble of listing what oil is perfect for what application. For me, this is gold. I have read all the famous book but never have I seen such breakdown for oil usage and this section has benefited me alot. Fair enough, there's not too much listed here but this is a necessary need-to-know pointer and one can develop further one's own style base on this information. 

This is another good thing of the book. This table basically tell you the steps from start to finish of a process of making a model kit; when to put on filter, when to put on wash so on so forth. This table will greatly benefits the beginners. 

Here José  explains the benefits of his Black and White technique and shows how it can substitute the classic approach of highlights and shadow that we are mostly using nowadays. In a nut shell, when using Black and White approach you paint the model using a gradient of greys along with black for the darkest shadow and white for the top highlight. Here all necessary effects are created prior to application of colour scheme to the model – chipping, mud, everything! The main advantage (on top of the model looking beautiful in black and white) is that you can play around with monochrome model as long as you want without risk of ruining it and then when you finally apply very diluted base colour to model you only enhance already created effects. 
José has put in the necessary steps of his B&W in a very comprehensible table and you can see it is well laid out and you can easily apply the B&W technique yourself after a thorough reading.

The examples part features 5 exclusive models that have never been published elsewhere and were made especially for that edition ( I follow his works quite closely and I haven't seen them in any other publication. I could be wrong though). Different scales, eras, and subjects - José shows full range of possible techniques and makes really attractive models. Basically, these are ready to use recipes and the readers would be able to pick up ideas straight from the text as the explanations are clear and simple. Some of these builds like the Tiger and Tiran use Black and White technique more extensively, while M-1078 is closer to earlier “zenithal light” models. Altogether, this is very intense section, packed with hundreds of images that clearly show step-by-step progress. Very inspirational!

In sum, this book is quite outstanding. The text is very comprehensive and will gives you a real push go to the bench and try the B&W techniques.
The print quality is very good and it is printed on glossy papers.
All the steps are well explained using the illuminating photos.
The different tables with different functions of each material or technique are, beyond doubt, a great help and something to always have on hand in the workbench.

The lowest point is some spelling typos easily detectable in a quick read (like sastifying or form when it should be from) but this is minor.
In short, the book is suitable for the novice modellers to the advance ones, and is useful on any shelves with dozens of useful tips, easy to follow and great advices and great table charts.

One other thing, the book is “perfectly bound” ; it is quite rigid and can prevent or resist full opening, you will have to use a book holder (or put something on top of the opened pages) if you would like to keep it open on the bench for reference while working on the model. 

VERDICT -
MUST HAVE. GET THIS BOOK ASAP. 

Happy modelling guys and have a nice day.

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