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HEAD
- This head of this model is just plain ugly. It's
too small and very far from the impressive look of
the original design, so I had to modify it,
enlarging it in the three dimensions of space. I
added 0,5 mm and 1,5 mm of plasticard respectively
in height and length, and 2 mm of putty in width.
Then I modelled a new lateral profile for the head
in the new putty thickness and added new air
intakes done with thin plasticard, cutting and
detailing the frontal mask too. The profile of the
upper part of the head was slightly modified, too,
along with the height of the main sensor on the
front. A small B-joint was used for the neck
movement.
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BODY
- The upper part of the body is directly involved
in the transformation process of the model, so I
could not touch most of it, without compromising
the chest sliding movement. In fact I only
thickened the chest with the usual mix of
plasticard and putty and closed the holes inside it
and behind the main cooling units. A few details
were added on the surface behind the head, too. I
worked a lot more on the lower part of the body,
changing the joint of the frontal skirts with two
new holes and some sprue. The rear part of those
skirts was closed with plasticard and the lower end
augmented of about 5 mm. All the holes in the lower
body had to be drilled open, just as the details on
the lateral wings. The backpack had a few details
added, like the new lateral cooling exhausts, done
with small pieces of plasticard put one upon the
other.
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CORE
FIGHTER -
The Core Fighter is one of worst rendered
components in the whole kit. It's a transformable
part and in its compact form becomes the middle
part of the body, practically disappearing inside
the mobile suit. But this does not justify the lack
of detail and fidelity of the fighter. First of
all, the retractile tail unit in the original
design had a housing in the upper part of the plane
surface, while in this kit it slides backwards
under the plane where the housing... is missing! By
the way, just any other part of the lower side of
the plane is missing too, there's just a big hole
long as the plane!
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And
you can't reconstruct a tail housing there, closing
the hole, because it would interfere with the
movement of the nose in the transformation process.
A fine mess! I resolved it putting away the tail
unit when the Core Fighter is in its compact form.
So I could close the hole under the plane, add
details inside the cockpit and also a transparent
canopy. The engine gondolas are other messy parts!
In the original design, there are 4 mobile gondolas
connected to the main body of the plane, but in
this kit they are all fused together and they don't
have any nozzle on the back where there should be
8. I had to create 4 gondolas from the misshapen
single piece in the kit, open 4 new holes for the
air intakes, open other 4 holes on the back and put
in there 8 new nozzles. Moreover I had to do all
this preserving the gondolas rather primitive
mobility system. I can say that the system works
now, but I would not wish this task on my worst
enemy.
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