RG GP01 Zephyranthes

Hobbylink Playing with Plamo 2017 3nd Place – Intermediate Category

Hey I won something again!

So the story goes is that sometime in Feburary there’s a surprise announcement by HLJ that they are holding their Playing with Plamo comp once again. Since I did pretty well last time, I begged the missus for some time to myself so I could enter again.

My first attempt was the MG Infinite Justice however I wasn’t quite satisfied with the final product. As a backup, I decided to build a RG GP01. In the end this over the MG Infinite Justice is that the kit just looks way more detailed by default. Preview sessions I held with my friends (who mainly didn’t know anything about Gunpla) also confirmed this as everyone always picked the GP01. In the end I think it helped, since I wasn’t going to do any modifications or anything special. However I do think that this is pretty much as far as I can get on clean builds and presentation alone, so I will definitely have to try something new next time lest I get swept away by the rest of the people levelling up.

As for the kit, it’s a handsome beast indeed. There are no shortage of surface details and panels to look at and the two-tone white generates interest in an otherwise fairly plain (by today’s standard) design. Speaking of design, it’s a nice middle ground between the slim RX-78 and the tanky Mk.II, featuring both nice curves and angles all around. This rendition of the GP01 stands tall as the best looking version out of all the Gunpla line.

What’s even more amazing is that they somehow even managed to replicate the Core Fighter gimmick at the 1/144 scale, and it actually works whilst still retaining the suit’s ab crunch and side-to-side movement. However this gimmick causes the two main issues I have the kit, is that the fighter block blocks waist rotation and that the shoulders on the top half of the kit can pop out of the chest very easily if you haven’t pushed in all the chest parts exactly right, or if you’re too rough with the arms. If they do pop out prepare to board the struggle shuttle as this requires almost complete disassembly of the top half of the kit in order to fix.

Painting

White – Intermediate Blue (60%) + white (40%). White (100%) is layered to create shading effect

Greyish White – Neutral Grey (70%) + White (30%). White is added for highlights

Blue – Bright Blue (60%) + Purple (40%). White is added for highlights

Red – Base coat of black (100%), followed by White (100%) post shade. A coat of Shine Red (70%) + Red Madder (30%) is then applied. White and some yellow is added into the mixture for highlights.

Grey – Neutral Grey (70%) + Black (30%) base coat, followed by Neutral Grey (90%) + Black (10%) for shading.

Yellow – Orange (100%) base coat, followed by White (100%) post shade. A coat of Orange Yellow (60%) + Yellow (40%) is then applied. White is added into the mixture for highlights.

Frame/Internals – Tamiya Gunmetal Spray

T-Shirts!

A bit of shameless plug, but if you like my work, please consider supporting me by buying a Tee based off my kits! You can find the GP01 and other various other Gundam designs here: