1.) The Weapons
The "tomahawk" form of the GN Pistol II is just ugly; it's one of the more contrived implementations of the "dual-mode weapon" idea that ran rampant through 00's design. (The others aren't much better, but hey, I'm not working on them... yet... so I'm not going to worry my pretty lil' brain over them.)
I shortened the handle along a panel line, and I might add a bit to the bottom of the handle to make it look like it's got a "clip" of sorts in it. Since they would be exclusively pistols, I added a trigger guard, and also carved the plastic to reveal the inside of the "barrel." And no, I "can't" do without "quoting" things.
I also added a 1mm plate to the back of the handles so they would fit snugly into the hands, which seemed to have been designed to only (barely) hold the rifle securely. I'm sure other reviews will say the same thing, that the pistols have a tendency to flop around. Not sound strategy, Bandai, me mate, but I guess that's what we're here for.
The trigger guard caused some issues to crop up for the hands, too, which I'll get to later.
With the GN Sniper Rifle II, I got rid of two blemishes on an otherwise perfectly fine design: the rotating barrel gimmick and the secondary handle. The first because the rifle looks infinitely better in both forms without it (basically I just cut off the bottom of both sections, which are responsible for the rotation). The second because its sole purpose is to provide the illusion that you can make your robot hold its gun with BOTH HANDS OH MY GOD, and modern engineering's gotten to the point where that gimmick is no longer necessary.
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2.) The Backpack
Unmodified on the left, beginning of modification on the right.
Two things I'm working on. The first is, as you can see, modifying the flip-around targeting scope thing. It's stupid, unnecessary, and besides, they look more like those GN cannons anyway. The current plan is to make that left one a shoulder gun turret thingie, I guess, and the right one some sort of antenna, maybe call it a sensor jammer or whatever. Either way, I want to get an asymmetric look. The second thing I want to do is add beam saber ports to the sides, where the GN Pistols are usually located. I'll be moving the pistols to the rear hip, which means I have to come up with some holster system for them.
Speaking of which...
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3.) The GN Drive
In short: I'm getting rid of it.
In long: I'm getting rid of it because it's a horrible design choice, and now I have to decide what to do with the shield bits that surround it. A piece of sprue fits nicely in the polycap there, and the plan is to attach a holster system to that. I don't know if I'll keep the rotation or just block it off to keep it flush with the armor.
How does it power itself, then? you ask. I don't know, and I don't care. Maybe it has one of those compact GN Drives that the 00 Quanta has in its chest.
That does give me an idea about lighting up the clear piece on its chest, though NO, nope, will not do that, stick to the plan, kajnrig, stick to the plan...
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4.) The Shield Bits
No pictures here yet, because I haven't started working on them. The plan, though, is to fill the backs with putty and come up with a new method for them to attach to each other and the Cherudim. The initial idea is to cut a notch on all four sides of each Bit and make some "clamps" out of plaplate to hold them to each other. That would allow for more direct and secure contact with each other, as well as more freedom in the configurations possible.
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**.) Extra Things
The 00 hands are noticeably low-quality. I didn't want to shell out for the HDMs, so what I did was hollow out a portion between the fingers and wrist, which gives it a more realistic look. I also added a 1mm plate to the... front, I guess... of the hand guard to hold the weapons more securely. Between this and the padding on the pistol handles, they now sit completely secure in the Cherudim's hands, no issues whatsoever.
The left hand has the index finger chopped off to make way for a trigger finger, which will be glued to the hand guard (to allow the hand to properly hold the new trigger-guarded guns).
I need two trigger hands and two grasping hands, along with the splayed left hand that comes with the kit. I was going to use the hands from a spare Cherudim, but I sold that one, so I'll have to either wait or fabricate some of my own.
Would any of you kind folks here have a spare pair of Cherudim hands that I could take off of you? Please? I'll give you a flower.
Nothing here except to say that I find something wrong with the head. I want to remove the V-fin, that's for certain, as well as get rid of the "mouth" and "tear ducts" that are lined into the facemask, but I don't know what else I want to do. I think I want to swap out the eyes for a visor look, but I can't say for sure. Any suggestions? I like the antenna in the back, though. I just wish it attached down to the "ear," and not into the side of the head. The way it is now, a bit of plastic juts out from antenna to side of head that throws off the symmetry of the head (aside from the antenna, of course). But that'd be more work, and f;lkasjdfjasdl;fjalk;sfjl... Y'see, this is why I have absolutely fuggall number of builds done.
1
) I didn't think much of the design - I didn't hate it, I didn't love it - but there were a few issues with it, like a perfectly passable cheeseburger with a few old ingredients, an unpickled pickle, and a spare hair or two. And seeing as how all my other builds - with the exception of an Aoshima M9 kit, which is undoubtedly the best plastic model kit in existence - have been stalled in one way or another due to excessive scratchbuilding or modding, I figured I would only focus on the most egregious of offenses. After a while, I narrowed it down to:
Nah, kidding. Criticize away; I'd do exactly the same to you, and you know it.
, Kaj actually shows us a work of his for a change, this demands celebration I must say 
lol
