GUNDAM GUY: 02/09/11

G-SHOT! BEST CUSTOMIZED GUNPLA 1st PLACE WINNER

NAME: CRAIG CLARK (CONGRAT!!!)

MODEL KIT: HG 1/144 Geara Zulu Angelo Sauper Custom

Award Prize: Winner of this category will get to choose between a RG 1/144 RX-78-2 Gundam or a RG 1/144 MS-06S Char's Zaku II Sponsored by GG INFINITE

Comments From The Judges:

Don Carlos (Creator of Mech Art Community, owner of DC23 Mech Arts blog, and a very seasoned gunpla builder):

The gears on the shoulders is p)etty unique yet convincingly logical as it could help move the motors of the arms if this was real. All the modifications blended well into the steam punk concept, the rivet work is totally insane, the wires and all the added details made this look like a 1/100. Simply put, the amount of modifications and work put into this kit did not stop until the finishing stage. Aside from the insane mods, creative and topnotch patterns of the color scheme and the weathering specially on the foot area contributed to a COMPLETE look. Everything just blended so well together.

Adam Sonar (Creator & Administrator of Gundam Australia Forum):

This is truly some outstanding work. I want you readers to know a couple of things here: firstly, as you may know, but I would like to reiterate, that this is 1/144 scale. Wow. Secondly I'm familiar with this build from the Gundam Australia Forum. Craig has been modelling for a long time but is very new to Gunpla and he has certainly brought a wealth of experience with him.

On to the build: Standouts: The pipe work on the upper arms, backpack, and gun. That custom built Maxim (German WW1 Machine Gun) is just brilliant and probably the standout part of the build. The bullet belt is what really makes it great. The detail of the brass shells & bullets the highlight. It's muddy, dinged up, and rusty. The smoke stacks at the top are perfectly crusty. I'd actually like to see them a little bit charcoaled from the smoke the exhume. The hand painted Sieg Zeon.. Maybe WW2 or Vietnam era moreso but it's a great touch and masterfully executed, again this is 1/144, people! There is so much great chipping, divots/bullet peppering that I would really love to see up close. Hopefully one day I will get a chance.

Regarding the paint scheme I would have preferred a standard olive drab with a bit of black. A dead-pan WW1 German Infantry colour scheme would have delighted me and would've been able to make the rust and dirt much more apparent and obscured less of the details, but that would be my only criticism.

The gear work is probably the thing that really captures your attention at first, but there is much more going on here. The gear that I liked most is on the back where the bullet belt is feeding from. Great touch.

The rivet work must have been painstaking. The rivets are really what make the various aspects such as the piping and gears come together I reckon. I believe there were over 1300 in total.

Great work Craig. Congratulations!

Derringer (Representative from Bluefin Distribution (North America's Gundam model & hobby distributor) and an avid gunpla builder:

Oh wow. Rivets, Rivets everywhere! I like what you've done especially with the piping in order to convince me that this belongs in some steam punk version of WWII. This is truly well done when you compare it to the original kit which leaves some things to be desired.

GG (Creator of this blog, Gundam Guy):

This was another difficult category to judge, as the final round evidently shows that much of the finalists were very close to winning this category. In my opinion, all the entries were great & creative in their own way. Lots of incredible work are being displayed here.... I am still very IMPRESSED. Great work everyone! Congratz to Craig Clark for winning this category.

FINAL ROUND FINALISTS

Finalists from the preliminary rounds that were selected for the final round