The first RG I built was the RG Aile Strike that I built back in 2012 for the RG Strike Trinity Build-Off that I did with Goodguydan and Gundam Beginner. I absolutely hated the build, it compounded all the things I hated in the hobby (outside of prepwork!) with things such as tiny parts, flimsy connections and a stupidly heavy backpack which meant that the kit would crumble under its own weight! I never touched an RG again ever since. 9 years later, Dan and I decided to do another Build-Off/Bro-build when he tweeted out that Lunamaria never got her own custom colours. We chose to do a 'Lunamaria version' of the RG Impulse in an homage to Gundam's best waifu (after Marida Cruz of course!) and the Trinity Build-Off we had years ago. Suffice to say that this experience was a stark difference to the last RG I built. Even though it has a bunch of small parts, the minimised colour separation meant that there wasn't going to be microscopically small parts. The fit was great, everything was solid and all in, it was a pleasure to build.
I modelled the Sword Impulse's colours based on Lunamaria's uniform. However, I made the ZAFT maroon less red and a little more purple. The main purple parts were supposed to represent her hair and the pink trims were obviously her skirt. I preshaded all the parts except for inner frame and this time, unlike the Nobell, the white parts look less shaded with the shading more apparent on the other colours. I also maintained the two-tone white with a slightly more purple white in places - most apparent in the lower leg, just above the ankle armour. The decals I used were from EVO and I have to say they're really good. A far cry from other generic third party decals for sure. Bandai when are you going to start including waterslides for all your PBandai kits?! I don't often pose my kits and for good reason! This guy came out worse for wear after I was done with the pictures. Really going to need a few touchups to fix some spots. That said I loved how the pictures turned out (they might look a little TOO processed since I just discovered the denoise function on photoshop!). Always something new to learn right. Also big shout out to 08thStudio who did the big ol' text on the main picture.
Anyway, head over to Dan's post to check out his Lunamaria Custom and let us know which you like more - not that one is better than the other. Check out the gallery below for more pictures! Thanks again for reading. Until next time!