For the completed photos of the Heavyarms I wanted to get a new lighting setup and while I wait for the funds for that I decided to get started on my new build the Real Grade RX-178 Mk.2.

I managed to build this kit pretty quickly and as I did I noticed something pretty strange, I was totally loving the build. Why I say that is strange is compared to the Heavyarms which frustrated me here and there this build has even more seamlines 2 of which are surprisingly bad for a RG and yet I enjoyed this whole process. Maybe I am still enamored with the whole engineering of RG’s or that I just have too high of expectations for MG’s but I was happy to deal with all the problems this build gave me.

The issues with this build are the seam lines on the beam rifle, bazooka, and back of the forearms. The rifle was a very simple job to take care of and frankly is so well hidden I even contemplated not even doing it. The bazooka is another matter, while it’s only located on its back side it’s noticeable enough that I felt it was a necessary clean up. The problem is that the seams along the bazooka are hard to clean up considering how small and tight they are. Eventually after looking at a few other builds I decided that the best thing for me to do was clean it up the best I could even if that meant taking some detail with it and instead use some after market pieces and pla to add back some detail.

While the bazooka was the most taxing to deal with the back forearms was a somewhat puzzling dilemma. You see the seam line on the back of the forearms isn’t one you can just simply seal and move on, if you did it would make painting the arms incredibly difficult. So just like with the bazooka I looked around at what some of the professional Japanese modelers did with this same issue and most of them either modified it into 2 panel lines mirroring the front of the forearm or instead added detail to the seam to make it a panel line instead, I went with the second option.

It wasn’t difficult to give it a panel line groove and my love for this build hasn’t decreased any but I really find it odd that a RG would have such a bad seam.