//Introduction

Where do I begin with this one?

The MGEX Gundam Unicorn is my first experience with a Unicorn kit and only the second MG kit I have built.. ever. Again, another 4-5 months of my life was donated to the hobby in order to get this build to a place that satisfied the image I had in my mind’s eye.

No doubt, the recording and documenting activities add a great deal of extra time onto my building process. However, I managed to accumulate lots of great footage and imagery that enabled me to share the project with my Patrons, fellow builders on YouTube, and all the lovely people that interact with me on Twitter and Instagram.

That being said, please feel free to check out the build video and drop me a comment or message me with any questions you might have. I’ll go through some of my thoughts and decisions on the build in this post. I hope you enjoy it!

//The Plan

After doing a straight build (without the LED sheet in place) I knew exactly what colour scheme I wanted for this build. A few elements of the original Unicorn design that I dislike is; the gold V-fin & the blue used on the feet and backpack. The gradient one the V-fin was an early idea and it didn’t take long to make the decision to go with a variety of grey and white tones.

I wanted to let the LED sheet and a select few decals do all of the talking, in terms of colour! The main element of the MGEX is the LED sheet, so I wanted to honour that.

//Materials

There was a considerable amount of materials used for this build. I managed to get my hands on a new photoetch kit from SH Studio that is suitable for the MGEX Unicorn. Some new products I used specifically for the photoetch were:

• VMS Styrene Cement
• VMS Metal Prep 4K
• VMS Flexy 5K CA

The Styrene Cement is used to clean any grease or dirt off of the metallic surfaces. It is important to use a metal-ready primer - this is the Metal Prep 4K. For gluing the parts in position, VMS make a very forgiving and non-brittle when dry super glue, called Flexy 5K CA. Would highly recommend these for any photoetch work.

Here is the list of paint/primer/topcoat consumables used throughout the build. Some of the colours were mixed a little, here and there. There’s more detail in the build video. This is what what used:

• Mr Surfacer 1200 Grey
• Mr Finishing Surface 1500 Black
• Mr Color Leveling Thinner
• Mr Color 1 White
• Mr Color 69 Off White
• Mr Color 521 Teerschwarz
• Mr Color 603 IJN Hull Color - Maizuru
• Mr Color GX100 Super Clear III Gloss
• Mr Color GX113 Super Clear III UV Cut Flat
• Mr Color Super Metallic 2 Super Gold

Also, I used the Gold GM04 Gundam Marker for some details.

//Custom Detail

When I say custom detail, what I really mean is over 350+ hours of scribing! Plenty of sanding, surface finishing and masking too.

Here’s a list of tools & materials I used for this build:

• BMC Sujiborido 0.5mm, 1.2mm, and 1.7mm
• MadWorks DLC 0.15mm and 0.2mm
• GUNPRIMER Multidirectional Scribing Pen
• DSPIAE Increment Guide Tape
• GUNPRIMER Curved Panel Line Guide
• MadWorks Sanding Sponges (600-1500)
• INFINI Model Ultra Precision Series Sanding Sticks
• GUNPRIMER Raser

As always, I use Tamiya masking tape - there is no better choice, in my opinion!

And that’s it from me! Alot of ‘what was used info’ - and honestly, I could go on for days about what I thought about the build. I’ll not do that here. Thanks for taking the time to view the build and feel free to drop me a message if you have any questions!

PEACE

Chris