P.K.A Ausf G Gustav

 Here it is... my very first Ma.K kit, the genesis of my deep abiding relationship with the genre, the kit that launched many other builds since then, the Wave Gustav. I first received the kit in 2013, but did not have the gumption to build it until 2014 when I had finished some Gunpla as a warm up. This kit was a very pivotal experience for me in terms of determining how I wanted to develop as a model maker at the time and helped set the tone for the last 5 years of modeling.

The Wave Gustav is a fantastic kit, even at the time, when I had not built any other Ma.K, I was pretty impressed by the construction and design of the parts (having looked at Nitto kit builds in magazines and books). The kit went together with a minimum of fuss and after seam welding, was ready to paint.

At the time, I only knew that the Ma.K aesthetic was based partially around hand painting, but I had no idea on how that would actually work - so the kit was sprayed with a mix of Mr. Color paints and the salt chipping technique was used on certain parts combined with some sponge chipping for a variety of intense chips. The kit now looks dramatically over-done in terms of weathering to my eyes, and since then I have tried to embrace subtlety when it comes to damage in terms of weathering.

I had not done too much work with epoxy putty at the time, so the standard kit joints were used. I tried my best to clean up the vinyl joints and paint them with acrylics. The majority of the oil paint weathering was inspired by tutorials on how to modulate color with oils on aircraft kits, a technique which has actually stayed with me since then and has been indispensable on many builds.

My first time ever painting a figure - I watched a few videos online on how to paint military figures and just jumped in. Looking back, this figure is a bit flat and lifeless due to my paint job, the figure sculpt itself is on par with the other excellent sculpts that come with the Wave kits.

When building the kit, I realized something - the reason I was so excited to finally try Ma.K was that it combines so many great disciplines of model making: the sci-fi aspect scratches the mecha itch, the the grounded aesthetic allows techniques of armor and aviation modeling to be applied, the prominent pilots provide some figure painting involved, and the scale naturally promotes the creation of dioramas and vignettes. Several years, kits, trips to Tokyo, and a lot of wonderful friends made later -  I am so happy I decided to jump into this world.

This kit was actually sold to my friend Jerome, as I had to clean house during a move. I know I have waxed poetic quite a bit about Ma.K so far, but I can't help but get sappy when looking at this old build. As ridiculous as it is to take little plastic robots this seriously, I wouldn't have it any other way - thanks to everyone in the Ma.K community.