My experiences of Gundam
From Mod Mania
Gundam and my experiences.
Within Gundam there are many levels of model making that a person can choose to do. These levels can be attributed to the amount of effort that a model maker puts into their model. Models can range from a simple Gundam constructed within the hour, or one that may take weeks to properly build.
As a child I loved Lego, it was one of the few joys that captured me within its world, I would spend hours building and constructing things, and imagining little fantasy scenarios within my head. This love of Lego and building mechanical objects eventually fuelled my interest of Gundam. As a young kid, I went out to purchase my first Gundam, I remember the construction took quite a long time, but I was very satisfied after it, playing with it for ages. Most of the joy was received from the physical act of playing with it, though I did find the building challenging and fun, I still hadn’t fully appreciated it. I had become a young model maker.
Sometime later I started to explore all these other depths of model making, creating things whenever I could. It had brought out a creative beast, I bought a few other Gundam models, and I started to explore other types of models, e.g. Warhammer figurines, a form of miniature models of humans and fantasy creatures. The enjoyment I got from the Gundams I bought was focused more on the effort and look of the Gundam rather than how I played with them, my psyche had changed and I was drawn to the building and beauty of the model. Each piece would be nicely connected, cut so they would join smoothly and built with precision and care. This was the next level of model making.
I soon fell in love with building and painting models, always striving to create a piece of art, normally with the Gundams I bought, they were HG “high grade” universal, but I took it to the next step, purchasing a small MG “Master Grade” model. This new model excited me much more, instead of having a stiff HG model, this MG Gundam could move its feet, hands and torso, which to me at the time was amazing! It was almost as though I had myself a little living robot. When building the robot, I decided to try and paint it as well, giving it a decent finish, and experimenting with paint cans and oil paints. This was my first experience with using paints for models, soon after, excited by the prospect of painting, I went out to buy some Warhammer models, extremely excited and motivated to learn new techniques of painting and model building, I started at an early age of 12, building and painting models until about the age of 16. It took 4 years to learn how to paint models properly and with detail. And 4 years of practice meant an improvement in my hand motor skills.
In the past year, when I was travelling within Hong Kong, the spirit of model making came about, there were small stores located all over Hong Kong that sold little models of all assorts, so I thought, why not buy a model, I had some time to build one while I was travelling and staying in Malaysia so I did. I bought a proper sized MG Gundam. While building it, the enjoyment all came from the building of the product, though it wasn’t painted, it still took a few days to build. Something had changed though; model making at the age of 16 and 18 differed greatly. When constructing the model, there was a sort of meditative feel towards the process. It brought about a wave of relaxation, taking away all my worries, while my mind was fully focused upon the building. Each piece would be slowly cut from the frame, sanded down and painted before assembly, then only once all parts were painted, it would be assembled, then further details would be painted on. Making the whole construction of the piece, unbelievably slow, but giving it more value as it takes more time. This may be the reason why so many people are attracted to Gundams, it brings about a sense of peace and self calming having to focus constantly and since the process can take a week, it provides time to chill out.
It was also interesting to note the different ways pleasure was gained from the Gundam piece, when I was younger most of the excitement came from the playing with Gundam, making them move and battle each other, but through each consecutive model that was built, the balance shifted from an interest in playing with it to building, until my latest build, which was all about the process of construction.
My next goal would be to purchase a PG Gundam, a Perfect Grade one, where it basically contains all of the human anatomy and is a size of 1:60 rather than 1:144. But considering they cost 200 dollars, it will be a hefty investment.
Zheng Chin S3236463
