First foray into 1/400 Gundam gaming

[arshak]

Generally, you'll do much much better buying Japanese products via Yahoo Auction Japan than through EBay. 

thanks Cat for so many info, I will have a look. 

couple questions...

how big do those figures tend to run? i play battletech and would love to know if i could use them as proxies.

1/400 Gundam are similar in scale to 28mm minis.

Those visible in the photos at the beginning here (1/400 scale) are c. 4cm tall. Some of the auctions by Hiro Japan show a ruler beside the figure, other times sellers give the size. Consider that there are also 1/350, 1/300, as well as 1/200, beside the bigger ones ...

With a decent undercoat, the plastic takes any acrylic perfectly well. I use exactly the same techniques as I use for painting 'regular' wargaming figures or other mecha.

As for gluing, there are specific glues for vinyl, but I use Loctite's 'All Plastics' which comes with an activator pen which is applied to both faces before using the actual glue. The resulting bond is very strong, and pretty much instant, which makes it perfect for gun / head / arm swaps, etc.

thanks Macrossmartin, this is exacly what I wanted to know.

[Easy E]

Really enjoyed this.  Great to see.

[arshak]

Some reinforcements (a selection), arrived this week from the Japanese front  .
All in all, with taxes and shipping (the most expensive option as I ordered more then 15 MBs), paid on average between 6 and 7 euros each…

A mix of 0079 and 0083 MBs, will have to arrange them in proper teams... at any rate, here are some of the Federals:





and Zeon:



I am thinking on how to get some extra weapons such as the MG of the Dom here, as I would like to give them to saber-holding MBs. was wondering about making a mould to cast in resin, but it is something I am not familiar with…
 
I was nearly forgetting: a little puppet for the Zeon forces, one of the two I bought time ago…

[YPU]

1. Awesome!

2. There are 3d files out there for scale-appropriate Gundam weapons (I have a couple more if people are interested)

3. I am green with envy. I tried to find the xamel at an affordable price but no luck a couple of years ago, and getting it on its own for full shipping seems stupid now.

[arshak]

thanks.

what I have seen on the intenet is, however, bazookas and Sturmfausts, whereas I would like to have more basic MGs... also, I just found printed sets (not the files) and each seems to cost as 2-3 MB... but I might have a more thorough look....

yeah, the Xamel is a beast... I am only wondering how to use it on a battlefield, in theory they should work as a sort of off-table artillery... but I may take inspiration from Gatoh's stealing of Gundam in the opening stages of Operation Stardust...

[YPU]

True, that does seem to be the focus.

I'll have to do some digging but I have files made for the gelgoog marines MMP-80 90mm Machine Gun, the gelgoog shield and zaku 1 snipers rifle and backpack.

[arshak]

uhm, I cannot remember now, but aren't the Gelgoog weapons different from the MGs used by Zakus and Doms?
in the meantime I even discovered that the Rick Doms figures are larger than those of the Doms, is this correct or is it a free licence of the producer? ....

[YPU]

with over 40 years of gundam, the gelgoog has been shown wielding almost any weapon it could really. But specifically I've made a model for the MP80 which was mainly used by the gelgoog marine type.

Now the dom difference I couldn't say. They should be the same height but I imagine these gashapon models are a bit flexible on that front. If it's only height it could be that one is in hover mode and taller on its base, they seem to do that a lot for the dom line.

[arshak]

After a long time, I managed to have another game a couple of weeks ago, although only a few photos came out decently.
Here is the Federal left wing (quite heavy, indeed), faced by Zeon right wing headed by a troop of three Goufs on Do-Dai.





The commander, that with custom Gouf with gatling gun in the center, went down in the very first turn as his Do-Dai was shot down by Federal fire, argghhh…

A view from behind of the Zeon center…



In retrospect we used too many units and, with little room to move due to the numberof MBs, the game became a too static exchange of long range fire. Next time we are going to use less MBs and more terrain (i.e. obstacles that can block LOS) in order to manouvre more and have more tactical options. With less units we could also better explore the rules…

[YPU]

Always nice to see so many gundams on the field.
You are using the gundam skirmish rules, right? those were written with 1/144 figures in mind so they add quite a bit of complexity per unit, since you wouldn't have that many on the table at that size.

[TheMightyFlip]

Good stuff, if it helps, Forbidden Planet in the UK has UN2 Universal unit series in stock, £6.50 for an 85mm tall kit. They have series 1, 2 and 3, each series gives you 8 mechas to chose from.

[arshak]

Thanks to both.

Always nice to see so many gundams on the field.
You are using the gundam skirmish rules, right? those were written with 1/144 figures in mind so they add quite a bit of complexity per unit, since you wouldn't have that many on the table at that size.

you are perfectly right, I will stick to the smaller scale but next time I would like to try a handful of MBs per side, no more.

Mightyflip: I have now accumulated a fair number of 1/400 MBs, and this smaller scale allows including "oddities" otherwise hard to field, from Do-Dai to the Xamel... on the other hand, I am certainly planning to individualize the MBs in a way or another - starting from re-painting them- rather than have all identical ones.

At this purpose I started some surgery on my Doms



studying their "anatomy" with a bigger brother...

[LouieN]

A cool and unique gaming theme. 

[YPU]

True, that does seem to be the focus.

I'll have to do some digging but I have files made for the gelgoog marines MMP-80 90mm Machine Gun, the gelgoog shield and zaku 1 snipers rifle and backpack.

Wait, did I ever actually link to these?

https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/game/1-400-gundam-collection-gelgoog-upgrade-parts

https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/game/1-400-gundam-collection-zaku-upgrade-parts

[arshak]

Wait, did I ever actually link to these?

https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/game/1-400-gundam-collection-gelgoog-upgrade-parts

https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/game/1-400-gundam-collection-zaku-upgrade-parts

thank you so much, they will be quite useful, the 90mm MG is exactly what I need to give the Doms their standard shooting weapon!  Now I just need to ask a friend some help with 3D printing
thanks again!!!!