First foray into 1/400 Gundam gaming

[arshak]

While I frequently browse through the threads, I do not manage to contribute a lot to the forum, so I thought to exploit the chance of a recent game I had with some friends in Rome to post some pics…

The occasion was given by a game we managed to have despite the general situation (so we gamed all the time fully “masked”), and we took the chance to try on the tabletop a few of the 1/400 Gundam figures that I collected in the past years hoping to game with them one day. The rules were downloaded from the internet (I guess they are the set in which Macrossmartin is directly involved).

The battlefield was created on the spot with some scenery normally used for Epic 40k, throwing in a bunch of Mobile Suits that I brought along from Vienna (where I usually live). As I am stronger on the Zeon side, we beefed up the Feds with some Zakus, having in mind those employed alongside standard federal GMs in 0083 after having been surrendered with the closing of the One Year War..
Everything was fast and bloody (also due to our superficial knowledge of the rules, so we skipped the part on pilots, for example), helped by the uneven forces. We ended up with two groups of Doms (2 and 3 MB) on the heroes side, and nine MB (mixed GM and Zakus) on the villains side.

Here are the pics.
General view of the battlefield, with the two groups of Doms on the far right side


My Doms


Some of the enemies advancing


The Doms on our left side getting into the city


With enemy approaching just in front of them


We were overwhelemed by enemy numbers, and both groups quickly lost one of their Doms. The single surviving Dom on our left wing engaged the Feds in close combat


But no casualty on either side.

I lost two Doms to long range fire from both enemy units, and only my bazooka-armed commander brought some relief, with two kills (Zakus) out of three shots he managed to fire. He was the only Zeon survivor after five turns, when we closed the battle



All in all we enjoyed it a lot, and now plans are in the make for getting some more MB. On my side, I would like to try to paint some of the MB in order to give them a less dull appearance…
Would love to correspond with fellow Gundam gamers  .
Thanks for watching

[Cat]

Thanks for posting — great to see the cute little mecha on the table!

[Macrossmartin]

... (I guess they are the set in which Macrossmartin is directly involved). ...

Guilty as charged! 

Welcome to your new addiction, Arshak, I hope your wallet survives more intact than mine!

Are you going to base your figures on circular or hex bases? Does make judging firing arcs easier.

Any questions about the rules, drop me a line. Happy to help out. 

I definitely recommend repainting the gashapon figures. They have enough detail that a good paintjob really makes them shine.

[Robosmith]

Guilty as charged! 

Welcome to your new addiction, Arshak, I hope your wallet survives more intact than mine!

Are you going to base your figures on circular or hex bases? Does make judging firing arcs easier.

Any questions about the rules, drop me a line. Happy to help out. 

I definitely recommend repainting the gashapon figures. They have enough detail that a good paintjob really makes them shine.

I believe the bases they come on are part of the original game's rules but I maybe mistake.

How did you get hold of these figures? I picked up a job lot years ago for a reasonable price and never found good deals since. I've been wanting to use them for dioramas.

Those old Space marine terrain pieces are a joy to see too. Really neat to see some still survive.

[Whitwort Stormbringer]

So cool to see a 1/400 Gundam game in action! I acquired a big pile of those figures a few years back, before I had kids, and had to put the project on hiatus. Seeing this makes me want to dig them out again - cool figures and a really fun table.

Also thanks for alerting me to MacrossMartin's rules (and thanks MacrossMartin!), they look cool and much better than the homebrew I was trying my hand at, lacking any better ideas at the time. Cheers!

How did you get hold of these figures? I picked up a job lot years ago for a reasonable price and never found good deals since. I've been wanting to use them for dioramas.

It's been a little while, maybe 5 years or so, since I went looking for any, but at least in the US you used to be able to get reasonably good prices from an eBay seller that went by the name hiro-japan-brand. Searching for that user, or just "1/400 gundam collection," used to be very reliable ways of turning up lots of options, and only the rare collectible ones were especially pricey.

[YPU]

hey, always happy to see more gundam on the forum, especially in the "right" scale!

It's been a little while, maybe 5 years or so, since I went looking for any, but at least in the US you used to be able to get reasonably good prices from an eBay seller that went by the name hiro-japan-brand. Searching for that user, or just "1/400 gundam collection," used to be very reliable ways of turning up lots of options, and only the rare collectible ones were especially pricey.

This still seems to be the best option outside of finding someone nearby trying to shift a old collection, but shipping from Hiro has skyrocketed for most non-japan locations it seems.

[Robosmith]

So cool to see a 1/400 Gundam game in action! I acquired a big pile of those figures a few years back, before I had kids, and had to put the project on hiatus. Seeing this makes me want to dig them out again - cool figures and a really fun table.

Also thanks for alerting me to MacrossMartin's rules (and thanks MacrossMartin!), they look cool and much better than the homebrew I was trying my hand at, lacking any better ideas at the time. Cheers!
It's been a little while, maybe 5 years or so, since I went looking for any, but at least in the US you used to be able to get reasonably good prices from an eBay seller that went by the name hiro-japan-brand. Searching for that user, or just "1/400 gundam collection," used to be very reliable ways of turning up lots of options, and only the rare collectible ones were especially pricey.

With postage to the UK each figures as expensive as a HGUC now. I remember them going for less than a 10th of what they are now.

[YPU]

With postage to the UK each figures as expensive as a HGUC now. I remember them going for less than a 10th of what they are now.

Taking a quick look, I purchased 18 figures for 80 dollars plus 13 dollars shipping to the eu back in 2019.

[Whitwort Stormbringer]

Ah, what a bummer! I wonder what changed. In any event, best of luck finding a good deal. Maybe just keeping an eye on eBay will eventually get you what you need!

[arshak]

Wow, I was busy and had no look to the forum for a couple of days and I now there are so many replies, thanks to everyone!!!

Guilty as charged! 

Welcome to your new addiction, Arshak, I hope your wallet survives more intact than mine!

Are you going to base your figures on circular or hex bases? Does make judging firing arcs easier.

Any questions about the rules, drop me a line. Happy to help out. 

I definitely recommend repainting the gashapon figures. They have enough detail that a good paintjob really makes them shine.

I will certainly ask you about the rules, although our next game won't be in short time (the project is shared with friends in Rome and now I am back to Vienna), but the idea is using the time for preparing the forces. Talking about that, and having in mind your wonderful painted units, may I ask you about the paints you used? I mean, I have the usual suspects (Vallejo, GW, etc..) but will they work with no difficulties on the material or is it necessary to go for something special? Same question regarding glues (perhaps more important, as here I am really in the dark and I am addicted to converting figures), so, already two questions  thanks in advance

the bases are those that come with the figures, my idea would be to got for round ones, I was thinking to exploit the fact that the MB tend to have these feet pins to make removable bases so that they can be changed (say, standard earth/green, urban, snowy, for example)...

It's been a little while, maybe 5 years or so, since I went looking for any, but at least in the US you used to be able to get reasonably good prices from an eBay seller that went by the name hiro-japan-brand. Searching for that user, or just "1/400 gundam collection," used to be very reliable ways of turning up lots of options, and only the rare collectible ones were especially pricey.

Taking a quick look, I purchased 18 figures for 80 dollars plus 13 dollars shipping to the eu back in 2019.

I also bought from Hiro my first MBs in 2018 and paid them very little (and at the time there was a free from charges treshold of 22 euros for buying outside of the EU, so could get hold of a few ones) then a friend (one of those from Rome  ) went to Japan for a trip and this resulted in the bulk of my forces... but I will buy some more, the wallet will suffer but that's its job in the end...

so, thanks again to all, reading all your posts has thrilled me, and I am looking forward to proceed with the project and share the results here!
 

[Cat]

Generally, you'll do much much better buying Japanese products via Yahoo Auction Japan than through EBay.  And YAJ is much bigger.  There are a couple of different proxy bidding services that are easy to use.  They each have different features. 

I tend to do my searching through Buyee, and they have the advantage of being able to do saved searches with notifications.  If you're bidding on a bunch of small items though, it typically is cheaper to bid through ZenMarket, except when Buyee is running a special discount coupon for their usual bidding fees on YAJ.

Technically, you can search in English.  Generally you will much better results searching in Japanese.  Google Translate is your friend.  Although 'Gundam' is a common enough term that it should work as well as 'ガンダム'.
 
Both services will store items in their warehouse for free for a set period of time (and then charge fees after that).    Shipping is most economical if you going on a shopping spree, fill up the warehouse, and then ship everything at once.
 
Shipping is pricey of course, but the good news is that DHL or FedEx are air express and not stuck on container ships for months.  They also charge by package volume, not weight — hence the economy of buying lots of stuff to ship together. 

[mithril]

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.

and where do you find them and what should i look for as far as labels and such?

[Robosmith]

Shipping is pricey of course, but the good news is that DHL or FedEx are air express and not stuck on container ships for months.  They also charge by package volume, not weight — hence the economy of buying lots of stuff to ship together.

DHL and Fedex love to hit you with customs fees unfortunately.

1/400 Gundam are similar in scale to 28mm minis. Slightly smaller and thinner but close enough. Larger machines are obviously bigger and some of those get a bit silly.

[Cat]

DHL and Fedex love to hit you with customs fees unfortunately.

But even with that I suspect that Yahoo Auction Japan is still the best bet for total price to the UK because the figures are so much cheaper.
 
Here in the US, we don't get hit with customs fees like that, so it's a really super deal for us.  (And better still pre-covid when other cheaper shipping options were available.)

[Macrossmartin]

...may I ask you about the paints you used? I mean, I have the usual suspects (Vallejo, GW, etc..) but will they work with no difficulties on the material or is it necessary to go for something special? Same question regarding glues (perhaps more important, as here I am really in the dark and I am addicted to converting figures), so, already two questions  thanks in advance

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.