Master Grade 1/100 Duel Gundam Conversion

Update!

Well, looks like my last posting caused quite a stir within some of my regular clients. LOL.

I must insist again that I'm not RETIRING. Just taking a break from doing Transformer repaintings. I have my reasons, but the most is I'm burned out. Period.

And now, here's something that I've been working on for...emmm...a year plus. Yep. That long. So being able to finish this, was a great conquest for me! And it's my first MASTER GRADE conversion.

So what's the story?
Pretty simple. The Duel Gundam (Gundam SEED series) was one of my favourite mechs. But it saddens me that Bandai never actually produced an MG kit for this guy. They came out with the usual normal grade 1/100. So, having an extra MG Strike body and a Duel 1/100 I decided to make one.

Here's the original kit. (image courtesy of dalong.net)

The process was a long one. It went through many stages. And since it was my first time doing it, all I can say is...you better make sure you think it through! I had a basic design that I wanted to do, but worked around it later to suit the concept behind this kit.

What did I want?
A Duel Gundam that actually looks like his namesake. The world Duel itself means that it is a close combat unit. The simplicity of it's main design shows that it was meant for close proximity battles. And I also wanted to show that he has been in many battles without showing any battle damage. So the idea was to have a robot that has a rough look and yet looks streamlined for combat. I included the back part of his 'Assault Shroud' armour to the hips to give him a more sturdier look. What do we get?

A very 'macho', 'rugged' looking robot...

I present my first MG'fied Duel Gundam (it has some flaws, so hope you can forgive me for that)

Armed!

I'll be planning to work on his 'Assault Shroud' armour soon. But in the meantime, I do have more Gunpla works that I'm doing. So stay tuned!

Heh...it's good to do Gunpla again...