Activity

First I had to find a way to put the Kamiki feet onto the 00 legs, convinced as I was that the Kamiki legs could not accommodate the spare GN drives from the 1.5 Gundam. I ended up swapping the original polycap from inside the Kamiki feet for the ones in the 00, which are larger and require some extra persuasion to fit. Next I cut the arcs on the connecting part. No more side-to-side rocker, but the fit is much more comfortable than putting small pieces from the polycap runner into the leg to make the Kamiki’s connector fit tightly.

Next were the Kamiki’s kneecap condensers. No matter what I tried I could not get them to fit and look right — short of cutting the kneecaps off the Kamiki and trying to glue them onto the 00 legs, which I considered to be a bad idea. I decided to simply paint the 00 kneecaps.

Third, I had intended to use my father’s Dremel drill to shave down a layer on the outside of the lower legs for the condenser covers. I would then do my usual in painting the base silver and colouring the dome blue. My cement only ended up messing things up, and the dome wouldn’t fit right. In addition to a messed up inner-thigh, the outer thigh broke from being forced apart so many times as I kept trying different solutions to get the right fit for the Kamiki polycap. Extra ironic as I ended up abandoning that. This is the first time I have ever messed up parts badly enough to have to throw them out. Fortunately they were spares from the 00 Seven Sword/G kit.

A minor mess-up, but it turns out the space originally meant for the leg condenser is too small even for the smaller 1.5 GN drives. I’d used the Dremel to clear the area for the drive, but I had a time of it positioning the drive so it wouldn’t get knocked off as I moved the leg. I then applied my cement and then cut the back armour to fit.

And then I came to the waist, and found that the connecting polycap for the Kamiki sideskirts are completely different from those of the 00. I could try cutting a hole in the middle and finagle it onto the crotch unit, but there was no guarantee that would work, and I didn’t have any spare polycaps of that type for trials. I decided to use the Kamiki crotch and waist, only swapping out its large backskirt for the 00’s smaller one, figuring as well that the scabbard would get in the way of the 0 Raiser binders and GN Sword III.

I feel like quite the fool using up so much time, but at least it was a significant learning experience. I will know better for the next time I kitbash two similar, but different kits.

Up next is that always-essential 00 backpack for its main GN drives.