And now, the grunts.

Moving on to the next build immediately after the Ver.Ka Gundam,  This time trying to make a GM. I consider it as a companion piece (although really that title belongs to the Zaku F2 once I start to remodel it a bit) to the Gundam in that it shares a few of the initial modifications that the gundam received, though it's less... dedicated to the Katoki design (essentially because the GM kai base model is already the Ver. Ka  GM, sans the boosters from the GM command kit). 

If anything, with the big single piece skirt and smallish head, it looks more like a design of Kazuhisa Kondo. But I did make sure that this build will have parts being swapped out so it can easily switch from GM Kai (albeit with longer legs and torso) to my own version of the GM "Ka." 

Part of it will lie in the armaments; the Kai will only be armed with the hyper bazooka and machinegun, whereas for the "GM", I kitbashed a Beam Spraygun so its armament is closer to the standard GM. 

Also, the head will be different, with the cheek vents removed and additional ear vents cut into the sides, and the aforementioned one-piece front skirt armor. 

Height-wise though, holy shit it's still small even after the extensions have been applied. Attributing this to the fact that the Gundam uses parts from the GM custom which is HUGE by default. Canon-wise the GM kai and many other variants only had a height of 18-18.5 meters (12.85cm), the GM custom was 19 meters (13.19). 

 

In retrospect, the gundam didn't need those extra 3mms in the thighs. rather what I should have done was just shorten the front skirt but HERPADERP I lack foresight.
Anyway I shouldn't let that bother me much, and just chalk it up to the gundam being an experimental prototype so it follows that the mass production type of mobile suit based on it would be a bit smaller. Let's leave it at that. I look forward to finishing the GM soon though. 

Meanwhile here's another WIP I have, and it's something I've long-wanted to do, and I was only able to get off my ass and do it because it's a commission. I'm doing a conversion of the RX-78-7 "7th Gundam" from Full Armor mode to just it's basic form, which has a lot to do with subtracting from the base model itself. I haven't added anything other than plating and GM Quel shoulders and GM Sniper II feet, and there's still more work to do. Taking down notes so I can make one for myself sometime in the future.