My Strike (in-progress)

Hey,

I was working on this for the CMC competition last month, but I didn't
make the deadline.  It's a High Grade Strike with a few modifications.

http://1-4-4.home.comcast.net/strike_peek_1.jpeg
http://1-4-4.home.comcast.net/strike_peek_2.jpeg
http://1-4-4.home.comcast.net/strike_peek_3.jpeg

   For reasons that will be revealed when the model is finished, I
decided to build the Sword Striker pack to go with it (as opposed to
starting with the Aile or Launcher packs, or building just the beam
rifle and shield - if not for that decision I probably would have
finished by the deadline.) - of the three it probably required the
most work, I spent about 20 hours over the weekend hacking up the
shoulder armor and fitting it to the HG Strike's shoulder armor.  (The
1:144 Sword Strike shoulder armor can be used as-is on the HG Strike,
but only if you replace the kit-supplied shoulder armor with it.  It's
actually a bit undersized, too, relative to the HG Strike shoulder
armor.)  Compared to the Sword Striker work I did, the 1:144 Launcher
set would have been a cakewalk, and the HG Aile pack would have been
only mildly challenging.  (The Aile pack has some overly-simple areas,
draft angle issues, and the characteristic toyish construction of
Bandai HG kits - plus the rifle and shield to deal with.  It wouldn't
have required major reconstruction of anything like the Sword pack
did, but it would still have been a lot of work.)

   Those with a keen eye will notice an alteration or two.  There are
also a few changes not visible in the photographs, those I'll show off
later.

   This has been a very fun project - It seems tougher than the other
High Grades I've done, mainly because of the differently-angled
faceting in areas like the upper legs, and the finer parts breakdown
as compared to something like the HGUC Gundam - it's neither as smooth
and plain as the typical One Year War Zeonic design, nor as simple and
boxy as the typical One Year War feddie (re)design.  Doing seam
cleanup became a special level of hell after a while, not that this
kit is particularly bad, there was just a lot of surface to clean up
while I was still racing the clock.