Maybe I’m Just Unlucky…

So I spend the sunny Sunday morning by building a model of my favorite design. Doing something you love most in a nice weather is a perfect relaxation, no doubt about it. But just like how a heavy rain in afternoon suddenly ruined this perfect Sunday, something is ruining my mood when I work on building this gunpla.

At first everything goes well. Following the manual, I build the GN Drive and Body section first. I’m amazed at the details and articulation design. Cockpit hatch mechanism is something I like a lot. The overall result is amazing. Then I moved on to build the head. This is when I saw something wrong…

Warped, crooked, curled, or whatever it is

I got the antenna/v-fin with factory defect. It’s warped on from halfway to the edge of lower-right antenna. I’m pretty sure it’s a manufacturing defect. If it’s warped due to heat during shipment, other parts must have affected too. But no, they are fine. There must be something wrong during injection or mold release and somehow it passed by QC check on Bandai factory. I rarely heard such defect from Bandai, must be somewhat one in million that made it to the market. And to think that unlucky one is the one I have, well, I’ m simply being unlucky here.

As a proof that it’s not something resulted from my foolishness, you can actually look at unboxing photo I post yesterday. It’s there, but I just didn’t realized it yet.

Yup, it was there

This is not my fault. Also not the distributor or seller/reseller’s fault. Blaming Bandai seems appropriate, but I realized no matter how advanced the manufacturing is, or how strict QC inspection is, a defect product sometimes made it to the market. I work in QC department of certain company once so I know how QC works. Now, if I live in Japan, I can simply order a replacement parts (or the whole runner) to Bandai. However, I’m not living in Japan so I can say goodbye to that idea. And I don’t have the courage to fix the antenna. It’s more likely that I’ll ruin it further if I try something reckless.

After falling into despair for moment. I tried to think positively. When my mind is calming down, I realized that it’s not really that bad. The antenna still got the correct length and correct angle. It’s only noticeable if you look very closely at specific angle. From the front, it’s not really noticeable (plus I got my crappy camera covering for me). So yeah, I can accept it.

It's...not that bad

Still, if I can find cheap bootleg of MG OOQ in the future, I might buy it for the antenna only. And maybe use the rest for kitbash or anything. Anyway done 80-90% for today, speed & straight build. Only the shield and weapons left. Enjoy some pictures!

Front view
Back view
Kneeling pose to show off articulation
GN Drive comparison with the one from MG Exia
Only the rear portion is different
Comparison with MG Exia
Drive-less back comparison

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