[While this was a Monthly Musing topic last month, I've just gotten done writing about my first Gundam kit building experience, so I'd still like to show it to you. Also, I just wanted to prove that my posts do not necessarily have to involve charts or things of an After Dark nature. -- DMV]

Browsing around my local hobby store recently, I felt like buying something. I've long since gotten out of the habit of card games, and the only RPG books they had left were D&D -- I'm a GURPS man. Warhammer? Too expensive and too labor-intensive doing all that painting.

I trekked my way upstairs, to find myself surrounded by model trains, planes and battleships. Most of these were prohibitively expensive and required way too many deadly chemicals. No, I was looking for something a bit more simple -- something I could do in an afternoon.

And what did I spy in the corner of the second floor? Why, it's a Gundam!

I decided to go with Haman's Qubeley from Zeta Gundam because I've recently been on a kick of classic anime. I really had no idea what it was like to tackle a Gundam kit, and so I asked the guy at the store as I purchased the kit what it would be like. Thankfully, there would be no need for glue or sanding or painting. It was just me, the plastic, and my own two hands.

I quickly took the box home to unpack, and was greeted with the tangle of plastic sheets above. Well, I needed something that could work to cut these pieces of plastic with a bit of accuracy. So, I decided to go with my exacto knife, for better or for worse. While it didn't provide for the cleanest of cuts, it did a pretty good job.

The first hurdle that faced me was...that the instructions were all in Japanese. It's not really a problem, but it daunted me at first. Still, I dived head-in and gave it my best. Cutting away at pieces, I was able to clip them together and start making progress. Really, it wasn't all that difficult: cut out the parts bit by bit, and manage to fit them together into the joints.

I started forming all these different little pieces, but the big breakthrough was when I finally built my first leg that I felt a large measure of success. It was my first recognizable piece of the Gundam that I had built! Now, I was more than ready to tackle the rest of it. I mean, I've got one leg, how much longer could the rest take?

A long, long time.

It wasn't so much the construction itself that was as incredibly laborious as trying to get the Gundam to look right. So that meant getting rid of the excess chunks of plastic and applying the decals too. Never in my life would I have thought decals to be so fickle.

Oftentimes, they would stick on, only to fall off at a moment's notice, onto my carpet. I just spent five minutes using a toothpick to apply you, goddammit! And now you've gone and fallen on my floor?

Great. Just great. All told, I probably spent two hours applying and looking for decals. Somehow, against all odds, they would wind up inside my socks. How the hell does that happen?

But, working late into the night, I managed to toil away and come out with a completed model -- which I'll show you later. What I've learned, though, is that a Gundam kit is an exercise in the axiom "easy to learn but hard to master." It doesn't really require a steady hand and is actually really rewarding when I've finally finished it. I'm sure there are tricks when it comes to filing and applying the decals that I can learn in time. I'm sure it's leagues easier than working on a resin kit, but those I am simply too afraid to tackle. Perhaps one day.

For now, though, I'm going to find me another Gundam kit.