Plastic Mechs
A couple of months ago, I thought it'd be fun to try getting into building plastic models. I had like a little model as a kid that was based on some real-life plane from like WW1 or whatever. It was pretty fun to build, but I didn't get too into it. A lot of the parts were just kind of a pain in the ass to build because I didn't like gluing them on and I never got interested enough to paint the kit. I'm not a history buff, so I didn't really care for the plane either.
Plastic models stayed outside my mind for years until somewhat recently when I found out that Gundam plastic models (or Gunpla for short) don't usually rely on glue and painting to be built. This immediately sparked an interest. Also, sick-ass big fucking robots are a lot cooler than lame-ass real-life planes. I was already a fan of Transformers and this was pretty similar to that.
So I decided to order a couple of them along with some nippers. Specifically these two kits:
I've never actually watched any of the Gundam shows and know pretty much nothing about it, but I just wanted to build cool-looking robots.
In case you didn't already know, Gunpla comes in different types of grades as seen in the top right corner of those boxes. There are multiple different ones, such as
Anyways, I decided to just start with HG. I watched some YouTube videos before ordering and the general consensus amongst hobbyists seemed to be that HG is easy enough and EG can just be skipped unless you really want a really simple build.
There are also a few more grades that I didn't mention because the ones above seem to be the main ones. Here's a blogpost that goes more into detail if you want to know more.
On to the build... The process will initially seem a lot harder than it actually is. Each box comes with a set of plastic parts attached to these frame thingies called runners. They're usually in sets of a specific colour. Each runner has a label which is something like A1 or A2 or F. And each part attached to a runner has a number of its own too. These are used to locate a specific part which can then be cut out with nippers.
I didn't take any good photos of my runners so here's a quick drawing to get the idea across.
The instructions will show something like "A1 7", which means you get runner A1 and cut out piece 7 and then snap it to the other piece that is also specified by the instructions.
Sounds simple enough, but there's a bit more. The parts need to be cleaned up a little before they're attached. After the part is cut out from the runner, there might still be a little nub left in the spot it was cut from. These can also be cut out with nippers, but you can also use a hobby knife and some sandpaper or a file.
Here's some progress photos:
bunch of nubs left over from the Lfrith build 
Finished kits:
I built the Lfrith on the 16th of June and the Black Knight on the 17th. And this is where my plastic model kit journey ended......
....UNTIL IT DIDN'T because let me introduce you to the incredible world of Mecha Musume / GirlPla / whatever the fuck you want to call it!!
Sometime after building the 2 Gunpla kits, I ran into the Megami Device subreddit which is dedicated to these.
Here's the pitch: mech girls.
There are multiple different companies that make these model kits (mostly in Japan and China) but I decided to order a Nuke Matrix kit. Then I realised I fucked up my address (like an idiot) and had to cancel my order. Thankfully, I got my money back and was able to reorder.
Then I waited....
Then I got bored and decided to order another one (an A.T.K. Girl kit) which actually arrived faster.
Here's the box:
If you want to find it yourself, look up "A.T.K. Girl Xuanwu". It's apparently one of many kits which are inspired by Chinese mythology.
And it came with a shit ton of runners and additional parts:
The kit actually comes with 2 separate models. One without armour and one with armour. I built the one without armour first, and I'm really glad I went with that order because I ran into some issues with one of the arms.
There was a little circular part that needed to go on the shoulder piece but the "pole" was WAY too tight of a fit and I didn't think of using a file to make the pole a bit thinner. I was expecting this to be as easy as a Gunpla build, so I tried to just force the part on which backfired by not going far enough.
A graphical abstract of the situation. The black parts needed to go all the way down in the direction of the red arrow but got stuck in the middle.
I couldn't pull it out, so I tried to make the rest of the way thinner so I could hopefully push it down, but this ended up happening:
fuck.
At this point, I just decided to cut the visible parts of the pole out and use black tape to attach the pieces. I didn't have any glue.
The poor soul just has to live with a taped arm now. But as you can see, it's barely noticeable.
I didn't make the same mistake with any of the other parts, so I'm glad I did the unarmoured version first, because I would have hated to have broken parts on the fully armoured version, which is the one I actually care about.
Speaking of, here's how that turned out:
She had some other weapon options too, like a sword and a whip-sword (?) and the 2 parts on her back could be turned into a shield, but I really wanted to pose her with this gigantic gun. The kit also came with the green display stand as seen above, which was great because it lets you do better poses. The Gunpla kits didn't come with stands, so the options were a lot more limited. I'd have to order them separately.
A few days later, the Nuke Matrix kit arrived. Here's a photo I took of the pile of runners.
There were a lot of them. I also have this photo of the instructions. All of them couldn't even fit on these 2 pages.
Just like the Xuanwu kit, this one also had an armoured and an unarmoured version as 2 models. I actually remembered to take some WIP pictures while building this one.
This kit was actually a lot better designed than the A.T.K. girl one. It was a lot easier to put together. I spent less time using a file to make parts snap together better. (It wasn't as easy as the Gunpla kits but still.)
Finished kits:
This one also came with that cloak, but it's not on her in these photos.
It also had multiple weapon options, but I went with this axe.
If you want to look up the kit, search for "Nuke Matrix Mad Wolf". I got this pretty cheaply, so it unfortunately didn't come with the box.
And the reason I care so much about the box is because of this:
This is what the wall above my PC currently looks like. It has boxes for the Gunpla kits, the A.T.K. Girl kit, some Transformers stuff and instruction manuals.
The Mad Wolf instructions are missing because the kit is still actually unfinished. It came with some water slide decals which I haven't attached because I don't own any tweezers. As soon as they're on, I'll probably rip up the instructions for that kit too, to have them displayed here.
I didn't really have anything on this wall until I put these up, so it's really nice to finally have something else rather than just a white void. And there's still a lot of room for more.
It's really the best of both worlds. I get to have cool model kits on my shelf and a neat-looking fire hazard on my wall.
Overall, I really liked building all of these kits, and I'm definitely going to buy more in the future. Both Gunpla and Girlpla.
I didn't have a plan for this post so it ended up a lot longer than I was expecting. No matter.
Don't forget to read my next blog post which will probably be out sometime in the next 5 years! (No promises)
[17th Aug. 2026]