This build is tributed to Mr. KinHo Chau (aka GK2000) who passed away in April this year, he is my(and many others’) earliest inspiration of sci-fi mecha building, especially FSS garage kits. We met over the internet forum day back in early 2000. He has shared many many knowledges and stories in mecha/figure building world and also Hong Kong hobby scene, especially in the early days where information were very limited and people weren’t very willing to share/teach back then. He was a speed builder, and has a humongous collection of finished models + museum level of rare/hard to find kits of all kind. We met once in person back then, for a quick afternoon hobby shop tour in Mong Kok district . And throughout the years, he had helped me(and many other internet mates) buying a few great recasts .. that includes my Inferno Napalm, a sav white phantom, and also this 1/100 Cloud Schatez by Kaiyodo from over 20 years ago. I actually started the build soon after the new year, but soon heard about him passing. This is my little tribute to bro Ho .. his works will continue to inspire more people in the mecha / figure building world.
A small portion of his works can be found here .
www.youtube.com/@GK-2000
https://www.facebook.com/GK2000CKH
gk2000-ckh.blogspot.com
Intro:
Here comes my 1/100 Cloud Schatez (or Speed Mirage) by Kaiyodo, sculptured by Akira Tani 谷明 back in the late 90s or early 2000 . Tani is famous for sculpting unsymmetrical mechas and has very unique perspectives and touches in his works. His most famous work is probably the 1/144 Jagd Mirage also by Kaiyodo.
Kit Info:
This is a 20+yrs recast, the casting quality is decent .. it’s just that the casting quality of the original kit was probably just about okay back in a day for a smaller shop. It’s in the fixed flying pose with buster launcher and a large shield. People often put multiple pins under the buster and the shield to help with the balance. My only little goal was to support the whole kit with 1 acrylic rod. Here's an old photo 
The build:
The process is straightforward. Only thing new is that I’ve rescribed all the penal lines and edges, it’s stolen from Madworks videos where 阿智 rerun all the lines to emphasize the shapes …. It did take up sometime , was probably going through 2-5 parts each night for a few weeks. I think it’s worth it, and I’m able to play with almost every single parts and enjoyed the beauty of the sculpt .. it has lots of characters and ‘soul’ in the thing . I would have missed a lot of these details if I didn’t get to go through every pieces.
Photos:
Colour used:
- White - Gaia NC-008 Neutral White
- Body under grey - #37
- Body grey purple - XHUG 10
- Gun metal for tips - #28
- Red - #68
- Wing (dark black) - GX Blk, Green pearl
Thoughts
I was able to pin the left arm with the heavy shield . The buster launcher was tied on the wing and the right arm with velcro strip so it’s removable .. This way I’m able to support the whole kit on a smaller base and save some display space.
wip:
