Never having a large scale Gundam Sandrock has always left an empty space on my shelf (and the mildly sufficient 1/144 kit doesn't help), and so it was time to fill that space. After getting the idea to create one along with the idea to create a 1/100 Heavyarms, I went out and got the kit I needed-- the 1/100 Endless Waltz Sandrock Custom. This kit would take more modifications than the Heavyarms, and even a piece from its 1/144 counterpart.
I got hold of a spare 1/144 scale Sandrock Custom Shield to use for the 1/100 Sandrock. The shield is huge on the 1/144 version but looks the appropriate size on the larger kit. I set this aside until I finished the Gundam itself, as I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with it yet.
The modifications started with the head. The original's antenna has four blades, the Custom two, so I grabbed on of the spare sets of antenna that came with my MG Zeta, removed the blades and attached them to the Custom's antenna to create the four bladed one on the original. I then painted on the red on the bottom of the face area to make the face look more like the original.
Next came the shoulders, and although both had a feathery motif, the Custom's shoulders were very different from the original. I decided not to do too much to them(after all, I wasn't trying to make a Sandrock that looked exactly like the original, just more similar than the Custom). What I did was take the small flaps that hang down on the end of the shoulders and removed the upper section. I then modified the diamond like panels(the blue parts on the Custom) on the inner parts of the shoulders, and glued the flap pieces to this. This gave my new Sandrock those small yellow sections on the shoulders of the original.
To take care of the chest jewel, I cut out a small octagonal piece of thick paper, and glued it to the chest. Simple and it worked.
Then came the Heat Shorters. I liked the large Custom version, but I wanted smaller ones for mine. So I removed the farther section off the solid plastic part of the Shorters(see pic) and then removed the end of the clear plastic part. This still allowed the pieces to go together easily, as well as shortened and slightly straightened the weapons.Finished shorter compared to custom
Finally came the shield, which at first I was just going to paint to resemble the original shield. But in the end, I removed the two "fangs" from the side, slightly reshaped them, and then glued them to the top of the shield. Then I cut away some of the bottom of the shield (namely the Heat shorter handles), and modified what was left so that the two Heat Shorters could be attached to create the Cross Crusher weapon. Then the shield was simply painted to resemble the original shield.
Now
that all the modifications were done, I finished painting the
kit, and the 1/100 Sandrock was born. I call it Kai, because it
looks like it would be a second version of the Original Sandrock(but
not quite like the Custom), such as the time it was rebuilt in
the anime. In the end I was very pleased with this project. I
think it makes a better TV version Sandrock than even the actual
1/144 kit did.
