The Last PG Unicorn (for now?)

So one of the most interesting projects of my hobby journey happens to be the PG Unicorn by Dragon Momoko. It was a giveaway win from a cool live stream series by ChrisPabz called CritiQual builds about a year ago.

I’ve never worked on something this complex before, nor was I super fond of the unicorn design at that point. This is one that I’m super excited to finish up this year.

Some folks have asked how this was going so I figured I’d do an update on it.

it was a massive box! I’m 5’6 for refrence

Unboxing it was such an experience in itself. It had over 35+ runners and some parts that had broken off of them, not a big deal. The instruction manual feels like it could be a magazine.

The overall feel of the plastic was a unique texture. There were some minor warps and some parts with leftover injection plastic. I was lucky enough to be given a heads up on some of this.

I always start my builds by working on the head and then the torso. They’re the most satisfying parts of a unit to me. It really gives a sense of character to the build.

When starting with the head I did notice some fitting issues off the bat. I wasn’t worried about it at this point because I had already decided that I would be painting it later on. I clipped and removed what I could to get it to fit better. I originally went with the double horns to open but the great shelve incident happened and broke them.

The head took maybe a solid hour and so to put together. It does transform to reveal the face beneath the mask.

The torso took longer and arguably has the worst fitting than any other part of the kit. The clear parts had some small warping but were fixed wind sanding (Don’t worry those are getting painted too). It took me about two hours to get it fitting somewhat well. This has been a great way of learning new building skills and part repair.

Larger than a haro with a stand at this point.

Then I moved on the feet and hips, which were my favorite part of the kit. They fit together really well and generally were fun to build. Took me about three hours for these.

The legs felt like they definitely took the most time to build. This was a multiday endeavor and one of the trickiest parts of the build for me.

I took a break from the main body and did some work on the backpack, weapons, and shields. I would solidify my painting scheme with the shields later on.

The weapons are huge and surprisingly sharp. ( I stabbed my hand reaching for the clear part)

Next, I moved to the arms and the rest of the body and started painting the shield. The color scheme was very random and just a mash-up of abstraction and Celtic themes. Very much like a mythic street art style.

The purple base layer was airbrushed on with Vallejo’s mecha purple on a white primer coat. The Vallejo green, blue, pink, yellow, and while were stippled on with tips. The copper and black details were hand-painted. I used dotting tools to make the dotted details. The clear parts are spray painted gold and bronze on a black primer. This theme will carry out most of the build.

Next came the feet. For the dark blue plastic parts, I painted a nice shade of green on a black primer.

Then the legs. I also incorporated Celtic letters from the Book of Kells as well. The Book of Kells is an extremely illustrated book that plays an important role in Celtic history. I decorated the green parts with silver decor.

The arms are in the process of being painted at the moment. There were a few road bumps, such as parts breaking and so on. So here’s what we got:

I’m very pleased with how it’s turning out so far. I’m not done snapping the weapons just yet nor do I know what I’m doing to the base/diorama. Have my opinions of this changed since the beginning? Yeah. It’s like a roller coaster of emotions. If I get frustrated with it I just set it aside and work on something else.

I recently did it after breaking a shoulder part while trying to dismantle it for painting.

What’d I work on during that?

An HG Unicorn.

I’m in love with the unicorn design now. It did grow on me.

I do love the size difference between the PG and HG.