My first complete Kitbash

Had started this model off last year, but never completed it until I read about Gundamguy's (www.gundamguy.blogspot.com) competition. SO nows its finished!
A custom colour scheme and all. Please excuse the quality of the photos but my memory card is not in my house so I had to use my phone.
I'll list the parts used and you can c&c all you want! Oh, the scale is 1/144 and I hand painted the model, hence the untidiness and yes, I know that there's seamlines, but I'm not all that fussy about them myself.

Head: Exia NG (Gundam 00)
Body: Impulse HG (Gundam Seed Destiny)
Waist: Impulse HG (Gundam Seed Destiny), Strike Noir for ass thrusters (1/100Gundam Seed Stargazer)
Legs: Impulse HG (Gundam Seed Destiny)
Arms: Impulse HG (Gundam Seed Destiny)
Shoulders: Epyon NG (Gundam Wing)
Shoulder Guns: I think their from the 1/100 Strike Noir kit.
Beam Saber: Hilt is from the Impulse, the beam is from the wing of the Strike Noir.
Hand Gun: Kotobuyiko(?) M.S.G. weapons set.

Crater: Games Workshop Crater kit
Misc: Dead gundams.

Hello to all, a Happy New Year to you!
5 days into the New Year. I'm a little bit late wishing you a Happy New Year, but its the thought that counts. Isn't it?

Anyway, this post is probably going to be random as I'm just typing it out, no thought going into it at all.

Ok, here we go.

So.... the recession, killing anyone else's hobbies and dreams?
Due to the recession, large clunks of my pay packet are taken off me before I even get to see it due the complete ineptness that is the Irish Government. But however you look at it, I only really have myself to blame really. During the 'good times' when I was earning a decent wage, I made little to no attempt to save any money for the in enviable rainy day, spending the cash on DVDs, cds, alcohol, nicknack's etc. It hasn't until the start of the recession that I started collection warhammer 40k, the occasional Star Trek ship and restarted my Gundam collection. (maybe I'll talk about the recession more in my next post).
Why so late in my life (I'm 26 next birthday and the recession started 3ish years ago).
Well, the 40k came about from a friend of mine from work (who has since become my supervisor at work) who was trying to organise a gaming night. It lasted about 6-7months, meeting on a Sunday evening. We started playing Heroquest, an excellent game if you can pick up a copy. After a few months of that, we moved on to Descent and then finally......Space Hulk. Not the new version, the classic 1st edition. It was so cool! I was hooked! After playing it a few times, the group drifted apart (as all things do) and it wasn't until I was in my local art and crafts shop (Art'N'Hobby), that I saw them selling 40K models. I picked up a packet of Space Marine Terminators (if memory serves) and that was the start of that obsession!

Ummm.....moving on I thinks. I like Star Trek, the series is good, easy to sit down and watch, easy enough to pick up. And I do like the simple yet sleek designs of the ships. They just seem to glide through space. (Yes I am a Trekkie, just don't tell anyone! Please!?!)

And Gundams...... I do like gundams. I first saw the gundam as a TV series on Toonami (again if memory serves). It was New Report Gundam Wing - AKA Gundam Wing. It was around that time, that I picked up some of my all time favorite anime series' Cowboy Bebop, Outlaw Star, Neon Genesis Evangelion and Martian Successor Nadesico. Unusally for a TV series in Ireland (especially one from Japan that wasn't aimed at kids to sell toys), the local toy shops were selling the model kits. At the time I only picked up a few 1/144 models and 1/100 of Wing. It started a collection that continues today in two regards: all but 3 of my collect are 1/144 scale and I'm trying to collect the entire Wing set!