Happy Halloween! Our Gundam Pumpkin

It’s been a very Gundam October for John and I. First, I posted an extensive review of the entire Gundam pantheon of shows for Anime News Network, to much contention! Next, our Mobile Suit Gundam Blu-Ray collection came in the mail, which resulted in an impromptu marathon. Then, we got into the Halloween spirit with a terrifyingly terrible Gundam Seed Destiny rewatch.

And now, we’ve carved a Gundam Pumpkin.

The Gundam Pumpkin came about when we and our friends planned a geeky pumpkin carving night. Some of the other pumpkins of the day included the Supernatural logo, the Borderlands symbol, the Homestuck kids, and the Dai Gurren Brigade!, but I knew I wanted to carve a Gundam from the start. And not just any Gundam but the RX-78-2, which I’d seen so much of in our Blu-Ray rewatch.

In order to make my pattern, I referenced the following picture of the Gundam Head Collection from Italian Gundam news site GunJap.

Next, I looked at the most prominent features and sketched them into a line drawing for my pattern. With my thumb in the photo for scale, you can tell it’s just a really tiny drawing!

Next I drew this on the front of the pumpkin with a pen. I used this basic $6 set of pumpkin carving tools. Mostly, I used the big saw to cut all the way through the pumpkin and the little saw to cut halfway through the pumpkin for detail work.

I tried to saw at a diagonal to break the skin without carving all the way through the pumpkin, in order to get different degrees of shading. I knew I wanted the most prominent part of the carving to be the Gundam’s glowing eyes. Meanwhile, John carved open the pumpkin and scooped it out.

You can still kind of see where I didn’t completely wipe away my sketch with a pen, but none of that matters when you turn off the lights!

I’ve always loved drawing, but if you’re not artistically inclined, you can use a pre-made Gundam stencil to make your pumpkin. I found this one for only $5.

Happy Halloween!