WIP: 1/144 NG G Gundam (Part 2)

As proof that my Gunpla projects are ongoing, here's what I've been doing the last 2 weekends.

Between video games, YouTube videos and eBay sales, I could only focus on preparing parts for priming.  Having just ran out of the hardware primer used in my last paint job, I set out to find more.  But which brand?  Krylon's too thick and dusty.  Testors takes too long to dry.  Tamiya's just right, but a 6oz can hardly justifies a trip from Queens to Manhattan.

This one's good enough.  From the guys who brought you Rust-Oleum, Zinsser's BIN shellac-based primer comes at $9.74 for 12oz.  Test-spraying on tabs from old runners, I shouldn't have been surprised with how well this primer worked, since it's made for plastic among other materials.  My one gripe with it is its hidden costs, namely the $2 bottle of ammonia I had to buy to clean the stuff off my window guards.  Anyway, it's time to prime my Gunpla!

I started with cementing, sanding and masking both of God Gundam's feet and shoulder armor.  Then after priming them in a more ventilated area . . .

The procedure was a success (that paper stuffed in the shoulder armor is tape).  But I didn't get rid off all the seam lines so there's still work to do.

I wanna take this opportunity to announce my interest in the latest modeling contest hosted on the MAC Forums.  My next blog entry will be the last before I start my contest entry next month.  Any news concerning the entry, including what it'll be, will be posted only on threads in the MAC Forums.  Depending on the other goings-on in my life (notably my own time management), this could very well take the full 6 months of the contest's run to complete.  But we shall see what we shall see.

Until next time, Merry Christmas!

Guess What I Got Today! (3)

When Virginia Woolf wrote about a room of one's room (I took Women's Literature in college), she must've meant a whole house or apartment. She also wrote of how financial and societal constraints can keep people from doing what they want to do.  Such is my situation.  While unforeseen circumstances has kept my family at home--and have forced me to postpone my Gunpla projects--for weeks, I've still managed to add more kits to my growing backlog.  And with my latest purchase totaling $11.49, it's worth sacrificing some leg room.

Presenting the 1/144 scale replicas of the ZM-S06S Zoloat and the RGM-122 Javelin from Mobile Suit Victory Gundam.  Added to my to-do list of Gunpla, I've meant to snag the Zoloat for some time; the Javelin's just an added bonus.

A preview of the contents of each kit.

I'm especially interested in this line of kits because they're apparently Bandai's first attempt at incorporating an inner frame in a 1/144 scale unit, but with polycaps.  But I can't go into detail about these models until I can actually work on them, and that's after I can finish the ones I've got.  And that's after I'm cut off from all human contact.  So I should really stop buying Gunpla for the time being (or at least after I scratch one more old kit off my list).

Join me next time (at some point in the near future) when we'll see if I ever get anything done.  Until then, it's my turn to wash the dishes.

WIP: 1/144 NG G Gundam (Part 1)

Here are pics of the results that I'm stuck with till the weekend:

First there was the matter of how to build and color the all-red shoulder armor and feet.

I started by painting the inside of the armor before applying cement to both halves of each foot and clamping them together.

Because the pegs on the shoulders are much bigger, I decided not to trim the sockets in the armor like with Tallgeese.  Instead, I fully assembled the shoulders before applying contour putty on the seams of the armor.  I also masked the shoulders with tape for priming.

To prime certain areas on the chest, I used tape on only 2 areas and covered the rest in masking solution.  But too much curing time made the solution harder to remove, so I would switch back to tape.  I would also fill in the seams of unmasked areas.

Here I'm holding the unused portions of a runner over the kitchen sink to try out a method I learned from Hobbylink Japan's Gunpla TV segment.  In one of their videos, the host dips a paper towel in a dish of soapy water and passes it along a runner of parts before rinsing them with running water.  This would enable paint to better stick to parts without priming.  Taking it a step further, I scrubbed the parts shown with a soapy sponge .  After rinsing the runner I would leave it on a towel to dry overnight.

That's pretty much it for now; I should have a more substantial report by next Sunday.  In the meantime, I've just opened a new page on Twitter, The G2K, where I'll be posting up-to-the-minute tweets on my Gunpla projects, purchases and mishaps.  You can also check my Facebook page for my next work-in-progress.  Until then, I'm gonna watch Episode 4 of Gundam Unicorn again!

WIP: 1/144 NG G Gundam (Intro)

With another Gunpla project hitting an unexpected roadblock (though technically, it's complete), I've moved on to the 1/144 NG God Gundam in order to continue my God Gundam collection.  Released in '94, this kit originally sold for 500 Japanese yen ($7).

The front of the box displays a painted boxart style typical for most Gunpla in the '90's, and it's my favorite next to the boxart for the HGUC/FC/AW line of Gunpla.

This is what the top and bottom side of the box looks like.  According to the bottom left-hand corner, God Gundam's the 8th kit in the 1/144 G Gundam NG series.

This side's supposed to show the actual size of the finished product (minus the V-Fin) if held vertically.  But it's covered with warning labels.

And this side shows 3 of the other kits available in the series along with the retail price and barcode on the right.

These are all the runners holding all the parts to assemble the model.  Most of the parts are molded in the right colors but some areas still need painting.  The A1 runner (upper left) holds all the yellow parts and some of the blue and white parts.  The A2 runner (upper right) holds all the red parts and the rest of the blue parts.  The B1 and B2 runners (lower left), having most of the white parts, could've been a single runner but separate both legs for some reason.  On the lower right is the PC-107 runner with the polycaps.  Lastly is the newest entry in my unused sticker collection.

This seems like your typical NG polycap runner, except there's an extra polycap for holding the lower torso together.  And the polycaps themselves are slightly more durable.

And what plastic model rundown would be complete without viewing the instruction booklet, featuring backstories, technical specs and step-by-step illustrations:

At the bottom of the right page is a special form to order replacement parts (for use in Japan only).

And so ends my overview of the 1/144 NG God Gundam.  Join me later when I summarize my progress with the kit.  Until then, . . .

Guess what I got today!

Actually, I bought this last Friday but you get the point.

WIP: SD G-Gundam (Part 3)

Once again, my completion of the first-edition SD God Gundam has been delayed.  But I have 2 legitimate excuses.  The first is that like many, I'm playing the beta version of the SD Gundam Capsule Fighter online game.  Actually, since its release last Tuesday, I've spent most of the time installing the game, uninstalling it, reinstalling it, freeing up disk space, playing co-op's and deathmatches, sitting through the hour-long delays in between, buying new MS and power-up's, trying and failing to enter quests, and complaining about the consistent lag on my end.  At the very least I got some work done last weekend.

The yellow spikes that go on the forearm guards had holes underneath, so I filled those up with putty and sanded them before painting them.  While I was at it, I also painted the kit's second detachable chestpiece.

Once the spikes dried, I decided to combine the kit's main parts so . . .

Let's go, Gundam Force!

Form feet and . . . oh.

Form arms and torso!

I'll form the head!

Here's where my second excuse for the delay comes in.

Featured with the other runners shown in the first WIP, this has a spare arm and hand for God Gundam's Bakunetsu God Finger (Erupting Burning Finger in G Gundam's English dub).  The parts that were snipped off were the 'core' for the chestpiece (1st pic) and the cockpit for the Core Lander.

As you can see, both parts are hollow, a common drawback to the SD kits of the 90's.  Can't have that.

So I filled in the hand and arm with Testors' contour putty and Tamiya's basic putty respectively.  At the time, the Tamiya putty squeezed out the wrong end of the tube and I threw it away.  I had it since '06 at least, but it was a week later after I discovered that the putty had caused the arm to melt.  And I wound up squeezing it out of shape while sanding!  Until I can fix the arm, I'm not sure if I'll go ahead with reviewing the kit cuz God Gundam without the God Finger is like Superman without the S.  But I've started working on the 1/144 NG God Gundam so expect that in my next post.  Until then, I'm off to the beta battlefield.

Guess What I Got Today! (2)

In this second edition of Guess . . ., I present to you a special package I've been expecting for weeks after its arrival to my state from Kyoto, Japan.  Opening the box and sifting through crumpled-up ads of toy trains, bento box lunches, and "Evangelion Christmas Cake," I finally uncovered . . .

The 1/144 HGUC Char's Zaku II (7 Eleven Colors)

As with all the other Gunpla I couldn't get locally, I snagged this at an eBay auction.  Though it originally sold for 1300 yen ($15.00), this set me back $50.  But getting it any cheaper would've meant flying to Japan, driving to the nearest 7 Eleven that had the kit in stock, and buying it along with a chili dog, wasabi chips and a ginseng soda.  So this was actually a bargain.  Though I already have Char's original Zaku, it remains the most versatile kit in my collection and I didn't mind having another like it.  This is what the Red Comet himself would pilot if he worked at a convenience store; then maybe I'd get my food 3 times faster!

Here are pics of the sides of the box:

Here's what's inside:

As though predicting the hassles that would befall getting my hands on this model, the seller was generous enough to throw in a thank-you note, along with a few extra treats:

Two bagged snacks, a Pokemon puzzle with gum and a cute origami bird.

Whether I'll paint the Zaku as I build it remains to be seen.  Till that day comes, I owe you an SD, an NG and a kitbash, so stay tuned for those.  Until next time, Oh Thank Heaven!

WIP: SD G-Gundam (Part 2)

For an SD kit I'm building straight out of the box, it's sure taking a while to finish.  When I'm not busier than usual during the week, I'm reading, watching TV and websurfing between paint jobs.  That and following discussions concerning the premiere of Gundam AGE makes for a weekend full of distractions.  But the project itself is coming along nicely, despite having to paint dark plastic parts in lighter colors.  Here's what I've got so far:

Front and back of the completed head

Both arms

The chest

The torso

One of 2 chest pieces included for the chest

And finally, the Core Lander that attaches to G Gundam's back.

Though it's too bright to see, I painted the thrusters chrome silver with a coat of clear yellow.

And there you have it.  Though I don't have pics of it, I also painted and detailed the 2 beam swords included with the model.  I'll try working on the other parts during the week so that I'd wrap things up by this weekend.  I'm also expecting something new in the mail, so stay tuned for that.  Until next time, does anybody else have the AGE theme song stuck in their head?

WIP: SD G-Gundam (Part 1)

With the introduction out of the way, I'll be showing the progress I've made with my newest SD.

In the last post, I said I wouldn't use any stickers.  But the eyes aren't sculpted on the face.  So the sticker for the eyes is really the only option, right?  Wrong!  First I pressed the sticker onto the face as much as I could.  Then I cut the eyes out of the sticker with my knife, using the rest as an outline.

From there I colored the exposed areas with my metallic-green Gundam Marker before removing the rest of the sticker.  Though the result was pretty messy, the knife had cut deep enough to create the outline for the eyes.  So after hand brushing the surrounding areas black, the eyes were done like a dinner (anyone else ever heard that phrase?).

Next I started painting the other parts to match pics of the finished product.  In order to paint colored plastic in a lighter color, I added layer after layer of white as a base coat.  Next time, I should buy a jar of surfacer (liquid primer) for this sort of thing.

Here's what I've done up till now.  That shiny piece in the middle is the bottom half of the Core Lander jet that latches onto G Gundam's back, which I painted gray.  If I really put in the time, I should be done painting and panel lining by the next post.  Until then, you've never heard the phrase "done like a dinner?"  Seriously?