The 2012 Mecha Contest - Update

The mecha 2012 competition is opening very soon! See vid below on how to enter:

Throne Eins 1/144 HG

Quick one this, and one I have made a little video of on the youtube channel. This is the Throne Eins from Gundam 00, quite an unusual and somewhat feminine looking thing. Varied the colour a little by adding some dark yellow, metallic red and aluminium instead of its default light grey. Pleased with how this one turned out too. Vid of the whole thing at the bottom of this post :)

Blueframe Astray Revise 1/100 MG

After.. 8 weeks of working/tormenting on the Gundam Astry Blueframe Revise 1/100 Master grade, it is finally done. For my first MG, I don't think it turned out that bad, and impressed myself on how well the decalling went considering I have never done it before.

A few things went wrong.. if you have been reading my previous posts you will remember the tiny plastic clasps that held the fingers and thumb in place on each hand had disintegrated, hence now Blueframe has no ability to hold any weapons hence the constant flight mode.

The panel lining for this was a little all over the place. I have been experimenting with various washes for a while and though I got to grips with it when panel-lining the head part, turned out a little "dirty" looking as the panel lines did not suck through the paint too well, and turned out a little lighter than I wished for.  I will persevere on getting that golden thinner-to-paint radio correct. The rest of the models panel lines were done with a gundam marker.

Some decals peeled off a little and went dry, replaced these on the worst instances with thin stickers provided with the Blueframe in box.

Gave it all a nice glossy coat for a change, normally I prefer the matt finish but because the experimental panel lining did not go to plan, a matt finish would really show up the dirty bits unless you were standing a good 10 feet away from it..  

That's about it really.. not 8 weeks of solid work as most of that was spent waiting for my old supplier to send me the paints I had bought. Anyways, down to what it looks like. A real labour of love this :) A little vid at the bottom too.

Bring on the full armour unicorn!

Blueframe Revise MG - WIP part 4

Its been a while, but have been back in action now I have changed my paint stockist. My former stockist although cheap did have an awful habit of selling me sprays that were not in stock.. and waited for me to pay for them before telling me this.. and then ignored my mails querying as to when they would be in stock.. shame on you. My new stockist, although expensive compared to others more than makes up for it in service, bravo to Wonderlandmodels.com. You guys are excellent. The former stockist gets no link, you are shit and frankly do not deserve a link.

Back to the work at hand. Assembly now completed (which I might add is considerably more complex than a HG, and much more fascinating) and the first (maybe) clear coat has been applied. As I sit here in the stifling toxic Tamiya fumes I contemplate on how the decalling is going to go.. This'll be in WIP 4 I think as soon as the Xmas time has ended. On that note, have a good one all, merry Christmas chaps and chap-esses.

The sodding hand that sodding well broke and is now sodding well glued.. GAH.

Blueframe Revise MG - WIP part 3

Quick post this, arms now completed, but have again run out of french blue! My paint stockist has this unusual practise of selling you things that are not in stock, hence when I ordered 2 french blues they only sent me one so I am set back again for another week or so.. saying that I have also been waiting over a month for my Italian red and aluminium to arrive.. I shall not name names as yet.. if my email barrage does not work be prepared for some slander!

Also, for some bizarre reason after spraying the blueframes hands, they decided to literally disintegrate into  bits.. so I have had to glue the fingers/thumbs in place which unfortunately means no pose ability on the hands. I think it had something to do with the freezing temperature in my room as I was spraying, made all the tiny clasps around the ball joints just give up. A lesson learnt that's for sure... will perhaps be completing this next weekend. TBH this one not turning out as well as I anticipated.. i will persevere.

Full armour unicorn coming sooooon!

Later.

Blueframe Revise MG - WIP part 2

Body and head assembled and painted, arms half-painted. As luck would have it I have run out of the french blue spray I was using.. which is puzzling to me as they usually last for at least 2 HG models.. I think my alternative method of assemble, then paint is causing an awfil amout of wastage. Anyways, with another 2 cans on order all activity on this has ceased for a while.. frustrating! Some WIP pix below.

Should have this completed by next weekend I hope. Later!

Inner frame, torso.

Teeeeeny tiiiiiny pilot. Dont have steady enough hands to paint him though...

Torso, painted and assembled. Decals and detailing to follow.

Torso with cock-pit cover open.

All the parts required for the head.

Head assembled and painted, detailing and decals to follow. Looks frikkin awesome.

Blueframe Revise MG - WIP

So yeah, this one is taking me a while due to a little bit of an addiction to Skyrim. So far I have cut and sanded all of the white and blue runners and separated them out into containers, still working on the rest, should be finishing up ready for light assembly and painting by next weekend.

 

Have also pur-chased some water-slide decals, something I am entirely new to.. will be a learning experience I imagine.

Also purrrr-chased an MSG gatling gun, the original intention was to have the blueframe in flight mode, holding this mother, however I may decide to use this as an addition to my mecha 2012 contest entry. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On another note, today is my son's 2nd birthday who appears to be on no way, shape or form interested in Gundam at all... but that will change... :). More WIP soon.

2012 Mecha Contest

Its all been announced and blimey there is a lot of prizes up for grabs. I'll be giving this a bash.. It'll be my first ever entry into a contest involving the building of gundams so should be a lot of fun. Got 6 months to complete something.

I'll either be entering the OOB or the Diorama category undecided as yet. Can't really enter into both as I am at work 5 days a week.. look after my boy on weekends and have commitments for remixes coming up on my music.. phew. Still, plenty of time to plan.

So far I have in mind a Gay Disco RX gundam and a "fallen" gundam.. more ideas needed I think. Here's a vid from youtube explaining the contest a little better. If your up for it or would like to find out more, sign up to the mac forums at: http://boards.themacforums.com. Nice.

1/144 HG Kampfer

Completed, messed up the boosters though! grrrr.. Changed my mind too, working on the Blueframe Astray next. Cant wait. :) Also, Will update this post later on when the light is good.. the contant rain has meant crappy lighting for picture taking.

 

Update: Vid below with some better pix :)

 

1/144 HG Kampfer - WIP part 1

The kit has been cut away from the runners, gates have now been shaved off and sanded. Some parts also now glued and set to remove seam lines. Just need to sand it down a little to remove the glue blobs, and finish them off so they look nice and smooth. As luck would have it.. out of sandpaper, thinner and certain colours of spray so I'm at a dead end until I can order some more bits tomorrow. Gay.

Parts separated, the long, boring, laborious, crappy tasks of Gunpla now out of the way. :) 

Ill be spraying this up next weekend methinks, may do a vid, maybe not. I am also working on building a DIY spray booth with an extractor fan, I'll post up a "how-to" on this very soon. Considering most spray booths are going to cost you £70+ I think this one which is only going to cost around £25 and will probably do a better job is going to be well worth the time and effort in building. More soon.

Coming Soon

Lots of kits to build until I receive the very eagerly-anticipated Gundam Unicorn full armour MG 1/100 :) I am currently working on a Kampfer - detail of this in my next post.

Coming next will be my first MG build is the Gundam Astray Blueframe revise 1/100, can't wait to get started on this. Need to order up some decals too.. will be true to its normal colour scheme, not planning to weather or customise it as it is my first MG build.

 

Next up will be the Jagd Doga, 1/144 HG from the UC Gundam series. Will stick to the original colours too.. 

Theeeeen this Throne Eins HG 1/144 from Gundam 00, making the black parts glossy, the grey/white parts will be aluminium. Think this will look great all shined up. 

 

Definitely not going to need to make any more purchases as yet.. my wallet severely damaged by beam sabers.

Gundam UK and Movember

Hey, this year I will be participating in Movember, and would really appreciate any donations you can make to support men's health, and give to cancer charities. For those of you who have not heard of this, the idea is simple - you grow a moustache throughout the month of November - hence "mo" vember :). You can take a look at my page and progress here:

http://mobro.co/shinchokai

Thank you all for your support! :)

1/144 Virtue

It just looks hard. the 1/144 HG Virtue from the Gundam 00 series.

1/144 00 Raiser

Straight-up 1/144 HG 00 raiser with all the trimmings. :)