Friday 27 April 2012

End of April Random Update

Have been steadily working through the 1/100 NG Duel Gundam regen - All parts sanded down, did a little seem line removal. Decided to try out a new base coat on the white parts - the Tamiya acrylic "flat base" - did not work.. did not even dry in fact, so had to wash it all off.. mish! Have now done 2 coats of a 1:4 ratio blue/white, and will spray over in white using the blue undercoating as shading. Fingers crossed this turns out as planned. Have not been posting an official WIP for this one as I am currently filming the whole thing - a vid of the whole thing will be up on my youtube channel once completed.

In other news.. myself and Mrs Gundam UK have been busy re-organising our work area. As I have decided to put my music to rest for 2 years, I have packed away all of my music gear to make way for more room for Gunpla, and for Mrs Gundam UK's projects. Pic below of our new workspace!

Revels are on special at Sainsburys. 
Oh, and before I forget.. You can now get to this blog by simply navigating to http://www.gundamuk.com or http://www.gundam.me.uk. I am also working on developing a resource website for all things Gunpla-based in the UK. Nice. News on this later.. 

Monday 9 April 2012

1/100 MG Full Armour Unicorn

Finally, completed. I say completed, I omitted various dry-rub transfers from the final kit due to the fact they were infinitely irritating to apply. For this kit I used mostly Gun metal and white Tamiya acrylics - a little Alclad II for the thruster parts - mixed a little flat base clear with red to create the "ceramic" looking inner-thrusters in the base jabbers massive boosters. Several hours of decal marking.. a couple of topcoats to make it look more sparkly, some decidedly dodgy panel lining (yep, still need some work on building this skill, the main element being patience - rushing it really will yield crap results) and et viola. Pix below.




















Sunday 1 April 2012

April Update

Hello! Been obsessively working on the full-armour Unicorn of late, and playing through half-life 2 at the moment (£6 on Steam! bargain..). Head and torso, waist and legs have all-in-all taken me 4 days to complete... factor in the 2 year old son and wife and were looking at a real figure of around 8 hours or solid work inclusive of dry time.

 One thing that really bugged me.. is Alclad II supposed to take frikkin over 24 hours to dry? for some bizarre reason, did the usual enamel gloss undercoat for the supplied 8 thrusters on the FAU (full armour unicorn, I will refer to it as the FAU cos I am tired of writing it.. ), applied the alclad in a nice, even coat, got a smashing metallic chrome finish, and upon fitting the thruster to one of the inner frame parts I found my thumb covered in grey shit - and a thumb print in the frikkin thruster. Left for a further 12 HOURS till totally dry. Another lesson learned I guess? (Only took around 6 hours till totally dry last time).

Looks like FAU is RIP here for some reason.. 
Have also received one HECK of a haul from HLJ.com I have been eagerly anticipating, here's what I gets:

Ahhh finally! the Palace Athene! Possibly, one of my most fave MS designs. Looks totally badass. 

The Zeta, second version Master grade. Liking this Gundam design too. Looks much better than the Mk.II Gundam, however I do have my eye on the upcoming RG of the Mk.II, looks awesome in the Titans colours. 

Look at the size of this mutha! Yep, its the Fazz.. or Fah-z, however you want to pronounce it.  A stupid, fat and ridiculously armoured Gundam from the double-zeta series. I love it! (but my wallet did not on the shipping.. this thing weighs!)

I actually like Gundam Seed. 


On another note, Gundam related.. I have found myself for the first time watching the Gundam seed series which for some reason I have always avoided - probably because its the series most people talk about and stuff but probably also because I unfortunately watched Gundam seed destiny prior to this - and it did not leave a very good impression. That aside, I am up to EP 31 or so now and I am actually really enjoying it, despite its weird faces. The plot line is actually quite intricate, and I find myself almost (almost..) feeling for Kira and his plight. Even though he's a pubescent, moody adolescent fanny boy. At least Athrun has the balls to point a gun. There is also a frightening amount of forward-swooped haircuts.

Once I have watched this series I only need see 8th MS team, Igloo, Victory and G Gundam and I have seen every god damn Gundam anime there has been.. 2 of these series I have.. the others I am working on..

Gun-discraceful. 


Would also like to point out - to those of you who are buying this insanely expensive and huge resin mobile suit from G-System at the moment, are you BLIND?

Monstrosity.
This, is the Nightingale - the alternative to the waaaay prettier Sazabi MS for Char Azanable in "Beltorchikas Children" (the original / alternative story to Chars Counter attack, gosh damn-itty I hate that name! "Beltorchika".. yach!). The Nightingale is by far, the worst, ever design for an MS. Its massively complicated, and looks like an overweight squashed cybernetic insect - yet people are raving about how awesome it is.. are you people actually looking at it? Its just... horrible... look at it damn you!