Gundam Eclipse Summer of War

Gosh I like that title, its the second year running for the Gundam Eclipse modelling competition, and the first I will be entering. Will probably be looking at entering the intermediate OOB (out of box) category, with 4 months to complete I think I should be able to knock out something relatively suitable.

The question is, with the kits I have yet to build I am undecided as to which kit to build.... It will probably be best to enter a master grade this time so it narrows the choices down to three: The Fazz, Zeta Gundam 2.0 or the F91. I am leaning towards the F91 as I was going to put a ton of work into this one anyway. May chance me mind.

More info on the compo here:

And if you want to read the rules and find out more about prizes etc.. take a look at the Gundam eclipse forum here:

http://gundam-eclipse.net

End of May update

Just a quick update on what's been going down in the gundamUK world. Having spent the past 4 days away from the normal day-to-day in Norfolk with the wife and the boy I have returned refreshed and ready to get the Hi-ν Gundam (Pronounced "Hi-Nu", the little v is "Nu" in the Greek alphabet in case you were wondering) completed in its customised colouring scheme. 

I have decided quite simply to exchange the blues for a lime green, and the whites for 2 shades of grey. The grey is taking some time as I had to mix it myself, and totally forgot the ratio I did it to so I shall have to purchase some specific shades of Tamiya. The green however turned out smashing. The inner frame will of course be trusty 'ol gun metal, with some grey I think on the weaponry to add a little more interest. 

Tried a slightly different method this time while building the Hi-ν, I snap-fitted the whole kit first (after sanding down the nubs), separated the arms, legs, head and backpack parts and airbrushed over the whole thing with a coat of revell "aqua color" base coat. Clear on application, it actually did a smashing job as I have had no problems applying the Tamiya acrylic on top of it, with no plastic colour showing through after only 1 coat. Reminded me of really thinned down PVA glue as it carries the same vinegary smell. A little thinning with water was all that was required, and one layer was sufficient. 

After the base coating, taking it apart again was almost painless, I snapped one part of the shield along the top with one part flinging off into my cup of tea which was.. shit, but managed to glue it back together and sand it down to a un-noticeable degree thank fork. 

So, one of the green parts so far next to a grey bit, sorry about the poor picture its for illustrative purpose only, not a photographic magnum opus of airbrushed gunpla parts sorry. 

Bit of the shield, and a bit of the backpack under an eerie shadow of doom. 

Looking at another 2 weeks till completion on this one, while i again wait for supplies dammit. Back to gaming for a bit I guess..but not "Gundam: Target in sight" which is one of the most disappointing Gundam games of all time I think.. and no decent Gundam games ever come out in Europe! I shall also be watching some G-Gundam which is terrible but funny at the same time. The character "Chibodee" is a legend with his English-styled curse words (who, oddly enough is the same voice actor as Jaraya AKA Erroi Sennin from Naruto, and a character from Turn-A Gundam i forget his name... anyway..) I only have Victory Gundam to go and I have watched all Gundam anime.. I intend to watch them all again, in chronological order in which they were made. Oh yeah. Back to doing stuff.. thanks for reading :)

1/100 NG Regen Duel Gundam

With around 2 weeks build time on and off, the "No Grade" Regen Duel Gundam is completed, and looking markedly colourful :)

Messed up a couple of bits, namely along the front ankle skirt on the right leg (caused by not waiting an adequate amount of time for the topcoat to dry.. gaaah!). Stickers were a little dodgy, and don't show all that well.

Despite this, I like it. Was an awesome practice model and gained a little more valuable skill especially in the pre-shading airbrush department. I still need to work on my panel lining though.. I tend to rush this too much and should really take my time to get it right. Some pics below, and a vid at the very bottom showing some of the build in double-time :)

Airbrush Fail

So, I have been experiencing a few issues with my airbrush of late - in that the flow of paint seems to be a little "stunted" now and again, resulting in me having to pump the trigger to get it going. Having given it a super-deep clean, and thinking it would solve the problem I attempted to spray today, with great difficultly. Either way, I luckily managed to complete painting the 1/100 NG Regen Dual Gundam (looking really colourful!) with a little last-minute hand painting.
As I can't really afford to spend a great deal of money on a new brush, I went ahead and purchased a super-cheap £25 model which will hopefully see me through while a decide which model to get (which is proving difficult.. narrowed down to either an Iwata or Badger).

I also purchased some Revell white primer - just to give it a bash. The £8 price tag on my current Tamiya fine white spray is killing my pocket and is not really lasting longer than say.. 2 models at a time. Not very cost effective. This new stuff is around £3 per 25ml bottle and can be used in an airbrush.. I will probably report on its effectiveness on here sometime soon.

Anyway, just wanted to say thank you to all the people reading my blog! I have been doing this for a while now and really appreciate the interest shown :) Later!