Zeta MG WIP Part 2

Moving onto the legs now, have primed and base coated. Have also buffed up the glossy coating on the arms to prepare for the decals to be applied. Not terribly exciting at the moment but slow and steady :)

I have also decided to re-panel line the arms - mixed the enamel too weak resulting in a bit of a faded grey panel line in the shoulder vents. Not good. I'll probably finish up base coating the entire model, apply a gloss coating, then do the panel lining for the whole model to keep it consistent. I'll also be hand-painting some detail here and there. Got a nice plan for the lower leg too - Will probably do this next.

S'all for now.

Zeta MG WIP Part 1

So, here we go with the Zeta v2.0 Master Grade 1/100 for this years Summer War competition from the Gundam Eclipse forum!

Trying something a little different this time. I have fully built the kit (which looks awesome) and am taking one part at a time to paint. This weekend, after spending each weekday this week snap-fitting I have been working on the arms. Used my usual aqua colour base coat - and realised for the first time it is actually white! lols. The last 2 models I have used this paint on, the finish has come up a kind of murky clear - turns out I was not stirring it properly.. oh well.. still looked ok.

Spent all day today priming and adding the base coats for the arms. Using the same tamiya acrylics to make sure the colour is nice and consistent. Here is how far I have gotten so far:

Some parts base coated, some primed needing a base coat.

Snap-fitted bits, separated by how they will be built.. 

Admittedly, I am a little dubious about building this MG in this way.. but we will see how it turns out. I will be trying out a new gloss coat too to enable easier panel lining. I also have some super decals from Samuel Decal to apply, so gotta make sure its shiny enough.

More on this soon. Maybe tomorrow.

Later.

Random update

Hello, me again, well.. who else would it be, unless it is a proxy of me and I have died, and the proxy is utterly convinced it is me. Next, I am working on the Zeta 2.0 (which I am also entering into the Summer War competition on the gundam eclipse forum), love this MS design. The epitome of 80's gundam goodness in my opinion. It will be a straight-up OOB paint with a little difference - I am going to add a nice masked paint effect on the legs, not sure quite what yet. I will be doing this one nice and glossy this time too. So far, I have cut the runners and sanded down. I will be assembling first, and base coating. More on this on the first WIP coming up soon.

In other news, I have added a new light to my workspace. An awesome little low-power strip light. Only 10 squids off ebay, total bargain. Have done a little rearrangement too to create more space on my PC desk.

I am also planning to spray-paint a large board previously used underneath my spray booth for a spacey backdrop. Will update when I do that too, although it will not be all that interesting.. the eventual plan is to make a bit of a diorama. Thought will be going into this over the coming weeks

More later.

Marasai Devastator 1/144 HG WIP Part 5

So, It's finally completed! 5 weekends of work done. Added another clearcoat, but as the model was still in a porous state paint wise, I decided to weather it to take advantage of the texture. Went relatively well, but made a crucial mistake by not remembering to add decals first! Decided it would probably be best to just leave them off in this case.. otherwise it would mean a ton of work adding a glossy coat to allow the decals to set.

So, all in all I am pretty pleased with the final result, another vid below showing off the final parts. a few pics too to show in more detail. Super thanks to everyone who has been supporting my endeavours as always, you are all individually awesome. More soon.

Why do you like Gunpla?

I am pondering to myself why, in this past year I have dedicated so much time and effort into Gunpla. To explain this a little clearer - go back a whole year and a bit to before I decided in one second, to buy a gunpla kit in a junk store in Japan. At that point my life interest was music, which at one point was providing me with a satisfactory level of happiness, and creative fulfilment in my life. I actually went in that store with the sole purpose of buying some electro-gizmo noise making machine that could turn me a profit in the UK once I had sampled the hell out of it (great cash maker, but don;t even think of doing it now with the current exchange rate!) However, in the year or so leading up to that decision, I was not getting anything from it simply because I was getting to logically involved with music, and the creative element had stopped. I did not see this at the time, and labelled it as a "writers block" of sorts.

Now, fast forward to now - I spend nearly every spare moment, setting aside other enjoyments such a spending time with the people I love, films and video games working on gunpla, watching other working on gunpla, learning new techniques, reading comics, watching gundam anime and talking to other through forums and social networking about gunpla. The reason why I love it so much right now is because it is putting me back in touch with my creative side which I had lost. I gain an aesthetic pleasure from the beautiful designs of MS' I have always enjoyed since a young age (which I had denied myself of partaking throughout my 20's simply because of lack of exposure to it, and lack of availability, and personal inhibition quite rediculously) - but I am now articulating them into my own creative interpretations, exercising my creativity, thus feeding my enjoyment.

This is providing happiness, and this is why I like Gunpla. It sounds quite logical in a sense, thus somewhat contradicting my point that exercising my creativity has lead to enjoyment - its a logical conclusion that enjoyment and fulfilment is gained through creativity - so why, oh why, is logic as an entity, held in higher regard than creativity in our society? Culturally, this will be different, but here if you tell people you make little Japanese robot models you are labelled among some normal people as "weird". I think these people have no true happiness, and only ever live in denial of their true selves so as not to stand out and be mocked.

No, I am not stoned, just wanted to share my thoughts. later. :)

End of June update

As you can see from the below, have been mostly working on the Marasai devastator custom, which is turning out ok and has been a good learning experience, especially in terms of detailing and masking.

Have also been slowly snapping off parts, cleaning and sanding from the Zeta 2.0 MG kit I have decided to enter into the summer war competition being hosted by the gundam eclipse forums.

2 more runners to go and were ready to build.. err...baby.

A couple of purchases from the HLJ sale, a Geara Zulu HG and a Rick Dias MG. Both suits I am a big fan of, especially the Dias as it is simply so different from other MS'.

Looks like a fucking nazi death machine! I will not however be adding swastikas. That would make me a racist.  

Quattro Vajeena's AKA 4 Fannies Rick Dias. I have a cartoon man crush on him. 

In other news: Nothing much really! I am about 30 eps into Victory Gundam, which is turning out to be better than I thought it would be to be honest.. would be good to see more anime set around the UC 120 ish period. Although the BESPA MS' do look a little weird with their huge bug eyes.

On another note: I have has some difficulty of late with a very popular supplier of after-market decals. I received the complete wrong one's I ordered... To be nice, I decided to keep the ones sent, as I can use them for other projects as this supplier had only charged me for these particulars. The supplier, who I might add is on the other side of the planet to me, requested me to ship them back, and payup the difference for the ones I had actually ordered (which would work out about the same as the ones I incorrectly got int he first place!). I think that's out of order.. you don't ask your customers to pay up for your mistake right? I took the piss a little, but then (quite kindly I think) shook it off in good humour, and requested he send me a new invoice for the decals I wanted. That was 3 days ago without response.....I'll give it 3 more days at the most...

More soon.

Marasai Devastator 1/144 HG WIP Part 4

I can't believe I have spent 4 weeks building this.. although to be fair I did lose yesterday to tiredness and last Saturday I was doing other stuff, so realistically its been 5 straight days or so..

Continuing the video thing here you go:

Looking to complete this next week. All that remains is some final detailing, panel lining and top coating. Can't wait.