The GundamUK Contest: Level Up!

With my hands tied for a while by parental duty, I thought now would be a good time to launch a contest!

The concept is really quite simple, I want every contestant no matter how few or many, to UP YOUR GAME and LEVEL UP!

What do I mean by this? Well, the idea is you must build yourself a mecha model, within certain constraints listed below where you improve upon your own modelling ability in some way.

Some of you are already pretty shit-hot when it comes to mecha modelling, but everyone, no matter what your skill level is has something they have not yet tried, or have reached a plateau in which they have been stuck in over time.

This contest however is not locked into the idea of improvement on your technical ability - it can also or be inclusive of an improvement in your creative skill. Perhaps you have had an idea swimming around your head for some time, but have not yet found the drive to put it into action. Or maybe you are tired of doing the same old model in different colour schemes, or for once you feel like adding a few extra barrels to that gun.

With all this in mind, I want to set some ground rules.

The Model:

• Must be modelled. By this, I mean no plain snap-fits. Anyone can snap-fit and make an ornament. Modellers make it a model. 
• A single model. No dioramas. Scratch building/modification fine. Weathering is fine. Any scale fine. 
• Must be Mecha/sci-fi based. No real-world stuff. Sorry Gary. 
• Not limited by manufacturer. 
• Must be made purely for this compo. If I see it elsewhere, sorry your disqualified. Re-entries defeat the whole premise of the contest. 

The entry requirements:

• I need legible quality photo of your kit or parts, with the entry graphic in frame (below). This can be done with a mobile phone or on a monitor in the background. Adding it in with software won't count. You can enter any time up until the closing date. Details on how to submit are below. 
• A link to a WIP somewhere. A good place to do this is on the Mecha Lounge. Judgement will be on the final model, but it always helps to see how the model was built and painted.
• Preferably a link to your previous work. Helps to see how far you have come so far. 
• A little info on what you intend to do.
• Any skill level accepted. Don't be put off by others skill levels, it's about you, not them.  
• *EDIT* 31/08/13: One entry for contestant only please! 
• *EDIT* 31/08/13: You can enter a model you have started, but it'll be on a case-by-case

Time

I will start accepting entries from today, the 31st of August and will close on February the 1st 2014. This gives you 4.6 months to complete your entry. 

The Winners

Will be chosen by me, with perhaps a little advisement from my non-participating friends and non-mecha modellers -  and will win prizes. What these prizes will be will be announced later but your motivation should be improvement and enjoying the competition and not material gain. I do understand however making models costs money, so the winner will be suitably rewarded :). I have chosen to do this to sort out the chaff from the real people who want to improve and/or compete in something they really love doing. I will also announce later on how many places will be given. 

There will also (depending on how many entries) be one winner chosen by my 3-year old son JK. 

Ok, got it and have read everything above. How do I enter?

Easy. You need to give me a "like" on my GundamUK facebook page. 

http://www.facebook.com/gundamUK

Click on "message", and attach a legible picture for your submission. I will then add your picture to an entries folder, and add your name or alias underneath with your proposed model. Once you see it here, consider that your entrance acceptance. 

Rightio, now then, once I am done?

I don't really need to tell you that they need to be a good enough quality for me to see your model in good detail, with good lighting and absolutely no photoshop trickery. Please submit 5-10 good quality pictures to:

chokaiuk+levelup@gmail.com

Please include a link to somewhere I can see your work in progress - this can be YT vids or a link to a flikr account, blog post, facebook photo set, forum thread - anywhere I can easily access. Please check links work!

Anything else?

Of course! I would also request that all entrants accept me using any material posted in WIPs, YT videos and so on in my own social media channels, so I can talk about them. These will be progress reports, nothing more and will not be showing favour to any particular participant. Depending on how many entries I get will depend on how much is featured, and of course how much spare time I have :)

I will hopefully be featuring entries (if any) on my youtube channel, youtube.com/gundamUK.

I also advise that, as the time frame is relatively short - have a good think about the scale of what you want to make and think ahead about how long it is going to take you and the stock of material you have.

If you have any questions, you can either post them on my facebook wall or message me directly. I am frequently online as I am a social hermit who scowls at sunlight.  There is probably something I have not covered here that I will later kick myself for not adding.

Please enjoy this contest, and take that extra step towards a greater potential. If your reading this, you have the interest. Now up your game. I greatly look forward to seeing what you can do.

Entry Graphic:

1/100 MG Zeta 2.0

Done! at last.. phew. My entry for the Gundam Eclipse summer war compo.

Zeta is done, plus some other things.

Hello! Yes, I finally completed the Zeta 2.0! Well, not entirely. Truthfully, I did not get around to doing everything I wanted to, and that was to paint the base up nice and add a little plastic man guiding the Zeta out from the footplate. As time would have it, I did not get it done. I shall make another post soon with some pics to peruse.

This means, luckily, I have met the deadline for the gundam eclipse summer war competition. Fingers crossed.. I entered the OOB intermediate category but I don'y hold out much for success, the other entries are marvellous.

Anyway, here is an update from the you tube, with a little look at my Gundam display cabinet:

Next up: Frame arms Ryu Rai Kai!

1/144 HG Age-1 Spallow: Halloween "jack 'o lantern" custom

Thanks hummingbird for the alternative name suggestion :) Yep, its done, its not perfect but its done. It was kind of an experiment in colour really as there (although it does not look like it) are 4 different shades of green on this one. The orange was just to make it "pop" and it kind of inadvertently turned into a hallowe'en thing when my wife commented on its colour combination.

Anyway, enough waffle, here's some ruddy pictures for you to look at for your own allotted time of viewing. I hope you find them acceptable to your brains.

Age-1 Spallow WIP

Treating this as a bit of an experiment, as well as some much-needed practice when it comes to airbrushing, and slight modification. I added just 2 extra panel lines to this kit, along the shoulders, and also added a koto round bit to the rear of the shoulders. Looks a little "stuck on", perhaps I should have sunk it a little by drilling a hole.. still, what's done is done. 

Have completed all the base coating, looking mighty colourful. "Inner frame" is the usual gunmetal, the blue pats are now all the awesome looking Tamiya park green, white is now orange, a few yellow bits and a little bit of light green.

I will be masking off some of the park green parts, and adding some Khaki in. Shall also be masking off some of the gunmetal parts, and adding in silver. Its going to look like a psychedelic hippy death ninja by the time its done. In fact.. that'll be its custom name I think.

Age-1 Spallow: Psychedelic death ninja custom.

Yeah. Like that.

Frame parts, in the usual gunmetal. 

The blue parts, now park green.

Look at the colours, taste the toxic rainbow.

Gunpla Update, in video form

Yep, I have finally shown my face on camera and am talking, despite being in the throws of one of the most shittiest colds I have experienced for a while.. listen to me jabber on about gunpla here:

More soon.

Zeta MG WIP Part 4

A little bit of progression in regards tot he Zeta MG 2.0: Painted the backpack now black / red / white / gunmetal. Not really gone into too much detail wise just undercoating really. Base coated the black parts with a navy blue, although the finish I am not entirely happy with as you can see below.. I am hoping the gloss overcoat will disguise the awful sputtering caused by what I can only assume is the compressor. I have 2 moisture filters fitted now, and an entirely new (and quality I might add) airbrush - so the only thing left that can cause a spattering issue is the compressor.. I shall have to save a little to afford a new one!

Anyway, here are some pix:

Ready for re-assembly in around 24 hours time. 

Dodgy finish.. 

Completion soon I hope, gotta meet the deadline :)

The September 8th Update

Time for an update! yes. With the completion of the Palace Athene (that I was very proud of) I am feeling a little more motivated and have decided that my next build will be my favourite ever Gundam, the F91. Its been sitting on my shelf for some time now as I kept putting it off until  felt I had the necessary skill to make it look as good as I want it to. I am certainly more confident now in what I do, but I will however be taking my time as the last thing I want to do is mess it up. I will not be adding any extra detail or panel lining as yet - I'll probably save that for the 1/144 Geara Zulu. I bought a whole stack of detailing parts from Kotobukiya so I will be making use of these to make the Geara Zulu look even meaner. I am also thinking of either a shiny metallic fire burst paint scheme.. more on this later. WIP vids will be up soon. Oh, and before I forget, I must mention my new airbrush. I got a lovely mid-range Iwata neo and gosh what a difference it has made to my airbrushing.. 100% recommend this if your like me, looking to take that next step up in airbrushing. Love it.

Iwata Neo

Kotobukiya detailing stuff

My new toolbox! I outgrew the last one..

Some other news, my good buddy gunplabuilders has been busy on the youtube of late telling us about the exciting GNN news he intends to do in the future. I think this idea is great as I have certainly found there is no "community" type news item channel on youtube for gunpla at all to my knowledge. There are lots of great modellers and people out there actively contributing to the community and supporting its growth who would happily contribute. Fingers crossed this idea takes off, its got my support for sure :)

I have also launched recently a facebook page, here I will be posting picture of my completed work and generally commenting on what I am doing. I would really appreciate it if you can give me a like, if I can get at least 50 I will be chuffed, I think I am at 8 now which is a good start :)

I have been using the fantastic IFTTT to link all of my social media to make things more easily update-able and interconnected. I am also in the process of migrating the content of this blog to a fully-fledged website. It's been in planning for ages but I have never had the time to actually do it. For those of you who don't know I am a web designer by trade although you would not think it looking at my blog :) The idea is it will be more or less the same content as it is now, but I may add a gunpla shop depending on how well I can negotiate with a supplier.

Anyways, thank you for reading and that. More soon, and your support much appreciated :)

I got Gundam Socks!

My awesome inlaws have been very kind to me and purchased some fetching Gundam socks! Featuring the Age-1 Spallow, these 100% cotton badboys may be ill-fitting but hell I am going to wear then with pride! 

Gundam AGE socks muthafukaaa!

Oh yeah, they also actually got me, much to my surprise the HG Age-1 Spallow kit! Awesomeness. I shall paint it in their honour. Thanks inlaws, you are awesome.

Age-1 Spallow, probably actually the only Gundam i fancy throughout the whole of age. Not sexually. You perv. 

Also to a little Gashapon keychain with a beam magnum on it, sadly I cant take a picture of it right now because its on my car keys.. and the wife has the car. Maybe later ill get a pic. Its surprisingly detailed and a nice little bit 'o die casting. 

My finger is pointing at the one I have on the leaflet. 

Palace Athene HG WIP 2

Took a break for a week on this one due to the sweltering heat we experienced, not to mention adjusting to the hours of my new employment :)

On with the work in progress and man, I have been busy this weekend doing a ton of painting and shading, as you can see in the following motion picture show hosted on the you tube. Hope you enjoy, and completion is imminent this weekend with luck on my side.

I couple of minor hiccups on the way, couple of scratched here and there remedied with some light sandng and re-coating here and there. Fingers crossed for the assembly, gloss coating and detailing to follow. Oh, some decals too!

Palace Athene HG WIP 1

Hello! Yep, I have started on the Palace Athene as it has been sitting around gathering amounts of dust upon my shelf. I have also begun a vlog WIP for this high grade Bandai 1/144 scale mobile suit, of which you can view below or on my youtube channel, cleverly linked it to this very sentence.

As you will see from the below vid, not really much happening that's all that exciting, other than the usual tedious monotony of cutting and sanding parts :) I am in process of thinking about the colour scheme, edging towards the pale blue / yellow combo.

More soon :)

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.

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.

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 :)