End of March update

An incredibly unproductive weekend due to numerous unforeseen circumstances. Unfortunately Mrs.GundamUK has done something funny to her knee, and as a result I am having to take up the reigns of her usual tasks such as shopping, cooking and taking master GundamUK to nursery. Gunpla time has suffered - and aside from that I am experiencing a bad shortage of acrylic thinner so no work can currently progress on the F91.

On the plsu side however I have managed to dedicate a little time to planning out my mecha lounge chaos GB entry, the Kagustuchi Kou.

I am going to try out something a little more daring than my usual builds - I will be scratch-building some additional weaponry, and trying out some new damage and weathering effects. My original idea was to have a dio, but with my time limited and a June deadline I may reduce this to a simple plinth.

I have begun sanding and cleaning parts - the model itself is actually quite simple and the number of parts lies somewhere between a HG and MG, at a large HG scale. Assembly should be a breeze, and I already do not forsee any requirement for seam line removal. Some pix below along with some koto parts I will be using for the additional weaponry. I have also taken the liberty of purchasing a stack load of styrene rods and such from a good 'ol Chinese ebay-er. Delivery time will be somewhat lengthy but by golly gosh I have saved some bunts. Seriously, from a UK seller, 5x .2mm rods for nearly 9 quid including shipping? Fuck off. How about 48 from a Chinese seller for only a tenner? Hell yes. No wonder model shops are a dieing breed here in the UK. There all greedy bastards. lol.

Oh yeah.. pictures.. here you go:

Gundam F91 - WIP#4

More of the same really this weekend, mostly armour parts. Did not get as much done as expected due to time constraint  but managed to fully assemble the legs and arms. Have now completed around 80% of the painting with only the cannons to be completed now. Lots and lots of panel lining and detailing to come, as well as those lovely, iconic F91 decals! (can't wait..).

Here's a few pics:

Arms, Legs, Bazooka

Hello

Left: completed shoulder bits, Right: Preshaded body parts waiting another coat of white.

Blue body part, hard to see the shading on this though..

Shoulders, oh those shoulders.

Yellow, blue and red body bits. 

Teeny Seabrook waiting on panel lining.

Early March update

Working on a bit of a re-vamp of the old looks of GundamUK, here on the blog, the site, and on the youtube (and wherever else I happen to lurk). The below is something I have been playing around with, its a very short intro sequence test for future vids.

I also made this mock today, which will possibly be the new backdrop of the site and this here blog..

Which still I might add needs a little refining.. this will take time. Here is the intro vid:

I also posted up a Gunpla Update today showing off some models I recently received  as well as other news (including that awesome londo bell badge sent to be by Tian Hong!). 

And yet another vid should be coming tomorrow for the WIP#2 of the F91. Phew, busy weekend!

Gundam F91 - WIP#2

Having completed the inner frame parts of the legs (well, mostly bar some additional things I would like to do once the whole inner frame is completed) I worked on the inner frame parts for the torso and head.

This complete, I thought I should start working on the armour parts for the legs. Unfortunately they did not turn out as expected, but none the less are mostly done.

Having applied the primer a little thick on some parts (and regrettably not sanding them smooth as you are supposed to), adding the first base coat of white created a bit of a mottled finish, so I added another layer of white to smooth it out a little. Worked to a degree - then I decided to do a little pre shading - a technique I am new to. This to, resulted in a bit of a mottled finish but much smoother. All that remains now it to add a top layer of white to smooth it all out, hopefully this will fix it because right now it looks terrible..

Sorry for the lack of video this week.. I did film some but today's and yesterdays work took a ridiculous amount of time.. so much in fact I did not have time to cut a video, so next weeks will (hopefully) be a kind of "double" WIP.

Anyway, a pic below of the pre shaded parts :)

HG Gadessa - WIP#2

I was aiming to conclude this model this weekend but as fate has it, I ran into a little bit of a problem...

The 3 "prongs" that attach to the main weapon were all painted up in gunmetal, with a coating of clear black (as I felt most of the gunmetal parts, after priming were a little too light) were masked so I could paint the inner "rail" yellow. Unfortunately  I masked way too early and did not allow enough time for the acrylic to fully cure.. as a result, after painting the mask the paint peeled off along with the masking tape, leaving a patchy, horrid finish. Needed to all be stripped off, and started again.

Anyway, I decided to dunk all 3 parts into lacquer thinner - massive mistake . after a few mins an icky, sticky ness appeared, and as I wiped off the excess it was very apparent that the plastic has melted real bad..

As you will see in the following vid, I had to scratch build the prongs all over again...

Apart from that, the main model is looking good. The panel lining turned out good, if a little dirty and some finer details have been added. Now all it needs is a gloss coat, and its more or less done.

Completion hopefully next week, I just need to figure out a mechanism to attach the prongs to the main body of the weapon.. I don;t think I am doing too bad considering its my first ever time I have had to scratch build parts!

A video of this weekends exploits right here: