Gaijin Gunpla

Gaijin-Gunpla.com!

2010-09-10T17:40:00.004+09:00

This is the big announcement that was posted about before. Yes, Gaijin Gunpla is taking his now cramped Gunpla blog to its very own site, gaijin-gunpla.com!

There you will find all the old content plus some new content I've been holding back on specifically to give everyone something new to see from me. With the new site format I will be able to update more frequently without having my posts get pushed to the bottom of the page and disappear. It is also much easier to follow along with builds I have done and am in the process of doing. A tutorial and supplies section has been added to show people what I am using to construct my plastic projects. Please head on over and check it out!

Unfortunately, the last two posts on this blog weren't exported with the others but have instead been reconstructed over there. That means the comments you left here won't appear on those posts, but if you would like, feel free to copy and paste it over there. It would please me.

Enjoy gaijin-gunpla.com!

Big News!

2010-09-09T23:52:00.001+09:00

Stay Tuned to Gaijin Gunpla for some important news.

Announcement soon.

I'm in!

2010-09-04T20:37:00.003+09:00

In a big way!
I just finished watching the Gundam Unicorn Anime and all I can say is, "Holy $&%#!"

Of course, I already like the Mobile Suit designs from the series having built the Unicorn and Sinanju but what most caused my jaw to drop, and have me instantly hooked on Gundam anime, was seeing the Kshatriya in action. That thing is awesome! The model kit was my first exposure to that suit and I thought it looked big and cumbersome. Man, was I totally wrong. That thing is awesome!

For its size and weight this thing can maneuver. Now I want to build that kit!

I pledge allegiance to Gundam, and the anime on which the kits are based, one whole-lotta-awesome, indescribable, with epic and mecha for all.

The Work Table - Sept. 2010

2010-09-01T14:18:00.006+09:00

Welcome to the new monthly blog segment simply titled "The Work Table".

It occurred to me as I was moving boxes around my work room and trying to figure out what I would be building and in what order that those following this blog might be just as confused, or even more so, than I am. Well, I am aiming to post on the first of every month what I am working on, what I have to work on, and what I want to work on. Or rather, what is "On the Work Table", "Under the Work Table", and "Coming to the Work Table".

On the Work Table

HG Avalanche Exia Dash

Now that I have completed the MG Wing Gundam for Hobbylink.tv I am going to get back to the kit that I assembled while on vacation.

I've cleaned the parts, separated them by color, and already started on the painting and modifications (more on that in an upcoming post.) I don't plan on doing anything too elaborate with this kit, possibly because I left it sitting for a few weeks while working on other projects and lost the fire I had for it. But it will still be an S2 version. ;)

Under the Work Table

I'm pretty sure that this will be the longest part of each monthly post. Basically, this is my backlog and, as most Gunplars know, the backlog is not something that gets smaller. After the Exia build (or during), I will be starting on some of these. So what have I got piled up under the work table?

Real Grade RX-78-2

(x2!)

Yup. There are two of them. I have already built the Real Grade Gundam for Gunpla TV, but because I was building this for a program I didn't really get to take my time and enjoy the build. To be honest, assembling this thing in under two hours took it out of me and I didn't feel like doing it again. However, after visiting the 1/1 Gundam in Shizuoka and seeing it in all its glory once again, I felt I really wanted to build a kit that reminded me of the Shizuoka Gundam and the feelings it conjured up. But... I have for some time wanted to do an RX-78-2 in Real Type Color. So let's do two at the same time! I will be building the regular color version as a series of posts on Hobbylink.tv (and will be working on some kind of base) and the Real Type Color version for this blog. It should be fun! (I hope...)

After that it's the...

MG Sword Impulse

This kit caught my eye when it first came out but I was busy with other things and each time I remembered it and wanted to pick it up it was out of stock. When they finally came back into stock last month I grabbed one right away. I really like the look of this suit and, at this time, have no plans for modifications other than paint, but I love the box art and will maybe try to make a base for it to try to replicate the image. Wish me luck.

MG Musha Mk-II Tokugawa Ieyasu Ver.

(限定）

Picked this up in Shizuoka when visiting the 1/1. Yup, it's a limited edition version of the Master Grade Musha Mk-II that I just finished building. Sure, it's the same kit, but the included stickers and unique color means I don't feel the need to change anything. When I have some spare time I can just take my time and snap this together.

Zaku Cannon

I was teased recently because, although I've had this kit for what seems like a year I haven't even gotten around to taking the lid off the box. The irony of the situation is that the person doing the teasing, who said "You will never build that kit." is now legendary for his enormous backlog. We're talking a huge amount of kits! This is good lead in to the next kits under the work table...

RX-178 'Gundam Mk-II

(Ecopla 限定)

HGUC RX121 -1 TR-1 Hazel Custom

The Ecopla Mk-II was picked up in Shizuoka along with the Tokugawa Ieyasu Mk-II. I'll throw some paint on it and perhaps alter a few things but it should be fun build on its own. The Hazel Custom, however, was picked up in Akihabara back in February with the intention of it being a group build project. The individual who wanted to build this with me is the same one who chided me on the Zaku Cannon and who has not yet gotten around to his, either. Oh, irony. How you make me smile.

Coming to the Work Table

Probably the kit I am must excited to build is the MG Gundam Deathscythe EW Version. I have heard some grumbings around the net that it doesn't have its wings, but c'mon now, it's a plastic model. Build the wings yourself. Well, that's what I intend to try to do.

I also have my sights on the HG Sinanju as well as the Delta Plus. And then PG Strike Freedom this winter!

In a month's time, let's see how my Work Table looks.

The Real Gundam! in SD!

2010-08-29T22:05:00.006+09:00

...so it's not quite real. Or, even less real than the real Gundam.

Another day over 35 degrees. In this heat I am reluctant to step outside unless it is completely necessary, which means I need to come up with fun activities to keep myself and Gaijin Gunpla Jr. busy throughout the day so we don't just waste away watching television. Of course, there are lot of things I could be doing, and many things I should be doing, but most are not something a child could do. I noticed the 1/1 Real Gundam Project SD kit that I picked up when the four horsemen of the apocalypse, I mean, the four bloggers (of the apocalypse?) visited the 1/1 Gundam in Shizuoka on the top of the pile this morning and decided that it would be a good way to waste, I mean spend, half an hour or more.

Here are what you would regularly find inside this SD RX-78-2 Ver G30th box.

And here are the additions.
The blue stand on which the Shizuoka Gundam can be found standing, a nice background with Mt. Fuji (visible from Shizuoka?), and the Gundam decals.

The markings are the same type that were found in the new Real Grade kit. An upgrade over the normal type of Gundam sticker. However, this being an SD, these markings are very tiny. Yikes!

I won't go into the details of the build because it's and SD and there's not much to it. This, however, was not something I had encountered before.

Here's our completed kit. I actually put the markings on after Gaijin Gunpla Jr was in bed, but I did leave on the foil stickers the way she had put them on.
Look at that! She took the black stickers that were left over after you pulled of the eye sticker and put them on the kit, symmetrically! My genes, baby. I'm proud of her.

Here's a closer look at the markings. As this was built for Jr. I didn't bother to take my time with them but rather slapped them on quickly.
In other news...

Hobby Japan's オラザク Contest

2010-08-27T10:37:00.005+09:00

This morning I mailed off my entry to Hobby Japan Magazine's annual オラザク(ora-zaku) contest. It was in the January 2009 issue of Hobby Japan that I saw the first Gundam kit that blew me away, Shimakou's Black Trinity Zaku II 2.0.

I must have flipped through the pages of that magazine dozens of times looking at all the entrants. I intended to enter a kit in the contest the next year, but missed the deadline.

When I looked through the latest issue of Hobby Japan I found the entry form tucked away in the magazine, noticed that the deadline for submissions was September 1st (!), and promptly photocopied it. Then I went out and bought a memory card and moved pictures onto it, stuffed it into an envelope along with my completed form (filled out in terrible japanese ;) ), then put it in the mail on the way to work this morning.

What kit did I enter? That's a secret. Let's wait for the results in an upcoming Hobby Japan Magazine!

I want to take a moment to thank everyone for the comments they have been sending my way and apologize because it seems blogspot hasn't been showing them all. If you've sent a comment and don't see it here, it wasn't because I deleted it, it was because blogspot did something strange which I haven't discovered yet.

In other news

I'm back to masking.

MG Musha Mk-II Step 4: Weapons

2010-08-24T18:05:00.012+09:00

This blog entry is the missing #4 from the sequence of WIP for my Musha Mk-II Gundam. Okay, that's a lie. I must have mistyped when starting the next WIP after number 3 and instead of a 4 hit the 5 key. Ya, that's it. I didn't notice this at all until someone was nice enough to point it out to me. Rather than leave #4 as nothing I thought I would blog about the work I did on the Musha's weapons; the Naginata (薙刀) and the Tachi (太刀).

The Naginata

The shaft for the Naginata that comes with the kit is far too short, so the first thing I did was use one of my plastic rods and make a new one.

I also didn't like the piece Bandai designed as the tsuba (鍔) on the kit so I altered it.

Part on the right, I don't need you!

Now the length is as it should be.

The plastic rod is wider than the original shaft which means the piece that Bandai has for the Ishizuki (鐏) won't attach. I originally considered modifying the rod to fit the Ishizuki but then decided that the Ishizuki would be out of scale with the weapon and so I made a new Ishizuki by taking the existing one and gluing it to a poly-cap I found in my spare parts bin.

I then took a plastic rod of thinner diameter and glued it into the Ishizuki then drilled a hole in the new shaft and inserted it into the shaft (after painting of course).

I used Tamiya Silver Leaf paint for the Ishizuki, Tsuba, and also the blade of the weapon because a gold blade just looks ridiculous.

Because I didn't want a gold blade on my Naginata I went ahead and ordered a part from Bandai , namely the Naginata from the Shin Musha Gundam. I then used the Gold Naginata blade as a test piece for my paint thinner process because I planned to remove the gold plating from all the pieces.

However the blade for Shin Musha's Naginata doesn't mount the same way so instead of modifying the new shaft I had just made I decided to try and paint the Mk-II's blade. And, in my opinion, it turned out looking better than the silver plated blades that came with the kit. The kit's blades are of course very reflective however, because they are plastic of course, upon close inspection they lack all the things that make real forged japanese blades interesting, most importantly the 'grain', or Hada (肌), pattern produced from all the folding. The silver leaf sprayed overtop of my sanded piece produced a result similar to a real blade. So I decided to do it for the Tachi blade as well.

The Tachi

The Tachi as a weapon predates the Katana (刀) and was worn and used differently. To get the aspects of my Mk-II Tachi correct I consulted my reference books.

The Connoisseur's Book of Japanese Sword by Nagayama Kokan. Probably the most comprehensive book about Nihonto (日本刀) written in english.

Here is a picture from the book showing the shapes of the Tachi compared to the Katana.

Generally the Tachi have a deeper sori or curve than Katana and the deepest part of the curve is found nearer to the handle (Koshizori) rather than the center (Torizori). As I didn't intend to bend the blade piece at all I would need to get that effect by bending the handle, or Tsuka (柄). I grabbed a lighter and heated the piece until it was pliable.

Another thing I should mention about Tachi is that the are mostly regarded as weapons used by warriors mounted on horseback. A warrior on horseback would usually have the weapon attacehd by a long rope, or sageo, rather than have it tucked in his belt. It also would come with more elegant mountings. But how to create those mountings out of plastic?

After gluing the parts of the sheath, or Saya, together to remove the seam lines I wanted to add a nice-looking end part to it. The end of a Saya for a Tachi has a metal piece there so what I opted to do was take one of the parts from the second saya that was included with the kit and glue some plastic stripping onto it.

I wrapped this strip completely around the part and let it dry. I then took my pin vice and drilled two tiny hold on each of the long sides and one tiny hole on each of the shorter sides. I then took my side cutters and cut from the edge of the strip to the drilled hole from two angles. Then painted it Silver Leaf. You'll see the end result in the final shot.

The next step was to make the metal pieces that go around the sheath where the knot is tied. For that I took some of the small loops I made previously made from spare parts when constructing the belt and glued some plastic strip onto them, wrapped it around the Saya, and glued the other end on forming a loop.

Once dry I slid it off the Saya and painted it Silver Leaf.

For the Tsuba, or the hand guard, I took my pin vise again and drilled a large hole on each corner so that the corners were drilled off, leaving a star type pattern. For the part on the end of the handle, or Kashira, I rounded off the piece that came with the kit.

It definitely looks more like a Tachi now.

Now the blade. And I spent more time on this than I probably should have considering how difficult it is to see the results. The first step was to remove the silver plating by dropping it into a water/paint-thinner mixture and then to sand off the remaining silver. I then sanded it down repeatedly gradually increasing the fineness of the sandpaper finishing with 2000 grit.

Real Nihonto have hamon! The hamon is the cutting edge of the blade which the bladesmith covers in clay before quenching the blade in water. The result is the very sharp cutting edge Japanese blades are famous for. How the clay is applied determines the pattern of the hamon. It can range from straight (suguha) to wavy (gunome) to some fantastically elaborate examples (sudareba springs to mind).

I don't have clay... or a forge.. or real metal. I'm working on plastic so to produce a hamon on my plastic blade I thought I would try a method similar to what bladesmiths use. I took my silver gundam marker and drew a hamon onto the blade.

Also, each blade has a Boshi at the tip. This is difficult to describe but I decided to try and make one myself. Warning, bad pic on the way...

After the gundam marker I sprayed a coat of silver leaf and the hamon was visible (sorry no pics) but the piece needed a second coat of silver leaf and after that the hamon was much less distinguishable. Just like an older blade that needs a polish. haha.

And here is the Tachi as a finished product, complete with authentically tied knot.

Not bad.

1/1 Real Gundam Project in Shizuoka

2010-08-22T12:54:00.005+09:00

Yesterday was the big day for the long-awaited Gunplar get together with fellow bloggers American Salaryman, Buster from Plamo Addiction, Gundam Guy and myself at the 1/1 Gundam in Shizuoka. Gundam Guy and myself took the Shinkansen south from Tokyo while ASM and Buster did the same but came north from Osaka and Nagoya, respectively. We spent a good amount of time staring upwards at the metal giant as well as standing in line for one purpose or another.

I have seen the 1/1 when it was in Shiokaze park in Odaiba last year but this year it has been erected with a beam saber in its hand as opposed to on its backpack. Seeing it with people who feel the same way about gunpla as I do was rather special for me and we took our time to take in all that was the 1/1 Real Gundam project.

Of course, I picked up a few things as well. 限定！ Yes, that's the Tokugawa Ieyasu version of the Musha Mk-II kit I just built.

After leaving the 'Gundam Zone' we headed to a nearby Izekaya and proceeded to drink. Lots.

The most beautiful Kshatriya ever

2010-08-18T09:00:00.003+09:00

I just want to encourage everyone to head on over to fellow Gunplar, Igro's blog and check out his latest work. It's amazing!

It sure looks a lot like The Yellowbird, ね。 I think the amount of little details he added to this suit sees his Kshatriya surpass the Yellowbird when it comes to yellow awesomeness.

Enjoy!

What I did on my summer vacation

2010-08-17T14:58:00.011+09:00

The new HG Gundam Avalanche Exia!

Yes, I had a week off from work and enjoyed my free time in the sunny locale of chichijima, Japan, which means I spent a lot of time in the ocean. I did, however, sneak a Gundam kit into my luggage when packing in preparation for my trip.

I've been interested in the Avalanche Exia ever since seeing master-modeler Naoki Kimura's 1/100 Avalanche Exia in an older issue of Hobby Japan. But, then again, anything Naoki Kimura does draws my interest. When the Avalanche Exia came out as an HG kit, I took the plunge and picked it up.

Because I was on vacation I was able to build while enjoying other things at the same time. Namely...

Host-supplied Asahi beer! And A&W Root Beer! I can't find this anywhere around Saitama or Tokyo, unless I go to specific international markets, however there is a vending machine on Chichijima which carries A&W Root Beer. I bought an average of two a day. I'm on vacation!

But, oh no! In my haste to get my vacation underway I left home without any tools! Not even side-cutters. Once I made it to my destination I had to search out a hardware store and find something that I could use to cut Gunpla plastic. I ended up getting a pair of 137 yen Nigirihasami cutters. But because these aren't your standard side-cutters I wasn't going to be able to get a good cut when removing the part from the runner. I lacked a design knife to clean up the nubs. What to do? I came up with a pretty ingenious way of removing the part from the runner. My fingers!

For example, here's a standard piece which is attached to the runner by three gates.
First I would cut off the 'lone' connection leaving the two symmetrical connections still attached. Then using my fingers I would rotate the piece so the connections became weak and eventually broke of their own accord.

Then you end up with this. Just some slight trimming and you're good to go. I may incorporate this method when building kits in the future.

Here's the torso. Indeed, you be an Exia.

Each arm is actually assembled using a fair number of parts. There's a lot of places that articulate and the design functions well in this regard. Cleaning up seam lines may be difficult and I haven't yet decided if I will be going this route. It's my vacation, after all. Gotta take it easy.

Upper body finished! Looking good, Ex.

And here's the skirt. I really don't need to go into detail, do I?

With this kit you have the option of building the legs in one of two forms. Big knee caps or small knee caps. Actually, there's more to it than that, but the armour on the front of the legs is where your eyes are drawn.

I built one of each to compare them. I think that big knee cap goes well with the big shoulders, but I'm not a fan of how it looks when viewed from behind. I think I will make some 'changes'.

There are quite a few pieces that are not used when building the Exia Avalanche Dash, but I can't let a nice shield like that go to waste. I just need to find a way to attach it to the MS.

Yes! This will work fine.

Here are all the weapon parts. No real need to show you how they assemble; pretty straight-forward.

The last part I assembled was the 'ski'. I originally planned to leave them off the kit but since I had some free time I thought I would go ahead and assemble them.

The 'ski' looking contraption attaches to the back of the leg and come down underneath the foot. It actually fits really well under the foot and moves with the flexing of the ankle thanks to a clever design.

Here's how it looks with its skis down. Not sure I'm feeling it.

I think it would look better like this!

Will it be possible? I think I can do it. I have everything I need to make it work I just need to 'adjust' a few things.

Here the Exia set up on the stand so as to look like it's flying, complete with all the weapons strapped to its back. That's a lot of stuff.

And then I tucked him away safely for the journey home. See you soon, Exia!

Back to real-life, back to work, and back to Gunpla! (was I ever away?)

Vacation Time!

2010-08-06T18:01:00.002+09:00

I really need a break after finishing the Musha Mk-II so I am on vacation for a week. As such I won't be updating this blog until I return.

Enjoy the next week everyone!

Musha Mk-II Gallery

2010-08-04T20:48:00.014+09:00

Kit: MG Musha Gundam Mk-II

Here he is, the Musha Mk-II Gundam! This kit saw my first real attempt at using epoxy putty, with better than anticipated results, as well as the use of aftermarket parts.

Frame: Tamiya TS-26 Pure White - I wanted this to represent the clothing that the samurai would wear underneath their armour.
Armour: Tamiya TS-29 Semi Gloss Black, TS-4 German Gray, TS-30 Silver Leaf, TS-46 Light Sand
Decals: Used sparingly. Anything white is the official Bandai waterslides while samueldecal.com provided the silver decals which I used on the emblems.
Other: Kotobukiya Mesh Pipe and Wave Springs

Here's the pic I used on which I based my design and colour scheme.

Here are a couple of comparison shots to show the work done to this kit before painting began.

You can see where I puttied to fill in one of the gaps on the feet. I then used decals to make it look like a cord so it would resemble geta, or japanese footwear.

And here's what I did to the tsuba and the sageo (rope) that affixes the tachi to the mobile suit.
And yes, that knot is tied correctly and it took some time to do it. Damn my big hands!

MG Musha MK-II Step 8: Tying one on!

2010-08-02T09:53:00.005+09:00

As this kit is supposed to resemble samurai armour I wanted to do something to the waist area to make it look like it had an obi (belt) of some kind. I detailed here how I modified the waist and chest pieces so now, in this post, I will detail how I got this contraption together.

I had been pondering how to construct it while laying in bed each night (yes, I think about gunpla while drifting off to sleep) so before I even started on it I had a good idea of how I would do it and what I would need.

And all I really needed were some brass rod and a couple of staples.

Step 1: Run the metal spring through the loops as we practiced earlier.

You'll notice the brass rod's length matches the length of the spacing between the belt loops on the side of the waist. I decided to do this because I am going to be hanging the tachi from the belt and if it was just spring the weight of tachi would cause the spring to stretch and sag. This brass rod will be more than enough to support the weight of the tachi.

Step #2: Insert the brass rod.

The 1.5 mm diameter brass rod is just the perfect size to slide into the spring. I had to use a toothpick to push it into the right area so that the belt loops support both ends of the rod. Then I repeated the process for the other side. The Tachi can now hang from either side of the waist.

Step #3: Attaching the spring to the front armour.

This is where the staples come in. I inserted the end of the spring into the hole I had drilled in the front chest armour piece. Then I slid the staple through it perpendicularly so that it acts as a stopper, preventing the spring from coming back out.

Then I repeated the process for the other side.

To get this onto the frame I first attached the front armour to the torso and then attached the waist armour onto the skirt. And Voila! My musha has himself a belt!

Unfortunately, I don't have a good quality pic to show how it turned out. On the plus side, the painting and decaling and assembly is finished. I should have a completed gallery up any day now, although I still have some work to do on the weapons. The construction of the tachi and naginata has been finished and the painting and topcoating completed. I need to tie the sageo (cord) to the tachi and then secure it to the belt and I also need to put the extra-long Naginata together. Hopefully that will be finished tonight!

MG Musha MkII Step 7: Painting

2010-07-28T23:45:00.005+09:00

So I've called an end to my modifications and moved onto the final stages of the build; painting. For the main armour color I am going with Tamiya Semi Gloss Black and to give that armour a smooth finish, I resanded the pieces with 1500 and 2000 grit paper before priming. For pieces to which modifications had been done I used Mr. Surfacer before laying the paint down and for pieces that had no mods done I used Tamiya Primer. The secondary armour colour is Tamiya German Gray. For these pieces I used Taimya Primer White as a base and I also used the White Primer for the pieces that are being sprayed with Tamiya Light Sand. Yes, you read that correctly. Light sand.

Here's the largest armour piece for the leg. What you can't see well from this picture is that before painting I drilled a tiny, shallow hole in two places along the shin area. This is for... well, you'll see.

Here's the backpack. I wasn't too big a fan of the backpack design on this kit, but it has grown on me and fits the overall design. That semi-gloss black comes out really nice, too.
Another piece of the backpack. The entire backpack will be Black except for the metal springs I have used and one piece which I am painting German Gray for contrast.

And the kind gentleman at Samuel Decal sent me a sheet of Musha MkII decals. In silver! No gold to be seen anywhere!

Unfortunately, I was so busy priming, painting, painting again, top coating and starting the whole process over on the next set of pieces that I didn't take many pictures of the process. I'll try to get more up soon. Next blog entry will detail how I got the Obi, or belt, to work. And it worked, let me tell ya!

Why not a preview?

限定 ANA Gundam!

2010-07-27T08:54:00.008+09:00

A good friend of mine flew ANA recently and took advantage of the promotion going on in cooperation with Bandai. What a great guy! What this means is that I got my hands on one of the limited edition 1/144 ANA RX-78-2! This kit is based on the 1/144 HG 30th Anniversary Gundam except that it is Titanium Finish! (or is it 'Extra Finish'?) Either way, it's shiny and I dig it.

I couldn't wait to put it together so this past Sunday morning, with my lovely assistant at my side, I opened the box and set to it.

Here's a look at the contents of the box. Polycaps, ANA special marking stickers, and shiny runners!

After about 40 minutes we came up with this:

It was a fairly intense and tiring 40 minutes.

I took it to work the next day and put it in the photo setup hoping to get some good pictures to show to everyone the special finish.

An enjoyable build couple with the shiny finish means good value for my as-yet-unpaid 3000 yen. If you bloggers out there can find a way to pick up this kit I highly recommend it. One thing of note, the special ANA stickers are very thin and highly adhesive so if you make a mistake in placement it will be difficult to pull off and redo. I made a bit of a mess with one of the shoulder stickers (which I hid by positioning the kit in specific ways for the photos. hehe)

The Maiden Hoi Hoi

2010-07-25T19:26:00.008+09:00

Yes, that was a (weak) play on words.

After building Gundam plastic model kits for over a year now my eyes are starting to wander. Don't worry, baby. You're still my number 1.

One series of kits that intrigued me were those from the Hoi Hoi mini-exterminator androids, or whatever those things are. I would glance at them when they rolled through the door at HobbyLink Japan but never felt the urge to pick one up until I saw this one. Pest-X san. A cute, little wavy-haired android dressed all in black and waving little daggers around? Count me in!

With painting of the Musha on hold in part due to three straight nights of lightning storms I decided Pest-X san's time had come and cracked open the box. With only my side-cutters and hobby-knife, we're talking straight-build, baby.

Interestingly, if I did decide I wanted to do some painting, Kotobukiya supplies me with decals for the face. That's a nice thought.

The box contents are pretty much what you would expect for this sort of kit.
All parts, of course, come molded in colour and Kotobukiya has even gone ahead and coloured some of the parts in two colours.
For articulation, a small set of polycaps and a runner of joint pieces are all this kit will need.

The manual starts with the legs and there's nothing out of the ordinary here. The hips are ball joints and the knees bend as knees should. The ankles are articulated by the round polycaps.

Put these pieces all together and you get: A blurry pic!
Next up is the hips. Some trimming with the hobby knife was required to ensure the fit was proper.
Then the torso. The small piece on the lower left of this picture is the zipper. It never stays in and I think I will be resorting to glue to keep it in place.

The coat and cape are articulated using tiny pieces.
And I mean tiny. Not surprisingly, these tiny pieces don't really stay in place.

The arms articulate at the shoulders and elbows and wrists, as one would expect. They hold together well.
If you don't know about these Hoi Hoi kits, Kotobukiya gives you three sets of eyes but only two faces. So one set of eyes will be lonely. Don't neglect it. You don't want to make Pest-X san mad.

My face of choice is the evil grin with the eyes staring straight ahead. That's right. That evil grin is aimed at you!
My back up is the smirk face with eyes looking to the right.
There are a lot of pieces used in the assembly of the head and for the most part that is a good thing. You get lots of articulation of the hair and hairpiece, etc. However, the downside is that the head is very heavy.

For weapons, the daggers and sword come as two pieces. I note with glee that one half of the dagger looks like a jutte. I may leave them that way and have the only dual-jutte wielding Pest-X in the world. (Well, I did until I wrote that sentence.)

As I just mentioned, the head is very heavy. Honestly, in my opinion it is too heavy. My Pest-X can't stand up on its own! For that, she needed a helping hand.
After playing (term used loosely. Is it really playing when you are starting to get angry?) I managed to get her standing on her own. Posing is almost out of the question, though.

Overall, it was a good way to kill an hour and a half and the look of the finished kit is very good indeed. She's cute and menacing all at the same time, and that's how I like it. I don't plan on picking up another Hoi Hoi any time soon, however, if another intriguing looking one comes out I will have to re-consider.

In other news...

I got myself the Real Grade 1/144 RX-78-2! I should note that this is not the same RG that I built for GunplaTV With this kit I get to take my time and turn out a finished work that I can call my own. Already ideas are forming in my head.

And, thanks to a good friend, I got myself a 1/144 ANA RX-78-2! The cool thing about this kit? Titanium Finish, baby!
And today I went off to the local bookstore and grabbed the latest Dengeki Hobby which comes with a base for a 1/144 kit.

Next post will be on the ANA Gundam (built it this morning) so please look forward to that. And then, more Musha MK-II goodness!

MG Musha MkII Step6: More Awesome!

2010-07-21T22:02:00.008+09:00

I had an idea in my mind what I wanted to do with the waist. Tonzo made a good point earlier about how it is narrow. I wanted to come up with a way to make it look like it was wearing a thick belt, much like a real suit of japanese armor. So off to my spare parts box I went.

I found some things that looked promising and proceeded to.. well. see for yourself.

In order to bring my idea to fruition I had to mutilate some pieces. Such as the torso part of the frame.

Now you see it...

Now you don't.

And this part too.
Hack! Hack!

I then grabbed my trusty pin-vise and completed the next step.

This now allows the other spring I purchased to slide through.

And those pieces I cut off at the beginning of this thread? They form the 'belt loops.'

Awww Yeah!

I was commenting to a fellow gunplar the other day how I am now at the point where I am second guessing myself and wondering if I should stop now and quit while I am ahead. His reply was very succinct: "You've gone this far. You might as well go all out."

And he was right.

So I got the shoulders and glued some seam lines.

Then I grabbed the plastic again.

And also glued the seam lines on the back of the arm part of the frame.(You can see in this picture that I forgot to put the poly-cap back in before I glued it together. Oops!)

Took him to work this morning for a final test-build shot before I start the painting. Pretty much any white you see in the shot is a modification I have done.
Now that I look at it. I did a lot of stuff! Let's hope the final result is worth it.

MG Musha MkII Step 5: Begin the Awesome!

2010-07-17T22:02:00.008+09:00

Not a lot of text in this entry, but there are enough pictures to show everyone what it is I have been working on the last couple of days. The pace is picking up and this project is making a big jump.

To begin the awesome, I needed some supplies. Here's some Wave 2.5 mm diameter spring and some Kotobukiya mesh pipe. But I will talk more about this later....

See this thing?　(This part is for the lower leg armour for those who don't know.)

Bam! (What did he do?)

And these things? (These are for the rifle, btw)

Bam! (This is a secret for now)

Back to the spring. In order to do what I wanted with the spring I needed to 'reshape' a couple parts.
But the result was well worth it!
And fully functional too!

And glue, then trim.

I then bit the bullet and decided it was time to break out the putty. I am very 躊躇う when it comes to putty. (That kanji means 'hesitant to do', btw)

Polyester Putty:

Epoxy putty: (You can see I filled in the feet to make them look like geta)

Here's the underside of some of the shoulder armour.
And here are more shoulder armour pieces.
After some sanding (actually a lot of sanding)

Not bad for my first real attempt with the epoxy putty. I am not so scared of it now.

In Hobby Japan we trust.

I was reading the Hobby Japan magazine to determine how the modeler went about modding the head.
He cut a little of this and that. So I did too.
Then I glued the helmet together.And a couple of hours later sanded down the seam lines in prep for painting.
And I also finished up the backpack.

Even more awesome next time!

MG Musha MK-II Step 3: Mods and another Test Build

2010-07-14T17:16:00.006+09:00

I received a couple of questions about how I modded the thigh armour to look more like yoroi (鎧). Well, allow me to explain.

Here's my Evergreen Styrene which measures 0.25 mm thick by 4.8 mm wide. Due to its thickness, or thinness, in this case, it bends easily without creasing allowing it to be placed over curves. It also sticks almost instantly once glue is applied meaning I could put the piece on, come back a few minutes later and trim the excess away.

I also used it for adding detail to the shoulder armour.

Glue. Then trim.

I also added it to the top of the lower leg armour to cover up the hollow that was visible.

Glue. Then trim.

I also added extra plastic to the center block of the skirt armour. This was 0.5 mm thick.

Say it with me. Glue. Then trim. (then sand).

I have also worked more on removing some of the seam lines as this kit has quite a few of them. For those who don't have the kit in their hands this piece has a visible seam line on the very top. However, I failed to notice that I am supposed to insert a length of the mesh pipe before assembling. Oops.

I have also finished removing the gold plating from all those pieces. That took a lot of time, some paint thinner, and sanding. I went through at least a sheet of my 400 sandpaper.

I then decided to reassemble it, a test-build 2.0 if you will, to see where I was at before deciding on what to do next.

The results so far are more than satisfactory.

Some things I noted that I (may) want to fix:

1) The head seems too high on the neck. I have a plan for the helmet but may also have shorten the neck or make some kind of collar as well.

2) The seam lines from the were-gold pieces on the feet are visible and asymetrical. I will have to glue them together and take out the seam line before painting.

3) On the outer part of the lower leg, the was-gold piece has what looks to be a cylinder and I can't figure out what it is there for besides looks. I may cut down that piece and reshape it.

4) The feet. If this was a suit of armour the wearer would have geta (下他？）on his feet. Basically a split toed look. I am considering using putty to fill in one of the hollows on the end of the foot.

I am still in the process of narrowing down my colors for this kit. I think it may have 5 colours when all is said and done. Yikes! I have to write this stuff down before I forget.

Introducing Gaijin Gunpla Junior!

2010-07-12T16:32:00.008+09:00

It was a rainy day yesterday and my daughter and I got a little bored sitting at home so we grabbed our umbrellas and walked up to the Toys 'R' Us, or as she calls it, "ABC!" She likes to read the big letters on the wall every time we go there and then she sings the ABC song for a while afterwards.

Once inside I headed towards the Gundam section but she grabbed my hand and led me off to the section where the riding toys are located. She found one she really liked and proceeded to putt around the store for 10 minutes. I eventually gave up following her and told her I was going to see Gundam and she followed me on the toy.

"Gundam yaritai! (I want to do Gundam!)", she said when she saw all the boxes, so I grabbed a couple of SD/BB Gundams and asked her which one she wanted.

"Kochi (This one!)"

The O Gundam Type A.C.D

I have no idea what any of that means, but it's kind of cute.

So we went to the cashier, paid our 499 yen, and walked home, although she decided she didn't want to carry her umbrella so I had to follow behind her holding her umbrella above her the whole way.

"Akete! Akete!" (open it!) is what she asked me as soon as we got in the door. So I did.

I didn't bother using any cutters, just pulled the parts from the runner and handed them to her and showed how they fit together. She, for the most part, put the parts together on her own.

Of course, her favourite part was the stickers and she did her best to put them in the right area. I had to fix only a couple of them. Once the sections of the SD were assembled she stuck the ball joints into their sockets and we were done!

Excellent!

And the most important thing when it comes to Gunpla, and life in general, is to enjoy yourself.

Good job, junior!

It's the little things...

2010-07-07T15:54:00.006+09:00

Now that I've finished some work related projects I am back to tinkering around on the Musha Mk. II Gundam. I intend not to rush this project because I want to get it right and end up with the sense of satisfaction that comes from knowing I didn't cut corners. As a distraction, should I get frustrated with the Musha, I've picked up;

Hoi Hoi Pest-X san and...

the HG 1/144 Exia Avalanche Dash.

I previously wrote about the horns and how I removed the gold plating. Now I have glued and sanded down the seam lines and I am left with this!

And I think they look pretty cool. Someone mentioned how they look ivory and I would tend to agree with them. I am now torn between painting them the colour I originally decided on or leaving them as is. Leaving them as is would mean I wouldn't be taking out the seam line on the helmet. Hmm...

And here's the upper thigh armour:

This effect was created by taking my evergreen plastic strips and layering them overtop of each other. This will now look like the upper legs are covered in proper yoroi (鎧) or armour. There's still some clean-up, of course, to be done in prep for painting but I am very pleased with how they turned out and also how easy it was for me to do.

What will I tinker with tonight?

MG Musha MkII Step 2: Starto!

2010-07-04T23:45:00.005+09:00

I have finally finished the Ma.K. Snowman that I needed to complete for work which now leaves me with free time to work on the Musha. Seeing lupes' nearly-completed Musha was the kick in the pants I needed to engage my brain and start thinking about what I want to do with the kit. I got out my books and pictures and stared at designs and patterns for a while before getting an image in my head of what I want my version of the Mk.II to look like.

To start with I disassembled the Musha and sanded down all the pieces in preparation for painting. Taking into consideration that I want this suit of armour to look like it has seen battle I used 400 grit sandpaper and left it at that.

Here's the armour parts divided into sections.

Still some clean-up work to be done on the frame pieces. I don't want to use 400 grit paper for the frame because the frame is supposed to represent what is under the armour and when you think of yoroi, under the armour is a type of robe made of fabric.

Because it's fabric, it needs to be smooth. bye-bye seam lines.

Here are the parts that will need to be modified. I won't say yet what I will be doing.

One thing I should mention is that my colour scheme does not use any gold, so all the Gold mecca pieces need to be addressed. Thanks to last month's issue of Hobby Japan, I know how to get that mecca off.

Tuddah!

Mr. Hobby Color Thinner

I made a part water, part thinner solution in a plastic container and dropped in the piece. I started off with probably too little an amount of thinner in my mixture because the mecca was taking a long time to come off. I gradually added more and more.

The result (after some sanding):
With the mecca gone I can glue these together and remove the seam lines before painting them.

The ball is rolling.

Now with More Plamo!

2010-06-28T14:22:00.005+09:00

Gaijin Gunpla is the title of this blog, and also has become somewhat of a nickname for me by the online Gundam model community, however, there is more to Plamo than just Gunpla, as I am finding out.

And I am branching out!

I was asked to put together the new Wave 1/20 scale Ma.K. Snowman as a blog entry on the hobbylink.tv site, and of course, because I will do whatever it takes to help my company succeed, I agreed to build a plastic model kit.

My co-worker, who has never built a plastic model kit in his life, really liked the look of this machine and picked up the kit for himself. He asked me the basics of building and I have been offering him hints on what tools he would need and what to do and not do when building a kit. He then asked me, "Can you make it look like this?"

And so the challenge has been made, the gauntlet thrown down, the bet placed.

Let's see what I can do!

MG Musha Mk-II Step 1: Research

2010-06-24T10:25:00.008+09:00

Finally I am able to get a start on my Musha MkII. I know fellow bloggers Busterbeam and lupes are already well underway on this kit and have written a few entries about it, which makes me feel like I am late to the party. But the time spent not building has not been wasted! (I do waste a fair amount of time, though. I just have less of it to waste these days with new projects being undertaken at work.)

I have some ideas of what I want my Musha to look like, but before I start hacking up plastic I want to make absolutely sure I know what my vision is. That takes research.

Luckily, I know a thing or two about Yoroi (鎧) or Japanese armour.

This is the definitive book when it comes to Japanese Armour. The title could be translated as 'Encyclopedia of Japanese Armour and Weapons'. Written by arguably the most recognized authority on the subject, the late Yoshihiko Sasama, this book gives you everything you want to know about armour and its history. And there are lots of pictures and diagrams. C'mon, I'll show you.

Yoroi

Patterns

More Yoroi

Undergarments

Different types of arm covers

Helmets

and Tachi (太刀）

As you can see, the blades included with this kit, although named 太刀 by Bandai, are quite different from the real thing. As these are designated tachi I intend to make my plastic ones look just like real ones, or as close as possible. There will be modding. More on that later.

I mentioned the vision, or perhaps the more appropriate term is 'rough idea' of what I wanted to do with this kit. I have two actually and haven't yet decided which way I will go. I have managed to find some pictures that accurately represent what I want.

This one carries the same look as the kit. Some work will need to be done to the armour to make it look like more like, well, armour. The colours also look pretty good to me with that orange trim. I'm a sucker for orange.

This is the famous Date Masamune's suit of armour, identifiable by the crescent moon shaped ornament on the Kabuto (helmet). This suit goes more with the normal colours found on the Mk II and also has some light orange trim.

Hmm.. decisions, decisions...

But fear not! This post is not devoid of plastic.

That's how I roll.

Gunpla TV on HobbyLink TV!

2010-06-21T10:14:00.003+09:00

Rather recently Hobbylink Japan started up its side project, Hobbylink.tv, as a way to offer those interested in the Hobby Industry a behind-the-scenes look at various companies and projects as well as more information on the products HLJ carries. The response has been fantastic and led to many discussions about what else we could offer.

When asked for my input my response was simple;

"Gunpla."

I'm sure readers of this blog are well aware of the attraction of Gunpla and its enormous popularity around the world, which is why I mentioned it without hesitation. That and it's always on my mind. ;)

After some discussion about what kind of videos we could make about Gunpla the opinion was voiced that we should just start at the beginning. Introduce Gunpla through hobbylink.tv to those who may not know about it and also offer those familiar with it something new to see.

As I am the 'resident-Gunpla-builder' here they asked me if I would be willing to appear in the videos.

Of course I would! I would love to introduce Gunpla to the world! I would love to be the face of Gunpla! (not really). But most of all, I would love Gunpla to be my job. And now, in a small way, it is.

And Gunpla TV was born.

Thanks to all you Gunplars out there for supporting Gunpla in all its various forms. This is for you!

HGUC G Gundam Ver. Ka Gallery and final details

2010-06-18T14:50:00.010+09:00

Kit: HGFC G Gundam

Before I get into the gallery pictures I thought I would detail the last few, well, details that I put on this little beauty.

I used the parts of the outline of the foil stickers to fill hollows in the head and also the shoulders.

I masked off the part of the chest which would stay blue and then sprayed some Gun Metal then followed that up with an Aurora sticker. I love you Aurora stickers! Alas, you are almost gone.

This HG turned out to be a lot of fun to work with and the end result is, I feel, one of my best looking pieces of work which surprises me considering how small this fellow is.

Frame: Gun Metal

Yellow: Tamiya Chrome Yellow

Red: Mr. Hobby Red

Blue: Mr. Hobby Blue

White: Mr. Hobby Gray #9

Top-coated with Mr. Hobby Super Clear Flat

Decals: GD-75 MG V Gundam Ver Ka. Decals (perfect size too!)

Aftermarket parts: Kotobukiya Duct Nozzle II

Onto the pics!

I tried to get a good close-up up the head here to show the panel line work as well as the final look of the V-fins.

And here's me trying to replicate that famous pose found in the instruction booklet... several attempts ;)

Here you can see the aftermarket vents/nozzles after painting.
In this shot you can see the aftermarket vent/nozzle I put in the shoulder, the job I did filling in the underside of the claws and the hollows on the red 'wing' which I also filled in. You also will not see the male/female connector on the underside of the armour which I successfully hid under a small piece of plastic.

And here's the Core Lander.

HobbyLink Japan 'PLAYING WITH PLASTIC' Gunpla Competition!

2010-06-16T18:19:00.007+09:00

Big news from HobbyLink Japan!

HobbyLink Japan has recently launched its hobbylink.tv site and as part of the festivities is holding a Gunpla Building Competition which they have dubbed PLAYING WITH PLASTIC!

Here's the details!

http://www.hlj.com/gundam2010.html

There are several different categories allowing Gunpla builders old and new a chance to win some really good prizes, the biggest being the lusted-after upcoming Master Grade, THE-O!

There's actually two chances to win yourself THE-O. Hobbylink Japan wants to encourage viewer submitted content to hobbylink.tv by offering the upcoming enormous MG kit to the person with the best video submission.

Other prizes include an MG V-Dash gundam kit for category winners.

Second place finishers will receive a Real Grade 1/144 Gundam.

All entrants receive 10% off an HLJ purchase!

So fellow Gunplars, let's show HLJ what we can do!

Oh no he didn't!

2010-06-14T14:26:00.002+09:00

Oh yes I did!

1/144 G Gundam Ver Ka.

...coming soon.

HG G Gundam Work Log 4: More light mods

2010-06-10T11:30:00.003+09:00

While I don't intend to try anything extravagant when it comes to modding the G gundam, there are a couple of places I felt I needed to make changes, if for no other reason than to give myself some piece of mind. You know what I am talking about. Those little things that stick out at you and bug you until you do something about it, even though they may not be viewable once completed.

For example, the underpart of the shoulders. The armour on the G fits together using the male/female connection, but that connection is viewable from certain angles. Well, not anymore!

A small piece of plastic glued overtop and that is that. Actually, this was more difficult than I thought it would be. I didn't want to interfere with the articulation of the arms at the shoulder joint so I had to get that plastic the perfect size (or what I consider to be the perfect size). Painting awaits.

Another part that I may have mentioned earlier that irks me is the underside of the wing, or is it fin?, which is part of the corelander. For reasons unbeknownst to me, there be hollows.

Well not anymore!

Some Mr. White putty and sanding later the hollows were filled. I should mention that after spraying the Mr. Surfacer there are some blemishes with the putty use but my Musha MKII is beckoning to me and I need to get the G finished before I can move onto the next project.

The hollows in the underside of the claws were also filled in.

The design of the claws didn't sit right with me. You can see how the claw fits over the peg. Sure this allows the claw to open and close but it just doesn't look right.

Voila! More plastic!

I simply glued on some .03 plastic, then once the glue had dried, cut it down to the right size and shape. A quick test reveals:

That's better. Now the claws look like this. Painting awaits!

Once painted I'll do some decal work using some of the many remaining decals I have collected over the past year or so and see what I can make of the G.

Also, there's more big news on the way soon but I can't let the cat out of the bag yet. Ooh, suspense. A great literary tool.

HG G Gundam Work Log 3: Light Mods pt 2

2010-06-04T21:58:00.007+09:00

With the G Gundam the idea is to play around and experiment with modifications and such. So let's look at what has been done with the head. Above you can see the three pieces that make up the head. I wanted to try and get rid of the seam line which means...

First you take this piece and...

BAM!

Right in half!

Cutting this piece allows me to glue the seam line and then insert this piece afterwards. But to do that I need to...

BAM!

Gauge out that extra plastic!

Then glue the pieces together. I also took the opportunity to reshape the lower 'jaw' part of the face, by cutting away some plastic and giving it a sharper look.

And this is where we're at. So far so good.

I then moved onto the dual V-fins. First I cut some plastic off the ends, then sanded them down to make them sharper.

And then...

BAM!

Okay, nothing too exciting here. I simply separated the small fin from the large one.

And then I cut away some plastic near the base of the V-fin.

Leaving that for now I moved onto the legs. Or would the correct tense be; Leaving that for then I moved onto the legs. I've been in Japan just long enough to start losing some English. Soon I will speak neither language well. But I digress... I won't be doing anything to the armour but I did want to try something with frame. I picked up some parts from Wave and Kotobukiya.

I test fitted a vent, or is it nozzle?, onto the leg frame where the rear armour lifts off, however, it was slightly too long and prevented the leg from closing properly. I had to cut away a tiny sliver of plastic and do some sanding.

I broke out my seldom-used tube of Mr. White Putty and got to work filling in the spaces.
After that dried I sanded it down and then glued on the the Nozzles. Or was it Vents? What word did we decide to use for these? They look alright don't you think?
Next up: Mods to the forearms and shoulders.

RX-0 Unicorn - Destroy Mode Gallery

2010-06-02T10:52:00.010+09:00

Kit: MG Unicorn Gundam

(For more Unicorn Gundam goodness you can view galleries of the Gatlings, Bazooka, and Rifle.)

Well, here it is. The 'Destroy Mode' gallery. And with this I can properly end this chapter in my gunpla life. And not a moment too soon, I must add. Transforming this guy and then trying to get him to stay that way while I posed him was a chore. The clasp at the back that is supposed to keep the torso in destroy mode won't stay closed which meant he would often become wobbly and lean forward. His shoulders would start to close, his arms would pop off, his feet wouldn't stay open. Add to that the problems I encountered with the camera set-up at work -couldn't get the lighting right- and I am admittedly quite happy to be done with this.

In this shot you can see what I did to the rear center block on the skirt. I like it.

Here the 'Gray Ghost' poses with his nemesis, the "Yellowbird" (I still love this thing!)

I don't intend to keep him in Destroy Mode, but I may display him in a hybrid sorta way for the next little while.

So long Unicorn!

Happy Birthday to Me! Get busy!

2010-05-31T12:13:00.015+09:00

So it was my birthday yesterday. I turned __ years old, however with everything that has happened in the past year, it may be more appropriate to say 'I turned old'.

And what did I do on my birthday? Well, first I woke up early to join the community association people to weed the local shrine. Yup, me and a group of geriatrics sure showed those weeds a thing or two.

After that...

I cleaned my room.

The wife has been on me to clean up 'my room' for some time, and you can see why.

This is where the magic happens. However, I misplaced the magic somewhere and haven't been able to find it since. Okay, I guess she has a point. This time...

So I started on the most important part first; My gunpla work table.

This pictures doesn't show the scope of the work I had cut out for myself. There were some interesting things amid the jumble of gunpla tools and supplies on this table. For example:

This came with the MG GM Ver 2.0 that I picked up some time ago. What do I do with it?

Here are some various 限定 items that come with 500ml teas and things. Ebay here we come!

Oh yeah. My Zaku Cannon. I still intend to build this guy. In fact, I have been itching for some Zeon action recently, after building mostly 'good guys' for the last little while. Once the Musha MKII is finished (when will that be?) I will jump all

over this kit like Oprah on a baked ham.

Some other discoveries:

Receipts for the money orders I sent off to Bandai when I needed parts for myself or fellow gunplars. Why do I keep these?

Old, used, and dirty sandpaper. I thought I threw these away...

After a fair bit of digging I discovered a grisly scene.

Buried beneath rubble was this HGUC Eco Gundam. Judging from his position, his death must have slow and painful. Let's have a moment of silence.

But it wasn't all doom and gloom and tales of woe. I found these cool things!

Some time ago I received an envelope from Australia. The good sir at the Gundam Australia Forum sent me a care package consisting of what you see here. Some nameplates to go with my custom Sinanju, a sanding stick (already put to good use!), a Gundam Australia laminated mini poster (which may end up on my cubicle wall at work) and Gundam Australia.com stickers! Aw yeah! The Gunplar community is strong.

After a couple hours of organizing, reshuffling, discarding, prioritizing, net-surfing (ssshhh.), and things that could be considered housework, I arrived at this point.

The Corner:

Before & after:

The Desk:

Before & after:

The Shelves (they're behind the table):

Before & after:

And this:

became this:

The magic has returned, baby!

RX-0 Unicorn - Unicorn Mode Gallery

2010-05-28T10:44:00.011+09:00

Kit: MG Unicorn Gundam
Details

Frame:

Tamiya TS-38 Gun Metal

Top-coated with Mr. Hobby Super Clear Flat

Armour:

Light color = Mr. Color Gray #9

Dark color = Tamiya TS-81 Royal Light Gray

Feet = Tamiya TS-48 Gun Ship Gray

Top-coated with Mr. Hobby Super Clear Flat

Backpack:

Tamiya TS-28 Olive Drab 2

Verniers = HIQ short 8 mm, inside painted Tamiya TS-19 Metallic Blue

Psychoframe:

You have to wait...

Decals:

Wave X Decal 4 - Black + White, plus some Dry Transfers

Weapon Details

Rifle:

Tamiya TS-48 Gun Ship Gray

Tamiya TS-30 Silver Leaf

Top-coated with Mr. Hobby Super Clear Gloss

Bazooka:

Tamiya TS-38 Semi Gloss Black

Tamiya TS-30 Silver Leaf

Top-coated with Mr. Hobby Super Clear Gloss

Aurora Sticker added

Cartridges:

Tamiya TS-50 Mica Blue

Top-coated with Mr. Hobby Super Clear Gloss

Gatlings:

Tamiya TS-38 Semi Gloss Black
Tamiya TS-30 Silver Leaf
Top-coated with Mr. Hobby Super Clear Gloss
Aurora Stickers added

Decals:
Wave X Decal 4 - White

Beam Sabers:
Tamiya TS-72 Blue Clear

Let's take a look at some of the details.

Here I have extended the rear center block for the skirt. It turned out nicely and doesn't look out of place when viewed from the front.

The mechanisms in the foot were painted with Mr. Hobby Silver. Viewable from certain angles.

Here you can see the tiny piece of plastic I added to the arms near the elbows to cover up the hole which previously allowed you a view of the psychoframe.

Next up: Psychoframe Photos!

Unicorn Gatlings

2010-05-26T11:13:00.003+09:00

HG G Gundam Work Log 2: Light Mods

2010-05-24T22:51:00.003+09:00

This being an HG, I am not as hesitant to jump in and start messing it up as I would be with an MG kit that I paid several thousand yen for. The first mod in this build occurred when I was building the skirt. It snapped. But it snapped right in the middle where I was going to cut it anyway. This will allow the front sections of the skirt to move independently. I will leave it the way it is so that there is some friction which will help these pieces stay in position.
Here's the upper leg. The side has a seam line yet the rest of the side of the leg has no panel or seam line. So.. let's get rid of that seam.

Oh ya. Just lather that glue in there.
The red wing pieces of the コアランダー have hollow on the inside for reason unbeknownst to me. It looks kind of tacky, and there is no indication in the manual that there is a purpose to them (although I have been known to miss those kinds of things). To the putty!
That's better.

On the underside of the shoulders there are small vents. If I left them as is they are almost indistinguishable from the rest of the shoulder due to being molded as part of the shoulder armor. I want to bring those out.

That's one way to bring it out!

I haven't yet decided what I will use as a vent, whether I will clean up the piece I just cut out or whether I will look at aftermarket pieces, or even build my own. It's all up in the air.

One thought I had; if I build my own vents the gaps would probably be fairly large, meaning what is behind the vent would be viewable. As it stands, the underside of the shoulder pieces aren't all that nice to look at so I figured I would put in a 'background' before moving onto a decision with the vents.

We'll just glue this little plastic piece in here.
Let that dry and then glue the shoulders together so I can take out the seam lines.

That's it for today. Next up I will be trying to figure out what I will do with the head. There's a big seam on there as well but modding it may be a little difficult. I have a plan that may work though.

In Unicorn news, the feet have been decaled as well as the Gatlings. I now await a rain free day in which I can spray the final topcoat and then do the final assembly.

Then pictures!

HG G Gundam Work Log 1: The Build

2010-05-23T14:07:00.007+09:00

The G Gundam. When I first saw images of it as a Master Grade kit I wasn't too intrigued. The glowing hand doesn't do anything for me really and I don't know the anime at all. However I felt strongly compelled to pick it up after looking through the manual and box, and it's tough to resist the plamo temptation. Open up the manual and you are shown a very nice kit. A lot of work has been done to that kit in the picture and perhaps I can come up with something similar, or destroy it altogether. But that's okay! It's an HG. Far less expensive than an MG and I won't feel a great loss if I screw something up.
Open up the box and here's what you will see. Three bags of runners. That's it? Just three? I am disappoint.

Here's the.. what's this thing again? Sometime I feel I need a Gundam tutor. Someone who can tell me what the hell this thing is that I am constructing and what it does. According to the manual this is the コアランダー. Okay then.

And here's the torso semi-assembled. One thing I noticed right away is that although the manual shows these tubes as being yellow, they are just molded in blue with the rest of the chest. Hmm. I may want to fix this.
Here is one tiny head. Really tiny. The macro setting really shows a lot of the detail though. If you look closely, you can see my DNA. Megapixels at work!

The forearms were very straight forward, much like the rest of this little HG. One thing I have noticed during construction is that the armour doesn't really fit over top of an assembled frame like an MG but rather, the frame pieces are more or less constructed around the armour pieces. What does this mean? Easy seam line removal!
Shoulders! I will definitely be removing seam lines on these (among other things). More on that later.
Tuddah! Arms! (Really, what else is there for me to say here?)

And the top section is complete. I am impressed by the amount of detail molded into this HG kit. People have been applauding Bandai's HGUC line for some time and now I can see what all the fuss is about. I am intrigued.

...and Suntory Premium Malt Beer... mmm...

I like the design of the feet and haven't considered any modifications, but that could change at any time though. I be wishy washy.

Here are the sections you assemble before the final construction of the legs. Again, due to the way the legs are designed, seam line removal looks to be easy, but how many seams/panel lines are too many? Too few?_

The assembled skirt. I already have decided on a modification to this section (explanations on the way).

And there he is fully assembled. All systems go!

But this is more how I wanted you to see him.

Next post I will explain some of the sections I want to change and the modifications I anticipate doing. I should mention here that I chickened out on the planned modifications to the Unicorn. After several different design attempts I wasn't confident enough in my plan of action for modification and the last thing I want is to have the overall look of the Unicorn model ruined, or detracted from, because of terribly modded feet. I think the HG line will be my playground when it comes to mods, putty, and sculpting.

What does this mean for you, the reader? Unicorn photo-gallery soon! I hope to be finished before the Musha MKII hits this thurdsay.

G, why not?

2010-05-21T17:56:00.002+09:00

Neo Japan Mobile Fighter GF13-017NJII G Gundam!

I haven't been one to build the HG kits despite being around them constantly at work. I mostly enjoy the engineering of the Master Grade line and have stuck with that despite promptings from fellow Gunplars that I am missing out. I have an HG Hazel Custom buried somewhere in my work room that I was supposed to build alongside ASM and Buster of Plamo Addiction but that hasn't panned out yet.

While writing the item description for this kit I had a look through the manual and glanced at the runners and, well, it started to grow on me. Maybe because it looks F91-ish. Would that be F91っぽい?

So I'll tinker around with this when I get too frustrated with my Unicorn feet and before I start on the monster project that is going to be the Musha MKII.

Wish me luck.

Unicorn Bazooka

2010-05-20T12:36:00.006+09:00

Unicorn Rifle

2010-05-17T12:00:00.004+09:00

Weekend stuff

2010-05-10T11:58:00.005+09:00

Had a very busy Saturday, and made myself busy on Sunday.

Saturday morning I picked up a Canadian friend of mine who has recently moved to the Nagoya area. We used to train at the same dojo in Canada so he wanted to try out the training here in Japan. It's good to see old acquaintances again, however it also stood as a reminder of how far I have come since those old training days.

I had a japanese lesson in the early afternoon and as soon as it ended I hopped onto the train and made my way to Akihabara. Once out of the station, I saw this.

As you can see, there was a line. As I wasn't planning on going there that day it was of no consequence to me. I made my way to the old watering hole, the HUB, where I met ASM and was handed this.

Yup, Gundam shaped yaki anpan or whatever it's called. After discussing gunpla, life, the universe, and everthing with ASM for several hours over many beverages, I made my way home.

And slept.

The next day was mother's day, however, my wife had work in Tokyo so she left at her regular time leaving me at home to take care of my daughter. I wanted to take advantage of the gorgeous weather and finish up my decal work so I sat down at the kitchen table with my decals and supplies and handed my daughter a pair of scissors and construction paper. She learned how to use scissors while I cut out and applied decals.

The shield is now finished. Here's the lower half:

And here's the top half: Whoa! What's that? Dat's money!

(There was a bit of an episode when I went to apply the final top coat to this piece. The S2 blew off and away. I found it on the patio and carefully picked it up and put it back on, moving it into position carefully. Next time, Marksofter!)

The other side of the bazooka has now been decaled and topcoated. I went for an a-symetrical look.

And after the decal work, my daughter and I went to a nearby park where we played on the swings and slides for an hour, then we did some shopping and had some lunch. She was getting cranky and started crying shortly after we returned home so I laid on the couch holding her on my chest until she fell asleep.

Then I carefully laid her on the couch, crept upstairs..

and built gatlings.
There will be work done to these.

For now, the entire Unicorn is finished! Except for the feet. I still have to construct the feet.

Once I get going...

2010-05-07T22:29:00.004+09:00

...things get done!

I used a few spare minutes I had here and there during the last couple of days and was able to finish some of the little things. Such as:

1) Clip, nip, sand, paint, topcoat and build the hands.2)Finish assembly of the shoulders.
3)Insert the sensor for the bazooka.
4) Add some decals to the upper arms and torso to break up all that gray.
I did this after top coating with Flat so I definitely had to use the Mark Softer to keep them on and prevent silvering.

5) Decal the Bazooka ammo cartridge. (I may add one more)

6) Apply decals to one side of the bazooka. Decal work. Once I get going.. I can't stop!

There are a couple things I noticed that need to be painted again. For instance, this part of the bazooka should be silver not black (oops).

And this part should be all silver. (again oops)

7)I also sprayed paint on the destroy mode antennae, but have not yet decided exactly how it should look. I keep forgetting about this piece, actually. Hence the lack of picture.

And I still have to work on the feet. I have sanded them down and the next step will be measuring and drawing to decide exactly how much I want to extend them. I feel they are too short for such a tall kit so I want to give them a beefier look. I have a feeling this will be the last piece of this puzzle.

Oh, except for the Gatlings! Hrrrr..

Tomorrow I am a busy bee, meeting a Canadian friend and taking him to the dojo for morning practice, returning home hurriedly so the wife can have an hour or two to herself before I have my japanese lesson in the afternoon, after which I hop on the train right away to Akiba and meet The American Salaryman where we will be exchanging pieces of plastic and stories over beers. And the next weekend we do it again, but this time with Buster from Plamo Addiction.

Golden Week is Golden!

2010-05-04T19:33:00.008+09:00

When it comes to Gunpla!

I have managed to use some of my extra free time to apply the remainder of the decals (sans shield) and start final assembly. I love days off! Now if only I was organized and used my free time more productively, I might actually be able to do the things I am supposed to do such as studying my Japanese. Ah heck, it's the holidays.

Onto the Gunpla!

The skirt is completely finished. All decals have been applied and a coat of Flat has been sprayed.
Here is the result of my lengthening of the center block on the rear of the skirt. I added some Wave decals to the area that was lengthened in an effort to make it look like I did a better job than I did ;)
Open sez me!
By the power of Grayskull!

I am using the same Wave decals I used on my Sinanju and pretty much following the same process as before; cut away the tiny parts of the decal you don't want, or conversely, cut away the tiny parts that you do want. This took longer than I had anticipated, but still nowhere near as long as with the Yellowbird. I wanted only minimal decals on this bad boy.
With these I cut away the tiny red circle.
And then used them for the shoulder armour, resulting in..
There's one piece that was just topcoated today so final assembly of the shoulders will wait for now.

Here's what the legs look like with the custom decals.
(hmm.. dare I make a Decal Guide like I did with the Yellowbird?)

For the armour on the arms, I needed a really small decal. Actually, I needed four really small decals. However, what I had that I could use looked like this. (red circle already cut away.)
Cutting the text into a square shape using the width of the word 'Caution' as a guide...
x 4!
With the final result looking a little something like this:

I also have a completed torso to show off! Unfortunately, the pictures turned out poorly so my showing off is rather anticlimactic.

Some of you may remember this:
It was the first picture I released revealing the colour scheme of my Sinanju. Many people were quick to notice the German warning sticker on the side of the head.

And now.. Pair-look!
I decided to do this rather last minute so it had already been flatcoated. I used my marksofter to make quick work of this decal.
That's about it for now. I am currently working on the masking on the bazooka. I do mean currently. I am actually doing it while I create this blog entry. T h a t i s w h y I a m t y p i n g s o s l o w l y.

I also spent twenty minutes this afternoon to nip, sand, and paint the hands. I will check for any paint errors and if everything looks fine, flat top coat in the morning before I head off to the zoo. It's Childrens' Day in Japan tomorrow and I will be spending it with my family. Speaking of family, it was the 5th anniversary of my marriage on May 2nd. How time flies when you are... living life.

Nothing to report, sir

2010-04-26T14:57:00.004+09:00

Well, not a whole lot to report but I did manage to get some things done this past week despite being busy with other things occupying my time and mind. It seems quite a few people involved with the Unicorn Group Build have been busy with some important things lately. Which reminds me, ASM you should contact me ASAP. Stories to tell.

Here's the end of the Bazooka. I masked it and painted the Silver Leaf however, the black did need to be touched up. The copic markers worked well and you can only see the marker marks if you look closely (which is exactly what my camera does when in macro mode...)

Here's the rest of the bazooka. The seam lines are in the process of being removed. I had to add some more glue to some seams to fill a gap. I try to use glue for that rather than break out the putty which is more time consuming.

And the lower half of the legs are almost complete. There are a lot of pieces on this thing! More decaling is needed before the final assembly of the legs will be finished. I think I could pound it out in one night if I wasn't so distracted right now.

You can see the piece that is painted a lighter gray than the majority of the armour on the knee joint. I wanted to break up this big mass of gray without resorting to Ver. Ka like decals. After the V Gundam, I live in fear of the Ver. Ka decals. In the natural light it looks pretty good.

I will have a whole week off starting on thursday. Hurray, for Golden Week! When I am not out and about I plan on jumping on this thing with enthusiasm in order to get it completed before the Musha Mk II arrives. I am still 面倒くさい about the putty work, though.

Messing about with Paint, Parts, and Decals

2010-04-19T10:31:00.009+09:00

What's this thing?

It's actually the missile cartridge that slides into the bazooka. The first thing I did was glue it together and remove the seam lines, then follow that up with a coat of Mr. Surfacer.

I had pondered an idea way back when I was building one of my first Zaku IIs, but didn't want to mess up a Zaku so didn't follow through with it. This time I thought I would give it a go. If it turns out alright, I can incorporate it into my next Zaku, or maybe my sitting-here-since-last-year MG Zaku Cannon.

After the coat of Mr. Surfacer I sprayed some Mica Blue, then masked off the section that would stay, hopefully, Mica Blue. Then some Chrome Yellow, then some more masking, then some Semi Gloss Black.

Here is what it looks like when the layers of masking were removed this morning.

Look ma! No seam lines!

And now it is fully assembled (decaling to come)

(bad pic = bad presentation = my bad)

Thanks to the mother-in-law staying at my house for a week, I have become child-free for good chunks of time. I was able to do sections of decal work without a 2 and 1/2 year old girl jumping on me saying "Gundam! Watashi mo yaritai!"

I started with the pieces on the back of the leg. I needed to have them decaled and top-coated so I could piece them together with the leg frame before moving onto the next part of the leg frame construction.

And now my legs, or my Unicorn Gundam's legs I should say, look like this:

I was excited to get to this step because it meant I could see what my after market thrusters will look like.

Ya baby!

And my positioning of the aftermarket thrusters seems to be perfect, as the armour closes up without a problem, unlike what I discovered with my backpack thrusters.

I was also able to sit down one evening while Maw-in-Law was bathing and putting my daughter to bed and finish the rifle. The Wave decals turned out pretty well and I resisted the urge to overdo it.

I will get around to removing the seam lines on the Bazooka shortly and one of these days build up the courage to break open the putty and mutilate, I mean modify, the feet. Still a good amount of decaling to do as well.

Ch-ch-ch, Changes

2010-04-15T13:42:00.005+09:00

To start things off, I will give everyone a peak at the Unicorn head. There is some clean up left to be done, but you can get an idea what it will look like. The OVA unicorn doesn't have any decals on the head but there is some 'dead-space', particularly on the back of the head, that I am thinking of filling.

I have also begun the masking on the weapons. I won't be doing anything too extravagant, but I gotta make it mine, ya know?

This is from the bazooka:

Masked:

Unmasked:

And this is part of the barrel on the bazooka:

The bazooka will be silver and semi gloss black. I sprayed this piece black and then masked off the parts that will stay black before spraying the Silver Leaf. I will be taking a marker to do touch ups before topcoating. When I get home I will pull the masking tape off and see just how much touch up I have left for myself.

I should mention that right now my mother-in-law and grandmother-in-law are staying at my house for a week so I don't have lots of time to sit down and gunpla, but I am trying anyway!

The the elongated block for the center part of the rear of the skirt. I have glued and sanded and glued and sanded and came up with this (crappy picture):

After making this part longer I realized that the underside of the addition would be viewable when looking at the Unicorn from the front. Rather than have just a hollow, I decided to add something (not too difficult, of course) to make it a little more interesting.

This is all I could come up with:

I gave it a coat of Mr. Surfacer yesterday morning and then went out to paint it and, Oh noes!, had no more paint left in my spray can. Luckily there is one can available at work. It is now on my desk waiting to come home with me.

One of these days I should be feeling adventurous enough to tackle the feet.

One side

2010-04-13T11:05:00.004+09:00

is finished!

Not really much to show, but I did manage to get one side of the rifle, and cartridge-like thingies, decaled this morning. To do so I had to get up at 6 am. I did get to bed early last night so it wasn't as hard as it sounds.

I picked up a set of WAVE decals from work for use on the Rifle, Bazooka, Gatlings, and Unicorn, although other than the feet there won't be much need for white decals on a gray Unicorn.

http://www.hlj.com/product/WAVOP-471

These decals are the same as the black ones I used on the Yellowbird.

http://www.hlj.com/product/WAVOP-472

They will make a splendid pair, desho.

Anyways, onto the pics!

Here's the rifle. I really like a well done rifle. This has been painted in Gun Ship Gray while the silver is, of course, Silver Leaf. I am considering using this gray on the Unicorn feet, which I am procrastinating about. I removed the rifle's seam lines fairly well, and only the opening separated slightly when I stuffed the silver piece in. (more details here.) Because everything went as planned, there isn't a need to do any touch up. Yay! Score one for the good guys!

And those cartridge-like thingies?

Mica Blue baby!

I spent the first few minutes, while shrugging off drowsiness, cutting these little suckers out one by one. One the decal sheet they are actually in one line with about a millimeter of space between. Ya, I need help. I'll spray topcoat tonight to hold these on and decal the other side in the next couple of days.

I have already used some of the dry transfers on the backpack, and used the larger ones for the Unicorn's shoulders. Other than that I won't be using them again. Well, I can use one of them with a slight adjustment.

We'll just cut away one of those words.

As a bonus to all you readers out there (笑), I am including this pic I snapped in the local mall the other day. On the 3rd floor there is a large hobby area with Gundam kits, and RC cars, and slot car race tracks, and two large Gundam statues! These things are over four feet tall!

(slightly) Modify!

2010-04-10T22:10:00.004+09:00

When I was doing the test build, one thing I noticed about the arms was that some of the psycho frame showed through even when in Unicorn mode. Let Dalong show you what I mean.

Look to the outside of the elbow joint part of the frame. You can see the red psycho frame. Yada! What can I do about this? I considered using mesh tubing, but finding one that small may prove difficult. I then thought about covering that gap with some plastic, but that would interfere with the rotational movement (even though I don't know why this part has hinges anyway).

Here's the pieces in question:

My solution?

Enter the 0.03 mm styrene!

Now wouldn't it be nice if the styrene width was the perfect length for that gap? Of course it would be nice. However, life doesn't work that way.

I took my trusty Buzz Lightyear ruler (don't make me post pics) and measured the gap to be about 6 mm by 3mm. I then cut that size out of the styrene and test fitted it. Too large. After some trimming I got it to the right size.

I won't be using glue to hold this in place because I want this piece to be able to pivot as it is a hinge of some sort. The paint will be what holds this piece in. As you can see, it still rotates!

Success!

Success times four!

This is the easiest modification I will be attempting on this kit. The next modification will be done to the feet and, as it involves putty, will be much more difficult. Even moreso when you consider my inexperience with using putty.

Then the secret modification that will blow your minds (should I pull it off).

Modify!

2010-04-08T12:16:00.004+09:00

So I can't leave well enough alone...

This is the middle piece of the back of the skirt (Ver. Ka use). In the Ver Ka kit this piece was too long and interfered with the rotational movement of the torso. Bandai rectified this on the new OVA kit, however, I still didn't like the look of the piece. Am I ever satisfied?

Let Dalong show you what I mean.

You can see that the central block of the rear skirt armour looks rather short when compared to the pieces on either side of it. I wanted to try and make it slightly longer.

Using the old central block that is now a spare part on the OVA kit I took my trusty saw and, well, you already saw that part. Get it? 'saw that part'! I'm awesome today!

Let's glue these pieces together!

I will let that sit for a couple of days and maybe add some more glue or just move right to the putty part. Then sanding, mr. surfacer, and painting.

Here's how the front of the shield turned out after taking the masking off.

Apologies for the quality of the pic. The iphone was handy and I snapped these pics rather than get up and look around for the camera. Don't waste time when you can Gunpla, folks!

And the moving pieces of the shield are also finished, although I may add a panel line or two.

If you look carefully, and have good lighting (none of which is featured in this pic taken hastily this morning) the metallic blue piece is still transparent. Success!

When not working on the Unicorn I have caught myself daydreaming about it. I am sure I am not alone in this regard however I am reluctant to state it openly (especially to women). These daydreams let me to come up with an idea.

If I can pull it off, epicness! Is epicness even a word? My word processor says otherwise. epicnicity?

I will be getting a hold of some extra parts courtesy of ASM and Bandai and will use them towards the epic. This part will be kept secret.

Slowly but surely

2010-04-04T21:40:00.005+09:00

The title pretty much sums it up. With the inconsistent weather and the large number of pieces that need to be prepped, (primed), painted, and coated I have been chugging along. I would guess that I am about halfway through the build now.

Things finished:

*Frame is painted and flatcoated.

*main body armour and head is painted and for the most part topcoated in prep for decal work.

*Rifle has had the panel lines removed and is painted. Waiting to topcoat.

*Assembly of frame with psycho frame is as far along as it can be before needing to add armour.

I have some bits and pieces to show (off).

The results of the masking on the shield part:

The pieces that make up the ankle joint:Why did I do that?

So it looks like this:
I really like my gundam to have moving parts that stand out. That's why I am usually painting pistons and levers and things of the like.

Things left to be done:

*Paint the bazooka. (There will be masking.)

*Decal (everything)

*Paint and top coat the leg armour.

*Cut, sand, and paint the hands.

*Mask the shield for the next stage of painting

*Panel line (everything)

*Modify the feet. (I bought some milliput and I want to give that a try. If it fails I will be ordering some replacement pieces from Bandai). (and I still don't know what color the feet will be; Olive Drab to match the backpack? Gunship Grey to match the rifle? Black? Red?.. Red??)

After writing this I will have to reevaluate my position and state that I do not think I am halfway finished.

Back to the gunpla!