More work on the MG-styled F90

I've finally resumed work on the MG-style Gundam F90 that I started last October.

I had it put away for a while, since I had cut one of my fingers pretty badly while modifying the original feet of the HG F90 kit... but decided I had better get back to work on it.

Over the past couple of days, I've done some fairly extensive modifications to the legs. Here's an overview of what I've done in recent work:

1- I separated the knee area from the original HG F90 leg; since the MG F9a kit has a double-jointed knee but no separately movable kneecap, I decided it would be cool to attach this piece to the joint section of the knee so it can be movable as well.
2- I removed the accessory hardpoint from the leg pieces in order to glue it together as one piece; I'll soon do a lot of putty and sanding work to bring the halves of this piece together.
3- Since the F90 has a recessed area on the inner calf that corresponds with the intake vents on the F91 frame, I cut out the recessed area to expose the vents. I also made the inner calf its own separate piece just like the hardpoint, for the same reasons.
4- The finished inner calf (for the left leg), with the part with the vent on it glued in place. I'll fill the space between the part and the armor with putty once I get some more.
5- The original front lower leg from the old F90 kit. Not much to look at, and not very poseable either...
6- I cut up and trimmed down the inner part of the F91's rear skirt armor in order to attach it to the skirt armor of the F90. It took a lot of effort, but this is one of the parts I'm proudest of.


Here you can see the left inner calf and the rear skirt armor in action. Perfect!

Next, I plan to cut off the back half of each of the lower shin armor parts that came with the F91, in order to make the "exposed ankle" look of the F90. As for how I'll create the exposed components, I haven't figured that part out yet...

Here's a test-fitting of the parts for the torso and the arm. I'll also be using the F91's face in this build, as well. Also, note the section I cut out of the F91's abdomen; this will be to accommodate the F90 cockpit, which I will be extending to the interior of the torso just slightly.

Another grail kit obtained!

A couple of days ago, I received the 1/100 scale Nobel Gundam kit from Mobile Fighter G Gundam in the mail!


As many of you may well know, two of the things I like most are women in armor and unique mecha designs which stand out from the rest, and this one fits both criteria (well, technically, it's not a "woman in armor" so much as an "armored robot that is woman-shaped," but it applies just the same in my mind). The reason I had been wanting this kit in particular for so long, was because it is in such a dynamic pose. And then when Wijaya informed me that he happened to have an original that he'd be willing to part with, I wasted no time in taking the opportunity to get it from him.

After some test-fitting of the parts, the only possible issue that I might have during the assembly of the kit is the weight of the "hair" since it only has the head to attach to, and the neck may be a bit thin to support the weight. But, it's nothing some pins and CA can't fix! :D

As some may say, the levels of dorkdom go as follows:
The person builds model kits = Moderate Dork, maybe just average Joe with a hobby
The models in question are giant robots = Severe Dork, perhaps of the variety who listens to Japanese music all the time and shuts himself in for marathon anime sessions
The giant robot model is in the form of a Japanese schoolgirl = King Dork; one who is beyond the point of ever being considered normal. LOL

Up for a promotion!

Hello!

I am happy to report that I am up for a promotion at my job! I'm one of the candidates among those who applied to become Trainers here, due to my prior experience as both a trainer and a supervisor at another job! The pay is $2 more per hour, and it gets me off of the phones... hopefully I'll be one of the people selected for the job.


In other unrelated news, while I was working on the F90 Type-V kit I purchased recently, I managed to give myself the worst model-kit related injury I have yet to sustain. On the bottom of one of the feet, there is a recessed area in the middle between the treads that is really hard to get to for the purpose of getting rid of any glue piled up on the seam... so I took an angled "chisel"-type hobby knife blade to scrape away the glue. Well... the glue line resisted for a bit, then suddenly gave away; allowing the blade to slice RIGHT THROUGH THE TREAD ON THE SIDE OF THE SOLE and into my finger. The blade went all the way through to the bone, severing an artery and instantly unleashing a small spray of blood; some of the spatters reaching 3 feet from my desk! D: Two paper towels were completely soaked in less than a minute as I attempted to contain the bleeding, then I held a proper cloth towel over the cut for another half-hour or so until it slowed down to the rate of a normal hobby knife cut (lol). It's now been about 4 days since I did that; the hole is healed up, but my fingertip is still numb... The amusing thing about the whole ordeal when it happened was that the first thought that went through my head was not "OMG this hurts" or "Wow, that was stupid"... but rather, "I'm glad I was planning on painting this thing!" :D

Anyways, the art lessons are going fairly well; I'm still having a bit of difficulty fitting everything into my schedule, though... but I finally managed to get some decent screencaps of the mech Hathor from Zone of Enders for the redesign project requested by Kyle 3 months ago... so hopefully I'll have some time to work on that before too much longer. ;_;

New project: Doven Wolf

Hello! I've begun work on another new model kit, Bandai's 1/144 Doven Wolf from ZZ. The kit is from 21 years ago, and definitely shows signs of its age! The parts fitting is not exact in all places, a lot of the parts edges have spots on them that are rounded or otherwise showing wear from the old molds, and the polycaps don't give quite the amount of grip that they should. In addition to these, some of the "box" type thrusters are missing any details that would indicate an actual thruster being there, and the waist and neck joints do not move at all. So, taking all of this into consideration, I think I will make this my second extensive kit mod!

Here's the kit, next to my oooold 1/144 Blue Frame Astray for size comparison:



Of course, this thing is held together with tape due to it having been released before the invention of snap-together kits... It's still in the test-fitting stage for now while I plan the mods on it. :B

Mods that I plan to make:
-adding ball-joints to the waist, ankles, hips, and neck
-adding weight inside the feet
-building box-type thrusters on the calves (you can see where they're supposed to be)
-replacing some of the thrusters with aluminum ones
-possibly replacing the hands; these ones cannot even hold the gun that came with the kit
-possibly running an LED light up into the head for the Mono-Eye, as well as hooking up LEDs to the beam cannons on the chest... it would be cool to make the switch one of the Incoms on the backpack!

Since I don't have all of the supplies I need for this thing quite yet, I won't start a WIP thread on HobbyFanatics just yet... plus I'm a slow worker, so I don't expect to get this thing done for maybe two months...

Yet another Grail kit in the works!

Hello!

Hobbyfan has just announced that they are going to be releasing a resin conversion package for the One Year War version RX78-2 Gundam to make the one from the Gundam Evolve movie 15! This kit looks really good; I can't wait to get my hands on one!

Also, my other Grail kit, the Re-GZ Custom, should be entering production soon! Unfortunately I do not yet have the kit required to make that one... but hopefully it won't be too hard to find it. I've been going to the Anime Palace booth at GenCon each year since they generally sell their Gundam kits at about 60% MSRP during the convention; hopefully I'll be able to find the MG Re-GZ there.

More Model Madness!

Just some minor updates to the progress on the Bawoo!

I managed to do some small repair work to the joints on the back unit, and modified it a little so that the Bawoo Attacker's thrusters will move a little more like those on the V-Dash Gundam. Due to having some spare parts around, I decided that I'd go ahead and do some other slight mods to the machine as well...

Ingredients:
"V-Dashified" Bawoo fuselage
spare Zeta wings
merging the wings that the Bawoo comes with
spare Kotobukiya polycaps
extra thrusters (oops not pictured)
LOTS O' PUTTY! (not pictured)

...WHAT COULD HE BE THINKING?!?!

I'm also almost done with my custom color God Gundam! Check it out! :D

...too...shiny... :D

The King of Hearts emblem was a pain to get on the kit, too... having to cut off of a PAPER STICKER (darn cheapass Bandai of America...) a tiny yet highly detailed symbol the size of the head of a Sharpie... plus, the sticker had a blue backdrop (so the kids they think are the only ones who would buy the kit would not have to do any painting), so the cutting had to be painstakingly precise... D:

New project: 1/144 NG AMX-107 "Bawoo"

Hello!

I just recieved 10 old "Non-Grade" ZZ series kits from one of my buddies on the hobby forums! The first one I decided to work on is the AMX-107 "Bawoo," Glemy Toto's personal mech from the series.


The parts are on four runners, all of only two different colors: neon orange and yellow. Given the age of the kits, the plastic is just a wee bit brittle...

The piece with the fuel tanks on it , which also supports the thrusters and wings, was only held to the kit by a tiny little peg, which unfortunately snapped very easily... D: With a bit of sanding and the addition of some polystyrene "support braces," it shouldn't be too hard to fix. ;)

So now the only problem is the color of the plastic. For colors as bright as these, there is only one option:

Yep, the good-ol' trusty can of primer. I usually skip this step, since I usually just do small detail work and weathering, but for this I'll make an exception! Unfortunately, due to the way the parts are set up, the kit cannot be painted until it is fully assembled if you don't want the plastic scars to show, since it cannot be snapped together to remove parts and subassemblies for painting and the only parts that are actually removable on the finished kit are the arms and head... (the instructions actually advise painting the parts on the runners, which doesn't sound like such a bad idea at this point...).

YOU ARE SHOCK!!!

Actually, this post has nothing to do with Hokuto no Ken, but the expression just seems to fit what I'm feeling right now. :D

I've been tracking the progress of Vicious Project's Re-GZ Master Grade Conversion kit for quite some time now... I fell in love with the kit all the way back when it was in the initial planning stages. I was expecting the kit to be around $170, but then lo and behold, I found THIS.


...Needless to say, I put it on reserve...


This will be my second conversion kit, and fourth resin kit overall. By the time it finishes production and I recieve one in about 3 months, I should have enough skill to be worthy of it! :D


YOU ARE SHOCK!!! :D

Edit: The kit is temporarily unlisted on Hobbyfan since they want to make sure that they will be able to produce enough before listing it officially; the blog of Vicious Project (the sculptor of the conversion package) can be found HERE.

Hand-painted mecha... yay...

Here is a 1/144 scale (I think; but it seems a bit smaller somehow... \(0_o)/ ) God Gundam kit that I'm currently working on. A lot of the details are a bit small to even mess with using an airbrush due to the size of the kit (or rather the lack thereof), so it was time to break out the good ol' brushes and have a go at it. I wanted to do a "Hyper Mode" version, but the whole solid gold thing kind of bores me... so I went with making up my own custom color scheme.



Picture taken with my scanner, since my digital camera does not work for some reason... D:

Testing something out...

Testing to see how good (or not) a scanner is for taking pictures...

The subject: 1/100 Gundam F90-IIL (not painted yet)

FINAL ANALYSIS: NOT GOOD!!!
The image ended up distorted due to the 3-d nature of the subject...

I'm too broke for a camera though... D:{