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.

New model store I heard about on the hobby forums!

Just recently on the HobbyFanatics forum, a store was brought to my attention as a new, reliable source for importing model kits. This store, Toyking / Leo Toys, has a great selection of Gundam model kits to choose from; lots of older models that are hard to find nowadays. Also, as a wholesaler from Taiwan, they are able to sell the kits for a hell of a lot cheaper than anywhere else I've seen, and their shipping prices are fair, too. I was a little skeptical at first, since the prices seemed almost too good... but after plenty of reassurance from fellow forumers I decided to go ahead and place a pretty big order (including several kits that I still owed Zig to repay him for some money I borrowed from him several months ago).

So, my order consists of:
1/100 G-Cannon
1/100 G-Cannon Magna
1/100 Guntank R-44
MG Strike Noir
1/100 Overflag
HGUC Gaplant TR-5 "Hrairoo"
HGUC Gundam Hazel II
(only the last three are mine; I was going to get the F90 with the Type A,D,S equipment packs too, but I ended up falling just short of having enough disposable money to spare for it...)

A pretty big list of kits, but the whole order ended up being very cheap; around $150 even including shipping from Taiwan for a 12-lb large package!

After placing my order, I was a bit concerned as I did not hear back from them for about 3 days; but I E-mailed the store and we were able to complete the order within less than an hour! The exchange was polite, and well carried-out. That's pretty good customer service, I think!

And so, I eagerly anticipate my new batch of model kits!

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...

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...).

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:{