6 days after starting on the kit we finally crawled to the finish with the thing, well, as finished as we’re going to get anyhow.

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This is the 1/100 OO Riser that a few members of the model build gathering an I are challenging ourselves to build and see how fast we can clip, sand, seam, paint (shading), decal, and wash the sucker. So far we’ve gotten about three hours of work in for the past two nights.

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June’s model build gathering was smaller than the previous month. A few folks are working more so that they can take the first week of July off for Anime Expo. So this was a nice relaxing build gathering. We had one new member to the group and hopefully he’ll come back and start building seriously like the rest of the group. Scott’s starting to move away from 1/400 and smaller scaled kits to a 1/144.

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Last Sunday, I had tickets to the Hollywood Bowl; and coincidentally, Charlie was in town, so we went to the event together. The event was a bit of a surprise to her as it would had never crossed her mind that I would be interested in such an event or even enjoy some of the music. It was game 2 of the NBA finals with the Orlando Magic playing at LA against the Lakers. So all around, there were men grumbling about missing the game for this event. Angel sent me updates to the game. And the game actually ended just shortly after the start of the concert. Had they not gone into over time, the game would have ended before the concert even began.

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Ok everyone, the folks at AX have put up the information page for the Anime Expo Model Contest. So if you’re planning on go to Anime Expo and you build models – you have no excuse for not entering! The group of judges are highly experience model builders and have judged at various model competitions such as IPMS and the IPMS Nationals. I will post additional information as I receive it. Click here for more Anime Expo discussions.

In addition to the normal Model Contest, there will also be an “At Con” model contest that will start at the convention and run the length of the convention. So if you’re planning on staying at the local hotels, bring some tools. More details for that will be released as we get closer to AX!

Edit: Here is the schedule for my panels and workshops at AX this year:
Thursday, July 02, 2009 – Day 1:
7:00pm to 8:00pm – WS 2 – Gundam Model Building
8:00pm to 10:00pm – WS 2 – Gundam Model Building Workshop

Friday, July 03, 2009 – Day 2:
5:00pm to 5:50pm – LP 3 – Resin Model Building
7:30pm to 9:30pm – WS 2 – Gundam Model Building Workshop

Saturday, July 04, 2009 – Day 3:
4:00pm to 4:50pm – LP 3 – Gundam Model Building
8:00pm to 10:00pm – WS 2 – Gundam Model Building Workshop

Full schedule is here: http://www.anime-expo.org/programming/schedule/

The conditions over the weekend were once again amazing, so Stan and I planned on meeting up at Shaw’s between 7-7:30 for a dive. We wanted to get there early to avoid the crowds. But this is prime scuba class season, and when we got there, there were 3 separate classes. There were a good number of other divers around as well. The drawbacks to having so many divers in the water is that they tend to kick up the sand and visibility drops as a result. And in some of the inner reef areas of shaw’s, it’ll get crowded. It’s like trying to enjoy a drive up PCH in traffic. But I did get some nice pictures.

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Diving before work. Taking advantage of the great conditions, I ended up going Friday morning. There were several divers out there when I arrived. There were three divers suiting up when I parked and started getting ready. I entered the water just before they did. I snapped a few pictures of them while I kicked out to the drop zone.

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