New resin figure project: Grim Reaper

Towards the end of the Mercedes build, this kit arrived. The sculptor calls her 死神のデス代 or just “Death/God of Death”, I prefer the less final name of Grim Reaper. I picked her up off yahoo!japan auctions right after Winter Wonfest 2018. Unknown to me was that the sculptor: https://twitter.com/chilmirumirumi was already planning on releasing the kit to folks outside Japan through her webshop: http://artfiguegk.theshop.jp/. Yesterday there was a twitter update with two release times: March 17 @ 22:00 Japan time and March 18, 2018 @ 15:00 Japan Time. So for those interested in this kit, keep a watch on her webstore at these times to get it. Her kits sell out, and I don’t think she does multiple runs; so if you want it, get it now. Build her later if you want. I wanted to build her now, so I started a few weeks ago.

The nice thing about resin figure kits are the parts count. The down side to a low parts count is a decent amount of masking when getting around to the painting. The cleanup work is also a sizeable chunk of work. The first thing I usually do is pin together the major parts. The smaller bits are left off so I can get a general idea of what the kit looks like and what I need to do to approach the build. A visual really helps. Plus, pinning is one of the fun things about resin kits, you get a sneak peek into the end of the project.

Turnarounds done, the real work starts after the jump. (more…)

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RX-78 GP03 Ver. “Osaka” Completed!

This was a very quick project. These small resin figures are pretty simple and perfect to squeeze in between projects. Last time I posted that the parts were sanded and soaked in an industrial strength cleaner. A day later, they get the scrubbing treatment with a dip in the ultrasonic cleaner and water.

After the scrubbing session, the parts are laid out to air dry. Once all the parts are dry, I can work on the immediate problem areas on the kit. There are a few bubbles and chipped resin, but a short session with some light curing putty and sanding fills and fixes things. This is just on the bare resin. The parts are now ready for priming.

More after the jump!
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Continue ReadingRX-78 GP03 Ver. “Osaka” Completed!

IPMS OC OrangeCon 2017 and starting a new resin figure project!

This past weekend was the annual IPMS Orange County’s Region 8 Contest: OrangeCon. This is always a great contest to attend. More so now to spread the word that is Gunpla. While setting up, an older gentleman looked over at me and exclaimed, “Hey, you’re one of Those Gundam Guys!” This always makes me chuckle. He then proceeded to tell me that he had met me a few years back at a previous OrangeCon with a friend of his that I had known from a previous IPMS Nationals in 2007. The guy was from Arizona and was inspired by our talk about gunpla and brought his own custom made Zaku; pictured below. Apologies for the dark pictures. SciFi is the redheaded stepchild of model competitions, so we’re usually in some dark corner out of the best lit areas!

He said that he was having a blast building gunpla and was building more. He ended up winning 1st place in the Sci/Fi Mech/Gundam category – that got split into SciFi Gundam and Scifi Non Gundam. But more on that later. I chatted with him for a while and told him about our show, but he’s unable to come because he lives in Tucson. Blah, people from all over the country are flying/driving in for SCGMC. But that’s another story. Fellow TGG members Brandon and Jonathan came and entered their kits. They got 2nd and 3rd in the SciFi Gundam category.

More about Orangecon after the jump.

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Continue ReadingIPMS OC OrangeCon 2017 and starting a new resin figure project!

Time for a quick resin figure build

Time for the first resin figure project of the year. This has been a fairly productive year so far with finishing a number of gunpla project. Time to get at least one figure kit. I picked this kit up at Anime Expo at the Volks booth. They were there last year and back again this year. They even have a location in Torrance, so if I ever need to order something, I believe I can pick it up at their warehouse. Damn cool for folks that have had trouble getting original resin kits. And these are not your run of the mill resin figure kits. These have a high level of quality control. They are engineered using the bandai gunpla model; everything is molded in color. The color separation for these kits are insane. Last year, I grabbed a Revy kit from them and I was sold. You just shake the box and the kit’s done. It’s that friggin simple. Ok, maybe not quite that easy; but if you’ve ever built any other resin anime figure (original or recast) try these Volks kits. For anyone interested in trying their first resin anime figure kit; get a kit from Volks. The comparison is akin to building a macross kit from hasegawa to building any bandai gunpla kit released in the last 5 years.

Last week, we had our July build gathering and the goal for the day was to get her semi cleaned up and pinned together. Like most other Volks kits, she has some options. She comes with two sets of right arms to hold up a sign or her jacket. Pinned together, I have her holding the jacket. Again, the pictures below show the kit as is out of the box, pinned together. The color separation and engineering is amazing.

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Continue ReadingTime for a quick resin figure build