Last project of the year, SD VF-1J is done!

Going to go back a month and some change to just after SCGMC 2018. At least, that’s when I dropped the photos from my camera to the computer. I had been steadily working on the little project in hopes that I would actually have it done for SCGMC. That didn’t pan out. I kept making little modifications here and there. Here’s the last bit of mods I did for the kit. Below is a picture of the original chest block; an empty space. Since I did some details to the head, I figured I could use more practice with the circut cutting machine I have and add some details here too.

As a quick little teaser, I also finished this kit about a week ago. More details of the final mod and finishing the kit after the jump!

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Master Grade GM Sniper 2 Modifications List

I got to thinking about the kit and the mods I made for the thing and never really got around to listing them out. It is not only for the competitions that I plan on attending; but a visual reference to how much really changed on the kit from the stock photos Bandai and others have put out to the dizzying camoed painted completed version I have now. I also realized that when I snapped “final” pictures the other day, I left some sticky tack on the lower area of the GM’s slide down visor. So I took some new pictures with some slightly altered lighting to fix the rather harsh looking light against the kit.

Using stock photos, here’s the direct comparisons:

The list of mods after the jump:

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Gusion Completed, but there’s a lesson to be learned here…not that I’ll actually take it to heart.

I learned nothing from my mistake with the 1/144 Gusion, and colossally fucked it all up again with the 1/100. Just look at the shoulders for the 1/100 as well as the 1/144. It’s not the same issue per say, but it’s the same underlying issue that resulted in the problem. But we’ll get to that later.

First, there’s the final bits of detail paint work and the ever-so-fun patience game once all the paint has been sprayed. The first gloss coat needs time to cure. Decal application needs time for the decal softening and setting solutions to work. The second layer of gloss coat needs to cure. The enamel wash needs to be applied – then a bit of time to allow it to partially dry, then the cleanup then letting it sit to fully dry. And the final flat coat and letting that cure. But once the flat coat is done, we’re not quite done yet either. Since there are some detail parts that need attention as well as the final assembly. It’s damn hard fighting the temptation to only wait an hour after the final flat to dry to the touch and just get in and start assembling and gluing final detail bits. The flat coat is like any layer of paint, it needs time to cure. The one hour, dry to the touch ain’t gonna cut it. My impatience has caused horrific accidents at this stage from fingerprints to marred paint. Patience sucks ass; but is a necessary evil.

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Continue ReadingGusion Completed, but there’s a lesson to be learned here…not that I’ll actually take it to heart.

Gunpla ADD, shelved the Zaku/Guntank, cracked open the 1/100 Gusion

Model building ADD strikes again. I sorta hit a wall with the Zaku/Guntank diorama. I’ll eventually return to it like most projects. But this sucker came in a sometime last month and I’ve been itching to build it. I recently finished the 1/144 version, so I was curious to what I could do with the 1/100. The first thought was to just Out of Box the damn thing. But as I snapped and built this week and during our bi-weekly live broadcast, ideas started swirling and the past two days has seen a bit cutting fiddling. The following picture won’t last too long…

I cracked open the box this Monday and started the snapping, actually sanding the stupid inner frame, for which is COMPLETELY hidden, with very few exceptions. I got the sucker snapped together by the end of this week’s live broadcast on Tuesday. Going back to Monday for a bit, I started work to mold the Gusion Head’s yellow part (its eyes). I made the second part of the mold on Tuesday.

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Continue ReadingGunpla ADD, shelved the Zaku/Guntank, cracked open the 1/100 Gusion