This past weekend was the March Model Build Gathering held at Dan’s (Funaka) house. I brought my Saz over only to discover that the paint under the decals on the skirts I’ve been working on is again being eaten away. I’ve still yet to pinpoint the issue, but I spent my time at the gathering working on wiring up the Saz and trying out a few attempts at fixing the skirts.

I believe this marks the biggest gathering we’ve had at Dan’s place. The workshop room at four tables set up and the two tables I brought were set up in the garage. A few folks came and went as usual, but for the most part, the two work areas were full. From a distance, the place looked like a little gunpla sweat shop. Tony and his crew showed up fairly early this time, and more new folks showing up at each gathering. Growth is always a welcomed thing; especially in our niche little hobby. Quite a bit of building was going on, and we actually got some drinks in and rockband going too. Here is a small group “allegedly” pirating anime, shss, don’t tell Sunrise…

Since the Pasadena Modeler’s Society’s annual model contest, Valleycon is coming up the following week. A bunch of us were scrambling to finish up our respective projects for the competition. We’re trying to build up our little model building niche so that we’d be considered a force to be reckoned with, we’ll see how that works out. But on to the folks working on their projects. Brandon’s working on adding the final bits of photoetch details to his tank.

John is still working on his really custom gouf as well as has his real grade zaku just about done with the exception of missing a small chest piece. Hopefully he’ll find the part and we’ll see it this coming Sunday at Valleycon.

Dan spent most of the day working on photoetch parts for his valk. Damn, just makes me wanna finish that stupid elint seeker that I had started a few years ago…

Tony spent time taking apart his test fitted strike freedom then priming all the parts as well as base coating the white parts. The gold used to paint the frame is from rustolium, and I believe it was a spray can.

Terry and Christiana were working on painting more warhammer. So much for Terry getting something done for Valleycon. Then again, he could just bring some of his well painted warhammer things and enter them in the small figures category. Plenty of people in the past have done it.

Angel wanted to spray some paint on his O kit, but it got too dark for him to effectively paint. Sp he started cutting, sanding, and assembling the new MG DeathScythe kit. There’s a Japanese modeler on FG site that is doing some amazing detail mods to the wings for that particular kit. I’ll have to grab those images and give Angel some ideas; time to play to his AMS.

And on to the Saz progression. I successfully wired the entire kit together. All 28 LEDs are running, not too bad, I’m happy.

Now I just need to get the damn skirts done. I’m almost positive that it’s my rushing through the process that is causing the paint deterioration with the decals and decal setting solution. I’m using the same process and the only thing I can think of is not allowing the steps to cure properly before moving on, or the glue on the decal paper is stronger and eats away at the lacquer clear. Not sure. For now, I just want to get paint on the parts to complete it for Valleycon. Dan’s sent an email over to Samueldecals to order some more of the Saz decals he designed so at least I can possibly get them on after valleycon. My attempts at salvaging the decals on the skirts failed, and last night, I just ended up stripping all the paint off the two front skirts and over the course of this week, I’ll be repainting those pieces.

The problems are also on the fuel tanks decals. So I’ll be masking and stripping that paint tonight to redo the paint on the tanks.

Sunday, I spent some time putting together the rest of the Saz. I did the panel lines and assembled the main body. Left to do are the front and rear skirts and the shield. And as stated earlier, the fuel tanks are coming off to get fixed this week. What she looks like with the LEDs off.

LEDs on.

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