This was a busy weekend. I didn’t get much work on the GMs done this weekend, only a few sessions of paint, but I did get some decent amount of work prior to the weekend. This weekend was spent doing errands, at the Hollywood Bowl, and cleaning my garage. I managed to collect about 20 gallons of motor oil from years of doing oil changes, those were removed and taken to the local auto parts shop for disposal. Empty boxes upon boxes were flattened out and taken to the local recycling center. The garage is amazingly reorganized now.
Back to work on the GMs after a short little break to finish up Asuka. The day after getting Asuka done, I started back on the GMs. The surface prep for the GM cannon needed to be completed, so the glued seams were fixed, and I got a quick test fit for the sucker. The shoulders also needed additional seam attention after gluing together the inner frame part that goes inside the shoulder pieces. Glued together, a paper clip tool is used to clamp down on the parts. Plastic ooze comes out as a byproduct of the pressure and welding action of the styrene glue. Once this cures overnight, the excess plastic is sanded away leaving a solid single part. Almost. After priming, there is a little hole that was missed in the seaming process, so a little light curing putty and another sanding session solved the issue.
Hugo got a hold of one of the parts while I was building and put a nice little tooth mark into the part. So after some clean up sanding and putty work, it was primed, then more light curing putty was used to fill in the tooth mark.
After the surface prep, the other three GMs were brought back to the work bench and the massive paint sessions can begin. From left to right, Cannon II, Wagtail, Command, and Powered.
The first step for the planned paint scheme is painting the red stripe. I’m using the same red that I used for Asuka’s plug suit, Finisher’s Rich Red; since it was already in the paint booth. The shields, chests, lower legs, shoulders, and foot bottoms are painted with the red.
The other parts were painted with gloss black as the base coat. The internal pieces were then painted with alclad steel. The weapons were painted with gaia notes gun metal. Thruster bells were painted internally with Finisher’s titanium and alclad semi matte aluminum on the exteriors. Next up is a massive masking session, but this week should be fairly productive for paint sessions.
Hollywood Bowl
Saturday was the first actual Hollywood Bowl session. The previous two (Sarah McLachlan and Michael Feinstein) were given away to friends. And the Star Wars event didn’t really count as it was a lease event. This past weekend starred Rodrigo y Gabriela with the LA Philharmonic. The evening started with the LA Philharmonic playing two Hungarian dances. Then Los Amigos Invisibles took the stage, and most likely because of their Venezuelan roots, Gustavo Dudamel made an appearance to conduct the LA Phil with Los Amigos, and just stand and watch them as they played.
They played about 5 or so songs then it was intermission and the Bowl was set up for Rodrigo and Gabriela. During the intermission, the lady in front of us noticed the full moon and tried several times to snap a picture of it with her point and shoot camera. I’m guessing she doesn’t know how to turn off the flash, as her several attempts at shooting the mood only ended in blinding the piss out of the poor lady sitting next to her. This only prompted me to see if I could take a half way decent picture of the moon with my camera.
Intermission ends and Rod and Gab take the stage. Damn impressive, especially as they were not traditionally schooled.
Using my massive zoom lens, I took some video samples. Note that I was at max zoom, and didn’t have my tripod, so the slightest motion caused the camera to shake. It also didn’t help that the lady next to me was moving and shaking like she’s Michael J. Fox. I almost went deaf from her incessant need to whistle, god did I loath her. Good thing that she’s not a season ticket holder so that my next trip to the Bowl won’t be next to whitey the whistling cunt. Regardless, the music was fantastic and I’m definitely a fan and will pick up some of their albums. Here are some spinets from the evening. Again, for those with motion sickness, just listen, don’t watch.
Temple Bar opens up the Rod y Gab appearence and then roll into Hanuman which continue in the next video.
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Hanuman, continued from the above video.
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Triveni then Chac Mool near the end of the video.
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Hora Zero
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Rodrigo Solo
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Santo Domingo
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Rodrigo y Gabriela song taken with my 20mm lens to get an idea on where we sat without using he zoom lens, Diablo Rogo
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Tamacun
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Final encore with Tamacun after the fireworks.
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