Anime Expo was this past weekend, and I think this was the least amount of time I’ve spent at the event, I only went for two days and didn’t spend too much time hitting video rooms or panels. This year, I was given two panels, one that was G-rated and one that was 18+. Apparently, last year it didn’t make it on the schedule and a number of people thought I wasn’t there. The GBWC event this year was quite impressive, a lot of new players that with a little help, will become some serious contenders. The second part of this post is to show off my recently completed Nu Gundam diorama, but then again, since it was at AX, pictures of it have already been posted. Regardless, this project was pretty different from any of my previous works. I was trying to get a close reproduction of the original 1/100 Nu Gundam box art, so pastels and hand painting was employed, it’s a little out there of a project, but I’m damn proud of it. Here are some pictures of the completed project I took the day before AX.
More about the project and thoughts on this year’s AX after the jump.
Today, I wrote up the progress for the Nu Gundam dio, you can read the entirety of it here: http://gamerabaenre.com/?page_id=2803. I’m still in debate if I like this means of progress publication. On one side, there’s an element of surprise – so long as I don’t publish any sort of update, as well as a decent bit of organization to the build progression. But on the other hand, I enjoy publishing things in the moment, exactly what I’ve done is freshest in my mind and much more details can be given. It is much more my style to constantly publish updates, but this has given me some food for thought. Okay, enough of that, on to Anime Expo 2013.
This year was spent either in the exhibit hall chatting with modelers or at the workshop presenting my materials. This year’s GBWC was good. There are some talented modelers showing up and competing. There are a few modelers that will still need a little work, but will easily become contenders. My Nu Dio got Best Diorama. The modified Duel got best 1/100, Dan’s Dom killing GM dio got best 1/144, and a young modeler named Matoko got best junior entry for his 1/144 Zeta Hanger diorama. The best of show went to a very nicely weathered Zaku Cannon. Below are the entries, I’m pretty sure I captured everything.
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Now as usual, I’m going to bitch about the judging. I think the judges totally missed it when it came to the 1/144 modified 00 kit:
It’s one of the best shaded, and amazingly built kit there. And if they make the distinction of a diorama category, then why did Dan’s kit win in the 1/144 category instead of this kit? Very odd.
And for the kit that won best 1/100, the thing was riddled with seams and nub marks. I mean, it was fantastically painted and the kitbash was well done, but I just didn’t understand why there was nubs and seams. Then I chatted with the modeler, he’s been building for a year and didn’t know what seams were. As far as the nubs went, his response was this, “I don’t sand”. Okay, that makes perfect sense to me. When I was younger, and first building gunpla, I didn’t sand or do seamlines either, I just cut the parts, put them together, then painted. Time to up the game, and hopefully this modeler joins our monthly build gatherings. If he starts sanding and fixing seams, he’ll definitely be a worthy opponent. This is more the reason I’m glad we have SCGMC; so we help promote good model building skills above everything.
Hopefully we’ll get to revisit some of these kits at SCGMC.
Now on to the workshops. Last year, my workshop was a last minute add, and it was placed at 10PM, AND when I got there, I learned that they had made it 18+. I had about 50 or so people in the room, probably less. Very few people knew about it. It was given the 18+ rating because apparently, I have a potty mouth. So this year, with ample warning, they gave me the panel again, as well as another panel that was rated G. So one in the middle of the day and one in the evening,. The panel staff at AX love me, they enjoy seeing attendees storm out of the room with utter disgust on their faces. However, they also get complaints, so a nice compromise was made. As I finished up my first presentation, the staffers were pleasantly surprised that I was able to 1, not curse, and 2, not offend anyone. I still made decent jokes and got the audience laughing here and there, but I tiptoed along the line and in areas they thought I was going to heard toward, I went the opposite direction. See folks, I can be well mannered and nice if I need to be! I just got the chuckle that most folks were surprised I pulled it off. The count midway through the first panel was about 170 people. Not too bad for a room that hold 200. Being on the schedule and in the middle of the day worked for me.
The panel the following evening was fun. Apparently, I entertained the staffers running my room. At the end of the panel, one of the staffers hi-fives me as I got one disgruntled attendee offend and they left upset. Heh, so long as I can please the staffers and most of the attendees. I need to slip in more bits of humor for next year. That or I need some decent hecklers to help wake up the audience at opportune moments. But I would say that this year was fairly successful. We’ve tried a few different things over the years but I believe that this format works the best. The hands on stuff we’ll leave to SCGMC in November.
I did snap a few shots of scantily clad women as well as some pretty cool costumes. But I didn’t spend enough time wandering the floor to snap pictures as I have in previous years. This year was focused mostly on marketing the SCGMC event, the panels, and the GBWC contest. It was fun and fairly relaxing, I will not require a full week to recover. Next on the horizon is to focus on my next project that I’m going to build specifically for SCGMC. Stay tuned!
Forgot to post up the link to all the AX pictures I took, which wasn’t much more than what has already been posted here, but girls in skimpy outfits: http://gamerabaenre.com/?page_id=2806
The Gn-X was very close in points to the Dom. Wish I could have stuck around to talk to the modeler.
The Gn-X was built by Vin, he comes to the gatherings once in a blue moon, but should come to SCGMC, as he has for the past two.
I still believe that the Dom should have be in the dio category, vice all the other stand alone kits. I honestly think the judging was f-ed up in respect to those two particular kits. Then again, I don’t think there’s been one year were I was completely satisfied with the judging, including those where I was part of the judging. I hate making concessions.