Gunpla

Read more about the article A simple, yet fairly elegant display base

A simple, yet fairly elegant display base

A few days ago, I was reading through some threads on reddit/r/gunpla and came across a thread asking about where to buy a specific type of display base. One of the users responded with a few links on how to build your own, and from this link in particular, I was inspired to search out some local suppliers and do my own version. The basic premise to the base are a few sheets of acrylic and some metal standoffs. The plastic pieces are easy, I’ve been grabbing scrap acrylic from local shops for a while and I dropped by one near my work and they sell the scrap by the pound. I picked up about 4 pounds of scrap plastic; gloss black, clear, and white and in different thicknesses. The next item was a little harder to find, the metal standoffs. There are plenty of sources online (amazon, eBay, online retailers, etc) But I wanted to see these in person before I picked some out; so I found a local sign shop supplier that was a wholesaler. The guy there hooked me up for a small sale since I wasn’t a sign shop (they only sell to sign shops)

So I picked up some metal standoffs seen in the above picture. Metallic black, chrome, and satin aluminum in the 13mm x 13mm size. They didn’t have the red and blue metallic ones in that size so I ended up with 13mm x 19mm, they’re a little taller. They sell individually for about 1.50 – $2 a piece, so I ended up spending about $42 or so for the 5 sets of 4.

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Read more about the article Grimgerdie Commission: A quick 7 day project

Grimgerdie Commission: A quick 7 day project

A little over a week ago, I picked up the 1/100 Grimgerde as a commission project. The customer sent an email to me back in early March asking if I could build and paint the kit straight out of the box. The kit wasn’t released yet, so the project waited. Late April, the kit got released, but I wasn’t able to get my hands on the kit until May 14 when the local sources got the kit in stock. We had a build gathering, so it was the perfect day to start cutting, sanding, and snapping the kit together. I didn’t finish the job at the build gathering because things generally degenerate to food, drink, and for this past gathering; hanging out around the fire pit roasting marshmallows and making s’mores. Twas a good build gathering.

I got about this far at the build gathering:

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

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.
Read more about the article Finally, a decent sized update for the Gusion

Finally, a decent sized update for the Gusion

It’s been 3 weeks since the last update, so this will be a sizeable progress report for this kit. I’ve finally gotten past the seemingly endless cycle of putty –> sand –> primer; which means some actual color is getting on to the parts. And with painting, there’s always some amount of masking. And for this project, there is a bit of cycling with masking, painting, adding more masking, and continued painting. It’s almost inception level masking with how recursive this process can be; so I guess it’s a good thing I studied computer science. I can laugh at the simplicity of model building after breaking down everything to a basic concept. A function to build which uses glues, plastic, primer, putties, and cycling through the process. Then a function to paint with the masking, painting, and then remasking, and then rework after the mask is removed and problems pop up because of missed masking. But enough of this mindless rambling; on to the actual work.

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