Gunpla

Read more about the article OrangeCon 2015 and Robotoyfest

OrangeCon 2015 and Robotoyfest

This was a busy weekend with two model events back to back. OrangeCon which is a yearly event in early October works as a good primer for SCGMC the following month; and new this year is Robotoyfest which we attended earlier in the year to judge their gundam model competition.

At OrangeCon, Mike Wine’s Officer Down took the 1st place in the Sci-Fi diorama category, but didn’t stop there; and ended up getting Best Diorama out of the 3 diorama categories. A huge feat, since there were so many diorama entries. Dan also won 2 first place awards with this 1/72 scale BF-109 as well as his Scopedog in the Sci-Fi Gundam/Mech category. I got a 3rd place for my Yukari.

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Read more about the article Clemstriping Technique

Clemstriping Technique

Here’s a quick spotlight on a technique that was discussed and joked about in last night’s TGG & Friends broadcast. The conversation about the technique came up because one of the participants was working on this technique and recently, another participant used the technique. The technique is not difficult in the least, and is pretty basic. It just plays off the use of contrasting a flat finish and a gloss finish with a single color. One of the guys called it the “clemstriping” effect and ended up becoming a running gag during the broadcast. I’m positive that someone else has long ago done this, so it’s nothing new, but we got a nice little laugh from it. Here are two examples of the technique; and hopefully after this posting, we’ll see many more examples.

m_wine_exs3 midnight_zaku_done 011_JPG

Last night’s TGG & Friends Live Broadcast:

Our broadcast is set for every other Tuesday, so the next live broadcast will be Tuesday October 6th.

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Read more about the article Gunpla posing and photography

Gunpla posing and photography

Going back to school

It’s been a few weeks since I finished the Sucker Punch diorama; so I’ve had some time for the thing to marinate. I asked my friend Jason, who’s an artist by profession and went to school for such what he thought about the diorama. We started building gunpla together when we were young, so there is familiarity with the material. I had gotten a few comments, some rather long and intense about the posing in the diorama. And having recently finished it; I wasn’t really in a position to defend or analyse it at that time. And I also believe that pride has a great deal to do with this as well. It is very difficult to take criticism on a piece of work one makes. We tend to go on the defensive more often than open up our minds to view things from other perspectives. This is all fine and well if you’re building for yourself and no one ever sees your work. But once you post it up publically, or enter competitions; then things change. You’re putting your work out there to be judged – regardless of if you asked for it or not. And when I first posted the work online, I completely dismissed the comments that criticized the work.

Now that a decent amount of time has passed, I believe I am ready and can objectively revisit the work. So the question I asked Jason is what he thought about the pose – Zogok punching Cold Climate GM. On a personal level, it didn’t really sit well with me either; but I was having trouble formulating what was wrong. I tried a few things suggested online but nothing clicked. I needed to go back to school. I didn’t know what was bothering me about the kit the more I looked at it.

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Read more about the article Southern California Gundam Model Competition 2015

Southern California Gundam Model Competition 2015

SCGMC is a gunpla competition held in Southern California in November. Saturday, November 14, 2015 to be exact. It is a niche model competition focusing mostly on gunpla. Other anime models are always welcomed and highly encouraged, such as Mak, Five Star Stories, Macross/Robotech, Evangelion, Votoms, etc. Anime resin figures are also very much welcomed. That said, each year, there is a special theme; this year’s theme is the 1/144 City Diorama. We create the special theme each year to help push builders to explore techniques outside their sphere of comfort. There is a special award for this theme; but it is only 1 of a current listing of 11 categories.

SCGMC is about anime/mecha model building. So to promote that, we have 11 categories that spans the Gundam universe, other anime mecha, resin figures, and dioramas in general.

scgmc_2015

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