Gunpla

Read more about the article Some grim work

Some grim work

I first saw this kit at the December’s model build gathering, and my attempts to win it at our white elephant exchange failed miserably as it was stolen from my wanting hands. A few folks at the gathering had the kit and were building it as well which gave me the opportunity to look at the kit. Later that month, I dropped by a local shop and spent the $16 and grabbed the kit. A cool feature for the plastic is that it’s already molded in a matte finish. The texture of the plastic is different from the usual Bandai gunpla kits that I’ve worked on in the past. Granted this feature is completely wasted for my purposes; but it is a pretty cool feature.

The kit snapped together in roughly 20 minutes. Probably less. From watching friends build the thing, I had already formed some ideas on what I want to do to “personalize” it. I recorded some videos of the initial build progression, but haven’t found time to do the editing. Most of these pictures were taken after the mods were in place.

grimoire_mods2

grimoire_mods

Details on the mods after the jump!

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Read more about the article GM’s Can’t Swim

GM’s Can’t Swim

This is an experiment that didn’t go too badly. I learned a great deal from this experience, granted the end result isn’t all that great, it’s not that bad. It is however, a 1 lb resin paper weight now. The next time I try something similar, it will definitely be in a much smaller size and the planning should be vastly improved. But I do like the final result. This is something I’ve not see too much, so I wanted to try it. I had finished this right before Orangecon 2014 and like everything else, just haven’t had the time to snap some final pictures.

Full gallery after the jump.

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Read more about the article SCGMC 2014, come and gone, here’s what you missed!

SCGMC 2014, come and gone, here’s what you missed!

It’s mid November, we’re getting our first rains and the weather is turning colder. The convention season is pretty much over with PMX being one of the last major anime/comic/asian media conventions; what better time to come to the Southern California Gundam Model Competition? If you missed it, well, you have a year to plan for the next one. We knew we pretty much outgrew our event space last year, this year really proved that point. We had about 170 attendees, a 52% increase from last year. For model entrants, we went from 42 to 70 entrants, 67% increase. The number of model entries jumped from 76 to 114 entries, 50% increase. Thanks for all the support you guys have given us in attending our event! There is a vast improvement on skills. The beginner’s table exploded, and a good number of those entrants need to move up to the advance/intermediate level. A good number of the advanced level builders need to start competing with the experts. It’s nice to win the SCGMC challenge coin, but to have your name and kit immortalized on the SCGMC Experts plaque; I’m still trying to get my name on that board! Competition is the best motivation for improvement!

Next year, we’re definitely moving to a bigger venue; then we can then explore the ideas for more vendors such as someone to sell LEDs and electronics, and folks that have too much stuff and want to set up a table swap meet style to thin out their collections. The parking at our venue is horrible, so this is definitely an issue we’re taking to heart. But if you have any issues with our event, please do not hesitate to bring them up to one of us; we’re always looking to improve the experience, and the voice of the attendees is very powerful!

From our standpoint, we felt that we’ve made some great improvements on our event. We streamlined our judging process which keeps us on schedule. We heard the moans about the small raffle cage that trapped tickets, and picked up a large acrylic barrel. We do listen! And we understand that there are always a few tweaks and things to make things better, but it’s only our 4th year. I think we’re doing pretty damn good. And we had an amazing turnout for our Unicorn Grunt theme this year.

Next year our theme will be the “1/144 City Diorama” The idea here is that everyone can push their building levels even further, and try their hand at the diorama. We had some amazing dioramas show up this year and we’d like to push that. Since next year will be our 5th year anniversary, we want to make it special. Our first year, ThoseGundamGuys as a collective built a six piece 1/144 diorama:

Next year, we want to include everyone for our 5th year display and tie it in with the competition! The diorama can be as simple as a few 1/144s on a tarmac or roadway; or as complex as a military base or city with buildings, bridges, etc. We’ll just put these things together Lego Movie style, and hopefully have a huge cityscape piece to show the world!

Ok, enough rambling, we’ll get more details about next year as soon as possible, but for now, get those ideas for your 1/144 City Diorama flowing.

The full gallery, which includes pictures taken by the TGG staff as well as Jonathan A. who attended the event: http://gamerabaenre.com/?page_id=3313

Details on the 2014 SCGMC winners after the jump!

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Continue ReadingSCGMC 2014, come and gone, here’s what you missed!
Read more about the article Silly GM, You Can’t Swim!

Silly GM, You Can’t Swim!

Over the past several weeks, I’ve been working on a RG Z’Gok as well as a GMII that would eventually be put together into a simple diorama. The exact plan wasn’t laid out as I didn’t want to spoil the surprise, and I honestly did not know if this “plan” would even be successful. But, I took pictures of the whole process and it sorta turned out how I figured it would. There are some issues that I learned, and should have learned when I first tried this with the Sazabi’s shield. But I am definitely much more confident in this process, so the next time, yes, there will invariably be a next time; this should be much more successful.

Starting off even before the RG Z’Gok was released and before I had snapped together the GMII, I used a stand in GM and a wood base that I had made for the G3 almost 10 years ago. The basic idea is to create a scene with the Z’Gok swimming over a long dead GMII, on it’s way to fight in that one epic battle from Gundam Unicorn. Where all these old Zeon suits spring out of the woodwork. That’s the basic premise. So, on goes the GM stand-in, laying down on the wood base. I then built an acrylic box measured out to the dimensions of the wood base using a hot glue gun to attach the 4 sides. The box is then test fitted over the base with the stand-in GM. Height is checked against my pressure pot to make sure it fits. And my plan is somewhat solid, time to execute.

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Continue ReadingSilly GM, You Can’t Swim!
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