Gouf 2.0 Custom Conversion Test Fit

Last night, I finished test fitting the kit. Test fitting isn’t too important with most of Bandai’s gunpla kit as they’re engineered to very tight mechanics, and it just usually takes shaking the box to get the kit put together. But regardless, I test fit so that I get an idea of what I’m working with; and I get to play with the bloody kit. Test fitting become much more important when resin is involved. The engineering isn’t always exact. The placement of flash tabs, excess resin, and all sorts of other factors play into the final fit of the kit. Some areas will be loose, others will have gaps, etc. These things need to be addressed at this stage of the build because it is easiest to fix at this point.

(more…)

Continue ReadingGouf 2.0 Custom Conversion Test Fit

MG GN-X Completed

And she’s done. Most folks following my blog may or may not have known that I was working on this for the past few weeks in my spare time. I kept most of the update on the forums. But nothing too fancy, a quick OOB build. The only modifications I did were to the GN Drive’s LEDs for which I took from an MG Exia kit. The Exia’s LEDs were green, so the original LEDs were clipped and I soldered on some blue LEDs I had lying around. The piston ends of the drive also had some metal beads glued into place to accent the rather bland detailing there. The beam sabers were cut and glued together to create a Darth Maul-esq weapon and the sabers themselves were trimmed and reshaped – then following the Star Wars theme, they were painted with a clear purple ala Mace Windu.

(more…)

Continue ReadingMG GN-X Completed

Feburary 2010 Model Build Gathering

This past weekend was the monthly model build gathering. The folks showed up fairly promptly but we sat around watching the Winter Olympics for a little bit before actually sitting down and working on our respective kits. What can I say, it was the women’s ski jump aerials, and watching a few women eat it hard is always a good time. Watching some pretty impressive aerials was damn impressive too, even though a few of the women just looked like men. *shiver* Sean headed back to the table first then we all just kind of left the tv once they switched over to men’s ski long jump – not having Eddie “the Eagle” Edwards, didn’t keep us interested enough to hang around the tv.

Lucky for me, the kits I picked up from this past Wonderfest came in on Saturday, two bust ktis and a 1/8th kit came in so I spent the time at the build gathering pinning and doing some initial sanding.

(more…)

Continue ReadingFeburary 2010 Model Build Gathering

Sniper Progress: Rifle work, decals, light up saber

Update from the weekend and the past few days. First will be work on the main sniper rifle. I still need to get down and finish up the work on the other weapons. There quite a bit of down time while working on the kit as each layer needs a protective clear coat to sandwich each successive step. The process is fairly tedious, but in the long run, saves rework when mistakes are made or issues of incompatible products cause problems. The process is the following:
Paint cured
– clear gloss is sprayed
– decals
– clear gloss
– panel lines
– clear gloss
– paint chipping
– clear gloss
– filter/fade
– clear flat
– pastel weathering
– final clear flat

Allowing each clear coat to cure over night, the quickest I could complete the kit at this point would be about a week. Down time between curing sessions will allow me to work on the gun and hopefully finish everything some time next week.

(more…)

Continue ReadingSniper Progress: Rifle work, decals, light up saber