gunplahero

Airbrush Cleaning Brush

2007-04-21T00:49:00.000+08:00

Ever since I got my airbrush, I have a problem cleaning the chamber that's located between the paint cup and nozzle.
I'd need something that's resembles a mini baby bottle brush.
I've thought of using eyelash brushes but even they are too big to fit into the chamber.
Recently, I saw a commercial on tv which showed a mini brush that's used for cleaning the spaces in between the teeth and gums.
I think I've seen such stuff in Daiso before, so I went there today to try my luck.

It's called the interdental brush and they come in different sizes, different quantities and with different handles.

Product: Interdental Brush (I-shaped)
Size: SSS (fits into a space of 0.8mm)

(click on images to enlarge)

Pack of four and a carry case.

The brushes.

The carry case.

Interdental brushes.

Bristle heads.

Carry case holds two.

My initial intention of the brush was to use it to scrub the chamber but it turns out that it can also be used to clean parts of the nozzle cap and nozzle.

Cleaning the chamber (the tunnel btw the paint cup and nozzle).

Cleaning the nozzle cap.

Cleaning the nozzle.
You definately can't fit it thru the entire nozzle because the brush diameter is 0.8mm while your nozzles come in sizes of 0.2mm, 0.3mm & 0.5mm.
But you can still use it to scrub the bigger openings.

Can it withstand hobby thinners?
The answer is Yes.
The bristles are so closely knit that they can actually hold thinner. Haha.

Dry.

Soaked.

HGUC 1/144 Palace-Athene

2007-04-04T00:21:00.000+08:00

I'll be joining the mono eye group build in Katoots.
So I guess I'd be unwrapping my Palace-Athene for this one.

Pesky tiny seams that lingers even after the extra thin cement treatment.

Slap on a bit of Mr. Surfacer 500.
Repeat if you can still see the seam emerging from under the paint.

Then sand it down.

Snap fitted.

Scribing some additional panel lines for the head.
Sketch with a pencil first.

Done, using a "big head" pin attached to a pin vise.

Planning to add some plaplates to the groin regions.
Stick a masking tape on it and mark out its shape.
Then draw your design on it.

Testing to see how it looks with the masking tape.

Cut out the masking tape, stick it onto the plaplate and use a pencil to outline the shape.

Cut out the shape and cement them to the intended areas.
Ok lah, simple design which is not too difficult to cut out.

A potential seam when the two chest halves are combined.

Covered it up with a small bit of plaplate.

Progress so far......

That's it for the chest.
The deeper panel lines on the chest are done using the back of the hobby knife so that it'll end up with more of a squarish trench than a V-shaped one.

The arms.
Just the addition of recycled bits of plaplates and some extra panel lines.
I always have a hard time figuring out where and what kinda panel line designs to add.

Lower torso.

Progress so far......

========== TBC ==========

HG 1/144 Providence Gundam

2007-03-11T11:44:00.000+08:00

Gonna be trying out preshading on this kit.
What I'll be doing for a particular color on a particular piece is to paint the entire piece with the color straight from the bottle, then for the inner lighter tone I'd adding white to the original color.

The new work table.

That's gonna be quite a nasty seam.

It'll be quite a bitch to fill and sand.

I'd rather cover it with a small piece of styrene bent to shape.

There it goes.

The pipings under the chest pose the same problems as well.
Looks like I'd have to disguise em as well.

Ok, so now there is some kinda support frame around the pipes.

With these minor mods, the whole chest and its various parts can still be disassembled for easy painting.

Do you have a fetish for freshly primed kits?
Well, I do!!!

All painted/shaded.

Sneak peek.

COMPLETED

Rest of the gallery can be viewed HERE.

Photoshoot Setup

2007-02-28T03:35:00.000+08:00

I had always wanted to improve my model kit photography skills.
I'd need three light sources, so I recently bought two lamps from yahoo auctions.
With A4 size paper and paper clips, I made diffusers for the two lamps.
Then with my exisiting OEM fluorescent tube and white mahjong paper as background, I set it up as seen below.

(click on images to enlarge)

Playing with White Balance:
I used 3 different white balance modes: Auto, Fluorescent and Manual.

With Diffuser.
From Left to Right:
Auto, Fluorescent, Manual

Without Diffuser.
From Left to Right:
Auto, Fluorescent

Playing with ISO:
I used 3 different sensitivity settings: Auto, 50 and 400.

Used Auto white balance.
From Left to Right:
Auto, 50, 400

Used Fluorescent white balance.
From Left to Right:
Auto, 50, 400

Playing with EV Compensation:
I used 4 different settings: +1.0, +1.3, +1.7, +2.0

From Left to Right:
+1.0, +1.3, +1.7, +2.0

Playing with AE Metering:
It is the Light Metering Range to Determine the Exposure.
There are 3 differnt modes: Multi-segment,Center-weighted and Spot.

From Left to Right:
Multi-segment,Center-weighted,Spot

From Left to Right:
Multi-segment,Center-weighted,Spot

The following pix are PSed with auto color, auto contrast, auto level and had their curves adjusted.

Blitz Gundam
I chose Blitz because black colored kits have the most problems with photography.

Below was edited from a pic with Spot AE metering.
Everything looks detailed & clean and the background is white (except for a couple of little greyish top corners which can be easily cleaned up and parts of the claw might be a bit over-exposed).

Below was edited from a pic with Multi-segment AE metering.
Notice that it is still heavily plagued with shadows.
The background is not entirely white.
The kit's details are kinda dark.

Other pix edited from Spot AE metering pix.

EVA-01

Damn, I have cobwebs on my figurine!!! LOL

Vignet-what?
Ok, I've tried out mybearbrick's tip about vignetting.
The chrome bar you see in some pix is some sorta marker to help me maintain the framing.
It all looks great now.

Multi-segment AE Metering.
From Left to Right:
No Zoom,2X Zoom

Spot AE Metering.
From Left to Right:
No Zoom,2X Zoom

[OOB] HG 1/144 Blitz Gundam

2007-02-22T01:54:00.000+08:00

Another quick OOB build.
Damn, black would be hard to do panel lines.
I shall be using enamel grey to do panel lining.

Snap fitted.

COMPLETED

Rest of the gallery can be viewed HERE.

Ball-Jointed Stand

2007-02-06T02:41:00.000+08:00

I saw this figurine stand at Keong's and knew it could be used on gunpla.
This is bought fr a 13" figurine shop @ Shaw Towers(Beach Road).
I guess it was taken out and sold separately from a certain figurine series.

After playing around with the screw at the back, it began to felt loose and lose its grip on the metal wire.

I just love the ball joints for the articulation in the spine.

Its attachment to the base plate can be unscrewed and mounted on some other bases.

Holding up a 1/144 model kit.

Holding up a 1/100 model kit.

I guess I'm gonna have to mod the gripping part since it is loose now.

......to be continued

[OOB] HG 1/144 Mobile Cgue

2007-02-03T00:22:00.000+08:00

This shall be my first kit done using my new compressor.
No major mods done, so I guess it can be considered as OOB......Heh Heh.
Gonna be adopting its original color scheme with slight variations (maybe in the form of striped camo).

Snap fitted.

Modded the insides of the shoulders to facilitate easy removal for painting.

I hate stickers for the mono eyes.
So I'm gonna try out something new with a bead and a 'big head' pin.

Hope it doesn't look too hideous.
For the final fitting, I'm gonna push the bead further in so that the pin head doesn't protrude out too much. The pin head is gonna be painted too.

Primed using Mr Base White by airbrushing.

COMPLETED

Rest of the gallery can be viewed HERE.

LifeTech P-125 Aquarium Pump

2007-01-30T23:49:00.000+08:00

My intention was to purchase the Sonic P-125 and use it like an airbrush compressor.
I called up Keong Seong Fish Shop(Blk 22 Havelock Road)(Tel:62729384) and inquired about the availablity of the Sonic pump.
The lady boss said that they have the last one in the shop.
So I decided to meet up with mybearbrick after work to go check it out(i.e. buy it!!!).

The shop front.

(pic courtesy of mybearbrick)

It's a small shop and even they are using the Sonic P-125 to supply air to their multiple large tanks.

(pic courtesy of mybearbrick)

There it is.
Sonic P-125 (125L/min, 0.04MPa)

(pic courtesy of mybearbrick)

This is where I felt a bit PWNDed.
I asked the lady boss to show me the Sonic P-125.
She pointed to the top of one of her shelves and what i saw was not Sonic but another brand, LifeTech P-125.
She assured me that it's made by the same company that made Sonic P-125.
I took a chance and believed her since I came all the way down to buy my 'compressor' and I won't wanna go home empty-handed.

Here it is.
The clone in its shabby little box.
But it weighs a TON!!!

(pic courtesy of mybearbrick)

She quoted us a price of $180 for the pump.
When mybearbrick asked for a discount, she typed on her calculator a bit and came up with $160.
I saw a stainless steel 4-way splitter and decided to get it too.
The price tag reads $7.20 but we bargained it down to $5.
I then asked if she has soft rubber tubings(to be used as the hose for my airbrush).
She gave 2 metres of it to me as a freebie. LOL

Total damage: S$165

The LifeTech P-125 (125L/min, 0.04MPa).

The air pump and its accessories.

The specs.

Close up on the accessories.

The stainless steel 4-way splitter.
Maybe I should recommend this splitter to Nakamoto, it'll be easier for him than to custom build it outta PVC pipes and steel taps.

Since the splitter doesn't fit tightly into the black hose, I bought a hose tightener to secure it to the black hose.

The Complete Rig.

Usage Notes
Out of the 4-way splitter, 1 will be used for the airbrush, leaving 3 to be used to regulate the pressure in the airbrush.

I'll be trying out 3 types of lacquer paints:
gloss black, metallic blue and mr base white(primer).

Ok lah, as you'll see from the following pix, my hands are not very steady bcos I lugged the heavy pump home yesterday.
Even my squiggly lines are squiggly themselves. LOL

Gloss Black

It looks abit grey but it's black, I never PS the pic so as to preserve the original details of the spray and not exaggerate it.
To apply normal lacquer paints, close 1 tap and leave 2 taps open.

Metallic Blue.

To apply metallic lacquer paints, close 2 taps and leave 1 tap open.

Mr Base White on a part.

To apply primer, close 2 taps and leave 1 tap open.

It also depends on the consistency of your paints and the quality of your airbrush.
For metallics and primer, you'll have to thin them more but you wouldn't want them to become too thin and runny when you applied it onto your model kits.
So it takes a bit of getting used to and experimenting to use this airbrush+compressor set up.

[D.I.Y] Spray Booth

2007-01-26T13:44:00.000+08:00

Nexus Spray Box Ver. 1
It's a booth and it's a box!

I live in a small apartment and have limited space in my room.
Therefore it is preferable not to have a permanently erected spray booth.
A collapsible one would be ideal.

I've seen spray booths made from plywood, large cardboard boxes and big plastic containers.
I want one that is compact, collapsible, cheap and workable.
Then it struck me......why not construct the spray booth out of the box where the fan came in?

The fan's box.

The fan.
It's a blower fan, its fan blades are like a squirrel cage and it's supposed to draw out fumes more effectively.

The back.
It has a 4" diameter exhaust so I'm gonna be looking for a 4" flexible hose to attach to it and lead it to the window.
The fan doesn't come with a plug, just a 1 metre long wire, so I connected my own 3-pin plug.

The orientation of the fan.
I'm no airflow expert so I tried putting the fan upright and also tilted it at an angle.
I tested both orientation with a dangling piece of tissue and saw no difference in the suction power.
So I decided to leave the fan at a tilted angle because:
- I need not construct something to keep/hold the fan upright
- I get more space within the spraying area since the fan is tilted back

Closing up the back.
I marked, bent, fold and cut the flaps of the box to conform to the shape of the back of the fan.
At the same time trying to preserve as much of the box material as possible since I want it to be transformable back to its original state......a box.

Back of the booth.

Tissue Testing.
I'm still thinking of a way to keep the front flaps of the box opened up at an angle.
For the time being, I shall leave em like this while conducting the tissue test.

Without a filter.

With a tissue as a filter.

Reinforce frequently bent places with duct tape.

Fan switch with indicator light.

Keeping the front flaps open.
Bent out of a 3mm aluminium wire(bought fr Daiso).

Airbrush Holder
Bent out of a 6mm insulated aluminium wire(bought fr Daiso).

After using the booth for the first time, I felt that the hanging airbrush holder isn't too convenient to use. It hinders the filling/mixing/stirring of paint.
So I took it down, unbent it and converted it into the:

Nexus Airbrush Docker
Features
- sleek design
- stable base
- mobile structure
- easy to dock/undock
- paint cup is held horizontal for easy paint mixing

Booth Lighting
Just place a tube of OEM flourescent lighting across the flaps.

Fan Outlet.
Secure the aluminium tubing to the fan outlet with a ring tightener(like those you'd use on taps).

The Nexus Spray Box Ver.1

Illuminated Mode

Commando Mode

This is how the exhaust runs in my room.

And yes, it can be folded back into a box with the fan and various accessories kept inside.

What from Where:
blower fan - Hean Lee
aluminium tubing - Hean Lee
ring tightener - hardware shop
duct tape - hardware shop
bendy aluminium wires - Daiso
fan switch - Sim Lim Tower (Aik Chin)

Tissue Test
To investigate how the length and orientation of the exhaust tubing affects the efficiency of the blower fan.

Also available on google:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1470512095344539648

Directly at the fan's outlet.

At the end of 2m of exhaust.

At the end of 4m of exhaust.

At the end of the exhaust after stretching it to the window.

Stretching it to the top of the window with a vertical climb of 2m.
It is only in this setup that I can see a slight droop in the tissue at the exhaust outlet.

Tissue test was also done within the booth.
Stronger suction is observed around the center of the fan.

Fan OFF.

Fan ON.

I can now safely know that when I'm doing airbrushing in my room, I would be exposed to alot less harmful fumes.
At the same time, a mask must always be worn when doing airbrushing.

PS v.2

2006-11-19T23:18:00.000+08:00

Photo Studio version 2 (PS v.2)
PS v.2 also means Photo Studio version 2.
A collaborative project by mybearbrick and neXus.

I have decided to construct a photo-taking booth for sty as promised, in appreciation for letting neXus and myself do airbrushing at his workshop.
I have previously constructed a miniature protoype light tent based on this design which I would consider it as just a light tent and not a photo booth. Nevertheless, will refer to it as version 1.
PS v.2 is actually an improved version of the earlier. PS v.2 is a light-tent integrated photo booth. PS v.2 is also a meaner and full-scale actual product.
This is how we made v.2 work!

Materials
I picked up a few corrugated paper carton boxes from the office since they were intended to be discarded. I have chosen this mid-range size for the PS v.2 project since the dimensions were just right.
Materials like the background paper was acquired from Art Friend. I have chosen Canford A1-sized 80gsm Dreadnoughtn Grey for the standard background.
Mahjong paper was acquired from my neighbourhood stationary shop.
Plastic disposeable table mat was acquired from neighbourhood sundry store by neXus.
2x table lamps were already in sty's workshop.

Construction
I had made this similar to the way I have made the version 1. I have cut 3 windows with 2-inch borders, into the left, top and right side of the box. I have also made a narrow window on the top near to where the cardboard bends, forming the back. This is to allow clipping of the background paper with paper clips.

After the construction, a simple materials test was performed to decide between: mahjong paper and table mat. Stikfas G2 Alpha was test subject. All camera conditions were set manual and kept constant throughout the test.

From Left to Right with plastic mat as diffuser:
Left Lamp + Right Lamp + Ceiling Light
Left Lamp with Ceiling Light
Ceiling Only
No Light

From Left to Right with plastic mat as diffuser:
With Flash
With Macro Mode Flash.

From Left to Right:
Left Lamp + Right Lamp + Ceiling Lsmp (without diffusor).

From Left to Right (with mahjong paper as diffuser):
Left Lamp + Right Lamp + Ceiling Lamp
Left Lamp + Ceiling Lamp
Ceiling Lamp Only
No Light Source

From Left to Right (with mahjong paper as diffuser) with all lamps:
+0.3 exposure
+0.7 exposure

Looks like mahjong paper is too opaque and less translucent than the table mat.
The construction was done with a double layer table mat. The bottom layer of the mat was fastened to the frame with double-sided tape while the top layer was not joined.

The PS v.2 is complete after the simple construction procedure.
Here are some images of it.

From Left to Right:
Front
Back

From Left to Right:
The rear slit window
Pull over top layer
Top layer can be pulled over to the front while bottom layer stays affixed.
Photographer can go under the booth if diffusing the ambient light is necessary.

From Left to Right:
With the ceiling lamp and 2 side lamps
The narrow slit window with the paper clips.

The Photoshoot
Camera: Canon Ixus 40
Settings: Manual, Custom WB (fluorescent), ISO 200, no flash
Subject: 1/100 RX-78 NT-1 Alex modelled by sty

From Left to Right:
With 3 lamps (Ceiling, left and right)
With ceiling and right only
With ceiling only
With left and right only

RX-78 NT-1 Alex
No better way to perform a test shoot with a kit modelled by sty long time ago.

From Left to Right with white background:
With 3 lamps (Ceiling, left and right) and white background
With 3 lamps
With left and right lamps only

More of Alex.

What are your views?
I call this a successful project.
Photo Studio version 2 (PS v.2)
A collaborative project by mybearbrick and neXus.

[BAKUC-06] MG GM Sniper Custom Ver.Ka

2006-11-14T17:48:00.000+08:00

HOW IT BEGAN

I was watching Keroro Gunso The Movie when they featured Fuyuki buying a new MG release for Gunso, and this MG kit is an MG GM Sniper Custom Ver.Ka.

Earlier on, in one of the episode of Keroro Gunso, they featured an MG Gyan and one year later, Bandai released an MG Gyan.
So can we expect an MG GM Sniper Custom Ver.Ka?

The answer is here:

Click above box art to view complete kit gallery or visit MECHA:BASE.

Do not be alarmed!
MG GM Sniper Custom Ver.Ka (RGM-79SC) has not been released yet. There wasn't even the slightest information. However, the RGM-79SC was being released as a Gundam Fix Figuration #0032.

Initially, I could not find myself liking any version of the GM. But after seeing the GFF RGM-79SC, I grew an acquired taste for the GM.
I have decided to pick up one of the MG RGM-79C and mod it into an RGM-79SC, making the Keroro dream a reality.

WIP

It started off as an MG GM Type C Kai. It was clearing at a damn irresistable price. I had wanted to keep it for a Powered GM Conversion, but the conversion parts were too expensive to be considered at all.

This is my first Master Grade Gunpla construction and I am already taking up this challenge to build this kit for BAKUC. Immediately after laying out the tree, I know that recoloring is going to be a tough job. Just look at the crappy green colour!

Head Construction was easy without much skill involved. I had intended to make use of modelling video tips to work on the head, which is to cement the head piece without the visor to facilitate painting & for completness. I would then cut the interior of the head so that i can slot in the visor after painting the sealed head. But it was impossible as the visor had an extension on the top that needs to be slotted in horizontally. So, ive decided to leave the head with the seam line. I spray painted the Front face of the visor with a few coats of Hobby clear orange until a thick and rich colour was achieved. I then try polishing with rubbing compound 1000, but I could not reach the corners with the cotton bud and so i ended up having chunks of white compound in the corners. There was also a lot of scratches. I got no choice but to polish until i have no more paint. I used a pointed forceps to clean up the corners with some tissue. I then used the ladies nail buffer to buff the clear visor till its pristine looking then repeat the clear orange. This time no more polishing. The GFF RGM-79SC is supposed to have a protective visor armour over the forehead where the scope is, but i decide to scribe in the details and it looks fine to me...

Body construction was simple with just 9 pieces: Neck cover, Chest Front, Chest Back, Cockpit hatch cover, Torso, internal skeleton, Core cockpit Dock, 2x Chest Vents. I left the seam lines on the chest uncemented as I was not confident with my masking for AB. I added 0.6mm pla plates to slightly bulk up the chest as armour plates like that of the GFF. I had to remove a plate off the cockpit hatch cover as it hindered the opening of the hatch. I then scribed in the shape of the armour plate & also the chest where 2 colors would seperate.

Skirt. Pla plates were added on the plain skirt for some details.

Upper Limbs were the easiest with cementing done during construction. No detailing required. Fingers are seperated into thumb, index and a piece of 3 fingers.

Lower Limbs were the headache. The skeleton was fantastic since it being an MG. I had fun building the pistons at the articulation points. It even had a braided tube to run then anterior knee pistons through. I would love to show off the skeleton with some painting but that would not fit my theme. So I decided not to seal the seams. I examined the limb armours. The thigh had a unique seamline that runs down the lateral & medial sides. These lines were visible in most versions of RX-78 & even GFF 0032. Some models also kept the seam line as panel line & I followed. The real bitch was the leg as when the seam line met, the front piece had a small portion sticking out. I also had to rework the knee cap armour. I had to bulk it up. I've cut the shape of the final knee cap on 0.25mm plaplate. The shape ot the existing kneeI was curved and I had to file them flat to fit the plaplates nicely. I made some dissolved putty to fill in gaps between the pla plate & the main piece. The putty took more than a week to cure. So I poked a few holes to speed up the curing. After curing, the rest of the pla plates were cemented to form the new knee cap armour. The feet were simple build.

The raw assembly of the GM looks good enough for an OOB. But I cannot settle for just an OOB. The assembly after the simple mods look satisfactory. Time to start on the painting.

Before

After

Thanks to flanker27's ABing lessons & most importantly sty's workshop and AB. I have embarked on my virgin AB work. I utilized a full bottle of Olive Drab FS34087 (304), RLM66 Black Gray (116) and the remainder of Off White (69). I had not primed so the off white ended up looking greenish even after 3 coats. I ran out of Off White and even used up the remainder of neXus' White. I had to return on my second session to touch up the white with Gray FS3662 (311). Gray FS3662 gave a nice beigey smokey white effect and IMO a good colour for all future white areas. I took 2 full afternoon sessions to complete the painting. Finer details were painted by brush.

The Base idea came at the last minute when I realized that time was running out. I was inspired by neXus' concentric base design and worked out my own. I used 0.3mm cards from AMEX promotion phamplets to substitute pla plates. After cutting out the shapes, I sprayed them with Red Fox Bright Silver over Anchor Gray Dusk. The underside was sprayed with adhesive and mounted on a painted MDF board. MDF board was purchased from Art Friend and sprayed with Anchor Gray Dusk. I printed the box art and rear and placed it between 2 acrylic sheets.The acrylic sheets were fixed by rivets and mounted to the MDF using screws. A mishap happened during the photoshoot. I accidentally kicked the base and the acrylic snapped at the screws. Thanks to neXus who saved my day with his acrylic sheet. This time I know not to screw into the acrylic as this creates a tension zone.

There you have it. My experience building this MG GM Sniper Custom Ver.Ka.

Click above box art to view complete kit gallery or visit MECHA:BASE.

The Search for the Ideal Air Pump

2006-11-10T15:50:00.000+08:00

Why an air pump and not an airbrush compressor?
1. It's cheaper.
2. It's more durable (air pumps for aquariums are made to operate for 24/7, right?).
3. There's no problem with moisture because air is not compressed and stored.
4. No need for oil topups/changes (also no problem with oil leaks).
5. It's more silent (depends on brand).

Alright, Mr Nakamoto is using the HIBLOW HP40 in his shop.
His 'compressor' is known to serve up to four students at one time.
The HP40's specs can be found HERE.
It's 40 L/min at 3.5 psig(0.024 MPa)
Btw, 1 psig = 0.0069 MPa
Yeah yeah, we're getting kinda technical here.
But that's what you gotta do to find the ideal alternative.

@ Aqua Star Trading (Blk 934 Yishun Central 1) Location

ATMAN 8000 = S$90
ATMAN 12000 = S$120

The ATMAN 8000.

Info was gathered from HERE.

@ Keong Seong Fish Shop (Blk 22 Havelock Road)(Tel:62729384/62781003) Location

HAILEA V60 = S$120+
I believe it also comes with a row of multi outlet attachment.

SONIC P125 (125L/min @ 0.04Mpa) = S$180
(They have the P85 model too but it's unsure when its stock will be available)
The Sonic P-series comes with pretty decent attachments too.

There's an online review HERE.

At this shop, it was said that they do provide repair services (mainly for the diaphgram).

@ Clementi Florist & Aquarium (Blk 328 Clementi Ave. 2) Location

HIBLOW HP40 = S$198
HIBLOW HP60 = S$268

@ PetMart Pte Ltd Website Location

HIBLOW HP40 = S$200
HIBLOW HP60 = S$260
HIBLOW HP80 = S$300
(prices are taken from their webby, not sure if it's still the same)

VERDICT
At the moment, my top choice would be the Sonic P125 because it's:
- cheap
- very powerful
- has the required attachments
- there's repair support
Btw, the shop is using the Sonic air pump themselves.

The HP60 would be a good choice too if I can afford it, considering Hiblow is a trusted brand.

Followed by the Atman 8000 simply because it's dirt cheap & best of all it comes with all the required attachments.

[Airbrush] YEHONG-470

2006-10-28T20:40:00.000+08:00

The YEHONG-470 is my very first airbrush(ab).
It is a Made in Taiwan double action ab.
You can find out more of its specs fr HERE.

It retails at S$69.90 at Miniature Hobby but thanks to sty, I'm able to get it with a 20% discount.

The package.

The components.

The airbrush.

The accessories.
A mini spanner & the tapered attachment.

The ab set.
The tapered attachment is useful when you wanna drive your ab using a fish pump thru a rubber tube. (Stop staring at my manly tits)

Dammit! KNNBCCBSMLJKPKBBBQ!!!
I'm such a klutz.
After a tiring first day of airbrushing at sty's workshop, due to a lack of concentration, I dropped my brand new ab on the ground.
It landed butt first and now there's a dent on the aluminium butt.

Luckily, upon further inspection, the dent doesn't affect the movement of the needle.

But it's still a massive eyesore.

These are parts of the manual.

[BAKUC-06] Qubeley Core Assault

2006-09-26T03:02:00.000+08:00

I've decided to take down one of my old poorly built kits from my dusty shelves and give it the opportunity to join the upcoming BAKUC.
It's gonna be the HGUC 1/144 Qubeley Mk II.
Im gonna beef up the Qubeley with styrene sheets.
The curved surfaces of the shoulder wings proved to be quite a challenge for a first-timer.
BTW, this is my first time doing extensive modding on a kit.
Since this project is called the Qubeley Core Assault, I'll also attempt to either buy a nice cool big ass weapon from Ore-Gun or scratch build one myself.

Shoulder Mods
Masked it up with normal masking tape.

Draw my desired patterns on it.

Peel the tape off, cut em out, stick em on the styrene and cut out the shapes.

T for Top. B for Bottom. In case I get confused.
And of cos, putty up the shallow dents on the shoulder surface.

Segment T3 is pretty tricky to cement it on the surface.
Shallow gaps between the styrenes are quite a bitch to sand.

The same thing was done for the right shoulders.

All done.

The is the inner part of a shoulder.
A large segment was gorged out so that two braided ropes can be put in its place.

Arm Mods
Beneath these two strips of styrene is a continuous seam line.
I used these two pieces of styrene to hide the seam line so that I can paint the pink inner arm first before I attach the blue chasis of the arm.
This reliefs me from tricky masking duties too.

Leg Mods
Some detailing on the knee area.

Adding styrene here & there and drilling holes here & there.

Also done on the inner knee areas.

The toes.

The heels. Don't they look happy.

Skirt Mods
Addition of styrene.
Front skirt.

Rear skirt.

Painting
Initial priming.

Testing out RJ 18K Gold.

Airbrushed over at sty's workshop.
Damn, I'm hooked on airbrushing......

Mini Thrusters
I wanted to add some details to the shoulders by adding in some mini thrusters.

Using rivets of different sizes and a bit of PCB tape.

Wind the PCB tape around the smaller rivet so that when the bigger one fits over it, it would be tight.

Slowly stuff the bigger rivet over the smaller one.
Using the hobby knife to guide it in as well.

Done.

Attached some blu-tac to the butt.

And stick it onto the surface.
Finished.

Braided rope
Cut to size/length & stuff em in.

Scratch Built Rifle
The main design is to have a beam rifle combined with a gatling gun.
The gatling gun was found from one of my Stikfas figurines.
The shape of the rifle was first drawn on a piece of paper, then it was cut out and traced on 0.5mm thick styrene.

Further pieces of sytrene were added to buld up the rifle.
Parts of the tree were also used to build the barrel of the rifle.
Parts of the Stikfas tree were used to build the handle of the rifle.

I still felt that the rifle is pretty dull so I added more details using more styrene rods and even wires.
So this is how it looks now.
All it needs now is a decent paint job.

Display Base
Paper design.

Realised it on a cardboard.

Tested the fitting on the MDF(20 x 15 cm) from Art Fiend.

Adding in the details.

More details.

Test posing with a dummy Qubeley.

95% done - lack panel lining and coloring of the weapon & base.

Pose #1.

Done.
Somehow I'm abit unsatisfied with the base.

Well, the base is too plain.
So I designed something in the dimensions of a 5R photo and sent it for digital prints.
It costs $1.50.
I understand that the ratio of typical digital pictures sizes (eg. 1024 x 768) from our digicams are different from standard photo sizes (4R, 5R & etc).
So I design the base according to the ratio of standard photo sizes.
Some problems faced are that even though I designed the base in the size of 5R (5 x 7") in photoshop, when I submitted it for printing, the lady still has to crop it.
I noticed that some text & details would be missing so I went home to alter my design (gave it a bigger border) and went back again.

Even so, the print out was not perfect.
But the resolution is acceptable.

Now that I know what to look out for when sending my digital pix for prints, I'd know what to do when editing the pix which will be sent for the competition.
I'm not expecting to win anything.
I'm only hoping to be selected for display. Heh Heh.

Below are some pix of the completed model kit.

COMPLETED

Rest of the gallery can be found HERE.

Astray Blue Frame 2nd L (OOB)

2006-08-27T11:06:00.000+08:00

This is tentitively the OOB (Out Of Box) kit that I'm gonna be building for sty's compy.

Its feet is not very well articulated, it can only be bent backwards a little.

This shall be the final pose that I'm gonna stick with when the kit is done.
Fierce?

Snipping a bit of the male parts to allow for easier & closer fittings.

Drilling some holes in an attempt to give the chest some details.
However, these holes will not be seen when the kit is done.

Scribing some panel lines on the underside of the shoulder in an attempt to hide a major problematic seam line which is difficult to seal.

I'm a lazy bastard, so I bought a bottle of dissolved putty to try it out.

The dissolved putty is applied using a toothpick(which is also the stirrer) on the seams which had been cemented together.

After filing away the excess, the seam may look like it has became more obvious but it is actually filled by the putty.

After priming, Tamiya Brilliant Blue is applied.

Damn, these crocstiks sure are handy.

My "spray booth" - The Abyss.

I bought the frame of my spray booth from Daiso.
How you are supposed to use it is that you stretch a plastic bag over it and use it as a rubbish bin.

Completed with some test shots

COMPLETED

Rest of the gallery can be viewed HERE.

The Rubbing Compound Experiment

2006-07-26T00:45:00.000+08:00

Objectives:
To investigate the effectiveness of different types of rubbing compounds and if possible, discover a cost effective solution.
Test subject: back of a CD jewel case
Test color: Anchor spray paint - Black
Pre-rubbing treatment:
Mr. Hobby primer>3 mist coats Anchor black>wet sand with 1500 grit sandpaper>1 wet coat Anchor black

After I opened my newly bought Gunze Sangyo rubbing compound, I took a whiff of it(i like smelling chemicals which are foreign to me, haha) and I immediately know that Autosol is a highly possible alternative. Cow had previously discussed with me about Autosol too.
Some online sites also mentioned about using toothpaste to do fine sanding, so I'm gonna give it a go as well.

Pix are taken with a hobby knife on the surface so that I could see the reflectiveness of the surface as well as to enable the digicam to have a focus point.

The rubbing compounds being investigated are:
- Gunze Sangyo Rubbing Compound 1000
- Autosol no.1000
- Toothpaste

The compound is applied using a cotton T-shirt and rubbed on the surface in a circular motion until it becomes foggy and sticky. Then it is wiped clean with a fresh portion of the cloth to reveal the shine.

Here we go......(click to enlarge images)

Untreated surface.

Gunze Sangyo Rubbing Compound 1000

Autosol no.1000

Toothpaste.

Some other pieces that I've polished it up.

Conclusion:
Gunze Sangyo Rubbing Compound gave the best results.
Followed by Autosol. Toothpaste shouldn't be used unless you want a matt finish, haha.
I believe that if there was a 2nd wet coat before applying the rubbing compound, the finishing can be shinier.

Mono Eye

2006-07-25T22:49:00.000+08:00

Metallic pink mono eyes.
Great for Zakus.
$1 for a pack of about 100 beads.
They come in sizes of 4mm, 5mm, 6mm, 8mm & 10mm.
Also available in metallic blue, green, gold, chrome & etc.

5mm beads.

Drilled a 4.8mm hole into a CD jewel case and stuffed it in.
It fitted nicely but I sanded it further(to smoothen the edges) and it became loose, damn itchy hands.
Anyway, this is a bulge of a 50% fit thru.

As seen fr another view.

Countersunked and attached with tape from back.

Countersunked the 4.8mm hole with a 5.5mm bit and then the bead was attached with a masking tape from the back(blutac could also be used if you are working in tight spaces).

Countersunked and attached with cement.

The cement was applied fr the back but some oozed out to the front, causing abit of irregularities on the surface.

AGE OF WAR: Descent of ZEON Dragons

2006-07-19T02:12:00.000+08:00

modelled using HGUC MS-06 Zaku II
modelled by mybearbrick
CG by mybearbrick

The initial phase it regular snap fitting, cementing and filing. A raw assembled look just doesn't feel right. The color of this HGUC kit is absolutely CRAP to the MG. If you are wondering how crap it is, it is actually the paler green of the limbs/shield! Something need to be done. Having the knowledge that Zaku II, not being part a Seed/Destiny MS, cannot adopt the fancy painting and HK Style (term adopted from Seiya) decaling. It just doesn't seem right to fancy it up. The Zaku II has always been potrayed in more of a military stylized design scheme. Hence, a camouflage scheme will be good here.

I have previously bought a can of pylox paint, Mulberry Green. It's virgin use will be for this kit. Having read plenty about camouflage and seen plenty, I know that it is no easy task. I do not want to complicate it with 3 color tones, so I decided to use the Mulberry Green over the pale CRAP green. Taking the simple approach to camoflage, I adopted the 'Zudah-style' camo scheme. Stuck huge slabs of masking and painted masking sol on the kit. Masking is also quite a knowledge, so that I do not waste the tape. The Tamiya masking tape was used to outline while the space is cover with either stationary masking tape or Mr hobby Masking Sol. Warning: Do not use stationary masking tape on painted areas as they are too sticky. Use masking sol or reduce the stickiness by sticking on cotten fabric and stripping it. Masking solution was used for curvy and round edges. Masking solution can be replaced with stationary clear glue but note that masking solution dries faster. The kit was given 2 thin but thorough coats of the paint. An interval of about 15 - 20 mins is allowed for paint to dry before layering a second coat. This interval can be cut short using a hair-dryer, but use with caution!

Since I didn't like the flexible crap green tubing, I decided that I give it a different color. I chose Mr Hobby Burnt Iron for this job, a very verstatile color which I used very often. The backpack, missile packs and weapons were all painted with the same burnt iron. Missiles were painted with Mr Hobby Gold and home-made chrome. Copper was also applied to some parts of the kits. All metallic painted parts were left raw without top-coat.

Panel-lining was simple as the HGUC kit doesn't have much panel lines to work with, unlike the MG done by Laurens. Most of the edges of the Zaku II are curved, so there really isn't much point in panel-lining the curved edges. I had no intention to scribe additional panel lines too as this was supposed to be a speedy and basic build.

I have come to realize that can no longer do a basic OOB with spicing the kit up. Hence, some samuel decals were applied. I have used HGUC Zaku II decals, 'Flying Dragon' from Bawoo's and some Man Wah decals. 2 layers of flat top coat were given to even everything out. Not good enough! Small studs were inserted to spice it up more. These studs courtesy from Laurens, are different from the regular led holder studs used previously. These studs are made of glass, smaller and usually used for ladies accessory making. An approximately-sized hole was drilled in marked positions and further boring was done until the studs fit.

It has come to my attention that the images were over-exposed due to strong lighting. I will be giving it another photoshoot properly some other time to do it justice.

Review: Filter Dust Mask

2006-07-10T20:19:00.000+08:00

The use of spray paints on your kit is very common because you do spray painting while priming, colouring or finishing.
Though I enjoy getting high while doing my kits but getting my brain damaged as well is highly unde...de...de...sirable.
Hence a mask with a filter should be used while spray painting.

Where: Hai Chew Hardware & Co.
Price: S$1.00

It's a multi-purpose filter mask which filters out dust, pollen, powders and paint spray.
Judging from the language, it's probably made in Spain.

A fist-sized mask that covers your nose & mouth.
Although the adjustable elastic head band doesn't look like it can last for 10 years but I believe it can be easily replaced when worn out.

The filter material can be easily replaced thru a flip down compartment.
It's made of some kinda felt-like material(I think it's available @ Art Fiend).

Although it feels like I'm wearing a sock on my face but the stretchy cloth provides a comfortable fit even when worn for long durations.

For a buck......I give it a 10/10 rating.

MG ZAKU II (MS-06F)

2006-07-05T03:15:00.001+08:00

This has been quite a slow kit for me.
Snapping it together took me a week of on & off work.
Could be due to the nature of the kit......
Although it's an MG, there's not much of a skeleton and the armor is mainly made up of two halves fitted together with a major seam in the middle.

Saw some online pix where there're some white stripes on the body.

This is the proposed placement of the stripes(using reg masking tape).

After proper masking & handpainting the white stripes.

Painted the internals(gold, gun chrome and bronze).

Abit of weathering using enamel titanium silver.

Done with panel lining and a flat coat.
I shall call it the Skunk Zaku bcos of the white stripe across its head.

Took some pix of how it looks like now before I attempt to weather it.
Afraid that I might screw it up later, haha.

(click images to enlarge)

Just For Fun (until I get the weathering done)

Completed
Weathered with some dry brushing and battle damaged techniques.

The rest of the pix can be found HERE.

Impulse RED Gundam

2006-06-25T13:24:00.000+08:00

The Impulse RED Gundam is a completely new initaitve to my gunpla modelling hobby.
Modelled using a NG 1/144 Sword Impulse Gundam,
this MS utilizes 'Evergreen' styrene sheets to scratch build and mod parts.

WORK-IN-PROGRESS

Modding the Impulse Rifle
A start with styrene. I have utitilzed 1mm thick styrene sheets for the whole process of this kit. Being new to styrene, I decided to start with basic modding of the Impulse Rifle. An actual dimensional layout is drawn on paper and protoype is cut out. After the correct dimensions are determined, actual drawing on the styrene sheet was done. Scoring of the styrene was done using a hobby knife. The styrene snaps neatly according to the properly scored styrene. I used 2-3 shallow scorelines.
After the right pieces were cut out, Tamiya extra thin cement was used to affix the parts together onto the rifle. The strength of the cement bonding is sufficient for this mod.

Scratch-building the wings
The back of the sword impulse gundam was retained. The hinges of the swords were modded accodingly to actual dimension prototpyes. I have decided to give the wing system, a 2 point articulation, so that the wings can be kept and deployed in various modes. After playing around with prototypes and bluetack, I gave the hinges a bevelled edge so that the wings can be depolyed to full range and making the wing system looks better. The determination of angle was by trial and error, quite a sloppy decision.
Tamiya Quick Putty was used to fill up empty spaces within styrene-made walls. Something to take note is to always fill putty in thin layers and let it cure completely, prior to next layering. Let the putty overflow when application, since when curing, the putty mount shrinks. The excess cured putty can then be trimmed with hobby knife and sanding/filing. Make sure to adpot 'wet-sand/file' to prevent sniffing in the toxic putty powder.

Having previously worked on the Destiny Impulse backpack, I am more confident of building T-junctions. Initially, with an idea of the Gouf Ignited backpack in mind, I tried out S/S rod as the pivot point, since it is thin. However, the smooth face of the rod makes the wing plates droopy. Friction is needed here. So I utilized spare tree. The pro is that spare tree being ABS can be cemented, but the con is that the tree is too thick. Holes of appropiate dimensions were drilled into the wing plates. A raw assembly is then performed. Should the wings be still droopy, putty was used on the spare tree rod (wing pivot spine).

Raw assembly to test the 1st point articulation. This articulation is the mini wing plate and main wing plate rotating about the pivot spine. The tired wing plate is affixed to the wing hinge. The remainder pivot spine was trimmed down and affixed to the free mini wing plate.

The nasty trimmed end of the cemented spine can be seen on mini wing plate. I neeed something to cover the nasty-looking spot. Four of these were made. I call them exhaust vents.

A final raw assembly of the wing and the 2 points articulation tested. The 2nd point is the hinge rotating about the sword impulse backpack. I have cemented and sanded most of the seams. But since the fitting was so perfect, I had some hard time squeezing out the cement. So some mild seamlines are still slightly visible. Notice that I have yet snap fit the head piece.

Painting
The head comes in 3 pieces, a great improvement in the NG 1/144 Seed Destiny kits. This feature allows the modeller to mask/paint the recessed eyes area with ease. Painting was done with Vallejo flat red, vallejo flat white and vallejo flat yellow.

Decal Application
Destiny Gundam decals from Sameul Decals and generic MW-1001 decals from MW decals, were used. MW decals was easier to use and were cleaner on application. Since Sameul decals do not come with trimmed edges for the decals, I need to trim it carefully before soaking. Sameul decals are also softer and post application, wrinkles and uneven trim marks were obvious. I would think Mark Setter is required to soften and help with the application of Sameul decals. Nevertheless, top-coating makes the decals blend in and makes everything looks neat. Shown here is prior top-coat.

It is obvious that the joints and hands are not painted yet. I have not done so because I am going to apply metallic paint on it and it has to be done only after flat coat.

Completed Impulse RED Gundam
After top-coat was applied, chrome was painted to the joints and hands. Metallic circuit rivets were applied. A thin green wire was affixed to the rifle and joined to the backpack.

More pictures are updated in MECHA:BASE.
(click on image below to access the gallery directly)

Pictured using Canon iXUS 40 with Harvest Studio setup

Basic Weathering Techniques

2006-06-25T12:12:00.000+08:00

Found this japanese website with a tutorial on weathering your gunpla.
The pictures seemed to give quite a good depiction but I can't understand a single word of its explaination.
So I used google translator to translate the pages.

Lesson 1: Pre-shading
Lesson 2: Simulating Mud
Lesson 3: Worn Out Surfaces
Lesson 4: Drybrushing 1
Lesson 5: Drybrushing 2
Lesson 6: Battle Damage
Lesson 7: Rusting

I dare you to not laugh at the translated text.

Dreadnought Gundam

2006-06-14T03:16:00.000+08:00

This one's been done about a week ago.
I decided to take some pix of it while I was waiting for 3am World Cup 2006 match.

I wanted to experiment with a couple of different lighting.
I've seen some pix with one side of the model illuminated while the other side is dark.
(click images to enlarge)

Here's a couple of shots with one vertically orientated flourescent tube located at 45degrees right.

Not a very convincing outcome. Will try out more in the future.

Here are some shots with one horizontally orientated flourescent tube located at 45degrees top front.

nexustand version 3.0

2006-06-07T12:54:00.000+08:00

Recently, I've been working with a bit of acrylic sticks and sheets.
Then I began to miss how I used to innovate my nexustand.

So, let's get right to it.
I want it to have:
- a poseable spine but not by using the bendy wire.
- a more secure base-to-spine connection.
- a thicker base(preferably 3mm & abv).
- a less bulky looking torso grip.

Materials used:
- PP foam(translucent white)
- acrylic stick(5mm diameter)
- aluminium wire(3mm)

(click on images to enlarge)

Making the spinal joints:

A 3mm screw tap & die was used to make these joints.
It gave me sore fingers after trying to do precision drilling on the ends of the acrylic sticks and threading the aluminium wire.

The spinal joint unit:

A small allowance needs to be given in between the sticks so that the aluminium wire can be bent.

The torso grip:

It was a simple design but extremely difficult to realise.
The horizontal hole(3mm) for the aluminium wire and the vertical hole(3mm) for the screw forms a T-junction kinda tunnel.
The spine is only of 5mm in diameter.
This weakens the architecture of the torso grip.
The structure broke once, hence the original design is now about 1cm shorter.
In future, a 6mm diameter acrylic stick would be used(it only costs 10cent more).
*note: the extra hole in the spine is part of another torso grip design which failed miserably as it was too stiff to manipulate and too difficult to insert*

The base:

The base is a 4 ply PP foam design, each ply is 100 x 100 x 1.2 mm.
Why 4 ply?
This thickness(4.8mm) gives a good sturdy support for the base-to-spine connection.
Also a thicker base is more aesthetically pleasing.
Why only 100 x 100 mm?
This stand is intended for use with both 1/100 and 1/144 gunpla models.
Hence a base of this size would look proportional when displaying these model kits.
Of course, stability is considered too.
(Actually, the main reason why it's 100 x 100 mm is because the raw material comes in the form of a 200 x 700 mm board and cutting it into 100 x 100 mm pieces is more convienent & economical.)

Rotational designs:

Since it's 4 ply and only joined in one spot......why not rotate the pieces around and see what shapes you can get?

Elongated base:

One of my favourites.
Great for mechas with long and big ass rifles.

The nexustand version 3.0 (NSLP-V30A):

This arrangement of the spine is suitable for 1/100 kits:

Approx height: 180 mm

This arrangement of the spine is suitable for 1/144 kits:

Approx height: 120 mm

Flexibility:

Because the spinal joints are aluminium, the spine is poseable.
The torso grip wire is also bendable.
The pitch of the torso grip can also be adjusted by loosening and tightening the screw.

With a HG 1/144 Dreadnought.
Front:

Back:

The Dreadnought has one of the oddest looking backpacks and the torso grip has no problem holding the mecha in place.

With an MG 1/100 Gouf.
Front:

Back:

The shorter attachment(60 mm) of the spine can be easily added to extent the spine for 1/100 scaled kits.

Sample of a kit mounted on a different base arrangement.
Front:

Shown here is a Gouf mounted on the elogated base arrangement.
With this arrangement of the base, more support is provided for this back-leaning pose.

Back:

The spine is also adjusted with ease.

Base:

The nexustand version 3.0 is by far my most satisfactory version of the revolutionary nexustand.

--------------------Updates--------------------

All Aluminium Torso Grip
Managed to buy a 1 foot long 6mm aluminium rod.
Gonna use it to construct the main part of the torso grip.

Attached to a transparent bendy wire.

Attached to a white bendy wire.

The new Torso Grip.

Then I went to Sim Lim Tower and bought these at 30cents each.

The center one is handmade from a 6mm aluminium rod(very xiong).
The left one is made of plastic(it has good traction against the aluminium loop but doesn't look too good).
The right one is made of brass coated with chrome(looks good but difficult to bore the 3mm horizontal hole).

2006-06-03T09:53:00.000+08:00

MG 1/100 RX-178 Titans

I'd previously done the HG 1/144 Version. I clearly remember buying this kit in December 2004. It was one of the kits I actually got pretty excited about, cos I love the Titans colours.

Bandai's released a newer, improved version of this kit. Hopefully they'll start clearing this version so I can pick up at least two more.

As its an MG, the parts come casted in the correct colour. Sanding the kit is hell though, IIRC took me almost a day. I actually finished sanding this kit like a month ago, but only came back to painting it now.

As mentioned earlier in the Hyaku Shiki post, silver heels is the way to go!

I didn't plan well for this piece, and ended up using red Gundam markers to fill in the red parts in the side skirting and the inner thrusters.

Building MGs are no joke, sanding alone is quite depressing. I snap fit all my models to familiarise myself with the parts and assembly, then disassemble them, spray and reassemble.

Welcome to the family, MG 1/100!

What's next? Maybe this?

2006-06-03T09:32:00.000+08:00

Gundam HG 144 Hyaku Shiki

Tried spraying a black undercoat for all the gold parts on this piece.

Used Anchor spray paints for this piece. No panel lining yet.

I'm hoping to have silver heels for all my future kits.

The red tube was originally black, part of the entire knee joint. Masking was a biatch but thank goodness it turned out ok.

Same for the gold tube on the gun. There's a little bleeding though, but I'm fine with it.

The red tubes on the forearm are its natural colour. However the black parts connected to the tubes were originally red. The beam saber's handle was the same colour as the beam actually. The most effective way of painting beam sabers for me so far is to prop them upright on clothes pegs and spray away.

This kit was a good exercise in masking for me. It'll probably be a while before I go back to this kit and work on its huge ass cannon.

Crocstiks - Crocodile Sticks

2006-05-31T00:07:00.000+08:00

Painting can be quite messy if you ain't got something to hold on to your model piece other than your fingers.

Some people use mini clips to hold their pieces up and carefully balance them on the table after painting while others attach a ball of blue-tac to the end of a satay stick(skewer).

For a more permanant and convenient solution, I've devised myself the crocstiks (crocodile sticks).

Materials used:
- crocodile clips
- satay sticks(skewers)
- galvanised wire

1. Fit your skewer on the crocodile clip and wrap the two cripping claws around the stick using a pair of tweezers. Then, with the hole available at the bottom of the crocodile clip, drill a small hole thru the skewer.

2. Thread your wire thru the hole from the bottom of the crocodile clip. From the top end of the wire, make a 90 degree bend using a short segment on the wire. Then rotate the short segment towards the inside of the crocodile clip.

3. Coil the wire around the crocodile clip. The coils would hold the skewer together with the crocodile clip while the wire thru the crocodile clip and skewer would prevent the skewer from slipping out of the crocodile clip.

4. Completed.

Advantages:
- crocstiks are reusable.
- crocstiks are easy to handle.
- crocstiks can easily be stuck onto a block of styrofoam after/while painting.
- if paint starts to build up on the crocstiks, they can be easily cleaned by dipping them into a cup of thinner and stirring them around until the paint comes off.

WIP: XiaoBaiLong - Freedom Gundam

2006-05-22T02:13:00.000+08:00

Xiao3 Bai2 Long2 - Zi4 You2 Zhan4 Shi4 is a NG 1/100 recasted model kit of the famous ZGMF-X10A Freedom Gundam by Bandai.
(click on images to enlarge)

The box:

It definately looks better than a GD Model kit.
It has its own logo (top right-hand corner) and customised stickers that secures the bottom of the box.

The contents:

Yes! It does comes with an instruction manual booklet.

Upon closer inspection, the red and yellow trees are actually painted over by their respective colors.

Paint removal:

I poured some tamiya thinner out onto a small dish, cut out two small sections of the red and yellow trees and dropped them into the dish.
The paint comes off rather easily to reveal the base color.

Dark blue undercoat:

The head:

The head of a gundam is the most important part of a kit.
If its shape ain't well defined, the entire kit wouldn't look good too.

Large gaps:

These gaps would need to be filled with tamiya putty and sanded down to shape.
In the meantime, the V-fins were sharpened.

Fresh from the trees:

Not too bad lah, the two halves of a single unit are able to join together tightly but with the expected occasional gaps/seams.
At least it is able to stand up and hold up its rifle.

Since this is a recast kit, I might as well try out various modifications(some that I've observed online) on it.
I shall be attempting:
- cutting & adding plaplates(or rather styrene from evergreen)
- panel line scribing
- recoloring
- adding rivets(using beads)

Modding the plasma beam cannons:
Ok, the MG version of freedom gundam is able to adopt a pose in HiMAT mode while the NG versions cannot.
And that pisses me off.

MG Freedom Gundam in HiMAT mode:

Hence, I shall attempt to mod my beam cannons to look similar to that of the MG's.

An original non-HiMATable beam cannon:

Where to cut:

After scrutinising the beam cannons of the MG kit, I picked my point of incision on my beam cannon and used a pencil to draw out the lines that would be cut.

Scribing with needle:

Then a needle and ruler were used to scribe out the initial lines on the plastic.

Deepening the lines:

Then a hobby knife was used to make repeated cuts to deepen the lines.

Separated:

Eventually the two segments were separated.

Recycling PC parts:

A spare part from the PC tree was then added to act as a pivot for the cannon to rotate outwards.

The hollow shells:

The segments were fitted together and sanded down.
But they look kinda hollow. Putty shall be used to fill em up.

How to attach:

A hole was bored thru to allow the pc part to be secured in place.

Another spare part:

Then a short segment was cut from the remainder tree to be used as an axis.

Flushing the axis:

Then it was cut and filed down until it is flushed with the surface of the cannon.

Plan A:

Initially, the plan was to allow the cannon to be able to rotate outwards(to achieve HiMAT) AND tilt up & down(in the direction of the pink arrow).
But because there wasn't enough clearence between the bottom of pc part and the interior of the cannon, the tilting action would cause the cannon to expand at the seams(which is not such a great idea).

Plan B:

Hence, some styrene sheets(0.5mm thick) were cut and shaped to seal up the hollow regions.
*Note: the end of the cannon in this pic wasn't covered up but the completed one was.
End of the day, the cannons wouldn't be able to tilt up.

Filling the void:

Peanut butter was then used to seal up the hollow spaces of the other segment.
By the way, if you look closely, you can see a piece of tree inserted at the bottom buried among the putty.
This was done because the putty simply took too long to cure and harden.

Completed & Test Fit:

The gap between the two segments is to create an allowance for the rotation of the cannon.
Ok lah, it doesn't look fabulous right now but it doesn't matter also because it'll be hidden behind parts of the wings of the freedom gundam.

Rotation:

Fitted with its wings:

Together with the backpack & torso:

All together now:

Not bad ei?

Make your own head vulcans:
After puttying up the gaps in the head, it seems to me that the head vulcans are not very defined.

Splitting and filing:

A glass bead was split in half using a hobby knife.
Then a segment of a tree was cut out and slowly filed down to size. It's kinda tedius but it can be done. The main part of the vulcan was painted first then blue tac(white ones) was use as an adhesive to secure the tip(half a bead) of the vulcan to the main part of the vulcan. Then together they were secured to the head using blue tac as well.
*But in the end, a whole bead was used instead because it looks better.

Scribing panel lines:
Followed the tutorial from here.

Details for the shoulder:

Used pencil to draw out my desired panel lines on the shoulder.
Then masked it up along the lines and use a needle to scribe out the lines.
Then I used an acrylic cutter to deepen the lines.
When I'm done, the surface was filed down using a fine grit sandpaper.

New panel lines:

This is another part, didn't really have much progress pix for the whole process.

Recoloring for the poor man:
I ain't got no airbrush & compressor and using Mr. Hobby mini spray cans at 10bucks a pop is way too costly.
So I turned to using industrail spray paints. They cost s$3.50 a can and they come in bigger cans of course. The only problem with them is that the paint is quite coarse and it is very hard to achieve a smooth finish. So I'd be spraying from a greater distance(misting).

Choice of colors:

ANCHOR Red, White, Pale Grey, Dark Grey(S$3.50 each) and a Mr. Hobby primer(S$11.90!!!)

Test trial:

Tested the four main colours on a piece of paper to see if the colors complement one another.

Photoshop time:

To give me a feel of what it could look like, the above image is a briefly photoshopped pic of a color scheme which I intend to do.

Priming the parts:

Dark colored parts must be prime before painting since I'm attempting to recolor them.
The Hangar24 is a great help for spray painting jobs.

Preview of the wings:

Adding beads:

I did said that I'm gonna be putting the beads to good use, didn't I?

A brief look on how the beads are added to strategic parts of the kit.

Making your mark:

Use a sharp tool to make a mark on your selected spot.
This is to prevent your drill bit from slipping as you are drilling.

Boring:

Depending on the size of your bead, bore a hole using a drill bit of a slightly smaller diameter and then file it down to size. This way, your bead would be able to fit snuggly in the hole without the use of any adhesive.

Fitting the bead:

Use a pair of tweezers to fit the bead into the hole.

Not all the way in:

Use the back of your tweezers to push the bead into the snug fitting hole.
If the hole is very tight, it's probably not a good idea to use brute force to push it in because it may break the bead(it's made of glass) or crack your plastic.
The bead need not be push in all the way until it's flush with the surfce of the plastic, this is to give it a more natural look of a rivet or something.

Making a stand:
Materials that I'd be using
- acrylic sheets(1.4mm thick,A4 size)
- acrylic stick(5mm diameter,1m long)
- special nut and bolt

The base is made from two acrylic sheets, one on top of the other.
The top one is clear while the bottom one is translucent white.
The clear acrylic is elevated from the translucent white one but the four nuts & bolts mounted at the four corners.
The inital dimension of the base is 15 x 15 cm but due to inexperience with the acrylic cutting tool, the acrylic was cracked in various undesirable areas during the score & snap process.
So now it is 13 x 13 cm after some recovery work.

The base:

This is approximately how it'll look like.
By the way, the blue tool is the acrylic cutter.

The nut & bolt:

This is not exactly how it's gonna be placed. I'm just putting it in place to see how it looks and to plan where it should be mounted.

Drilling:

The nuts & bolts sizes were measured before marking out the positions of the holes on the base.
The center hole(5mm) is for the backbone of the stand.

Fitting time:

Connecting to the kit:

The usual method to stick a kit to the base is by using a stainless steel rod and poking it up the butt of the kit which has a suitable hole bored into it.
The diameter of the acrylic backbone(5mm) is simply too thick to initiate a hole to be bored in the butt of the kit. Hence a small hole is drilled into the backbone and a short segment of stainless steel in inserted into it. The other end of the rod would go into the butt of the kit.

Completed stand:

With the completed kit:

Too plain?:

A ZAFT word design was drawn and cut out from a tranparency. Then it was painted and glued to the underside of the clear acrylic.

Finalised:

Completion:

The complete gallery of XBL Freedom Gundam be viewed at Gundam Hangar.

MS Stand

2006-05-21T20:59:00.000+08:00

I had always been looking for a nice & cheap stand for my gunpla.
Finally, I was able to locate this stand at China Square Central from one of the weekend red table corridor vendors.
It's Made In China.
It costs S$4 each and S$7 for two.
(click on images to enlarge)

The MS Stand package.

The components.

The attachments.

After some brief assembly, I found that the three U-shaped groin grips were all identical.
Maybe they should've made them in different depths or widths.

The stand.

The stand (with a kit).

The stand was able to give you various flexible poses.
You can tilt it to the front, back, left and right because of the ball joint under the groin grip.
I give it a rating of 4/5 stars.

ZGMF-X56S/θ Destiny Impulse Gundam (ZAFT Advanced System)

2006-05-04T23:16:00.000+08:00

I inititally had the intention to build a kit with my best effort for submission to the local Gundam Seed Modelling Competition 2006. Despite knowing that my own skill is not up to competition standard, I would really love to have my work on display as a selected participant. Hence I decide to build something different from my regular NG 1/144 work.

The concept of my work came from the Dengeki Hobby Japan magazine, May issue. In the magazine, it featured a real charming kit-bash of a 1/100 Force Impulse Gundam with scratch-bulit Destiny backpack. The backpack is modded to incorporate 2x beam rifles that can be deployed like that of Freedom in High M.A.T. mode. Apart from the rifles, the backpack also accomodates for 2x Sword Im[pulse Sabres. Apart from the backpack, the next modded feature is presence of 2x gauntlets on the forearm, which one of it can emit a force shield. Thus, this masterpiece was named Destiny Impulse (ZGMF-X56S/ θ).

At the point of time when I was deciding what to build, 'Auchtung! Japan Hobby' or 'Naka' was having its final bout of sale with any quantity of kits at 50% discount. So I decided that it will be a good idea to grab some kits to 'bash'. I grabbed a HG 1/144 Force Impulse and some HG 1/144 Zaku Warriors. However, I have yet had any inspiration with the Zaku Warriors. The HG Force Impulse shall be the kit for me to bash. Thanks to Desmond, who gave me what I needed for this project, the remains of a NG 1/144 Destiny Gundam.

The materials to embark me on this project.

I started work on it for about a month ago. It is not that I put in that much effort, but I really haven't got time to sit down and do it. I started off with cutting all the parts. Then I started with some paint mixing to obtain the purple tones of the Destiny Impulse (DI) and applied it to an unprimed torso. Then, I modded my own version of the gauntlet with the shoulder pack of the Destiny. it looks like a simple fit-and-stick job but it took me sometime filing down excess parts from both the gauntlet and arm. I started carefully selecting the parts to be cemented while leaving out the rest to facilitate painting. A pre-assembly of the was done to get a preview of the structure. A comparison between the raw assembled DI and the NG 1/144 Destiny. Still I prefer the Destiny suit rather than the impulse. I just could not bring myself to like the Impulse and no words can describe that. That is also the reason that I had not sacrifice my sleep to work on this kit. Furthermore, I have plenty of time until deadline.

The fundamental work.

The raw assembly

How does it stand up to comparison with the NG 144 Destiny?

In previous pictures, the backpack was held by blue-tack. I decided to mod the backpack blaster piece to fit into the polycap on the Core Splendor instead of the original idea of sticking with super glue. I tried sticking a trimmed tree spine into the PC slot. It was a very tight fit, so I did some filing till I get a snug fit.Later, I drilled a hole into the cemented blaster piece and stick the spine in place with super glue. Cementing was done to seal the gap and sanded down. At the meantime, Tamiya Putty was used to fill some gaps in the wing blades, thanks to neXus for the putty.

Modding the backpack.

Painting takes place with all the appropiate parts painted accordingly. Colors used were Mr. Hobby Purple, Mr. Hobby Off White, Vallejo Flat White, Vallejo Flat Yellow, Vallejo Sky Blue and Vallejo Aquamarine. Primer was not used throughout. The actual outcome looks slightly different from the photographed image. It seems more bluish on photograph than violet. Although i have tried many settings on the camera, but still I cannot remedy this problem. I have decided not to change the color scheme of the Destiny weapons to black, which was my original plan. I took my time with the painting as I was anticipating the Metro sale on Good Friday. I needed to get a NG 1/144 Sword Impulse for its sabres. The moment I got them, priming was done as the parts were completely black. Mr Hobby White Surfacer 1000 was used to prime the surface and paints used were Vallejo Off White, Vallejo Aquamarine and Mr Aqueous Hobby Color Fluorescent Pink.

Black panel lines were applied with Tamiya black enamel diluted with Ronsol as a wash and COPIC 0.05 black marker. Decals were then applied. The decals were sourced from Samuel's Destiny Gundam 1/144 decal, generic 1/100 WAVE decal and ManWah decal generic 1/144 decal. Top coating was then done using the industrial satin finishing coat spray which I had been using. A disaster took place. Firstly, I was too close on the shoulder that it coagulated at the corners. Next, I could see the original base color emerging, especially the light violet over the red parts. I kind of expected that it might happen because the finishing spray tend to do that. I believe that this is attributed by 2 reasons. One, the finishing coat was too strong. Second, I did not prime before painting, 'cos no fading happened to my Impulse sabres. Hence, I repainted over the faded colors again and sanded down the coagulated coats. Then, I reapplied the top-coat again sparingly.

There you have it. My own version of the ZGMF-X56S/θ Destiny Impulse Gundam with ZAS (Zodiac Alliance of Freedom Treaty Advanced System or ZAFT A.S.). However, for submission to the competition is before complete. I still have to make a customized stand prior submission. I am still deciding between a diorama in space or a Gunpla stand with name.

More pictures are available at Mecha:base.
(click on below image to link to gallery directly)

Beads, Studs......Oh Whatever

2006-05-04T18:35:00.000+08:00

I was looking at this tutorial from Traffic Alone and it made me wonder if there is a cheaper alternative to adding those fancy metal studs/beads to a gunpla.
Then I thought about beads, they're small and they're made of plastics(I could even use cement to secure them in the holes).

This is the tutorial by Traffic Alone on how to install those studs.

This is my version using beads.
I bought a pack of beads from Daiso. It comes in various colors.
The ones that I'm particularly interested in are the transparent silvery ones.
They are 2mm in diameter.

I drilled a 2mm hole and then widen it a little until the bead could fit in.
I tried it on a dark grey tree.

Then on a white tree.
The yellow bead was tested to see if it could be attached to the tree using cement, and it does.

If you find that the bead is much too transparent. You can try painting the other end of the bead silver in color so that the front end of the bead would appear more opaque.
I'd be looking out for nicer coloured beads in the future.

*Eureka*
Maybe thicker duller opaque beads could be used to make the wire tubings found on Zakus.
Then they could be threaded using a wire and bent to any desired shapes.

***Updated***
After a day of sourcing for materials, the perfect beads were found and this is briefly what can be done.
The holes just needs to be sanded smoother.

Looking forward to putting this technique to good use in my future works.

***Updated***
Found better looking beads at a shop called Golden Dragon in Chinatown(Opp Chinatown Point).

It looks more metallic and more solid like a rivet.
S$4.20 for pack of countless beads. Haha.

Coming Soon...

2006-05-04T08:57:00.000+08:00

ZAS
Zodiac Alliance of Freedom Treaty Advanced Systems

HGUC RX 178 Titans

2006-04-14T02:14:00.000+08:00

Arthur, as promised...

My first attempt at using spray cans only for a Gundam kit. Always loved the Titan's navy blue and was glad Anchor ($3-4, available at hardware stores) actually has a premix. Other colours that I applied include black and orange yellow. The greyish blue(?) and red parts were simply flat coated.

Extremly obvious seamline on the gun and left foot. I only cemented the forearms and thighs for this piece. Too lazy to mask the shoulder and shins so I left it as it was. Arthur was quite right about it being too glossy (notice the left foot), as it turns out in photos. I might be applying a flat coat later.

Here's an idea of how Anchor's silver turns out.

There might be a problem with my can of black, it doesn't tend to cure as nicely as the navy blue. Notice the chest portion and front skirt.

I did attempt to panel line with Tamiya's enamel grey, but I might have well have not done it at all, or used black instead.

Anyway, I glad that the experiment with Anchor paints didn't turn out to be a total disaster.

A Walk Through A New Concept: Strike Freedom Gundam

2006-04-12T23:27:00.000+08:00

Introduction

First of all,
I would like to thank NeXuS for his kind invitation to be a 'Gunpla Hero'.
My introductory post will on my latest completed work, which is the NG 1/144 Strike Freedom Gundam.

The small box comes with great artwork.

Every experienced Gunpla fan will know that a NG 1/144 is the cheapest Gunpla kit around.
For that price, the kit usually comes with few parts in just a mere 2 to 3 runners, that can be snap-fitted together to give a 7-point articulated model, namely neck, shoulders, groin and feet.
The recent Seed Destiny NG 1/144 are a notch better than its precursor, Seed, with the introduction of a twin-balled PC runner. Such a runner allows more articulation than the regular stick with PC-7 ball. The NG 1/144 kit runners also comes in basic colors ranging between 1, usually 2 and sometimes but rarely 3 types. Hence, you definitely need to put on your own colors to make look complete.

Runners 1 and 2. Notice the basic colors.

Runner 2 and 3.

Coloring of the NG 1/144 kit takes a real great deal of effort. Reason is that for example an arm usually 2 or sometimes 3 colors, since the masking for air-brushing seems a rather difficult task, hand-painting is the only option. The greatest difficulty of hand-painting is the brush-strokes. However, with experience in blending the right proportion of paint and solvent, this issue can be resolved. The use of Vallejo paints are good too since they are water-based, easy to apply and hardly any brush-strokes are visible. Nevertheless, I prefer to use a combination of 3 different types of paints, namely Gunze Sangyo Mr Color (lacquer-based), Mr Aqueous Hobby Color (water-based acrylic) and Vallejo (water-based acrylic).

A raw fixed up NG 1/144 Strike Freedom Gundam. I will always pre-fix the kit loosely and take a snap shot so as to compare the overall experience on working with a NG 1/144 kit. The result is simply exhilirating.

Into the main topic.

I started the assembly of the Strike Freedom and it took me a mere 1 day.
The V-fins were delibrately filed down to give it a fiercer look.
As usual, I am taking short cuts by not doing anything to the seam-lines, since I am rather pleased even with seam lines.
I worked on the painting of the head first, so as to get an impression of the whole kit.
Head: Vallejo off white, Vallejo flat red, Vallejo sky blue, Valljo yellow and Mr Color medium seagray.
Next I started working on the rest of the kit.
Colors used include: Valljo prussian blue, Mr Color German Gray and Mr Color gold.
When the major painting was complete, panel-lining was done.
Tamiya enamel red was used in this kit. This is also the first time that I am using red color for panel-lining. Let's see if it will turn out right!
Man Wah decals were used and the colors where carefully chosen to match the panel lines.
Red seems to go best with the red panel lines.
Upon completion of all the decaling, top-coating with 2 to 3 coats of Satin finish was done.
The gold color was applied onyl after the top-coat, so as not to dull out the gold.

Last but not least,
posing the Strike Freedom on a generic 55c compressed wood block makes the kit looks more complete.

The red Man Wah decals were carefully picked to match the panel lines. The white decals seem right in certain areas of the wing, too much made it too messy as if overkill.

The twin rifles cannot be combined together like that of the HG and above grades, and it came in only 1 plain grey color leaving the painting to the skills of the modeller.

The Strike Freedom should be using a twin beam sabre, which is not available at all in this NG kit. The beam sabres are fixed to the belt. I got this RX-78 beam sabre from my friend sometime ago. Hence I decided to do some painting on the originally white beam sabre into what you see now.

At the end of the whole modelling experience of the Strike Freedom, I felt strongly that I should have used gold panel lining to give it the 'Lighning Edition' look. But all is done and I have no regrets.

Note:
More images can be viewed in my gallery (Mecha:base) which is accessible from the link on the right-hand side of this page.

What is Gunpla?

2006-04-04T23:29:00.000+08:00

Model robot, which may alternatively be called Gunpla (derived from "Gundam plastic model"), arised from the marketing schemes for Gundam and numerous model anime. Indeed, some hardcore mecha show fans complained that modern mecha shows is nothing more than 20 minutes of model commercial. Usually, they are marketed in scales 1:100 and 1:144, like model aircrafts, which seems strange to some westerners as they believe that they are best displayed in scenes crashing against houses, and thus should use natural model railway gauges instead. Still, as there are 1:144 model railways, in Japan itself this does not matter much; and numerous after market accessories for mecha models (as well as scratch building, which is what makes this hobby fun) render this "strange" scaling matter into non-matter.
Currently, Bandai is the main producer of mecha models, commonly called Gunpla, as most of them are models for Gundam.

(taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunpla)

Testing Picture Posts

2006-03-27T03:03:00.000+08:00

pic fr photobucket

450x600

450x338

800x600

pix uploaded by blogger
(click on image to enlarge)