New Look!

Some of you (the sharp ones) noticed that the blog has a new layout!  Good for you!  You can see!  I'm very proud of you all.  I spent all of yesterday taking pictures of kits that need postings.  While I was at it...

I also took a group shot for the new banner, hope you like it.

The banner picture has in it every Gundam model I have built since the start of my blog in Dec. of 2009 including the ones that received no love from me previously on the blog.  They are in some semblance of left to right order:

1/100 MG GP-02a Gundam Physalis
1/100 MG GM Ver 2.0
1/100 MG Hyaku Shiki HD Color Version
1/100 MG Zeta Gundam Ver 2.0 HD Color Version
1/100 MG Gundam Mk II AEUG HD Color Version
1/144 Shenlong Gundam
1/144 Sandrock Gundam
1/100 MG Gyan
1/100 MG Gouf Ver 2.0
1/144 HG RX-78-2 Gundam G30th Version
1/144 No Grade Core Booster
SD Sonshoukou Gerbera Tetra (Missa Chan)
1/100 MG Shin Musha Gundam Sen Goku No Jin Version
1/100 No Grade Exia
1/144 Wing Gundam w/Heero
1/100 MG Ball Ver Ka
1/100 MG Shin Musha Gundam Mk II
1/144 HG Nataku Custom
1/100 MG Exia Ignition Mode
1/100 MG Deathscythe Hell Ver EW
1/144 Deathscythe Gundam
1/100 MG Wing Gundam Ver TV
1/100 MG Casval's RX-78-2 Gundam
1/144 No Grade Gelgoog (Zulugoog)
1/100 No Grade Gundam 00 Raiser Designer Color Version
1/100 MG Real Type G-Armor (RX-78-2 Gundam and G-Fighter)
and
1/144 Heavy Arms who's post has garnered the most single page views of all of my posts!

Not pictured are the three Code Geass kits I have built which may get their own posting eventually.

Here are some shots from the shoot:

That's all!

Until Next Time:  Happy Building!

1/100 MG Deathscythe Hell EW Two Joes Build - Part 3

DEATHSCYTHE HELL... ASSEMMMMMBBBLLLLLEEE!!!!

 

Ehem...  I mean, the Deathscythe is pretty much done at this point.  Well, the actual kit has been done for quite some time.  I'll keep going with a few more in progress posts and hopefully, I can get all my pictures taken of finished kits over Memorial Day weekend.

Strike a pose!

Same pose, basically the same picture, but whatevs. :-P

Here are all of the parts drying on my custom made drying board.

I can never seem to find Styrofoam when I need it, so I took a couple different boards of that compressed cardboard wood-like material and drilled holes in them for sticking the bamboo rods into.

These last three pictures were taken from my cell phone, so please forgive the less that usual quality (not that my camera is all that great either though).

Anywho, this was my first ever successful attempt at a top coat that didn't end up breaking something *knocks on wood and crosses fingers*.  that last one was a HG Zaku II Char's Custom that I had painted in olive drab before the production type was released and, like an idiot, I soaked the plastic, and the ball joints and the hip peg broke because of too much friction in the ball joint.

Up next will be an update on the GP-02a as soon as I get anouth few minute free to post.  Then an un-announced treat for you Gundam 00 fans.

1/100 TT Hongli MG Hi-Nu Gundam Couple's Build - Part 3

Fixing Some Things...

All righty, all right.  It's been too long, but just when I got all set to finally update, Google has the blogger down...  Oh well.

So, I talked about the issue with the head last time, I think.  The eyes sit too low in the head and the head camera doesn't go all the way up into the mohawk.

I took the top off... ;-)...

I decided instead of trying to make that piece fit all the way in there...

I painted it silver in the hollow...

Then clear green to match the camera.

Not perfect, but it works and look a hell of a lot better now.

Then, when building the arm... WEAK PLASTIC WHITENING!

As you can see, part N3 has a rather unique shape to it.  A section of the circular part has another cut into the wall so that the peg of part L37 (which has a stopper block on the bottom side of the peg) won't allow the elbow to bend backwards.  Well, that thin plastic of the elbow just couldn't handle the stress of having the peg inserted.

And it stretched and stressed in two spots.

The elbow bends really far.

This is when a few things happened all at once.  I straightened the arm so it could use the gatling gun, the elbow joint made an awful click... and...

This armor piece decided it HATES the arm and never wants to be a part of it again...  no really, nothing is broke, the white piece just doesn't like being there.

Oh, also...

N3 broke...

I was by no means expecting this kit to turn out well, I wasn't expecting even 80% Bandai quality...  I'm glad my expectations were so low...

1/100 MG GP-02a Physalis - Part 2

This One's Got Some Thrust!

One of the Physalis's most distinguishing features, of course, would be the massive pods on it's shoulders.  As I said in Part 1, I thought they looked really stupid when I first saw them just hanging down off the shoulders.  But when I saw the Mobile Suit in action in Stardust Memories and saw the pods flip out and the machine take flight, I realized just how cool a concept this was!  However, I think there are some flaws in the design which I will discuss in the last posting.

Starting on the pods:

There is a lot of inner detail on the pods.  I know most of this will be hidden from view most of the time, but I just had to hit it with ink!

Plane vanilla...

Drizzled with dark chocolate!  See why I couldn't let this go?

Here it is, the ugly pod for the left shoulder.

Flip it up

The inner thruster and the one on the end have a linked mechanism.

Push the outer most thruster down and the inner one comes out with it.  Very cool

The back thruster also swivels down.

Like so, and now the transformation is complete.

Using the arm and an eraser to balance it all, this is the completed arm unit.

Here's the left arm; very basic assembly.  It's going to be difficult to NOT paint those hydraulic portions on the forearm silver and gold.  I may end up doing that in the end anyway.  Thing is, I don't think they are actually pistons, I think they're just part of the armor...

Oh these hands!  I HATE THESE HANDS!  The old style of MG hands, no pegs to hold the weapons and the thumbs are so loose they hinder rather than help when it comes to holding things.  The bazooka is attached to the shoulder, so that won't be an issue, but the MASSIVE shield will never stay in these hands.

Pretty decent elbow range for a kit of this age.  The wrist even moves up and down to help with the bazooka.

That's all for the arms, the right arm is basically the same thing. It just has an extra space for the bazooka mount.  This kit is already assembled, I'll most likely just move onto painting for the next post instead of dismantling things.

Until Next Time:  Happy Building!

1/100 MG Deathscythe Hell EW Two Joes Build - Part 2

This Cockpit Seems Very Familiar...

Wow, Other Joe got his Deathscythe Hell EW built a lot quicker than I did!  Last I left off I only had the head done.  The torso is up next for this posting:

All of the parts for the torso.

The pod the will contain the cockpit seat and monitors.

This is the same seat used for the MG Wing Gundam built last year, so it will receive similar treatment.

Duo and the cockpit all painted and ready to be The God of Death!

Slight angle to show the panel monitors and some "buttons"

There's Duo, safe and sound in the cockpit.

The cockpit on the Deathscythe opens up very nicely to show the control pod.  I should have painted the inside of the ball the cockpit sets in...

The head just pops on.  I painted the head camera orange, like the OVA version.

Not sure if I'm going to leave this vent on the back of the head this color or paint it gray...

The head of D-Hell just looks B.A.!

That's all for this posting.  The next time you see Deathscythe Hell EW, he will be completely assembled.  I still have no clue what I'm going to do with him, if i even decide to do anything special.  I tell you, if I had an airbrush, I would paint him up just like vegeta8259 did on his YouTube channel!  His work is amazing and he makes it look so easy!

Until Next Time:  Happy Building!