What to do with your left over runners + long hair and short skirts

Hell yeah!!! Can you imagine how long it must have taken him to make that?!

Also this blog has been absent of hot women for a while so I'd like to introduce Kitagawa Keiko to you all.

I am a complete sucker for long hair and short skirts (or in this case a long shirt with no pants?!) It's sad to think that there are some women out there who could control me so easily if they wanted to. I'm pretty sure I'd be powerless if she asked me to do something.

This weeks topic in my class is "Famous People" and almost all of my students are 18 year old Japanese girls who read nothing but fashion magazines. They're teaching me a lot about Japanese fashion models. I am not angry.

Musha Mark 2 - Get

Yeah we all knew this was coming. I've picked up a lot of kits this month and I still have one more to get for a project that I think only ASM and Gaigun know about (I mentioned it in passing when we met a couple of weeks back). That and one more Macross kit.

After that... I think I'm done. I can't imagine anything that I really want coming out for the next little while. The only thing that would bring me back to the table is HGUC Delta Plus and Jesta. That's it. And I have a long time before the Delta Plus is going to see the light of day. Probably the fall. And Jesta... who knows about that. There's a long time between now and then.

So that's it guys. Sorry but no new kits for me for some time. No more distractions. Just making models from now on. Not buying anymore. Well two more but there's no rush to get those so I'm just going to shop around and look at prices.

Now this Musha... I'm still not sure what I'm going to do with it entirely. Build it first and then let it sit and I'll let some ideas marinate in my mind for a while and then take some action on it.

I'm not sure what project I should be working on right now as I'm making good progress on my MGIJ and the 1/100 F-91. I don't know. I'll probably be switching off between projects in the next couple weeks but I guarantee there will be a lot of WIP related things coming up soon.

All that aside... I'm so ready to sink my teeth into this thing. This is the Gundam I've basically been waiting for ever since I found what a Gundam was.

The Black Samurai Gundam. Everything I ever wanted in a MS. Not to mention that it's based off of my favourite Gundam ever.

This would be a great project for me to retire on. But I'm never going to retire. I think we all know that.

MGIJ WIP 9 - Organization / Prep for painting

But before that, gotta eat. Thai yellow curry this time. Chop up yellow pepper and some tofu. I save the seeds and plant them on the balcony later.

Horrible pour on that beer there but whatever.  I let it sit for a while and drink from the can while it settles down.  Yellow curry was much sweeter and milder than the green.  Much more manageable.  But a bit too mild I think.  I need a bit more of an 'edge'.  I'll try red next and see how that goes.

Regular dinner guest.  What a mess my table is.

Picked up this plastic tool box from the 100 yen shop.

Thats's better!

This might seem like a pointless post but I do want to underscore something with it. Organization is important and can definitely help your work flow and painting process. I organized everything by the colour that I wanted to paint them and it helped me speed up the painting process. Not to mention there's less of a chance for things to get lost. I want to thank two people in particular for this idea. DC23 and Ngee Khiong. Their organization skills really inspired me.


How about you guys? Would you say that you workspace/projects are quite organized or are they all over the place?

Happy Birthday to me!!!

YEAH!!!

Murasame was something I picked up in Tokyo when I visited ASM and Gaigun.

The Federation MS/MA dictionary was a gift from a friend.

1.5 Gundam was a gift to myself as it was released exactly on my birthday. Today.  Bought some 0.5 Pla-plate and a metallic purple Gundam marker for it.

Zaku Warrior is a gift to my friend that I mentioned before who likes F-91 and wanted to try building a Gundam.  She choose that and the Nadleeh because they're the most girly.  Actually I suggested them to her because she's quite girly herself and I didn't think anything else would really suit her.   Not to mention that the sheer number of Gundams would intimidate anyone and turn them off of the hobby. She went for the Zaku for obvious reasons but she really liked the Nadleeh too because of the 'hair'.  I may build that one for her but she's going to do the Zaku herself and if she enjoys the experience she'll do the Nadleeh after that.

Yeah I know what you're thinking.  Two girls, two Zaku's.  What can I say... I'm converting the planet one female at a time.  I'm doing my part!  What are YOU doing to get girls into Gundam?! haha

I should mention that I don't let these women pay for the Gundams of course.  They want to but I insist on buying them their first one, and more than likely, their last.  Just a matter of principle I guess.

1/100 F-91 Gundam

Got this from a friend today.  So random!

This thing is coming at a very strange time. The girl that gave it to me has a boyfriend (Japanese guy) who was into Gundam when he was younger. He told me that he only likes the orginal Gundam and that he used to make 'plamo' when he was younger. He was thinking to try it again now but said that he didn't want to spend money on that stuff again. So I bought him the HG G-30 Gundam so he could try it and not worry about the money. I'm sure he hasn't built it yet. (I gave it to him in January.)

Anyway this really came out of nowhere. I don't remember mentioning F-91 to him at all but I guess he was out travelling and saw this and thought that I'd like it so he picked it up.

Here's the weird thing. I recently met a Japanese girl who's into nail art and we started talking about paints and top coat and pearl effect powder and blahblahblah. She said she didn't know how intense Gundam was and that she'd like to try making one since she'd watched some Gundam shows with her two brothers when she was growing up and she was into the idea of painting it with some of her nail art supplies. She can also sing the theme song to F-91 and she said that that's the Gundam she'd probably try and make since she has good memories of it from her childhood.

A couple of days later I have the model HANDED to me randomly at work. WTF.

Q&DWIP 4 - HG Astraea Type-F: Alternate Configuration

Thanks for all of your comments on the colour scheme everyone. Take a look at this set up and see how it compares. After seeing it with the Exia parts on I have to say that I like it a bit more and will probably just remove a lot of the white and give it an 'Aqua' look. I currently have it displayed in my room like this so I'm think I'm just going to clean this up, repaint in the same colours and detail it. Man there are so many things you can do with this kit! I removed the Exia shoulder and the 2x beam sabres and traded them in for the GN Short and Long swords on the hips. Each hip can hold two weapons now! That four all together. Man it's just too strong! Love this thing. Take a look.

Strange. I actually want to work on this a bit more than MGIJ but... priorities! I suppose I can just continue doing what I've been doing so far and just work on multiple kits at once.

Q&DWIP 3 - HG Astraea Type-F: Assembled

Sorry I forgot to crop the pics so they're a big larger than usual. My idea of spraying on the panels didn't turn out so well.  Well it did and it didn't. I mean I got rid of the red but... what do I do with it now? I really have no idea what type of paint scheme I'd like to give it! I like the metallic green/blue but I don't think the metallic blue works with it... and I don't know what to do about the white either. Any ideas? I really could use some help on this one!

That said... this model is totally ****ing sick. The weapons. Man... the weapons!!! This thing is stacked beyond belief! I kept the Exia shoulders just because I wanted extra beam sabers. This is it fully armed from a couple of different angles. The display stand was a good call I think.

From Plamo Addiction

From Plamo Addiction

From Plamo Addiction

From Plamo Addiction

From Plamo Addiction

From Plamo Addiction As you can see this model comes with all the parts to make the Exia if that's what you want.  Basically this is a 4 in 1 kit.  Exia/Astraea/Astraea Type F/Astraea Type F2. After making this I can't understand why anyone would NOT want to buy this kit.  This is probably one of the best kits I've ever made just based on versatility alone.  Not to mention that you can use all of these weapons with other HG 00 kits if you're inclined to do so.   What to do about the colours though...

Q&DWIP 2 - HG Astraea Type-F: Runners

First taking a look at the runners... As I mentioned before there are only 2 original runners. This is one of them.

I decided that I was just going to prime and spray the parts on the runners so I can get rid of the red quick.  This runner I sprayed "Gunmetal".  I didn't prime it because I don't mind the tan base colour.  It won't really show up through the gunmetal.

As you can see this runner comes with 4 different colours of parts.

So I ended up doing something like this to make the recolour easier.

Of course I separated all of them.  Gray>Light Gunmetal, Red>White, Dark Red>Metallic Blue. Green clear parts I left as is.  I primed the Dark Red/Red parts.

Same deal here.

This one I primed and sprayed Metallic Blue.

The other panels not pictured here I primed and sprayed the new colour I picked up, Metallic Blue-Green.

I'll post the results later.

MGIJ WIP 8 - Shoulder modification: Section 2

Got a bit distracted because Splinter Cell: Conviction came in the mail (brilliant game btw) and I bought a lot of energy bars to prepare for the malnutrition that I was about to subject myself to by playing the same for too long.

At the bottom you can see some Kotobukiya "vents" that I bought.  There are called "nozzles" on the package though.

Closer look.  Many sizes to choose from.

Decided to go for the double nozzle.

Wanted to close up the holes on the underside as well even though they won't be seen.  I do a lot things just on principle.  If this were a real machine it wouldn't be left like that.

Sanded and primed.  While I was waiting for it to dry I ate.

Sorry old boy it's going to be a bit longer for your arms.

Thai Green Curry with some cheap 発泡酒 Yeah I'll drink that stuff too. I like my beer, don't get me wrong but... Seriously. It's cheap as ****.

I wasn't prepared for the level of spiciness that is Thai Green Curry. I needed another drink.  Red Frame approves.  Don't ask me where I got the HUB glass because it's a story I'm not very proud of.


Primed.  I will accept this result.

Sprayed metallic black later which you've all already seen.

Do you think there will be Musha Gundam Mark II "Sengoku no Jin" Box set?

Soon!	73 (61%)
Not anytime soon.	46 (38%)

So basically you're all telling me to wait...  Which is probably not such a bad idea...  Damn that's going to be hard though.  I really want to buy it on Day 1.

MG Shin Musha Gundam was released in June 2008 and the Sengoku no Jin box set came out in March 2009.

That's a long time to wait and I'm not good at waiting.  Gonna have to mull this one over.

Not to mention the Japanese motif stickers...  The jury is still out on that one though.  Damn it can't leave things up to fate.  The thing I'm waiting for may never come and even if it does it could be crap!  F it.  I'm going for it.  Stick to the game plan. 

Keita's HG G30 Gundam

Every time I see his work I'm just in awe.  I own this kit too and seeing what he's done with it...  Just wow.

More here.