Finished: Ebon Enforcer w/ Rocket Bazooka

Ah! I forgot I saved this as a draft! I don't know why I just didn't post it right away. Well this is it I guess. I don't think I'm going to get down and dirty with a 'proper' photo shoot so I hope these pics will be sufficient. I tried using a different background and lighting set up this time and I have to admit that I don't really like it so much. Overheard florescent lights. Too cold. The lamp light in the upper left corner adds a bit of warmth but not enough.

I don't mind the background so much but the lighting could use more work. I like the wooden table background that most of my "WIP" pics have but I figured I'd try something more uniform this time (as is the trend with most Gunpla pics)

All assembled... He's quite a beast

Is that dust?! OMG.

Loving the lenses, I have to admit...
Now if only I could remember where I put the rest of those Aurora decals! O_O

New home (Since changed with the addition of two more MG's)

It's been a long time coming but now I think I can finally can this Sinanju "Done."

Only took about a year. Yikes. A lot of up's and down's including more than my fair share of breakage. I really wanted stability with this project but the painting process actually caused the opposite effect. Now I'm afraid to pose it out of fear of it breaking. It's become more fragile then I'd hoped but... Like with everything I do, it's been a learning experience... And I definitely learned a lot from this project.

There are a lot of models out there and you all know that I have enough to keep myself busy for some time so... time to move on and put the Sinanju behind me. Other kits await and demand my attention. More projects to learn and grow from.

I think this model is the best one I've done so far and the most complete.

This year that's going to change.

Sinanju - Eye Work 2

Initially I posted about the work I did on the eye a while back. Here is the follow up finally (I'm terrible I know.)

First let's start with shots of the stock helmet/face. Green lines show where I did the cutting to open up the face and eye slot a bit more. I basically just cut out some of the curves and extra angles in the design. More open and simpler is the look I was going for.

Very narrow field of vision. Needed to open that up to let more light shine into the eye and reflect some of the colours out. Also changed my two tone gold/black face plate scheme for a uniform black with gold lining one. Again... trying to simplify.

Decided to remove the mould line and nub marks on the blade antennae while I was at it.

Helmet removed. This is what the eye looked like. "Shine silver" acryrilc base with clear green enamel on top. I know I got the order reversed but I didn't know better at the time and it was all I had. Besides it's a small piece so didn't think it'd make a big difference. It didn't.

Sanded all the paint off, applied a tiny piece of mirrored tape to the eye then put an aurora decal lense on top of that. Captures and reflects the light 1000x better now.

This is what it looked like after and when I decided to make a quick post about it. I wasn't satisfied with it though. Even though you could only see it with the flash I didn't like the grey on either side of the eye...

So I went back and added mirrored tape to either side as well just to have more light moving around inside of the helmet

Doing this didn't change the outward appearance so much... but it's the principle of it. I feel better having done it. Leaving no stone unturned and all that...

Sinanju - Repair Log 1

I haven't posted much about my Sinanju recently because I quit modeling for a couple of weeks, intentionally. I needed to focus on other things, chief amongst them studying Japanese, which I didn't really do that well. Anyways now my proficiency exam is over and done with finally! I took Level 3 for the record. I'm actually just under Level 2 skill wise, I took some practice tests to make sure, but I wanted to fill in some of the blanks in my grammar so to speak. I realized now after studying Japanese grammar that you really just have to use it and practice in order to remember it. At least that's how it works in my case. It's not like remembering kanji. Oh well. Anyone else out there studying Japanese? It's a pain sometimes eh?

Now that my free time is my own again I'm looking at my Sinanju once more. I left it in a state of disrepair as I'd gotten frustrated and just washed my hands of the whole ordeal. I've finished almost all of the upgrades but was left with a severe problem with the left elbow. Massive breakage in many areas. The equivalent of a cut hamstring basically, but in the arm.

I've edited some of Dalong's manual scans to show exactly where all the breakage has taken place. Props to that fine gentleman for going through the effort of scanning the manual.

First, the hands.

Problem: I can't remember how I did it but whatever I did I did it wrong. I think I must have used my nippers to separate the fingers instead of my exacto-knife. I cut along the red lines shown below but because I used my nippers I ended up pushing too much of the plastic away and the fingers ended up sitting very loose in the joints.

Solution: I added a bit of liquid cement to the loose area and moved the finger around to prevent it from setting in place. It's semi stable now. Better than before.

Preventative measure: Use the thinnest, hardest and sharpest blade I can find to separate the fingers.

Next!

Problem: Peg breakage due to corrosive material in the Gundam marker. Slots also cracked. The plastic seems to have weakened over all.

Solution: Liquid cement the peg back to it's original place, reinforced with cemented strips of clear pla plate over the fissures. Sanded. This solution wasn't very effective because the peg would often be too large to fit into the slot because of the cement and pla plate. Worked occasionally but sometimes I'd just scrap the idea and cement the parts together. I'm trying to avoid doing that but I need stability in this thing!

Preventative measures: Use a different paint type? Prime the part before painting or just don't paint that area at all. Often I didn't intentionally try to paint the area but paint leaked in and seemed to have weakened the plastic. There is also the possibility that I may have tried to separate the parts with too much force but I think that's unlikely. Paint could have also stuck two parts together which would cause extra stress during separation. Consideration of these points must be given in the future.

Moving on...

Problem: Ring and slot breakage and cracking due to corrosive material in the Gundam marker. The plastic seems to have weakened over all.
By far the most serious problem and the one that I've spent to most time on trying to fix. I was just going to order new parts because of the extent of the damage but I decided that I'd try and fix it myself first. If my solution doesn't stick then I'm just going to throw the parts out and order new ones.

Solution: The amount of breaking and cracking was so severe here (red). I patched up part M14 in so many different areas. First I sanded and cemented the broken parts back together. Then I cemented tiny strips of clear pla plate over the cracks and fissures. Then I cemented over all of it to try and 'melt' the plastic together. It seems stable but the ring holes are now too small to fit over the pegs (green part) on part M19. I think the more plastic I keep on M14/13 the better (for stability) so I decided to shave down the pegs on M19 to allow for easier range of movement. Once I got the parts to fit on the peg I realized that they could not move in tandem because of the extra plastic I put on. They were rubbing up against each other so I had no choice but to sand them down a bit too. Katoki didn't leave much from for clearance. He made it pretty exact. Because of that I also had to shave down the protruding piece (blue) between the pegs on parts M18/19 to allow my new (and hopefully improved) ring joints to move freely.

In short it's been a real pain in the ass to fix all of this crap. I finally got it all semi-stable again but I had to cement M18/19 shut in order to keep everything inside AND I'm going to have apply another strip of clear pla plate over the front part of that joint (blue section) just to seal it all in for good and make it look uniform. There's quite a gap left there now. After that I'm probably going to hand paint on white surfacer and then do the gold over again. Hopefully that will prevent more breakage problems in this area in the future.

Preventative measures: Same as part 2.

Seem like the exact same problem I had with the wing joint but just... more of them and much smaller. Damn this model. It's getting close to a year since I first got it and I'm STILL working on it! Labour of love? I wonder.

I'll post the pics I took of this issue and the whole process a bit later.

This bazooka is done. - Part 2

Here's the rest of the work that I've done on the bazooka. I've decided that I have just a little bit further to go on it but that's just fixing up that nagging crack in the muzzle.

Unrelated, I wanted to use up all of my 'loose' decals (as in decals that were no longer attached to the main decal sheet) and put an extra one on the shoulder armour that I'd removed earlier. It was just laying around so... why not? Thanks to Gaijin Gunpla again for hooking me up with these.

You may remember about my recent problem with the cobwebs. Well after wiping it down with my thumb a bit, I was left with a semi-decent surface result that I was satisfied with. I was originally going to spray a clear green over it but decided against it. It's not so bad as is. It's subtle and the green would really stand out a lot. I'm not even sure what the dome thing is supposed to be anyways. Maybe like a radar/tracking type of device?

Details in silver enamel and Gundam Marker silver.

Using up the decals.

More detailing. Just because I can.

Decided to use some Aurora decals on the beam rifle. It looks SO good. Also painted the tubing/wiring in silver.

I actually spent a lot of time on the bazooka shells. I ran out of certain decals so I couldn't make them all the same but I can easily account for that in the story that I'm going to make for it. This was one of the first things I did for the bazooka. I wanted the shells to really stand out and I spent a lot of time cementing, sanding and puttying to remove the seam lines. I wanted them to have a uniform surface. By scale these shells are taller than a human being!

More decals. Just because

All assembled. I'm pretty happy with the finished result. Worthy of my machine.

This bazooka is done. - Part 1

In order to fix the cracking problem I mentioned before, I broke the piece off out right and then cemented it back in.

Sanded but didn't prime again.

First time using Aurora stickers for the lenses.

The result. I love them!

Bazooka details. Used just regular enamel paints. I realized that I actually painted it in the wrong shade of gold and had to repaint using the same Gundam marker that I used on my Sinanju. I did do panel and detail lining in regular enamel gold though.

Extra water slide decals courtesy of Gaijin Gunpla, who kindly sent me his extra decals in the mail. Thanks for that man! I did put some of them to use! Also this was my first time using mark setter and softer. I swear by the Mr. Mark Softer now. Love it!

If you look carefully you'll see that the broken piece started to crack again once I put it back on the bazooka. Oh well. Now I'm deciding whether I should fix it or just cut my losses and leave it alone.

Went a bit decal crazy, but I had them to use so... why not! But I did use up a lot of the extra decals I had laying around so at least they didn't go to waste.

I wanted my bazooka to be specific for the EE. As you can probably tell... this bazooka won't match up with any other Sinanju but my own.

Concerning Figure FM

Go here.

http://www.figure.fm/

and somehow try to find this page by clicking through the menus.

http://www.figure.fm/page/en/fusion/all/gundam/all/all/1.html

Notice that all the articles have ZERO views.

Why are there only like 4 people posting Gundam related stuff in the 'feeds' section (and one of them is mislabeled because his content isn't even about Gundam), but when you click on the Gundam category you get a bunch of customized posts made for Figure FM?

Otaku FM was way better and everything was working fine. Why mess with a good thing? Especially a good thing that actually worked right? Oh well. Doubt I'll be using it much if it stays that way. I don't know what's going on with this system but I'm not really impressed.

On a side note, here are some pics of my Sinanju after I've started working on it again. (I know they're all practically the same but I couldn't decide which one I liked best so I just put them all up. Like shopping... If you can't decide between one or the other... Just get BOTH!)





This thing is going to be so sweet when I'm done. I can feel it. Sweeter than the way I left it in April. You just wait. I'm not all talk.

btw notice anything unusual in the last pic? Kind of obvious considering the big green arrow! haha

MSN-06E - Ebon Enforcer / MSN-06S Sinanju: Work Log Compilation

Since I took the time to write them up I can at least take the time to compile them together. Here they are organized for posterity. Hopefully my notes will be of use to some modellers out there.

Work Log 1 - Cleaning

Work Log 2 - Feet and Legs

Work Log 3 - Torso and Arms

Work Log 4 - Hands

Work Log 5 - Thrusters

Work Log 6 - Painting

Work Log 7 - Armour

Work Log 8 - Shield Part 1

Work Log 9 - Shield Part 2

Work Log 10 - Backpack

Work Log 11 - Torso

Work Log 12 - Waist and Skirt

Work Log 13 - Forearm/Shield Modification

Work Log 14 - Wing Joint Modification

Final

MSN-06E - Ebon Enforcer

Started around Christmas. Finished yesterday.

All major operations on this kit are now completed.

Here's the write up.

Notes:

1. Very sturdy kit. Joints are stiff and well fitting. Maintains poses well.

2. Be careful when separating the fingers. Use something VERY sharp and narrow otherwise you may screw yourself like I did. The bottom two fingers of the right hand need to be glued in place.
3. Insane amount of details on this kit. I couldn't tackle them all but hit about 80% of them.

4. TOPCOAT, TOPCOAT, TOPCOAT. If you're going to spend all that time painting, topcoat the damn thing! And do a thorough job. Multiple times. I didn't and the gold chips away constantly. Especially if you're posing it a lot. Blah.

5. Modifying the arm to incorporate the shield assembly was the best thing I did for this kit. SIGNIFICANT improvement.

6. Repaired/reinforced backpack/wing elbow joints. Katoki's design was too weak and both part broke on me!

7. If you are SEARCHING for places to put decals and the answer doesn’t come to you immediately because you've already put about... 200 on already, just stop. Let the decals go. You can use them for another project.

Comparison:

Hard to compare this to anything in a 1/100 or MG scale. It out classes anything that I've seen or built myself. It's PG quality in 1/100 scale. Considerably larger/taller than any MG or 1/100 scale MS that I’ve seen with my own eyes. I think only the RX-0 and RX-93 come close.

Concept:

Originally I was going to go for white but then I realized that the decals wouldn’t show up at all so I went the opposite way with black. I had this... dark angel image in my mind when I first saw it. I decided to stick with black and gold for everything to really accentuate the gold trimmings.

Story:

Model # MSN-06E, officially known as the “Black Sinanju” but commonly known as the “Ebon Enforcer”. Nicknamed the “Double E Anti Gundam” by Neo Zeon soldiers, it is a play (or mockery if you prefer) on the ZZ Gundam which, Newtype ace, Judau Ashta piloted to infamy.

This prototype Sinanju was made primarily for the continuation of research on “Newtype Psycommu Technology”. Militarily, it serves as a defensive escort for ships transporting people of extreme importance. It does not see much combat because of the already heighted security around such ships.

The gold plating is an experimental hybrid liquid-polymer enhancement/upgrade of the full psycho frame employed in the MSN-06S Sinanju and the RX-0 Unicorn Gundam. This plating enables the pilot to operate the suit with increased mental 'awareness' of the battlefield.

Preliminary experiments done with non-Newtype subjects resulted in various trauma ranging from mild headaches to death.

Newtype pilots fared better but often described the experience as 'overwhelming'. Extensive mental conditioning and training is required to fully utilize the system. Inside the suit the pilot can feel hostiles at extreme ranges and can neutralize them before they ever become a threat to ship being defended.

The PsyCo-RPX (Psychic Communication Receptor Polymer - Experimental) is applied in a way similar to a proton exchange/electrolyte membrane except with embedded microscopic PCR’s and without the incorporation a membrane electrode assembly. This process is time consuming and expensive making this suit entirely unfit for mass production.

Because of the random phenomena occasionally caused by psycommu systems used in especially heated battle situations, this Sinanju never sees any frontline combat.

Inspiration:

My imagination I guess.

Conclusion:

This kit is demanding and not for beginners. It pushed the limits of my skills and forced me to learn and try new techniques. It was a very rewarding experience and I learned a lot about modeling in the process but... I'm definitely ready to move on. It was almost too much for me and I felt like giving up a couple times.

I'll have to tackle this kit again, later on down the road, to fix a couple of minor problems that happened during the photo shoot but right now, it is functional and I am quite satisfied with what I’ve done with it.

Even though I tried to do things 'perfectly' I couldn’t in the end and no matter how great it looks standing in one place... once you move it around the paint is going to fade a bit in certain areas.
The adult in me says “It’s a model and you spent a lot of time working on it so just don’t touch it and admire your work.” But the kid in me says... “It’s cool and it’s a toy and toys are meant to be played with.”, and if I think about it... I’m doing this BECAUSE of the child in me... so I won’t be entering him into any modeling contests but I am definitely going to enjoy playing with him for the years to come.