Sinanju "Ver.Ka" Poster

Trying to scan these things and I want a proper archive of them here.  Blogger won't let me upload the full file size (3200x2400) and re-sizes it down to 1600x1200.  I don't really want to keep them on my Flickr because access to that is temporary.  Oh well.  I'll think of something.

Best UC Mobile Suit!

	131 (71%)
UNICORN	52 (28%)
SINANJU	131 (71%)

And there you have it.  What more needs to be said?

Only showing mine off here because you've all seen so many other Sinanju's already. Looking at it... The poses, the fierceness, the weapons, the sheer air of menace that this suit has... It's worthy. Definitely worthy of being called the "The Best Universal Century Mobile Suit".

And with that... this 2.5 year era of polling for best UC MS is now finally, finished. Thanks to everyone who has voted over the years! This is the suit you choose in the end and what a suit it is. A personal favourite of mine as you all know.

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 - 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.

OK... I'm starting to scare myself now...

With the new eye this thing is starting to look alive. It's always looking. Always awake. The eye is always shining. That single, solitary eye. Always watching!

I fear for the place I'll end up at once this is done. I almost like the nondescript mask more. I mean both are equally emotionless but this single shining eye can be a bit off putting. It looks more fearsome now that the eye can be seen as opposed to the shaded face.

More to come obviously as I'm just really in the testing stage now.

Changing the face is a big deal for me. I feel like it really contains the soul and personality of the machine (oxymoron yeah but you know what I mean). Changed some of the lines, opened up the visor, changed some of the colours. Some of the most precise work I've done to date has been modding this eye and helmet.

Details to follow.

Sinanju Rocket Bazooka - Hands

Continuing my work on my Sinanju upgrades; now that I've basically finished the bazooka I have to figure out a way to get this monster to hold the damn thing.

Anyone who's built the Sinanju knows that it has trouble holding the rifle and it also has the same problems holding the bazooka. Not to mention the shoulder armour and the wings getting in the way. In order to give it a bit more stability, I glued the hand to the rifle.

Now I'm using some extra 2-piece hands (from MG Impulse, coincidentally almost the same size) to hold the bazooka for those poses without the rifle.

After trying it out I realized that they didn't fit together so... time to remove some plastic. Check the green circles to see where. Basically the pegs on both had to be removed along with a bit of the palm.

These two piece hands are way better for holding weapons then the ones that come with the kit, especially after the finger mod I did.

At least now I don't have to worry about the weapon falling out! Poses like this become a bit easier to do but it's still somewhat awkward, especially when trying to pose it with both hands on the bazooka. The Sinanju wasn't made with this weapon in mind but even still... I'd have to say that it certainly doesn't look BAD.

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.

um... wtf?!

Why is my airbrush spitting out cobwebs?!

That was crazy! Kinda cool actually but it's going to clog up my air filter at this rate. Hope I
didn't ruin my brush! I just got it! This was with "Mr. Color #90 - Shine Silver" Acrylic paint. Maybe I thinned it with the wrong stuff? I have lacquer and enamel thinners but no acrylic so I used the lacquer. Bad call?

Ugh. Now the trails and tribulations of a rookie airbrusher begin.

Anyway here's the current pose for my EE. I'm working on making this pose the 'standard' one. The Sinanju would make a great toy! There's so much you can do with it! Too bad I'm always concerned about the paint job and stability. Otherwise I could have even more fun with it than I do now!

Entering the Airbrush Era - Preface

It hasn’t been a full 2 years since I started to take this hobby seriously. And by seriously I mean simply doing panel lines for the first time. Since that time when I first started working on the 1/100 Red Frame, I’ve learned a helluva lot and even started this blog in order to track my progress.

A short while back... near the middle of this month, I reached a turning point. Came to a crossroads so to speak. And I crossed it. I didn’t stick with what I knew and decided to do something that made sense practically and financially.

I bit the bullet and bought an airbrush.


It all started when I tried to paint my Sinanju bazooka in metallic black after priming. There was no paint left in the can. Not enough to paint even one part properly. And I said to myself that this was it. I wouldn’t spend any more money on these cans. It was a waste. A waste of space, paint, metal and probably money even though I'd thought that I was saving money.

Now I realize that as soon as you have an airbrush, the amount of money you spend on paint decreases considerably. Like almost next to nothing in comparison. You'll be using a lot more thinner though. However large amounts of thinner is much cheaper than large amounts of spray paint.

That said... I realize now that even with an airbrush you probably will need to buy the occasional can of paint and primer now and then. I painted my Sinanju with TS-40 Tamiya Metallic Black.


They don't make paint vials of that. If I wanted to stay consistent I'd have to buy another can of it... totally defeating the purpose of me buying this airbrush to begin with. The closest I could find was Mr. Color #78 Metallic Black.

I haven't tried it out yet to know if it will work or not. Either way I decided to use some left over flat black that I've had for years and also have an abundance of.

Sometimes I feel like I don't want to go through the trouble of using the airbrush and cleaning it when I can just spray the part one time with a can of spray paint and get it over and done with quick.

To each his own though right? I'm happy to at least have the option now. And the added control and creativity that an airbrush provides.

Considering all the paint like I’ve bought until now, I'd say the price has just about evened out. I have about 12 cans of paint and have already gone thought about 10 or so already, not including primers which are more expensive. At over 500 yen per can I’ve probable spent about 15000 on paint already. And that’s with me using paint semi frugally. I know for a fact that Gai Gun and ASM use paint and top coat considerably more liberally than I do.

So... I'd been to the shop earlier to buy some AM hands and aurora decals and while I was there I decided to browse the airbrushes just for the sake of doing so. I was curious.

There is no doubt that these things are expensive. I saw some set getting upwards of close to 40000 yen. That's pretty risky and intimidating for the beginning modeler who is just interested in recolouring and not much more than that. Some sets came with brushes but no AC adapter, or an adapter but no brush. Or just brushes with no compressors. I didn’t want that any of that. I wanted the whole set up so I could get off and running quickly and that's what I got and that's what I did.

I went for the simplest, most basic set-up I could find to suit the type of work I'd be doing. Recolouring. I don't need a super fine brush because I'm going to be painting flames or lightning on these things. I'm changing a grey part to blue, red to green. That type of stuff. I don't know about double action or single action or whatever, but the trigger grip looked like it was easy to use so... I didn't know anything about compressors either but it said it has a special molded body to reduce noise and that was enough for me.

But I have to admit that I did deliberate over it for some time. I must have walked around the store with all the stuff my arms for 30 minutes before I decided to just get it over with. I rationalized it by thinking that a couple hours of private tutoring will make enough money to pay for it. I can sacrifice that. Why I am such a cheap bastard! Just go for it already. No wife, no kids, decent, stable job, I've got money... so why not?!

After picking it up and using it for a while I have to say that I’m pretty happy that I did. It has given me the effects and finish that I’ve always wanted. And I realized that one of the things that got me into modeling was seeing all those finished products that had been done with airbrushes. We all know that if we want to get the most out of this hobby it’s going to result in an airbrush purchase eventually. I am no exception to this.

For the sake of archiving I'll talk about my first experience with the brush in a seperate post.

Back from Thailand

Saw almost nothing Gundam related except for this.



I was in Bangkok for a couple of days on vacation. Traveling alone... man that is a tough city. Lot of people trying to scam the tourists! Be wary if you're planning on going yourself! There are 1000 ways to lose money there. Muay Thai fights were awesome though.

I've been really busy recently and haven't been able to post or work on plamo like I'd have liked. Some of you know that I had some work at NHK a while back + my regular job and then prepping and going on this short vacation... had practically no time to use my new toy! Blah.

Oh well. As some of us 'older' modelers know, sometimes like really gets in the way.

Either way I'm back and my schedule has finally opened up a bit so I'll be able to work on my models more and post a bit more often.

I've been spending a lot of time just 'testing' out some of my ideas but not actually doing any 'concrete' work. I'm kind of in an "R&D" stage right now and I'm not doing much production and manufacturing. Soon enough. I think I've got main "Sinanju Ver.2 Upgrade" concept down now. Hopefully be able to get some more stuff done before the month ends.

Let me show you one thing that I've done so far.




Hated the fact that the rifle never seemed to sit flush on the palm so I corrected that. Sanded them down flat and got rid of the little angles, grooves, valleys and whatnot that Katoki put in. Then I glued it. If you couldn't tell by now I want stability in this model. Even if I have to make permanent decisions. I mean 'go hard or go home' right? I'm happy with it though. I like knowing that the rifle isn't going to fall out of the hand now because if I'm going to do that hybrid rifle/bazooka thing I'm going to need all the stability I can get. So far I don't regret and it's been working out like I'd hoped. More on that later though. Still kicking around a couple of ideas in my head, concerning extra hands.