A-Taul from L-Gaim from Start to Finish

It'll take you a little over a half an hour to get through these, but I found out how to embed them in high quality, and they're all edited and stuff, so I imagine it could be time well spent if you like this sort of thing.

They pretty much speak for themselves...

Brocken Labor WIP to completion

I hadn't been doing much modeling for a while, and that had to change.

I dug out an old Patlabor kit that I picked up cheap at a Convention years ago. I didn't want to instantly burn myself out slaving away at an L-Gaim or FSS kit, so I went for something simple.

I didn't do any modifications other than weighting the feet with birdshot - no flying poses will ever be done with this guy.

Mostly I didn't even bother to chop registration pins as I was putting this together. I glued the facing edges of parts that would form seamlines as I snapped the kit together and that worked pretty well for later smoothing those lines.

I really had fun with airbrushing this kit. I made my first significant attempt at shading, and layered multiple shades to get what I think is a very nice depth to the finish.

Here are 4 videos of the process:









Here are a couple of finished images



If you'd like to see more, you can look here.

Modifying the Claws on a 1/144 Mobile Kapool

Smoothing Seams and Priming the D-Sserd

Pretty much self-explanatory thanks to the voice overs:







Some still images of it at this stage here.

D-Sserd build begins

I'm getting a group L-Gaim build together over at the best modelers community online.

This is my entry: an old Bandai 1/144 D-Sserd.



Here are the first parts I've put together:



Here's a video of those same parts:



And here's a noisy video of me priming the arm with Mr. Surfacer 1000:



And here's a shot of the first three parts all primed:

More Painting on the Tachikoma

Doing some texturing on the body of the Tachikoma with Mr. Surfacer 500.

And putting some color onto the "eyes" or "sensors" or whatever complicated technical name I'm sure Shirow made up for them. For details on the paints used for the finish (which looks even more interesting in person) watch the video below.

Some Primering

I sprayed some Mr. Surfacer 1000 on some parts of the Tachikoma and now it looks a little something like this:

I'm Back!

There's nothing like a little severe personal crisis to come between a man and his hobby. Been close to 3 months now.

Well, the Helmine feels a bit overwhelming at the moment - both technically and financially speaking. But I still have a closet shelf full of lovely kits.

Here's the intro to a simple one I started work on this week.

I'm hoping I can sandwich some priming in between various other exciting activities this weekend.

Volks 1/100 Helmine

I got this kit from Yahoo Japan Auctions by way of the proxy bidding and "deputy" service website Shopping Mall Japan in the neighboring state of Indiana. Including all the service and shipping fees it cost just over $250.

This is the front page of the typically bare-bones instruction sheet.


And here's a picture of all its 47 parts laid out in the classic resin kit part layout "pose."



I'm not entirely sure whether or not this kit was worth all the money I paid, but I do like the design which is a kind of Five Star Stories "cousin" to the Gundam known as Qubeley.



Since the kit is about 20 years old, it is a pretty bad cast. Lots of pinholes or bubbles that were trapped and hardened into the plastic resin. Some mold misalignment causing damage to details or the design of the original sculpt. Some bigger bubbles that just completely wiped out details.

Those who know me, however, will know that I (perhaps perversely) enjoy repairing and resculpting parts on bad kits to make them better. This is what I will be doing in this case, and now I will take it a step further and re-cast the kit when the parts are up to standards that should improve considerably upon the original. I don't feel like I'm stepping on anyone's marketplace toes with this. The kit is really old, as I said, and very few people even know that it exists at all.

I'm well into the repair process already and I want to share some of it with you.

First up is a youtube video of before and after work on the big shoulder armors:



Next are before and after pics of repair I did to the point of the helmet's horn which was lost in the casting process:






Here is a video of the process for the resculpt.

[Edit] BTW I just found out that I've been mispronouncing the name "Helmine." It is German (duh to self) and short for Wilhelmine so it should be pronounced as "hell-mee-nuh". It means "the resolute protector" which I think is nice.

ACen presentation

Check out the link here for more info about my panel at Anime Central next month.

Hyaku Shiki!

No decals/stickers yet. I put those on last night and need to make a few final adjustments. Final pictures soon.






One legged (I was detailing the other leg).

Vatshu marches on

Here's a few more illustrations of the Vatshu project

Adding the inner shoulder joint.

This is the rather large gap between the parts caused by inserting the poly cap (notice that the parts are also misaligned, again because of the poly cap):



This is the two halves split apart and the dremel bit I used to open up the poly cap bracket just a bit (taking care to do so in such that the parts will align better too):

Then the halves fit much better, but now there's a problem in that this sub-assembly fits too tightly onto the top of the upper arm. This hole needs to be a nice clean circular one, not a ragged oval:

So here's a little clip of me rolling up a tiny snippet of sand paper to reshape the hole:

Inserting the tube into the hole to smooth it out:


At last, done with all the test-fitting and touch-ups:


So I can glue stuff together:

why weight?

Saving Squidward

I used the resin kit pinning technique to fix a piece from one of my son's board games. In the video I mention a "pin vise" which is a very small hand held drill for precisely drilling tiny holes in stuff. An essential tool for installing short lengths of brass rod into the weight-bearing joints of resin kits.


here's a pic of the pinned together legs of a G-System enhanced recast Schpeltor resin kit, sorry its a bit fuzzy - old pic / old camera. The blue stuff around the ankle-armor is blue-tack

Weighting the foot of the Type 100

Ignore the audio in the videos.

Taking the test fitted foot apart to find places to pour in the #12 lead bird shot:

One of the core foot pieces, before and after chopping and grinding out the "snap together" pins (all the before and after shots read right to left):

The other core foot piece, again before and after removal of "snap together elements."

The base plate of the heel of the foot, before and after:

The upper plate of the heel, before and after:

The toe, upper plate, before and after:

The toe bottom plate, before and after:

I also trimmed down these tabs that fit into slots on the upper plate of the toe assembly to make room for just alittle more lead shot. Before:

...and after:

Here's how the part above looks in a before and after test fit, before:

...and after:

Here's the paint dropper that I use to pour the lead shot. I clipped the tip so the opening is larger than a regular paint pipette. It's standing in a tape roll so it won't empty tiny balls of lead onto my work table.

Here's me pouring the lead shot into the prepared foot part:

Here are the two base foot parts filled with lead and with their various holes sealed up with epoxy putty:

Another view:

The core of the foot, also filled and puttied:

I love a nice bead of glue on a seam line. This will clean up nicely:

The final piece:

Too bad you can't "see" how heavy it is now :)

Leg assembly and completed lower torso: Hyaku Shiki

I finished the body assembly on my Master Grade Hyaku Shiki yesterday, here's a little peek at it:




I know that it is yellow, not gold. I wanted to build this without painting it to create a how-to for those kit builders who don't or maybe can't deal with the painting side of the hobby.

I imagine I will paint this by and by, but for now I like the way it looks "in the raw."

One difference between hardcore Gundam builders and hardcore FSS builders is that the former get into shading with the beloved "Max Technique" and weathering and bashing and dioramas, while the latter dwell obsessively on stuff like resculpted shoulder insignia bas-relief paintings and other "cosmetically beautifying" efforts. Gundams are all about the narrative while Mortar Headds are about sculptural beauty.

Guess which side of the coin I fall on...