HG Dynames (part 1)

Working on HG Dynames. 

I find the shilhouette of these knees unnatural, and fixing them turned out to be a bigger problem. The way the old parts are designed make it hard for reusage, and new internal frame has to be built. While I am not completely final with it yet, this is going in the right direction:

Boxart:

HG RX-124 TR-6 Woundwort Box

From Advance of Zeta series

2020 First Sunrise

Just received: Missile Set for DX Chogokin VF1

Just taken out of the box is the Missile set for the DX Chogokin VF1, and sitting next to the VF-1J

This should really be included as part of the Super/Strike Pack.

Kobo Clara HD storage upgrade

Just upgraded my Kobo Clara HD to 256GB after some tricky manoeuvres.. Didn't go any higher as it started to throw error when bootup. Fortunately the error went away after a factory reset😓 What a relief! I might try 512GB sometime 😏

Got to say that I am pretty happy about the extra space - this is a very nice device for reading but 8GB is just too small. Now I can load all the books into it 😀

Cherudim Waist mechanic part 1

Here is a shot of the internal waist mechanic for the Cherudim Gundam, which should provide better poseability.

This is the 2nd version and there are still a few design issue I need to fix before I would print it out. This is all done in Blender and I find this process help getting the idea out of my head much quicker. However it's not that good at checking collision of parts. I might switch over to Fusion360 later.

Hearty Clay

Found this interesting clay on youtube.

Hearty Clay

Seems easy to work with. I worked with Super Sculpey (both normal and firm version) but I would prefer more control with the hardness. It seems this Hearty Clay is air-dry and this should let me have the hardness control while keeping all the details. Coloring the clay is easy too.. very keen to try this clay out :)

Arcadia SV-51γ

Looking forward to this: Arcadia SV-51γ on HLJ

Its a transformable mecha from the anime Macross Zero. Details can be found here: Click Here

This is a re-make of the old Yamato toy (Youtube review here, you can see how bad it is), with a loads of improvement. I am very keen to see how the new one turns out.

I like this fight with VF-0

Sunset

Follow up to my earlier "Thoughts on the upcoming METAL BUILD 1/100 Gundam Exia Repair I & II"

OK. It seems the package's office title is now called "METAL BUILD 1/100 Gundam Exia Repair I".

I think this is a much more appropriate title, and would not mislead the consumer. I am happy to hear this news.

Thoughts on the upcoming METAL BUILD 1/100 Gundam Exia Repair I & II

I just read the news and details about the upcoming METAL BUILD 1/100 Gundam Exia Repair I  & II from Bandai.

For the ones who didn't know, Exia is one of the mecha appeared in the anime Gundam 00.

It is all good, until I spotted this info:
●リペアII再現用ボーナスパーツ付属
別商品のMETAL BUILD「ガンダムエクシア＆エクシアリペアIII」と組み合わせることで「リペアII」を再現できるボーナスパーツが付属！


It basically means, in order to create the "Repair II" form, you need the other package - METAL BUILD 1/100 Gundam Exia & Repair III, which was released a few months earlier.

This is like when you purchased a new Car, then you found out you actually need your old car's tyres, chassis, damper, engine and seats.

It is great if you still have the old cars around, and assume it still works. What about people who is buying their first car? Or people who just sold their old car to buy the new car??

To package product in whatever way is Bandai's call. But if this is what Bandai want to do, they need to state it VERY clearly and obvious, and not with some fine prints busy people could miss easily.

That said, don't you think a title like that is bordering on false advertisment? I do even think this is honest business.


I believe it is consumer's responsibility to support good product and honest business, and reject bad ones. While affordability is not an issue for me here, I definitely do not want support this, and give Bandai a false impression that this is something people are happy with.

Interesting 3D Printing technology

Mcor IRIS (http://www.mcortechnologies.com/3d-printers/iris/)
and Youtube video

3D printed stuff after some light processing and details added

Here are some of the photos of the manipulators I printed earlier. There are 2, the closed fist manipulator is of 1:144 scale, but the open hand is at 1:100.
IMPORANT: I had sanded them (well, fairly lightly and didn't pay that much attention), and added in some details and enchance some panel lines, etc. Finally I put on a thin coat of primer otherwise the slightly translucent material make the details hard to see. So this is NOT what you will get straight out of the printer, and does NOT represent the details the printer could print or the output quality, etc.

Here are some shots of the 1:144 closed fist. I started creating this as a test. But half way into modelling in the 3d software, I was thinking: 'might as well use it on some of my 00 kits". Thats why the design looks similar (but you should be able to see some differences, well, if the photo shows :P).

Construction photos of the HG Reborns Gundam manipulators

I find the flexability of the stylene plastic is great as a basis, and using the fine steel wire for the finger's bone is great.

Thoughts on 3D Printing and Model Manufacturers

I noticed when peopel talked about 3D printing, it naturally started with topic on 'copy and duplication', then its follow onto the issue with copyright, etc. This is very sad in my opinion. It is like when people see a knife, the only thing they can think of is murder and killing, and failed to see other great benefit it could bring. 

Lets not forget, the most important purposes is to create our ideas.

As for how Model Manufactures can work with the technology, and lets use Bandai as the example.
Assume we are at a time when the 3d printing technology is cheaper and better, and there is 100% guaranted on data security (no one could decode or copy) and Bandai has full control over the usage of 3d printing on their data (eg. control how many copy 'you' can print). I see Bandai could do the following:
1. broken part replacement 
2. upgrade parts (to fix existing designs)
3. eventually distribute the model digitally


Another thoughts I have is - with 3D Printing technology, it has already changed the way we look at this modelling hobby. There are already 3D Printers that could create 3d models from office paper and with true color at wonderful resolution. In 5~10 years time, you won't need glue, knife, paints airbrush + compressor. You can design your models digitally and print it from a $150 printer, no mess and with great result. 

It will change how people defines the modelling hobby. And how we value digital creation and the effort involved.


I am wondering if 3D printer will appear in the local hobby show this year, maybe I should drop the company a note, and see what the traditional modellers would think of it :)

3D printed manipulators (1:144 scale)

Manipulator for the HG Reborns Gundam

These are some of hands I created for the HG Reborns gundam back then.... They are hand sculpted by me, each took around 2~4 hours of work. I originally wanted to put in more details into these hands, but unfortunately the miniput couldn't really hold the detail before it start crumbling.

But now I have a better material to use which will hold details MUCH better than miniput. I will cover it in another article.

Hmm.. perhaps I could put up another article to show my workings on these hands.

They are on a 1cm grid mat, it should give you an idea of the size. Some of the details couldn't quite show in these photos, and the lighting isn't great either. Looks like its time to get a macro lens....

A new Frame

Gundam Age 2 . Spallow

While I can't say about the anime itself, I do love the design of the mecha in the show. It is also surprising good for "mix and match".

Here is spallow mode of the Age 2, I think it looks good.

HG Reborns Gundam, Trans-Am... no more.

I don't like the Trans-Am color scheme, so repainted the whole thing. Other than that, scratch build the hands, 2 pairs in total.

Some figures I am working on

1:144 HG 00 Raiser pseudo construction

This pseudo construction took me around 4~5 hours, much longer than I originally estimated. Because I took the extra time to sand and smooth the parts. Also painted the eyes, etc. These are all temporary, just enough to give me an idea of where to improve on.

From what I can see so far, the list of improvement are not that long. I'm especially impressed by the articulation.

1:144 Ex-S Gundam, 1988 edition

This is a old model of Ex-S Gundam by Bandai I bought 22 years ago. Back then, 'System Injection' is the state of the art molding technology :D


However, back then, Bandai didn't care much about the accuracy of the model (to the original design).. and this is what you get:While it looks ok-ish to a typical viewer, this is actually quite different to the original design by Katoki Hajime in Gundam Sentinel. Over the years, he made several changes to the design of the S-Gundam for HGUC and MG version of the robot. The new design looks quite nice, however I still like the original design much better.

So, here I attempt to recreate the original design with a bit of new flavor I added :P


Scratch build the smart gun supporting arm, you can see it hanging next to the leg.

More coming :)

Posable fingers

This is my attempt in building movable finger/hand without using ball joints.

This is the first version:

1:1200 Revell Queen Mary 2

Here is the completed 1:1200 Queen Mary 2 from Revell.

1:32 Supermarine Spitfire Mk.22/24, Part 3

Decal applied.



Phew.. done. This project took about 2.5 days in total. Most of the time waiting for the paint to dry. I think this Revell kit has a bit of room for improvement - various fitting problem give me minor headache. But I really like the decals that come with this kit - Super Abziehbild decal - It is very easy to work with! I love the decal much more than the kit itself!

1:32 Supermarine Spitfire Mk.22/24, Part 2

Done basic painting.

1:32 Supermarine Spitfire Mk.22/24

This is a 'quick build' project of the 1:32 Revell kit of Supermarine Spitfire Mk.22/24.

Work in progress shots. All parts assembled and hold together with masking tapes:

Scratch-build spaceship

Roughly 50 cm in length :)

Dwarf