plastic doc

This is taken from a japanese plastic model show, I thought of putting it here for ease of future references. Military plastic models are now relevant to my interest, my first aim is the Tamiya Military Miniature 1/48 series, smaller and cheaper than this one.

1. The modeler, being given the model kit to work with
   
   
   
2. First of all, the usual stuff; Cut the parts from runner and remove spruce marks with hobby knife.
   
   
   
3. Unlike gunpla which most don't have the need for cementing, vehicle model kits such as this requires cement (or you might want to call it glue for plastic). To apply cement, first join the parts together, and then allow a tiny amount of cement to run along the seam. It will be drawn into the seam by the capillary action, melts the plastic and forms an instant bond between pieces. Cement used in image is tamiya cement extra thin (green cap).
   
   
   
4. Late german tanks in europe are usually equipped with zimmerit coatings, it is used as counter to magnetic mines during the war. To make that zimmerit texture, epoxy putty is used. First, apply the epoxy putty and level them out. Then use this kind of roller in picture 2 and just roll the putty to form the zimmerit texture.
   
   
   
   
5. Now it's PRIME TIME. Primer used is Mr. Hobby Mr. Surfacer. Apparently, the correct way of spraying prime is to spray them from side to side in one direction, then start again from previous starting position and spray it from one end to the other horizontally.
   
   
   
6. The colors used are Mr.Color Dark Yellow, Olive Green and Red Brown.
   *continued later
   

I mentioned that I decided to get myself an airbrush set. I've yet to do some research on airbrush, one good source is Child of Mecha's 'The Airbrush Thread', since it's a forum thread, it will take quite a while to read all the posts page by page and compile the data. For the time being, I came up with the setup below :

• Mr. Linear Compressor Petit-Com ￥13000
• Procon BOY Single Action ￥7800
• Mr. Air Regulator w/ Mr.Air Hose & Stand ￥2800
• Mr. Stand and Tray ￥1000
• Mr. Air Hose 1/8 (S) Spiral ￥2300
• Mr. Joint Set ￥1200

The compressor is Gunze's Petit-com, I chose it because of the reasonable price and simple design, it is also the same compressor Danny Choo uses. For the airbrush, I preferred Gunze's Procon Boy SAe Single Action ( Double Action looks difficult to use, not to mention the price ). Honestly I'm kind of a Gunze Sangyo fanboy, that's why I got the entire setup from Gunze. Grand Total : ￥28 100 / RM885

OK, I hereby declare my first MG, zaku II F2, a complete failure. First of all, I'd like to point out the lacking of appropriate tools during building the kit. Like I said, professional (expensive) tools produce professional results. I don't even have a side cutter, so I used a pair of scissors to cut parts from runner, a big mistake. The bluntness of the scissors blade requires greater force to cut plastic, and when it cuts, it is a sudden shock; the excessive force causes some damage to parts.

Secondly, spruce leftovers on parts. Even with the knife, there would still be leftovers, in this particular case I need to file, sand it (600grit) then sand it again (1000grit). All I had was the 1000grit, which is used for finishing sand, so there are still spruce marks everywhere.

Paintings also didn't go as I anticipated. Aside from the primer, I wonder why there are apparent brush marks. Is it because it dries too fast? The levelling thinner should have some retarder in it. Or is it the consistency of the paint? I'm not quite sure too, if I'm not mistaken the ratio of paint to thinner is 60:40. Don't have the tools to measure that...

Let this mistake be a lesson for me for future kits. And that is Gundam Mk.II Ver.2, I just got the money to purchase it. I hope with the right paints and tools I'll make this gundam worth twice the price.

I believe that to produce professional outcome, one must utilize professional tools during the process. Yeah, slaming the word 'professional' on your tools multiplies the price tags by few times, it's not like I have money to spend, it's just that I've great passion for this newfound enthusiasm of plastic models. Mostly Tamiya made, where everything is specialized for hobby purposes. I'm going to order them from HLJ, means straight from Japan :D Here is the shopping cart to confirm :

• Modeler's Knife - ¥600
• Modeler's Side Cutter - ¥1,000
• Plastic Modelling File (6mm) - ¥1,200
• Masking Tape (6mm) - ¥120
• Modelling Brush Basic Set - ¥300
  
• Finishing Abrasives P1000 - ¥150
• Paint Stirrer - ¥300
• Mr. White Surfacer 1000 Spray - ¥600

Total merchandise cost : ¥4,270/RM137.39 but I won't get the paints if I spend ¥4,000+ just on the tools... Maybe PVC figure should come two months later?

Danny just wrote about this (I was first to comment it) So I might as well put it here too. By Hasegawa, this is exactly what I need, a stand to get my gundam floating in the air for more kick ass poses. Beats the hell out of making your own custom acrylic stand. It'll cost me around ￥1250/RM40.22 (HLJ price) a bit expensive but it's well worth every penny of it, the stand looks very good. Again, picture taken from dannychoo.com, hope he don't mind.

Seems I have another candidate for my next 'to-buy' gunpla. At first I wasn't quite appealed of this updated version of gundam despite all the fuss going on during its release. When I checked out the review in Dengeki HOBBY however, I got really interested in it. Newly-designed joints allow it incredibly realistic posing, and yes, the picture shown in dengeki HOBBY was quite breath taking. Here is some random gundam mk.II v2 picture



It might not look that good in this pose, but wait till you see it in action poses, it'll make you weak in the knees just from the posing. The V2 runs about ￥4000, released on october 2005, it should be well stocked in every gundam shops. I can get this from Toy Wave too. To add, here is a custom gundam v2 from the recent World Hobby Festival, pics taken from dannychoo.com Shows some brilliant use of masking tape to make that paint pattern, and the color scheme simply pwns the old one.

I was truly amazed at Traffic-Alone's Rick Dias. I noticed in my gunpla too, pre-made bolts in the armor, most people would paint them along with the base color, I'm going to give these bolts some shiny metallic silver. Though seems that this Rick Dias has REAL bolts, I've absolutely no idea how this guy installs screws in the gunpla. He probably drilled them too, I won't go this far unfortunately. With the screws, he brought realism to another level, I can't help envying this gunpla.



Anyway I plan to lay down the base color first, then using very tiny brush apply some titanium silver enamel paint (tamiya) on the bolts. I'm not sure if I should do inking on the bolts though, since it is enamel, enamel wash method is out of the question. Will have to do it with gundam marker.

First of all this guy's MG freedom completely inspired me to get a freedom myself. It is so different from the one in Dalong.net lol.


The color chosen by this guy is undoubtedly great, ofcourse I'd want to have a different color scheme to my liking. Here is the 'pattern' I try to achieve :


by the same guy, notice the half white and half blue on the main torso and shoulder armor, that is what I want to do on the freedom. So back to the coloring scheme, Metallic Black for the engine/skeleton, Gold/Yellow for pistons, blue, light blue + a bit faded, a bit purple and yellow to replace the red.

I'm thinking of buying this from Toy-Wave, based in HK, price is amazingly cheap, and HK is much closer to Malaysia so I'm expecting lower shipping cost. MG Freedom is at US$33.00 which is RM124.80, and is only 800yen more than the standard retail price.