B.H.S.F - DAT 001 Drehksturm

I know I have not updated my blog in a long long long time! I am not even going to try and promise that I will regularly update it. Heck most of you have probably moved on to other things. But I felt that this kit deserved its space on the internet. This is a kit by a friend of mine R.C. Mangan. Its a conversion kit off the MG Zeta 2.0. He did not want to sell the kits nor even give them away as it was his first ever kit, and to be honest as he was with me when I did tell him I wanted it. The casting was very rough. It required a lot of cleanup. I had to strip the paint off this kit 4 times due to adhesion issues with either the primer, or the enamel/lacquer paints. It was a nightmare at times that I would put away for months at a time. I would randomly walk into my garage look at it, and tell myself someday....

Well some day came when another friend of mine motivated me to finish. it. Hummingbird (G. Winton)even had to assist me in understanding weathering, as that is not my thing. It took 2 years, but I  have to say I am happy with how it came out. There are imperfections for sure. I am not claiming this to be my best build. Nor am I saying that Its the greatest ever. I will say that I love how this kit looks, so  many details.

Thank you for taking the time to look at the build. Leave a comment if you wish. If there is interest, I will start posting WIPS and such again. I miss the community that once was MAC and the others. Thank you for stopping by.

Tember Gundam

Introducing the G-Gundam Ver Tem.

Man it has been a while since I completed a kit or heck even updated my site. I will say that I broke my cardinal rule when building kits. I started I think at final count 4 kits. So I made myself prioritize the kits, and get them done one at a time like I normally do. SO....Here I am with the first of the four kits. I completed the build for my Cousin Jessica. She designed my websites logo, so I figured it only fair I build her a kit. Her requests were as follows: Grey and Purple, with a glossy finish. I did a 2 tone purple, 2 tone grey, with brass frame color scheme. I did 2 coats of gloss clear coat to get a nice shiny finish. I did a lot of firsts on this kit working to try and get a really nice clean look, but of course adding details as I saw fit. Enough talk. Below are the photos.

And one last photo for fun and a little wow factor from the hands. I could not resist using the orange glowing hands!!!

As always thank you for stopping by. I will do my best to update this place a little more often. T.G.

Dual WIP continues!!!! G Gundam and Kshatriya

As my time in San Diego continues I am working on two kits at once. Its fun and provides a nice break while I plan out the customization for each kit as I am really working on getting things done. I start with the G-Gundam. I added plating to the rear wings. Adding depth to the flat parts. 

On the waist I have added a little bit of detail to them. I have to say the hardest thing for me to do is get the plate cut exactly the same every time. I am really working on this though. The errors are minimal compared to other kits I have done.

Same goes for the center piece of the chest. As I make final decisions on the paint scheme I am adding details to make that really pop.

That is where I am at on the G-Gundam. You will see why I have only got this far. Its all due to some serious set backs while trying to customize the psycho frame kshatriya. The first attempt was this one. My thoughts were to attempt and line up the upper piece with the lower one. I added extra plating for the higher sections of the upper piece.

I reinforced the plate in the back so that it would be more rigid. 

But it was not to be. I spent about 2-3 hours working on this and getting it all lined up. When I put the top part on no matter what I did I could not get it to line and and look clean. So I walked away for a. I came up with this solution in my sleep...weird I know there are times when I dream of the solutions to Gundam build issues. (and yes I know the Kshatriya is not a Gundam) Mobile suit issues. 

This is the fix that I came up with. I pushed the plate up from the bottom and Pro-welded it in place. The only challenge here was to get the posts back through with out cutting too much out. 

After all the glue was dry, I added a lot of plate and other detail up parts to get the details I wanted for the psycho frame. I am not looking for a super smooth build, but when do I normally build a smooth kit? Not too often. 

And here is what the completed set up looks like. If I had the want to do LEDs it would look amazing, but I don't for this kit. Being an HG kit I am going to cut out a lot of sections to add the psycho frame look. 

So far I have one completed a second one with the smooth plating done. hoping to get some more done soon, but I am pretty focused on the G-Gundam right now. Its got a flow going and I am not looking to stop it. I am hoping to be able to get the paint and have it done soon after I get home. 

As always thank you for stopping by. T.G. 

Dual Posting time! G-Gundam WIP 2 and HG Kshatriya WIP 1

Hotel room bound again. No paining this time though. Just two projects of fun. First things first, my G-Gundam build. I have been given free license by my cousin (person I am making this for) to do as I see fit. At first I was going to keep it pretty plain....and then well you know things happened Pla-plate starts flying and next thing I know this is becoming an original build for sure.

The first of 2 legs has been completed. The photos are comparison.

I didn't go too crazy, but I did add some needed details to the leg armor. I have never been a huge fan of big smooth armored places on some of the Gundam I build. Below is the chest, I have a few more details that will need to be done on it, but for the most part its completed. The back is plain as I need to be able to get a good fit for the core fighter.

Its mainly adding details and some scribing. Not a lot of scribing though. I just don't see this one and all paneled up for some reason.

Onto what I have done today! I am normally not a man to build HG's I don't like the amount of work they represent to make them look good and I don't like the small size of the true 1/144 ones...This one is 1/144 of course, but in that its still as large as a 1/100 MG. After snap fitting it and looking into where I wanted to add detail I had the thought as I am hoping to get the shipping notice on my Elynn Hobby Kshatriya that I wanted to do something original. I have seen a lot of builds where the center section is split so you can see the detail inside, but I have not seen one that is cut apart and details are exposed close to the surface. So enters my days efforts thus far. Below is the stock look.

This is post cutting:

And cut out removed...so much clean up.

Cleaned up inner frame put back in as you can almost see there is no detailing inside. 

So to get the gap I want I added some 3mm posts glued them in place after measuring 3-4 times to ensure equal height.

And now I have the gap that I wanted. Nothing huge, but a good place to add detail. The plan as it stands is to back it with pla-plate and then build it up with koto parts and such to get all the mechanical details I feel it needs.

Its going to be a fun project, slow but fun. Only 3 more to cut and build....what have I gotten myself into!?! As always thank you for stopping by. T.G.