Gundam GB 2005 - To March 1, 2006

FrogFoot wrote:

frosty yes block them out.

here's the GuAIZ w/ scratchbuilt blanking panels & exhaust nozzles added:

still needs some paint touchup, & i apologize if the shape of the parts isn't

accurate, but i think it looks better than having the undersides open !

frosty  

hello,

This is my first "different" model. I.e. not planes or armor. So I decided to subassemble, sand and paint "single color" parts first, then assemble them. I think that should save me from some difficult masking and paint getting into joints and polycaps. But it looks, like some or even most of You are putting most of the kit together and only then painting. Is that so? I'm not sure also if I should lacquer the whole model or subassemblies? And what cote looks better on mecha - satin or gloss?

Anyway, I already assembled all the "light green" parts, blanked upper exhaust wings from the inside and painted with slightly lightened Humbrol "sky". Before painting I also painted some areas with Humbrol gunmetal and buffed. I hope eventually some very gentle sanding will result in great looking tear-and-wear effect. I also assembled "dark grey" parts and prepared them for painting. All I need is the correct (for my liking) color. I wasn't going to paint orrange and white parts, but head assembly forced me to change my mind. Two white halves of  the head result in rather nasty seam on the starboard side of the "antenna horn" or whatever it is. It had to be filled and sanded. And the filler is GREY !

I am a very slow modeler, so month and a half looks like awfuly short time to finish my Ginn

Hi,

After some trials I've found that Model master's 2057 RAF Ocean grey perfectly fits for Ginn's "dark grey" areas. After second coat of paint there don't seem to be much work left. Final assembly, some shading and weathering (which is sort of  headache, especially when I see that superbly weathered model in the instruction booklet), touch ups and warnishing. Maybe there's still hope to finish it before deadline. Oh... the sword... I painted it Humbrol gunmetal and buffed. I hope this helps to darken the coat of MM buffing aluminium (don't have other metalizers) a bit.

P.S. am I the only one left here?

Looks like I'll be lucky to get my kits built by the deadline. I probably won't have time to paint or weather it. Still need to fix the spray booth. Man, I thought I'd have them finished them by now.

Maybe if there are others that are behind we could extend?

Did you check out Amazon.com? They still have the Kampfer and a few other Gundams on sale.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000062TR8/qid=1138145421/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-7437237-5847046?v=glance&s=toys&n=507846

You may be able to change your HLJ.com order.

Mindless wrote:

I'm still here.... ...Oh yeah, the models I ordered was a 1/100 MG Gelgoog and a 1/100 MG Kaempfer. I plan on doing both in a World War II theme. The Gelgoog is supposed to be russian and the Kaempfer german. I don't plan on doing a diorama where these two fight, only a base for them to stand on.

Looks good to me! How did you paint it?

jcheung5150 wrote:

hi all, here are some progress pics of my Gouf Flight Type.  not doing a very good job with the seams but oh well. http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y259/jcheung5150/DSC01887.jpg http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y259/jcheung5150/DSC01891.jpg http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y259/jcheung5150/DSC01893.jpg

Ah, for some reason I thought you were in the USA. Maybe it's your good English writing. :)

I've also had good luck with HLJ. But when shipping prices when up a couple of years ago I started looking around here in the USA. Now that the Yen is down compared to the US Dollar it's a bit better. I also look around eBay for some of the rare kits and once in a while I find some deals on Master Grade and Perfect Grade kits. I don't buy from anyone that has high shipping or has a history of poor packing. I've had some rare kits ruined that way.

Mindless wrote:

HLJ already shipped the package so there's not much I can do about it now. And it dosen't really matter if I'm to be honest. I've never had any big problems with HLJ and when some minor problems have occurred, they have helped out in a really fast and smooth way. I've never really looked that much on eBay or Amazon because I think thoes sites have alot of strange extra-fees (at least some of the sellers), and they don't ship around the whole globe. So for me here in Sweden it's nice to have a reliable source with decent prices that ship all over the world. I'd much rather have a local hobbystore selling these models, but I'm afraid with the tax we have here on pretty much everything, importing them would be very expensive so I'm sure a Master Grade kit would cost well above $70 instead of close to $30. I'm almost 100% sure that I'm the only one in my town that builds gundam models since Gundams (animes, toys, models, etc.) have no real market up here. Really a shame.

A Mejias wrote:

Ah, for some reason I thought you were in the USA. Maybe it's your good English writing. :) I've also had good luck with HLJ. But when shipping prices when up a couple of years ago I started looking around here in the USA. Now that the Yen is down compared to the US Dollar it's a bit better. I also look around eBay for some of the rare kits and once in a while I find some deals on Master Grade and Perfect Grade kits. I don't buy from anyone that has high shipping or has a history of poor packing. I've had some rare kits ruined that way.

I do tend to look around eBay a bit though, but as I said, I've never really been into it. Alot of it seems like a scam (which it might not be) so I've never tried it. And say something would get damaged in shipping (i.e. a package from a normal person like me or you), I don't think you have much hope of it getting replaced by the person you bought it from. So I'll stick to retailers like HLJ, since they would definately replace my damaged package without any added fees. Sure, it might take a couple of weeks more, but I'm assured to get my package in the end.

I also got my Ginn from HLJ - it was packed in a sturdy box with four "airbags" (a feature, I've never seen with other retailers). It was in perfect condition. Back to the build, I've done airbrushing grey parts, handbrushed black ones and assembled most of the kit. I only had to coat black parts of feet second time, so Ginn is still "disabled". I'm still fiddling with head, since it had nasty seam, which had to be filled and sanded and then handbrushed due to small size of part. I wasn't in a mood for masking this thing then mixing drop of paint for it and cleaning airbrush afterwards. So not only is Ginn footless, it is also headless. Gun is painted black awaiting highlits and weathering. I figured that using sword on things like walnut or Gundam might actualy leave some marks, so I used hobby knife to give the blade battered look.

When posing the kit, I noticed, that in some places paint is already scratched by other parts, this might give me some ideas for weathering.

I'd love to see some progress photos!

moonwoka wrote:

...Back to the build, I've done airbrushing grey parts, handbrushed black ones and assembled most of the kit. I only had to coat black parts of feet second time, so Ginn is still "disabled". I'm still fiddling with head, since it had nasty seam, which had to be filled and sanded and then handbrushed due to small size of part. I wasn't in a mood for masking this thing then mixing drop of paint for it and cleaning airbrush afterwards...

Hey Mindless, where did you find the blower for the spray booth?  I just made mine at 20"X12" but have yet to find a place to get a good fan to get the fume out.  That $20 cabinet lamp from HomeDepot hit a dent on my budget for a home-built spraybooth, which is like 50 bucks with some additions for the blower fan.  If I were to plan 150 bucks for a spraybooth I might as well would be better off just to buy one eh?

A Mejias wrote:

I'd love to see some progress photos!

Well, the problem is that I don't have camera. And I don't consider Nokia 6600's "camera" as the alternative. So when somebody, who has one, comes to visit me, I ask them to bring camera along...

Sometimes I think, that if I didn't spend that much on kits (most of them are still unbuilt in a closet), I could already have decent camera. Don't spend money on kits? Yeah, right...

My GB Progress:
The work area is finally cleared enough to actually do some work! Last night I started on the Turn A 1/144 kit. So far, I finished the legs, shield and gun. (Yes, I build out of order.) The cool thing about this 1/144 kit is that the legs and arms are jointed! Lot's of detail too!

I'll fully snap assemble both the 1/144 and 1/100 Turn A kits, then plan out the gluing and painting strategy. That way they are at least build by the dead line.

I'll post some photos later tonight when I've got more done. Let me know if there is anything in particular you all want me to shoot -- parts, instructions, tools, paints, workspace, etc. Here is where I'm putting my photos: http://almejias.heyyoukids.com/Gundam-GB-Turn-A/.

BTW, just before the group build I worked on a Master Grade RX-78-2 GP-01. I didn't paint it, but used various markers and pens to panel line and color it. Let me know if you want to see photos of it or any other gundam kit I've worked on.

My GB Progress:
I finished building Turn A 1/144 kit today!

It took a total of about 3.5hr. Build time was faster than I expected because I started using a new flush cut tool my brother picked up in Japan for me. It cuts much closer than the other tools he'd gotten for me.

Though the kit is pre-colored. You can see that it REALLY needs painting. It does come with some stickers but the feet and shield are really off. See the box scan here:
http://almejias.heyyoukids.com/Gundam-GB-Turn-A/ for an idea of what the coloring should look like.

This is a really nice kit! I'm very impressed. Some minor modding can fix some of the shortcomings of it being a 1/144 non-grade kit.

Now on to the Turn A 1/100 kit...

frostygirl:
Looks good! I really like the color scheme! Are you air brushing?

My GB Progress:
I started the Turn A 1/100 kit last night. I got both legs done. This one should go pretty fast also. Thanks to that new tool, I have to do very little sprue cleanup. The legs of the 1/100 are the size of the full 1/144 kit!

I really wish they made a Turn X in 1/100 scale. That's another great design!

A Mejias wrote:

frostygirl: Looks good! I really like the color scheme! Are you air brushing?

A Mejias:

thanx ! this entire paint job is actually brushed on by hand, using acrylic paints...

i do have an airbrush, but i'm too scared of clogging it up 2 use it, so it just sits...

how lame is that, LOL  ? whatever, so long as it looks OK...

frosty

WOW! I'm impressed! How did you do some of the shading I see? Or is it just in the photo? What techniques do you use to get the paint on so smooth?

frostygirl wrote:

A Mejias: thanx ! this entire paint job is actually brushed on by hand, using acrylic paints... i do have an airbrush, but i'm too scared of clogging it up 2 use it, so it just sits... how lame is that, LOL  ? whatever, so long as it looks OK... frosty

My GB Progress: 
The Turn A 1/100 Gundam is coming along nicely. After 3.75hr I finished the legs, the arms, the chest, shield and the gun. Note the missile bays on the chest are open.

As always, BanDai makes great kits! There was one minor casting error though -- the first I've ever seen. Luckily it did not damage the part.

Even with a high quality sprue cutter you have to be VERY CAREFUL when cutting small parts!!!    I took a chunk of one of the fingers off.
Any ideas on how to best fix it are greatly appreciated!

My GB Progress: 
I finished building Turn A 1/100 Gundam kit today!    Build time 6.75hr.

Here it is Turn A 1/144 Gundam next to the Turn A 1/100 Gundam.

Now on to gluing, sanding and painting... I'll be using my new Paache H for the first time on these kits.