LOL, I forgot about that photo Real G! 

Ok, ok I guess you do! 

Gamera

Looks awesome G! Love the blue and yellow scheme, makes me think of the Blue Angels. 

 

One of the guys in our club gets ribbed about spraying a model with Dullcoat in the parking lot before taking it into the show.... 

 

HEY!!! I resemble that comment.

Looks awesome G! Love the blue and yellow scheme, makes me think of the Blue Angels. 

One of the guys in our club gets ribbed about spraying a model with Dullcoat in the parking lot before taking it into the show.... 

I am not 100% sure I slid under the door in time for the contest, but since the deadline was Tuesday (today) I would think it is okay.  So after several blurry nights fraught with errors, the Gelf is sort of done.  I had no time for weathering as the clear coat wasn't even fully cured yet.









NO MORE 2-MONTH CONTESTS!  I just build too darned slow.


And now I have sleep deprivation-induced hallucinations hearing the theme song from "Denjin Zaboga" on an endless loop in my head:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRFMBd1ENs8

"Denjin Zaboga, GO!!!"

Sorry Gamera, more "rip-and-clip" from another forum:

The contest deadline is nigh upon us, but there's still work to do.  And I still have to go to work.   

But progress is being made.



The search for clear red report covers to use for the new clear lenses proved futile.  I guess no one hands in typed reports anymore.  Necessity is the mother of invention, and desperation is the cruel abusive alcoholic stepmom!  I had to resort to an old pack of Squadron 0.015" vac-form sheets, which I never could get to heat up without fogging over.  It has languished for years in the sheet plastic box, gathering dust and scratches.   





I also had an old bottle of Alclad clear red, which still worked thank goodness.

I did have one accident.  Running out of clear gloss spray, I found a new Tamiya rattle can that had a peculiar warning on the label (in Japanese).  I said it was not recommended for use over decals.  Huh.  That seems to make the product kinda useless for modelers.  I used it anyway and found that the solvent is tremendously "hot", soaking all the way into the bottom layer of primer.  How did I learn this?  Mr Clumsy Elbows brushed against a freshly painted part, and a swatch of paint all the way down to the black primer base immediately affixed itself to my arm.      A big, ugly looking rough patch presented itself on the part, so now I have to repair and repaint it tonight.  Arghhhhhhh.

But Star Force, time has run out!  I will need to finish this by tonight if the Tuesday deadline is to be made.  I don't think I'll have time to weather.  But I really need to do it, even after the deadline is past.

Looks good! Sorry for my lack of posting and hope you've got a lot of work done over the weekend! 

Gamera

Looks really good Real G! The cable came out great! I'd think maybe a small vice would be useful there, to hold the part so you could apply the sprue with one hand and cement with the other. 

Crossing my fingers you make it to the finish line in time! 

 

Me too!

As the Joker said "Aaaaand heeeere we go."



Hopefully most of the joint filling work will not suck too bad.  Inspection will be performed tonight after I get home.

Looks really good Real G! The cable came out great! I'd think maybe a small vice would be useful there, to hold the part so you could apply the sprue with one hand and cement with the other. 

Crossing my fingers you make it to the finish line in time! 

I am currently at the seam filling & sanding stage, so nothing much to show in that regard.  I like to use stretched sprue from the kit as my first line (pun intended!) of attack, since the plastic is the same hardness and color.  It also eliminates those annoying "ghost seams", which never seem to go away, or reappear after the model is done.

But while I was doing this, I had a thought regarding the molded power cable that hangs off the Gelf's left shoulder armor.  Since the cable is made from hard plastic, limitations in the injection molding process causes some of the segment dividing lines to be skewed.  I really hate this, but what can you do aside from replacing the cable with something else?  Something else...

As Gru would say "Light Bulb!"

So I tried soaking the stretched sprue for a few seconds in liquid cement then draping it into the wonky recessed lines.



Incredibly, it only took one or two tries to get the "system" down.  It was possible to wrap the softened sprue completely around the cable in one shot, making the work go quickly.  I really needed a third hand though, as the cable was small and hard to hold on to without dropping.



I should have been doing this work at my desk, where the lighting is way better - I made an "oops" cut because I just couldn't see what I was doing.  Argh!  But patching the mistake was easy using more stretched sprue.  The excess sprue is sanded down, the new segment lines are penciled on, a first cut is made using a knife, and then the lines are widened using a razor saw.

I think this solution is to my liking, as it will look better than a spring or blocky aftermarket conduit segments.  I have another Falguen kit in the stash, so I am considering using it to rebuild the existing one to the same standards as the Gelf.

Gaaaah, only a little more than a week remains - hurry Star Force!

Traffic sure is way down on the forum these days.

I worked on the Gelf on my day off.  I made a detail insert for the left shoulder sensor.  A clear red tinted window will be added later.





The hands are pretty crummy, with shallow detail and poorly molded fingers (a recurring problem with most of Bandai's smaller mech kits).  So the fingers were removed and the spare kits provided replacement digits.  It was WAY easier to shape and sand the fingers when not attached to the hands.



The right gun hand was similarly rebuilt, but the fingers were given a locator tab to permit reattachment after painting.



The neck details have been completed.  A confession: I cribbed the cable detail from some guy's on-line build of the Gelf.





I'm going to see if I can use Bandai's cable accessory set to replace the kit's poorly molded part.  It does not require articulation, so no concerns for making it flexible.

Another lazy 'rip-n-clip':

Hookay, the modeling mood has returned, and I am regularly working on the Gelf.  Actually, I'm running out of time, which acts like a hot poker stick on the backside of my donkey-butt!

The crotch armor flap hinge has been repaired and now functions as intended.  Rather than placing the hinge high up on the flap, it was located lower and away from the flap to provide a tilting action to avoid fouling the upper torso.

Gelf-41 by N.T. Izumi, on Flickr

Gelf-42 by N.T. Izumi, on Flickr

Gelf-43 by N.T. Izumi, on Flickr

I found that the thighs fouled the crotch, so some aftermarket rocket bells were cut down into rings and glued to the crotch to act as spacers.  Plus the anime line art of the Gelf had this feature - bonus.

Gelf-45 by N.T. Izumi, on Flickr

Gelf-46 by N.T. Izumi, on Flickr

The grenade launchers have been added to the forearms.  Oops, digital photography is a cruel mistress - the spare magazines need some light sanding.


Hurry, Star force, there are only two weeks left!

Cool! Glad to hear it. 

Gamera

That looks great G! How close are you to paint? 

 

Hopefully one week away.  It's all I have if I want to have enough time to paint.

That looks great G! How close are you to paint? 

Sorry for the "rip & clip" from another forum:

I added a small detail part to the front of the neck.

And then the final major work to join the hips to the upper torso.

The waist joint combines a bunch of features like hip twist and skirt movement. The large ball joint in the torso serves more to allow slight adjustments of the upper body to allow the other parts to move.

Getting the side skirts to move proved tricky. They have to kind of slide up and into the torso. I used some small ball joints to assist in fine positioning.

Knee and hip surgery are done.  Time to work on the waist joint and figure out how to hinge the side skirts to preserve the improved flexibility of the legs.

What?  O~hhhhhh.

Yeah... you got me.  Ballet plie (plee-ay).  I don't know why I didn't see that in the photos that I took.  But no ballet for the Gelf!   It's a manly-man metal armor!  It's a super masculine... robot model kit from a 1987 children's TV show.  

But seriously, the knee bend is kinda overkill but will be useful for heroic flying poses.  I guess I DO play with my models after they are finished.  But I do not make "pew-pew" laser beam noises while running around the living room with my towel cape and Star Patrol helmet...

Argh, busted again.

Cool, I wanna see the Mech Ballet now G!!! 

Thanks Gamera!

Here's an old hack that was commonly used back in the 1980-1990 era.

By adding a pull-out secondary joint at the knee, the legs no longer interfere with one another when bent.  I'm not going to make the Gelf do squats or anything like that, but the modification will allow for better posing.

And we all know that anime-pose is what robot kits are about!  

Coming along well G! 

Tanker-Builder

See!

   What I  said, and now you've got me looking for MachinenKreiger again!

 

Heh-heh.  I'm the Modeling devil.  It's what I do.  

OK some updates on the state of play:

Modifications are primarily to improve posing of the model.  The visor and sensors will have clear covers with detail inserts.

More to follow.

See!

   What I  said, and now you've got me looking for MachinenKreiger again!

Ha ha TB!  Thanks for checking in!  It's less boring for me because of the time limit.  I'm lousy at keeping to a schedule, but once I get in the groove I should be able to push it through.

So far so good though.  I have to finish all construction in about two weeks to have enough time to paint.

Well, Well, Well!

 Just when I thought those things were Boring ,you come along and maybe change my mind. Note: I said Maybe!

Gaaaah, getting onto the forum has been so slow!  Those burito eating, toilet clogging spambots are maddening.

Things have been kinda hectic over here; I had to go for a biopsy this week, my first time having a procedure that required anesthetic.  But things went smoothly and my lab test came up negative.  2 hours of prep, being wheeled into the OR, staring up at the ceiling wondering if the AC diffusers were backed with HEPA filters, then *boop*, then waking up in post recovery.  Now I know what many others have gone through.

But I have not been idle and the clock continues to tick.  Since Flickr made it impossible to post photos from my phone, I'll do an update Monday.  The arm mods will have been completed and the leg mods will be underway.

Hurry Star Force, there are only 4 weeks left...

Oh, and the new aftermarket joints are proving to be less useful than hoped.  No school like the old school, when you got to get something done right.

Real G

Okay guys, reinforcements have arrived.

I am trying out some different polycaps, which will hopefully prove more useful than the ones I already have.

The Gelf's waist armor has been cut apart, so no going back now!  I need to get serious and start the high precision part of the build.

 

Cool, looking forward to seeing how the additions go. 

Real G

 

 

Rob Gronovius

I love kits like this. I'm usually torn between wanting it to look like it does on TV versus what it would look like in real life, metal colored etc.

 

Nice job.

 

 

 

 

Rob,

There are several ways to finish these types of models, but I think the old classical "anime color" style has fallen out of favor.  The armor guys brought their brand of weathering to anime kits and transformed their look.  Other guys do the candy coat metallics which can look astonishgly good, but are fiendishly difficult to execute.  And then there is the "cel shaded" style, where the models are painted to look like 2-D images that leapt out of the TV.  It's all about the paint these days!

 

I agree that armor modelers' methods have taken over many sci-fi model maker's genre. Once they started making military style kits like the Gundam HC series kits in 1/35 scale, they got a whole new group of modelers interested and they brought their own techniques.

But I still like the cartoon colors on many of the kits.

Okay guys, reinforcements have arrived.

I am trying out some different polycaps, which will hopefully prove more useful than the ones I already have.

The Gelf's waist armor has been cut apart, so no going back now!  I need to get serious and start the high precision part of the build.