One Year War GB 2011-2012 !Extended time! 30sept 2012

My solution to the whole resin hands thing: buy the hands I want and recast 'em.  :)  The cost of expensive B-Club hands is therefore spread out over several projects.  :)

Of course, that works a lot better if you have a pressure casting rig.  I just got one, because of problems I was having with my cast hands.  :)  For the project I'm finishing up now, the HGUC Zaku, I recast a set of B-Club manipulators originally sold for the Gelgoog Marine kit (IIRC).  There were a few problems with the originals: on the open hands some of the fingers were too thin and flat, and there were bubbles on the sides of the fingers...  So I had to do a fair bit of clean-up before even making molds.

But I'll tell you what's great:

I was having trouble with the castings from one of the molds, (one of the open hands) even after getting the pressure casting rig, so I decided to remake the mold.  This time I made it as a one-part mold.  I had a real tough time getting the original out of the mold unfortunately, and the fingers broke off...  That's the bad news.  But the good news is that when I cast copies of the hand in that mold, the mold doesn't introduce any new seam lines like a two-part mold would.  If you make a one-part mold of a part you've already done the cleanup on, and you do a good casting from the mold, you don't need to do much cleanup when you pull the new part from the mold.  (I've done one-part molds in the past but there's more work involved in casting in a one-part mold since you have to work harder to get the air out...  But with pressure-casting that's less of an issue.)

Don't have any proper status updates for the 1980 Zaku yet - but if anybody's curious, it now has working ankle joints for both feet and I've created a new knee joint that I'm going to recast and use...

The knee joint is kind of simple in principle: just a cylinder with a polycap in it, and two end-pieces for the cylinder that form the other half of a hinge.  The tricky bit is getting the cylinder centered around the polycap, and making the end surfaces of the cylinder truly perpendicular to the axis.  Both are important because if you turn the hinge, you don't want parts of it to suddenly become misaligned...  I've taken various approaches to this problem in the past, but this time I tried something new...

Basically, I first cut a length of styrene tube with a tube cutter. This got me the basic cylinder shape, with fairly good ends (reasonably close to planar and perpendicular to the axis.)  Then I stuffed the inside with epoxy putty and put a polycap in there, with a rod through it, and used a jeweler's caliper to try to get the position of the rod on each end centered within the tube.  This got me a pretty good approximation of "centered" polycap...  Then when the putty cured I started looking for errors: I got another, similar part I'd made earlier (i.e. a failed attempt at making one of these) and stuck it onto the rod along with the new part for a point of reference - then I turned the new part around the axis, looking for wobble relative to that point of reference.  When I found something, I'd take the styrene tube off the new part and sand down the epoxy putty inside to make an adjustment, then put the thing back together and check it again. Any time the epoxy putty got sanded down too much, I'd put some super glue on it, hit it with accelerator, and then sand that surface down so I'd have a tight fit again.

The nice thing about that method was it wasn't reliant upon any single process being especially precise - I could simply check the precision and improve it if necessary, without affecting the quality of other pieces of the work. The part always remained cylindrical despite any adjustments I made, because the cylindrical shape was provided by the styrene tube, which I didn't really alter during this process.  I put maybe a couple hours into that process and came away with a part that I was very happy with. From there it was a simple process to create the end-cap and center it properly (just use the cylinder as a reference to glue a minus-mold to the rod) - so now I just need to cast copies of the thing. For that I'll use one-part molds, and put the rod and a polycap inside the mold before pouring resin. I still need to figure out the mold layout, though.

b-club manipulators really look better than normal hands, only they are in resin, it's totally in disagree with rest of the kit in super indestrutructible bandai plastic (false... i breaked one of the fz hands during paint session ) . really b-club manipulators they go out of stock at high speed. At least i prefere to enhance the latest hguc manipulators to save money only from the zaku I i have three hands more.

I see the dressein only in the turn-a-gundam, i miss the zz series .. lots of intresting mechs in included the hamma hamma. Actually seems than bandai want to complete the unicorn series , and probably they end with the dressein (or more to come?)

Bsyamato,

Yeah, resin hands are made by the devil and marketed by Bandai.  They usually cost more than the recipient kit, and require tedious clean up.  However, I have tried to make scratchbuilt fingers a couple of times, and it really sucks.  I think I did it for three models, then decided that I hated doing it, and would never do it again.  And that is when B-Club began marketing those resin hands!  Evil evil, evil, I tell you.

I noticed that the HGUC Dreissen is the Unicorn, not the ZZ Gundam version.  I would bet that Bandai will eventually kit the ZZ version as well.  I wonder if they will then do some more ZZ suits like the Hamma-Hamma (try saying that three times fast with a straight face!)

tetsujin

 

bsyamato:

 

 

tetsujin:

 

.....

I guess technically I've started a GB entry: I'm still trying to finish up that HGUC Zaku, but I needed a little change of pace so last night I put some work in on the 1:144 Zaku (the original one...) - doing mobility mods as well as cosmetic mods along the lines of that video I linked...

 

 

tetsujin i sign you in the gb with a tba kit?

 

 

Put me down for the 1:144 Zaku.

line-up updated! the group growing!

AAARGH!!! After market hands!! AAARGH!! 

ps the hguc dressein is out!!! is really soon to the dom desing. Out the review the kit seems really good.

Dupes,

The B-Club resin manipulators can be found at Hobbylink Japan  www.hlj.com and other Japanese internet hobby shops, but they seem to sell out quite fast.  I was able to find more while in Japan, but it seems the selection is getting thinner even there.  If you see one you want on-line, hit the "buy this!" button fast.  The manipulators are a two edged sword like most things, as they offer increased detail at the expense of well expen$e!  Plus if they are not well molded like my Dom set, they can be a pain in the aft thrusters to clean up.

This is the set I am using.  Even though the content listing on the bottom of the package says one hand is for the beam bazooka, it fits the giant baz just fine.  One thing about these resin hands is that the ball joints are always too loose in the kit poly caps, and the shafts are fragile.  I cut the plastic ball joint from the kit hands and use them in lieu of the resin ones.  I'll post piccies of the swap when I do it for this kit.

BTW, I'm going to do the standard Dom, not the Rick Dom, so that's why I'm using the giant baz.

Gunpla Tip of the Day:  A standard Gunpla thing I always do is to paint the insides of all parts flat black.  I really hate it when shiny bright colored plastic peeks out from joints.  When the parts are painted, make sure you avoid getting paint inside the joint sockets and snap pins, as it will cause interference when the parts are assembled.  The same goes for the joint shafts that fit into poly caps.

bsyamato

 

tetsujin:

 

.....

I guess technically I've started a GB entry: I'm still trying to finish up that HGUC Zaku, but I needed a little change of pace so last night I put some work in on the 1:144 Zaku (the original one...) - doing mobility mods as well as cosmetic mods along the lines of that video I linked...

 

 

tetsujin i sign you in the gb with a tba kit?

Put me down for the 1:144 Zaku.

Oooooh, a Dom!

PLEASE keep doing the step-by-step with this build - giving me a good idea of what you Gundam vets are doing with these snap together kits.

Gundam aftermarket? Who makes it? Where do you get it?

here comes the dom!

Oookay, I will be finally working on something for the GB.  Since the HGUC Dom is a simple kit I will start with it, and work up to the MG Zaku Cannon.  My approach will be "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".  Here is where the kit is at as of today:

The head has been sanded down a bit where the monoeye guard is, to eliminate a small step.

The body components did not fit perfectly, and required filler all around.  I still have a lot of filling and sanding to go before the parts hit the paint shop. 

 The lower arms had some small annoying gaps that will require filler and careful sanding.

The kit hands are huge and not well detailed, so B-Club resin manipulators will be used.  The left one is resin, the right one plastic.  My resin sample had some pretty serious mold shift which will require filling and sanding.  Gudfunnit, why pay more only to have to deal with more work?  Why Mr. Anderson, why?

 The "Giant Baz" has eight triangular gussets molded around the circumference of the tube, but four are not molded well due to limitations in the injection molding process.  The offending gussets were scraped off and the bazooka awaits some sheet plastic replacements.

That's all for now.

tetsujin

.....

I guess technically I've started a GB entry: I'm still trying to finish up that HGUC Zaku, but I needed a little change of pace so last night I put some work in on the 1:144 Zaku (the original one...) - doing mobility mods as well as cosmetic mods along the lines of that video I linked...

tetsujin i sign you in the gb with a tba kit?

Klik by me the ball work on, ka version , as i know, it's a sort of custom version as msv variants, i'll put on the list

probably this will be the first kit finished on the gb

Back, with pics of my Ball for y'all.

That's about all I had time to post. I haven't had a chance to get final pics of my Zaku yet (busy drying).

What do you think?

Klik

P.S. sorry for the double-post.

While I don't have usable pics right now, I've noticed the traffic that my Ver. Ka Ball comment has generated. Let me settle the dispute.

 Original Ball

 Ver. Ka Ball

The second one is the exact kit I purchased last week, and I was surprised by its simplicity (it only fell together in about 4 hours, with time for the paint to dry). I decided that, until I had the right paint color for the red parts, I would use the clear ones that were included in the kit. Not only that, but it allows me to display the interior without it being "naked".

Will be back with pics after dinner

Keep up the great work all!

P.S. 8th MS team is my favorite, too.

smeagol the vile

You know, I watched 08th Ms team dubbed the first time I watched it and I had no problems with it at all.  To be honest I preferred it over the subbed version.

i agree with this, somethimes local traslation don't respect original version , dunno about american version but in italy have some problem to respect original dialogs

You know, I watched 08th Ms team dubbed the first time I watched it and I had no problems with it at all.  To be honest I preferred it over the subbed version.

bsyamato

a squred sazabi

a red ground type? sounds good!

Yea they didn't have any good rounded body parts so I just tried to bulk it up as much as I could with somewhat of a streamlined torso and head with a mono eye.  The trims had a bit more yellow and black also cuz I was thinking about the Sinanju.  It does come with an almost the right size rifle though~  =P

dupes

So how's the Front Mission game? Decent?

Watched War In The Pocket over the weekend (because Netflix had it in stock)...thought it was alright. The kid was pretty annoying, but when there was actual action it was great - leaning towards the hyper-violent more Akira-style animation.

Up next is 08th MS Team (bought it), hoping it also has an English-language option on the DVD's!

The game was okay, just a basic straight forward arcade style mecha shooter with some customization options, but it was no better than something like Armored Core series which started features like that back on the PS1.  The way the game is leveled is also something like the Ace Combat series missions, sometimes with bosses and all.  I would only recommend it to people who had been following Front Mission games for a In-Combat Real Time feeling of the battles, while the older games were just turn by turn table top gaming style and relies a bit more strategy and character pilot skill growth/mecha upgrades and configuration to get through the game.  For me it just felt good blowing things up with a shoulder mounted gatling gun and missile launcher at the end of the day instead of getting too frustrated with car racing sims.  

For the movies, I'd still recommend you to try it once, maybe the second time, to watch it with subtitles and in Japanese.  They actually become less annoying that way because the tone of voice was better captured from the original recording artists.  Do share all your thoughts on the 08th MS team!  You will love the details in there as everyone else had mentioned.

0080 had a lot of scenes with Al since it was trying to portrait the war and its tragedy through the eyes of an innocent typical whiny carefree child as opposed to say an ace pilot, a New Type, or some kind of freakish genetic experiment (Take that, Kira Yamato of Gundam SEED).  To that extent, I think it did a good job to achieve it within such a short series.  There was also a good balance to not put in sooo much mobile suit fights to overshadow the human side of the story.  The best part of the series is, well... the cheap shot gatling gun feature of the NT-1, and come on, the MS-18 Kampfer assault type that took out a whole fricking squad by itself.  (Available in both MG 1/100 and the newer 1/144 in HGUC, you know you want it.  =D)

So how's the Front Mission game? Decent?

Watched War In The Pocket over the weekend (because Netflix had it in stock)...thought it was alright. The kid was pretty annoying, but when there was actual action it was great - leaning towards the hyper-violent more Akira-style animation.

Up next is 08th MS Team (bought it), hoping it also has an English-language option on the DVD's!

a squred sazabi

a red ground type? sounds good!

While taking a break on Memorial Day weekend from building a few models for my futuer mother-in-law, I picked up a game called Front Mission Evolved for my PS3 and got addicted to it.  The Front Mission franchise used to be all turn based RPG games where big mechas, here they call them Wanzers, battle it out.  This newest one is a third person shooter, kinda like Gundam Crossfire or Armored Core.  How is this related to the topic... well, you are allowed to customize your mobile suits with different parts and weapons and colors, and guess what mine ended up looking like....

Yea, a Sazabi.  It just wasn't three time faster than others...  It did get me some drive to clean up some more parts of the Ground Type again.

Tetsujin - You got me again!  I think I must be getting senile, as I never used to mix up my Gundam designers!  Thanks for setting the facts straight.

Dupes - Bandai did a MG Dom in Char's colors, I think - Tetsujin please confirm!  The difference between the Dom and Rick Dom is that the Rick Dom is optimized for space combat, while the Dom is for ground combat.  The Rick Dom has larger back and skirt thrusters, and the feet have rockets instead of lift fans.

I have to go take my Geritol and lie down now....

Real G

BTW, a small bit of trivia:  In the original novel, Char got a Rick Dom instead of the Zeong.

Hmmmm...perhaps a Rick Dom painted up in Char's colors? I can already see me doing a Char collection. Heh.

BTW, what's the difference between a Dom and Rick Dom?

GreySnake

Real  G here you are http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raFKb7kjz2g

HAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaa....*cough* *cough*aaaaaaaaaaa

That is a RIOT!

i'll just made a *** entry

my preferred online seller of  gundam kits is restocking ALL gundam series kits at very good price preorder!!

I have also, as old client a 10% discout

some *** price i can write is that RG series comes at 27€ !!!

First grade at less of 4€

generally hguc become at less than 10€ till the 48€ of the giant NZ-666 KSYATRIYA!!!

and actually no money for new kits

found better prices only in japan .

stop bastarding 

the conversation is pretty good guys! even me learning some more. If i not wrong Kazuhisa Kondoh is the same mech designer of patlabor

Then a little update

general painting on sand color

and more pieces on the head

that's all

Real G

Tetsujin

You're right, I had a brain fart.  Mamoru Nagano was the chap who was responsible for Five Star Sories' designs.  I have witnessed the god-lke reverence some folks have towards Katoki, but I don't think he's a hack either.  IMHO he does have talent and a distinctive style which I do like.  I personally like Kazuhisa Kondoh's Gundam designs best, especially from the comic "The Dogs Of War."  I believe he is the guy that designed the stuff from "0080: War In The Pocket" as well.

Izubuchi did the 0080 designs. Though I believe Kondo probably put his own spin on 'em at some point.

I don't really think Katoki's a hack - he knows how to design robots, and he does make some good ones. But I think he's done a lot of poor work, too, including relatively high-profile stuff like designs for MG and HGUC

Good luck on the 1/144 Zaku.  Is that the one with the feet molded integrally to the lower legs?  I look forward to seeing piccies!

That's the one, yeah.  I already detached the feet and the work I did last night was to add a good, poseable ankle joint to the left leg (already did one for the right...)  It's actually surprisingly easy.  With the feet molded to the legs you would think, maybe, that cutting them apart you wouldn't have a whole foot to work with - but really that's not the case...

I haven't decided exactly what to do about the shoulder armor.  It's tempting to just replace it with a recast of the shoulder armor from the MSV Minelayer, like I did for the HGUC...  Of course, I'd still have to come up with a shoulder part to go underneath.

There are some good builds of the old 1980/1981 kits out there...  I found this one just recently - kind of a cool look, I think, though I liked it better before he bulked up the lower legs...  Best way to find such builds is by searching for the Japanese translation of "Old Kit"

Tetsujin

You're right, I had a brain fart.  Mamoru Nagano was the chap who was responsible for Five Star Sories' designs.  I have witnessed the god-lke reverence some folks have towards Katoki, but I don't think he's a hack either.  IMHO he does have talent and a distinctive style which I do like.  I personally like Kazuhisa Kondoh's Gundam designs best, especially from the comic "The Dogs Of War."  I believe he is the guy that designed the stuff from "0080: War In The Pocket" as well.

The prose in the novel was kind of annoying.  But I did find the technical aspects like the beam weapon damage to be interesting.  When the TV show was made, a lot of things got added or changed, probably to sell more merchandise, and to cater to a less than sophisitcated audience.

Good luck on the 1/144 Zaku.  Is that the one with the feet molded integrally to the lower legs?  I look forward to seeing piccies!

Unless I'm mistaken, Katoki had no involvement with Five Star Stories or Zeta Gundam.  You may be thinking of Mamoru Nagano.  Katoki's the overrated hack who designs things very clean, very sharp, very mechanical-looking and refined...  and ultimately very boring.  Well, mostly.  He does some good work.  (Just got a Geara Zulu!)  Really the only thing I hate about Katoki is that people treat him like God's gift to mecha fans.  Not every mecha design in the world is made better by Katoki's magic touch.

One thing about the Gundam novels - cool space battles between giant robots do not make for good prose.  :)  Seriously, there were parts of the book that felt like I was reading "and then Amuro shot the guy, and some other guy shot back, so Amuro returned fire..."

There were some interesting bits of detail in the book: for instance, at one point Char's shield gets hit with beam rifle fire.  But it doesn't explode like it would in the anime - instead, the way they describe the damage, the shield gets a whole lot of microscopic perforations from the heavy metal particles in the beam.  The shield still appears whole but it's rendered worthless by the damage.

Also, not only did Char not get the Zeong, he didn't get the Gelgoog or Z'Gok, either.  The "Duel in Texas" was actually between the Gundam and Char's Zaku (Zakus get some respect!)

I guess technically I've started a GB entry: I'm still trying to finish up that HGUC Zaku, but I needed a little change of pace so last night I put some work in on the 1:144 Zaku (the original one...) - doing mobility mods as well as cosmetic mods along the lines of that video I linked...

Grey Snake - Hey thanks a bunch for the link!  "Matilda Saaaaaaaaaan!!!"

Sorry.  I have a serious weakness for truly stupid humor.

Smeagol - Hmmm, you make an interesting point.  But if Ramba Ral killed Amuro early on, we might not be here for the GB!

Klik - The ver.Ka Ball is really cool looking, sort of like the 2001 Space Pod, which is what the original design was undoubtedly based on.  As others have said, ver.Ka refers to "version Katoki Hajime", sort of like a designer version of a standard mech.  IMHO Katoki is one of the great mecha designers of anime.  His works include Five Star Stories, Zeta Gundam, and Gundam Sentinel.

BTW, a small bit of trivia:  In the original novel, Char got a Rick Dom instead of the Zeong.  The end of the story is also very different from the TV show.  (I won't say what happened in case someone wants to read the books!)

Anyway, should be starting up a GB kit next week.

GreySnake

Real  G here you are http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raFKb7kjz2g

No updates from me for awhile. Moving out to the Lone Star State aka Texas in a couple months. So modeling no modeling for a few months.

i forget this out of head video !!! bend in two for laughs

!! but the guncannon position are not real ..

The 'Version Ka' related to the specific person who redesigned that specific unit.  It wasn't necessarily in any of the series, he did this for the gundam, the ball, all of the Gundam Wing mechs, as well as alot of other kits.  It goes to say that any of the units were in the OYW as in... the Ball, the Ver KA goes toward it as well.

Edit, the 'Ka' referes to the artist Hajime Katoki