Completed: Jaguar II Zwei

So I finally finished my first resin kit. I made a ton of mistakes, but in the end was worth it. I went into it knowing I was going to make mistakes, so it was primarily to learn and make my next model a little better. I experimented with magnets as well (the shoulders are magnetized as opposed to glued)

I dry brushed at the end with black, rust and yellow, but as you can tell in the pics, I went a bit crazy with yellow on the left arm :P

I know I could have touched up a few things, but I don't really want to re-paint, I am too excited to start my next kit! This one was a mere stepping stone haha.










Dry brushed this stuff on.



The casting quality of this kit was pretty poor, so it was hard to work with, and because the parts were so small, clean-up was hard to do as well. But overall, it was a fantastic experience and I feel the model is at least somewhat presentable!

As always, C&C are welcome!

Update: I'm going to add some decals to it, so stay tuned!

1/220 Jaguar II Zwei Resin kit

So it's been awhile since I've updated, but I began working on my first resin kit. FYI: Banshee is put on indefinite hold due to some major breakage (the cat and dog knocked it over, then trampled over it). When I feel good about it again, I'll start it back up.

I originally was going to start on the 1/100 Kshatriya, but just couldn't bring myself to make that my first kit. I need to get my feet wet with a cheap, easily damaged kit. Enter the 1/220 Jaguar II Zwei Geara Doga version. For $30 from Tatsu Hobby, I figured hey, why not. It's got to be an Olive green, going to require taping, gluing, pinning, mangets, etc kit that will be a great way to mess up and learn.

Since this is my first post since starting the kit, I'll summarize in as few pics as I can of what I've worked on over the past 2 months.


Here it is right out of the box.


The casting quality was UTTERLY terrible on 6 or so pieces, but I got what I paid for I guess.



Cleaned up the pieces using auto degreaser - speed ups the process and works REALLY well, only had to soak overnight. I found this for $4 in Auto Zone (or Kragen)


Cleaned up quite a few pieces


Remember it's better to cut less than more. You can always go back and sand off the edges to make it look smooth.





Began the arduous process of taping and painting (past few pics). No one ever told me taping was such an arduous process. Seriously. But the fact remains: However good you tape, that's how good your paint job will come out.


And here's where we are today: almost ready for assembly with top coat on it. finishing covering minor details and stuff like that.





Lessons learned:

1. PIN AND PUT MAGNETS/GLUE whatever you can BEFORE you begin painting. It's going to be a pain in the a$$ to do this on a painted kit because I wanted to get started without pinning.

2. Tape is a huge pain, but so worth every effort you put into it. The lazier you are, the crappier it will look. Slice, slice, slice that tape.

3. Resin kits are an immense amount of fun. Almost more fun than the Bandai kits. There is way more detail. I don't like the 'flexibility' of the plastic models, rather the actual model itself. I want it to look badass on the shelf, not playing with it, or what poses I can put it in.

Updates will be coming a bit more sooner now.