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.

Review: Master G44 Airbrush

So I got the Master G44 (renamed as a G444 'Deluxe' set), and here's a review I put up, and will try to update as I become more comfortable with the AB. I got this mainly because I wanted a gravity feed AB but fine control for a decent price, before spending a fortune (i.e. Iwata).


This is my first gravity feed AB (previously owned two bottom feed), and I am VERY satisfied. The small nozzle (0.2mm) is very nice and the construction quality is VERY nice. It has a solid weight and after taking it apart, appears to be made from very high quality materials - it is essentially a third party Iwata Custom Micron, and it really appears to be a decent replica (NOTE: this is NOT an exact copy, nor a cheap knockoff).


This set came with two other sets of nozzles and needles for wider/thicker paints in the 0.3 and 0.5mm sizes, and these also seem to be very good quality. I'm interested to see how interchanging them actually works (I didn't have time to do it last night).


The feel of the airbrush in my hand was very nice, the quick release module worked very well, and the air control valve on the bottom of the airbrush works to perfection. Once I had gotten the thing working, the paint flow was smooth and very nice. The trigger is a bit short on the down press, but that was actually nice once I got used to it.


The lines I was able to get out of it were very fine, finer than I was expecting, and I can already tell that once I tweak and learn the airbrush to my liking, I will be able to get even finer control over this AB. NOTE: The paint mixture I was using was terrible and done in the cup. This is my own fault. First it was too thick, then too thin, but it eventually homogenized to a better state after awhile.

Overall I would recommend this paintbrush to people - it seems well made, and for $70, definitely worth the money if you want to not spend as much on an AB that might not last as long (maybe 2-3 years).






So this is part 2 of the review. I love this AB! It has treated me very well, and I've switched out the nozzles and needles with great success and ease of use! The gold paint I'm using was simply too thick, so I had to switch to the 0.5mm nozzle size and it worked flawlessly!



And below are two images I *tried* to capture of the atomization (I need a macro lens). It is VERY fine, and VERY consistent throughout the entire painting cycle, which I did twice yesterday for ~ 1 hour each time.




And here is a picture of a finished piece (ignore the spec, something had fallen on the piece while I was taking a picture, but I just brushed it off)


Overall I'd rate this VERY high, and I can't really see any reason why this would fall apart - the materials are all high quality, and the craftsmanship is very good and very apparent - so anything that did go wrong, should be (1.) easy to see and diagnose and (2.) easy to repair with replacement parts.

Yes, hate on cheap airbrushes if you want/need to feel high brow, but I wanted to try out how a fine gravity feed airbrush was without paying high $$$ for it. And I posted a review of it. For $70, this airbrush can stand on its own for a great value.

Hold on to your butts

So for the people who are following my blog - you'll notice I haven't posted since April.

I got married (awesomeness), and am now moving my wife into what is now OUR place. It's awesome life stuff for me, but bad for the Gundam blog.

Updates will come as soon as I have a place to work again :)

Edit: Images are back up! Woohoo for Microsoft Skydrive!

Unicorn Banshee Update 4

Some good progress:

Painted some of the underframe today


Had to airbrush fluorescent red on to make it look consistent.... painful taping was needed though.

Gundam markered the black on for a consistent finish.


Gotta love the fluorescent Red paint. Adds excellent detail.


Some problems I'm running into: the gold paint flakes off, so I get some shiny speckles on the blue paint. It's not too significant, but enough to make me mad.