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The reds on your box top still seem very red... I think they'd be faded if the box was actually sun bleached.

I have always wanted to try brush painting but also chickened out and went back to airbrush. Big S on this forum posted about the HLJ Ma.k. Contest so I thought I’d go for it. I had a 3 pack of these 1:35 Grober Hund kits which seemed like the right path to take for my first go at brush painting seeing as this series has a history utilizing that process. I posted that build a couple pages back on this thread. It was a great experience. Good for me to loosen up and also a great way to embrace the randomness in mark making which goes against my OCD tendencies. Note I’m using all lacquer “MR Color” paints. I just primed the elements of the build in a dark color. This case mahogany. Then I use a few ceramic dishes. Like the ones you may find at a sushi restaurant. Add paint and thin out with leveling thinner. I try and thin out more than airbrush ratios I guess since it thickens up quite fast. Once it gets thick I add more thinner and continue painting, leaving some areas for the primer to show through and semi-avoiding panel line areas, but as the paint thickens it adds more elements of opacity to the coverage which I think is interesting. Once it dries I will go back with another thin layer or two to fill in any areas I want more coverage. I guess that’s about it. This is only my second attempt and think I will stay on this trajectory for a while since I’m having fun with it and I have lots to work on as far as technique and achieving the esthetic appeal I’m looking for.

Also the same goes for if you happen to use Windex (contains ammonia) over acrylics.

Hi all. I'm considering dipping my toes into the gaming PC scene for the first time in decades, mostly so I can play Escape From Tarkov. It's... dizzying, the amount of crap out there, and the outrageous names manufactures give even the PC cases they make, to say nothing of fans, RAM, and so forth. And let's not get started on the literal alphabet soup of motherboard types, GPUs, and the like. I don't want to waste my money on overkill, OR by undershooting what's needed. So I come to you, who know much. THIS much I have gathered: Tarkov has been described as CPU-intensive, requiring more from it than the GPU. I'd like to display 1440p res with High graphics settings or better at 60fps or better. I DON'T care about RGB, or a weird transparent case since it's going to be out of sight anyway. Budget is $700, not to exceed $900. I don't mind pieceing it together myself. Just please tell me what I need, what I don't, and whatever lessons you can teach me the easy way. Thank you, all!

@Papa Rat Brush painting?! You ARE a madman aren't you! There is something soothing and therapeutic about brush painting...to bad I completely SUCK at it and always just give up and break out an airbrush on anything other than the tiniest parts on things....Looking forward to seeing more! What paints are you using and what's your method?

Pretty sure they can find a way around the actors, but the important thing here is an iconic soundtrack. Soundtracks have been lacking for a few decades and it was something that truly elevated a pretty cool movie back in the 80’s and truly made the original Highlander and absolute all around great movie, even though it really wasn’t a perfect movie. I still think some things could have been written better, but I don’t think about that since the movie is so immersive with scenery, action and sounds throughout.

At least they didn’t go with Ryan Reynolds

I’d love to see pictures of how that turned out. It sounds cool. I’ve made most of my early model choices due to being poor as well. My dad would sometimes buy me a kit as a kid, but beyond that, I’d have to figure out tools and glue and stuff. Nail clippers, borrowed nail buffing stuff from my mom and sneaking nail polish. Although she would always scold me about the nail polish due to the smell. I’d lie and say I hadn’t used it, but that smell gave it away every time

What I find more confusing is that this Megatron doesn’t match with Studio Series 86 Optimus. Optimus has a sleek G1 cartoon design while Megatron has a lot of greebling going on. Megatron almost looks like he is from a different line (like Power of the Primes). I wonder if the knock off of this Megatron will smooth out some of the surface detail in order to make it more aligned with the animation. If only NewAge had waited a couple of weeks before they went into production with their Megatron…

I actually did do a flat coat on top and they still kept a slight metallic sheen to them. Just enough to give a bit of a scaled mechanical look and not turn totally gray like a lot of other metallics. My favorites that I’d recommend would be silver, Gold and copper. They look surprisingly great after a couple coats, but you may want to do a quick top coat between them since they tend to reactivate on a second pass. I’m not as skilled as others and some people get a great pass first time. The top coat isn’t super necessary if you get a good first pass and the area isn’t gonna be touched afterwards though.

The proportions on that just kill me everytime I see it. I will never understand how they bulked out the arms and legs like that when they could have gone more towards the original designs.

Great review, Mike. I can accept the tank mode compromise, as there's really no other good option for Hasbro unless they just release a non-transforming cartoon accurate Megatron figure, and I'm glad they chose compromise. My gripe is that it looks like two different teams worked on it, their A-team on the lower half and their C-team on the turret. Perhaps they should have just upgraded him to commander class and improved the engineering on the turret. However, whether he's a gun or a tank, my guess is that most fans, including me, will display Megatron in all his robot glory. That was obviously the primary focus of the design and in that they delivered. I'm with you on the mace- I understand the reference, but like Prime's axe, it's an accessory I'll never use, and as you pointed out, there's little doubt third party will provide options. My own hope is for fusion cannon options that have some transformation elements to make it look less like a gun scope sandwiched between arms and more like an actual tank turret. I think including the Megs-as-a-figure-scaled-pistol was the better accessory, as far more scenes from the tv show and Movie can be played out where someone, usually Starscream, wielded him in gun mode. I POed mine from Pulse, so as usual, I'll likely get my copy later than everyone else, b/c membership has its privileges. Snark aside, at least I'm guaranteed to get it eventually, as finding stuff in stores, while better now than say five years ago, is still not reliable, especially for a fig of this status. In the interim, I need to address my lack of display space so he'll have a home when he arrives. I'm due to get my Long Haul-Hook set today, and I'm not sure where to put them yet, so I need to find a solution. First world issues, I'll tell ya.

Ditto. Cavil is bad casting physically wise. Connor was the underdog. Look at Cavil he looks like he could take care of himself.

First layers of lacquer brushed on. Will do one more thin application and then it’s time to assemble and move onto the main body prep.

This is the one I would like to see (before I finally get going and paint up one of my HMRs instead:

@Big s I had no idea that sharpie had metallic colored markers. The build looks great and thanks for the heads up. Might have to track a couple of the markers down. Did you do a top coat over them?

On a note, I hope Bandai doesn't skimp out on this version since the regress seat isn't seen anywhere on the official pictures?

If you say so...

Those sharpie applications look great. And I wholeheartedly agree, the tone is just metal enough and not over bearing. Just perfect. I still use them to this day. My uses for White Out as a paint was due to being poor growing up and using what ever resource possible to paint. Heck I would use it for die-cast car customs. My proudest creation was completely painting over a 911 Porsche with White Out and painting a wide black Sharpie stripe on top and writing “Skunk” on the sides. Sure it wasn’t the proper coloring, but to me it was awesome! 😄

@pengbuzz Check this out. Good things I made friends with a 3D printing madman who doesn't mind printing lots of crap for me. I'm gonna get him a model kit to send him in exchange someday. I'm heading to America next week, so I've arranged to have him send this stuff to my dad's place while I stay there. Here is the bridge to the 537 K'Tinga. Too bad I couldn't have gotten to you earlier. This looks fantastic. My K'tinga can beat up your K'Tinga! It also has improved engines, so I can slice the molded ones off and place the improved ones onto the kit instead. It comes with clear inserts too. The only thing I'll have to do is try to make the bulb part look decent somehow, plus scratchbuild the disruptors on the underside of the wings. And I also had him print this Rei from Evangelion. She looks great! Rei.jp

Anyone have a link to this video or can provide a link through VPN (No Country block)? Thanks!

Un-ironically, that was awesome!

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

So, I grabbed a 25-G Rev. Ver. on a whim yesterday. How should I feel about it?

yeah! I went back into my basement to check and yeah, the sides look normal, but the picture looks really blue tinted.