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  1. Past hour
  2. I am surprised. The bottoms of the feet segments of the old Imai Glaug kit are hollow. I was looking for pieces that would fit on the bottoms, but there are no such pieces. I'm compelled to cut some Tamiya Pla-Plate to make my own bottoms of those pieces. I've built other Imai Macross models and they all had proper bottoms, complete with molded detail. This is weird.
  3. It's just really hard to get anything Bandai from HLJ now. I have a big list of items I pre-ordered super early and never got. And wound up canceling pre-order when I got the item at a local store. This goes for Gundam (never got RG Shining or MGSD Wing or MG Vidar or MG Narrative C-Packs and many others), this goes for Macross (have pre-ordered every HG 1/100 valk and I think I only got one YF-21 and one Fire Valkyrie - my VF-22 Max and Miria pre-orders are still sitting unfulfilled, and my older pre-orders are canceled), and this goes for Armored Core (I pre-ordered everything from the 30mm ACVI line, and the only ones ever fulfilled were the quad leg unit and one of the weapon sets).
  4. Yesterday
  5. Since I have a bit of time in between shows now, after the VT-1 I decided I would try my hand at a 3D printed prop. Just before we finished my last gig, I had a little time to learn how to 3D print with our printer at work and downloaded and printed a Star Trek TOS Phaser. I just got the amazing Wand Tricorder and I had their Communicator from before, but I didn't learn about them till after their Phaser was sold out and now they are going for crazy prices on eBay. So I thought I could learn 3D Printing and get some decent metal aftermarket upgrades for $150 and get a half-way decent finish to my landing party toys. Unfortunately they don't light up and I have to supply all the pew pew pew sounds Someone mentioned earlier about 3D prints - this is my first try and its a PLA printer that I used (A decent one) but not a Resin with are much better but much more involving in the finishing and drying of the print. Unfortunately, with PLA prints, there are very fine print lines / kind of like stepping which you have to sand away. I HATE SANDING - its the worst part of modeling for me. But I have enough experience to know that the final paint job is all about surface prep - the more time you spend prepping the surface, the better it turns out in the end painting stage. So here are the bits and pieces... Even though the print looks great to the naked eye, I know there's a tone of sanding to be down even before the primer! I find PLA material harder to sand than modeling Styrene plastic, it needs a harder bite and goes through more sandpaper than the softer Styrene/ABS plastics. It does leave a fine dust everywhere that you need to vacuum up (or you'll get killed spraying and having it pick up onto the paint surface) and you should wear a respirator paint mask to make sure you're not breathing this (probably toxic) stuff into your lungs. Here it is primed, I used a Krylon spray can hoping to get something more substantial and robust than my modeling primers because I'm probably going to be handling this more like a toy and looking at it like a model. I would spray, then sand down any blemishes with 2000 and working my way up to 6-8000 grit to get a nice smooth finish and spray again. Hardest part is leaving it alone overnight or a few days to make sure the primer cures before touching it again. Unfortunately, there was another painting disaster where my final clear coat (Mr. Color lacquer) went over top of my Aclad metalizer (phaser handle) which was over an Aclad enamel black gloss which was over Krylon grey primer where the final clear coat, reacted to the enamel black gloss under the Aclad metalizer (I though the Aclad metalizer lacquer was enough of a barrier but it wasn't). I tried to sand it all off to start again, but someone the grey primer underneath it all also was affected and turned gummy and clogged up all my sandpapers and couldn't be removed. I spent days at it and it was still a gummy mess. I ended up starting from scratch on the phaser handle again with another one of my 3D PLA prints, but this time I didn't use the enamel gloss black undercoat! What a mess!!! The weird thing is I used the same colour and when I re-sprayed it without the black gloss undercoat, it turned out too dark. I put in magnets to hold the P1 phaser onto the P2 body and magnets at the base of the stand and base of the phaser handle to I can take it off the base. Here is where it is for now, I am going to have to re-spray the handle with a lighter steel Aclad metalizer colour and I'm missing the top jewel in the watch crown and the acrylic half-moon until I print a scale with power settings graphics to glue on top. It's also missing the darkened plexiglas front which I have to find somewhere and cut into place, but its 80% there after 2 weeks. Oh, I didn't work on the base at all, that's just a straight PLA print and I just sprayed directly onto it without primer or sanding.
  6. Wow that looks amazing @Papa Rat! Congrats. You might want to do a bit of a lighter dry brushing around the edges of the plates/panels and a silvery chipping in the edges to compliment your excellent darker weathering. (The Zentradis weren't known for their upkeep :P) I love the look of these old kits and they really captured what was in my mind as a kid. I love Interstellar @Thom - can't wait to see what you do with that kit! It looks to be a bit of a bear - American kits tend to be gappy (I think we've been spoiled with Japanese kits)
  7. Very possible that this will be the next drop Want it? Then be prepared for the eventual pre-order to go live.
  8. Same, same and same. It’d be disappointing if to get that set as preordered early and at the same time. Oh well we’ll see what happens. I ordered the hguc Gallus J as soon as it popped up from hlj and noticed that it looks like I somehow missed it!
  9. @Shawn That's cool predicting the box art.
  10. And that there... is a Lego Death Star!!!
  11. Giant Death Star at the Melbourne Museum Star Wars Exhibition.
  12. It's here. Now to wait for work to be over so I can play with it.
  13. I think the Revival 27y hip joints are not as tight as Bandai didn't want to over tighten them during the shipping process and not shatter apart upon transformation (if it does happen?) but you don't want it like the WWM Blue 25 which was a total flop upon taking it out from the box (or like Onnasake's DX YF-19 Full Set explode at the hip joints when he tried to the transformation to battriod mode not knowing that those three screws where on very tight).
  14. The moment you wish you had & knew how to use a 3D printer. SSWA.
  15. Just did the same. You are not alone.
  16. Bit the bullet and put a deposit down on the Pose+ Legioss. I know I'll regret it if I don't.
  17. Nice pictures! Did you make the smoke effects yourself? Do you have any of the other Hi-Metal R votom figures or just the ATM-09 (STTC)?
  18. I was once at that point. Mainly with Bandai lines. Still remeber the day I regretted not trying to get the VF-1D. I don't want to remember how much I paid for it. You better get it now or pay awful over priced second market.
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