Jump to content

mikeszekely

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    12709

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Everything posted by mikeszekely

  1. mikeszekely
    I think retarded is paying $135 for a $65 toy of a Diaclone that didn't even have a proper Transformers name until Takara decided to go for the Wheeljack repaint cash grab, but what do I know.
  2. mikeszekely
    Then what I'd do is either keep the programs installed on the SSD in C:\Program Files\(name of program), to avoid cluttering the root of the C drive. So, if you have Nero for example, instead of installing it to the default C:\Program Files (x86)\Nero\Nero 9\Nero Burning ROM\Nero.exe, just change it to C:\Program Files\Nero\Nero.exe. Then, on your HDD, create a folder called Program Files, and nest a folder in in for every program you have on C. In this example, D:\Program Files\Nero, and put all your Nero files there. Then all you'd have to do when you load or save is change the drive letter. EDIT: This could work, too, even for those programs that really get upset when you change anything on the default directory, as long as you put your files for that program in the same hierarchy of nested folders on the HDD. It'd take a little more effort to set up the folders, but ultimately when working with the program you'd still just have to change the drive letter.
  3. mikeszekely
    With the introduction of the Jegan, I completely forgot that their were GM IIIs in CCA.
  4. mikeszekely
    OK, I see where I went wrong. In Zeta Gundam, the AEUG GM II was green, and the EFSF GM II was red. What I forgot is that they didn't have different color GM IIIs in ZZ Gundam; they were all greenish blue. And what threw me off is the extra hip parts- they weren't there in ZZ Gundam, but I remember them on the Nouvel GM III, and the Nouvel GM III is red. What I figured out now is that they had greenish blue GM IIIs in Unicorn that had the hip armor bits, but not the rest of the extra stuff on the Nouvel GM III.
  5. mikeszekely
    It kind of depends on what look you're going for. Panel lining in a light color can really make the lines pop (like Hikuro did with RG Zeta awhile back). I personally tend not to panel line dark parts, though. On an actual mobile suit, those lines represent seams where two parts are fit together or a there's a hatch or something. On real objects like that, those lines are usually dark because light isn't getting inside them. Obviously, there can be exceptions, such as when there's a light source behind the panel then the lines would be whatever color the light is, but for the most part the lines are shadow, and black or gray doesn't really show up on black or gray. In any case, it comes down to a personal preference. Do you want the lines to be visible, to add detail? Or are you ok letting the detail be obscured in a realistic fashion?
  6. mikeszekely
    Not exactly sure what you mean. Windows won't want to be nested, so it'll still be in C:\Windows, and it'll create a C:\Program File and C:\Program Files (x86) by default. But a lot of programs, even if they make calls that expect Windows files to be in C:\Windows\System32 or something can be pretty much anywhere. On my setup, I have a lot of apps in the default directories (again, unless you work with a lot of very large programs, you'll be able to have most of your non-game programs on the SSD), but I also have my games installed in D:\Games and a few big programs I never use in an E:\Program Files folder I created. So, while you can make a C:\ImportantApps if you want, I'm not sure why you wouldn't just use the default directory for apps going on the SSD.
  7. mikeszekely
    RGM-86R Nouvel GM III. Judging by the colors, AEUG. Too bad we can't play.
  8. mikeszekely
    Unless I misread David, I don't think he has a problem with this. He wants the OS on the SSD, and he wants his docs/pics/whatever on the HDD. He just wants the SSD to be D:, and he wants Windows installed to D:\Windows, because for whatever reason he likes having his pics/docs/whatever in stuff like C:\YF-23 or C:\The Right Blue for Thundercracker. And what he wants is technically possible and still gives him the SSD benefits for stuff like the OS (I just don't recommend it).
  9. mikeszekely
    It's possible, yes. Any pros? None that I can think of. Any cons? Potential errors and program incompatibilities. For example (and they may have patched it since I ran into this issue), I know Uplay wouldn't work properly if particular files weren't on the C drive. I think you said that you got a 240GB SSD? An SSD that size, even though it seems quite small compared to what you're used to, should be large enough for Windows 7, your drivers, and most of your programs (I was working with a 128GB SSD until just this week). Even programs like Steam can run off the SSD, you just tell Steam that the directory for game installs is on D. I mean, it might help if I had a better understanding of why, exactly, you want to make Windows D and your storage drive C, but honestly I think it'll cause more headaches than it'll save you. JB0's answer is correct, and more technical, but the short answer is you should be fine. AVI was a very popular container before MP4 really took off, and even the PS3 and Xbox 360 can play many AVI files. If you can't get them to play with anything already on your computer, download VLC media player. If for whatever reason it still doesn't work, you can try downloading a codec pack like K-lite or CCCP.
  10. mikeszekely
    Like David said, Newegg. As far as Windows 8 goes, it was terrible when it was released. Like, so bad that I got a laptop with Windows 8 and was so frustrated I got a copy of 7 to put on it. Windows 8 has had two major updates since then, plus hardware and software vendors have had time now to work out compatibility issues. I got a Surface Pro 3 for Christmas and I can safely say that Windows 8 is much better than it used to be. That said, it's still not better than 7, especially on a desktop, but if for whatever reason you opt not to order from Newegg and go for the convenience of buying something in a local store know that you're not buying the steaming pile of dung that Windows 8 used to be. Either way, it could be moot in a few months. Both 7 and 8 will be upgradable to Windows 10 this summer (at no cost, providing you do so within a year of Windows 10's release). I've been running the tech preview on Windows 10 on my spare machine, and I like it a lot. It's like the best features of Windows 8 in a package that behaves much more like Windows 7 on non-tablets. I'm actually really looking forward to it enough that I'm debating whether or not to upgrade my main desktop.
  11. mikeszekely
    I'm sorry to hear that. ...I kid, I kid. Any Gundam is better than no Gundam. Especially if it inspires you do to do more gunpla! In all seriousness, though, SEED/Destiny is probably my least favorite Gundam series (although, two episodes in, G-Reco is NOT very promising). As for me, when I get a free day that my buddy is available, I'm gonna head out to IKEA for another Detolf and have one shelf (or two) just for Unicorn.
  12. mikeszekely
    Oh, another thing to consider is the scale. While you might reasonably expect that having your mobile suit punch a hole in the chest of another might leave some scratches, the sort of paint chipping and scratching that comes from, say, removing and replacing an access panel or other human contact might be a huge part of the wear on a WWII-era airplane while being totally insignificant on an 18-meter robot. I mean, when I look at what David did, my instinct based on seeing how paint has chipped on metal objects I've encountered in daily living is to say that, yeah, that looks realistic. But consider this part, if you will. The scratch, marked "A", would be something like 3' long and 6" wide. The chip I marked "B" would be close to a human head in size. Which isn't to say that a mobile suit couldn't get scratches like that, but like Nekko says, it's more difficult to imagine the sorts of interactions that cause those scratches. And that's assuming that the parts in question are silver metal painted black and gray (the black makes sense, because that's what color it is with phase shift on; the silver part becomes red... and the whole color change that occurs with phase shift armor opens another can of worms anyway). Which, of course, brings up another consideration... how much cosmetic damage does a mobile suit take before it gets repainted? I mean, in my personal life, the paint can chip off the metal railing on the stairs outside until the metal is bare, but I'll take my car to get a noticeable scratch repainted the minute it starts to bug me that there's a scratch on my car. With no military experience, I can't say how military maintenance approaches these things, but I do know that 36x6" mark that seems miniscule on a 1/144 scale model would certainly be noticeable on a 1:1 scale. At the end of the day, though, it's not really about whether we like it or not (or how analytical we are about it), all that matters is how it looks to you, personally, David. I know when I painted my Sinanju I didn't do it the way Hikuro suggested, or would have done for himself (in fact, he rather suggested against the way I did it). I'm thrilled with how it turned out, though, and it's one of my favorite models that I've done.
  13. mikeszekely
    The kit might be fantastic, but I still think the mobile suit itself is stupid-looking. But let's say it is good. Heck, let's say that the Zogok is the best aquatic mobile suit to come out of the One Year War. It's nowhere near as awesome as the greatness that is the Zaku III. And the Zaku III was awesome. Even after Unicorn cut off its, it kept blasting away with its snout laser. I want a Sleeves Zaku III, dang it!
  14. mikeszekely
    Ok, I think by now everyone knows that I'm a borderline UC purist. I'd love to have a model for every variant of every mobile suit used in the One Year War, but I can't bring myself to buy a SEED or 00 kit unless it's an RG. And in my UC love, I have a special adoration of Zeon mobile suits. Heck, I'd give up the upcoming RG 00 Raiser for an RG Dom/Rick Dom any day, while silently praying for a P-Bandai RG Rick Dom Char Type. And when it comes to ZZ Gundam, I love the Qubeley, Bawoo, and most especially Zaku III over any of the AEUG mobile suits (and the R-Jarja, Dreissen, and Quin Mantha better than the titular ZZ Gundam). So, I just finished Gundam Unicorn. Yeah, yeah, I know. I'm late to the party, but I got tired of waiting forever between episodes, vowed to watch it when it was done, then kind of forgot about watching it once it was actually finished. Anyway, I noticed something weird... aside from Sinanju and Kshatriya, I'm not particularly interested in the Neo Zeon/Sleeves MS, while pretty much every Federation/ECOAS/Londo Bell/Vist Foundation MS that was on screen for even the briefest of moments had me checking to see if there's an HG model for it. Like, I'm seriously considering whether or not I want all three ReZEL kits, and the Zeta Plus is already on my wishlist even though its appearance was a "blink and you'll miss it" thing, but stuff like the Zee Zulu, the Schuzrum-Gallus, and the Rozen Zulu do nothing for me. I'm also super miffed that crap like the Juagg and the Zogok got kits, and the Rozen Zulu got two, but the Zaku III couldn't get an updated Unicorn version kit? Really?
  15. mikeszekely
    The only lamp I have is a dim LED on my nightstand. Actually, my wife decided to go all out on saving electricity and we've replaced most of our lightbulbs with LEDs, so almost all of the lighting in my house is muted and awful. Luckily, I remembered we had a largish, mid-range camera we bought when I went to Beijing. Took me awhile to find it, since I haven't used it since, but I was able to take much better pics with it.
  16. mikeszekely
    Looking good, Hikuro. I dig the stuff you painted silver and did the blue clear coat on. It's a subtle effect. In other news... I need to get a better camera than my crappy phone. I took four pics, but none of them really do justice. Maybe tomorrow I'll see if my wife's phone takes better pics, or if I can find a spot with better lighting. But yeah, Sinanju's done. The only stickers I used are the green dots for the mono eye and the rifle scope. All the filigree was done with a gold Sharpie, then clear coated with Kyrlon satin acrylic. I used the same gold Sharpie/clear coat combo to color the yellow vernier parts on the legs, shoulders, and skirt armor so that they'd match the filigree. I painted in the black lines on the yellow verniers and the verniers on the propellant tanks, dabbed a little gray on the head vulcans, used a silver Sharpie to outline the verniers on the propellant tanks, tried (poorly) to draw the red line between the propellant tank verniers with a Gundam marker, and painted the white rings inside the center backpack thrusters. But mostly what I did is spray each and every red part with Dupli-Color Toreador Red lacquer. And while there are spots where, if you look closely, I messed up a little by spraying too much or too unevenly (honestly, I really should have just been more patient), the overall result is fantastic. It's a little darker, but it has a shiny, slightly metallic finish. Even my wife, who really doesn't pay much attention to my models, seemed impressed.
  17. mikeszekely
    So, the gloss enamel clear coat is too hot for Sharpies. The satin acrylic works much better, but the gold is still a little duller. At least it won't rub off. I'm building today. If all goes well, Sinanju will be done tonight or tomorrow.
  18. mikeszekely
    Is it perfect? No. My inability to stay on the lines for the filigree sure as heck isn't helping, plus the nozzle came off the paint and I got a few splatters before I realized it. I wound up taking the nozzle from the satin clear coat, so now I have to decide if I want to get thinner, clean the nozzle, put it back, then spray, or if I want to use the gloss enamel clear coat I found in the garage. Since the clear coat is primarily to keep the Sharpie from rubbing off, I was thinking I should use a cool clear coat, and try to keep it shiny. I'm actually digging the red. When I noticed the plastic had a maroon-ish look, I realized that the lighting was the issue. In brighter light, this color is exactly what I had in mind.
  19. mikeszekely
    The auto store is like five minutes from my house. I already ran out, grabbed a can, clipped chunk off a runner, and test sprayed it. Waiting for it to dry enough to handle. It's got the sort of metallic look I wanted, but it's a tad more burgundy that I'd hoped.
  20. mikeszekely
    Bummer, Hikuro. I was really looking forward to you finishing that one. Well, me, I woke up in the night with a stomach bug, then slept half the morning away, so I haven't tried the clear coat on any rest runner bits or Sinanju parts. But I'm pretty happy with the gold Sharpie. As for red paint, nothing at the hardware store, nothing at the paint store... but after poking around on the internet for awhile I'm seeing people use Dupli-Color paint for various projects. They have a Toreador color that's exactly what I want Sinanju to look like, although I haven't found too many reports of anyone using it for gunpla. I'm a little leery... but I'm of half of mind to just buy the Titanium Finish HG Sinanju if I trash this one. So I guess I might be headed back out to the auto parts store. As for my weekend RG Casval, between the wife wanting to do stuff, hockey, and getting sick I haven't gotten to it yet. I'm just not as productive as Hikuro when I'm not feeling well.
  21. mikeszekely
    I... kinda have to side with Gakken on this one. MP-01 was absolutely incredible... when he was the only MP. He was big, he had need details like the pistons on his legs, and he resembled the cartoon Prime we grew up with way more than the original G1 toy. When MP-10 was announced as Optimus Prime again, I was skeptical. MP-01 was so good, we didn't need another Prime, especially when there are so many other characters that needed done. But when I finally got my hands on it, I found MP-10 was as far beyond MP-01 as MP-01 was beyond the original G1 toy. Way better truck mode (even if the back half is still obviously robot legs), and while bot mode loses stuff like the pistons he gains better proportions, better posability, and a better head sculpt. Combined, they make for a much more dynamic figure.
  22. mikeszekely
    I'm finding the gold pretty useful, too. The HG Sinanju I'm going to build comes with tons of stickers for the decorative filagree on the black armor parts. Although the parts themselves are molded in black, the filagree pattern is molded onto them. I'm trying to color over them with the gold Sharpie. I think the look is great, although I'm not doing such a great job staying in the lines...
  23. mikeszekely
    Thanks, Hikuro. Yeah, the stuff I bought is an acrylic clear. I haven't settled on how I'm going to do my HG Sinanju yet. I don't have the skills, equipment, or patience to do anything fancy to bring the gold out. I'd thought to go over the yellow plastic bits with a gold Sharpie, but that doesn't match the bright gold of the stickers. I'm thinking about using the gold Sharpie to actually trace over all the gold decorative pattern, but I have to see how well the Sharpie dries on the plastic, then see how the satin coat covers it, or even if it's still too hot for Sharpie. I'll color a piece of the runner tonight and spray it in the morning. As for the red... I'm not sure. There's a Sherman Williams or some other kind of paint store nearby. I doubt they'll have anything model specific. So far, the only definitive thing I've done is paint some black inside the yellow parts and panel line the fuel tanks.
  24. mikeszekely
    Well, Walmart has metallic paint of every color besides red. I grabbed a can of Krylon satin clear coat, but I was wondering, Hikuro, if you wouldn't mind posting pics of something you coated with it vs. something you coated with the flat clear coat.
  25. mikeszekely
    Not that dedicated. Don't get me wrong, it's great that you do what you do to spice up your kits. It's great that there are people making crazy awesome dioramas and custom builds. That guy that built an RX-78 and painted it to look like an animation cell? Freaking amazing. Me? I just thought that Sinanju might look better with a coat of sports car metallic red instead of red plastic. Maybe go over the yellow plastic bits with a gold Sharpie and see if the results match the gold foil on the stickers better. I mean, I'm into Gunpla because I like putting things together and I love Gundam. I paint to make up for deficiencies in detail on the HG kits, not because I actually like it. If I can get a shiny red that works, even if it's not perfect, while I'm out running with the wife, I'm willing to at least test spray it and see. But if I have to drive an hour through Pittsburgh traffic for specific, costlier paints, well, I'd rather spend the time relaxing with the wife and the money on a new kit. It's one of the reasons I love this hobby. It can be different things to different people. If you want to kill an afternoon straight building your favorite mecha, you can. You want to make it a week of carefully painting and detailing your model, you can do that to. Depends on what you like. People can give you lots of tips and advice, but going along with what I was saying to Hikuro, it's ultimately about doing what works for you, individually. For me, I like doing the panel lines with the GM-21/GM-20. I like panel lining spots where the mecha would have a seem, but it's only etched on the model. I don't like adding shadow, so I probably won't try the pencil, and I've seen some panel lining done that gives the model and almost cartoonish look. I try to avoid that. That said, I thought your penciling on Strike was great. You may prefer to add a little more shadow to give the kit a little more depth, and you might find using your pencil works well in spots where the GM-21 just wipes off. If you like those results, and you like doing the penciling, then do it. That's what works for you. The silver paint, or the other Gundam marker you were using? If they're causing you stress to use them, or you're unhappy with the results, you don't have to use them. Maybe you just don't like using them. If they don't work for you, try something else. (Of course, you may find that you do like them with practice, and that's great if you do). The best thing about Gunpla is that it's about what you enjoy, and there's no wrong way to do it. Straight-building a high grade with zero paint is can be just as fun and rewarding as building a Perfect Grade and airbrushing every part.
×
×
  • Create New...