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Nekko Basara

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  1. Nekko Basara
    Thanks. I want to see the Soul of Chogokin version of that! (It'll probably need to be attached to a giant scaffolding just to stand.)
  2. Nekko Basara
    I saw that (it was the only thing in the trailer that I understood)! Too bad that doesn't seem to be what was used in the trailer. I can't wait until we get to hear it. Incidentally, I know this is old news, but did you catch her piece for Okami-san? Best part of that show...
  3. Nekko Basara
    It looks great, David. Seems like you are really getting the hang of things. I'll echo what Hikuro said about the paint markers: don't use them to apply the paint directly in most cases, they're just not that precise. Personally, I only use them on a piece itself if the entire thing is going to be painted that color. I generally put a dab of paint on the bottom of a glass condiment bowl (because it doesn't absorb the paint and can be cleaned with harsh chemicals), and then use a brush from that. I know this makes markers seems like a crazy (and expensive) alternative to simple paint jars, but it is really good paint. Building on Mike's suggestions, I sometimes like to use a silver Sharpie to highlight pieces painted with the silver Gundam paint, because the Sharpie is a bit of a lighter and shinier silver. I think the subtle two-tone effect can really sell the look of real metal. Also, that lets me get all the tricky spots with a fine brush, and not have to try to do them with the less precise Sharpie tip (although it's worlds better than a Gundam marker tip). It's hard for me to show what I mean in photos (and I apologize for yet again posting non-Gundams), but have a look at the screws and zippers on Pest X-san:
  4. Nekko Basara
    Is the robot in the video formed from just two units? Also, not to derail the news thread, but I tried to watch Evol and dropped it after three episodes due to the way I felt it was exploiting its female characters. Is the original any better in that regard?
  5. Nekko Basara
    Thanks for the info! The HG Strike Rouge + IWSP is cheap enough that I might pick one up just for the pack. I can't imagine the colors need to match a standard Strike too closely to look alright, and I probably have enough spare RG decals to fudge something. If the shape of the IWSP allows it to plug onto the Skygrasper, that would make for a pretty mean machine, too!
  6. Nekko Basara
    Hmmm, so, does that mean that the standard HG IWSP (and, by extension, any other HG packs) will fit the connector on the RG?
  7. Nekko Basara
    Hahaha, "collector blood," indeed! I think I went the same kind of crazy when I discovered Kotobukiya's Hoihoi-san kits around Christmas-time, but luckily that's a much smaller line.
  8. Nekko Basara
    Mike, I'm not gonna say that the Skygrasper is a great value, but it certainly is something different. Building a little aircraft with RG-like detail and construction was a neat change of pace for me. Also, being able to kit out the Strike in various ways, including fudging the "Full Package" setup, adds a lot of fun to that kit.Now, on the other end of the spectrum, I think the Justice may be the best value of the RG line. The flight pack is so large that its wingspan doesn't look out of place alongside MG kits, and it weighs only a few grams less than the Justice itself (including rifle and shield). That kit is practically a two-in-one!
  9. Nekko Basara
    I asked a similar question back on page 40, and there were some very interesting responses that I would probably mangle if I tried to paraphrase them here.
  10. Nekko Basara
    Actually, as far as the freestanding pilot figures go, I usually just leave them unpainted. I don't feel very confident in my figure-painting abilities, and since I've only seen a few Gundam series, I'm not usually attached to the characters (Hell, even for the shows I have seen, I'm not that attached to most of the pilots). So, I just snip out the area of sprue they're attached to and pop it in a bag with the accessories. Maybe I'll come back to them someday. What I feel I have to paint are any pilots you can see, like in MGs and aircraft. For that task, I think a decent set of cross-locking tweezers is a big help holding the figures, and obviously it's good to have very small brushes. It's also important to keep in mind that what you see with photos or when you're holding it up to your eyeball is much more than you will ever see when it's installed in a model. Details that look blobby and imprecise under close scrutiny will look just fine under normal viewing. Don't try to paint it the same way you would a 6" figure; just get a spot of the right color in the right place, and your brain will fill in a lot of the details. Here are some pics of pilots for two 1/100 Valks and a 1/72 that might give some idea what I mean: (Of course, somebody who's actually good at painting figures might give different advice )
  11. Nekko Basara
    Not only is the Strike looking great, but it's fun spotting all the Transformers and stuff hiding in the background ;-)
  12. Nekko Basara
    For what it's worth, Hikuro, I find there's a use for both my standard panel line marker and the Tamiya panel line wash*, which I believe operates the same way as your new flow-type pen. When I'm just hitting a few simple areas or sculpted details (open corners more obtuse than 90 degrees, for example), I like the marker. But if a part has loads of actual panel lines (that is, narrow, sharply-molded trenches) the Tamiya stuff flows in and takes care of it in jiffy. A good example of where the flow-type wash shines is the back of a Gundam shield, which is a nightmare to do with a marker. Anyways, it sounds like we've had similar experiences using markers vs. washes, so I just wanted to say that often the best solution is to alternate between them as the shape dictates. *when I say wash, I don't mean where you brush the thinned paint over the whole surface and it settles in the low spots, but where you apply it specifically to panel lines and it flows by capillary action; this is sometimes called a "pin wash" because it can be done using thinned paint applied via a drop on the end of a pin.
  13. Nekko Basara
    He throws himself off of the SDF-1 when it is hundreds of feet into the air. It looks like he thinks he is giving himself to a giant image of Sharon. You can see it in this clip. I think we are supposed to assume he dies from the fall - or were you looking for something more definite than that? EDIT: Heh, simultaneous answers! So, is that scene missing from the movie version? I've only seen the movie once as well (and the OVAs umpteen times). I also have no idea about the chip.
  14. Nekko Basara
    Neat! I had been thinking about doing exactly that, but I hadn't tried it yet. Thanks for the tip!
  15. Nekko Basara
    I love this! Going to give it a try. I'm currently using some blocks of that stuff that's used in fake flower arrangements to poke the stems into, and I hate them. They crumble at the slightest touch and make this dust that gets everywhere, so I have to be extra careful not to get it on parts. Mike, I concur with the sanding and wish you the best of luck.
  16. Nekko Basara
    That already happened. (But, sorry Renato, M7 didn't do it first.)
  17. Nekko Basara
    That's a surprising line of reasoning for those fans to take (to me, anyway). I can see how noting that the success of Frontier - particularly with female fans - was driven largely by Ranka and Sheryl would lead (and has led) fans on these boards to speculate that Delta will be "more of the same." But it sounds like the Japanese fans you spoke with are viewing it as more of a lightning strike that could not be intentionally repeated. Personally, while I think Ranka and Sheryl are great characters, I see their appeal as carefully crafted with an eye on contemporary culture (the Akiba-girl vs Shibuya-girl rivalry that Veef and others have noted). I trust that Kawamori and - perhaps more importantly - his cohorts could pull a similar trick off again. I'm not saying it's a sure thing, but I at least give it decent odds. And as for Frontier fans taking to the new show, there is no better endorsement than that Frontier connection. If Frontier can be used to drawn young fans to M7, it can certainly be used to draw them to a show specifically built to their taste. At the very least, a new well-made Macross show has a better chance of grabbing a large audience than the dozens of shows with lesser (or no) heritage. So, yeah, I find that Japanese fan perspective really strange. As a final note, I'll say that the success of any show isn't what makes or breaks the success of its sequel. The success of a show is what gets its sequel made, and well-funded. Frontier begat Delta, and maybe we can't ask for much more than that. Only Delta will decide if Macross is "doomed," and so far we have very little to speculate on there.
  18. Nekko Basara
    Phew, glad I caught that. Renato, somehow part of your original post got deleted by web gremlins, but I was able to restore it.
  19. Nekko Basara
    Ok, but didn't somebody determine that the pilots in SDF couldn't have looked over their shoulders without the "beaks" on their helmets hitting the VF-1's canopy? I'm not sure how much we want to mix realism with the helmet designs. I sort of like to imagine that, because they have such a mild tint and it can vary from scene-to-scene, Max has the equivalent of 1st-generation Transition lenses, which never seemed to get completely transparent even in low light. Which would make them undertechnology by the time he lives in. I guess this is all a specialized subset of head-canon I'm calling "eye-canon." Yeah, my first thought for a scene where he might have taken them off was in M7 when he falls asleep in that room near the bridge, and all the bunnies come and fawn over him. But, of course, he has them on then because he didn't mean to fall asleep. Do we ever see him sleeping on purpose? Maybe geniuses barely sleep just like they barely age.
  20. Nekko Basara
    Maybe Max just wore those glasses to look cool, or perhaps he was especially light-sensitive. They were always tinted, after all. That makes me wonder - do we ever see Max without his glasses on? I can't recall ever seeing him that way, but surely it must have happened at some point, right?
  21. Nekko Basara
    I have GM52 from the SD Gundam Force set, and GM82 from the Gundam Sangokuden set. As far as I can tell, they are the same paint. Both are very handy sets, particularly the latter (which is all metallic colors), but the buying options on Amazon look terrible right now. You can get them places like HLJ, or you can sometimes buy the individual markers on ebay.
  22. Nekko Basara
    I think it's looking fantastic, David. It's too bad that those metallic stickers can be so fragile to handle (I noticed a bit coming off around the edges of the elbow stickers, too - it's unavoidable as far as I can tell). But, since you opted for the one-piece eye sticker (good move), don't you have the individual gold eyes that you could slip on over the damaged ones? Luckily the eyes aren't a part that gets touched much once they are in place. For what it's worth, although I do like gold Sharpie, the gold gundam marker is my pick. It's one of the nicest metallics I've seen in a brush-on type paint.
  23. Nekko Basara
    Renato, as soon as I saw your name in the thread, I figured you were here to tell me about a Goth Loli in M7.
  24. Nekko Basara
    Now, that gets me a-wonderin'. I don't think Macross has ever had a gothic lolita character (Alto in a maid outfit does not count). Could Delta deliver?
  25. Nekko Basara
    Thanks, David. I'll try to get some shots of my Strike to show what I'm talking about. Although I like the Strike design and really enjoy the weapon pack concept, I haven't been happy with how my RG Strike looks. There's a sort of gappy, disconnected look to the waist, shoulders, and head attachments that I attribute to it being built on the RX-78 RG frame. I believe all of the other SEED RGs use a different, common frame and I like tjem better. Regarding the stickers, neither stickers nor paint adhere very well to the ABS in the joints, and when you ask tiny stickers to hold on over so many folds, it just seems to be too much. I think it's a common experience that those elbow stickers come up over time. Personally, I prefer to paint those spots with copper paint; it can also wear off of the ABS with handling, but at least it's easily replaced.
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