HG Zeon Decals and a handfull of markers.

went ahead and bought quite a few packets of HG decals for all the gunpla i plan on doing in the futre, mostly Zeon, wicked one eyed designs.

Also what i hope will be a fine point black markers which should last me several gunpla, got 5 paneled up out of the first marker i bought.

Ian

HG Zaku II progess, weapons and manipulators

Almost everything done on the manipulator or hands, reading gunpla blogs and it seems that what the hands on a mecha are called, like it sounds sci-fi. Seen quite a few pictures with the fingers either black or green, went with metallic black because i prefer the way it looks.

Weapons got a top coat of black before a more metallic finish, filled in the underneath of the rifle magazine as it makes it looked heavy and an empty one would look kinda lame.

Ian

"Gundam Perfect Mission" 30th Anniversary

Check this out, its awesome!

For 30th Anniversary this little video was made with what i reckon is a gundam from every TV series, OVA and movie from the great big gundam universe, even got Unicorn in there. Recognise most of them but not sure about the half of there names.

Great how the core booster flys through the different gundam universe with most of the backgrounds being U.C. Great way to stop a colony drop. "Oh, look, white base"
Watched this quite a few time.

Ian

Macross1/144 DYRL? Super-Parts Skull Squadron Wip

Had a quite big modelling session today, reckon about 4-5 hours . Eyes now ache a little from applying the tiny decals, lesson learnt only do decal on model at a time instead of in a oner.

Nearly all the squadron is complete, only have to sort of the heads and then these guys will be ready for action.

Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory

Got another UC series under my belt with 0083. Another great series i thought, the animation is top notch and seeing the mecha on animated so smoothly and looking really military like really got me into this one.

Found Nina to be abit annoying, wanted to get the her out of the way and get to see Zeon and the Federation battling out again.

2 amazing suits below which appeared in the first episode, they got my attention quick after the cool training sequence with the captured Zaku II



Then the amazing RX-78GP03 Gundam "Dendrobium Orchis" at the end of the series, talk about one awesome super pack! Be great to get the HG gunpla of this, its over a meter long!



Read there a movie version of the 0083, Fading light of Zeon, which i might watch, be happy to see all the colony drop action again.

2009 Mobile Suit Gundam - Universal Century marathon so far

Mobile Suit Gundam 0079
MS IGLOO: The Hidden One Year War
MS IGLOO: Apocalypse 0079
MS IGLOO 2: The Gravity Front
Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team
Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket
Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory

Already started Zeta Gundam, Gundam Mk II in Titans colour im liking.

Ian

Sunday 08th Novemeber 2009 - Y-wing and Zaku II Wip

Got quite a bit done on the Zaku II today, not sure now far i should go with the weathering.

Kept thinking about wanting to work on the Y-wing, one of my favorite Star Wars vehicle.

Started by removing any flash or seam lines, which was really hardly any.


Then applied lots of Pro-modellers wash Black, added some washing up liquid so to get rid of the surface tension meaning the wash flows into all parts.


Up to the top is after about 30 minutes and the excess wash has been removed. the little green spot there is a R5 unit i sculpted on to replace an R2 unit as it seems that the Y-wing with the marker on this model had a R5

Ian

Blue Gender - The Warrior

An 26 episode anime TV series which has been condensed into an hour and an half movie, doesn't really work.

The first half is fine and its about the journey to get to Second Earth which took quite along time in the series but the second half is really confusing. if you haven't watched the TV series then really you got no idea whats going on.

Found the TV series myself to be quite a gore fest but in the movie theres even more, no leaving it to the viewer imagination here, in fact it worse then what i could would have imagined.

Ending was very different, in the series even though most of mankind has been wiped out it ends on a happy note, with the movie i was a little confused. Thought that at the end of the credit there might be a little easter egg giving the viewer a little something to take away with them but alas no.

Still good points were that all the sound effect i remember where in there and a little bit more animation which was alot better than what was in the TV series.

I'm a completest so ive had this on my watch list for some time hoping to complete the Blue Gender anime but otherwise i would say just watch the series and only watch this if your mildly interested to see how you hard it is to condense a entire series into a movie.

1/5 out of 5

Ian

Gundam 00 1/144 GN-X Built straight from the box.

Built up the GN-X over the weekend, which i bought back in July and was one of the first gunpla i bought. Straight from the box with the stickers and black marker applied, really happy with the way it turned out. Will paint the details then thinking about leaving it the way it is.



The articulation is not as good as the other gunpla ive bought but that's because of the design of the suit which i really like, reckon this suit and its upgrades are my favorite design from Gundam 00. Of course all the gundams are quite cool as well.





With the BFG (quake reference there) The smaller rifle connects up with the big barrel to form the one massive weapon.





Really dig the head design, would have been great with better movement, can hardly turn at all.



Been thinking about getting the GN-X III because i like this one so much, looks like it has better articulation too.

Ian

Happy Halloween! - Jack-O'-Lanterns

Happy Halloween!

Jack-o'-lanterns, i love em. Wish i had the time to make more, i would fill the entire front garden with them like a pumpkin patch. Kept my designs nice and simple, the classic look is always good.

The Ninja Pumpkin Super Defender Force arrive to save the day.

Cosplay Part 3 @ London MCM Expo October 2009

More with some Macross



Bats


Klan Klang


Rorschach


Parley


Iron-Man


Its a trap!


Pac-man


Labyrinth


Bucky O'Hare


And thats it all for MCM, next year going to take aload of photo of the cosplayers meyself.
Ian

Cosplay Part 2 @ London MCM Expo October 2009

More cosplay from the expo.

Gurren Lagann


Scrubs


From a rpg maybe, cool costume.


R2


Zero


Lion-O


Chun-Li


Doc Brown


Judge Dread "I am the LAW!"


Sailormoom


Women of DC


Half-life

Cosplay Part 1 @ London MCM Expo October 2009

Lots of cool cosplay at the expo, after seeing so mnay i kinda like having ago, Britai Kridanik might be a cool one to go as.
Lots of photo from other people accounts on Flicker who take a better photo than i.

Start of with super random but great Ronald McDonald.


Yoko



Disney Zombie Princess and dead al.



Predator


No idea but damn!


Dalek


FLCL


Saliormoon, no idea who but quite cute.


Ghostbusters


Link and Zelda


Papalazaroo maybe?

What i got from MCM Expo and Japan Centre.

Few bit and pieces i bought from my trip to London.

The Japan Times - An integrated course in Elementary Japanese Genki 1 + 2 where the most expensive at a massive £36.99 each from the Japan Centre. It because the shipped from Japan and so far are looking like the best text books ive bought. Need to get these as the course i was meant to be moving into was cancelled Year 2 so ive been but in Year 3 as i was really keen to keep learning and quite far behind and need to get some good books to catch up.

Instant noodle which ive never been really big into but wanted to try out some proper Japanese one, eaten one already and was really surprised at how tasty it was.

Some Miso soup paste which is also very tasty.

HG Gundam Exia Repair from the Expo, wanted to get some gundam marker but the retailer there have stopped stocking them due to theft. Guess some people think stealing something as small as a pen isn't all the bad but to me stealing anything is just not cricket and it ruins it for someone like me.

Finally Hobby Japan, purely bought his because of all 2 Operation V suits on the front cover, on the train home had my head in that mag the entire journey when i wasn't nodding off to sleep.

Post photos of the cosplayer next then that will be everything i have from MCM expo.

Ian

Japan Centre @ Piccadilly Circus in the heart of London's West End

After i finished with the expo i made a b-line for the Japan Centre before it closed. Which i was worried i would not make in time with the 45 minute tube journey due to maintaince on the underground happens on the weekend. Didn't know this place existed until i read about it on super blogger expat Danny Choo.

It a cool shop with lots of sweet Japanese stuff which i would have liked to buy right there and then but getting to the shop only 10 minutes before it closed meant i had to rush to get Genki Japanese text books. The run along to there food store around the corner and buy some Miso soup paste and other stuff which i completely forgot to buy as i was in a rush. Going to order what i want over the net instead.

Not too sure about it being quite Japanese Value Store seemed very expensive to me but then it is all ships from Nihon.

Piccadilly Circus is one of the busiest place in London, certainly a good location for a shop.



At the very end of the day the clear skies.



Coke Cola have always had the top biggest neon sign.



Halfway though the tube journey had to change trains from one station to the next and walk overground which just so happened to go past the Tower of London, where many a famous historical people through Britain's history have either been imprisoned or beheaded or both.

London Anime MCM Expo 2009

Went to this today, one of the rare times i jounrney from my rural living to the big city Lon Don. MCM Expo is i think the UK biggest Film, Game and Anime convetion i the UK and seems to be getting bigger every year. Had really good weather all week but being Britian you just know that its going to be typical grey overcast and rainy when you want to go to anything your excited about.

Took me over 2 hours to get there, then it was almost a 3 hour wait in a the biggest queue ive ever been in, photos show the UK biggest indoor area and that where the biggest queue was aswell. Lesson learn't next year buy in advance.



That guy with the green hat from the Momins?



Freaking wicked Warthog from Halo, appreantly built for a fan film which is amazing feat. Going to get the ODST game when it reduce in price a little.



Stormtroopers, at nearly every event where you can cosplay and always awesome, 501st Leagion "Vader Fist"



Ranka Lee, too damn cute, wish i got some more photos of just her and some decent weather. Lovely.



Ghostbusters Ecto-1, super cool. Also had a Back to the Future DeLorean but some sort of event near it so i could'nt get near. Dragonball Z game in the background but becasue of how many people there where i did'nt really want to wait around for a space to play.



The Doctor's Tardis, the luminus green sign says £5 for a photo with the Tradis, just took this one instead.



Looking forward to Avatar, going to Imax to see this, only ever seen Imax films about Dinosaur and Under see Creatures at the Sinence Museum. Was cool and the size of the screen was a shocker.



Amazing Republic Commando, talk about taking cosplaying to the next level.



Only took me about 2 hours to have alook around the event, the outside to see all the crazy young cosplayer run around "Free Hug" each other.



During the Star Wars Celebration 2 years ago, alol us Star Wars fans watched s A new Hope outside on the green there, it wasa great sunny august day to watch one of my favorite films surrounded by other star wars fans.





Did'nt really take that much photos, my DSLR is too damn big, so i would just put it in my backpack and forget to take any pics. Took this before i left, when the cosplayers started to come out in force and "Free Hug" each other.



Ian

Tuesday 20th October 2009 WIP

Little bit of work done over the weekend, the Zaku II is aleady to get some paint, all the seams have been glued and filled. Every part of the Zaku that could get to has been sanded, hope that it being sanded will mean that no paint will be rubbed off when i have a play with it.

F-14 got her canopy all glued and painted, think the only thing i have to do to finish her is apply the pilots decals.

Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket

Top quality anime this one, Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket is a great 6 episode OVA side story set with the massive Universal Century.

Has great mecha action with some mecha designs from Macross creator Shōji Kawamori, excellent character design from the amazing Haruhiko Mikimoto and a great little story with one very sad ending, Bernie (manly tears).

Really like how the most of the mecha designs, wonder what would have happened if the Gundam Alex got delivered to White Base? Not sure about the Zaku II redesign, really not a big fan of the different gun the Zeons have instead of the cool WW2 looking axis weapon they now have futuristic machine guns.

2009 Mobile Suit Gundam - Universal Century marathon so far

Mobile Suit Gundam 0079
MS IGLOO: The Hidden One Year War
MS IGLOO: Apocalypse 0079
MS IGLOO 2: The Gravity Front
Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team
Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket

Next up 0083: Stardust Memory

Ian

HGUC 1/144 Zaku II - The Ground War Set.

Discover this nice little set after searching about MS Igloo and really wanted to get it and build me a Zaku II and even more so the 1/144 Type-61.

Comes with a nice selection of equipment for the Zaku and other little bits like a Zeon hover bike the Zappa and a few figures and some explosion which ain't all that great.



Zaku II is a real big improvement over the first Zaku II i got this one can pull off the poses i want, decided to make this my first real attempt at making a gunpla with the modeling skills i got instead of my usual build then marker them up.



Type-61 needs some work to make it look quality, at the moment its looking real toyish but still with a remarkable amount of detail for such a small model.



Going to start work on the Zaku II asap.
Ian

Trumpeter 1/144 F-86F-30-NA Sabre

I think this was the first 1/144 scale model i bought and began work on but being my first model it was really not a good looking attempt so i put it back in its box and its been left in there for about 8 months.

Started work on it again about a month ago and i think ive saved it from being sent straight to the bin. The decals are what really made the model look decent and painting the panel different shades of silver.



Never really seen many 1/144 scale Trumpeter model anywhere but would like to have ago and building another model from them, the level of detail on this model is the same and the Sabre's ive seen in 1/72.



Ian

Mobile Suit Gundam - The 08th MS Team

Added another series to my 2009 Mobile Suit Gundam - Universal Century marathon, The 08th MS Team.

So far this is my favorite gundam series, got what i like lots of military mecha action. Excellent side story to the original MSG with this series set in the Asia front with ground only Gundams and GM up against remnant Zeon forces developing a new super armor the Appalus I, then II and finally the Appalus III nearing the end of the One Year War. Main chracter is the likable Shiro Amada a reinforcement from one of the colonys who becomes commander of the MS 08th Team and who has fallen in love with the lovely zeon pilot Aina Saharin. Which makes for a great story and final showdown between the Federation and Zeon forces.



All the mecha and support vehicle looked absolute fantastic to me, all very rugid looking military weapons which just happen to be huge robots, particular favorite were the GM Sniper and Shiro's awesome EZ8. The RX-79[G] Gundam Ground Type design is cool, apparently made up of spares from Amuro Rei Gundam.



the last episode "Last resort" was a strange episode but still good, very little action but more concentrating on character's and these poor Zeon children who are a bit creepy as they seem to think they have to continue fighting the war

2009 Mobile Suit Gundam - Universal Century marathon so far

Mobile Suit Gundam 0079
MS IGLOO: The Hidden One Year War
MS IGLOO: Apocalypse 0079
MS IGLOO 2: The Gravity Front
Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team

Next up 0080 War in the Pocket. Looking forward to seeing some Haruhiko Mikimoto character designs.

Ian

08th has a great intro.. Thought Kiki was super cute.