Transformers 2 Deluxe Bumblebee and Sideswipe

First transformers ive bought for about 12 years according to my Parents.

After seeing Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen i really wanted to grab a few bots and have a good old play with them. Compared to the Transformers i had as a wee lad these a really amazing, i mean they look like robots when transformed and even more amazing is how good they look when in vehicle mode. I sure that the old ones i has looked like a robot in vehicle mode and still looked a vehicle in robot mode.

Looking quite amazing in car mode i think.



Took some photos of the box for Bumblebee but not all the great, wanted to get Bumblebee because he was likeone of the hero's bots of the movie and looks really cool in car mode.

I was convinced to get Sideswipe by blogger Leon who has done a fantastic review of Sideswipe. I could not get my one to stand up because he has wheels for feet which is a cool feature, always leaning against Bumblebee in my photos.



Liking this pose...shame the gun has a action feature which shoots a little projectile, would have been cooler with a sculpted gun.



Picked these up from Salisbury's supermarket one my way home from work yesterday for £12.99 each which kinda seems a little pricey. If there is a sale on Transformers i may pick up a Optimus Prime or Starscream.



Remember my father saying when i was around the age of 8 that transformers could only be transformed by an 8 year old and when i first started to transform this i thought that maybe he was right, after a few go's and staring at the instruction after every movement i gradually got the hand of transforming these which have quite amazing engineering for toys.

Thinking of giving them a lick of paint mainly on the robots part, sliver them up a bit.

Ian

Chara-works 1/144 Macross Valkyrie VF-1S Roy Focker

Latest and greatest of the VF-1's Roy Fockers VF-1S from Do you remember love? The DYRL version has yellow arrow on the head while the TV version has a black arrow but because it yellow you can't really see it.



Can't quite remember who this began as either Hikarus or Kakizaki's VF-1A which i swapped the head with one of the VF-1S from the Skull Squadron i making at the moment.

Filled in the seams with the tamiya putty then repainted white and the detail added mostly free hand, notice the little red arrow which took quite a few trys to get right.



Panel lines all drawn in using a o.5 mechanical pencil, have to spray a clear cote onto it first otherwise any mistake can't be rubbed. Of course ive forgotten to do that a few times, scratch my head trying to remember what i sprayed the week or even a fortnight before.



Gunpod was sanded to remove the seam line then had the nozzle drilled out and give a lick of paint using about 80% Black and 20% Gun bolt metal.



Forgot to take any picks of the 3 Valkyries ive finished to together, gone dark now so i'll do that sometimes during the week.

Ian

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Its was awesome, really want to grab a few toys now (the power of a 2 hour commercial maybe?)

Kinda thought the story was a little bit better in the first movie but this one had loads of action and it seemed to me like the transformers where constantly on screen unlike the first one when your waiting for some more robot action.

Did'nt really learn who many of the new transformers where because there were so many of them!

USA military looking awesome in this movie and they even had some British in the Autobot/Human special forces Nest. (I really hope i don't have a accent like the them onscreen, sounds so weird)

Might give it a second viewing.

2009 movie ive seen this year ranking.
Transformers 2 and Star Trek are top
then Terminator Salvation
and at the bottom Inkheart (which is good as it did'nt even though what i was going to see) Watchmen, just can't compare to the Graphic Novel

Ian

this is great...

Hobby Link Japan Haul

First time ive used HLJ and really impressed, got a good price for the good i bought (cheaper tan buying here in the UK with postage) and they where well packed.

Arrived in a massive box, which was surprising as it was for a load of small 1/144 model but that was because it was so well packed. What i bought was:

2 cartons of F-toys 1/144 Star Wars collection 2
3 cartons of F-toys SDFM 1/144 Valkyrie Volume 2
1 Kubelwagon with various German or Japanese aircraft crew.
1 USA Navy modern tow tractor and various aircraft carrier crew.

Never bought a carton of the Valkyries before, these are random and i don't know what ive got yet, going to open them all up at the weekend. Bought this load of valks because they were on sale and waned to get a stash ready so i can build every VF-1 that ever appeared on screen.



Had to open up the Star Wars collection and see what they looked like, my favorite is the Y-wing but they are all very cool and the AT-AT is massive, there is are very cool and detailed 1/144 Darth Vader included with his Tie Fighter.



Ian

Academy 1/144 Sepecat Jaguar (Gulf War 1)

Recently finished up the Academy 1/144 Sepecat Jaguar which i started over 3 months ago. Painted it up as a Gulf War 1 version because i had yet to paint anything in desert camouflage and wanted to see what the Tamiya paint i bought looked liked when finished.



Had to take picture outside because indoors i just could not get any decent photos.

I did some research about this particular Jaguar YZ375 and it turns out that the decals which come with the kit are for about half way through he Gulf War because when the war ended there were 3 lines of missiles below the cockpit to show how many sorties this fighter carried out while this one only has 1 and a half lines. Also has the "the Guardian Reader" on the nose which is a cool little detail, had to use Revell decals for the British logo as the one supplied looked more like pink than read. Painted on all the chip work because i thought it looked really good in the photo showing wear and tear, might have gone a bit over board with it me thinks.



The armament also come from a Revell kit as the Academy ones were big time bad, zero detail.
If i make another one i will not be having the landing down as that is also not very good and the canopy is too small as well.

Thought i got a bargain with this cheap kit but alas i discovered that there is a reason for these kits being cheap, low quality.
Still think i made a good effort with this one and did learn a few things with this kit.

Ian

Revell 1/144 Model Kit Stash

The 1/144 Kits ive got from Revell so far which like the look of them when there stacked up like this. Can't find the Hawker Hunter i bought about a month ago, weird.

Seems Revell have not changed there box design for more than a decade, i can remember buying a kit over 10 years ago and the box design was still the same then.

New kits i got, reckon i start buying cheap ones off ebay and start up a Revell stash as big as the Sweet Kits.



Ian

Robot Carnival

An anime film which best described as Fantasia meets Heavy Metal without the nudity but with robots instead.

One of the anime i remember seeing a trailer of like 10 years ago and only recently rediscovered it when i was searching for some anime from the 80's. Really like the anime back then when there was no CGI and just quality animation.

Robot Carnival consists of 9 short story directed by 9 top anime animators telling there own tale with a robot. Some really great ones and some not so good, personal choice i guess.

Link to wiki which explains it better than what i can http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot_Carnival

My favorites story's where Deprive, Nightmare and the Opening, Ending and Epilogue which is the Robot Carnival.

Not a big fan of Cloud, should give it another chance, just read what is was about and really did not notice as i found it quite boring.

Hope that is will be released in the future in HD, the version i watched looked like it been transferred from VHS on to DVD just like the Macross Plus i bought a year ago. Very disappointing as the animation is top quality.

Ian

Bandai 1/144 Nousjadeul Ger

Saw the box art and thought i would be cool, see what the finished model looks like and not so good.
Might be able to do something with it, it is a old kit which was released by Bandai but manufactured before by Arai like allot of the older macross kits.



Nice looking decals and the plastic looks like the same stuff as the gundams which ive had some trouble sanding.



Got to wonder if im speaking the name correctly, Nous-ja-De-ul-Ger, always gone to with Nous Ger as its easier to say. And this is its full title, Flemenmik Nousjadeul-Ger Battle Suit. Mouth full.

Ian

[Kit Review] - Revell 1/144 - AV-8B Harrier II plus -

Another Revell kit, this time the super cool Harrier Jump jet, American version. Kits looking good, looks of nice detail and if its anything like the F-14 im working on right now it should fit together nicely.

Bought a Reveal Tornado a couple of weeks back for the super cheap price of 50 pence and it was really bad, ended up throwing it away and keeping the decals and fuel tanks which is OK i guess for the price.

Instructions have a paint scheme for the Spanish Air Force, which might be cool to make, already got lots of cool USA jet and propeller plains with country outside of the USA, British and Germany having nothing i can think of so might make the Spanish version. I reckon this might be a newer kit because of the cockpit which has decals, all the older kit which are not all that good have no cockpit while the new ones have a simple cockpit and also very nice landing gear and weapons.



Lots of nice paneling which probably can't see in the photo anyway, liking the turbines for the engine, should look really nice when that's paint and had a dark wash applied.



Notice i got a follower, what a shocker! RiP666 welcome.
Ian

Kotobukiya Mechanical Chain Base

I saw these ages ago like a year i reckon and thought they were really versatile at the time, then completely forgot about them.

Remember about these about a fortnight ago when i was thinking about making either a Macross or Gundam hanger.



Bought the best 3 i could find on ebay and use up some money i had from selling off a few bits.

Think with a lick of paint and some detail i could have a really nice diorama if i put some effort into it.

Cool old painting from the 80's Imai model kits, be more Valkyrie based than armor. Love the old Macross box art.





Ian

[Kit Review] - Sweet 1/144 - Messerschmitt Bf-109 F.4 "Operation Barbarossa, Summer Version" -

Cool box art for this kit with Nasa-Chan in the yellow dress. This version of the Messerschmidtt is the F.4 version which i don't really know what that means except i guess its a upgrade. Is for the Operation Barbarossa which started the great patriotic war with Soviet Russian.

This is the summers version there is a winter version but not sure if i'll get that one, end up with 10 Messerschmitt's.

Back of the box shows that what the new f.4 version of the Bf-109 differences are, seems it's a update on the F.2



Usual easy to follow instructions as with all the Sweet kits ive got even though i can't read much of the Japanese. Looks like there more English than the Mustang.



Lots of interesting colour schemes to choose from, kinda worried about painting the yellow, has always been for with white the worst colour for me to paint. Tends to always look really wrong.



Looking like perfect plastic, think i read somewhere that the Sweet Bf-109 are the first sweet kit with proper cockpit, like chair and a dashboard which even the Revell kit has none on the Academy.


Might be sometimes before i start this one, already gathering quite a stash with some kits i really want to build and other not so.
Ian

Thurday evening turning into night WIP

Got quite a bit done tonight, all getting ready for some painting at the weekend i hope. If it rains then modelling with be a defiant.



Taken me quite some time to get the Phalanx ready, as i now know that this is a recast that means allot of flash and allot of sanding then putty then sand again.

Received various size of display bases yesterday to see how big these wearing for little diorama, going to have the Phalanx being guided by a little technician to the front for a Daedalus attack.



All the part for Skull squadron are ready to be painted, another lot of putty than Sand with these, took me almost a fortnight and most of the sanding was done outside in the sun so avoid lots of dust on the other models.



Trying to detail up the F-14 tomcat as much i can witg the Revell kit, should have taken a photo looking toward the intrucment panel so to see all the decal inside with a little paint i added, can just see them on the left side.



Almost completed Revell Eurofighter Typhoon and Academy Jaguar, use the micro set on these two and the stuff is really amazing, really makes the decals look like they are painted in, couple of clear coats and a bt more weathering and the should be done. Wonder if should make little dioramas for these?

Ian

Chara-works 1/144 Macross Valkyrie VF-1S Maximilian Jenius

My second fixed up Chara-works vallkyrie and this time one that was included in the 2 collections, Maximilian Jenius VF-1S.



Used the Hikaru Ichijiyo's VF-1A with the S head from a VF-1S Stike Valkyrie, that will become a VF-1A Super Valkyrie for my Ghost Squadron.



Really like how the paneling turned out, used a 0.5 mechanical pencil and drew all the panel lines, takes some time. Then you can tidy it up by going over it with a rubber.



Some photos with Hikaru's VF-1A, once i completed Hayao Kakizaki's VF-1A i will have a Ghost Squadron as they were one Earth when the Queadluun-Raus led by Milia Fallyna attacked in Do you remember love?







Until nest Deculture

Ian

Sweet 1/144 Machi Mc.200 Russian front.

Here's my first completed Sweet kit and one which was quite difficult to take pictures of.
Went with this one first because it was the only Machi Mc200 which i had all the paints for, which is really plain olive green compared to some of the other Italian paint schemes.



Something usual about this kit is the the exposed area after the landing gear has extended it actually a decal. All the other kit from Sweet have had proper open landing gear but because i reckon this is one of the first kit there is none of that and no cockpit either.



I lost a propeller while making this, very strange looked every where for is but just can't find the thing. Sure i put it on the window sill while i applied a clear cote outside then came back to get it and alas it gone, wonder it it was the cat?



I plan i having little dioramas for most of my kits but as the was the first i reckon i can do better on the next one and use this as a practice.
Been trying to find little wooden display bases but have had very little luck finding any that ain't huge compared to a 3 inch long plane.

Ian