Bandai EX 1/144 - HT-01B Magella Attack - WiP 3 - Painted and decaled

The Magella Attack is almost nearing completion, painted a bit too dark a green im now thinking but really happy with the weathering especially on the tracks. Added only 4 decals coping WW2 panzer markings, the tank number and the zeon insignia, really simple but just looks right.

Wondering what to do with the canopy, looks really unusual on a tank, in anime it is either clear purple or as in MS 08th Team is all metal except 3 small port holes which feels like what a tank commanders viewpoint should look like in the real.

Going to give it a nice matt coat then see if anymore weathering is needed.
Ian

Japan trip 2011 - Day 9, part Ichi - Ikebukuro

Nearing the end of the holiday now, morning second to last full day i jump onto the Yamanote line and visited Ikebukuro with the express interest of visiting Sunshine City and Frank Lloyd Wright's Jiyu Gakuen Girls' School, like how next door to FLW building there is the very piratical Japanese flat, not really sure what to call it?

Sunshine City is Tokyo's second tallest building and amazing location to see the urban landscape stretch to the horizon from the 60th floor with. Ride a elevator going at 22.4 mph which is meant to be one of the fastest in the world and one of the smoothest ever taken. Shame about the smog but it expected. Glad i don't have vertigo but did feel wrong leaning against the window and seeing people as small as full spots.


















Ian

Sweet 1/144 P-51B Pioneer Mustang "DING HAO!" - Completed

Very nice Mustang from Sweet, which i completed over a year ago before the airbrush, i can now tell how much detail that's kept with the airbrush. Remember how i took time painting the white strips on top of the green which took quite some time.
Going to build another Mustang sometime, probable a red tail.









Ian

Climbing taster.

Right now i feel muscles which i didn't realise i had after trying out a little indoor rock climbing today courtesy of a Christmas present voucher. Was great fun and it turns out where i live has quite a few great faculties

Going to keep at it and i signed up to get a qualification straight after, took this photo of the easier, smaller part of the climbing wall. On the right is a harder wall which i sucked at and why i want to do more and get better.

Ian

Sweet 1/144 P-51B Pioneer Mustang "DING HAO!" - WiP

This is a old photo (check the date 08, 2010) of a build which i only recently finished.

Was sorting out the hard drive and found this in pic which then made me dig out the model and it was practically complete, really ready for a wee photo shoot.

I brushed painted this with Tamiya paints, even the white was brush painted.
Ian

Japan trip 2011 - Day 8, part Ni - Ginza

Evening of day 8 was spent in Ginza, which is very plush. Even though im not the biggest fan of shopping in these department stores was a experience doing it here. Spent most of my time in Sony and Tokyo Hands.

Knew what to visit because in the morning when i turned on the TV to check out the weather, some presenter always seemed to be in a Ginza "depato", that or something about food is always on Japanese telly which i instantly wanted to try.







Ian

F-toys 1/144 remodel - Avia CS-92 - Completed

Very easy and satisfying little build, wanted to make something quick and this worked out great. Just a f-toys Me 263 dual seater with a little detail added in the cockpit, undercarriage and gun barrels, repainted and decal to make a nice new model.







Looking at some other gasphons which ive amassed up in the loft, basically if it has a nice canopy i think i will model it.
Ian

Japan trip 2011 - Day 8, part Ichi - Kamakura

Day 8 i visited the this ancient capital of Japan, Kamakura, this being the last day my JR Pass was valid for so went for a trip an hour outside Tokyo.
Main reason to go is the seriously impressive Giant Buddha or The Great Buddha, really impressive being around 800 years old and has survived tsunamis and earthquakes. Really old beautiful city with so many temple, i reckon every street i walked down had one. I walked a crescent route round the city, starting at all the old temple where the Buddha is then strolling on down to the beach.

Love the "Beware of Hawks" which where circling over head, in the UK we have just evil Seagulls and annoying Pigeons, looks like Japan wins the badass bird contest.

I think then i walked the entire length of the beach to the other side of the city, then up through thedeserted  suburbs into the main town, had some tasty Sushi and visited some more temples before heading back to Tokyo for the evening in Ginza. One of the guides told me that quite a few of the temple are replicas, being in a country where natural disasters are nasty and the odd samurai brawl.


























Ian

Old build, new photos - Revell 1/144 AV-8B Harrier II plus - "Ace of Spades"

First model i painted with the airbrushed back in old May 10. Not are that bad looking at it now, canopy a bit rough where i poorly masked but an alright model.
Just wanted to take some photos of all the 1/144 crew i have now and the carrier deck i painted over the holidays. All the red-shirts are weapons guys, safety checks and other stuff i reckoned.



Ian

Real Grade 1/144 - RX-78-2 GUNDAM - WiP 1 -

Time to start building this bad boy i brought back from Japan, bought in Yodobashi Camera Akihabara, "awesome shop!"
You can see the box got damaged on the flight back to the UK, looks like the crew played rugby with my suitcase.

Took me quite some time to prepare all these pieces, so many sprue to sand! And then just like with the Zaku every piece has to be prepare, primed and painted speciality, had to buy 200 kebab stick to hold all the pieces.

This is the first time instead of fixing any sprue marks with putty i used super glue, instead of waiting 24 hours for the putty to set i left the glue 30 minutes, result. Still will wait to see what it looks like once primed.

Off out today and plan on buying some Tamiya rattle cans for the white, have found painting white from the airbrush quite difficult using Vallejo only so far.



Ian

Japan Trip 2011 - Day 7, part San - Roppongi and Tokyo Tower

Last part of my super busy day 7 was to go to Roppongi my now favourite Yamanote line during the rush hour! Check out the packed carriage full of salarymen, i use to have to dress like this.

Planed on visiting Tokyo Tower at night purely to see the amazing cityscape all aglow and it did not disappoint, was such a amazing sight, light filling up your view all the way to the horizon and all those red flashing night on the top of skyscraper's straight out of the 80's anime. Had some kick ass Yakitori on the way back, only time i had these and i eat alot after only eating deserts practically all day.  One of my favourite photos at the top from the entire trip, Odiba and Rainbow bridge visible.

















Ian