blandLIFE

Gunpla evolution

noreply@blogger.com (iron2000) — Mon, 12 Aug 2019 13:24:00 +0000

Gundam TR-6 [Woundwort] (11/8/2019)

New post in 7 years! First build in 8 years!!
Been a long time, luckily the supplies still work to execute this build.
Finally driven enough to build a kit.

This one has been in the backlog for more than a year, still relatively new. Its a refreshing build as the design differs from the usual Gundam design, a petite frame with weird proportions. Overall a mechanically graceful design. Theres abundant details in the mold, those cables and bars and circles made me want to paint them all to bring them out. Articulation good enough to strike many poses but its only weapon is the rifle.

The play really expands when you pair this with the Expansion Parts from the recent P-Bandai re release of the HG Hazel kits. With these parts you can attach limbs from other AoZ kits (and some HGUC kits) to the Woundwort.

Do check out the gallery link under the image.

Blog renewal

noreply@blogger.com (iron2000) — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 07:23:00 +0000

Decided to revamp the design of the blog. Made it a cleaner design and tried to make use of more horizontal space. With the update of the layout, there is also a matching mobile layout.

Old layout (April 2008 - March 2012)

Not so recent works 2

noreply@blogger.com (iron2000) — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 05:38:00 +0000

Haven't been making any kits for months, the stash that was lying on the floor has been tucked away in a new cupboard. Now trying to be satisfied with looking at pictures of kits.

Anyway heres a look back at some of my past original creations:

Strike Blanc (?/9/2006)

With the black Strike Noir, I thought a white one would be good to complement it. So I bought another one and painted it with a white scheme. Some small mods are done at the faceplate and the shoulder extensions.

Fuurai Bakunetsu Godmaru (late 90s?)

This was originally a broken kit (bought another Godmaru). Some time in the late 90s I think I painted the whole kit red (called it "Red Riding Hood"). Then later on I kitbashed it with parts from 3 other SD kits. Thats the short story :P

V-Hexa FC (late 90s?)

Was once a complete kit but lost an arm one day. Kitbashed it with a 1/144 Serpant Custom I got from a friend. Promptly named it V-Hexa FC at time of writing as it reminds me of the fiddler crab.

Zaku i2k Custom (2005?)

Had an idea of a Super Robot and Real Robot image pair of Zakus at that time, this one is the one with the RR image. Double shoulder shields, gunner pack and an TTT color scheme.

An upgrade

noreply@blogger.com (iron2000) — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 04:47:00 +0000

Gundam Astraea TDPsp1 (7/1/2011)

An upgrade for the Astraea TDP build from 2008! The reason for this is that having bought the retail version of Astraea (which is still not built at time of post), I thought I should do something to differentiate them. What I did is change the V-fin to the F2 type and repaint some of the red parts blue.

Have decided to name it TDPsp1 which means 'Twin Drive Pack Service Pack 1'. An upgrade, lol.

Used about half a day to do it, as one feet has to be redone due to a too thick coat of paint.

Ride in the new year

noreply@blogger.com (iron2000) — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 06:18:00 +0000

Brompton (30/12/2010)

My last kit of 2010. Worked on it for 3 days so it crossed over to 2011.
This Brompton kit comes with the October 2010 issue of Hobby Japan.

The kit has easy assembly but the parts are not molded that nicely compared to Bandai molds. Theres quite a bit of sanding to get rid of lines left by the mold. The lines are everywhere, at the pedals and even the wheel spokes. Did sand down some but not all.

Found out that my tube of white putty had harden so I didn't putty the frame of the bicycle. Wonder why they didn't mold it as one piece.

Another cool thing is that it folds up just like the real thing.

The bug slayer

noreply@blogger.com (iron2000) — Thu, 20 May 2010 12:09:00 +0000

HoiHoi-san (12/5/2010)

Finally! One kit after a long break, also the first of 2010. Got down to fix up my first doll-like/humanoid kit, HoiHoi-san. Spent three days on HoiHoi and one day on the weapons. Phototaking fun took one day, wanted to take pictures that show 'life' in HoiHoi-san.

My second Kotobukiya kit, refreshing build. As it has a human-like appearance I decided to use cement to join the parts and sand down to remove the seams, but didn't paint the kit so the seam is still visible. Wanted the flat look of the figma figures but the flat spray gave a more rough grainy texture. It frosted the black parts, used a black Real Touch marker to fix it.

The kit uses ABS for the moveable joints parts, making the kit pretty stiff. Especially the neck joint, I have to break down the head to turn it. Pretty interesting how the hair is built up. The usamimi mini-jack is pretty tight, can't take it out once its in. Maybe its because I painted it. If only Kotobukiya included the lace underskirt.

[EDIT] Print the petticoat! Look here.

Not gunpla

noreply@blogger.com (iron2000) — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 09:52:00 +0000

Humable Model God and Master (2/8/2009)

A post to break the months of silence. Yup, I haven't been making any models for the past months (so they have been multiplying :P). Have been messing with figures recently.

Anyway the God Gundam and Master Gundam featured here are action figures, not MSIA but Humable Model by Banpresto. I've done a more detailed writeup on them here. These two are really great fun to play with and they ended up having 4 days of photoshoot.

Got hooves?

noreply@blogger.com (iron2000) — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 06:16:00 +0000

Cherudim Gundam (28/2/2009)

Worked on this one from end-February to early-March.
Found the design a bit plain so I did a tiny bit of detailing on the arms, drilled holes at the shoulder armour and some lines at the lower arms. Work went rather well with no disasters.

Nice kit. Compared to 00, Cherudim has better 'abdominal' articulation but lacks at the feet-ankle joint. Cherudim has some fresh design for the feet, looks pretty cool but like hooves to me. The small surface area and limited articulation of the feet makes it harder for it to stand properly.

With the new weapons introduced in the anime, I wonder how Bandai will release them. In another 'Trans-am gloss injection' kit?

[6/4] Practically the whole day on phototaking. Was experimenting with a table lamp as light source. Moving the lamp around trying to light up dark areas but in turn introducing shadows here and there. Somehow my camera don't capture the green well. ~~Will post the photos soon.~~

Self-owned Reversal

noreply@blogger.com (iron2000) — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 12:26:00 +0000

O Raiser (21/2/2009)

Second kit of 2009, spent 2 half days on it.
~~Can be said to be my first non-humanoid kit, I think.~~
Ok, a few posts down theres Primrose.

Looks pretty nice. The side binders feels like its loosely connected to the main body but somehow it holds pretty well. The kit only has 2 pieces of parts, the least number I've ever seen in a HG.

Then comes the combination with the 00 Gundam kit completed last month. Thats where I messed up. I thought those 3 holes on the GN Drives are just holes, I filled them up. It was until I wanted to do the combination then I realized that the hole is used to attach the side binder on. PANIC!!! Buy another 00 or Raiser? No, to save money, I made 2 custom connectors (pic in the 00 Gundam photoshoot) to swap with the original and all went well. Phew.

King of Kings

noreply@blogger.com (iron2000) — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 05:11:00 +0000

00 Gundam (16/1/2009)

My first build of 2009!
Spent 2 days on it.

All the new joints and polycaps make this build rather fresh and interesting. Painting on the clear blue is a bit tricky. One thing I don't like is the 3 deep "holes" at the GN Drives so I filled them up with putty. Not as skilled as the modeller of DHM, I just painted and lined the detail on the flat surface. Tried scratching a few panel lines, very few, didn't turn out that good though.

[24/2] Spent the whole day phototaking 00 and Raiser. Tried to strike dynamic poses to utilize the flexibility of the kit. The GN Drives held stiff with the shield and the binders. The shield attaches loosely to the arm, fine if you don't touch it much. Transforming the GN Sword to Rifle mode and back has loosen the handle, now sometimes the sword bends splitting the handle when it is attached to the side armor. Swapping parts for the joint GN Sword further loosen the hinge of the splitting handle.

Happy New Year!!

noreply@blogger.com (iron2000) — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 09:03:00 +0000

Final 3(4) of December'08

The first day of 2009!

Recorded my complete gunpla build for 2008!
Lets see.. 14 kits done last year.
Not bad more then 10, but theres still a lot more untouched kits in the stash.
Got to get down to counting them some time...

Hope the time and mood will come to combo those kits off.

Happy 2009 to whoever who comes by!

Final build of '08

noreply@blogger.com (iron2000) — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 08:32:00 +0000

Gundam TR-1 [Hazel Owsla] (29/12/2008)

A second Hazel Custom kit to complement the Primose parts. Even though it has the compact shoulder armor to differentiate it from the Hazel Custom, I added a little bit of red and used grey in place of black. Pretty snappy, used 2 days for it.

Primrose was nice as an escape pod but in body mode its not that nice. The connector for the right arm slags downward and they are kind of loose. I like it better with the Hazel body in Chobam armor (a mode I named "Owsla Original"). But the Primrose bodies still looks good on the Hazel and Advanced Hazel.

With the photoshoot I brought out the Hrududu and played parts swapping. The AoZ series is actually fun to play with but I would feel more comfortable playing and parts swapping if they are toys not models.

Little flyer

noreply@blogger.com (iron2000) — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 07:20:00 +0000

Primrose (23/12/2003)

Went on to this right after Hrairoo, got to keep the modelling mojo flowing. Anyway its been in the box for almost 2 years (same goes to the other AoZ kits left) better get it done up.

Being an FG (Furoku Grade, "Gift Grade") its all white, spent quite some time painting and spraying this one tray kit. Did one in white and one in Titans colors. It looks fun, its got the escape pod mode, the body mode and it can "socialise" with other AoZ parts. But as soon as its painted you won't want to do anything funny as it will scratch the paint. The beam cannon has superb detail that was hard to paint.

As said the escape pod mode was fun, part swapping then photo frenzy.

Yellow disaster

noreply@blogger.com (iron2000) — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 15:40:00 +0000

Gaplant TR-5 [Hrairoo] (19/12/2008)

Took me 4 days to complete this guy. Firstly is the problem with the chrome yellow color, the yellow in the bottle is drying out and I discovered it too late. Fought with the bad paint for almost 1 day. Another reason is because of a family occasion.

I'm really impressed with the details under the skirt armor and amount of verniers of this kit. But its a bit heavy and flimsy when you start posing in. Transformation to fight mode is a hassle and I scratched off some paint while doing so. Had problem making it hold the long rifle as the rifle butt is kind of in the way.

Not really poseable but it looks nice just standing there.

Was broken

noreply@blogger.com (iron2000) — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 07:45:00 +0000

Aile Strike Gundam (2003/04?, 3/12/2008)

This kit was finished some time in 2003 or 2004. The unique thing I did to it was I sanded all the white parts giving them a matt surface. As usual went about playing and posing it. It was during one of these times that the hinge part of the right wing snapped. Tried to fix it but glue and cement are not strong enough. And so it goes into the box for quite a period of time.

Recently I ordered the runner containing the hinge part together with the GN Pistols runner from HLJ and finally got it fixed. Went around posing it (carefully) and took some pics of it. Theres two short 4-frames in the gallery too.

GN Beam Pistols

noreply@blogger.com (iron2000) — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 16:13:00 +0000

Dynames' GN Beam Pistols (3/12/2008)

The Dynames kit itself is the same kit fixed up early this year but with a touch up coat for the grey parts. Ordered the runner that has the pistol parts from HLJ back in October, turned out to be pretty pricey.

Anyway just fixed it up a few days ago and after that as usual went photoshooting crazy on it.

Akai Overload 2

noreply@blogger.com (iron2000) — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 14:17:00 +0000

Gundam Astraea Type-F [Custom Model] (~23/8/2008)

Date recorded as end of project as I did this one over a period of free time here and there. Basically its just an extra set of parts to switch with the previously posted Astraea F. The main hard part is the V-fin of the Custom Model, its modded with epoxy putty from an Exia V-fin. Don't really look perfect as its my first time doing this. Well, at least it turned out pretty decent looking.

Overall satisfied.

であります!

noreply@blogger.com (iron2000) — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 14:07:00 +0000

Keroro Gunso (21/8/2008)

My first Keropla! This 1/12 kit came with the Sept 08 issue of Kero Kero Ace. The plastic is kind of neon and a bit translucent, kind of special to me. Amazing that the body and limbs come as a whole piece. Its just a pretty raw build up.

The issue comes with a simple papercraft secret base for the little guy but I didn't build that.

Akai Overload

noreply@blogger.com (iron2000) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 08:09:00 +0000

Gundam Astraea Type-F (8/8/2008)

Well the date is so nice that I decided to start a kit (and that long weekend is a factor too). Done over a span of 3 days with day 1 - head operations, day 2 - spray paint, day 3 - spray paint, pannel line and assembly. Used up 2 cans of red spray for this guy. Not quite done with it yet, the shield is ~~in the works~~ done(as of 17/8) and there is one other thing planned for it.

~~Had to "seal" movement of the knee joint as it scratches the paint.~~
Solved by a bit of gap widening (as of 19/8).
Pretty sad, thats why I don't usually go into such big paint jobs.

Didn't cut myself when building this kit, theres enough red already.
A red Gundam for National Day.

Twin Drive Pack

noreply@blogger.com (iron2000) — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 17:04:00 +0000

Twin Drive Pack (21/7/08)

Well, this can be said to be my biggest gunpla project so far for the year. The idea first came from the 00 Gundam dual GN Drive design and a bit of my desire to beef up Astraea. Not much of a scratchbuilder at all so I found myself staring at the picture of 00 Gundam time to time. Then it struck me to finally make use of that extra Strike Noir. Bought another Exia (totalling to 4). Then with the parts and a bit of plaplate, the Pack is made.

The Twin Drive Pack is compatible with Exia too and partially compatible with Strike Noir and WeissStahl.

Celestial Being

noreply@blogger.com (iron2000) — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 06:30:00 +0000

Celestial Being Gundams

Got the 1/144 CB Gundams together and took some shots yesterday.

The Skinny (from The Bulk)

noreply@blogger.com (iron2000) — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 06:47:00 +0000

Gundam Nadleeh (30/6/2008)

At first it looks to be a simple kit, only 3 main pieces of runners. But I took one day just to get the reddish color right. Mixing 3 to 4 times, removing paint and repainting. I'm just not skillful enough. The paint job is not that good but I got to move on. Having the red done, I finished the other parts the next day. The legs looks pretty plain if I go according to the box so I painted more grey on it.

The beam sabers actually fit nicely in the fist compared to Kyrios which is rather loose. Had problems posing with the GN Cannons as the fist don't really grip well enough and the cannon just sort of rotate/swing down. Nadheeh has flexible legs but the arms are pretty normal like the rest.

The photoshoot got fun when I started part swapping with Virtue. Did a bit of experimenting with my camera's flash too.

The Bulk

noreply@blogger.com (iron2000) — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 17:50:00 +0000

Gundam Virtue (23/6/2008)

Its bulky but it looks good. Another first, my first "fat" Gundam. There are hints of Nadleh here and there, most obvious is the "internal skeleton" of the arm. The backpack is removeable to reveal the GN Drive.

This one has the most weight out of the other G00 Gundams, mainly contributed by the four GN Field generators and the GN Bazooka. One of the GN Field generators' cover is pretty loose, closing up easily. Another beautiful kit you can stare at for ages.

Realised that I've forgotten some yellow for the bazooka so I got it painted, touched up the GN Field generators too. Then did a mini shoot for the updated kit.

An orange one..

noreply@blogger.com (iron2000) — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 10:31:00 +0000

Gundam Kyrios (10/6/2008)

Another kit done after much procrastination. Handpainted the gray area this time as they are too many and to large for markers. Had to buy orange paint just for the rear skirt too. As usual there is blood shed in the making as I never fail to cut myself while trimming the parts. Nice part fit but in exchange theres painting to do.

The flight mode looks pretty. Its sturdy but theres a part change involved. I find it pretty poseable and had fun taking pics of it.

A tangible piece of SRW

noreply@blogger.com (iron2000) — Wed, 21 May 2008 11:53:00 +0000

Huckebein Mk-III (20/5/2008)

Finally decided to get down and finish another kit. This time its not a Bandai kit, this guy is from Kotobukiya. Pretty refreshing building a non-Bandai kit. It has some interesting part seperation. The main body is ok but the back pack and Fang Slasher has some fitting problem.

With more skill and patience it can become a really beautiful kit.