It has been about seven years now. My most recent relationship has now come to an end after seven years. I write this to better clear my own head, help myself understand the whole process, and to help come to terms with everything. It is a fairly anti climatic end, no big fight, no huge blowout, neither of us has found another - to my knowledge anyhow. Logically analyzing this, I believe that the two of us just fell out of love. Life got complacent, everything done is a repetitive motion. We continued our lives as if on autopilot.
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This weekend, I returned to working on the HGUC Nus. I got them gloss clear coated and ready for decals:

Decaled:

Here are some comparison pictures of the two Nus so far. In some of the pictures, you can see the weathering done to the decals.

Next up will be the panel line wash and another clear coat to finish up the “Shiny” Nu. There are a couple of more steps I need before I finish up the second Nu.

Small update from the past two days of work. I got the arm pod with battery pack built.

More sanding work on the body.

Aquament epoxy putty work on the body for finer details and filling.

Another test with the LEDs one with a resistor and one without, I’ll be going with a resistor along the parallel setup.

Next up is a little mockup of what I have so far. I used an MG Dom hand in lieu of scratch building my own, saves on time and I think the Dom’s fat fingers and hand fit the project decently. For the arm pod/battery pack, I used some hollowed out PVC pipe capped it with some styrene strips, then placed some barrels in a tri-barrel configuration. The more I look at the setup, I think I want to cut the barrels down more just to balance things out a bit. I also need to point the LEDs forward as opposed to pointing down. There are a few other modifications I’ll probably make as I look at the mock up more. But for now…

Got the electronic components together

Adding little connectors to each component, stringing them together with the DPDT switch, I can run the yellow LEDS (Still not completely decided on the color I want the eyes - red, yellow, or blue) from the lithinum 3 volt battery and the ducted fan can run off the 1.5 volts coming off the AAA battery cell.

And I even have a little video for it:

Slightly off center, but I’m already working on fixing it

And finally, more putty because after drilling the hole, the size of the waist area and area surrounding the hole was too thin, some thin sheet styrene was rolled up and inserted as a cowl for the fan, and doubles as a support for the additional putty slopped onto the kit. This should be the last putty build up session and next I can work on the final sculpting and surface prep.

Weekend update.

First things first, I got a good amount of work done towards the end of last week, and a little work over the build gathering. Since I’m letting the clear gloss cure on the first Nu, I got to work sanding the second Nu. Additionally, since the second Nu was toyed around with and just lying around on my work bench while I was working on the first Nu, the parts needed to be soaked in the purple cleaner and then rinsed to remove all the oils, dust, and other environmental contaminants off it. The hobby knife and some coarse grit sand paper went to work on roughing up the kit, adding scratches, dents, dings, and blast marks.

Next, I did the wire wrapping on the tubes behind the knees. However, for more contrast against the first Nu, I went with a high gauge magnet wire.

And I’m almost done with the painting. Learning my lesson from the first Nu, I painted the indented parts first, masked, then painted the main colors.

There is still a small amount of painting work left on the Nu before I can get it gloss coated and I should be able to get to the decaling for both kits later on this week….

Build Gathering…

Another successful build gathering, and even more growath. There were 4 new comers to the event, and hopefully they’ll return to future build gatherings as well. An inclusive 21 or so people were here. The building groups are set up as two full rooms. We actually ran out of chairs and had to play musical chairs for a little while.

New project inspired by the video of another modeler using an MG Z’Gok to scratch build an Air Man from the game Rock Man (Mega Man).
My version

The part that is not explained or shown in the video is the slow process of building up the polyester putty body. I used strips of styrene as a frame for the putty to grab on to, and once I finish this slow process, I can get to the ever fun sanding and shaping phase…

Tax day update…. I actually couldn’t get as much done because I was spending some time working on my taxes…. at least Calif is going to pay me back for the interest free loan I gave them… *sigh* The federal side is a whole other story… but at least now, I know that I need to do at least a couple of commissions a year just as a bit of tax relief.

Well, on the a bit of work…With these hguc kits, there are a good number of detail areas that should be masked off. In hindsight, I should have painted most of the detail areas as they were indented areas and masking over those areas is much easier to masking in the other direction….

I’ve also been using Parafilm. The stuff is great for covering large areas, I end up saving on tape with a small amount of parafilm.

And lucky for me, when I lifted the masking tape, the true test to surface prep is shown as the underlying paint didn’t lift. I also lifted the masking tape a couple of minutes after painting. I do this because the paint isn’t completely cured. I’ve had instances when lifting the masking tape, long after the paint has cured, left uneven edges as chipping and lifting occurs. This is easily fixed by scoring the paint along the edges of the masking tape, however, if scoring the edge can be avoided, it is best to do so.

Some more detail work on some of the internals:

Major updates to the tutorials.
Reorganized stuff so things are easier to find.  Also; since I’m still in the midst of redoing videos and such, I figure I can throw up what I have now; which will be easier to deal with than trying to making all the changes once I’m done.  Best to do this in increments as I get stuff done.  I still have tons more to do…

Updated:
Sanding tutorial with an added video
Seamline tutorial with a complete rewrite
Basic Airbrushing tutorial with a complete rewrite
Advanced airbrushing tutorial

Added:
Primer Tutorial
Pearl powder tutorial

More as I progress with my Nu build….

Time for a small weekend update. Actually, this is work done from near the end of last week and sunday night. I had a fairly busy weekend so I didn’t get as much as I wanted done, but progress is moving along.

I did a quick assembly of most of the parts for a primed vs snapped comparison picture:

Next up, I found the back of the knee cables a little bland, so using some magnet wire, I wrapped around them creating some springs. Hopefully this will look good when I finish painting this part.

Initial base color for the white parts were painted on, I used Intermediate Blue from Mr Color.

Finisher’s Pure White was then sprayed on using the intermediate blue as a preshade color:

Closer comparison pictures

Another size comparison picture, using an hguc RGM-79D cold climate GM, this really shows off the shear massiveness that is the Nu.

Small little update to the hguc nus I’ve been working on. On one of the kits, I replaced the backpack thrusters with metal thrusters from Ako Hobby. I’m using the same thrusters for the legs as well. I start by cutting the thruster bell off the stock piece using a hasegawa tritool saw. These saws are very thin and the amount of material removed by the sawing process is minimal so they work great for such applications.

After removing the thruster bell, the area is then sanded slightly with a low grit sanding stick. This helps level the surface and give added surface area for the glue. The metal thruster is then glued into place. I used an epoxy glue for added strength.

Here are a few comparison shots, the first is the replaced leg thruster and the second is the backpack thrusters.

I think the bigger and longer thruster give a more robust look to the kit.

Saturday saw another successful model build gathering! We grew by 4 new attendees this month, and we had a total of 17 people attending including myself. Gtetra, even after spending the Friday and Saturday moving into his new house, called up and came over later Saturday Night to participate, true dedication. I’ll be picking up a 6ft table from Costco later on this week, and I’m sure we’ll have the space for a little more growth; much the the chagrin of my girlfriend I’m sure.

I spent a good amount of time running around answering questions and did a few quick demos:

Mono eye, camera lens modification

Quick and dirty airbrush tutorial

Otakufuel was also on hand to supply the wanton needs of the gunpla building otakus. So busy that they were not able to get much model building done - serves them right for bringing a car trunk full of goodies.

Here are a few pictures from the build gathering:

Click here for more pictures

The next build gathering is set for Saturday, April 19, 2008

I’m planning on having some kits ready for the following tutorials: Weathering, Pearl Painting, Applying Water Slide Decals, and maybe a few one offs here and there, depending on what people are working on. And I almost forgot, for April’s build gathering, we’re going to focus on getting some major work done of the 1/144 Scale “Gundam Bar” idea.