Bandai Action Kit World Cup (BAKWC) 2010 Malaysia

As I mentioned in my earlier post, I entered my PG 1/60 00 Raiser for the BAKWC 2010 Malaysia. The event was held at Sungei Wang Plaza concourse level from 23rd November 2010 to 28th November 2010. The event was a success and the favourite entries have all won something.

Without further ado, let's meet the winning entries. First, the 2nd runner's up. It is a PG 1/60 RX-178 Gundam MK-II AEUG colour scheme with full armor. The builder of this kit is from Penang, and he actually scratch build the armor parts by using pla-plate (plastic plate for modelling), PVC pipe, and some parts borrowed from other kits.





Next, the 1st runner's up. The builder of this kit used a very creative concept as shown in the following picture.



What he did was to use parts from unwanted VCR player & some other stuff which I can't really remember, and then combined them together with the MG 1/100 Zeong. The final product is amazing, and it even has LED gimmick as well. Not only that, his skill is very high-level as well because he's able to scribe a skull head behind the skirts, of which some people mistaken it as a decal. Scribing lines on a plastic surface can be very tricky and hard to do because if not done carefully, the scribing tool used could go out of line and damage the surface. On a side note, he's the one that motivated me (indirectly) to join the event.





Then the champion is a work of art (at least to me) because he managed to pull off a very nice diorama with 2 re-modelled kits: HG 1/144 Unicorn Gundam and HG 1/144 Kshatriya.







The diorama is done very well. I'm not really good with diorama myself, but from what I could see, it's very well done; there's a story to it, the Unicorn Centaur looks amazingly nice, the Kshatriya looks pretty well done, and the modifications are well executed that none of the parts look out of place. The only thing that I'd say about the Dragon Kshatriya, is that if the fingers can be sharpened to become claw fingers, it will be "mama mia"!!!

Finally, the other main attraction of the event is the new group build category. The champion in this category is a diorama of an exhibition hall as shown in the following picture.







This is a group build project by the members of the Zero-G forum. It has been confirmed as well that this diorama together with the champion will be representing Malaysia to the grand finale in Hong Kong this year. It will be such an amazing opportunity to let people see such a great work from Malaysia's Gunpla community.

Conclusion, it is a very good event because it really test my ability in modelling and it's very inspiring to see other people works as well. I personally have been inspired to do better for the next event, which is the mid year contest 2011. It's also good to share my kit with other fellow modellers as well (although I might have said something that's not really nice or give wrong info...). I'm really looking forward to next year to see if I could pull off something better.

Bandai PG 1/60 00 Raiser

This is my latest work. It took me about 6 months time to finish it. As compare to my previous PG Red Frame, this one took a lot more time to build because of the following reasons.

1. The number of parts are a lot more, and most parts are small and delicate.


2. There are a lot of seam lines to cover up on the 0 Raiser and the weapons, which are not easy task.


3. I tried to use polyester putty for the first time to cover up some seamlines, and it became a total disaster due to the polyester not hardening because of insufficient amount of catalyst. As a result of that, it took me a while to correct all the mistakes.

I entered this kit for the BAKWC 2010 Malaysia. The photos below are taken during the display week.
















I've learned a lot of things from this build, which I could list down as the following.

1. Always try to snap-fit the parts together to have a better idea on the whole thing. I personally find that snap-fitting a kit can be troublesome because in the past, I'd accidentally break some parts. Thanks to an advice from a Zero-G forum member (although I only re-considered it after a few hours of thought), I tried to do the snap-fitting and through the process, found out a few flaws on the kit that have to be amended.


2. This is the first time I tried to use Zippo oil to do the panel line, of which to my amazed it doesn't seems to work as how the professional modellers did, and ended up with a pile of mess on all the blue parts. The Zippo oil would evaporate very fast in my room's condition, so I tried to experiment with using the enamel thinner for panel lining, and then using Zippo oil to wipe the excess. Not only it works, but it also gives a much better result as compare to using enamel thinner to wash the excess because I tend to wipe out the panel line colours too.


3. Learned how to use epoxy putty and polyester putty to cover up seamlines and unwanted holes, even though the result is still far from satisfaction.


4. Advice from a Zero-G forum member as well, I tried to cut the edges of the Gundam decal before applying them.


5. This is my first build that I put a flat Mr Color Super Clear as top coat.

Overall, despite all the yelling and screaming and burning midnight oil to finish this thing on time for the competition, I really enjoy the process to build it. After I've done with it, and putting it up for display on my table for 3 days before the submission for BAKWC 2010 Malaysia, I was enjoying every seconds of my time looking at it.

New Soul of Chogokin announcement from Tamashii Nation 2010

Browsed through NgeeKhiong today and he has updates regarding the recent Tamashii Nations 2010 event in Japan (). From the picture he posted, there are pictures of the new Soul of Chogokin Daltanius and the blue print of the new soul of chogokin that's going to be released next in the lineup. What excites me the most from his post is that blue print, because the next one that's going to be produced, is the super robot that I like and a must get for me since God Mars. This super robot is God Sigma! Finally after waiting for so long and the plan for producing this toy is already underway.

Can't wait to see how Bandai would pull out with this one because unlike God Mars, God Sigma is a combination of 3 robot, with 1 forming the body, the other 2 forming the left and right leg, so the proportion and be a bit tricky with this one. The robot forming the body and hand is shorter and a bit smaller as compare to the other 2.

It is a must get for me because the old God Sigma that I have, like God Mars, were bought by my father, and particularly God Sigma where my dad purposely went down to the supermarket that's having an everything must go sales, he bought me this for RM 50.00 ringgit. It is very unusual for him to purposely buy toys for me, so I really appreciate that dearly. Sadly because I don't know how to take care of it, this toy has vanished.

Looking forward for this thing to be released!!!

Bandai PG 1/60 Astray Red Frame

It's going to be quite lengthy for this one. These are few pictures that I managed to shot with the camera that I borrowed from my friend during the working hour where I've also shot the 4 VF-25 Messiahs together.

Overall View
















This is my second PG since the Strike Gundam that I did back in 2005. Back then, I was just started to pick up modeling again since coming over to KL for study in 2000.

My last PG I painted with Tamiya Color Spray, with emphasis on the metallic feel. This round however, I'd like to give it a little bit of a different feel, by having the color to be done without any metallic feel to it. I like my robot to be in metallic color if possible, but after looking at some of the Japanese pro did it on YouTube, even without metallic feel one could still make a good looking Gunpla, so I decided to give it a try.

Experimenting Technique
So what I did on this PG is to try to do shading. I've tried shading with my MG 1/100 RX-78-2 Gundam before and it turns out quite well. The color combination for the shading is as follow.

1. White section: Spray Neutral Gray as base -> Character White (with very little Midnight Blue) starting from the middle of the surface.
   
2. Red section: Spray Navy Blue as base -> Spray Red Madder starting from the middle of the surface.
   
3. Black section: Spray Midnight Blue as base -> Spray Midnight Blue + Character White starting from the middle of the surface.
   

I must say that I still need practice on this shading because when I was doing the shading on the red section (mostly the frame), spraying not enough color would cause the red to look too dull. I actually have to re-spray the surface again to bring out the red. By the way, I don't really know what's the term for spraying with airbrush, so I'll just use the word "spray" here to replace airbrushing.

Then, I tried to do something that I learned from the YouTube video as well on the gold plated and silver plated part. First, I tried to see if I could wash off the silver plated part by soaking them in alcohol (the YouTube video showing the pro using some kind of whitening agent) because I recalled that it can be done that way. But, although I could get the paint off, the plastic parts are deformed, so it is a big failure.

So I have no choice but to sand off the gold plated and silver plated part with a sponge file instead. Then, I spray the Mr Surfacer 1200 onto them, and finally the silver parts with Mr Color silver, and gold part with Mr Metallic Gold. The Mr Metallic series require the painted surface to be polished in order to bring out the metallic feel, which I did. Then, I tried to do like how the pro did by spraying a layer of clear yellow on top of the Gold to bring out the yellowish gold; which it doesn't turn out well. It might has something to do with the color that I used.

Then the 1/60 figurine of Lowe that comes with this kit, I did paint it as well before putting it into the cockpit. The following picture is the result of the painting. Painting this mini figure is much easier as compare to the 1/100 scale pilot figure that comes with all the MG Gunpla kit. But the hardest thing is not painting it, but to get rid of the parting line on the mini figure because if the line is not scrapped, the painting will look horrible.




Arms & Legs










This PG Astray is using the same inner frame as the PG Strike Gundam, so the articulation of this kit is supposed to be as superb as the PG Strike Gundam. It is true until the Astray specific armors are put on. Yes, it is still possible for it to pose decently, but the armors have restricted it to pose as flexible as PG Strike could achieve, i.e. the squatting pose.

The hand are also from the same mold that used for PG Strike Gundam. The only difference is that it is molded in 2 colors - white and red. The white section is made from something that contains rubber element, whereas the red is made molded with ABS plastic. It seems really cool, until I need to deal with the parting line on them because I wanted to paint it in unison with the color of the other section of the boy. The normal way of dealing with parting line just doesn't work on the rubbery section, so I resorted to use diamond file to get rid of it. It did the job, but at the expanses of resulting a rough surface on the fingers. Anyway, I didn't really amend it because I'm afraid that I might doing more damage to it instead, I decided to stick with what it is right now. The damage on the finger surface is hardly to be noticed from far, but that's a different case when it is look into closely.

Also, this kit also comes with the dry transfer decal as well. I applied them to this kit to make it looks more "macho". Applying dry transfer decal is not that easy on this one because there are a lot of uneven surface where the decal has to be applied to. I ended up with some of them in a distorted form.

Posing








The best part of this kit is that it comes with a Katana named Gerbera Straight. I bought the initial launch version, which came with clear parts, an extra Katana named Tiger Pearce, and a stand to hold the Katanas. Even though the articulation are somewhat restricted by the armors, it could still do some decent pose as I mentioned earlier. I like the fact that it could hold the 2 Katana - one in each hand - without falling off.

The actual size of the katana is shown in the following picture. The hand in the picture is my hand.



As for how big this kit stand, by doing a mathematics calculation of 1800cm(the documentation stated that it stands around 18 meter tall) divided by 60, its height would be around 30cm. The following picture is a comparison of its size with the 1/72 scale VF-25 Messiahs.



Conclusion
My first impression after I've finished building this kit is that it looks much more masculine/bulky as compare to the PG Strike Gundam. What I'm disappointed with is that it couldn't pose as good as PG Strike. Still, that doesn't really stop me from liking it because it does looks good. In contrast to the 1/72 VF-25 Messiah, I'd still want to do more PG in the future because some how rather I find that it's much easier to deal with Gunpla kit.

VF-25 Messiahs - Skull Squadron

I didn't really watch all the episodes of Macross Frontier; I only watch the last 2 episodes, so I figured that the Skull Squadron would consists of all the Messiahs appeared in the show.

Here are some pictures that I attempted to put all the VF-25 Messiahs together for a group shot. I must say that it doesn't really turn out that well because the lighting is not done properly and I'm not really good with a digital SLR camera yet.

Skull Squadron - Fighter Mode






Skull Squadron - Battroid Mode

Bandai 1/72 VF-25G Messiah Michael Unit

This is the last Macross kit that I have done. It is the VF-25G Messiah, which specializes in long range sniping.

Fighter Mode










The Fighter mode is basically the same as all 3 Messiahs that I did previously, since all of them are made from the same mold. Like the RVF-25, the shield for this kit could be connected to the body without much problem.

Gerwalk Mode






The form is basically the same as all previous Messiah that I did, so nothing much for me to say here.

Battroid Mode






The difference here again is the head. The head design is like the mass produced Valkyrie unit VF-1, but in the Macross Frontier universe, there's only 1 unit of Messiah with this head design - mono-eye with single antenna/vulcan gun on top. Like the RVF-25, the head design has the similar problem: the horn-like shape parts at the lower part of the head that would hinder it from re-positioning into the body with the risk of scratching it, and also the not-too-serious articulation problem much like RVF-25 head.

Experimented Techniques
Basically I tried the same things that I did on all 3 previous Messiah on this kit as well. This time I tried to do the dry brushing again, with this time only on the edge of the inner frame. It turns out quite well as compare to my previous attempt, but the coordination of the color doesn't seems to work that well.

Conclusion
I'm satisfied with the work on this one because not much problem arises. It is truly a conclusion for the Macross kit for now as I mentioned in my previous posting of the other 3 Messiahs because I don't really have the time and concentration to work on this type of model kit.