Archive for the ‘Modeling’ Category

When a man loves a primer

At least for me, priming parts is among the biggest pains I have in modeling. Companies that make model paint seem to only sell primer in A) small cans, or B) bottles that could wear baby food containers as sweaters*.

Some of them are still pretty good: the Tamiya primer (canned) is very nice, and the Model Master primer (bottled, for airbrushing) works fine. The bog-standard Testors spray, on the other hand, is just a notch above “ick” on the awesome scale.

Yeah, right about there.

But my main problem isn’t the quality of the primer, it’s just economy: I go through primer really quickly. I don’t want to waste any colors while I’m checking for seams and defects, so that means multiple passes with the primer while I fix things. Multiple passes means lots of primer. Lots of primer means lots of visits to the local hobby shop, and that means I’m probably going to buy a large Coke on the way home. Next thing you know, I’m out $25, not to mention the cost for the primer.

I drink a lot of Coke when I go out.

Anyway, I went around looking for alternatives, and stumbled upon several people advocating Duplicolor sandable primer. It’s cheap: $5 gets you 12oz versus $4 for 3oz of the Testor’s, or $6/6oz for the Tamiya. That alone was enough to get my interest because it frees up a lot of cash for my soda problem. But not only that, it was supposed to be pretty good! Intrigued, and more importantly, out of primer and thirsty, I went down the street and picked up two cans from my local auto parts store.

I took my ready-to-paint parts from my HG Mr.Bushido’s Ahead and gave them a coat. Smooth? Let me tell you.

Smooth as your FACE.

Or possibly even smoother.

I actually did this a week ago (you can see the parts in my post about joint-modification), but I wanted to wait a little while to make sure nothing bad happened, like, say, the parts/my balcony melting. Seems safe for the plastic, though. However:

• I sprayed the coat on very gradually, in light mini-coats, rotating the piece as I went, and I didn’t just go to town with the spray nozzle
• It’s a lacquer-based product, so take that into consideration with any subsequent paints/thinning attempts
• I followed all the instructions on the label
• I only tried it on one type of plastic. No telling what this could do to other materials like rubber joints or ABS

Basically I’m telling you that I treated the spray like it was almost certainly going to destroy my model, and any adventurous souls who are going to use it should do the same.

Having said that, I love it. If I had any complaints (this is not a complaint), I’d say the dark gray is a little dark and, um, gray. In all fairness it is EXACTLY the color of the cap, so the darkness is not a surprise. For parts that are going to be painted light colors, you should use the white, or be prepared to do a lot of coats. It is practically matte black.

Using the Duplicolor did highlight a problem in my setup: the need for a respirator. I used it outside, and took time away from the painting area to breathe fresh air, and I still ended up with a terrible headache and, presumably, dark gray lungs that are as smooth as your FACE. You should not be breathing this stuff.

Couldn’t resist the urge and mostly reassembled Mr Bushido’s Ahead even though I have a few spots that need putty.

"If I remain verrrrry still, no one will notice my missing head thingy..."

I’m going to try decanting the remaining primer this weekend (another first) so I can use it in my cheapie airbrush and waste less to overspray. Updates and possible brain damage to follow, unless I use my respirator, in which case it will just be updates.

^{*Fashion tip: don’t do this.}

Someone, somewhere is a genius

...and ten minutes later, I had produced giant Lego man hands

That picture, above, is a vision of my modeling future, and here’s why:

I’m relatively new to scale modeling, and I’ve really only started doing things “the right way” in the last year or so. I ruined a lovely model in my modeling infancy, and I’ve been gradually getting better over time. It’s a lot of fun. Not quite as fun for the model kits, who are terrified of me.

But I fully recognize that I still suck at scale modeling, so I’ve limited my purchases to pretty cheap kits; I have a couple nicer ones, and they are waiting in the wings till I can bust out the cheapies with ease. And even though they’re simpler builds than some more complicated kits, I try to give them the full treatment–glue, paint, decals, panel line washes…the whole thing.

One thing about “easier” kits, though, is that they’re catering to an audience that is not supposed to give a flying crap about seam lines, unblemished paint jobs, or professional grade awesomeness, so they don’t give a crap (flying or non) either. If you want nice results, you will suffer more on these small kits than on the $75 beauty you special ordered from Hobbylink. The nicer kits are just engineered to hide those seam lines and joints better, generally speaking*.

Take the last two paragraphs and you get me struggling pretty much all the time.

The problems change kit to kit, but a very common one I have is with nested parts; typically joints on mecha kits. There will be an area, like an upper arm, and while you can assemble it and paint it by itself, it’s eventually going to be “nested” in the shoulder armor where it meets the pivot point, and the shoulder itself is another two pieces that meet in the middle around the upper arm. That means you have one of two horrible choices:

1) Assemble it together and try to paint the two parts as a single unit, probably with a horrendous amount of masking/swearing

2) Complete the nested piece 100% (paint and all), then wrap the enclosure around it and carefully mask the nested piece you worked so hard on while you glue, prime, and paint the enclosure

I’ve done both, and they both suck. I’ve searched for alternate methods, and largely ended up feeling like I was the only one with this problem. Then I stumbled upon a build thread on the Plamo site where this was addressed with exactly zero fanfare:

Dear "kite", I'll gladly pull this down if this is against your wishes

So yes, I am the only one with this problem, because everyone else said “hell with that!” and solved it on their own. Has everyone else been doing something like this for a while? Probably. But kite posted a picture of it, so he’s my new hero. This completely changes the way I’ve been approaching mecha builds, and it makes life so much easier.

If it’s not clear, you basically cut out the plastic that completes the loop in the joint so that you can paint the sub-assemblies separately and just “snap” the joints together when you’re done:

You'll need a sharp cutting instrument to take out that much plastic. I used my face.

Assembled thigh on the left. Modified knee on the right.

Inserted! This is NSFW if you're made out of polystyrene.

I tried it on my HG Mr Bushido’s Ahead, and it worked like a charm. One thing: if you’re doing this on a kit with flexible rubber washers in the joints, leave the gap in them a bit smaller than required for the joint axle. It’ll still snap in fine, and you won’t end up with a loose joint (like the first leg I did this on. Insert cough here).

Anyway, major thanks to the excellent modelers on PLAMO (a good site if you like awesome), and extra super squishy thanks to “kite” for posting a pic of something that everyone except me knew how to do.

UPDATE: Turns out this is called a c-joint, or c-joint mod. Of course. Now that I know how to do it, I can’t stop finding information on it everywhere.

^{*Having said that, I’m sure there is a kit out there that will cost you $400, never look good no matter how hard you work on it, and still run off with your wife.}

5 Model Kits I Want That Will Never Exist

I’ve only recently been reintroduced to plastic modeling; before the recent wave of kits that I’ve been working on, it’s been almost 15 years since my last X-acto knife injury or accidental glue euphoria. But despite not actively working on anything in that time, the interest has stayed with me. I’m kinda like a nerd sleeper agent in that way.

The nice thing about coming back to the hobby after so long is that the quality of the kits has really improved across the board. There must have been huge strides in injection molding since 1995 or something*. Anyway, along with the technological advances has come a lot of cool kits, and I’ve been lucky enough to grab up some of my faves. But there are some gaps in my kit lust that can never be filled. My full wish list is longer, but here are the top 5:

#5: UN VTOL Aircraft from NGE

"Fire ze missiles! Uh...again!"

This cool Osprey-like aircraft appears prominently in the first episode of Neon Genesis Evangelion, and once again in the Death/Rebirth and End of Evangelion movies. It’s kinda like an upside-down Hind with jets instead of rotors, except that’s not what it looks like at all. I may as well tell you it’s a cross between a Pontiac Aztek and a leprechaun.

But description-defying aside, it’s got a great, believable design while still appearing firmly entrenched in science fiction.

Why it won’t ever exist: The Evangelion series is pretty long in the tooth now by anime standards (it’s even been rebooted), with many different types of merchandise, and I’m not sure there’s any demand for a kit of a 3rd or 4th tier support aircraft that appears on screen for 45 seconds, especially if no one has made one by now. But please, Bandai or Hasegawa, prove me wrong.

#4 El Dorado Ultimate (Gun X Sword)

Also available: the Elbows of Minor Irritation

I may have mentioned it before, but I love Gun X Sword. I think it’s a great little show, and I have hardly any nitpicks with it. It’s got a nice blend of drama, comedy, and action, and the animation quality is very consistent across the episodes. Also, it has giant robots in it, and they call them “armors”, which is very cool.

The El Dorado is an homage to both super-sentai and super robot shows, and it’s quite adorable. And, uh, all tough and crap! Boobs! Explosions! Yeah. Manliness.

Anyway, I really dig the chunkiness of the contours. Not in small part because I had several Godaikin robots growing up, and the El Dorado is reminiscent of the Dancougar and GoLion/Voltron designs. My love for mecha started with the 1970s robot-design aesthetic, and I’ve never let it get too far out of my system.

Why it won’t ever exist: There isn’t a lot of merchandise for this show for some reason, save a couple statues of Carmen 99 and a fairly expensive Dann toy. I’m guessing it just isn’t as popular as some other series. If they haven’t made a kit of Dann, the main armor in the show (they haven’t), they’re not going to make a kit of the El Dorado. Frowny face.

#3 G.Kaiser/Kikaioh (Tech Romancer)

Hitting you so hard you see Japanese syllabary

I only got into Tech Romancer 10 years after it came out on the Dreamcast, but it is awesome. Turns out it’s one of my favorite titles on a system with a fantastic game library. Even if it was absolute crap, however, it is stuffed to the brim with awesome robot designs. This part is not a surprise: the mechanical designs were handled by Studio Nue, the same people responsible for the entire Macross series, and employer of Shoji Kawamori.

Also not  a surprise: my favorite is the one that looks like a super robot from the 70s.

I know this list is specifically about plastic model kits, but this is the one item in the list that I would want even if it was a completed figure. Having G.Kaiser appear in the Soul of Chogokin line of toys by Bandai would totally satisfy me. You can see more shots of the Soul of Chogokin toy line here at CollectionDX.

To be fair, there may be a kit related to this mecha, but I’m not sure if it actually exists, and, frankly, it sucks. This may warrant a list of the Top 5 Model Kits I Want to See Remade Because the Available One is Total Crap. But I digress.

Why it won’t ever exist: Well, outside of the little loophole above, it’s a design from an out-of-print game that didn’t spawn any sequels on a discontinued system, and I’m just not sure who else is clamoring for this to be realized in sweet, sweet plastic.

#2 Any Mecha from Gunbuster 2/Diebuster

My wife says, "Die, buster!" just before she attacks, though I'm not sure it's the same thing.

There does exist a Revoltech figure of Dix Neuf, my favorite mecha from this series, but that doesn’t count, no matter how cool it is. And though I would like to see someone make a nice injection kit of Dix Neuf, I am actually okay with ANY mecha from this series being produced in plastic form.

As an aside, if you haven’t watched this show, you need to pick it up. It’s even on Netflix if you’re not willing to commit to a full purchase. The animation is fantastic, and the overall production design is jaw-dropping.

Oh, and the story is enjoyable too, but pshh…story. Look at the robots!

Why it won’t ever exist: There is no good reason why not. Maybe I’ll actually luck out on this one.

#1 The ship from Galaga

pew pew

I don’t think it even has a name. I think it’s called “the ship from Galaga“. This little sprite is probably my favorite spaceship design in the universe. I don’t have anything else to say, really. I like it, and I want it.

Recently, another favorite spaceship of mine from an old game was realized in plastic, the Silpheed, so this may not be as far-fetched as I seem to think it is.

Why it won’t ever exist: I think the main problem is that it’s two-dimensional, and it’s probably 20 pixels wide. Any sculptor trying to tackle this would have to take some major liberties just to get it thicker than a cookie. And, of course, there is the constant threat that someone will eat it before you get to that point. Either way, it’s probably not gonna happen.

Great. And now not only do I lament not being able to get these kits, but I also want a cookie.

^{*And now I have a topic for my next blog entry: The Top 10 Least Interesting Things I’ve Ever Said.}

First attempts at scribing

I started building the Hasegawa Egg Plane F-16 that I referenced in this post.

I’m not an aircraft or military buff, but I’m a big fan of the F-16 design-wise; I might even want to build a 1/72 or a 1/48 scale one of these days just because it’s so cool-looking. I even played through 95% of Ace Combat 6 with it just because I didn’t want to fly an uglier, superior plane (I’m looking at you, F-22 Raptor).

I’m also a big fan of Galaga and cute things. Why did I tell you this last part, you may ask? Because my plan is to mildly mod this egg plane into a cutesy version of the ship from Galaga.

Anyway, major assembly and seam-fixing is done. One little thing about the egg planes: not a lot of surface detail. It’s a beautiful kit, especially for the price (fits together great), but it lacks panel lines. And I loves me some panel lines. It’s platonic.

After reading a bunch of posts on the subject, I decided to try and add panel lines to the model.

^{See that? Yeah. I made it.}

It’s actually not as hard as I was expecting, though my technique needs a lot of work. I have limited supplies and no templates, so I just basically attacked the thing with an X-acto knife and some modeling tape, and you can too.

At the time I decided to document this, I’d already completed the nose cone (more of a “rescribe” after seam-filling), a large bay on one side, and one access panel. I’m going to cover what I did to add the second access panel, but you can apply the same technique to any shape, including long straight lines.

First, I cut out a panel shape from my Tamiya masking tape and placed it on the body of the kit (this was the second of two identical pieces I cut before I began the first panel)

^{The tape in place. You can see another, larger panel I’d already scribed on this side. Not pictured: my shame at not having a brand-name X-acto knife.}

Once the tape was in place, I ran the back of the X-acto lightly across the edge of the tape. You have to do this with practically zero additional pressure, or your knife will skip, stray, or push your tape into an unrecognizable mess. I ran it across each side somewhere between 10-20 times. Again, apply no additional pressure: you’ll feel nothing for the first 4-5 strokes of the knife, then suddenly you’ll feel it “catch”. At that point it’s pretty easy to keep the knife from straying from the groove. Repeat the same method on each side of the tape, and then peel the tape off. You should see a faint etching of the shape on the model.

If I was really clever, I would’ve taken a photo of that step. Instead, you get this:

^{Above: Authenticity}

With the tape out of the way, I continued to scribe the lines with the back of my off-brand X-acto knife. Probably another 20 strokes per line or so. This inadvertently raises the edges of the cut, giving the surface of the plastic an uneven texture. With the panel lines being fairly deep at this point, it was safe to sand off the relief. This will also eliminate small scratches and deviations*. I used a 400-grit sanding stick at this stage, then went over it again with 600 or 800-grit to eliminate the larger scratches.

^{Small particles of plastic dust will fill your painstakingly etched lines. This is normal. The feelings of despair are also normal.}

That done, I used a modeling-dedicated toothbrush and some gentle scraping with the X-acto to remove the plastic dust from the newly scribed lines, and voila!

^{Above: What voila looks like}

I actually went back at it with the sandpaper to remove more scratches, but when I was done, I had two symmetrical(ish) access panels on the nose of my Egg Plane:

^{Factory-esque results. Depending on the crappiness of your factory.}

I did the same thing to deal with the raised lines on the wings, just sans-tape. The raised ridge in the original mold was enough to guide the knife.

Lack of failure by this time emboldened me enough to do the flaps as well.

^{Pictured: A surprising lack of sucking}

And that’s about it. I’m debating adding more actual panel lines as opposed to the hatches. I can already see how this can go terribly awry if you let yourself go crazy with the scribing, though, so I may quit while I’m ahead.

If you do try this out — particularly if you’re like me and have only a knife and some tape to guide you — go slow and press lightly. Hell, don’t press at all. I got fewer scratches and better results when I took a gentler approach. The instructions I read encouraged a light touch, too, but seriously, this cannot be overemphasized.

These posts and blogs were indispensable in giving me the courage to try this, so check them out for more detailed explanations and actual instructions:

http://nelman.blogspot.com/2008/09/poor-mans-gunpla-scribing-panel-lines.html
http://www.swannysmodels.com/Scribing.html
http://www.clubhyper.com/reference/rescribingda_1.htm

_{*To be clear, I mean deviations from your intended panel line. Your fetish for large-butted Asian librarians will remain intact. Mine did, anyway.}

Chemistry wins again

Ugh.

Okay, long story short, I have had zero luck building this little kit. It’s a BB Strike Noir Gundam by Bandai in my custom color scheme (Strike Blanc? Infinite Pinkness?). It was about $9 from Hobbytown, if memory serves. I like to go full-throttle even on these dinky models so I filled all the seams and glued all the fixed joints. I really wanted it to kick ass.

It didn’t.

Here’s the Cliff’s Notes timeline:

1 Preshaded the helmet way too early, forcing me to mask off large portions of the face that I’d already assembled and painted so that I could fill the seams and repaint. The masking tape pulled the paint right off those areas.

2 Had to repaint the shoulders due to bad planning (like the helmet), but did not fully strip the previous coat of paint. Left texture on the top edges where I fixed the seams. Sanded like a mofo*, repainted 3x, finally was satisfied.

3 It fell off the drying mount. The whole thing. Major dings to the torso and helmet.

4 Enamel panel line wash failed completely. Attempts to clean up actually stripped the basecoat in those areas. Had to bathe the entire torso and legs in a Simple Green bath and start from scratch.

5 2nd time around on the torso was great. Preshading went off without a hitch. This is arguably the best the model ever got, before –

6 It fell off the drying mount again. This time I made no effort to fix the nicks that the impact produced.

7 Coated it in Future in prep for the panel line wash (take 2). The wind blew over the drying mount, and I instinctively caught the model — embedding giant fingerprints in the gloss coat**. But by this point I was starting to get beyond caring, so I waited for it to dry and gently wet sanded the fingerprints out.

8 To avoid a repeat of #4, I used acrylics for the panel line wash. It didn’t work great, but it worked, so I was happy. Better than panel lining with Microns, anyway.

9 Applied ill-advised custom decals. The UN one looks okay, but the 99 is more like 9   9. Don’t know why I thought that was okay at the time.

10 Flat coated the model to seal the decals and kill the sheen. This was the crowning horror. When the laquer-based matte spray hit the panel lines, the wash ran everywhere(!)  covering the model in the large puddles you see in the annotated photo in the header.

I actually don’t understand why that happened — the wash had been dry for 24 hours. I guess I should’ve hit it with another coat of Future before I applied the matte spray. Or used ink instead of acrylic for the wash…or something. I dunno.

I could go back to square one at this point, but I’m not going to. I’m DONE with this model. I’ll keep it around to try new techniques (this is a great candidate for pastel weathering — something I’ve been dying to try), but otherwise I’m writing it off.

Goodbye, Strike. May flights of smudgy angels sing thee to thy rest… On my shelf.

^{Above: Paintjob #2, just before the 2nd panel line wash. The torso hadn’t hit the ground a second time by this point. Still a couple nicks on his face from the tape disaster and the first fall, but otherwise sitting pretty. You can see some of the subtle preshading here on the torso and wings.}

^{Above: Panel line wash#2 and post fall #2. Exposed plastic at the top edge of the left wing is visible. Acrylic is so fragile.}

^{Above: Panel line wash #2, and post fall #2. You can see several dings in the finish on the torso, and the tips of the wings are showing exposed plastic. Also some nasty pooling on the waist armor, but I was willing to live with it.}

^{Above: Flat coated! Oh, and ruined! Notice how the panel lines on the wing were exempt from the reaction? I don’t know what that means either.}

*Mofos being known for how much they love to sand.

**Because I was using my Giant Hands that day, you see.