Thursday, June 27, 2013

Mk-II Walkthrough Part 1: Denubbing and Assembly


On to part 1 of my MG Mk-II modeling walk through! This post will cover everything related to the assembly process. I'll be approaching this build with regards to painting, but considering that a lot of people just enjoy snap building their gunpla, I'll also include some tips to help your unpainted models look their best. Read on to get started!

Sunday, June 16, 2013

MG Mk-II Walkthrough: Intro


After a month long trip to Singapore, I'm back and writing some posts again. As my first summer project, I've decided to write a walkthrough that documents my modeling process from start to finish. Although others have done this sort of thing before, I think that seeing how different modelers work can be very beneficial to those just getting into Gunpla. For this walkthrough, I will be building and painting the MG Mk-II Titans Ver 2.0. Despite being one of the first kits to receive the 2.0 treatment, the Mk-II is a very solid kit with some awesome articulation. I'm looking forward to building this kit and I'm excited to document my progress. My next post will cover the very first steps: tools, denubbing, and construction in general. Thanks for reading, I hope to make these tutorials very informative!

Although I was unable to paint or write any posts while I was away, I did talk to some very knowledgeable modelers and pick up a few supplies. For anyone interested, read on for details!

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Completed MG Astray "Sky Blue" Commission


The MG Astray "Sky Blue" Frame is complete, and it's hard for me to even imagine it being red at this point. This was a great project, and I had a lot of fun doing the custom paint job. I'll be parting ways with it soon though, and I'm very excited to hear what my client thinks! If you'd like your own commission just shoot me an email and I'd be happy to see what I can do:

Gunplacore Commissions

More pictures after the break!

Saturday, May 11, 2013

MG Astray Commission WIP 2


For anyone who didn't see the first WIP, this is a commissioned project I've been working on for a few weeks. It's a Master Grade Astray Red Frame with a custom sky blue and black color scheme. I've been making steady progress but life tends to get in the way. Thankfully I should have plenty of free time for a while. Everything is going smoothly and I've just about completed the Mobile Suit itself. Read on for some of my processes.

Monday, May 6, 2013

Iwata Power Jet Review


I've recently started to airbrush a lot more and it came to my attention that my current compressor just wasn't going to cut it long term. I've been using the Iwata Smart Jet for close to 8 months now and it's a great compressor. The only problem is that I like to airbrush at around 20 psi, 12-15 if I'm spraying Alclad or pre-shading, and the Smart Jet has no air regulator; only a bleed valve and an air pressure gauge. This means that it was constantly running while I airbrushed, and believe me, that thing gets hot! I decided to upgrade to the Iwata Power Jet and thought I'd do a product review for anyone interested since I couldn't find a single review for this thing online. Read on for the details.

Friday, April 26, 2013

MG Astray Commission WIP

 

A couple weeks ago I was commissioned to paint an MG Astray Red Frame. My client requested a blue or teal frame with black armor plating. After a little bit of planning, and some terrible attempts at line art (seriously, where do you guys find the templates for your line art) I got down to work. Keep reading for the completed inner frame!

Monday, April 22, 2013

Tutorial: Easy Photo Setups


Gunpla is, for the most part, a solitary activity. The average Gundam Modeler spends hours locked away in their bedroom or basement, toiling away to craft the next best Mobile Suit. When you finally finish that awesome kit that you've been working on for so long, do you just put it on a shelf and let it gather dust? No! You want to show it to people and get critiques and compliments; and to do that, you need to take nice photos. Believe it or not, it's actually quite easy. I see a lot of people advocating light boxes for gunpla photography, but I've found a couple ways to get great results with simple desktop setups. I am by no means a professional photographer, but I wanted to share these methods for anyone interested.