WIP - 1/35 Dicker Max Part 4

Hello guys... Managed to squeezed some time out and put some small stuffs on the D.Max ...

Im quite embarrased to say this but I have no idea if this is actually how the rounds are stored but IMO, it was the only logical things so I just went ahead and did this -

and the ammunation boxes are arranged as follow -

I'm assuming the longer one is where the charges are stored and the smaller omes, the shells ( Gonna have to find out )

Followed by some bibs and bobs on the rear upper wall of the super structure, I believe that is the Rammer  -

Made the jack, put on the PE on it and glued down with CA -

Replaced the Kit's shovel with the Eduard PE part and managed to put it on nice and tight into the cover -

Followed by what I belived to be gun cleaning rods -

In the next two picture, you will see what happens when laziness strikes.. LOOL
I got sooo lazy to paint the tyres individually that I just pour some vallejo model colour black ( only slightly thinned) and just dump the tyres into the paint like so -

after a few more minutes ... VOILA -

Its good to be lazy sometimes... LOL.. saves me alot of time ...

And to prepare for the track application ( which is a nightmare for me ), I painted the lower hull and wheels and suspensions beforehand and put on the tyres on the wheels like so -



Now, I can focus on putting on the freaking tracks .. Gosh, I hate them... well, wish me luck ... thank you for the support as always and stay tuned for more

And my Muse for this update ... ENJOY

Read more >>

WIP NG Providence - Part 2

Right ... so in order to satisfy my need for modding, I continued on with this guy ... although, with my current life and situation, I can't do time consuming big mods so I do apologize in advance... 

Ok.... so I was never heavy with how this thing look with huge shoulders and quite normal legs so I decided to build up a side boosters for them -
I started off with a block over the sides- 

and extended them further like so - 

and after that, I just glued on the little koto vents like so and voila -

And I decided to extend the thighs to compensate for the extended length of the waists and the elbows -

They are extended by exactly 4.5mm, if anybody is wondering how much.

This is the ''before '' shot -

and This is the '' after '' shot -

I really hated the NG hands that came along with the kits so decided to used the movable fingers that I bought a year ago.. :P

I love those hands, be careful though, they are quite a bit on the  fragile side

And to further explain what I did next, I have to re-cap on the previous work -

As you can see, the top part of the elbow joint block looks ugly without anything to fill in the gap between the joint and the upper arm part ( the Red part ). So after tweaking around- I put on a small slab like so -

Its still messy but you can see a small plate going into the upper arm ... it also cover the huge gap when looking from behind as well so it was a two bird with one stone work. 

I noticed the front part of the elbow is really boring so I put on a koto part that I saw lying around and I also put on some putty over the curvy portion of the red parts to flash out the curvy portions and make then rectangular to coincide with the rest of the boxy features of the kit -

What comes next would paint staking hours of sanding to get a nice, flash, upper arm ... hooo boy 

Well, like I said, I haven't done anything big so this is all I can update at this time. Sorry in advance and Thank you for your support as always and please stay tuned. 

And here's the muse for the update today .. ( lately I been listening to cyber/industrial music ) -

Enjoy

Read more >>

WIP NG Providence - Part 1

Hello beautiful people .... Miss me ?? Well, here I am .. :P 

Nothing too special about this WIP .. I recently acquired an Iwata HP-CS and I want to paint more and I thought well, I should paint the Providence but then the Scratch building Shinigami in this little bird said - '' Gary, mod something '' and I just gave in to the Shinigami's will :P 

If you guys are wondering, this is the kit -

and IF any of you guys are familiar with this guy, he come with a single joint elbow ( darn you bandai )
So, I had to sit down and start figuring out how to give this guy a double joint elbow after 4 hours of brain storming and digging into my spare parts- 
I made this -

The red parts comes from my HG Bushido Ahead.

followed up by a evening of brain storming and test fitting and came up with the elbow block -

The block is build around a plastic rod.

All together, they look like this when connected - 

which allow the elbows to move like this - 

Following the elbow mod, the arm become a little long so I had to compensate the other parts for proportion sake. The Providence already has a little bit dis-proportionate torso so I decided to extend the waist by 4.5 mm 

To further secure the waist to the peg on the groin, I drilled a hole and put in a polycap like so-

All together, this guy looks like this now - 

I still need to refine the edges and a lot of sanding to come up next ... ugh .. sanding ...  (sicker) (sicker) (sicker) (sicker)

Anyway, Happy to be back to modding and stay tuned for more
While I'm at it, I feel like sharing my muse for this update -

ENJOY

Read more >>

WIP - 1/35 Dicker Max Part 3

Right so I managed to do some more work on this guy 

I manged to put on those tiny little pieces of PE on those already small little parts .. oh my eyes -

another shot of the same stuffs -

That's the complete list of tools on the left fender minus the spare tracks

And I managed ( barely) to put to make the jacking blocks and put them in the brackets and whatever they are called and finally, on the right fender 
The entire thing looks like crap due to the complicated build process but im guess it should be fine from afar and after primer ( fingers crossed ) 


Next, I decided to build the gun ... I started with the breech ... I knew the front would be heavy and after some research, I found out that other people moan about how heavy the barrel is if the Aluminium barrel is used and thus, I decided to improvise.
The gun breech is made up of 4 parts and after studying and dry fitting, I jammed down a fair amount of Milliput into the hollow parts of the breech like so -


After dry fitting and shifting around the putty, the gun breech goes up pretty beautifuly and with a solid and heavy feel to it -


Followed that with the gun mount which kept me PRETTY busy and made me swear alot out of frustation dealing with such tiny pieces and not to mention, the  geniuses at  Dragon was showing a mystery piece on the instruction and took me around an hour to finally realize that piece is not even on the sprues. I was left really pissed off but still, I pushed on and managed to put this up -


Everything goes on together well, including the gun shield -


The vertical traverse was so loose due to the mis match of the diameter of the holes on the gun mount so I drop a fair amount of cement and wait a few second and started moving the gun up and down along the axis so that it won't dry completely and at the same time, make the fixing a bit more tight 

More PE parts- the radio and a First aid box.. not as complicated as the Jacking block so it was done rather quickly -


Those two along with 2 more box of somekind goes on the wall of the Superstructure -


Put on the Muzzle Brake after that 

I decided to put on some texture ( don't know why )

and dry fitting everything, this is how it looks now -


All in all, I am having fun setting this baby up ... 
well, that's it for this update... stay tuned and thanks for all the suppor

Read more >>

A few words about Airbrushes from my good Friend

Right.. it has been a while since I have posted a tutorial but this is not really a tutorial but rather a sharing of some great ( and I do mean great ) points regarding airbrushes from an artist who does this for a living.

His name is Chriz Zeigler and apart from looking like a big mean ogre with huge shrek-like hands, he's a great guy and really great with airbrushes that have earned him the title, '' The Colour Whisperer ''.  Many of you guys who frequent to the Mecha Lounge Forum will recognize this lovable giant as Big Z. Do drop by to his company's page on FB here to check out his works, oh, and he also takes custom paint work order as well. So, if you have a motercycle helmet or something that need some sick paint work, he's the one to go to.

Okay... now that introduction is done, lets get on it ....
Out of the woodwork, he made a video giving out some great pointers for those who just got their first Airbrushes



So if you got your first Airbrush or still a noob in using Airbrush ...

WATCH THIS

I just couldn't stress it enough.....

You will definitely get clogged Airbrushes and you will need to maintain your Airbrushes in tip top condition. In the next video, Chris talked about how to do just that.



So you are , like me , still suck at maintaining your Airbrushes, you definitely have to watch this.

NEXT up, he made a video talking about primer and base coat. Speaking about primer, I made this particular blog post, resharing a great article. So many people asked the same dumb question without researching '' Do I have to use Primer?? ''... and the answer to that is , YES. Chris even mention that in this video as well so use Primer.




Now, those three videos should be able to make you ready for airbrushes. Many a modellers asked how to start using Airbrushes and said they are sacred of it and blah blah... but as you can see here, it is your greatest weapon. So use it as soon as you can afford it.

Well, then, that's it for this post and I hope What the '' Colour Whisperer'' said in those videos are benefical for you. They surely were for me, especially the very first video. All credit goes to Chris and don't forget to check out his works on FB or his finished model kits on the Mecha Lounge.

Until Next post and Happy modelling, you guys ......

Read more >>

WIP - 1/35 Dicker Max Part 2

Alright guys ... I got an update for you guys .... I was dreading this as I don't have any experiences dealing with PZIV suspensions but hey, that's always the first try so gritting my teeth, I manage to put them on like no- Following up by those little pieces between the bogies ( I honstely don't know what they are called) After that, I pou on the front glacis plate and the little hub for the driver. The driver hatch is still left open as I cannot decide whether to put in a driver figure or not Following that is a Transmission block for each side As usual from Dragon, The freaking instruction was not clear and I ended up with these transmissions :/ Skipping ahead and I tried to put on some PE on some tool boxes The tool box goes on and so are those two supports ( I guess ) for the super structure Followed by the Idler wheels with the PE from the kit and the Idler wheels axel - and 16 road wheels that are still without the rubber rim and I skipped ahead the instruction and started putting some tools on the fenders. So many PE to put on and progress is really slow so I have finished only two ... That's it for this update .... until next update ... stay tuned.

Read more >>