Restartt Hobby

Last time I mentioned a meetup, it was checking out the local hobby shops "come and build models (mostly gunpla)" night. Like 10 people around 3 tables in the gaming area of a hobby store. More recently, the local Gunpla specific club held a big meetup I think they do like every other month or so.  There was a theme of"hey bring your red or aquatic suits to show off/build" but you didn't have to, just a suggestion.  Still, I was eager to go, and I had a Lunamaria preordered that MIGHT just make it in on time.  Man, that lunamaria is a sweet looking kit. Sadly, that didn't make it, so on my way over I stopped by the local barnes and noble, the only gunpla store within 25 minutes.  The only reddish kit they had was the Heine Westenfluss Destiny Gundam.  I had never seen the show and wasn't familiar with the person or the suit. Luckily, it looked pretty cool and slighly reddish, so I sprung for it thinking, what the heck. Man am I glad I did. T...

While browsing the local hobby store, I came across this! I had a selection of hobby tools and another kit in hand, and NO idea what a universal unit was, but for $10, I'll try it. Apparently in Asia, these come with soda gum. The US distributor (bluefin) distributes a version without it, rather than try and deal with making sure they can safely import food overseas and whatever regulations are added there. I was informed by several other gunpla enthusiasts online and in person I'm not missing anything special. On to the build! So its pretty simple. The box folds out to be "instructions". the parts aren't labeled, but with so few you know what they are. The body/head came assembled but is actually like 5 pieces (the 2 front skirt flaps turn up together, the torso slides up off the waist, the torso is 2 pieces, and the head comes off. THEY DO NOT DO GOOD NUB REMOVAL. I had some divots and stress on these pieces. Do not get these if you want to...

A quick build post - just made my first Zaku, the MS-06CK halfcannon!  Don't worry, there will be plenty more, but I just love the browns on him.  Fits really well with the "late OYW" 1/144 stuff I'm kinda starting with. For you lore nerds, why you didn't see more of these basically normal zaku with a Zaku Cannon backpack strapped on (yeah it wasn't even special built like this), it seems like a great idea, but the cannon recoil was so much that unless dug in or laying down they'd often topple themselves over with the cannons power, and even if they didn't the stress affected the machine. So very limited numbers were built. Still, cool kits! I wont bother you all with too much talking about it, as it's the standard origin Zaku, just with a backpack that mounts two big waist guns and either a shoulder cannon or a shoulder gatling gun. (I opted for one waist gun, the gatling shoulder, and a mounted axe, with the gatling hand free to point). The...

Well, I already know a few things I'd do differently on this serpent custom.  Namely, Instead of doing all this work to each piece, I'd still do nub removal as I go, but I'd assembly the whole kit unprimed, and sand down seams and whatnot. Then I'd dssassemble back into sub assemblies (basically solid pieces, taking apart at each joint), and wash those.  Once dry, I'd just mask any interior joint parts, and then prime then paint as assemblies. But anyways, don't expect a lot of progress today.  This is a post to update on why I haven't made progress, though not for lack of effort.  But sometimes, when doing something new, it takes some time.  You've got to try a lot of things, and some wont work, and that's OK, that's part of the process. Just keep experimenting and never giving up. So: I was going to do blue digital camo.  I had like 6mm masking tape as my smallest masking tape.  This stuff: Now, this stuff seems just too wide to get a ...

Time to take a break from the plastic, and work with some metal! If you've no connection with pop or nerd culture what-so-ever, that's the AT-AT walker from STAR WARS. This kit I was actually really excited to get to, as it holds some personal significance to me. If you dont care about that stuff skip this paragraph, but otherwise: I just found it again while organizing some gaming stuff. I picked this up with some of the store credit I got from an Android:Netrunner regional. First off, Android:Netrunner is one of my favorite games of all time, and if you haven't checked it out you absolutely should, its still a fantastic game and I believe the NISEI organization that currently runs it is going to be coming out with some starter friendly stuff soon. But anyways, my friends and I were into this game very competitively for several years, in that we played it every thursday, had a local tournament every month or two, and during the competitive season we road trip...