Changes to the page and an Interview with Dragon Forge Designs!

So if you've been following this blog over the last couple months you'll know there's been a series of changes to it. I deployed an entire new theme for the website giving it a cleaner more stream lined look and improved the navigational abilities in the website. I expanded my model exploration to beyond Warhammer 40,000 into Gundam Models. Well now I am expanding again, but this time into social media. Yes, I now have a Facebook page, and a Twitter...

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So, trying something...

So on a pure "Hmm that could be cool" kind of moment I picked up a set of 1/100 scale MS Effects. These are clear plastic pieces that are meant to be used to present beam saber and engine blast effects. I didn't have a particular plan for them. I just got them because... hey maybe I'll have an idea for them down the line.  Well I had an idea for them. Specifically mounting an LED inside of them, and coloring the plastic so that it lights...

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Project: Heavy Arms Rebuild #6

Okay, so the name of the game today is "Fabrication". As you've seen I've made a series of changes to the model to bring it more in line with how the Heavy Arms appeared in the anime series and with those changes comes the need to actually build new parts. The best example of this is in the chest, where I used the 2 larger gatling cannons to replace the four smaller ones.  The part of the model that was originally intended to go in there...

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Project: Heavy Arms Rebuild #5

The head is coming along: So, just getting the colors on here: I've got a Tamyia white spray base, Citadel Mephiston Red, and a Gundam Marker Black for the lines. 3 separate companies products, with 3 different colors on a piece the size of a my thumb. I find some kind of weird irony in that. Also got the eyes, and head optic colored as well. The black is the basic Tamyia black paint, with the eyes and optic picked out that nuclear waste...

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Project: Heavy Arms Rebuild #4

Managed to get some paint down on Heavy Arms today. Well, okay a pretty good amount of paint. As you can see I got the chest painted, primed the shoulders, touched up parts of the torso, and did some detailing on the shoulder cannons. I need to come back around with a second coat of white for the shoulders. The shoulder cannon housings were painted in that Dark Sea grey color Tamyia paint. Then I came back with Nuln Oil from the Citadel Shade...

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Project: Heavy Arms Rebuild #3

So, I encountered my first real 'oops' moment for this project: The chest. Or rather the covers for the chest cavity. The larger gatling cannon barrels I inserted sit just higher enough compared to the original part that it very very slightly interfered with the panels staying closed by their original design mechanism. Well I used a trick from my warhammer projects to rectify this problem: Magnets! Yep, I counter sunk 2 pairs of magnets on the...

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Project: Heavy Arms Rebuild #2

Show some leg baby! Okay, maybe not. The idea of a 200 tonne mecha doing a Can-can is slightly terrifying in my mind. But I am working on the legs of the Heavy Arms model. The Endless Waltz version of the Heavy Arms mounts 2 missile pods on each leg while the TV version only had one such pod on each leg. So for my model, one of  'em had to go. Simple enough, just don't use the 2nd pair of missile pods. The catch is that leaves the mounting...

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Project: Heavy Arms Rebuild #1

So first progress in rebuilding the Endless Waltz Heavy Arms Custom into the TV version of the Heavy Arms, namely converting one of those monstrous double barreled Gatling cannons into a single barreled version. Converting it was actually fairly simple. Take the front mounting plate, the part that would otherwise have 2 mounting points for the two barrels, and cut off the mounting ports. Just make a clean cut right down the bottom of them. That...

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New Gundam project: Heavy Arms!

So with the 1/144 Wing Gundam now complete I've found myself revisiting Gundam Wing in other ways. The OVA follow up the original series Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz introduced re-designed versions of the major Mobile suits that had featured in the series. All of these Endless Walts versions received 1/100 scale version models of them, even if the original version never got one. The Gundam Heavy Arms is one such example of this. There never was a...

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Project Wing Gundam #6

"Target, acquired!" Wing Gundam Takes flight! So the Wing Gundam is complete! I posed it in a way to imitate several shots of it shown through out the Gundam Wing Series where it was effectively falling backwards, had it's shield positioned to protect it's pilot from enemy fire, and took aim with it's Buster rifle over the level of the shield. This was an enjoyable project and I learned a lot about working with the Tamyia brand paints. I...

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Project Wing Gundam #5

So been hammering out work on the Wing Gundam. Actually made a lot of progress in the last couple days. As I previously mention I got the blues and red painted with the faux-special coating effect and gotten the buster rifle painted. I had to track down a fine-line black Gundam paint marker and was able to use that to apply the panel lining on the white parts of the model. You can see a good example of the panel lining here: The lines on the...

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Project Wing Gundam #4

One of the biggest points in this project for me was learning to work with the Tamyia pants. I've only used a couple different types of paints of the years. When I was a child I used Testors brand oil paints because... well it's what i could get for $5 at Wal-mart when my mother went there for other stuff. They work... in that it allows you to put a colored medium on the model. When I got older and into 40k I started using Citadel Paints, or rather...

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Project Wing Gundam #3

Once again I'm working on the details of the model. Today I'm talking about the Torso and the head of the model. The real challenge here was actually the chin. It's red and thus would have the metallic red finish other red pieces would have, but the chin and the eyes are all one piece. Once again the kit has a sticker that is intended to be placed over the eyes to make them 'stand out'.  So I have to paint the entire part gloss aluminum,...

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Project Wing Gundam #2

Last time I talked about my plans for this project and how I was experimenting with alcohol based Tamyia paints.  Now I'm talking about the Wing Gundam model itself as I worked to apply those effects to the model. I had built a 1/144 scale Wing Gundam years ago, but that was actually a different kit to what I bought for this project. The new kit is a huge leap in quality and design over the old one. Better articulations, more detailed parts,...

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Project Wing Gundam #1

So I've been working on the Wing Gundam Model. There are a number of differences between the likes of Gundam Models and the likes of Warhammer models. These aren't notes of one being a better model over the other, simply differences in how the model was designed and what the end result of the model was intent to be. Warhammer models for instance are smaller and are typically what I call "Solid core" Parts, meaning the parts are generally solid hunks...

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