20 March 2009

Diorama completion and Tieren

Well, the diorama might be completed,... but I'm not really satisfied,... although I knew, the Diorama will be plain,... it just looks,... kinda,... too plain.
Anyways, it was my first, mainly used for practice.



I like the Sand color, but it is really difficult to get some dynamic poses.
And it's meant to be only a part of a dune, and NOT the dune itself, so,... try to ignore the margin :/
Anyways, maybe I'm more useful in modding the models than in building some diorama for it.
Speaking of it, I'm currently working on a 1/100 Tieren (land type) from the Anime 'Gundam 00'
I intend to built some LEDs in the shoulders and behind the eye, but last might not work, since the eyepiece is damn small.



If you compare the Tieren to the Zaku, you can clearly see, that the Tieren is the Zaku equivalent in the 'Anno Domini' Gundam timeline.
1st of all, the design. The Tieren features like the ZakuII a Monoeye and shoulder mounted shields and the roll-out colorsheme.
As well as the serial number.
The ZakuII is the MS-06 [additional letter for specific type, like F for space or J for Landtype, C for cannon etc.)
The Tieren is the MSJ-06II-[Letter for specific type, like A for ground type]
Last, but not least, both Mecha have a lot of variations, like Cannon types, high-mobility types etc.

Currently working on the shoulder lights, and it's currently going well, the shoulder lights will be soldered tomorrow.
But don't expect to get a light-up Tieren-eye, it seems to be easier to have a ZakuII-Eye light up instead the Tierens.... Well, let's wait and see.

17 March 2009

Custom Zaku and Diorama Progress

While waiting for the color on my Dom to dry, I repainted my Custom Zaku II.
The first version was painted using Gundam Marker

I liked the color-sheme, but I really wasn't satisfied with my paint job, that's why I redid it.


Compared to the 'Marker version', the black is a bit darker and the gold a bit brighter.
But I didn't paint the shoulder spikes, the antenna and the shoulde shield.
Why?
I don't have a 'plated silver' color, and I don't want to lose this mirror-like effect the spikes and antenna have (Problem: the Marker are quiet hard and they scratch everything, and this looks like,... sh*t).
The shield wasn't colored because I already applied the Zeon decal. Unless I have an additional decal, I won't color the shield.
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On this picture, you can see, quiet some old, picture of my diorama progress.
Since I'm lazy, I won't do another photo, because it's almost completed.
The last thing I have to do, is to color the sand, which is already applied, as well as correct a few details on the Dom's leg.
In other words:
Only 1 color left,... the last step towards completion.

12 March 2009

Colored Celestial Being Action Base

I finally started working on my diorama,... again,
While the color of my 'soon to be finished' GM needs to dry, I (almost) finished my Celestial Being Action Base. Initially, I bought the white version instead the OO-Raiser pack, including the clear green version, because I always wanted to color mine. I wouldn't dare to color the green one, because a) it's (meant to be) a limited item, and b) the pole, needed for the action poses, would be green, but I think the clear noncolored pole fits alot better!

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At a few locations, some blue went beneath the masking film. After the blue dried, I'll need to mask the blue areas and air brush a bit the 'infected', yellow areas to improve the result.
After all, I'm really satisfied with the result, being my first victim, which was airbrushed ;)

08 March 2009

Light up Z'Gok (Char Aznable color, MG)

Still not finished with my diorama ( i'm working on it,... i hope to finish the GM this month and the terrain, with the Dom the only component remaining), but I want to show you some (although) old, but modded Mastergrade kit.


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Can you see what it is? (Unless you didn't read the topic) It's a Mastergrade Z'Gok, and it's Char's!
I really like the Z'Gok, and I can say, it's my favourite amphibious Mobile Suit. (As well as Z'Gok-E and Hy Gogg).
While writing this, I regret that I didn't take any photos of the modding process.
The Eye was initially a sticker on a clear part (lense), which is connected by some kind of pole to a wheel, which can be twisted in order to move the eye.
I removed the lense and drilled some holes. The LED I used fit perfectly! After the LED was inserted, I drilled a hole between Torso and Head unit. Inside the Torso, I stored some additional wire, in order to keep the eye poseable.
Last I drilled a hole between between torso an waist. and that's it!
Now, there is about half a metre of wire going from the waist to the batteryclip.
Again, I'm very sorry that I don't have any photos of the modding process itself.
I really hope that I won't forget to take photos next time I'll do a modding.

Speaking of modding, the next modded Gunpla will (hopefully) be the 1/100 Tieren.
Why 'hopefully'?
Like with the Z'Gok, I don't have any clue on how big the 'to be modified' parts are right now.
I'll need to wait for the kit, check with my red LED's which I still have, if there's enough space. If this is positive, i gonna buy 2 white and/or 1 UV LED light.

Now, a little bit about my diorama.
Here you got 2 Pictures of the 'alpha' version. Which is mainly for determining poses, which the models will have eventually.
Note that the Dom isn't finished yet and that the GM isn't my 'airbrush' GM (currently waiting for surfacing the 'white' (some kind of very bright brown) parts (orange is finished))

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I won't use this styrofoam base for the dune, I'll save this piece of Styrofoam for some kind of cliff or building or whatever.
The Dom Tropen will mimmick the pose of the Dom from the original Mobile Suit Gundam anime. (Jet Stream Attack. anyone?) Whereas the GM is supposed to slide downwards (and being surprisingly attacked by the Dom)