Tieren light up

Ok, first of all, modding the Tieren didn't take that long, like it did to find some time for this post.
I'll just start, without much talking. (I want to post this finally, since new models are waiting for being build).

This is the location. Here I'll install white LED's (on both sides) in order to achieve working head lights.

First image: 'Wow, drilling the hole will be easy!' Second picture (inside view): 'what the hell, why does Bandai have this bar inside the headlight case? It doesn't do ANYTHING, except being a disturbance drilling this away'

Well, drilling went quiet good (except I should have used a smaller one, but you doesn't notice this differenc with the head lights on, later on). Those 2 little remaining bars on the side inside the case,... well, they are like the one Bandai had: useless. Again, you won't notice them.

Here, I applied offcuts from various stickers,... well, I used parts of the sticker sheet of the Tieren, and the Dom Tropen. This little 'mirror' alone, increases the light output, by roughly at least 10%, and, at least in my oppinion, it looks alot better, than just being green (Speaking of the case).

Afterwards, I drilled 2 holes at the back of the headlight case, which is part of the shoulder itself. One hole for the Anode, and one for the Kathode of the LED.

Assembled shoulder head light, without any diffusor applied (yet).

The first test, with 2 AAA (series circuit).
This is required, since 1 AAA battery delivers 1,5V - in series, both voltages sum up, which results in having 3V, which were required for my LEDs.

This test was followed by soldering everything together - while the series circuit for the batteries worked well, it didn't work for the LED - which resulted in having the LED in parallel circuit. (I don't understand, why series didn't work (and yes, I checked the polarity of the LED's at least 10 times),... well, it works now, but it's still a mystery)

Final assembly - what you cannot see: with this 2 LED, I can light up my hole room (ok, not as bright like a ordinary lamp, but bright enough to not accidently kick my cat).

An old picture by now - at the time I took this photo, you were able to see the wire(s) at 3 locations - Nowadays, the upper wire on the picture is covered, so you'll only see the 2 wires (backpack and waist), which lead to the batteries.

The poseability of the shoulders is not affected by the modding process, i'm still able to move the shoulders for- and backwards, without wires being seen.

Well, next 'to be modified' model kit will be my Sefer Rasiel from the Dengeki Hobby Magazine (January and February issue 2009). The head, arms and the right hand will be made posable. Legs and feet won't be modified, because of the included display base from the Sefer kit, elbow can't be modified, since, according to Dengeki Hobby Magazin, I don't have HG Virtue elbows. Left hand neither can be modified, since the lack of spare left hands. (I only have a right hand of my HG kyrios left, nothing more).
(I didn't checked all my spare PolyCaps yet, but I'm quiet optimistic, regarding this.)

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.

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.

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.

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!

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 ;)

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.

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))

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)

A Prelude to the Airbrush

This weekend, i'll use my Airbrush for the first time, I'll start with coloring my Action Base 1 Celestial Being ver., or atleast, the yellow part, because I think it looks kinda plain,... just white,...

I'll use the Yellow to paint the Dom's Heatsabre afterwards, because I don't want to 'just start' with painting a model without at least a few experiences.

Anyways, today, the 'prelude', will consist of a new image of my OO-Raiser (double oh Gundam + O Raiser).

Well, what's so special?

I juste love those fluorescent colors, because... it looks cool!!! ^_^'
The eyes are painted green and this head 'jewel' is painted with help of many little pink dots :) (in order to achive the pink to be not noticeable, or at least less noticeable, with daylight etc.)

I really can recommend fluorescent gundam marker if you happen to have a black light near your display.

Another idea I might give a try sooner or later (read: later) would be painting the eyes with fluorescent color and inserting a blacklight LED inside the Head. But 1st, I need one of those LEDs and 2nd, it might only work in the nu-Gundams head, due it's size.

Well, we'll see.

HGUC MS-09F Dom Tropen Sandbrown ver. and a Airbrush

In my previous posting, I made a, more or less good (more less) review of the HG RGM-79(G) model.
I thought that an antagonist would be good for the intended diorama, that's why i bought the MS-09F Dom Tropen (Sandbrown color).

Today, I won't make a 'review', I'll just point out a few points.

Pro:

• one moveable finger per hand, so you don't need to swap hands if you want to change between SMG and Sturmfaust (or Raketen Baz and HeatSabre)
• better articulation compared to the GM modell (although it's a Dom)
• many weapons (4x Sturmfaust 1x Raketen Baz 1x HeatSabre and 1x 80mm SubMachineGun)
• Plenty of extra ammo for storage on the waist
  

Con:

• Mono-Eye isn't moveable (If you want a moveable Mono-eye, you'll have to stick with the classic HGUC MS-09 Dom/MS-09R Rick Dom kit.)
• especially one stormfaust wants to fall off all the time.

I'm to lazy to take photos of the Dom Tropen, so instead, you'll just get a picture with fluoroscent eye and the chest stored beamcannon

The Dom stands in front of a blacklight in order to lighten the fluoroscent green (eye) and pink (beamcannon).
Also, the dust on the vase gave me an idea on how to make a starfilled nightsky,... I only need a black colored cardboard and some time to collect dust ^_^.
And to answer (maybe?) upcoming questions like 'why no photos' and 'why not started with this simple desert diorama'

My Harder & Steenbeck Evolution Silverline two in one set.

And yes, i already have a compressor, but the only thing left I need is a male coupling (if my dictionary is right) to connect the compressor to the hose (hose sounds funny, somehow), which is already connected to the Airbrush itself.