Four out of four done and way before the deadline! In fact I also finished a UCHG Zaku head which still needs photographed and have the GN-X primed and ready for paint so I’m well ahead of the curve.

This was the MG Crossbone Gundam Full Cloth. I decided to not do the “Full Cloth” armor and save it for another project and to change up the color scheme to the dark X2 version similar to another piece of Studio Windfall art. I used the head and chest skulls from the Ver Ka instead of the one seen on the Full Cloth version as it had a meaner, less silly look. The eyes were drilled out from the chest skull and vulcan cannons inserted. Gives it a mean look. (pun totally intended) Decals were from Samuel and my own “X” designs. Metal parts were from Ako, MechaSkunk and other sources (purchased from mechaskunk). The light blue is the same I used on the Victory for the main blue and the dark is a mixture of Tamiya Field Blue, Black and Flat Blue.

This makes three in my MGX4 challenge. (click the logo) Now I just need to do one more before April 30th and I win nothing but the satisfaction of building a bunch of kits in a short period of time. Yay me.

Anyway, this is the Master Grade Zaku 2.0 in Char Aznables custom colors. Originally I was going to do this for myself in a different scheme, but I got an offer on it to build it as a Char version and it turned into a commission. I snapped some quick images without any pose because I don’t want to accidentally scratch the paint before shipping it out.

As for what I did to this one…

• Replaced all bells with Mechaskunk and Ako Creations Aluminum thruster bells.
• Replaced pipe bead insides with springs.
• Applied Ako Creation Metal Transfers (awesome BTW!)
• Added vernier to front chest.
• Replaced eye with SP Eye metal part and Aurora Sticker
• Replaced weapon lenses with Aurora stickers
• Internals painted in mixtures of Mr. Color (Gunmetal and Titanium/Brass)
• Bandai and HiQ decals
• Mechaskunk screws for shield inside
• Aluminum shoulder spikes

The 2nd completed build in my MGX4 challenge is a customization of the Astray Blue Frame 2nd Revise. Instead of blue, I went with copper (anti-beam-spam coating or perhaps anti-steampunk coating) which turned out beautifully, if I do say so myself. I wasn’t sure how it would look with the black and white as I was painting, but I’m very happy with the end result.

The only issue I really had with the copper paint was the parts in which I used the copper straight from the Mr Metal Color jar thinned with Leveling Thinner. The paint went on beautifully, but the copper for whatever reason rubs off when handled which is odd. I didn’t realize this of course until I was handling it for the final construction, but next time I use this paint, I’ll be sure to seal it. The other two tones of copper I used did not have this problem. One was mixed with Mr Super Titanium and the other with Mr. Color Semi-Gloss Black. The three tones really add some nice visual interest and break up what could be solid-colored boredom.

The kit is really nice for the most part. The blue polycaps and rubbery parts gave me some paint chipping issues, but thankfully those are all hidden after final construction. It was a pain however to get it positioned in any pose with that huge sword using the action base. That’s why there’s just a few pics and one pose.

Coming full-circle from my 1994 ‘false start’ is the new Master Grade Victory Gundam. My first ever Gundam model kit was the 1/144 V-Dash built soon after graduation from the Art Institute in 1994 and purchased mail-order from someplace called the “JAM Group”. About 7-8 years later I picked up where I left off and started building again… pretty much non-stop.

Because of my affinity for this design, this is one of the rare cases where I’ve actually painted something the colors it’s supposed to be. Well, mostly. I based this scheme off of the Windfall illustration ‘Mobile Suit [Second V]‘ as seen below.

Studio Windfall Illustration circa 2004

The internals were painted with Mr. Color Super Metals and Alclad II Lacquers. The ‘gunmetal’ color is Mr. Color 50% Semi-Gloss Black + 50% Super Stainless (super metallic paint-line) and the lighter warm metal is Mr. Color Super Stainless first, then a thin layer of Alclad II Pale Burnt Metal on top of that. The armor was painted with Tamiya Acrylics. I muted most of the colors except yellow to get that Ver. Ka color look.

This was a very quick and easy kit to finish. First off, there was no seam-lines. Just sprue-nubs and the usual faint mold flash lines. Cutting took a day and a half, skewering the MANY parts and priming took another day and painting took only a day as well. I was very impressed with the internals and mechanical construction. Decals were the official Bandai waterslide release and took about 4 hours to apply.

This is the first of 4 MGs in my personal MGX4 challenge where I want to attempt to finish at least 4 modern MG kits (kits from the past 2-3 years) before the end of April. I started this challenge on February 15th, 2010. The other three are the MG GN-X, Astray Blue Frame 2nd Revise, and Chars Zaku 2.0. So far so good!

Chars Zaku 2.0
Victory Gundam ver Ka
Astray Blue Frame 2nd Revise
GN-X

The GN-X is on its way, but the other 3 are all cut out and sanded and it’s only taken me 5 days to do so. These first 3 kits surprisingly have no seams to be glued which is amazing. There’s just some flash lines, very minor, on some of the weapon barrels to be dealt with. These kits are so easy that it’s almost painful based on some of the other stuff I’ve been building.

All of these kits will have some sort of customization to the color schemes and will have minor add-ons like aluminum bells for the Zaku and lights for the GN-X drive. I may do one more if I have time.

Anyone want to try and match or beat that? Click here to join in on the challenge!

Deadline of 4/30/2010

Personally, I hope to be done by 4/1, but am being realistic.

Here’s the near-completed interior. All I’ve left to do is to dirty-up the floor a bit with a little dust in the corners via a thin oil-paint wash.Seatbelts and consoles were the pre-painted PE that came with the kit. I just had to paint the backs of the seatbelts as some parts of those were visible. The ‘cloth’ gear and seats were painted with 502 Abteilung oil-paints.

I’ve been planning this build for quite a while now, but needed some motivation and additional reference and parts to begin. I can’t remember why I decided that I wanted to build this exact Huey. I think I was actually looking for Cobra decals and stumbled upon the Fireball Models website where I began looking at all their 1/35 scale decal offerings. This scheme and design really stood out and looked like it’d be fun to build.

The decals are alps printed and look very nicely done. There’s enough decals that I could do several copters and still have a lot of nice markings leftover for other stuff. Plus it came with some very nice color-printed decal and color/marking guides. I’m planning to do the Navy NAS FALLON version from the sheets.

Now before I get the inevitable “that’s wrong” or “that was never used in that particular helo”, or “there’s 182 rivets on that panel, not 123 and you suck for not having fixed that” comments, I should say that this is my first ‘real’ aircraft build and don’t expect it to be 100% accurate. Frankly that sort of stuff doesn’t interest me as I really want something that looks cool. If it happens to look close to correct in the process, well all the better! If I’m not having fun doing this then it’s not worth doing, right?

Back to the kit, this is the Dragon/Panda 1/35 scale UH-1N Gunship kit. It’s a rerelease of the old Panda kit with added detail and 2 sheets of PE, one prepainted for consoles and seatbelts. I’m working on the interior first so havent even worried too much about the exterior. I plan to have the side doors open so there’s a good but of detailing that needs to be done.

^ First Aid packs on floor will later be hung on interior walls. ^

Looking through my refs, these SAR copters are chock-full of stowage goodies. Bags, coolers, hoist, First Aid packs and kits, etc… I’ve sculpted a lot of packs using Aves Apoxie Sculpt and others are from various 1/35 armor kits. A few are from the 1/35 Gundam kits, but shhh! I won’t tell if you don’t. The hoist was ‘borrowed’ from my Acaremy/MRC 1/35 MH-60G Pavehawk kit. I was going to use the hoist from the UH-1D HEER kit, but it’s awful. The pack suspended from the roof is also Aves and lead foil and I use my Wire Wrapping tool to make the headset cords to be hanging from the roof as well.

I also have been using some PE parts from the Eduard UH-1C interior set. Again, probably incorrect, but it helps me fill in details like the sidewalls and door panels. Stuff that isn’t really all that noticible, but makes it more visually interesting by having added it.

Anyway, that’s all for now. More on this once I start priming and painting. The interior needs to be completed first so that I can glue the exterior halves together and detail/mask/paint them after.

I also began work on the Mig Productions Burned Out Modern Car kit which arrived a few days ago. After cleaning the resin and constructing the wire seats using the supplied jig and a soldering iron, cleaning up the kit and painting has been a fun and relatively quick process. I used an SBS at the Mig forum by vsuarez666 seen here. It was a great tool for getting great results quickly. I’ve still a bit to go on it, but here’s where I’m at so far.

After priming the kit with self-etching primer I followed up with a coat of flat black spraypaint. Over that I sprayed a dark overall rust tone using the black base as shadows to show through, followed up by two lighter rust coats mottled on with my airbrush.

Over this base coat I used cheapie acrylics and stippled on yellow, brown, gray, blue and red with a damp sponge. This adds more color and variety to the rust and will add more depth in the next steps.

Over this stippled coat I sprayed a flat layer of FFA to seal the base coats. I let that cure overnight and the next day I sprayed the kit down with hairspray and generously sprinkled kosher and table salt over it.

After the hairspray dried I sprayed on some neutral gray, white, then a light mint color for that “classic” car feel.

I removed the salt by rubbing and with water and a brush removing some of the hairspray layer as well to re-expose the rust. Rubbing the salt off took some of the base coat with it resulting in some dark spots, but those actually add to the overall rustiness and look great IMO.

Then I took some rust-colored oils, some dark brown and some ocher and blended them into the surface to enhance the color. I then took some white and Faded German Gray which is a very light bluish color and enhanced the leftover paint spots of the vehicle.

Once this layer of oils dry I plan to go back with some grays and whites and dirty the car up as it’ll be sitting in a pile of building debris.

And speaking of debris, here’s the start of my base for the Berge. The Berge will be plowing some debris off a road and into an open crater. There will be corrugated steel, barrels, building rubble, the car, a fridge, chair and vacuum, girders, pipes, bricks and more.  The base is foam and thin plywood for now, but all that will be covered. The exterior in basswood and the foam in Bondo, Celluclay, and a Sculpey road surface (made, but not pictured)