GSB Xeku Zwei Finaly Finished!!!!

[mvm3897]

Well after 8 1/2 months of work the beast is complete.  I am very happy with the over all finish of the kit and I hope that my client likes it as much as I do. 

Paints are a mix of Mr. Color, PlamoColor, Alclad and Mr. Super Metallics.  The final top coat if Testors DullCote sprayed through an airbrush.

Stats:
Overall height : 26.5 cm
Head height : 24.0 cm
Shoulder width : 23.0 cm
Overall depth : 49.0 cm
Kit weight : 4.0 kgs.
No. of resin parts : 324 pcs.
No. of heat pressed clear parts : 3 pcs.
No. of hollow PVC tube : 4 pcs.
No. of rubber cord : 2 pcs.
Water-slide decal : 1 pc.

Supplies used:
Approximately 140 hours of work
6 cans of Rustolium Primer
6 cans of Krylon Primer
10 bottles of Mr. Color Midnight blue
4 bottles of Mr. Color GX Susie Blue
1 1/2 bottles of Plamo Pure White
1 bottle of Plamo Off White
2 bottles of Mr. Color GX Black
1 bottle of Mr. Super Iron
1750 ml of Thinner
2 bottles of DullCote

Thank you to everyone who has followed this build and contributed to the WIP thread.  I will post a YouTube video some time tomorrow.

Lots of pictures time:

GSB Xeku Zwei Finaly Finished!!!!

GSB Xeku Zwei Finaly Finished!!!!

GSB Xeku Zwei Finaly Finished!!!!

GSB Xeku Zwei Finaly Finished!!!!

GSB Xeku Zwei Finaly Finished!!!!

GSB Xeku Zwei Finaly Finished!!!!

GSB Xeku Zwei Finaly Finished!!!!

GSB Xeku Zwei Finaly Finished!!!!

GSB Xeku Zwei Finaly Finished!!!!

GSB Xeku Zwei Finaly Finished!!!!

GSB Xeku Zwei Finaly Finished!!!!

GSB Xeku Zwei Finaly Finished!!!!

GSB Xeku Zwei Finaly Finished!!!!

GSB Xeku Zwei Finaly Finished!!!!

GSB Xeku Zwei Finaly Finished!!!!

GSB Xeku Zwei Finaly Finished!!!!

GSB Xeku Zwei Finaly Finished!!!!

GSB Xeku Zwei Finaly Finished!!!!

GSB Xeku Zwei Finaly Finished!!!!

GSB Xeku Zwei Finaly Finished!!!!

GSB Xeku Zwei Finaly Finished!!!!

GSB Xeku Zwei Finaly Finished!!!!

GSB Xeku Zwei Finaly Finished!!!!

GSB Xeku Zwei Finaly Finished!!!!

GSB Xeku Zwei Finaly Finished!!!!

GSB Xeku Zwei Finaly Finished!!!!

GSB Xeku Zwei Finaly Finished!!!!

GSB Xeku Zwei Finaly Finished!!!!

GSB Xeku Zwei Finaly Finished!!!!

GSB Xeku Zwei Finaly Finished!!!!

GSB Xeku Zwei Finaly Finished!!!!

GSB Xeku Zwei Finaly Finished!!!!

GSB Xeku Zwei Finaly Finished!!!!

GSB Xeku Zwei Finaly Finished!!!!

GSB Xeku Zwei Finaly Finished!!!!

GSB Xeku Zwei Finaly Finished!!!!

GSB Xeku Zwei Finaly Finished!!!!

GSB Xeku Zwei Finaly Finished!!!!

GSB Xeku Zwei Finaly Finished!!!!

GSB Xeku Zwei Finaly Finished!!!!

GSB Xeku Zwei Finaly Finished!!!!

GSB Xeku Zwei Finaly Finished!!!!

And a size comparison with my PG 00 Riser a RX-78 2.0

GSB Xeku Zwei Finaly Finished!!!!

Thanks for looking as always
Matt

[bird2happy]

 
master piece!

[Hunter Rose]

That looks incredible dude! Really vibrant colours, crisp decals, great bells superb blue fade. Love it!

Stellar work dude, glad to see this beast complete 

[tmajor]

Looks awesome and the photos are great too.

How do you set up your lighting? I'd love to know as I can't set up lighting to save my life.

Cheers

[mvm3897]

Looks awesome and the photos are great too.

How do you set up your lighting? I'd love to know as I can't set up lighting to save my life.

Cheers

Funny you ask: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ut4Qs8iCQPk&feature=channel_video_title

[clee-cm]

Great job!!!  I am happy to see that you finished this project.

The model turned out great, I like the sense of scale you have shown with the other Mobile Suits.

Again, Great job with the model, I am happy that you finished the project. 

[Major Williams]

Matt you continue to impress! Your work is stellar on this kit.  Thanks for the lighting tutorial, I'd love to hear how deep down the rabbit hole you go with the details with lighting (i.e. flash power, shutter, exposure, aperture, etc).  You really are an expert in the photography field, so it's great to have your assets in the community!

Detail work on this guy is awesome, I'm sure your commissioner is a happy man!

[tomstaz]

That's great man, good job. I do like the bulkier designs. It must be quite a heavy kit. Well done.

[tmajor]

Thanks for that! Very good tutorial. I have a Canon T1i with some incandescent clamp lights with white tissue as diffusers. I still find the shadows are a bit harsh so maybe I need to diffuse the light a bit more and use some reflector cards. I have also been using the large jpg compression but am going to try RAW.

Do you colour correct your shots?

Thanks again!

[mvm3897]

Thanks guys.

@t
I just set my WB to flash.  You can also use a setting of 5500K .

[Grail]

NICE! Excellent job again Matt. Love the colors and detail work. Really like the whites and off whites too.
      

[IcecoldJV]

*clears throat* ...Damn.

[JohnLogan]

  Really nice paint. Lots of great detail.

[tmajor]

@t
I just set my WB to flash.  You can also use a setting of 5500K .

Not sure if this was meant for me. By colour correct I meant in Photoshop or some other editing program. That does tie into the WB setting as I used tungsten but still found the images a bit warm, so I ended up adjusting them them in Photoshop. Effective, but I'd rather get it right the first time :)

Thanks!

[mvm3897]

Yeah even if you set the camera to tungsten and are using tungsten lights, they will still be on the warm side unless you are using commercial grade lights which have a very specific color temp.

I don't color correct in photoshop because my flashes are a very specific color temp which is roughly 5500 k, or daylight balanced.

[Grail]

Just saw the vid. Missed that. Great tutorial. We use similar equipment except I am mostly geared up for film. I do 7d as I don't need full frame,and I have most of the same lenses.I use 2 zooms instead of the telephoto, 15-85 and the standard 18-135. My Fav lens is my 50mm 1.4. Sweet low light and filmy stuff on it.
Funny, I mostly use the Rebel XT for the still stuff though, as the 7D is always all geared up for video.  

I'd love to hear how deep down the rabbit hole you go with the details with lighting (i.e. flash power, shutter, exposure, aperture, etc).

As a general rule F-Stops and ISO are how you can balance your lighting scenario.  
You always want the ISO as low as possible as it provides a brighter image but adds grain. Avoid ISO 125 and all multiples of. They are considered "noise" ISO's.  EG. 125,250, 500, etc. Key ISO's are 160,320,640, etc etc..

It's best to Stop the cam up or down to get a good shot and increase the ISO only as you need.
Example setup On my 7D,Digital Rebel, or any cam that can get the proper image manipulation.
Canon 50mm USM f/1.4 ISO 320-1250 WB 3200/5600k. This would be a general low light scenario to get the best image quality.
Sometimes I use other lenses like Matt as well, your pref,that is just a basic start point of reference.
U can buy the 50mm macro Matt uses for about an affordable 150$ which I think he noted.

As far as lighting, this can get all over the board too. To go on the cheap and get a great setup,go to home depot and buy the $5 clip on trouble lights with varying intensity (wattage,soft,or white)energy efficient bulbs. These make great Key Fill and Rim lights (Matt calls the Rim a Kicker and the Key a Hot Light I think? ) Same thing. I bought the same backdrop on MAtt's advice a while back for about $32. Use that wrapping tissue paper, or ass wipe, or anything that diffuses the light really for the soft box stuff.

Just some stuff we do in a pinch for film, and I use a lot of this with basic Cameras in still footage.
I have yet to put a ton of effort into my lighting scenarios for models, but if you do, you can get a lot out of very little.
Matt even liked the light from my desk lamp better than my scenario in an old wip! Only 1 crummy desk lamp! And he was right! It looked way better! Just goes to show
Cheers guys.
Again, amazing work Matt. Great photos too!  

[nico]

Very nice kit and great pictures. Thanks you for the light explaination video that was very interesting.

[mvm3897]

Thanks Grail for helping out with photo info.

My settings pretty much stay the same.  I use a 1/200 shutter speed.  That's the fastest my camera will sync with flashes.  Anything faster and the curtain will cut part of the image off.

I use an F-Stop of F-11.  This allows me to carry depth of field for over all shots meaning the entire image will be sharp and in focus.  It also means that when i get in close with my 50mm Macro lens I will have some fall off.  this means that what ever spot i choose to focus on will be sharp but then the focus starts to soften towards the back of the image.  This is a good example of that.

GSB Xeku Zwei Finaly Finished!!!!

Notice how "New Decides" is sharp and the focus falls off towards the back as well at the tip of the gun?  This is the same F-Stop (F11) as all the other images.  As you get closer to your subject the depth of field reduces.  The farther away, the depth of field increases.

BTW, Depth of Field, or DOF, means the distance between the nearest and farthest point in the image that remains in focus.

3 things determine your DOF.  Your F-Stop, your focal length, i.e. 50mm, 120mm, 70mm and so on, and the distance between your camera and subject.

The longer the focal length the less DOF you have.  You see this in sports photography all the time.  Look at any football photo of a player during a game.  The player is sharp and the background is way out of focus.  That's because the shooter is using a 200mm-400mm lens which have very shallow DOF, maybe a few inches of DOF. 

Your F-Stop is important to.  The smaller the F-Stop, or the smaller the opening of the shutter say F22, the more DOF you get.  The bigger the F-Stop, or the more open the lens say F5.6, the less DOF you get.  I use F-11 because it's a nice middle ground F-Stop.  It has enough DOF when I am shooting over all photos to ensure a nice sharp image over all, but it has a shallow enough DOF that when I get in close I get some fall of.

Make sense?

[MGmodeler]

Another amazing job there Matt!!!
I can't add any more praise than what already has been said.

Now you guys are talking about camera settings that are like a different language to me but the quality of your pictures speaks for itself.  Simply WOW!

It was a nice touch to see the breakdown of all the materials used in the build.  I have to try that Mr. Super Iron but I've had good luck with Alclad although expensive.

Question though...  Did you re airbrush some areas that were chipped durring the assembly process or did you just handpaint the touchups?

[mvm3897]

Thanks MG.

I also love Alclad and use it a lot but it would wrinkle and do funny things if I sprayed the DullCote on top so that's why I went with the Mr. Super Iron.  It works well with other lacquer paints.  Alclad is very fragile.

A few chips were sanded and re-sprayed while others were brush touched.  It just depended on where the chips and scratches were.  If it was on a solid color, like the black, then I used a brush.  It it was where there was some sort of shading I had to spray it so it would blend in.