RIP : Stan Lee (1922 – 2018)
Stan Lee died today and the world seems smaller now. His works has been such a big influence in most people’s lives: who on this planet doesn’t know Captain America, Hulk, Thor (the comics version), Iron Man and Spider-Man?
So good night Stan Lee. In your immortal words: Excelsior!
Rest well.
Completed : Nitto 1/20 PKA ausf. G ‘Gustav’
Kit Info
Brand: Nitto Nr. SF3D Series 5
Scale: 1/20
Media: Multimedia (injection plastic, brass,
rubber, lead and copper)
Markings: Wave PKA Konrad
The Subject
The new armored fighting suit of the Shutoral Forces, the PKA.G in opposition to the new weapon of the Mercenery troops, the Super AFS had more strengthened mobility and armored defensive power to a series of PKA.H and was armed with a laser gun we could see in a series of AFS of Mercenery troops in the left hand. Increase of the engine output reinforced walking system in order to cope with increase in weight made the form of the PKA.G quite different from a series of H. A little reconstruction of the body of the PK.41 made it possible to fly installing the PKA.G in it like a series of H and the XPK.43 for the exclusive use of the PKA.G took the first flight at the end of 2885.
Info from the back of the box
The Kit
This kit was part of the original wave of releases by Nitto in 1984 when Maschinen Krieger was still called ‘SF3D Original’.
This is a multimedia kit. Besides the 90 or so styrene parts it comes with a piece of brass mesh, 2 metal springs, 2 brass rods, 2 pieces of copper wire, 1 piece of black wire and 2 lead weights for the feet. Options on the kit includes having the face plate opened or closed and 2 different pilot heads. The limbs are attached via polycaps so some posing is possible. The kit also comes with a Panzerfaust.
The Build
This kit is pure 1980s vintage. Cement is required everywhere and while there are polycaps the kit can’t be posed in any meaningful way. Unlike modern versions of Ma.K kits, this Gustav doesn’t come with rubber joint covers (which actually present their own problems). The joints are instead the old school 2 plastic halves clamping over a polycap. I ended up making joint covers with epoxy putty. This also helped with the kit keeping a pose. I also had enough leftover epoxy putty to fashion some cushioning for the pilot seat. There’s provision for an LED (not included) in the chest but I closed it up with a minus mold.
General fitting is OK but the legs flop around even with the polycaps in place. The brass rods slot through the springs and these, when bent properly, lets me fix the leg pose. I left out the lead weights for the feet since I’ll be drilling holes to pin the kit to the base.
Oh and the kit can’t hold the included Panzerfaust. Pity.
Colors & Markings
The pilot needed to be painted and fit inside the kit first. As a testament to how lousy I am with figure painting, I only managed to get a decent result after 4 tries. Luckily I was using acrylic paint so it was easy to strip and redo.
I went with a simple color scheme of dark gray with red bands this time. The markings are from the Wave PKA Konrad kit as the one from the box is yellowed, brittle and unusable.
Finishing
Weathering is kept simple with my usual rounds of oil paint dot blending, panel wash, fading and pin washes. In this case, I went with a light gray and brown so they show up over the dark gray color scheme. Chipping and mild drybrushing was done with light gray and dark brown acrylic paint. Once mounted onto the base, I also added dust on the bottom half of the Gustav.
Basing
The base is kept simple like my previous Rally Pawn build. In this case, it’s a grass field instead of the lunar surface. Once attached, I don’t like how the kit looks like it’s hovering instead of standing with some weight on the ground. It’s something to fix in the next one.
Even though the kit is vintage, the build didn’t actually take too long but it was interrupted by a few weeks of traveling and general malaise after getting back. In any case, I like the result although I really need to work on figure painting. In fact, that’s the part that took the longest time in this build. Otherwise, even scratchbuilding the joint covers was quite easy.
Build Log
> Part 1 : Construction
> Part 2 : Painting & FInishing
Number 8 of 2018
WIP : Nitto PKA Gustav Pt. 2 – Painting & Finishing
As is now usual, I start with a base of black.
Next is a white marble coat.
The main color is Panzer Grey with red for the chevrons. These were sprayed slightly thinned so the marble coat shows through.
The decals come from the Wave PKA Konrad kit as the original Nitto ones have yellowed and were unusable.
For weathering, I went with oil paint dots of yellow, blue, white and red.
I randomly dot the whole kit with various colors then blend together with a brush soaked in turpentine.
I also used white to add streaks.
This method ties the 2 contrasting colors together. It also adds subtle variations to the overall paintjob and makes the whole thing look ‘lived in’.
Next I start to ‘beat up’ all the surfaces with various filters, washes, sponge chipping and streaks. The clear parts were also given a wash with white and dust colored oil paints to grime them up.
The base was done with various grades of sand from Woodland Scenics. These were painted with various shades of brown then given brown and dark gray washes. Tufts of grass were added to break up the monotony.
Once attached to the base, I did additional weathering with dust and brown colored pigments.
I gave the kit a half day to cure and misted a flat coat to knock down some of the remaining glossy areas. All done!
WIP : Bandai HGUC GM Space Command Pt.1 – Construction
Next up is yet another kit that I have finished snapfitting for a long time. It also continues my EFSF grunt mobile suit collection (what a mouthful).
This is one of the earlier HGUC releases so it suffers from the typical problem of its vintage: overly large hands, limited poseability and a somewhat squat stature. I decided to modify this kit slightly. I began by extending all the limbs: forearms, thighs, lower legs and the front skirts. These were extended between 1.5mm to 2mm by simply chopping them in half, inserting plastic card between the halves, then trimming them. The front skirts were also separated so they can move individually.
The overly squat chest also needed some modifications. To ease painting, I cut off the connections for the lower torso.
Doing it this way lets me paint the torsos separately and I can insert the lower to the upper torso later.
I also modified the neck by moving the polycap up 1mm and holding it in place with a wad of epoxy putty. The lower torso was also extended by about 1.5mm by stacking plastic card on the bottom.
I definitely prefer how it looks now.
The EFSF logo is embossed on the shield and like my previous GM Command build, I trimmed this off and will replace it with a decal.
Much to my ‘surprise’, I managed to lose the left ‘ear muff’ so I replaced it with a Kotobukiya round mold with 2 0.5mm brass rods inserted as antenna. After I was done, the missing part turned up. Oh well.
Another part I lost while this was in storage was the cockpit door. I fashioned a new one. It looks sufficiently different from the original but I like it this way so it differentiates the space from the ground versions.
Since this is the space variant, I added additional vernier and round molds to the legs.
I closed up the hole on the right forearm since it won’t be carrying anything there. I also closed up the hole for the antenna on the right shoulder.
Ready to move on to the next step!
Completed : Hasegawa 1/72 Shinsei Industry VF-25S Messiah
Kit Info
Brand: Hasegawa 65724
Scale: 1/72
Media: Injection Plastic
Markings: Kit
The Subject
The VF-25 Messiah is one of the latest variable fighters used by humans in 2059. It was developed as a replacement for the VF-171, the standard variable fighter in the New UN Spacy. Production prototypes were fielded by SMS in 2059, during Macross Frontier fleet’s voyage into the center of the Milky Way.
Like previous variable fighters, the VF-25 can transform between 3 forms. Unique to other models however, is the EX-Gear power armor integrated into the cockpit which reduces the burden on the pilot during extreme maneuvers. With the addition of various modules, the VF-25 can be configured for multiple missions. The VF-25 is also the first variable fighter to be able to transform without having to eject its armored pack (unlike the VF-1).
The VF-25S is an enhanced variant of the standard VF-25 assigned to team leaders. It also features a distinctive 4 laser armed head in Battroid mode. The build here depicts the VF-25S piloted by Skull Squadron leader Ozma Lee from the private military contractor SMS. Skull Squadron deployed with the Macross Frontier Fleet during the Vajra War.
Info adapted from Macross Mecha Manual
The Kit
I’ve taken a look at this kit here.
The Build
As mentioned in my preview, this kit is basically built up in subassemblies like a typical mecha kit. Fit is great as usual for a Hasegawa Macross kit. Even better is the option to model this kit wheels up straight out of box so fitting the gear doors wasn’t an issue.
Another nice thing is that the thrusters can be assembled and painted separately so no masking was required at all for these parts.
Colors & Markings
I decided to go with Ozma Lee’s VF-25S colors because I really liked the distintive skull marking on the back of his Messiah. The color scheme of 2 grays required quite a bit of masking but once done, it looked good. As best as I could, I masked and sprayed the yellow and black sections but I went with decals for the main chevrons on the fuselage. If you looked carefully, the shade of the painted and decal yellows are slightly different. Oh well, I’ll live with it.
The decals are typical Hasegawa in that they take a while to get off their backing. They are not as thin as TwoBobs or Cartograph but are robust enough to take some re-positioning without tearing. Some of them did tear but they took to re-aligning quite easily. They reacted well with Mark Softer and thankfully, the carrier film surroundings are not thick so not much trimming was required.
Finishing
I went easy on the weathering with a panel wash and some light filters on random panels. I also added some streaks on the flaps, slats and in random spots. With the filter I also managed to slightly tone down the decals. It works OK but it’s something to improve on.
Basing
The base is a round piece of wood purchased online. It was drilled with a small length of brass tube inserted and quickly sprayed flat black from a can. I then mounted a brass rod into the kit and this rod slots into the tube in the base. For my next build, I’ll try to make the rod removable on both ends to make the kit easier to handle.
Build Log
> Part 1 : Construction
> Part 2 : Painting
> Part 3 : Finishing
Number 7 of 2018
