The Show Off Your Figures/Models Stuff Thread

Misc. anime/manga-related merchandise
User avatar
greg
Posts: 2159
Joined: Wed Oct 26, 2011 9:00 pm
Anime Fan Since: 1989 (consciously)
Location: Shizuoka-ken, Japan
Contact:

Re: The Show Off Your Figures/Models Stuff Thread

Post by greg »

I recently finished two of the tiny "Mecha Collection" Yamato kits: the Cosmo Hound and Cosmo Zero.
Image

More pictures and a write-up is here on my website:
http://stevethefish.net/life/models/035 ... ecosmo.htm
My presence on the Net, with plenty of random geekiness:
My homepage
My YouTube channel
My Flickr photostream
My Tumblr page
User avatar
labsenpai
Posts: 181
Joined: Mon Dec 09, 2013 5:48 pm
Anime Fan Since: 1985

Re: The Show Off Your Figures/Models Stuff Thread

Post by labsenpai »

My old con purchases have spent many years in a crate, so I made room on a shelf with some IKEA framed GoH signatures. I was focused on the 2D merch, so most of these items are common capsule/blind box toys. For display, I'm tempted to glue the limbs and bases so the slightest touch doesn't make them crumble.
The frame with smaller art is my homage to Newtype magazine, which at the time I started collecting it, commonly featured Slayers, Dark Angel, 5 Star & Patlabor.
Akane is missing from my magic-user club collection because a niece wanted her for a present...
The pre-television Motokos and more capcom girls await new bases; I think a good GitS base might be a circuit board or blank dvd.
Attachments
animeshelf_left.jpg
animeshelf_left.jpg (140.11 KiB) Viewed 6563 times
animeshelf_right.jpg
animeshelf_right.jpg (201.81 KiB) Viewed 6563 times
User avatar
greg
Posts: 2159
Joined: Wed Oct 26, 2011 9:00 pm
Anime Fan Since: 1989 (consciously)
Location: Shizuoka-ken, Japan
Contact:

Re: The Show Off Your Figures/Models Stuff Thread

Post by greg »

Nice! I like your collection of Capcom fighter figures. I have that same Laputa set as you! :)
My presence on the Net, with plenty of random geekiness:
My homepage
My YouTube channel
My Flickr photostream
My Tumblr page
User avatar
Drew_Sutton
Posts: 659
Joined: Tue May 07, 2013 6:19 pm
Anime Fan Since: 1994
Location: Atlanta, GA US/Hackistan, Internet

Re: The Show Off Your Figures/Models Stuff Thread

Post by Drew_Sutton »

Real cool display you have set up there! What's the story behind the Macross Zero sketch and signature?
Akihabara Renditions: Japanese Animation of the Bubble Economy
Excuse me, I need to evict some juvenile delinquents from my yard.
User avatar
Drew_Sutton
Posts: 659
Joined: Tue May 07, 2013 6:19 pm
Anime Fan Since: 1994
Location: Atlanta, GA US/Hackistan, Internet

Re: The Show Off Your Figures/Models Stuff Thread

Post by Drew_Sutton »

So, technically double-posting because my posts are right next to each other but they're, literally 3 months a part, so my poor etiquette should be forgiven. :lol:

As I mentioned in the Nerd Cave thread (http://forum.animepast.net/viewtopic.ph ... 997#p11997), I've been working on clearing out that model kit backlog, so I finished this 1/144 Mazinger Z. I don't think I am going to top coat this or add any further panel lines to it since I want to preserve the cartoony nature that is 1970s super robot cartoons.

Image

Honestly, only proud that I've finished this and not super thrilled with the results. I've let this kit sit nearly 10 years - I started this kit not very long after I bought it but let it sit. During a couple moves, some of the smaller pieces broke and when I was assembling it yesterday, there were a couple of pieces that were difficult to assemble and I ended up having to do some glue work on it to patch it.

Well, while not my best work, it's good enough for display now, so I am going to roll with it until it either breaks irreparably or gets pushed out by better, more enthusiastic work.
Akihabara Renditions: Japanese Animation of the Bubble Economy
Excuse me, I need to evict some juvenile delinquents from my yard.
User avatar
Daniel
Site Admin
Posts: 525
Joined: Sun Jul 24, 2011 2:56 pm
Anime Fan Since: 199X年
Location: USA

Re: The Show Off Your Figures/Models Stuff Thread

Post by Daniel »

Originally written by greg on 2015/10/18, 15:02:04 PDT :

Re: The Show Off Your Figures Models Stuff Thread :

That's not a double post. A double post is when someone spams a thread several times in a row, within minutes of each post, because they can't be bothered with clicking the edit button.

It looks nice. It must be a Bandai kit, right? I have a primitive Great Mazinger kit by Bandai I've kept around for about 10 years. I've used it to test out airbrushing gloss enamels with it fairly tricky . Mine certainly looks crappy, plus it's barely even poseable. I'd forgotten I even had it until I saw this pic of yours.




Originally written by greg on 2015/10/18, 23:05:48 PDT :

Re: The Show Off Your Figures Models Stuff Thread :

What kind of paint do you have experience airbrushing? Or have you not used it yet?

What you need to do is buy a bag of plastic spoons and get experience with airbrushing those. acrylic paints are typically easier to get the hang of than enamel paints. Tamiya acrylics are usually a 50 50 mixture of paint and acrylic thinner. You have to thin the paint to the consistency of milk for it to apply properly. Too much and it'll be too runny. Too little and it'll spurt out, or not come out at all. This used to trouble me, but once I got used to looking for that right consistency with every type of paint, it became second nature.

Clear coats are very useful for protecting the paint job, as well as protecting and sealing in decals. The best way is to use Future floor wax I think it's called Pledge with Future Shine now . You can squirt it directly into your airbrush and spray it on without thinning. My bottle is getting a bit old though, so I need to thin mine a bit with alcohol for better results. If you don't want a glossy finish, you can add Tamiya Flat Base to a mixture of Future to make a matte finish.

I used to use spray cans for primers and clear coats, but now I mostly use my airbrush for that. I typically use my spray cans for quick spray jobs.

I don't know what type of compressor you have, but it would be good to get a water trap and pressure regulator if it doesn't come with one. The water trap will prevent condensation from building up and causing paint splatter. The pressure regulator helps control the flow of air pressure. Turn it way down and you can do finer detail spray work. When I was first using an air brush, I was spraying paint in a full blast with quick passes. I wasted so much paint that way.

It's also essential to have proper ventilation when using an air brush. Even though Tamiya acrylics are non toxic and smell kinda nice, you still don't want to keep breathing them. I have a spray booth. I stick the hoses out the window and spray. A good respirator mask is good, too. A good one will prevent you from smelling the paint entirely. Those 3M masks with cartridges are best for airbrushing.

Feel free to pick my brain about this kind of stuff. I could go on and on, but I don't want to overwhelm you. We can start a new topic for this, too.




Originally written by labsenpai on 2015/10/19, 18:12:25 PDT :

Re: The Show Off Your Figures Models Stuff Thread :

quote Drew Sutton Real cool display you have set up there! What's the story behind the Macross Zero sketch and signature? quote

Itano was a guest at a small event, and shared two QA sessions with other lesser known industry veterans. A friend and I were in the audience both times, since I hated seeing the room practically empty. I queried each GoH so they could talk about their jobs, and not worry about a non-existent crowd. I even made a sly joke about budweiser missiles to Itano...
When the autograph session occurred later, Itano wanted to draw art just for us I feel that he enjoyed having some old otaku show up.




Originally written by Drew_Sutton on 2015/10/19, 18:58:14 PDT :

Re: The Show Off Your Figures Models Stuff Thread :

quote labsenpai quote Drew Sutton Real cool display you have set up there! What's the story behind the Macross Zero sketch and signature? quote

Itano was a guest at a small event, and shared two QA sessions with other lesser known industry veterans. A friend and I were in the audience both times, since I hated seeing the room practically empty. I queried each GoH so they could talk about their jobs, and not worry about a non-existent crowd. I even made a sly joke about budweiser missiles to Itano...
When the autograph session occurred later, Itano wanted to draw art just for us I feel that he enjoyed having some old otaku show up. quote

Holy poo-poo, that's cool! I'm not big on collecting raw art like that but Itano would be a really awesome thing to have!

quote greg What kind of paint do you have experience airbrushing? Or have you not used it yet? quote

Nil. I mentioned I wanted to start getting into it and got it as a gift but I haven't touched it yet. I believe the paints I have for it are acrylic. I never thought about the plastic spoon thing - I'll be sure to do that. I imagine whether I want a really glossy or really matte finish will depend on the kit I am doing though, I might err more towards glossy as a general rule. If you have any modeling blogs or tutorials you'd recommend, I'd welcome them. I'm mostly a self-taught modeler, so a lot of foundation may not be there before I start actually painting kits.

I have applied top clear coat only to one kit, my MG 1 100 Kaempfer from Gundam 0080 but I didn't paint anything on it. I love the glossy look it has and have talked about going back and doing some of the older kits with a bit of top coat. My top coat is also aerosol but I liked the results I got from the Kaempfer so much, I am less concerned about that.




Originally written by greg on 2015/10/19, 20:59:15 PDT :

Re: The Show Off Your Figures Models Stuff Thread :

Well, Drew, my YouTube channel was originally aimed at just general nerdy otaku type stuff, like figures, video games, travel around Japan, etc. Then I decided to learn how to seriously build a plastic model, and I figured that if I could just use my YT channel to put some videos of a build process so that I could direct others to see what I was doing and they could give me suggestions, then it would help me. I decided that I wanted to build a Honda Fit car model by Tamiya. I didn't think many people would watch it, but it may just be the most-watched plastic model video on YouTube. I really don't know how that came to be. The last I checked, It was around 150,000 views on the first video. I think if you do a search for plastic model on YouTube, that video would be on your first page of search results. If you search specifically for Tamiya Honda Fit model, you will find it. I filmed it as my learning process on how to do a model properly. You will see me making many mistakes, but the end result turned out rather well. I explain each step as I go along.

The thing with using the spray rattle cans is that they tend to belch out quite a lot of spray at once. You have to apply it in passes, or else you'll get a lot of overspray. I would suggest that if you get overspray, just don't freak out and see if the paint will autolevel as it dries. Quite often, it's turned out fine in the end for me.

What brand of paints do you have? They should say if they are acrylic or whatnot. If you have those craft store paints like Delta Ceramcoat or whatever, you will have a very, VERY difficult time getting them to run through an airbrush. I would recommend sticking with only paints intended for modeling. There's a guy on YouTube called ThePaintingClinic and I watched him use some sort of pearlescent, reflective paint on an AMT USS Reliant from The Wrath of Khan. The paint was intended for making your own fishing lures. He had purchased an elaborate, expensive masking set to replicate the aztec design on the ship. When he lifted it up, it lifted up a whole bunch of the paint along with it. That Reliant kit is OOP now and worth a bit of money, and he totally F'ed it up by experimenting with some crappy fishing lure paint that is NOT intended for plastic models just because he wanted to try something new and perhaps save some money. I see and read from other people doing stuff like that, using stuff they'd bought at automotive stores and such, and how sometimes it screws everything up. Just buy stuff that is meant for modeling. Future is a floor wax, but it's proven to be perfect for models.

Anyhow, I've gotten a lot better at models and using an airbrush than I was 5 years ago when I did that Tamiya Honda Fit video series. Lots of model videos just have some guy sitting in front of the camera, explaining what he's done. Others are just slide shows, or muted and set to music. You don't really get a sense of what they are doing because they'd rather tell than show. In most of my videos, I try to show most of the model-making process from start to finish, including the airbrushing and such.

There are plenty of other how-to vids on using an airbrush, sanding, gluing, polishing, and such. I'm a fairly cautious person, so I typically research something a lot before doing it. As a result, it turns out better than just impulsively jumping right into it and making a mess of it.




Originally written by Drew_Sutton on 2015/10/25, 19:23:36 PDT :

Re: The Show Off Your Figures Models Stuff Thread :

Greg, I'll check out your modeling videos. Like I said, I totally don't want to hose up a kit or anything, so I don't mind running some test runs before actually painting. I've not yet viewed any plastic modeling videos on the Internet yet because I am afraid that they'd wind up being more like unboxing videos which, I, uh, can't be bothered to waste my time with and I watch a lot of stupid stuff to waste time .

The airbrush set I have is a set of Testor's Model Masters they are acrylic. I have a photo I took this morning while I was doing some cleaning.

img img

The aerosol can has a reservoir where the colors can be mixed and then applied to the plastic. I have additional colors and some thinner.

img img

I know enough about painting that I knew the same acrylics one would use to paint on canvas or crafts would not work for plastic modeling. I'll be sure to check your videos and see what else is recommended and read some guides about airbrushing before I start testing. Thanks for the info!

Figured out which of the backlogged kits that I am going to build next is - my Max Jenus Super Valkyrie from Macross Do You Remember Love? that I picked up in Akihabara for like 250Y.




Originally written by greg on 2015/10/26, 03:06:02 PDT :

Re: The Show Off Your Figures Models Stuff Thread :

I've split the discussion on the fundamentals of modeling to another thread It deserves a topic of its own, I think.




Originally written by SteveH on 2015/10/26, 15:03:07 PDT :

Re: The Show Off Your Figures Models Stuff Thread :

and of COURSE Itano wears a flight jacket. NNEERRRDDDDD




Originally written by Akage on 2015/10/27, 09:57:27 PDT :

Re: The Show Off Your Figures Models Stuff Thread :

I think that's awesome. I love it when guests have a quirky side like that.

Great story, BTW and congrats on the sketch. It's really nice.




Originally written by Drew_Sutton on 2015/11/02, 17:06:57 PST :

Re: The Show Off Your Figures Models Stuff Thread :

I started in on an HGUC AssaultBuster V2 Gundam this weekend. A friend got it for me because he accidentally broke my older HGEX V2 Gundam when trying to transform it. It's the first High Grade I've built in quite some time. I don't know if the difficulty of these kits have been stepped up or not but it's a lot more difficult and detailed than I remember!

Still having fun with it and hope I will be able to get some good time on the weekends to work on it and get it finished up soon so I can get some good photos of it.




Originally written by DKop on 2015/11/02, 18:10:19 PST :

Re: The Show Off Your Figures Models Stuff Thread :

I've still got my HGUC V2 Buster too build also, so i'll get around to that eventually.




Originally written by greg on 2015/11/04, 13:20:18 PST :

Re: The Show Off Your Figures Models Stuff Thread :

The Assault Buster V2 Gundam is probably my favorit! It's a new HG kit, but I have not bought it. I actually bought the old 1 100 scale Assault V2 and Buster V2 kits and was planning to kitbash them together if that's the right term . Now if they'd only make a model of the Gundam Sentinel Deep Striker, I'd be real happy.
User avatar
Char Aznable
Posts: 220
Joined: Sat Jul 12, 2014 11:31 am
Anime Fan Since: Early '90s
Contact:

Re: The Show Off Your Figures/Models Stuff Thread

Post by Char Aznable »

I've finally tried my hand at some Gunpla kits. I got my first one last week and was instantly addicted. Exia from Gundam 00 has already been built, and I just picked up God Gundam (Burning Gundam) from G Gundam. Both were the HG 1/144 scale versions. I'll have to snap some photos (still waiting on some Gundam markers to add a bit of extra detailing before they're completely finished).
User avatar
DKop
Posts: 917
Joined: Sun Oct 26, 2014 11:19 am
Anime Fan Since: 1998
Location: Here is Greenwood SC
Contact:

Re: The Show Off Your Figures/Models Stuff Thread

Post by DKop »

Man, it feels like I haven't posted in here in a few weeks, and you would be right about that.

In terms of models, I think I am good when it comes to master grade gunpla, since I just got done building my MG V2 Gundam, and it came out pretty cool. Way more sturdier than the V1 did a few years ago. I think once I get moved in a few months, ill have to set up a Victory Gundam shrine, and of course add the Victory Gundam Blurays to that shrine as well.

Image
User avatar
Kame-Sen'nin
Posts: 451
Joined: Wed Nov 28, 2012 2:20 am
Anime Fan Since: 1996

Re: The Show Off Your Figures/Models Stuff Thread

Post by Kame-Sen'nin »

That looks great! Nice work DKop!
User avatar
greg
Posts: 2159
Joined: Wed Oct 26, 2011 9:00 pm
Anime Fan Since: 1989 (consciously)
Location: Shizuoka-ken, Japan
Contact:

Re: The Show Off Your Figures/Models Stuff Thread

Post by greg »

Image
I went to Summer Wonder Festival over the weekend and found KOR T-shirts for only 1,000 yen! The other one was the Hikaru version, but everyone loves Ayukawa.
My presence on the Net, with plenty of random geekiness:
My homepage
My YouTube channel
My Flickr photostream
My Tumblr page
Post Reply