Little things

Just a few things I thought I’d put in one post.

First up, as some of you may recall, I covered Nissin’s Cup Noodle campaign with Bandai that featured the world’s smallest Gunpla.  Well part two of that campaign kicked off on Monday, which was a Char specific cup with refillable noodle packs.  While the noodles don’t get ready 3 times faster than they normally would, the cup in itself is neat.  I actually love the packaging on this one, as they have a giant quote of Char’s in English on the top.  Somehow it comes off much… cooler in English.  “Don’t take it personal Garma, You can thank your father for this” cold blooded man.

Packaged

The top, all in English

And unpacked

This runs about 10 bucks which gets you the glass and one noodle packet.  Haven’t actually eaten the noodles yet, that’ll probably be tomorrow.

Next up, a first that will suprise many.  I actually got some Gundam tools from… America! 

The tools in question

You’re looking at 5 Gundam Markers, the Plated Silver (Mekki Silver in Japanese) that Lupes at It’s a Gundaaaam was kind enough to send me.  The reason being?  Well, the plated silver Gundams are probably one of the most useful markers out there due to the fact they look really good! And can be used for vital things such as pipes, weapons, and more importantely, trim on Katoki kits such as the Sinanju and Kshatriya.  So why get them from America?  Because they’re no longer made!  Amazingly enough, I totally missed out on this news, but apparently they stopped making them for some reason or another around January of this year, and by the time I started looking around, the stock was all gone in Japan.  I was told even in Akiba that people pretty much bought them by the box once the news was out that production was stopped. 

So, for those interested, your best bet will be to get them from a foreign supplier, as Japan doesn’t have anymore!

Lastly, you may have noticed something in the first few pictures, mainly a white background.  There are two reasons for this.

Those being…

I finally got a new light, the old one just wasn’t handling it, of course that’s what I get for buying a really cheap light a year ago.  This time I went middle of the road (which isn’t saying much, because lights are freakin expensive here!) and got a nice work lamp.  I also invested in a giant sheet of paper, this I bought at the 100 yen store, a movie poster sized piece of paper.  Combined with the light, I should be able to take much better shots!  Just to give you an idea….

Trying an artistic shot

Checking out the thrusters

Finally getting that blue to pop

Now I have little excuse to actually finish taking good shots of the Sinanju, and officially closing the book on it.  Save time that is…

Just a tad busy right now…

Well, I apologize for the lack of updates.  The last week had a serious attack of “life” with me spending the week busy with work, nights busy with Batman, the weekend busy with an old friend who came back to visit Japan, and the last couple of days busy with my main laptop, as I made the rather impulse decision to format and re-install windows (7 at that).  So, for the time being I’m trying to get that laptop up to speed so I can get back to posting. 

In the meantime, I’m looking at my backlog, and I’ve decided that maybe I was a little too ambitious when I picked up my lots of gunpla in bulk.  So, I maybe will actually be getting rid of (that means selling) some of my unopened and still waiting to be built gunpla.  At the time, I’m looking at mainly just the MG Sazabi, anyone interested?  Preferably in Japan would be great, and cheap for shipping, but will consider international.  I still have a Gundam Expo HG Gundam + Trailer (Full finish version) available as well…

Anyways, time to turn this blog around from being An American Salaryman in Tokyo Who Starts Things But Never Finishes Them to An American Salaryman in Tokyo Who Does Things Realistically.  Ha!

Oh, and I really am planning on doing a photodump of the usual Tokyo pictures and junk from the last couple of months.  Here’s one I actually took this last weekend of what Salarymen do in Tokyo late at night.  What’s scary is I really don’t remember taking it though…

 

WiP HGUC Kshatriya -> WiSP

I apologize to those looking forward to the next installment of my Kshatriya WiP, it will be a little delayed for a few reasons.  Mainly Batman (sooo good) and a couple of other things.  I am planning on making it up though, so I should be finished with it by next weekend depending on how late work keeps me this week.

Riddle me this, what’s the slight delay for…? 

WiP: HGUC Kshatriya #3

Onwards with the WiP, today we’ll be finishing up the feet, legs, and waist.  This ended up taking up around 3 hours, just for the sheer sprue gate cleaning and panel lining needed for the again, large amout of pieces for a HGUC.  Looking at the feet, it follows a Sinanju style, and here I actually went ahead and painted the dark blue parks with my left over Tamiya Dark Mica Blue paint.  It came out fairly nice.

Again, one completed, with the parts on the left.

Next up we move into the leg, and boy, can we say Thunder Thighs?  Well, more like thunder calves maybe.  For some reason, the think armor on the left and right side of the legs remind me of the ZZ and FAZZ, but it could just be me.  Again, here was a lot parts which meant more panel lining needed.  Its not so long to build, it’s just the cleaning before hand.

Leg stuff 1

Leg stuff 2, with a completed leg

And here’s both legs with feet

Moving on the the waist, Kshatriya’s a fat one, they’d say he’s a metabo here in Japan. (metabolic syndrome, do they even use that word abroad?  No? I think they just call it fat!)  In general the skirt armor was fine, save for the giant ass dark green cod piece thing in front, nice of Bandai to stick a sprue gate snipping point in the smack dab middle of the cod piece.  Thankfully I had a dark green copic marker in my Gundam can of pens and markers so I don’t think you can tell.

Inner waist parts

And all the various skirt armor.

And done

So, with this we’re actually done with the body! 

Front

Side

Oh, and I said he’s a big boy right?  Yep, dwarves the HGUC Gundam, and stands about as tall as an MG Zaku II.  In fact, he’s fairly up there with his big brother Sinanju.  The only thing I don’t like is the head, honestly, when looking at the Sinanju, Zaku and Gundam the heads seem appropiately big enough.  Poor old Kshatriya though, looks like he was stunted of growth in the head area. 

Comparison shot

All that’s left is the wings, and more importantly, cleaning up around 30 fin funnels….  That’s on the plate for tomorrow.

WiP Part #1 time: 2 hours
WiP Part #2 time: 2.5 hours
WiP Part #3 time: 3 hours
Current WiP total time: 8.5 hours

WiP: HGUC Kshatriya #2

Continuing on with the WiP, today we finish up the arms and shoulders.  You’d think this wouldn’t take so much time, but all together with part snipping, cleaning, panel lining, minor painting, and the trim, today’s pieces took about 2 and a half hours to do.  The first time consumer were the shoulders include the connecting arms for the… wings? So that was four sets to build right there.

The connecting arms, with the ability to lock in place.

From there I finished up the trim for the wrist area, thankfully this is the last of the black pieces with trim.

Again, with the Gundam marker.

I will say that the marker again came out great, especially considering the trim on these pieces were smaller than anything I worked with on the Sinanju.  From there it’s the actually arm and shoulder pieces.  With the panel lining that took some time as well.

Parts needed, plus a completed arm.

Close-up on the finished parts.

I’ve decided to go with a semi-gloss for the top coat this time around.  My Sinanju has a glossy coat, and I figured a flat coated Kshatriya would stand out too much, so I went down the middle.  Here’s the main body with the arms and shoulders.

Front view

Side view

And here’s with the connecting arms connected to the shoulders.

Front view

Somewhat top view

Tomorrow we’ll move into the waist and legs. 

WiP Part #1 time: 2 hours
WiP Part #2 time: 2.5 hours
Current WiP total time: 5.5 hours

WiP: HGUC Kshatriya #1

As you could probably guess by my last post, I did indeed pick up the Kshatriya.  It is definitely a big box, and stands easy with master grade boxes.

The box art is pretty cool

As you can see, bigger than some MG boxes!

Plenty of runners as well

My plans for this is a simple snap build with initial panel lining.   We start off with the torso and head today.  Beforehand, I decided to plan ahead and panel line the yellow parts.  The Kshatriya, unlike the Geara Doga comes with all the proper parts in the needed colors, save for the trim on the black pieces.  No need to paint parts yellow this time!

Doing the yellow parts

Here are all the parts for the torso.  Quite a few for a HGUC

Now, I know I said I was going to do only a snap fit with the panel lines, but…

Yep, that’s silver trim, on a much smaller scale  

I have to admit, I’m amazed that I managed to do this with a Gundam Marker, guess the Sinanju gave me some great practice.  So with the torso finished, it looks like the below.

Side view

Front view

The head itself is a very simple afair.

The parts

And done.  Used a dab of Gundam Pink for the eye

Attached to the torso

Now, I know that the Kshatriya is supposed to be big, but how big?  Well, lets take a comparison shot here.

Hmmm

While the head is obviously smaller, the fact that the torso is pretty much the same size as the 1/100 Sinanju makes you realize that this is going to be quite a big kit.  That’s all for today and we’ll continue on tomorrow evening.