i had both the original G-UNIT L.O. BOOSTER and AESCULAPIUS 1/144 kits back in my pre-internet, settle-for-anything-i-can-find wild west days of the late-90's. both're long gone now, and, honestly, i don't personally miss either of 'em one bit, YMMV of course...
So...just realized that the Aesculapius is going to cost about $45 after that annoying flat-rate shipping ($35 + $10). With that in mind, I might skip this run entirely. They'll likely run it again down the road fairly soon, just like the Geminass 01/02 and as cool as the thing is, I can not spend that kind of money right now. Things are ramping up with my trains, my backlog is pretty packed as is (I haven't touched Sahalenthropus or the Mk. V, and all that other shit from the Expo is still coming eventually...), and I don't get a raise until next January. EDIT: Oh, and there's also the FAT $200 for Haslab Star Saber, too!
Built another Zaku today. 'St Still digging the style. Had a hell of a time with the decals this time. They just refused to stay on for a long time. Here are the power rangers together. I think thats enough Zakus for now. I know there is one more, but I am happy with this lot.
The Destiny Zakus are great. Can't wait to get the Concert Zaku. Also I need to get the Gunner Zaku Warrior when it pops back up.
Started the morning with a few more points of where I left off last night before going out to replace a starter motor on a UTV. My Gundammarker lines around the bolts on those thruster pods turned out a little too broad... I can fix it later. *Maybe I should repaint that trench in dark gray after all. One more look at it from head to heel. All that's left for the legs are the joint covers. I'll work on the arms next.
Sorta checks out, though. The new versions have at least twice the parts of those old, crappy kits...
Honestly never heard of this unit before but it looks so cool. It's so tempting but I just bought the Calamity and that was one pricey kit.
Man, sometimes I hate being at the tail end of a Gunpla project; doing last bits of touch-ups, or re-doing parts that I screwed up. Setting up the airbrush and spray-booth for less than 5 min of actual airbrushing feels super-stupid; I'm spending more time setting up and clearing/cleaning up than actual airbrushing. ... Though to be fair, in the past this wasn't an issue; it's only been like this in the last ~20 months (since the beginning of the pandemic); as my hobby/building-desk has had to double up and be my working-from-home desk as well.
@anubis20 EXPLAIN YOURSELF. Why have you decided to possess this man's will and make him airbrush everything?
I need to stop second guessing myself when I'm right the first time. I disconnected the leg thrusters and repainted the trenched line in dark gray again, it covered up for messy ink work. Then added something I meant to do when I started them. Don't mind the sloppy edges, those got cleaned up once they were attached. The one thing missing right now from the legs are the vernier nozzles. I'm putting them off until much later since they're getting painted and I want to treat them all at once. The large hip skirts are also missing their vernier nozzles once I connect the white stripe-rings and center caps... but before I do though.. there's just something to be said how .. goofy these look right when I took this picture. They're like Dory painted tribal masks with the late Robin Williams' chin... and now nobody can unsee that!!!!! Those are done, now back to the legs, I set on the joint covers, and what I'm assuming are balancing nozzle plates on the outsides of the legs. Some accent drying in them for the night, and paint to touch up afterwards. Since I started on the arms, I finished painting all of the knuckles with expected mistakes to mop off as usual. Daytime hours tomorrow will be on the hayfield, but this gives me a moment to plan how I paint this some more. Until next session, the MkV is getting swole and can't fit on the Machine Base I use for kits on the bench. So empty turntable it is! Which is of course still enclosed by the 1:60 maintenance cage, where the finished components hang from the racks and other finished subassemblies are rested. One thing to be said is the white really pops on this kit. It's plain white plastic, with areas that I painted, but it stands out on the dark and cobalt blue surfaces.
There is always some set up time. I have a dedicated area and even then I need to: plug the compressor tank, wait for the compressor to fill up, put the vent on the window, cover the open parts of the window so no hot/cold air comes in the room. Sometimes if its just one or two pieces I'll use canned primer so I don't have to set up the compressor.
Yeah, there's always been just a little setup time. Even before my operating table (ie, my hobby/building-desk) became my working-from-home desk, I'd at least need to connect the vent to the open window (I make full panel replacements with foam-core board, so it's usually just open the curtain, wedge the whole foam-core board with the spray-booth exhaust already connected to it, and open the window). But at least back then, my compressor, airbrush, and spray-booth were always just there and connected. Now my setup process is: - disconnect my right-most monitor and move it elsewhere - move my work laptop and primary monitor aside (they're on movable swinging-arms, so I just swing them out of the way) - move my keyboard and mouse off the desk to somewhere else - put spraybooth on desk - connect exhaust duct to spraybooth - open window, put in exhaust-connected foam-core board into window-frame - connect airbrush to compressor (I installed a quick-disconnect between the airbrush and hose) - turn everything on Then do my airbrushing. Then do the reverse to clean up and turn it back into my WFH desk.
The idea I had last night but couldn't get to until tonight takes shape. Some panel line accent to give me the outlines and a primer coat. Then I decided since I'm making this many panels turn white, I needed to just make a full bottle of it. It's an equal parts mixture of Testors Semi-Gloss White and my "Gunpla White" which is Flat White and Light Gray. After a shake up to mix, the first coat. Smooth over a primed surface but on unprimed surfaces, a few light coats will do fine.
Mail's here from ShowZ, but it doesn't have any instructions.. I've sent them a message asking about that. It came in a box bigger than I expected and there was nothing in there besides the bags of runners. obvious wings and Zwerg parts. I'm no stranger to Repetition again. and what looks like brass gun barrel parts included with the joint parts. I've already told my sister to tell the kids, "Wing Zero is about to become Snow White Prelude!" (but not right now.)
