Alright! Finally the priming's done and lo and behold... stuff to fix. Man... when will I learn to be more careful during the construction phase? Brrr...

Here are the spots I found on top of the kit that need further fixing.

Not as many problems as I've foreseen, but still... it ain't perfect. Oh well. There were also some problems at the bottom of the kit. During construction, I paid more attention to the top of kit since that's what everyone will see first (hardly anyone will purposely flip the kit and look at the bottom) so there are actually a lot more problems to fix. However, since it is the bottom afterall, I decided to just fix the major ones hehehe...

The good news in all this is that the RWR sensors turned out very nice and I don't have to make any further changes to them. Score!

Oh bugger. It rained in the morning which ended up being a muggy afternoon which isn't good for any sort of painting. So I couldn't do the priming. Sigh...

So the only update here is a small old one. The canopy had a big seamline running down the middle so I scraped it off with a hobby knife and slowly sanded the area with ever finer sandpaper, ending with 400 grit. Then I dipped the canopy into Future floor polish to give it a supershine. To top it off, I carefully masked the canopy with Tamiya masking tape. To attach to the kit, I would use white glue as it dries transparent.

Here's hoping tomorrow will be a bright sunny day...

Yep. Been awhile. My mates in the groupbuild has also been bugging me no end hehehe. So anyway, a lot has been done and I'm ready to prime the kit, fix some obvious problems then start painting. Small mistakes can be hidden pretty easily since I'm going to do some weathering. I can't stand clean aircraft. :P

I tried out a new method of filling the gaps: liquid paper aka correction fluid. This was suggested by a good friend G-Man from the Plamo Forums. Applying is easy: just whack on a dollup onto the gap. Then I ran a cotton bud with Gunze thinner through it, which thins and softens the liquid paper and makes it flow flush. So it works, I'm just now sure how it will look after priming. We'll see.

I also added all the major not too fragile parts onto the kit, so I can paint in one shot. I guess in this sense, aircraft kits are actually easier to paint than mecha kits. So anyway, all the tiny sensor bumps and blades are added.

Next came the RWR sensors on the wings. These are the major parts that are missing from the kit which is too bad since they are quite obvious on the real aircraft. A bit of a challenge to scratchbuild them since the RWR sensors have an odd shape. They are pretty small so I decided to just make a general likeness hehe.

Next up: priming and fixing all the big problems that popup.

There has been some discussion lately in the Plamo Forum about being burned out from modeling, specifically Gundam modeling. Funny thing, it actually happened to me a couple of years back, I was so burned out I stopped modeling for a 6 month period. The difference is, Gundam modeling actually got me back into the hobby.

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I expanded my airsoft collection while I was in Indonesia. Now in my arsenal is a Heckler & Koch MP5A5. Haven't had time to deck it out with addons, not that I want to anyway. It's a great weapon for CQB skirmishes. Very light and easy to wield around corners. Just in case you're wondering, yes that's me in my airsoft skirmish getup. Who says dressing up is only for the girls???

Check it out!

Man... life without broadband sure is weird. I don't even bother to get onto the Internet everyday with narrowband hehehe.

But I'm back in the world of all things 2.5Mbps (and more) and lo and behold, one of the nicest surprises popped up in the HLJ upcoming kit list. A HGUC Powered GM! My favorite GM variant in my favorite scale! Wooohoooo!

Now if only Bandai will take the next step and release the GM Quel, GM Kai and GM Custom and I'll be one happy (albeit broke) puppy...

Just spent 3 weeks in Indonesia where my access to the Internet was sporadic at best. Now I'm back for a couple of days and I found out that the latest SEED competition has come and gone. Oh well. Good thing my good buddy Maxwinamp has graciously uploaded all the pictures he took at the competition so slow-pokes like me can at least still ogle at the entries virtually.

I must say I was quite disappointed not to be able to finish in time (due to family commitments back home). Would I have stood a chance of winning something? I'll never know now... too bad.

The winners have been announced and another good buddy of mine Salmonjim won with his SD Minerva vignette! Super cool! Second went to the Duel Gundam vignette while third was this Gouf Crusher (looks to be 1/100 scale).

I think my main gripe is still the lack of good posing of some of the entries, which I think probably made the modelers lose points. Otherwise, I think there is a good variety of subjects covered this time, and there were some really technically impressive entries. And of course, I'm always looking forward to the next one!