1/100 Lanzegeist Inner Frame *Official Photos*

Hey All,
   I got my new light box today for doing photoshoots, and I wanted to get the inner frame photographed so I could start putting the armor on the kit.  So without further delay here are the official inner frame box images for the kit.  (At least I think these are going to be the final images.)

I will post the full finished photos of the kit with the armor on as soon as I finish the painting process.  I still have about 5 small parts to paint and then to assemble the Hulkatr Cannon before I can do a final assembly before I take the final images.  This process has been a long time in working,and I'm nearing the finality of the box art paint up.  I will keep you all updated.

Stay tuned mechaholics...

LG Internal Frame Painted

Hey All!
   Today I finished the last of the internal frame parts.  So I thought to take some quick photos and share it with you!

The internals are finished, and I used a few decals here and there to add a hair of detail, but

Final Fantasy Chocobo Tattoo

Hey All,
   Just a tattoo post today.  My most recent addition is a chocobo!  Wark!  I've always loved Final Fantasy VII, it's something that's always brought me happiness.  I sometimes listen to the soundtrack from the game (yes all four disks) and I still play the game again and again.  I've even bought multiple copies on various game systems over the years.  Reminds me of growing up with my best friend.  Anyway I wanted to get some ink from the game, and as my best friend and I are gonna get Cloud together at one point I decided on another lovable recognizable character from the franchise; the chocobo.  I picked the game art that I liked the best and I went with it.  My tattoo artist Terry Peek did an awesome job as usual and really brought this bird to life.  I got it on my forearm so I could see it all the time and smile.  Here's what it looks like:

Introduction to Scrach Building Part 1

Hey All,
   Since I was asked so politely by many on YouTube and finally had time, I made a tutorial on scratch building.  It's about an hour long and goes over every step of scratch building a part from nothing to a detailed primed part.  The focus isn't on painting so that parts not really as relevant I just showed it to acknowledge that the part is basically ready to paint.  Anyway I hope you guys like it, and if you find it useful or if you just love my gorgeous face share the video with someone you know.  The goal is to get more people into the hobby, and for me to get more subscribers on my YouTube page.  If I get enough subscribers or hits I will make another video teaching how to do other things such as more complicated SB methods, or perhaps how to cast replicate parts.  Here's the video:

Stay tuned mechaholics...

SD Gundam Tattoo Update..err...again!

Hey all,
   Just a quick update for my tattoo.  I added the shoreline behind the ball unit, and a comet/meteor with it's tail coming out of the yellow street lines.  Simple enough, but necessary as background.  I still need to get the street gray filled in beneath the hover truck, and I may add a hole in the concrete above the hover truck.  Here is the progress so far.

I'm loving how it's turning out.  I still need to plan out which objects will get thicker lines, but I will do that a little farther along when I have a better idea of how it all looks.  I know I'm gonna thicken some of them, probably the ball, and maybe the Zaku 2. 

Here are some more pics of the update.

 

In other news I'm working on another top secret project that I will reveal in time.  It's not another mecha yet, although I'm working on painting my LG.  (I bought fluorescent strip lights for the garage and now I've started painting again.)  This project is for my brother so I can't divulge anymore yet as in the off chance that he reads this it'll spoil the surprise, but I will say that it's gonna be a scratch built, hand sculpted piece that I'm casting and painting for him.  My hope is that he loves it.  Well I will update you all as soon as I can.  

Stay tuned mechaholics...

Fleischer Truppe Figure Sculpt: Part One

Hey All,
   I felt a bit of inspiration today so I started my sculpt for what I'm calling the Fleischer Truppe.  I think that roughly translates to butcher squad in German.  The concept is that this is a chemically enhanced and engineered human soldier who fights what are called "smiling men".  The smiling men are humanoid predators that have the ability to unhinge their jaws, making their mouths open quite wide which makes their lips and mouths always look like they are smiling.  Long story short the name Fleischer Truppe is a name given to the soldiers who fight the smiling men to embolden the humans in their fight against the superior predators they fight.  This figure I'm sculpting is going to be a 12" figure with articulation all over, and hopefully good detail.  It's my first organic looking sculpt so I may have to rework or remake certain parts as I'm going, but that's how I work anyway so nothing new there.  I'm starting with the basic muscular humanoid form, and then I'm going to add the armor on top of that after the form is finished.  Here is what I did today.

I'm using sculpey for the sculpt.  I find that the super sculpey is better for this work as it holds fine details well, and is easy to bake quickly.  For the larger forms I've just rolled up bits of aluminum foil and just sculpted a thin layer of sculpey on top of that.  

SD Gundam Tattoo Update

Hey all,
  Just a brief update.  I recently got a touch up on the previous work done and added a hover truck getting hit by a missile to the mix.  This part brings a ton of really beautiful color to it like the vivid orange of the explosion and the seafoam green and purples of the hover truck.  Terry did a great job on the shading and the thick outlines are looking awesome so far.  Not sure if I will thicken the other outlines on my arm already or just keep them different sizes like a weird stylized cartoon.  Either way here is the most recent addition. 

In other news I have started doing an action figure sculpt with the intent to cast it. I'm calling it the "Fleischer Truppe" or what I think is roughly Butcher Squad in German.  I have some preliminary sketches done up and I bought some sculpey and some more tools to get started.  I have the rifle, the helmet, the leg armor, and the chest armor planned, but that's it so far.  I've sculpted most of the right hand so far too.  hehe.  I'm going to make it full articulated and ball jointed where I can. 

I'm still waiting to buy a few strip fluorescent lights for the garage to finish painting my box art for the Lanzegeist which I still have every intention of selling 10.  Sorry for the long delay getting back into modeling friends, I'm just still getting adjusted after moving twice.  It won't be long now.

Stay tuned mechaholics...

SD Gundam Tattoo Part Deux

Current (forgive any distortion in the photo, it's a pain in the ass to take a picture of your own shoulder.)

Hey All,
   This past weekend I had a couple sessions with Terry Peek, the artist who's been working on my SD gundam piece, and he made the progress I was hoping for.  If you recall from my last post my shoulder was lookin a bit rough from the first bit of work, but now that it had healed up nice and he was back in town, we got to work on it and get the piece closer to what I want.  Now keep in mind that he is still going to do more work on it such as refilling the windows in the buildings, and doing touch ups on color fills and black, adding thicker lines here and there, but I must say I'm really happy with how this is turning out.  I still haven't decided if I want to thicken up the outer outline of the Char's Zaku II yet, but I will make up my mind before my next session.  Oh and I also got a new addition to the work, a cute lil Ball!

Ball!

 It's placed right under the crunched up car you see beneath the Char's Zaku II, and it looks all distorted because it's bending around my arm.  Now all of this looks a bit funky as my skin is puffy from the work, and the top photo is shiny from the aquaphor, but after some healing and a few more touch ups this piece will be golden.  Now I gotta start planning the next additions, and how to tie the background together!

Stay tuned mechaholics...

SD Gundam Tattoo

Hey All,
   Still don't have my workshop setup yet, but in the mean time I've gotten a sweet 1/4 sleeve tattoo started (and almost done) showing a SD RX-78-2 and a SD Char's Zaku II fighting in a cartoony city.

Current

The outlines will be done next session.

A tattoo artist name Terry Peek has been working on it for me.  He lives

Papercraft Metal Gear Rex.....P.S. I'm not dead!

Hey All,
    I'm not dead, I just haven't had a chance to unpack all my modeling stuffs yet.  And yes for any of you that want it I will still make a tutorial on scratch building once I get my stuff all set up and I've practiced a bit again.  I'm just waiting on some of my close family to come visit and get settled before I get all my workshop stuff set up.  In the mean time I started doing a little fun project to get my hands readjusted to my blades and to get me in the modeling spirit; a papercraft version of the Metal Gear Rex!

  It took me a few days to do this and I must say for my first complicated piece of paper cutting I am pretty pleased.  I think I may do a few more papercraft projects soon such as Vaan from final fantasy XII, and if I feel brave maybe a papercraft Deep Striker.  Although that may kill me.  haha.  Or my printer toner.  I used 110 lb. card stock for the paper, white "elmer's" glue, and a couple Xacto blades.  It took about 6 sheets of paper for the parts, and 1 for the instructions.  It also had the experimental mech on the sheets but I dunno if I'll finish that one or not.  I think this was intended to be larger but when we printed it out we shrunk the pages down some, which added to the challenge of cutting insanely small parts.  Well I hope my fellow nerds like it!  I know a certain Sneeper who's a fellow Rex enthusiast.  Hopefully I can update you guys on my LG in the next month! More pics:

Stay tuned mechaholics...