New spikey mirrors!

Hey all,
   For my birthday present my Mom-in-law got me a delightful gift certificate that I promptly used to get some spikey mirrors for my bike.  Thanks Mom 2.0!  They fit with my bike perfectly on my sort of batman-esque theme.  They installed pretty easy and look good.  They're smaller than my previous mirrors, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.  I took them for a drive earlier today in between rain storms and they held up well.  They didn't vibrate out of alignment, and I can see on them just fine.  I really like them a lot and I'm grateful for my latest new birthday addition to Shiki.  Hope you all like them.  Now for a photo collage!

Here are some more pics:

Saddlebag for my bobber!

Hey all,
   Sometime this last week I realized I need a small saddlebag for my bike.  While I can throw stuff in a backpack if I need to, I don't want to always have to do that.  Especially for stuff that I always want to have with me such as a tire repair kit and a mobile compressor.  So I decided to try to find a one side small saddlebag that will fit in the small available space on the bike, and help fill out the lines of the bike.  I also thought that the left side of the bike looked a bit off as the right side has the added bulk of the exhaust and the air cleaner so I wanted to add something to fill it out just a bit.  Here is what I found; the "312L Left Side Swing Arm Leather Solo Bag" from The Leatherworks in Stockton CA.  These bags should fit any honda shadow phantom and a variety of other bikes.  The listing can be found here.  The page lists the fitment for the various bikes it fits.  The idea is that it's a bag that will attach to the swing arm of your bike and fill out the little space beneath your shock and to the right of your battery box on the left side of your bike.  A really niche shape and size, but it worked perfectly for my 2013 Honda Shadow Phantom.  Check it out:

The bag fits in the formerly available space perfectly.  Attaching it was a bit imaginative, but I imagine with something so niche in it's application it's probably expected that some creativity be applied in installation.  The bag comes with four little belts that go in four little belt slots to attach the bag.  I hooked two belts together for each side and basically made one big belt for each side.  I wound this around the swing arm and then zip tied the top of the left belt to the top of my frame using a black zip tie to keep the bag from dropping down over time.  Hopefully it works out and holds up over time, but I don't foresee any issues with it.  I think it turned out great and it holds my compressor and tire kit with a little bit of extra room for a shirt or jacket.  Wifey also suggested that behind the seat is possible available room for maybe a small bag if I can find one that will attach to the brackets available, but that's a project for another day.  (Although a great idea.  Maybe a leather cylindrical tube bag or a small rectangular bag that could hang at an angle.

Stay tuned bikeaholics...

Shiny Metagross Sculpture Diorama

Hey all,
   This project was first and foremost a birthday present for my brother.  I asked him what his favorite pokemon was (we're into pokemon, he's much better at it than me though) and he answered me Metagross.  Then without him knowing exactly why I was asking I started sculpting a large sized model of a metagross that I could cast and paint up for him.  This is the final product after the master sculpt (the master sculpt is the sculpted model I made by hand and the one I used to cast, I'm not calling myself a master), the casting, the painting, and the same for the model desert base.  (also resin plastic original sculpt by me.)

This is one of the images I used for my reference (not my drawing, just used for reference):

 

Now to explain how I made it.

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...

Decal Design

Hey all,
   I think I have the close to finalized versions of what the decal are going to look like.  This is just for the large trace line decals that I drew up in this outline sketch:

I did add some angles and variations to them as the ones in the sketch were just for a rough idea.  This of course doesn't include all the little various warnings and small text decals, it's just for those unique to this kit.  Here is the sheet, the layout of the decals may change to suit a more efficient use of page space, but you'll get the idea.

With the Part Outlines

Without the Part Outlines or Path Strokes

I'm going to work with

10/17/12 Lanzegeist Casting Update

Hey All,
  Just a quick update tonight showing the parts we have poured so far!

I'm gonna need another table to cover with parts!  (And then three more haha.)  I'll probably start on the instruction manual soon.  (Although I need my Wife's big smarty brain to help me figure out the layout haha.)  There are so many parts (yeah I know not compared to most kits haha), about 155+ not including screws and nuts and such.  Just keeping you guys updated on the progress, don't want ya thinking I'm just bummin about.  Wifey and I are working on the castings twice a night and her help is invaluable and allows us to make great parts stress free, and much faster.  I hope you all are as excited about this as I am!

On a side note I will be putting together a SB Tutorial soon when I have a good day to do so, just going over some basics and the tools you need to do them for any aspiring scratch builders or mecha sculptors that may want some help.  (I'm not qualifying myself as expert, advanced, or super skilled, but simply answering a request made by a bunch of cool people asking for a tutorial.)

Stay tuned mechaholics...

Crowned King ..uh...Crown Update!

Hey All,
   As the wife and I are pluggin along at making casts  I decided to fiddle with the head crest a bit more tonight.  And although I wasn't gonna add anymore prongs to it (Gary had said it looked to have enough in that department and I kinda agreed) I did it anyway cuz after the shape being cut down a hair I thought there was too much empty space above the crest.  I also added a long range targeting camera which will have one of my new clear lenses in it.  The crest is gonna be cast in at least four or five pieces so I can even cast it, and hopefully then it will work.  I may add a little more detail and shave down some more, maybe not.  Either way though here is what I did tonight.  Again these parts are just fun optional parts and won't affect the kits if you guys don't wanna put the parts on, they are just extra.  (Except for the crotch/tailfin heavy armor sleeve for the white kits)

I like the new targeting camera a lot.

I added the extra normal camera/eyes also as per my little sketch plan.

I thought it would be cool to have a face within a face.

Forgive the pouring sprues still being attached, I just grabbed a couple of fresh casts for the chest parts.

I'll have a better idea of if this stuff looks cool once it's cast.  Right now the mottling of color throws it off.

LG Crowned King Armor pack and Casting Update

Hey all,
   I recently had an issue with one of the molds where a piece of the mold rubber just broke off.  The part was the crotch/tailfin armor and that mold was a pain to make.  So I had a little soul searching to do to decide how to proceed.  I basically just decided to remake the mold as it was, and the molds for a few other parts where the mold was getting worn out for some reason or another.  This is what I spent the last weekend doing with wifey between other things.  The problem came in on Monday night when I went to separate the molds.  They had sealed together.  It turns out that I had used Mann Ease release 300 mold release instead of 200, and the silicone had basically just cured to itself right through the release, since the 300 isn't made for releasing rubber from rubber.  After I had a major rage spell, I tried to cut the parts out of the molds.  I ended up snapping the prototype for the crotch armor altogether.  I really only needed to still make the casts for the white versions of the kit with this mold, but still now no mold, no parts.  Well I came up with a solution that I liked so I went with it.  The Crowned King Armor pack.  The deal is that the white casts of the kit are going to come with a few extra add ons that have a little bit heavier armor than the gray casts.  This solution allowed me to make a new crotch armor piece with a little bit thicker plating for the armor, and to make a few new neat extra parts that will basically just be a neat difference between the gray and white casts.  Here are the basics parts of the Armor Pack.

-New optional head crest
-New optional bicep armor
-New optional front skirt armor
-New optional Hulkatr Cannon weight block
-New optional lower leg armor
-for the white kits a mandatory different heavy armor tailfin cover

Also here is my casting update photo keeping in mind that I'm two and a half weekend (more casting on weekend days) days behind schedule:

These took four hours, but they're pretty!

Hey all,
   I decided to go ahead and make a small mountain of mono eyes, lenses, and random round things tonight.  Not that I just had tons of extra time, but I couldn't wait to test the colors and get some small lenses cured.  I made sure to make tons of the pink ones for zeon mono eyes for any future builds like that sms kampfer conversion I got a little while ago.  I also have a neat idea for the clear lenses that I haven't seen done before that I plan to share soon once I make a test version.  (possible detail up add on part kit accessory)  But anyway here is my bunch of curing colored clear apoxy resin.

I mixed up the clear apoxy resin and since it has a 5 hour pot life (really more like 3.5 with the conditions in this room) I had plenty of time to color tint the various little pallets of apoxy.  I carefully used a bamboo skewer and dabbed it into the liquid and let gravity do the rest when I dabbed it again onto a smooth mold top.  I use the tops of various molds because they are smooth number one, and two because the apoxy won't cure to it.  Now there are some oblong shapes and circles that merged or were made mishapen, but no worries as if even half of them are good its a crapload of good lenses of various sizes and colors, and this in reality only took 65 grams of apoxy.  Yeah and I had a ton leftover because I'm stupid and always mix too much.  hehe.  So it would require even less than I used by half.  But you do need a certain amount of material just to make sure your mix ratio has a little play.

DIY Clear Tinted Detail Lenses

Hey All,
   I just had a kewl experience yesterday with an experiment I did.  I had poured a bunch of clear apoxy resin for my clear parts I'm casting for the kits I'm gonna sell, and I had a bunch of extra clear apoxy left over.  Let me start off by saying I hate wasting materials when I don't have to.  So with that in mind I had to find something to use the material for, and I found it.  Clear lenses!  Now these don't look clear because I tinted them with two drops of red pigment and some yellow, pink, and red fluorescent pigment for a little brightness, but if I hadn't they would be totally clear.

So what I did was just dab a bamboo skewer flat head down into the liquid and then onto the smooth silicone until it beaded up the natural way liquids do.  Some didn't turn out circular enough, but the greater majority of them are round and usable once they cure all the way.

Just showing off the various sizes that were created.

This is in actuality less liquid than in a couple thimbles believe it or not.

The awesome thing is I barely used enough apoxy resin to fill a couple thimbles.  I can make TONS of detail lenses in clear resin now and I can color cast them in any color pretty much.  I'm gonna try neon green next I think or maybe I'll do a bunch of different colors.  It's a possibility that I may gather up some variety packs of the lenses in various sizes and colors and sell a few if folks want them.  (They are incredibly useful and pretty I think.)  Now let me show off what they look like on some otherwise kinda crappy items.

Before adding lens onto this Gundam Fix Figuration FAZZ.

After adding lens onto the FAZZ.

                                            

Video Update!

Hey all,
   I just made a video update showing off various parts of the LG.  Feel free to share this with your friends!  It shows off the humanoid mode, burn mode, and the inner frame some.

BTW I think I said the link to this blog incorrectly in the video.  haha it's my own blog and I don't know the address.  Derp.  :(

 Link in case of video issues: Click Here

1/100 Lanzegeist Fully Transformable Kit With Full Inner Frame

Hey All,
   I have been on the forums little and less the last 6 months, and for that I apologize.  However this was for a good reason, I was working on a project that I wanted to keep secret until I had the first cast completed.  That project is:



Specs:



model number: MASF-OAM-LG-001
magnus arms space fleet orbital assault machine lanzegeist
power generator: immersive fusion reactor
maximum power output: unknown
armor plating: thorexium carbide
pilot accomodation: 1 pilot extended occupancy cabin
with long term life support unit
thrust potential: theoretical top speed 18.2 km/s @ orbital alt.
thrust instrumentation: dual biaxial deflected afterburners
armaments: dual long range missile bays, "gotcha" grapple claw,
dual quad cluster bomb array, Hulkatr long range high density beam cannon
quad chest unidirectional beam condensors, two 360 degree light laser turrets,
two 360 degree medium laser turrets, two plasma beam swords,
optional magnetic deflector shield array self deploying
variable modes: high speed orbital fighter jet and humanoid fighter modes