Unicorn Rifle

Weekend stuff

Had a very busy Saturday, and made myself busy on Sunday.

Saturday morning I picked up a Canadian friend of mine who has recently moved to the Nagoya area. We used to train at the same dojo in Canada so he wanted to try out the training here in Japan. It's good to see old acquaintances again, however it also stood as a reminder of how far I have come since those old training days.

I had a japanese lesson in the early afternoon and as soon as it ended I hopped onto the train and made my way to Akihabara. Once out of the station, I saw this.

As you can see, there was a line. As I wasn't planning on going there that day it was of no consequence to me. I made my way to the old watering hole, the HUB, where I met ASM and was handed this.

Yup, Gundam shaped yaki anpan or whatever it's called. After discussing gunpla, life, the universe, and everthing with ASM for several hours over many beverages, I made my way home.

And slept.

The next day was mother's day, however, my wife had work in Tokyo so she left at her regular time leaving me at home to take care of my daughter. I wanted to take advantage of the gorgeous weather and finish up my decal work so I sat down at the kitchen table with my decals and supplies and handed my daughter a pair of scissors and construction paper. She learned how to use scissors while I cut out and applied decals.

The shield is now finished. Here's the lower half:

And here's the top half: Whoa! What's that? Dat's money!

(There was a bit of an episode when I went to apply the final top coat to this piece. The S2 blew off and away. I found it on the patio and carefully picked it up and put it back on, moving it into position carefully. Next time, Marksofter!)

The other side of the bazooka has now been decaled and topcoated. I went for an a-symetrical look.

And after the decal work, my daughter and I went to a nearby park where we played on the swings and slides for an hour, then we did some shopping and had some lunch. She was getting cranky and started crying shortly after we returned home so I laid on the couch holding her on my chest until she fell asleep.

Then I carefully laid her on the couch, crept upstairs..

and built gatlings.
There will be work done to these.

For now, the entire Unicorn is finished! Except for the feet. I still have to construct the feet.

Once I get going...

...things get done!

I used a few spare minutes I had here and there during the last couple of days and was able to finish some of the little things. Such as:

1) Clip, nip, sand, paint, topcoat and build the hands.2)Finish assembly of the shoulders.
3)Insert the sensor for the bazooka.
4) Add some decals to the upper arms and torso to break up all that gray.
I did this after top coating with Flat so I definitely had to use the Mark Softer to keep them on and prevent silvering.

5) Decal the Bazooka ammo cartridge. (I may add one more)

6) Apply decals to one side of the bazooka. Decal work. Once I get going.. I can't stop!

There are a couple things I noticed that need to be painted again. For instance, this part of the bazooka should be silver not black (oops).

And this part should be all silver. (again oops)


7)I also sprayed paint on the destroy mode antennae, but have not yet decided exactly how it should look. I keep forgetting about this piece, actually. Hence the lack of picture.

And I still have to work on the feet. I have sanded them down and the next step will be measuring and drawing to decide exactly how much I want to extend them. I feel they are too short for such a tall kit so I want to give them a beefier look. I have a feeling this will be the last piece of this puzzle.

Oh, except for the Gatlings! Hrrrr..

Tomorrow I am a busy bee, meeting a Canadian friend and taking him to the dojo for morning practice, returning home hurriedly so the wife can have an hour or two to herself before I have my japanese lesson in the afternoon, after which I hop on the train right away to Akiba and meet The American Salaryman where we will be exchanging pieces of plastic and stories over beers. And the next weekend we do it again, but this time with Buster from Plamo Addiction.

Golden Week is Golden!

When it comes to Gunpla!

I have managed to use some of my extra free time to apply the remainder of the decals (sans shield) and start final assembly. I love days off! Now if only I was organized and used my free time more productively, I might actually be able to do the things I am supposed to do such as studying my Japanese. Ah heck, it's the holidays.

Onto the Gunpla!

The skirt is completely finished. All decals have been applied and a coat of Flat has been sprayed.
Here is the result of my lengthening of the center block on the rear of the skirt. I added some Wave decals to the area that was lengthened in an effort to make it look like I did a better job than I did ;)
Open sez me!
By the power of Grayskull!

I am using the same Wave decals I used on my Sinanju and pretty much following the same process as before; cut away the tiny parts of the decal you don't want, or conversely, cut away the tiny parts that you do want. This took longer than I had anticipated, but still nowhere near as long as with the Yellowbird. I wanted only minimal decals on this bad boy.
With these I cut away the tiny red circle.
And then used them for the shoulder armour, resulting in..
There's one piece that was just topcoated today so final assembly of the shoulders will wait for now.

Here's what the legs look like with the custom decals.
(hmm.. dare I make a Decal Guide like I did with the Yellowbird?)

For the armour on the arms, I needed a really small decal. Actually, I needed four really small decals. However, what I had that I could use looked like this. (red circle already cut away.)
Cutting the text into a square shape using the width of the word 'Caution' as a guide...
x 4!
With the final result looking a little something like this:

I also have a completed torso to show off! Unfortunately, the pictures turned out poorly so my showing off is rather anticlimactic.

Some of you may remember this:
It was the first picture I released revealing the colour scheme of my Sinanju. Many people were quick to notice the German warning sticker on the side of the head.

And now.. Pair-look!
I decided to do this rather last minute so it had already been flatcoated. I used my marksofter to make quick work of this decal.
That's about it for now. I am currently working on the masking on the bazooka. I do mean currently. I am actually doing it while I create this blog entry. T h a t i s w h y I a m t y p i n g s o s l o w l y.

I also spent twenty minutes this afternoon to nip, sand, and paint the hands. I will check for any paint errors and if everything looks fine, flat top coat in the morning before I head off to the zoo. It's Childrens' Day in Japan tomorrow and I will be spending it with my family. Speaking of family, it was the 5th anniversary of my marriage on May 2nd. How time flies when you are... living life.

Nothing to report, sir

Well, not a whole lot to report but I did manage to get some things done this past week despite being busy with other things occupying my time and mind. It seems quite a few people involved with the Unicorn Group Build have been busy with some important things lately. Which reminds me, ASM you should contact me ASAP. Stories to tell.

Here's the end of the Bazooka. I masked it and painted the Silver Leaf however, the black did need to be touched up. The copic markers worked well and you can only see the marker marks if you look closely (which is exactly what my camera does when in macro mode...)

Here's the rest of the bazooka. The seam lines are in the process of being removed. I had to add some more glue to some seams to fill a gap. I try to use glue for that rather than break out the putty which is more time consuming.

And the lower half of the legs are almost complete. There are a lot of pieces on this thing! More decaling is needed before the final assembly of the legs will be finished. I think I could pound it out in one night if I wasn't so distracted right now.

You can see the piece that is painted a lighter gray than the majority of the armour on the knee joint. I wanted to break up this big mass of gray without resorting to Ver. Ka like decals. After the V Gundam, I live in fear of the Ver. Ka decals. In the natural light it looks pretty good.

I will have a whole week off starting on thursday. Hurray, for Golden Week! When I am not out and about I plan on jumping on this thing with enthusiasm in order to get it completed before the Musha Mk II arrives. I am still 面倒くさい about the putty work, though.