What's in the box? - Vash the Stampede

Vash the Stampede

So I'm in a bit of a resin figure phase. I was pretty pleased with the ones that I had, but I discovered this one and had to have it. No offense to the various Gundam series, but Trigun is my favorite anime series and Vash is one of my favorite heroes period. How can you not love a guy that not only saves the day, but drinks, hits on women, and eats doughnuts while doing it. On to the box!

The box was in good shape. Too bad it's what's in the box was a bit of a disappointment. There's only one photo. This seems to be fairly standard from e2046, but it's not a very good reference photo. It doesn't show the whole figure. It's not that big of a deal since the website has more photos, but I still find it disappointing.

The parts list is pretty lousy. The photo isn't blurry. That's just how the instructions look. It's really hard to tell which small pieces are which. There's also no instructions for assembly. Sure it's a figure and it's pretty intuitive, but it can be helpful for the accessories and detail parts.

The piece look ok.

Doesn't appear that the bottom of the jacket fits. Annoying, but that's not a big deal. After going through a few kits, I sort of expect that some pieces will be warped.

The glasses seem very fragile. There's a pretty good chance I break these. For some reason, I also don't seem them on the parts list. Kind of weird.

I also seem to have two sets of hair. They may not look identical in the photo, but I think that's just because of the angle. In person, I can't find any difference. Not sure what this is about, but I'm going to guess that somebody is missing the part in their kit.

So I'm not very happy with the presentation, but the kit itself seems to be in good shape and that's the most important part. Unfortunately, I think this kit is way above my skill level so it's going to be a while before I give it a shot.

Weekly WIP - MG Strike Freedom (Part 5)

What I'm working on...

Been working on the waist. Got all of the parts painted.

Started putting panel lining.

Not looking as good as I would like. Erased a lot of detail during the clean up part. Going to take a second application. Also added some decals. Used Micro Set and Micro Sol.

Decals aren't cooperating. You can still see the clear parts of the decal. Not sure what's going on. Going to add another coat of Micro Sol to see if that does the trick. 

Even though last week I said I was giving up on the base stand part of the base, I kept working on it. Was watching a vid from mvm3897 where he was talking about the primer he used. Said there were other primers that he didn't like because they were too thick and therefore hid details. Then it hit me. Hidden details are exactly what I need! So I went and got myself some "bad" primer. Masked off the detailed part of the base and re-primed. Took 2 or 3 coats and some wet sanding, but I think i finally got the look I want.

What else I'm into...

Normally I mention other things I'm into, but this week is going to be different. If you've followed the not so subtle indications that I'm a huge Raiders fan. This week Raider Nation lost it's leader, Al Davis. So instead of mentioning what I'm into, I'm going to take a moment of silence. 

JUST WIN BABY!

Weekly WIP - MG Strike Freedom (Part 4)

What I'm working on...

Continued work on the base. Added putty to fill in the cracks, sanded back down, and re-primed. How did it turn out?

Looks good like that.

Bottom part looks good.

...and now there's a problem. New cracks. Not sure what to do. This is the third time I've tried this. Probably going to give up. I'll probably wet sand away as much as possible, but anything serious will probably be left alone. I'm sick of working on this piece and I think I'm just going to cut my loses.

Moving on to the waist part. Sanded them down, washed them and started priming. Needs a little wet sanding to smooth it out, but they look good. Excited to get painting.

Speaking of painting, I had some more color sampling to do. First up the gold. Tried a few different things. The only two that are even worth sharing are below.

One sample is Testers Gold Or (guess nobody caught the typo). 

The other is Testors Gold Or covered with Mr. Color Clear Yellow. 

Not sure which one I'll go with. Leaning towards the second one as Strike Freedom's gold is a bit more yellow than standard gold. Any suggestions?

Next up is the dark blue. As I mentioned in a previous post, there were random red spots in the paint I was planning to use. That wasn't going to work. Plan b, mixing my own. Only look 3 attempts before I got the color I was looking for.

It's 2 parts Blue Angel Bule, 3 parts Plum Crazy, and 2 parts Classic Black. It's much shinier than the plastic part, but I think with a flat coat it will look good.

Since I didn't list the brands/colors of the others in a previous post, I'll do it now. Don't have a photo for Model Master Gloss White, because... well it's white. Everyone knows what white looks like.

Testors Red Rouge. Looks orange in the photo but it's your standard red.

Medium Sea Grey

Cobalt Blue

Primer. Why this primer? Well I was having a lot of trouble on some previous kits using other primers. So I went to the local hobby shop looking for a solution. This is what was recommended. It's working pretty good. No issues. Given that story, I'd like to plug the shop now. It's called Depot Train & Hobby and is located near Cleveland, OH. I've had nothing but a great experience there. They have a bunch of random stuff (not much gunpla though) and the employees are very helpful. Since I found this place, I haven't gone anywhere else. If you're in the area, check them out.

What else I'm into...

X-Men Destiny. So I was fairly excited about this game after hearing about all summer. Read some review that weren't good, but it was mostly because the gameplay was repetitive. I hate that as a comment. Every game is pretty much the same thing the whole game when you dumb it down. Anyways I wasn't hearing any comments that I didn't hear when Ultimate Alliance came out, so I picked it up anyways. At first I thought the game was pretty good. But after playing a few hours, my opinion is changing. The camera is kind of annoying. The controls can be a little (ok maybe more than a little) slow. The talking/interaction interface is terrible and virtually necessary. The graphics aren't what I've come to expect from the current generation of consoles. Other than that I kind of like the game. There's actually a story that's worth following. The game have a lot of customization which I like (how they do it doesn't really make sense though). With all of the customization and the choice you can make in the story, it seems like there are some good reasons to play again. There's really a lot of unfulfilled potential in this game. If the makes the strides that X-Men Legends (or Ultimate Alliance) 1 and 2 made, I would definitely get the sequel. Although I can't recommend this game to buy, I'd suggest checking it out. 

Well I'm off to the bar to watch some football. 

What's in the box? - Wonder Woman

Received a new resin figure today. It is a figure of Wonder Woman (purchased from e2046). I've been a fan of Marvel and DC Bishoujo figures so when I found one I could actually paint I was pretty excited. I've also pre- ordered the Psylocke one as well. Still waiting on that one though. Now on to the box.

Unlike my previous one, the box is in prefect condition. There's what I'm discovering is the usual stuff on top. Instructions/parts list...

and a picture.

Then there are the parts.

The spears appear pretty warped. Hopefully that isn't a big issue. Casting seems pretty good. There aren't any noticeable imperfections. But I'll hold off final judgement until I actually get to work on a resin kit. Seems odd that the hair is a clear plastic. Not sure what that's about. Hopefully it wont cause any problems.

So if you've been following the blog you know that I've ordered and received a few resin kits in the past two weeks. I've avoided describing my impressions of the package because I didn't know what to expect. But now that I've opened a few I've developed a reasonable opinion of what I expect to see when I open a kit.

• Large parts sheet. I like the parts sheet that got with the Kanu kit. It's a photo of the parts laid out in actual size. Makes it very easy to see if you have all of the parts.
• Instructions. I got those with Clare and Wonder Woman, but not Kanu. It's not really a necessity as building a figure is fairly intuitive but there may be a stray part that I have no idea what to do with.
• Colored photos. Yes, plural. I've been pretty disappointed that there isn't at least a front and back photo. 
• Quality parts. I'm still getting a feel for resin, but I think I have a good idea of what a good casting looks like. 
• Bonuses. I like how the Clare kit comes with two different arms. Or how the Clare and Wonder Woman kits come with bases.

In addition to describing what's in the box I'm going to give my impression of the future packages.

What's in the box? - Kanu Unchou

The second of my resin kits has arrived. It is a figure of Kanu Unchou (purchased from e2046). No idea what series she's from or what makes her special enough to get the resin figure treatment, but I couldn't resist this kit. Nice to see an attractive looking figure that isn't in a school girl uniform or nude. That said, let's move on to the box so you can see what I'm talking about.

Was a little worried to open this as the box was a bit broken. But before I can check the parts, there's some stuff on top. There's a parts list...

and a color photo of the kit.

Since I don't know who this is, and therefore I have no attachment to the standard color scheme, I have a few ideas on how I'll repaint it. Now on to the parts.

Despite the broken box they all seem ok, except one. Seem broken but I don't actually know what it goes to. I think it might be an earring or something. The broken part is flat so it's an easy fix once I figure out what it is.

Doesn't seem to be an assembly guide which seems a little weird. Not entirely necessary, but there seems to be a handful of hair parts. Not sure at this moment how they go together. Could be a problem. But I'm not going to worry about it now. I don't want to work on resin in my apartment and the weather will suck by the time I finish my currently project, it's going to be a while until I get to this. Expecting another kit in the mail this week, so until then...

Weekly WIP - MG Strike Freedom (Part 3)

What I'm working on...

So I didn't get much work done this week due to some work obligations and lousy weather. I did however start work on the waist. Specifically the guns. 

As you can see there's a nice big seam line right down the middle which needs to be removed. There's two ways to do this. 

Approach 1 - Mask, paint, repeat for each color (there are 5 colors for this section).

Approach 2 - Alter the parts so they can fit together after the seam line is sealed.

Since I'm doing a fixed pose, I went with the second one. Opening the white armor parts it's fairly obvious how to modify the grey parts.

The next part was to separate the grey and gold parts. Although it was an easy modification, it wasn't as obvious. Clearly the parts that go around the pegs just required a bit of cutting. The tricky part was addressing the sliding gimmick. My solution was to lay the parts out and fully extended. Then I used putty to fill in the hole for the sliding gimmick. Then I cut the other end out. When I do final assembly I'll probably have to glue these parts together.

What was the end result?

Looks the same to me. Well I've got some priming and painting to do now on the waist and base. Looking forward to that.

What else I'm into...

Darren McFadden and the Oakland Raiders! Been really tough to be a fan for much of the past decade, so a 2-1 start (that should have been 3-0!) including an upset victory over the Jets has made me quite happy. Hopefully they can keep this up.

What's in the box? - Clare

So I've ordered a few resin kits and the first arrived today. It's a figure of Clare from the series Claymore (purchased from e2046). I saw the anime series a while back and I really liked it. Well until the end. I could sort of deal with the story spiraling out of control because that happens all the time in anime. What I can't deal with are things not finishing.  It's the same reason I'm not a fan of Berserk. Anyways, I'm getting off track. Back to the kit. I've never bought a resin kit before, so this is the first time I've seen what it comes with.

Here's the box.

Comes with some papers. 2 are in a language I can't read. The other is in English. It basically says what to do if there are missing parts, how to do some modeling basics, and some other stuff that isn't really important.

The other sheet has the parts and how to assemble the kit.

Also comes with a card that shows the painted figure.

I'm not familiar with the color scheme. I'm not going to do that. I'm going with the anime colors.

Here are the parts. All of them seem to be there and intact. Well mostly intact. There does appear to be a part broken on the cape where the sword can go. But I'll be going with the pose above so I don't really care. Should be a fairly easy fix.

Bonuses!
So there are two things I really like about the kit. You get two right arms. You get the original and Irena's. Nice touch if you're familiar with the series.

The other part I like is that there is not only do you get a base, there's some pretty nice detail on it. Being someone that doesn't like plain bases, I really appreciate it.

Well that's it. Since it will be winter by the time I finish my current project, I probably wont get to any resin kits until the spring. This isn't actually a bad thing. Was hoping to get this earlier, but pre-ordering of resin kits can be fairly unpredictable. I ordered a total of 6 kits. Took over 2 months to get this one. 2 of them are in the mail. I'll do unboxings on those when I get them. The others I'm still waiting on. Links for the ones I'm still waiting for are below.

Kaguya Nanbu - (http://www.e2046.com/product/10113)
Kanu Unchou 2020 - (http://www.e2046.com/product/11517)
Psylocke - (http://www.e2046.com/product/11533)