Gundam Weekend Impressions!

My buddy over at Senses Lumines and I just had another weekend of Gunpla building, and we were able to accomplish quite a few things. Let me catch up to events first. Since my last Gundam post we just had to grab another kit because of a few new techniques we learned over at Mechapinoy. We were initially torn between MG Wing Zero Ver.Ka, and MG Strike Noir. After careful deliberation and analysis (we flipped a coin) we ended up purchasing MG Strike Noir!

Hello Strike Noir!

MG Strike Noir by default is really a slightly re-tooled Strike Gundam. Normally we wouldn't have even bothered because its like buying another Strike with a different color scheme and slightly different parts, not to mention added mobility. It just happened to look real cool and we also REEEAAALLY like the Strike MG design.

Our tools!


A new technique we picked up!


Assembly time!


Nearly done!

We were right... The kit really resembles Strike to an astonishing degree, but we still enjoyed it immensely. Aside from the longer build time due to a few more techniques we decided to implement, we were able to complete the entire project en a little over 17 hours (that's everything including the Noir Striker pack, with meal breaks).

A meal break.


Strike Noir in his completed glory.


Big sword you got there!

After basking in the glow of a really well made Strike Noir (by our standards) my buddy finally came to the conclusion that it was high time we sorta updated our original MG Strike. As you know, Strike with IWSP was our very first MG, and after our progress with paints and detailing, we agreed that an upgrade to Strikes' color was well called for.

We started the following day, by carefully removing all the armor plates, as well as separating Strike into his primary components. This was rather difficult given that we have yet to learn the "nipping of male parts that connect to the female connector" technique that allows you to remove parts easily. We then proceeded to sanding the respective parts and then painting them. We decided to change his color scheme, and well... The results were encouraging, but lacking in something...

We had to separate most all of Strikes' parts into his basic components.


Our newly competed Strike Noir lending a hand as his brother lay in pieces...


Notice a lot of red parts... Custom paint job alert!


We left a few panels white "ala" Astray.


The finished product... Red Strike!

It was a very productive weekend for us Gundam building-wise, and although we were able to finish painting our Strike, we still need a little more time to completely finish his IWSP pack, as well as a few more adjustments to his color scheme.

Keep you posted on any further changes... For now more details here and here.

Life In Sauces...

Last week at work, one of our officemates was laughing at a certain blog (as some people do...he he), and she mentioned something that I was recently reminded of while eating at a certain establishment. She was laughing about a misquoted saying... one that properly goes; "You are what you eat..." As a friend and I were eating lunch it came across my mind, (we were eating buffalo wings and chizzy fries at the time) and that it may not be exactly WHAT you eat, but rather HOW you eat.

My friend whom I look up to as someone wiser and smarter than I am, enjoys eating well... He doesn't pig out or anything, he just enjoys good food. I realized that the way he ate reflected somewhat how he was in person. As much as he enjoys fine food and drink, he also enjoys making sauces, mixing sauces and inviting people to dig in his concoction. After which, he only takes a small portion of his dip and only dips in a small corner of his bite. In contrast I and a LOT of other people I know (ahem... Barkada ko... ahem) takes their liberty with dips and prefers to DUNK not dip their bites in. Truthfully, I too smother my bites in a multitude of sauces when they come with them. I indirectly asked why he chose to use so little, and his reply was "he didn't like too much of something... over excess" well something to that effect. And even his ideology was true for most of his outlook. That he lived just right, and just to the ideal. In contrast to the heavy smothering of sauces some of the people in my life do.

Not all my friends eat like that though, recently in a 10 buffalo wing showdown, the friend that sat opposite me used hardly any sauce. He enjoyed the serving as it is, as if content with the way things were, happy in the fact that his basic craving for yummy foods was already being catered to. That also excess was just something he didn't particularly care for.

Life in sauces, that may be just the tip, as my dad (who isn't really one for sauces at all) claims that a good bite in a particular Thai restaurant we sometimes ate at contained a lot of flavors within one spoon, that to taste the harmony and melody of different flavors come together in one perfect bite (isn't this from a movie?) is the way to enjoy food. He likes living a colorful eventful day also...

Just thinking out loud, are we what we eat, or is it how we eat that counts?

Gundam Madness!... Part Two

It's Monday morning, 10:44 AM (AUG. 13) and I can't wait to get some sleep. The reason, stayed up all night last Saturday and am still feeling a little hangover from completing our latest project. MG Strike Freedom! My buddy and I just completed it Sunday morning and man was it ever worth it! Yes, I now resemble a raccoon, but it was all worth it.

Me after the project (got this off the net!)

We really went all out on this one! We even went as far as to change the original colors to a custom color set. However, our little project, even though a grade above our last one (cough cough F91 cough!) there is still room for improvement. We found out that the little nubs (from where the sprues were cut off) detracts from the overall appearance, and our method of spray painting everything before we cut causes this little faux pas. All in all it was a very good learning experience even if we have minor quibbles on this latest project, we still love the finished product.

18+ Hours of work! (Details on construction here, and more pictures here... Courtesy of Senses Lumines)

Will keep you posted on our next project (at the time of this articles completion, the next project was already underway... wink wink)

Gundam Madness!

Gundams! It seems as if a few people around work have been bitten by the Gundam bug! Me and my buddies just drool over some of the newer Gundams out there, and it would have been fine were they priced cheaply. Gundams here don't come cheap. Feeling ko may inlay ng gold ang inner parts ng mga Gundams kaya medyo mahal ang presyo.

Kita mu naman sa mga ibang recent posts dito na mas dumadami mga entries regarding Gundams. Masaya lang talaga mag buo ng Gundam, tapos ninyo pinturahan at i-ink ang mga panel lines nito. Nakakatuwa makita na ang pinaghirapan mo ay unti unti nabubuo at ika nga nga the fruits of your labor begins to take form.

Mahal lang talaga ang bisyo na eto, When I started, medyo mahal na din siya. At ang pinaka murang kit (FG kits ng Gundam Seed at the time) panget ang ikinalabasan. Mautak din ang Bandai, papakita nila panay sa kahon ng Gundam ay ang finished and FULLY PAINTED AND DETAILED product. Pero the noob modeler ndi alam eto. Magugulat ka na lang na pag bukas mo ng kahon nila 2 lang ang kulay ng parts, where sa finished product parang 10 kulay ang meron sa Gundam. Pero, pag sumubok ka mag pintura at mag panel, di mo naman kabisado mga special techniques para mapadali ang pag buo mo. Ilan sa mga poor examples at first attmepts at building Gundams ay:

MUMMY GUNDAM - Pag hindi mo alam na ang pag pintura mas madali habang nakakabit lahat ng parte sa sprue or some call it a tree, or runner (yung plastic kung saan nakakabit pa lahat ng parts) tapos sinubukan mo I - tape ang mga parte ng nabuo na Gundam para mahiwalay kulay. Eto ang kalalabasan... Isang Gundam na nakabalot ng tape at makalat at kawawa tignan. Parang mummy...

UGAT-UGAT GUNDAM - Gundam na nag karoon ng viracose veins dahil sa sa mali n pag panel. Lagpas lagpas ang mga linya at hindi mo alam na pwede pala gamitan ng eraser ang Gundam marker.

How not to ink a Gundam...

So nag iipon ang gastos along with experience. Pag nag uumpisa ka, iisipin mo okay naman na walang pintura at panel lines. Pero tapos mo makita at ikumpara ang pinagkaiba ng na pintura na Gundam at pag sila ay simple lang na tinapos, malaki ang pagkakaiba. So bili ng kit na Gundam (1500 - 3000+ depende sa kit) bili ng pang panel lines (Gundam markers run at about 135) bili ka ng pintura (230 per color, which comes in a small paint can), magandang pang gupit ng plastic (250 - 400) grand total... Ubos ang sweldo! Parang credit card commercial... Gundam - 3000 Pesos, Paint - 230 Pesos each, Gundam markers - 135 Pesos, Modeling clipper - 400 Pesos. The fun of building a Gundam... Priceless

Pahiram ng credit card...

May bagong gusto project sana kami, medyo mahal lang ulit. Pero ang ganda talaga!

Nakuha ko lang sa Yahoo imagae... Pero sana kami na lang gumawa... Eto BTW ang 1/100 scale MG ng SD Strike Noir!

Mag iipon na lang ulit... At the bright side 2 kulay lang kelangan nito, black at grey... Mahal pa din 0_o

Wednesday

I wake up Wednesday and this is what I see... darkness with just a tiny bit of light streaming in from the window beside my bed. It's another day of work ahead of me so I better get moving...



First stop, the bathroom... For, well... uhm... washing my hands and taking a bath... lolx

After a nice shower, I change up into my work clothes, sans any over shirt I might be wearing that day and head off to breakfast. No, thats not a kids meal... Breakfast today was a little on the cute side (a hot dog and a little rice)... You get what you can.

I then go back to my room and grab my stuff which I prepared the night before, that way I can get as much sleep as I can and not worry about the things I may need later on in the day. I then rush out and head off into the garage...

Hehe, I'm running a little late today, I'm ideally out of the house just as this clock hits 9 AM.

I live in an area that's blocked off from the main express way, and the only way to get to the main hi-way is by exiting the service road at either end... Adding to the problem is that traffic jams often occur within the service road thanks mainly to traffic aides that do nothing than to aid in causing traffic. Luckily, today had traffic flowing rather nicely along the service road. The traffic aide must be sick today.

Here's the exit I normally take to get to the hi-way, and as you can see public utility jeepney's gather at the mouth of the exit. This adds a little buildup to the egress from the service road, but all is well.

True enough, there wasn't any aide today. Thus we had freely flowing traffic and very little time was wasted in getting here. I hope he misses out on morning traffic causing duty more often.

Here's the entrance to the hi-way. There is a toll free way to get to Makati, but then you'd have to wake up extra early just to get to work at a respectable hour. Using the hi-way has a lot of disadvantages rather than advantages. There aren't really any other ways (sensible ones) to and from Makati for the majority of people who live in my area, ergo traffic jams aplenty if you happen to catch the morning rush. Furthermore, you pay 30 bucks just to use it one way, thats 60 bucks a day!

Here it is the glory of the hi-way... Traffic in all its splendor! If its really moving slow I just listen to music, read a book or just take a nap, and hopefully when I wake up it'll be the weekend already!

Here we just turned off into the Makati area, as you can see the road is relatively clear ahead... I don't know why, was there a party and was I the only one not invited... That's Ayala station up ahead to your left. We normally board buses there on the way home.

This is the turn off from Edsa to Ayala avenue. Yes, the traffic here gets terrible during rush hours (of which I am normally part of)

Hay! More twapik! This time in Ayala avenue... I wonder what time I'll get to work?

Finally a little progress, traffic is REAAAALLLY bad in Ayala avenue and Makati avenue, the very avenues that I have to pass through just to get to work. The main culprit for the Makati avenue stretch is what I lovingly call the Stoplight of Despair! This cursed stoplight only blinks green for a maximum of 5 seconds allowing only a single car to make a u-turn. More details covered in the Stoplight of Despair link.

Here's the stoplight up close... I could swear I heard demonic laughter as we passed this light.

I finally get to work, and its 10:06 AM, remember that cute breakfast I had... I drop my stuff off at my desk and head off for a little snack to fuel those creative juices.

My beverage of choice hails from the 7-11 at the 6th floor. This is a nice little 7-11 that isn't as fully stocked as the others out there, but they have junk food and you don't have to go far to fulfill the little binges of hunger or sugar pangs you may suffer throughout the day.

Ahhhhh! the big gulp, covered extensively at Senses Lumines!

Mister Donut! During the daytime, as you can see they have a well stocked inventory (minus a lot of doughnuts), but after lunch a building wide sugar crave will deplete their resources to just sandwiches...

I bring my breakfast supplement to my desk and immediately begin working...

That is until I see that some of my "office equipment" need attending to... I should really cover the fact that almost everyone at work has desk creatures that co-inhabit their workspace. I guess we're just a sociable lot, at all times we have to have people or things to talk to... 0_o

11:04! Man, almost a third of the days' wasted! I say a third because we typically divide our work hours into three. Normal people only have two halves to their work day divided by their lunch period. We have three... The period before lunch, the period after lunch but before late snack time, and the small amount of time after snack time but before dinner. So, it's getting a little close to lunch, better get a move on those pending articles I have to accomplish.

Aww, It's SD Strike Noir, I just can't help but appreciate him for a few minutes... Aww man, I seriously HAVE to get back to work, enough with the distractions... Work Work Work!

Is what I wanted to say, but the body is unwilling, so I went off for lunch with my buddies around noon... Please don't mind the clock on the phone. It's obviously reading the time wrong! How on earth can my break be more than an hour... Actually, had to step out for a bit just to get some "office equipment". I'm currently tackling a Tonkatsu set from Tokyo Toykyo, I'd say it's a fair meal, and we get free rice refills... The real winner however is their iced tea! Yum!

It's now 3:17 PM and time's growing short, Just got back from a short trip of buying important "office equipment". Back to work.

Gosh, drowning in scripts... Work's fun though!

After a days hard work and shopping for "office equipment" it's finally time to go home its almost 7:30 PM, that's the time I'm supposed to punch out... 50 more seconds! In truth whenever my buddies and I go home, we usually end up somewhere eating dinner or watching a late night movie. Talk about insomniacs!

It's now 12:15 AM, Just got home and about to hit the sack. Well, after a shower and maybe midnight cookies... That's the gist of how my tedium normally runs. Just a typical Wednesday...

SD Gundam Strike Noir Updates

Just updating whatever happened to the kit I painted in a previous post. We were able to complete the SD Strike Noir I painted last weekend, and all I can say is that painting Gundams definitely adds to their quality! I mean, just check out the pictures. Keep in mind however that the the builders (me and my best bud) are amateurs at the entire painting thing. The first time I painted Gundam parts was covered in this post. Also note that my panel lining ability sucks big time, and the only reason this one came out really nice was that my buddy does panel lines like its nothing!

The look and overall texture of the completed SD is really something to behold, given that this is one of the simpler Gundams out there. By the way, as you can notice, this particular SD Gundam is capable of quite a few poses, it seems that the quality of SD kits nowadays have improved vastly. In fact I found this SD kit to be on a whole different level than my last foray into the cheaper Gundam kits (cough! FG Buster cough! Gundam cough!) and that this one is capable of better articulation and dynamic poses than its FG bretheren. To top it all off they're just sooo damn cute! Who knows, this may not be the last SD Gundam that we get to play around with... Keep you posted!

For an in-depth review of SD Strike Noir Senses Lumines has your back!

Ang cute!

Photos Courtesy of Senses Lumines (Thanks Bro!)