BlrwestSiR

Nice to see what I'll be in for once I start on mine. I've also got the Master Grade Unicorn in its full armour layout. Think of it as Beast Mode.

Hi Maru, Unfortunately Mike has indeed passed away. There is a thread on LSP about his recent absence from the site. It subsequently turned out that he had passed away in January. I never had any interactions with Mike but he seems to have been a nice guy. Carl

I was thinking about you're not painting it and then I looked at the Gundam kit my son just built. It's from the standard HG series in 1/144. It's much smaller and less detailed and he didn't paint it either, just used a Gundam marker to do some panel lining. It still looks good though.

That's a great looking diorama base PW. The step by step pics are great to see how it's made.

Rob, I can't wait to see you work your magic on the Unicorn Gundam. The only thing to watch out for is that some parts are ABS plastic (mostly the inner frame) and supposedly they don't like lacquer too much. I haven't experienced any issues but I've heard it mentioned several times by reviewers.

Sorry to hear about Hannah. It's never easy to say goodbye. We've lost two of ours in the last few years, both of whom were my bench companions and I still miss them. Carl

Thanks Paul! I tried the Tamiya Extra Strong decal softener and it didn't do a thing. These are the kit decals so one consolation is they fit the parts. I've used carbon decals from Scale Motorsport before and they worked well with Microset and Sol.

Thanks! I tried a hairdryer initially but that blew the decals off the wheel. The kit decals are fairly stiff and brittle. I ended up using a cloth that I would wet with hot tap water and then gently press on the decal. This got the decals to conform to shape as well as stay in place. But, it also made the decals take on that shape so it was hard to avoid wrinkles.

I finished decalling the rear wheel on the HP4. 22 decals in total. I also got one half of the frame decalled. There's a few wrinkles in spots but I'm happy with how it turned out.

I'll let you know what I think about them. Upon initial inspection the tips look to be made from some type of plastic.

Me neither! I don't have any specific plans for how to use it yet. I'm going to experiment and see what it looks like and go from there.

That truly is. I mean, what's in the drinking water there?

Phenomenal paint and decal work there Rob. I'm still messing with the carbon decals on my HP4 kit and decalling is my least favourite part of building.

I initially tried something similar when I did my VII conversion and smash moulding the canopy. I couldn't get a good enough copy so ended up just carefully bending the clear sheet to shape. It's not 100% but under the open canopy it's hard to tell.

Lacquer.

I placed a couple orders with some local Gunpla shops. Mostly supplies. First up some paint from Gaianotes, a Japanese brand I'm particularly interested in how these two work out. Then some sanding sponges from Godhand. They're different grits and different thicknesses. Some new tweezers and engraving chisels. Lastly, the Bandai light kit for the PGU Nu Gundam. I was a bit on the fence on this one as it seems a bit overpriced for what you get. Most shops were sold out as well. Then I found it for close to the JDM price and decided to just get it and not worry about it.

You don't see many Hueys getting built. I did the Academy UH-1C a few years ago. Looks like this one goes together a bit better.

Sorry to hear that Kevin. Hope there something that the vet can do for Hannah. Carl

Thanks Rob! It's the Meng BMW HP4 Race kit.

Watching @DocRob work his magic on his various F1 builds, I got up the courage to try and apply some carbon decals. It came out much better than I'd hoped for. As a contingency, I even photocopied the decal sheet so I could cut out replacement decals if it had gone pear shaped. Now to repeat it for the other side and then the front wheel.

Knowing how indestructible the Hilux is, it's a good thing the Germans didn't field such a combo in WWII.

Hmm, now that you mention it, maybe I should get him to pick some.

Not sure why they aren't sold in the US. They are both available here in Canada along with their Quick set, ABS, Low Odour, and Low Odour Extra Thin. Oh and they have Limonine and Limonine Extra Thin too if you like your cement to smell like citrus.

We had a good time there. I didn't get to check out the planes at the museum like I usually do though. The Badger is 90% done but I lost it. Yes, the tank is somewhere but not in the box. I want to finish it so I can get rid of the box but need to find it.

We just got back from Heritagecon. I saw some SBY models that a vendor was selling for a great price so I just grabbed the pile of them. First up was the Yamato herself. Then a couple of the enemy ships. Another vendor had a model of my second Civic so that was next. Thankfully there's a stock option which I'll go with. I then picked up some 3D printed figures from a new company. So last year in the show raffle my son Edward won the just released Italeri 1/12 Lancia Stratos kit which he promptly gave to his friend who was also there. This year, he won again. Yup, a ZM 109. I bought him a nice Gundam kit and traded him. Carl