A Dormant Hobby Reawakens

Although I am a huge Gunpla nut, there is also another hobby that interests me. Its none other than R/C Nitro Cars. What I like from this hobby, aside from being able to modify your car for some serious cash, is that you have to paint your own bodies. The hobby shop sells them but you have to paint them.

I have an HPI RS4 Evo, that my beautiful girlfriend gave me as a birthday gift, that came with a BMW M3 body. That was too generic so I painted my own lexan body, Its a Nissan 350Z. I think it looks prety nice and it was supposed to be my show body but I got tired of looking at it, so i'll be using it this summer. Ill try to take a video of what my little car here can do, but for know here are some pics of the body that I painted.

Hobby Shop Clearance 07 Part 3

Today was the last day of the yearly hobby shop clearance. One model kit that I would have never bought was the one that came home with me. Honestly, I am not a fan of he MG Gyan but for $22 I couldn't pass it up. Aside from this Gyan there was nothing else worth buying, although they had a HG Evangelion Unit 1 kit but it was way overpriced.

So out out of three different locations that the hobby shop has, only one of them seems to be Otaku deprived. It was confessed to me by an employee that they only get 1 of each gunpla at every store. That means that they all had Extra Finish Freedom, Rick Dias and GM Snipers but had all been sold a long time ago since I frequent these shops on a weekly basis. Hopefully next year the location were I struck gold will have plenty of unsold Gundams that go on clearance.

1/100 Akatsuki Full Set

It sucks when you pay right away for an item the day its released and not receive until a month later. Oh well, "better late than never" is the popular saying and "you get what you pay for" is also appropiate when it comes to SAL shipping. Anyway, the 1/100 Akatsuki Full Set arrives today and all I can say is WOW. The model is beautiful, i looks like a Master Grade model. There are a ton of parts and this one definitely does not need any paint. I'll still paint all of the parts that are not gold plated.

I have never been a fan of gold model kits or models with those "Extra Finish", since you cant avoid nip marks. The Akatsuki however barely suffers from any noticeable nip marks. It uses the undergate method which means that the part is attached o the tree from underneath, so when you cut the part off, it does not damage the finish.

Why oh why, wasn't the Akatsuki a Master Grade? The only part of the kit that might need some improvement is the leg articulation. Otherrwise the kit is amazing, the gold finish is beautiful and all of the parts are molded in their corresponding colors. I wish the FMB Strike Freedom would have used this kind of gold plating. Also the gold plating on the Akatsuki looks better than the MG Hiaku Shiki. The Hiaku Shiki's is much lighter by comparison and tends to look more silverish than golden. I think the 1/100 Akatsuki will be the next model that I will be building after work is complete on the Verde Buster.

Hobby Shop Clearance 07 Part 2

So today April 23rd my local hobby shop continues its clearance by increasing their discounts to 50% off plus an additional 10% off for being a club member. I was mainly waiting for today since they had an Extra Finish Version Master Grade Freedom on clearance. I couldn't belive my eyes when I still saw it there on the shelf today. Along with the Freedom, I also got the MG Rick Dias Char's Custom and the Crossbone Full Cloth.

The MG Freedom EFV came out to $45 after discount and the Rick Rias came out to $20 after discount. The Crossbone Gundam was only 10% off since it was not on clearance. They have a MG Gyan that I might go back for next week since it will come out to about $23 after discount. Hopefully more clearance like this will come about so that I save a on on Gunpla.

MG Strike Noir

The second Strike Noir arrives today and is being added to the backlog of models that I have. I am also kind of worried since my Akatsukis and Zeta Unit 3 have not arrived yet. They have been in the mail for 17 days now but since it was shipped via SAL it should be here any time.

In other news progess on the Verde Buster is coming along just fine and it should be completed by th end of this week or the beginning of next week. Mr Super Booth has helped out alot and it works remarkably well. I will post progress pics as well as completed pics of the Buster hopefully pretty soon.

Hobby Shop Clearance 07

My local hobby shop is going through their annual clearance and I couldn't be any more excited. They are on their second week of the sale and they started out at 30% discount and every week they are reducing the merchandise an extra 10% up to 50% off. Also if you are a club member they give you an extra 10% off clearance and regular price merchandise.

Being that this is the US, our hobby shops aren't filled top to bottom with Gundam models, but they do have a few. I managed to get the 1/100 Providence Gundam last week for 40% off (30% + 10% club member). Today I went back and I got the MG GM Sniper for 50% off (40% + 10% club member)!! The Providence came out to $21 after discount and the MG GM Sniper came out to $22 after discount. Ill be heading back next week when my total discount will be 60% to pick up the special coating MG Freedom and the MG Rick Dias Char's Custom.

MG Hi-Nu Gundam

First thing is first, the paint booth arrived and I have been busy with the Verde Buster so thats why posting has been limited. Next, I wasn't thinking about getting the Hi-Nu anytime soon because of the cost and the fact that I had to wait for it to come from Japan. I was strolling by my hobby shop looking for paint supplies when, what do you know, TWO MG Hi-Nu Gundams sitting on the shelf. The price was not bad at all either.

After getting these two babies my fiancee has forced me into an agreement. I must not buy any more Gunplas until Chars Zaku Ver 2.0 coming out in June. If I break this agreement I must give her $50 for every model that I buy. Its not a bad deal, nothing im interested in will come out until June anyway, and it will also help me save money. We will see if I can stick to this agreement....

Limited Edition MG Zeta Unit 3

Completed pics of Amuro's Zeta Gundam have surfaced. The only novelty about this kit is the custom color scheme and that it's an actual limited edition release. They call this Zeta the White Unicorn and as far as the color scheme goes... well.... it's kind of girly.

The kit is exactly the same as the Zeta Ver 2.0 so you know you can expect a great MG model. The pics that I have seen so far look pretty good. If you managed to order one then congratulations, if you didn't and want one now, then good luck. I ordered one but now I wanted another one and I can't seem to find it anymore. You can find more pics of the Zeta Unit 3 here.

Mr Super Booth has left the building

Good news for me... My paint booth has shipped from Japan. Im excited and getting paint supplies and tools ready so that when it arrives I can get right to work on my Verde Buster. The paint booth is manufactured by Gunze Sangyo and its called Mr Super Booth. Including shipping by EMS from Japan its final cost was $183.00, which isn't that bad considering the cheapest I could find it in the US was $199.99

I have been wanting this paint booth since I started airbrushing my kits. I would have to go outside to airbrush and I could only paint during the day and it got annoying, so I slowed after the Strike Freedom. I started some other models but never finished them since then the weather got cold. I first saw the paint booth in the "How to Build Sword Calamity" DVD and then I saw it in another Gunpla tutorial video. I have a video at the bottom that showcases the Paint Booth being used by the modeler in the Sword Calamity DVD. Now Mr Super Booth is on its way and I'll post pics and a full review when it arrives later this week.