How to remove seam-lines

May 29, 2008 at 8:05 pm | In How-to | 2 Comments
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A seam line is the visible line left after you combine two symmetrical halves to form a specific part of your kit, for example the head. If left alone, it will give your kit an ‘unfinished’ feel to it. Fortunately recent MG kits have been designed in such a way that seam lines are well hidden so you don’t need to bother with them. But for most HGUC kits, seams lines are very visible.

So, I know of only 2 ways to remove seam lines. If you know of other methods, please share.

1) Use putty (the grey type) to cover the lines. Wait for it to harden then sand away the excess putty. The putty (if dissolved properly with thinner) will fill in the gaps between the seam lines. But the down side to this method is that you have to paint that part afterwards, if not you’ll be left with an unsightly grey line of putty over your seam lines.

2) Using cement to bind the two parts. The advantage of using this method is that there’s no need to paint. The disadvantage is that it’s permanent. You can’t unglue the bound parts, not unless you hack it with a saw. I’m gonna show only the 2nd method, coz that’s what I always do for my kits:

I’ll be using a part from my MG Gelgoog as an example. So the seam line would be visible if I join the two parts here:

Before that, you’ll notice that one half of the parts has protruding parts (herein referred to as ‘male’ parts) and the other half has holes (herein referred to as ‘female’ parts) with which the male parts will fit in. What I usually do is I cut a bit off the male parts and widen the female parts with a small drill (if I weren’t talking about plastic models, that sentence would make me look like a sadistic pervert). The reason for that is to allow more space between the parts to be melted by the glue. I hope that makes sense. Anyway, this step is entirely optional. Here’s what I was referring to about the male parts:

So then you apply glue, also referred to as plastic cement (available in most Tamiya shops) around the edges of both parts, like so:

Then you combine those two parts together and squeeze them tightly. You’ll notice the parts with the cement will ‘melt’ the plastic, thus fusing the two parts together. You’ll be left with excess melted plastic in place of the seam line:

Now comes the fun part. After the glue has sufficiently hardened, you should proceed to remove the excess melted plastic. A file is recommended. Then you need to use fine sandpaper to smoothen the surface and eventually you’ll end up with something like this:

A word of caution, though. Some brands of plastic cement might leave yellow stains, particularly on white parts. If that’s the case, then you will have to paint that particular part. It happened with my Heavyarms custom.

So, removing seam lines is one of the basic steps in modelling. But if you’re observant enough, you will notice that some parts don’t need seam line removal like hidden places (e.g bottom of foot) or parts that will be covered up eventually.

47th Shizuoka Hobby Show

May 18, 2008 at 2:23 pm | In Events | 4 Comments
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After getting word of this hobby show from some forums, I decided to go there myself. Fortunately Shizuoka is only an hour train ride away from my place. I reached the twin Messe building where the show was held at around noon, and as expected, it was packed with people. I headed to the North Hall where the Bandai booth was and here’s the view from the 2nd floor:

So I started from the HGUC section, where the soon to be released Sazabi was on display:

HGUC Sazabi

Also there was the Zaku FZ and a HGUC Kampfer on the works

HGUC Zaku FZ HGUC Kampfer, hopefully

Moving on to the Gundam 00 section, there were some dioramas on display:

Tieren diorama HCM Pro Gundam 00 diorama 1/144 scale Gundam 00 diorama

There’s also the 1/100 Astrea Type-F and the 1/100 Tieren ground type, which is next on my shopping list along with the 1/100 Overflag. The amount of details on the recent 1/100 scale Gundam 00 kits is really amazing, probably close to MG level.

1/100 Tieren ground type 1/100 Astrea Type-F

Next was the HCM Pro section, where the 1/144 scale SHCM Pro model of the Zaku II F or J units are on display. There’s also what appears to be plans for a SHCM Pro Gundam NT-1 Alex. Also on display were all the Wing models from the TV series, but they don’t interest me too much.

SHCM Pro Zakus Upcoming SHCM Pro NT-1 Alex?

The last section of the Bandai booth and probably the main attraction was the MG section. All the buzz was about the RX-78-2 Ver2.0 and from what I saw, the only interesting part was the amount of details in the inner frame. They managed to squeeze the core fighter inside the chest and still allow for some flexibility of movement similar to the OYW version which didn’t have a core fighter. On the outside, the design of the Ver2.0 resembled the anime version, i.e plain looking (few panel lines, small shoulder) and reminds me more of the HGUC version. Personally though, there’s nothing there to convince me to buy this kit ( I already have 3 RX-78-2 kits! ). Sure the internal frame was detailed and there’s a core fighter, but this kit seems to be aimed at those purists who prefer the classic look in the original TV 0079 series.

RX-78-2 Ver2.0

But there was something else there that really caught my attention: the Guntank. Why? Because the Guntank on display had movable caterpillars operable by remote control! The shoulder cannons can also pivot and recoil and the ‘hands’ can ‘vibrate’ to simulate shooting movement. I’m not sure whether this Guntank will be released or whether it’s just a special display unit for the Hobby Show, but damn I was impressed.

Guntank

And then there’s a Zaku and another Zaku. It seems Bandai is really pushing for the resurrection of the Zaku MSVs. First off there’s the MG Zaku Cannon and then what looks like an MG Zaku Tank:

MG Zaku Cannon MG Zaku Tank?

Also on display was the MG Impulse Gundam, but I don’t want anything related to Seed Destiny anymore so I skipped to the MG Musha Gundam. Really impressive up close I must say. Really had a Ver.Ka feel to it.

MG Musha Gundam Musha diorama

And that’s where my camera ran out of batteries. But not before taking pics of some eye candy:

The South Hall had mostly remote control stuff: cars, helicopters, robots etc. There’s also the Kotobukiya booth where there’s plenty of SRW and Armored Core stuff, but like I said, my camera ran out of batteries. Another portion of the hall was where modelling clubs and societies display their works, from planes to ships to Gundams. There’s some really impressive works on display and I was left cursing my camera for dying out on me. Oh well, there’s always a next time.

And finally, my haul for the day. You didn’t think I’d go home empty handed did you? I bought 1000yen worth of water-slide decals from Hasegawa. They’re meant for aircraft models but I like to give my gundam models some military feel. Bandai didn’t have a booth selling stuff ( if there was, I couldn’t find it ) but there were some stalls outside the hall selling some kits at relatively cheap prices. There was a HCM Pro Sazabi selling for 2000 yen, but I decided to hold out until I can find the coating version of that model. Finally I bought a HCM Pro Quebeley for 1500yen.

My haul for the day

In the end I can call it a fruitful day, if only my camera didn’t die out on me so soon.

New stuff I bought

May 12, 2008 at 1:01 pm | In Random rants | 3 Comments

It’s been a while since my last gunpla activity, and my hands were itching for some action. I ended up with two new MG kits: Gelgoog Mass Production Ver2.0 and Zaku Minelayer

I got the Gelgoog for 3780 yen and then a couple of days later I bought the Zaku at Toys R Us for 3500 yen. And I got a free 1/100 scale bazooka:

Since I left all my gunpla tools and paints back home, I had to buy the basic tools (nipper, file, blade,sandpaper) again. Since I don’t plan to fully paint these kits, I decided to to some weathering effects. And so i bought some enamel paints along with thinners, paintbrush and the Tamiya  Weathering Master pastels.  And I promised myself that’ll be the last of my spending. But the new 1/100 Overflag looks nice though…

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