Friday, November 26, 2010

Blast From The Past - HGUC 1/144 Advance Hazel

The year: 2006.

Another build that I found in my forum. Here we have the 1/144 HGUC Advance Hazel. This particular model came from the Advance of Zeta series and had some fantastic mecha designs. The Hazel was one of my favorites as well as the TR-5 Hrairoo. Look it up in the Gundam wiki if you want to know more about this series.

This was my first Advance Hazel, by mention of first it meant it was the first that I bought and built. It was another handpainted gunpla that I did and was one of my best. I think. Heh.

The decals were from the 'Dengeki Hobby' magazine and also from waterslide decals from other gundam kits. Once handpainted, applied a nice coat of clear on it.

So where is the kit now? It's somewhere in the United States. Yep. It was sold to a forum member that I met. He liked it so much and loved my works. I wasn't sure how to do the payments, but he said not to worry. So he sent me cash. Through the post. In an envelope. Hahahaha. Awesome! And it arrived safe and sound.

Hopefully the kit is still with him and somehow I know that it's in good hands.

HGUC 1/144 Advance Hazel





Just wanted to keep you all posted, I was working on a Hazel RAH second form. But didn't manage to finish it. It's still at home. In it's box. Who knows, I might work on it again.

Cheers!

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Tamiya 1/35 Tiger 1

Update!

Hideeho everybody! Here's another military build. Actually the story is the same with the Sturmgeshutz...It was built by someone else, but my buddy got upset over it. Shows that if you take commission works from people, you have to ask what they want and try to give the best to them. Unless of course your client says that it's up to your creativity, but still you have to at least find some kind of level with your client which you can work with. Note that if the work looks good to you, it might not for your client. And since your client is paying you...heh...well I guess you can do the math there...heh.

Alright, here's how the tank actually look like before it got stripped down and went to the RK Designs workshop...



As I mentioned on my last post, the build isn't that bad...but some of the finishing looks rushed and it resembled more of a toy rather than a tank build. Did the same with the Sturmgeshutz and here's the final work done...

Tamiya 1/35 Tiger 1












As you can see I tried giving it some camouflage effect. Something a bit different that what I usually do. I guess I just wanted to learn doing other techniques for tank builds. There's another technique that I'll be doing, and it involves...plasticine. Heh. Wait for it.

Cheerios!

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Tamiya 1/35 Sturmgeshutz III

Update!

Yep. Another posting in the same day. Ain't life good? Well, it is for me that is. So, what do we have here? This is another military build that I manage to finish in this month. There's a story with this fella, and I'd like to share it with you all.

You see, this kit was passed to me by the same guy who has been commissioning me the other tanks. Actually, I offered to fix it for him. 'Fix' I mean by repainting it. Previously it was done by another modeler. But my friend wasn't at all happy with the end product. And to add salt to his injury, his friends came over and saw it...and came the painful critics. Not to mention it was his favorite tank to begin with, I could see the sadness in his voice when he speaks of this tank. I guess I can imagine what it would feel when your favorite kit not being treated as how it's suppose to be.

So, I told him that I'd like to 'fix' it for him. As a friend, I think it's the best I can do. You must be asking how it looked like before I fixed it. Here it is:



Actually, it was an okay build. It wasn't a mess. But the treatment given didn't seem appropriate. I'm not a pro in military builds but looking at it...well, it must be painful to my friend to see it that way.

First thing I did was, strip off the previous paint job. Then take out all the extra accessories that was on so I can work on the tank's surface. Once it's been properly cleaned, priming was necessary. That done, I worked on it as usual once I've identified the color scheme. And the rest...well have a look:

Tamiya 1/35 Sturmgeshutz III









Well, there you go folks. Another tank. But no worries, I'll be posting other builds in between the military kits. Just want to mix it up a bit. So it won't be so...how shall we say...boring. Heh.

Cheers!

Blast From The Past - MG Zeta Gundam Ver. 1.0

It was the year 2006...

Yep, I was browsing through my forum for some old postings that I did (apparently I lost most of the pics of my Gunpla builds) and realise that in 2006 I was quite active in Gunpla building. So I got down to downloading those old pics of builds that I *gasp* handbrushed!! Yeah, before I got myself 'Elizabeth' (the nickname of my wonderful airbrush machine) I used to do handbrushing. And I loved it. Mixing it up with clear spray, I did fairly well amongst those kits that were airbrushed.

As an opening to the 'BLAST FROM THE PAST' postings (something that I'll be doing once in awhile that is...), I present to you the Master Grade Zeta Gundam ver. 1.0.

Story:
This MG kit was one of the earliest Master Grade kits made by Bandai. As some would know, the MG series are detailed 1/100 Gundam model kits that utilises their latest modeling technology. I got hold of this kit way back in mid 1990's. Didn't get myself to painting it until 2006. Where I felt a bit more confident with myself. Nothing fancy, but just some added panel linings. Why it's known as the version 1.0 is due to Bandai releasing the MG Zeta 2.0 (with better and sturdier wing binders and etc.). So here is my take on this guy...handbrushed or handpainted and topped with a clear coat.

The year was 2006...and here is my build...

MG Zeta Gundam ver. 1.0





So where is this kit now? It has gone to a better place. It was later scrapped for parts and the rest is history. The only thing left is the body...and the head. Heh.

My wife later bought me the MG Zeta 2.0, so I guess I should start working on that right? And then we compare...

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

RK Designs Projects (WIP) Part 1

Hideeho fellow readers!

Yep...as the title says and I think a promised was made in my last posting on me sharing some of my works in progress. Actually this was suggested by a few friends since RK Designs can be quite desolate for a few weeks...LOL...

So any new projects that are mine (that means the client is yours truly...) I'd share them here. When the works are completed, I'll just add a link to this particular posting so readers won't have to browse huge amounts of postings. Heh.

Okay, so at the moment I'm working on a few personal projects that has been slowly (painfully slow) progressing..so what are they you might be asking?

1) 1/100 Akatsuki (Master Grade conversion)


Been working on this guy for a few months...it took long since I had to acquire certain parts especially the main core part which was derived from the MG Strike Gundam. A lot of cutting, sawing, puttying and sanding. At the moment it's still in construction stage and roughly about 30% done.


2) 1/100 Gundam Heavy Arms Custom (Master Grade conversion)


This guy was inspired by Vicious Project's own Heavy Arms. Using the main internal frame of the MG Wing Gundam Ka., I took my extra 1/100 H-Arms and started designing my own version. The VP version looks really sleek and awesome, but I'm going to a more heavy built look to complement its name. At the moment, it's at 20% done. Yeah...that much...heh


3) 6" Ironman Hulk Neutralizer Unit (Marvel Legend kitbash project)


Hoookay...this guy has been in my studio for...I dunno...4-5 months? Hahahahaha...It started off with me having an extra figure of an Ironman Movie 1 figure and a Marvel Legend House of M Ironman. I loved the sculpt for the ML Ironman and loved the helmet design of the new Ironman movie. So I beheaded the movie Ironman figure and reworked the neck area so I can snap it on the ML Ironman body. And...ta-daaa...a very nicely proportioned detailed figure. I named this guy the Ironman H.N.U (Hulk Neutralizer Unit). At the moment it's 70% done and I haven't decided on a color scheme yet.

Well, those are the highlights of my on going personal works...there's more though, but I think I'll finish this guys first before unveiling more...

On another note, my Marder III tank build was featured on my friends blog who are I would say an awesome modeler and has been an inspiration to me. He's also one of the admin in my forum that I founded 6 years ago (Zero-G) and has help me so many times in maintaining the peace there. So to be featured on his blog, was an honor. I would like to ask you all to go and check out his blog since it has a lot of useful information on modeling. Here's the link:

DC23 Mecharts

And here's my article:

Marder III by Ryukaze

So that's all for now...be seeing you all soon!