Idiot!

So, I am like totally, building Tamiya's 1/350th Yukikaze. It has these raised things molded on the deck...they look like grossly out of scale tread plate. Why would Mr. Tamiya put those on there? Who is he trying to fool? So I thought I would be a smart guy and chisel them off.

The left deck is my masterpiece, the other deck is the replacement deck sent by my nice friends at Tamiya America.

Here is a pic of the Yukikaze. Oops. Large wooden slats. Yup. Idiot. I'm sorry Mr. Tamiya, I will never doubt you again! Here let me get your slippers.

Time to get to work. First, grind opening in old deck.

Then use pliers to carefully rip the deck sections out while constantly reminding myself of all the wasted effort...

Main deck is next. Actually, I like grinding. Very manly. (coughs).

New decks. Time to start again. Thank you for your  time.
And don't be an Idiot.
Trust Mr. Tamiya.

Mad, San & Cosmo: 3 New Gallery Pics

More pixels for your eyespheres...Enjoy!

Mad

San

Cosmo

Top is a scratch build of a Mad Max era vehicle called "Mach Fury". Middle is a vintage Hawk model of a San Francisco Streetcar. Built out of the box, I added the figures. Lastly, we have a 1/72 Bandai (GO BANDAI!) Cosmo Zero as piloted by Akira Yamamoto in Space Battleship Yamato 2199. Dig that cool aotake deck color!

Bandai Perfect Grade 1/72 Millennium Falcon Review

I found myself at NYCC last week. I've been to a lot of events, and yes these things are amazing, but I'm getting old and after a while the noise starts to sound like a thousand invisible air horns. After Gen Con last year, I said no more. BUT, I had to go for "work"...

So here we are. I made myself enjoy it.

This is me ENJOYING it. Look closely, I am almost smiling.

I planned on not buying anything. Not pictured above are the PO-ZU shoes I bought. I justified this by saying they were shoes. I got Finn's, they are all white. My wife has some issues with this.

In the box is the Falcon. The excitement broke my spirit to the tune of $400 bucks. I waited in two lines for 45 minutes just to get in the tiny Bandai store. There is no "shopping". You move through like an animal in an abattoir. Before your hit by a friendly electrified baton you point at your purchase and the nice girl at the register scans your credit card before your body hits the carpet. I LOVE BANDAI!!

I have this thing now, so let's review it:

This is a big kit. A box in a box in a box. Just so you know, I am already a "Bandait", meaning that I buy their kits sight unseen, because they are better than Tamiya. DO NOT SEND ME HATE MAIL.

Here is all 36 sprues. $400 divided by 36 equals $11.11 per sprue. Given that Disney/Lucas charges Bandai 20% for the licence, this is probably about right. Some of the parts are large, this doesn't include the frills such as the lights and PE.

Unlike Laura P., this thing is staying in plastic. What if I want to resell? Bandai always gets the detail.

More sprueage. 

All of the piping is separate and secured in a box to keep it all fresh during shipping.

Here is the PE and masking. Decals of all the "red wine" panels on sheet (reversed).

Here is the light module. Engines, landing, ramp and cockpit.

This is the frosted light piping for the engines. These are pretty thick.

Another gratuitous sprue shot.

So, this is an expensive kit, but probably the best Falcon period. I have not test fitted this, but I am sure it will slide together like clockwork. When I bought it I wasn't sure if I was completely happy. After a few days, my happiness is complete.

Here are my nit pics: There are lights, but no sound. The new Andromeda has sound. The painting guide is a bit skimpy. Should be more call outs, like those Wingnut kits.

Hey, I know how to make my nit pics go away. SEND ME A REVIEW SAMPLE and poof they are gone.

Keep up the good work Bandai!

How can you lift your head if you have no #$@%! neck?

Good question!

More on this.

"...The new phone books are here!...The new phone books are here!"

I remember the older publication well. In fact it was a good reference back in the day.

On the left is my fresh copy of the newest iteration of this concept, "Out of this World Modeling". In truth, the older publication is laser focused on "Spaceships", the newer cuts a wider swath, Super Heroes, Anime and even Gundam.

It includes a nice range of subjects and definitely geared towards introducing the non sci-fi modeler into the fold of that other cooler side of the hobby.

Take a break from dissecting the exact hue of Dunkelgelb and hypothesize on blue squadron and it's role during battle of Yavin.

The nice folks at Kalmbach included my build of a BTL-A4, a prototypical Y-wing as painted by R. McQuarrie.  Enjoy!

Don't worry, Oscar G will be back in part 9 of his build of the DMB-87 in a few short days!

Omaha 2017 IPMS National Convention

Last weekend I joined other humans in the Midwest to celebrate the Joy that is the building of plastic models. Here follows is a scale representation:

Four of us made the 8 hour drive, we were not sure how we were going to get our purchases home. This is the advantage of being typically male, as a future problem "this would simply solve itself". Onward! (&BTW, it did).

These places for the masses look best in the morning after coffee. For about 6 minutes.

One of the "Sprue Brethren" schlepping unassembled plastic goodness.

The contest room on Friday.

Typical of the vendor wares.

Vendor display of Nazi plywood Horton in 1/32 scale.

One of my purchases. I have others in the series. Sure, laugh it up fuzzball.

This was a seminar that I visited on building real space craft. I gave a seminar myself on resin kits. Fun and well attended. Uh, this one. Mine? Huh.

The nice folks from FSM had an advance copy of "Out Of This World Modeling". SHAMELESS PLUG: I have a model featured in it, this will be out in the fall.

Had this at the Sack museum.

OK, here are some models:

Here is a white car, presumably driven by Romy.

Helicopter.

Robot Spy.

Eindecker.

Claude.

Submarine, Yellow.

Bloodsucker.

Our "Group Build", F-4 Viet Nam Phantoms. Mine is the gray one. (We got 3rd place!).

After the awards ceremony we grabbed our models and scattered like rats.

Thus endeth another scale modeling event. We return to regularly scheduled blogness in our next installment. Plastic is dead. Long live Plastic!